Women. Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em.

[Okuza]

The problem with driving tests is that they're a lot more concerned with how precisely you follow the laws than with how safe you are.

For instance, do you put your turn signal on for 3s BEFORE you change lanes? That would be suicide in today's highway traffic, but it's what you're supposed to do.

A lot of people change lanes while slowing down, too, which is just awful. They're basically changing lanes into their blind spot. To be safe, you have to accelerate into any change -- gotta leave your blind spot behind and only drive into areas that you can see (or more exactly, are most recently aware of seeing).

I like your Frog analogy. Way too many french drivers out there.

[Keavy]

When it comes to the thing I hate the most in California its definitely the drive through the mountains to Santa Cruz..... The road is narrow, its on the edge of a cliff, the area is prone to rockslides in the winter and there's lots of tight corners and lots of natives who are so comfortable driving through the area they'll fly past you at 70MPH while honking and flipping you off if you dare go the speed limit and brake for the tight corners.

Those are some of my all time favorite roads Keavy. You can blast along at trans warp speeds, the roads are in fine condition, very scenic, lots of fun, and the California drivers who notice you coming up fast behind them (not near all of them notice anything, true) will pull to the right to let you by.

I really really do not like dealing with police officers so I always do the speed limit and the drivers I have an issue with are the ones who seem to think that the speed limit is a "suggestion" not the law. Sorry if you don't like how I drive, but I don't have the extra money to pay for a traffic ticket and my insurance is bad enough as it is.

[Alya Mizar (Tsybil)]

I don't mind how you drive Keavy, and as long as you let the police handle your objections about how I drive we will get along fine.

I am proud of my driving skills, not my record, and my insurance rates seem enough punishment. My only defense is that my lead foot has genetic origins. My mom still gets tickets.

I remind myself of a retired race horse. Example. When on a long straight road, when I see a car appear way in front of me, my foot automatically goes down 1/4 inch on the loud pedal. It is not at all logical, I am already overtaking, there is no need to increase my speed, but I do. OK, then I back off, but that it is an automatic response irritates the **** out of me.

Without cruse control I probably wouldn't have a license. Again.

[Sugami]

Drivers are supposed to yield to pedestrians in cross walks, so you honestly could've just started walking when the WALK sign came on if the crosswalk was clear.

You didn't mention where you were in the states, but I'm guessing it was a large city? In my experience, most drivers won't wait for you to start walking so they'll just go regardless of what the crosswalk sign is saying.

Well where I come from people stop at red lights and pedestrian crossings. Pelican crossings (the one with lights) cars MUST stop even if the pedestrian ran across before the lights turned red and zebra crossings (black and white painted across the road) cars MUST stop if someone is waiting to cross or has a foot on it and 99.9% of the time they will.

BTW I was in Orlando Florida and cars seemed to be going to fast to stop in time for a pedestrian to walk across.

Heh. One thing to remember is that the laws of physics are greater than the laws of man. A 1200lb car making a right turn illegally (when pedestrian has one foot in crosswalk, it's illegal) always wins over a 150lb person insisting on his rights.

Exactly, I barely trust UK drivers I sure as hell don't trust you yanks, not gonna walk out onto the road and hope they'll stop

I like your Frog analogy. Way too many french drivers out there.

God damn Frenchies!

Without cruse control I probably wouldn't have a license. Again.

We don't have cruse control 'cause we barely have any straight roads "Again"?

[ScarlettPheonix]

Tysbil you've lost your liscence once before? Bad kitty >.>

Yea, Orlanda is full of crazy, bad and blind drivers who all seem to like going at 80 mph.

Like Keavy, I try to stay within or just over the speed limit up here but that's mostly in defense of the crazy drivers up here. If they crash into me or cause an accident they can't blame me for driving like a crazy maniac.

It was a big adjustment for me when we moved up here. In ATL it was often a good idea to stay with the pace of traffic- even if it was 30+ miles above the posted speed limit.

Down there in the morning rush hour I always had to smile at the big digital traffic status signs across the highway. They'd always say something like:

Exit 102- 5 miles
ETA- 10 mins
Speed Limit: 65 mph
Average Travel Speed: 87 mph

BTW, whereabouts in ATL Tivia?

[Okuza]

I'm of Tsybil's persuasion -- I try to keep it under 100mph. That's the "exhibition of speed" limit (a 2 point violation). I'm one of the few polite speeders, though. I don't weave madly around traffic just to maintain my 90mp habbit or run up on someone's bumper to scare them off the road.

You just have to be smart about it to avoid tickets. It's always fun in traffic school to answer the question "so why are you here? and how fast were you going?" with 95mph. Gets a lot of eyebrows. You can't go to traffic school unless the cop writes you up for going only 72 or less (limit is 65).

Thing is, if you notice a potential cop right away (like when he's getting on the highway) and don't give him time to clock you, he has no evidence. He knows you were speeding. You know you were speeding. He might pull you over or might not. If you're polite and don't hassle him, he'll just give you a warning or at worst, write you for 72.

--

Oh, fun story about getting pulled over. 95 on way up to Tahoe. This other car noticed my speed and decided he needed to "beat me". Fine, he can break trail. He's weaving around and being a jerk about it. Cop pulls us BOTH over. My idiot passenger takes this oportunity to jump around in the seat and start rummaging around behind us (as if he's trying to "hide the drugs" or something else damn suspicious). He's not blonde, but sometimes I wonder. Fortunately cop didn't notice or chose not to search us. Talks to us. Talks to guy in front car.

Then he comes back and asks me if I know the guy in front. Nope. Gives back license and reg, then tells me to "Your lucky day. That guy is a real asshole. Drive slow. Now get lost."

Be nice to cops when they catch ya on a traffic regulation. If you can manage to act a bit scared, that can sometimes help, too. This can be hard if getting pulled over is a regular thing.

BTW, I get a "good driver" discount on my insurance. Traffic school FTW! Too bad they discontinued the comedy shop traffic school thing. Those were fun.

[Alya Mizar (Tsybil)]

Tysbil you've lost your liscence once before? Bad kitty >.>

Ummm... not just once.

Exit 102- 5 miles
ETA- 10 mins
Speed Limit: 65 mph
Average Travel Speed: 87 mph

Oh that is so typical of FL.

Drivers down there scare ME!!! Fast and oblivious. I like California drivers much better, the fast ones are aware, and many of the rest of them are too.

I was in FL for the Memorial Day weekend once while we still had the national 65 speed limit. The state patrol announced on all the radio stations that the speed limits would be enforced in the 55 zones. This means 80 in the 65 zones was no problem at all. That's the way they think down there, drivers, cops, everyone......

[Tivia]

Norcross to be exact. just off I-85 Indian trail Rd. I used to live up in Flowery Branch, but I got sick of the 2 hour commute in rush hour for what is usually a 18 minute drive in no traffic. Now it takes me 13 minutes to get to work.

[ScarlettPheonix]

Yea, I hear the long commute time. We lived in Lawrenceville right off of 85 and he had to go all the way to FT McPherson for work. His average commute was usually 40 mins, but in bad traffic it could go as long as 2hrs