Standard Equipment And Options

[Marshall]

I've learned to drive so other drivers can watch out for me and react to my stupid mistakes. No sudden moves for me.

 

[Muzhik]

Oh, were it so simple!

To be perfectly fair about it, of course, this seems the be a regional problem where I live, other peculiarities reigning elsewhere. For instance, when I lived in southeast Wisconsin, stop signs weren't as much of an issue, but other drivers absolutely loved turning from a side street without waiting for anything resembling a sane gap in the traffic they were joining.

Ah, HA! So that WAS you!

 

[Marshall]

...To be perfectly fair about it, of course, this seems the be a regional problem where I live, other peculiarities reigning elsewhere. For instance, when I lived in southeast Wisconsin, stop signs weren't as much of an issue, but other drivers absolutely loved turning from a side street without waiting for anything resembling a sane gap in the traffic they were joining.

Regional problem - Great Lakes - Drivers within 100 miles of a Great Lake seem to consider turn signals a challenge requiring them to go out of their way to prevent a driver from making the turn indicated, whether it's slowing down or speeding up. It just goes too far past coincidence to be an accident.

 

[Coss]

Regional problem - Great Lakes - Drivers within 100 miles of a Great Lake seem to consider turn signals a challenge requiring them to go out of their way to prevent a driver from making the turn indicated, whether it's slowing down or speeding up. It just goes too far past coincidence to be an accident.

Different here, when you move into the county, you have to stop at the weigh station/rest stop while they connect the turn signal to your brake lights.
So if your going to turn, doesn't matter when you turn the flasher on, it doesn't show until you hit the brakes to make your turn.
If it does come on earlier, it means that they are turning across 2 or 3 lanes.
4 way stop here in the land of polite rules is you stop and wait for another car at the intersection, and then you have to wave them through before you can go. If no one is approaching, you don't have to stop.
Always drive in the left lane; and on the freeway, you have to slow to 10 or 15 under the speed limit when you're within 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile before your exit.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

To be perfectly fair about it, of course, this seems the be a regional problem where I live, other peculiarities reigning elsewhere. For instance, when I lived in southeast Wisconsin, stop signs weren't as much of an issue, but other drivers absolutely loved turning from a side street without waiting for anything resembling a sane gap in the traffic they were joining.

You forgot the part that they take their sweet time getting up to the PSL as well...

Regional problem - Great Lakes - Drivers within 100 miles of a Great Lake seem to consider turn signals a challenge requiring them to go out of their way to prevent a driver from making the turn indicated, whether it's slowing down or speeding up. It just goes too far past coincidence to be an accident.

Well, that turn signal by the left hand is just too far to reach...

 

[Marshall]

You forgot the part that they take their sweet time getting up to the PSL as well...



Well, that turn signal by the left hand is just too far to reach...

I did want to point out that the PSl stands for Posted Speed LIMIT, not Posted Speed MINIMUM, though you wouldn't know it by most drivers. I sometimes drive slower than the posted limit, so I'm the culprit. But I'm not usually the one that you find off the side of the road because the conditions were not optimal for the PSL.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

I did want to point out that the PSl stands for Posted Speed LIMIT, not Posted Speed MINIMUM, though you wouldn't know it by most drivers. I sometimes drive slower than the posted limit, so I'm the culprit. But I'm not usually the one that you find off the side of the road because the conditions were not optimal for the PSL.

Well, when it takes you to go from 0-45 in a day and a half when traffic is coming at you at 45+, you might want to at least get up to the PSL...

 

[Marshall]

Well, when it takes you to go from 0-45 in a day and a half when traffic is coming at you at 45+, you might want to at least get up to the PSL...

0 - 45 in thirty seconds is plenty fast. Faster is just a waste of energy. I get a kick out of passing the cars at a stop light that passed me just so they could slam on the brakes and wait for the stop light to change. It's a waste of energy to accelerate quickly and more waste to decelerate quickly.

 

[TheAsterisk!]

You forgot the part that they take their sweet time getting up to the PSL as well...

I nearly lost it the time I saw a golf cart puttering down the shoulder along I-43 just south of Milwaukee, for an extreme form.

Ah, HA! So that WAS you!

What, lunging out decisively? Might have been, especially if it was in my black Civic- that thing's first gear had an inordinate amount of torque, especially for a small-engined automatic.

My experience is that a visibly-damaged car- even if it's really only minor cosmetic damage- is the ideal platform for such an approach. Seems to convey that the driver of such a car clearly has no qualms about butting through, if need be, even though I'm actually a pretty polite driver habitually.

My black Civic had a large but operationally unimportant dent in the left front fender from the previous owner, complete with some swapped yellow paint from whatever did it. I only remembered the dent whenever people on my right would try to cut me off, contrasted with the hilariously consistent deference I always received from my left. My current Ford hatchback is unfortunately in far better cosmetic condition than its age and mileage would suggest, so not so much brazen fun for me, anymore.

Same story with my dad's rather haggard Dodge Caravan, when I borrowed it as a teenager. That poor thing had been hit (while parked) in the left rear by a drunk, had hit a deer with the right front, and a deer had run into it while stopped, taking out the left front headlight housing and curling up part of the hood. With the rear impact, it only tore up some plastic fascia and part of the bumper cover; we got a new piece for the fascia and just bent back the ABS on the bumper cover, giving it a bit of a scar. For the front, we just replaced the headlight housing, and hammered the hood and left front fender back into an approximation of its appropriate shape with a rubber mallet, and drove it on. I seem to recall we used gaffer tape to hold the plastic wheel well splash guard up to the fender for about 40 miles or so, too. That car commanded a sort of fearful respect at any and all intersections and crosswalks; on more than one occasion I had people that slowed a street or two in advance of my position on side streets, calmly waiting to join traffic. I hated actually driving, controlling, piloting that rolling disaster, but I loved that monster for how it made traffic part like the Red Sea before me. That, and with the rear bench seats removed, the dual sliding doors made it a great stand in for a helicopter one Halloween, playing rotor noise through the stereo and some friends sitting on the sides, legs casually dangling just out of the open doors. The homeowners' association was not pleased with us.

I can be downright passive-aggressive with tailgaters, though, particularly when they have a second lane they could use to pass. I've dropped to a school-zone 20mph limit before, been tailgated, and then vindictively decided that for that next block I think 10mph might really be safer for the children. The children!

 

[NorTracNY]

Great discussion about standard equipment and options!