as much as i hate jumping to conclusions...
i spend a lot of time on the road, driving here and there over the weekends. those that have been a passenger in my car know that i have little patience for what i term 'bad driving'. i tend to yell a lot at offenders, even though i know they cant hear me. i do wonder if they ever see me yelling, though.
my biggest pet peeves of highway driving:
1) people who pass on the right. especially annoying when you're in a line of cars trying to pass a slow moving vehicle, and some speedracer tries to bypass the line by zooming down the right lane and cutting into the left. some jerk did this to me the other day simply because i was trying to leave some space between me and the car in front of me- he thought that i was going too slow, and cut in front of me with literally 1 foot of room to spare. which leads me to my second pet peeve...
2) cutting people off. i cant count how many times i've been approaching a car to pass them, only to have them swerve over at the last second to pass the car in front of them. i can understand not wanting to be incovenienced and having to slow down and wait for the other car to pass you....but really....try not to incovenience anyone else, please.
anyway, i've noticed an interesting trend on my last few trips: an incredibly disproportionate number of offending cars have republican/conservative-themed bumperstickers (such as 'sportsmen for bush' or 'abortion ends a life'). about 30% of the time, the bumpersticker is attached to an suv. it makes me wonder if this is more than coincidence. i realize that there are a lot of variables in this...it would be silly to make the blanket statement that all republicans are bad/aggressive drivers. not all republicans advertise their views on their bumpers, not all pro-lifers are republican, i have a relatively small sample pool. but i find it interesting to say the least.
post script: i'm not trying to incite any kind of political debate here-that's not the point. these really are honest observations and i'm curious to know if anyone else has noticed a similar pattern.
my biggest pet peeves of highway driving:
1) people who pass on the right. especially annoying when you're in a line of cars trying to pass a slow moving vehicle, and some speedracer tries to bypass the line by zooming down the right lane and cutting into the left. some jerk did this to me the other day simply because i was trying to leave some space between me and the car in front of me- he thought that i was going too slow, and cut in front of me with literally 1 foot of room to spare. which leads me to my second pet peeve...
2) cutting people off. i cant count how many times i've been approaching a car to pass them, only to have them swerve over at the last second to pass the car in front of them. i can understand not wanting to be incovenienced and having to slow down and wait for the other car to pass you....but really....try not to incovenience anyone else, please.
anyway, i've noticed an interesting trend on my last few trips: an incredibly disproportionate number of offending cars have republican/conservative-themed bumperstickers (such as 'sportsmen for bush' or 'abortion ends a life'). about 30% of the time, the bumpersticker is attached to an suv. it makes me wonder if this is more than coincidence. i realize that there are a lot of variables in this...it would be silly to make the blanket statement that all republicans are bad/aggressive drivers. not all republicans advertise their views on their bumpers, not all pro-lifers are republican, i have a relatively small sample pool. but i find it interesting to say the least.
post script: i'm not trying to incite any kind of political debate here-that's not the point. these really are honest observations and i'm curious to know if anyone else has noticed a similar pattern.
posted by suz at 8:31 PM
6 Comments:
Very few of the people who try to cut me off in traffic have pro-Bush bumper stickers. =)
So where's your State Farm booklet?!!!!!!
oh, mutti....you crack me up...
After being in Lebanon for so long, I have to make this observation:
Suz, you would love German driving. Rules, rules, and righteous indignation when they are not followed. It's for you.
I have no idea about the bumper sticker thing, but I'll tell you my all time favorite SUV bumpersticker:
"Don't let my car fool you. I care about the environment."
funny thing about passing etiquette is that it passing is almost always illegal. is there really a different speed limit in the fast lane?
i like the complete lack of pretense i saw in lebanon. nobody follows real laws, let alone the ones that we've made up.
joe- i wasnt implying that what people were doing was illegal (except for passing on the right- that is illegal, it's in all the driving books)....just not very safe or wise. a driver going 70mph that pulls in front of an approaching car going 80mph is simply stupid.
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