Somebody please explain why American drivers…
Time for my fortnightly rant. I do have some genuine questions, in part because America is a big place with a highly diverse population, and I learned to drive across the pond. Also this is largely based on my experience driving in selected bits of Northern California (and everyone knows that California Is Not America). Your mileage may vary.
Space, the final frontier.
In my experience, people waiting at traffic lights and stop signs leave far too much space between themselves and the car in front.
Here's the scenario: I need to turn left at the next set of lights. There's a piffling little left-turn lane at the lights, maybe just enough for four or five normal-size cars, three soccermom SUVs or a whole bus. The left-turn light goes first and I'm approaching the junction with my indicator on, and there are three cars waiting to go straight ahead. But surprise! All those cars have left an entire car's length between bumpers. I cannot turn because there's a curb, and not enough room behind car three for me to turn. I give a little toot and the driver eases forward two feet, leaving me a scant inch of clearance, which it takes precious time to calculate and navigate. By the time he's given me enough room, the light has changed and I'm stuck, waiting to turn left. The behaviour seems to me to be thoughtless, and it has no apparent value.
This is such a problem in the three cities I find myself in that I actually plan my routes around not having to make those left turns. Why is this behaviour so prevalent? What are they in fear of that they need to leave eight or more feet between cars? I learned to drive in England, in busy cities with narrow roads originally designed for horses. In England if you left that much space between cars you'd soon find a Royal Mail van or similar forcing its way in. Is this just a California thing?
The Horn.
Now it isn't often I use the horn. Even during my brief time as a taxi driver in Nottingham, I rarely used it, and when I did, it was to alert someone that they needed to pay attention to their surroundings. The light has changed, I need them to make room or somesuch similar thing. In the UK, someone uses the horn, drivers would check around and respond accordingly (at least, when I was driving there, maybe that has changed). In the US, that does happen, but more frequently, the driver locates the source of the beep and glares first. On a couple of occasions a driver has gotten out of their car and come over to see what's going on, and yes, glare at me. I'm not saying it didn't happen in Nottingham, but it was far more rare.
Also, my car makes quite a loud beep. Your four-foot high truck bonnet is that way because it has two train horns and a separate power supply just for that.
Not accepting the yield.
I am (to quote my best friend) a courteous motherfucker. If there's a two-to-one merge on a road, I will allow room for another driver to merge in ahead of me. You may be familiar with the zipper merge, that thing. But how many drivers either try and sneak in ahead of the driver in front of me, or (most baffling!) drive in parallel with me and not look like they're merging. Look! I left enough room for you! There's the whole fucking car's length you're familiar with from traffic lights!
See also one car at a fucking time. Just because I let this Prius in doesn't mean you in your kiddy-killer truck can come in too.
The other is the cultural difference in leaving space for emerging traffic. If I am in a line of traffic, I will leave room at a junction for any emerging traffic to join the road I am on. It seems American drivers fail to recognise this behaviour, and the gap I have politely left is still there after the line of traffic starts moving. This one totally baffles me. You just shot yourself in the foot, BMW fool.
The headlight flash.
I suppose the real question is "Why do you have all your fucking lights on?" You have normal headlights, you have fog lights, you have an offroad light bar above the bumper, you have a separate set of other lights whose purpose baffles me. And yet somehow, after I've flashed my headlights to let you know you've fucking blinded me because I feel like I'm looking into the sun, you find another set of lights to flash at me. Now in part I blame car designers (pure white LED headlights) and driver's education (use foglights only in fog, offroad lights when you're actually offroad).
I have to stop ranting. There was more, believe it or not. Mostly connected with how sodding huge trucks are, and why so many people have squeaky-clean Jeeps.
Thoughts gathered from others, and my ripostes.
Leaving room prevents you from striking the car in front if you're struck from behind. True, but that only holds while there is a vehicle behind you doing an unknown speed. Once you're in the bloody line, a couple of feet is adequate. After all, you're in a stationary line, you have your foot on the brake at the very least.
Regarding the lights thing, I need to see where I'm going. Agreed, but you're thirty years old and I am over sixty. Your vision has not started to change such that high contrast at night actually washes out my vision. I frequently have to slow down in order to feel safe because I can l longer see the road markings. What's that you say? I can use night-driving glasses? Read some science, mate, they tend to have a negative overall impact. Also, somehow despite being the age I am, when I'm not blinded by you, I can see far enough ahead to be safe for myself and others using my regular lights.
In other, better news…
Business at the markets is booming. My boss and best friend is telling me almost every week that we've broken some sort of a record. Record chef orders. Record cash sales. Record for student summer vacation. It used to take two of us an hour, maybe ninety minutes, to set up the stall. Now on a Thursday it takes three of us almost two hours. I'm tired, but happy.
I continue to enjoy writing, Jet-Poop's Hallowe'en Quest has been a great influence and I have enjoyed contributing. Thanks, Team Jet-Poop! In that vein, I am looking forward to Iron Noding, or at least attempting it. I'm going through my drafts and picking out things I can finish over the month. Thanks, Mauler!
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