"Car Etiquitte" or "Fuck You, You Fucking Fuckers"

[Seil]

I'm 25, but it's only been this year that I've gotten my driver's license. In British Columbia, a beginner's license is called a "Learner's Permit," or "L." You then progress to a "New Driver" status, or "N," and then you get your full license. It's a long process. I didn't get my "L" until this year because I'm a homebody and there are liquor stores within biking distance. However, this upcoming January I'll be able to go for my "N." Hoo-ra. So I've been taking driving lessons in preparation.

Why am I telling you this? So you understand that I have driven before, and as it's getting darker sooner more and more people are driving with their high-beams on. And that fucking sucks. I understand how some people have trouble seeing far distances without high-beams on. Cyclists can't see at all.

It's not a matter of "I'll pull over to the side of the road, and wait for the car to pass," it's "I can't see the side of the road because this fucking asshat has to shoot lasers out of his headlights."

Fucking fuckity fuck.

[Aldurin]

In Washington people are too stupid to drive. In Idaho people are too stupid to park.

If you live near the places where the same city area just spills over the border then you're subject to driver's hell.

[Flarecobra]

In Florida many people just can't or won't drive.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Originally Posted by Aldurin

In Washington people are too stupid to drive.

Shitstain drivers seem to forget this fact every time it rains. WHICH IS DAMN NEAR ALL THE TIME!

[Azisien]

When you get into your car and drive it onto a road what you have just done is unconsciously agreed to a contract wherein you now share a public space with a bunch of barely-licensed, deranged psychopaths, all equipped with multi-ton vehicles travelling at high speeds that in any mishap generally results in the annihilation of your puny, fleshy body.

[synkr0nized]

It might not actually be that they are driving with their highbeams on and not turning them off for oncoming traffic or when they are behind you -- modern headlights are overly bright using LED/Halogen/Xenon lights even without the highbeam setting active.

At least, coming from my 1996, that's been my experience based on the various test drives I did last month. I used to think everyone was driving with their highs on, too, and then I saw how bright the normal mode was in vehicles.

[Azisien]

On that note, in most circumstances the strongest beams of the headlights aren't usually going directly into your eyes. But sometimes if there's bumps on the road, or general changes in elevation, you'll get the cars in front or behind you jostling up and down a little bit. Those slight changes can send the beams even more directly into your poor, burning eyes. It has fooled me more than a few times into thinking someone has their high beams on right behind me.

On my newer car at least, I don't see much straight-on difference between normal and high beam modes. The vast increase in brightness in high mode is to the sides of the car. I think this is a much better thing anyway, because fuck deer.

[mauve]

In Oregon, we're cool with rain. The problem is snow. Road salt is illegal here in most cities, and since it generally snows about four days total for the entire year anywhere west of the Cascade mountaind (which separates the High Desert half of the state (which gets tons of snow) from the evergreen rainforest half, nobody on this side of the mountains knows how to drive in snow. Seriously: An inch of snow can literally shut down the entire interstate highway. A light dusting last year caused a six-car pileup on an exit ramp, including a city bus. Most cities in this half of the state don't have any dedicated snowplows-- usually just garbage trucks with a plow stuck to the front of it, and even then it's like ten plows for the entire city. So you're likely to end up with your street covered in half an inch of ice for a week if you don't live on a main road.

Snow sucks.

[Red Mage Black]

Advice I've always heard? Drive defensively. Someone has the headlights blaring directly at you? Slow down a little, maybe let them pass you before continuing. Cyclist coming up? Slow down and try to swerve around them if you can.

Generally it's just better to obey the speed limit, slow down where you need to and allow who you think might be high risk drivers to pass by first.

[RobinStarwing]

Winter drivers in Minnesota fall into three Categories.

Type 1: I got a f'king SUV so I am all terrain!

Type 2: Drives so slowly because of the weather they are their own road hazard.

Type 3: Hey! Let's tailgate everything...even these big orange trucks with huge things that have signs on the rear telling you to stay back 500 feet or more! YOLO!

On the subject of snowplows...we got enough that a blizzard like 1991's...we will have every major road and artery clear across the state in 2 hours after the storm.

Also...seriously there are places that outlaw road salt? O_o <Insert Derp Song here>