Oh no, it's an RV. We better get in front of him!

Or the more direct title...Morons on the road.

Just spent 5 great days down in the Finger Lakes region of NY - about 3 hours from home. Had a nice ride out and back but I had to laugh (eventually) at some of the drivers we encountered on the way.

The first was on I90 (NYS Thruway) when a driver merging from an on-ramp threw her hands up in the air in disgust when I would not move over for her. Sorry, next time I'll push the guy next to me into the median so you can merge. How thoughtless of me!

Next was a driver on a 2-lane road pulling out of a restaurant. He was so determined to get in front of me, his front wheels were spinning like crazy on the wet road. I had to brake considerably to stay a good distance behind him. He then proceeded to drive 40 in a 55 zone (well, 40, then 45, then 35, then 45 again...perhaps he had already visited a few wineries.  : ). He turned turn 2 whole miles later and flipped me off as I went around him.

Then in the campground, an incoming 5'er almost runs me over as I came out of the office. I get in the truck and start to move, and another whips around me parking so that I have to zig-zag throug the parking lot with about 1' of room on each side. I guess waiting the extra 12 seconds for me to move would have cut down on his vacation time too much!

What goes through driver's minds??? Oh well, we got there and back safe and sound!

Some of these times is when I really like my air horns. Same thing happened to me recently. When the right lane ended, I had already moved to the left lane. A moron decided to speed up the right lane to get in ahead of me and didn't make it. She ( teenager ) had to slow and fall in behind me. When she finally passed a mile up the road she tooted her tinny little horn and I gave her a blast with my air horns. I think it scared her so bad she almost ran off the road.  ;D

I keep threatening to mount a dash cam to record some of this and the YouTube-it...some of it is pretty priceless!

I have mashed and held the air horns on merging traffic before when I had no room and no time - the looks are always priceless since they never looked the first time!

Hmmm... Idaho doesn't seem so bad compared to you. Wow! The only thing I get is crazy Harley (Hardly) Riders that are going to pass regardless of the double yellow line or not. Even if it means I lock of both truck and trailer brakes to avoid a accident. Other vehicles (cars and trucks) are normally no problem they patiently wait and just go around. As for camp grounds I rarely I mean rarely use a full hookup site most of my camping is done boondocking in the middle of nowhere Idaho without any hook up, no cell phone, no power, no water, no TV...

You haven't seen boneheaded drivers until you've lived in Florida. Ours take the cake on rudeness, carelessness and outright stupidity.

there are awards for these folks:

http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/

While it doesn't excuse their behavior, I can understand why so many drivers don't want an RV in front of the. I wish I had a dollar for all the times I got stuck behind some north end of a south bound horse driving an RV significantly below the speed limit and not pulling over when it is possible to do so safely to allow the traffic building up to pass.

In the PNW boating world we call them Bayliners. Pretty much anyone can buy one and following the rules is seen as an optional item for them. I try to just shrug my shoulders and continue on. They have no idea and my yelling never seems to change their behavior. Most of those folks have never driven anything larger than the Geo Metro they are in and don't understand. Ask your average 20 year old what a Yield sign means and you'll get a blank stare.

Ken

An ounce of courtesty goes a long way in every direction.  If I'm on a two laner double yellow and they can't pass after more than about 5 miles, I find a place to pull off and let them by.  I'm in no hurry when I'm RVing....why hold anyone else up? 

I'm courteous to a fault on the road and don't take it personally.  Life's too short.

Try driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway! I have to do it on every trip south or west.

I find it funny more than anything else. Watching the "buzzing bees" while they try to get around me, just because...

I understand why they do it, I drive slow when in traffic and they want to drive fast. Fine.

I feel I need drive slow because the little guys will see the rig and race me for openings that go away! So, either I slow down and let them (w)in, or (And my fear is they are stupid enough to do it) they crash. That would delay me even more then a tap on the brakes.

I don't like to see those guys behind me, so I'll pull over (more often than I should, probably) to let them by. It keeps them off my tail.

But, they are cheap entertainment on a four lane highway through town!

Mike

I have been a full timer for the last 9 years and I never drive over 55 no matter where I go. I too am courteous to a fault and I rarely have problems with other drivers. I have been in all of the lower 48 states in the last nine years and find no difference in the drivers anywhere except in Los Angeles. IMHO the drivers in LA are the very best and most courteous that I have ever found.

thomasamski said:

You haven't seen boneheaded drivers until you've lived in Florida. Ours take the cake on rudeness, carelessness and outright stupidity.

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I do not have enough fingers or toes to count how mines times I was almost taken out by a snow bird when I use to live in Florida and rode my motorcycle.

None of you have seen crazy drivers till you have driven here in Kosovo, traffic laws are a suggestion. The roads are horrid and the drivers just as bad. We taped one of our trips out to one of the other camps. Totally insane drivers here.

zzyzx said:

I have been a full timer for the last 9 years and I never drive over 55 no matter where I go. I too am courteous to a fault and I rarely have problems with other drivers. I have been in all of the lower 48 states in the last nine years and find no difference in the drivers anywhere except in Los Angeles. IMHO the drivers in LA are the very best and most courteous that I have ever found.

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Thank you Tom.  As an old LA driver and commuter, I take your estimate kindly. 

Some years ago, traffic engineering folk discovered that the freeways in Los Angeles ran some 35% above their theoretical capacity at peak hours.  This was so exceptional that the engineers took a look at the LA situation. 

They found that LA commuters exercised rigid lane discipline:  They entered the freeway, moved immediately to their ideal lane and then stuck to it until it was time to transition off the freeway.  They did not weave from lane to lane trying to find a faster lane.  When it was time to merge, they started looking well ahead of the transition point and move to the new lane when a decent gap permitted.  In heavy traffic and on lane phase outs they alternated turns on the merger in an orderly fashion first one car, then the other.

In short, the LA commuter was a pro, a guy who cooperated with others to speed up the whole process of auto commuting.  This general attitude largely carried over to the weekends and on surface streets.

An out-of-state driver is very noticable in heavy traffic what with weaving and making agressive and erratic lane changes and merges. 

We are in the finger lakes now, beautiful country. My Daughter is following in her car as I didn't see a need for two cars for this one week vacation to the Eastern PA area. She posted on facebook that she was driving so slow she could safely post on facebook. She thinks 55 is almost going backwards.
The traffic was heavy around Lake George and everybody was courteous and we have seen very few road rage drivers in the East. Now South and West well that a different story. Last summer in OK on the highway a guy was trying to get between the Moho and the Toad, directionals on and honking his horn he was going to get between us, NOT finally speed's up and gave me the finger, go figure.
Jim

So far on this trip I've been from Ohio thru Michigan to the UP and over to Wisconsin on to Minnesota on US routes and the public has been great.. I jumped on Interstates to make up some time and again other than me being usually slower than the traffic flow a very nice drive. When I got off the "big roads" in Casper I was a tad concerned about the abundance of bikers and was pleasantly surprised and pleased to see them wait behind me climbing the hills on two lane twisty roads till it was safe and legal to pass..so no horror tales here.

George

Wouldn't it be great to install a train horn on the MH?

This thread made my kids wonder why I was laughing so much!

I have to relate what happened when I first brought my RV home last week. I had driven my cousin's 28 foot class C several times and figured a class A 30' would be about the same. We live on a cul-de-sac street and as I went down to the turn around I fully expected it to be a three point turn as always.

So I pulled around until the light post is a couple of feet ahead of me (loving that class A visibility!) and proceed to put her in reverse...  when a little black car races down the street and parks RIGHT BEHIND ME. I am stunned as a perky young girl  dashes out the the car, chirping it to lock and vanishes into a house.

Seriously!  How can you miss a HUGE BUS-LIKE THIRTY FOOT RV with reverse lights on only a yard away?! I was stunned- then laughed as I accepted the challenge and made a seven point turn to avoid modifying her cute ride.

But I do have to admit what did cross my mind for a moment... anyone remember this classic scene from Fried Green Tomatoes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXZs3mjGlQU

Carl L said:

Thank you Tom.  As an old LA driver and commuter, I take your estimate kindly. 

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You are welcome Carl. I have noticed several unique features about driving the LA freeway drivers that brought me to this conclusion. First on a multi-lane freeway in LA all of the lanes are driving at the same speed. And usually that speed is perfect for the conditions. Second, when you change lanes you can pull in between two cars with only a few feet to spare in front or in back of you and no one will get upset and flip you the finger. In any other city in America if you try this someone will flip you off, honk their horn and yell obscenities at you. All you are trying to do when you change lanes is get to your off ramp and everyone knows it so everyone accepts lane changing as a fact of life, not an affront to their manhood. Third, the LA freeways have the off ramps marked really well. I lived in Ventura County, the first county north of LA, for 30 years and I drove to LA 2 or 3 times a month at least, so I know the LA freeways like the back of my hand.

But the ultimate proof of how good the LA drivers are is in this fact. The volume on the LA freeways is absolutely outrageous. If they weren't the very best drivers in the world there would be hundreds, if not thousands of accidents every single day. As it is there are very few accidents.

Stella said:

This thread made my kids wonder why I was laughing so much!

I have to relate what happened when I first brought my RV home last week. I had driven my cousin's 28 foot class C several times and figured a class A 30' would be about the same. We live on a cul-de-sac street and as I went down to the turn around I fully expected it to be a three point turn as always.

So I pulled around until the light post is a couple of feet ahead of me (loving that class A visibility!) and proceed to put her in reverse...  when a little black car races down the street and parks RIGHT BEHIND ME. I am stunned as a perky young girl  dashes out the the car, chirping it to lock and vanishes into a house.

Seriously!  How can you miss a HUGE BUS-LIKE THIRTY FOOT RV with reverse lights on only a yard away?! I was stunned- then laughed as I accepted the challenge and made a seven point turn to avoid modifying her cute ride.

But I do have to admit what did cross my mind for a moment... anyone remember this classic scene from Fried Green Tomatoes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXZs3mjGlQU

Click to expand...

Very funny vid clip... (LMAO!)