Things I hate....

[Guest]

#1. People passing me on the right. I have no idea whhy but on a particular section of rather wide single lane road in Elgin I get passed on the right side all the time. I hate it there's alot of driveways on the right and folks turn in to them a ton. I slow down to the speed limit and get passed. Hell I even had a guy bump the curb to get around me.

#2. The guy in front of you is doing 5MPH slower than the speed limit. The guy catching up behind you is doing at least 5MPH over the speed limit. How come it only seems to happen in a no passing zone?

#3. People who smoke. Not in a social setting or those craving nicotine and get 4 breaks a day at work, while I a non-smoker am not allowed to take the same number of breaks. Those folks are fine. I'm talking about people who smoke in cars and flick thier ashes and cigarettes out the window of thier vehicles. The ashed get sucked into my helmet if I have the visor open and they tend to for some reason bounce the cigarettes right off my headlight. Hell while in the cage once a woman not paying attention flicked a lit cigarette right into my passenger window and i had to pull over to fish it out.

#4. Rutted pavement, and rutted bumpy pavement. Potholes. Exposed manhole covers (though those are cool to slalom). That stupid crack sealant stuff, it gets gummy and slick when it's hot out and just plain slick when it's wet out.

#5. People who brake really hard in corners or for corners. There's a nice little "S" curve in my route to work. Speed limit is 45 through there, I can work it at 45. But some folks must be really afraid of it because about eery other day I'm stuck behind someone that has to hit the brake really hard right before the corner and take the "S" at 25 or 30.

#6. Trash along the side of the road. This morning I sucessfully dodged a newspaper. Only to go right into another section of the paper and getting it trapped on my leg for awhile.

#7 Road construction that closes all but one lane. Somewhere some one decided now would be a good time to make the Bridge in South Elgin that goes over Rt. 20 a single lane. Not one lane in each direction but a single lane. Next week some time they are going to do the same thing on another bridge only this on is in St. Charles.


How about anyone else? Got things that are ticking you off about road conditions, folks not paying attention, and or just general gripes?

[Anonymous]

Parents who give their squalling offspring more attention than the road and road users around them,people who don't signal or use their mirrors,TAXIS,cyclists who don't use their lights after dark or in winter,kids in hot hatchbacks with REEEEALLY crap music blaring....The list is endless!

[Anonymous]

Anyone in a hat.

My former boss told me that anytime you see someone driving wearing a hat, they're tying up traffic somehow. I have to say that since I've started paying attention, he's right.

Dave

[bwringer]

Dumptrucks dropping rocks all over the highway. That's my all-time, #1, big kahuna, psychotic road hatred.

I know truck tires flick up pebbles all the time -- that's unavoidable. I'm talking about the knuckle-dragging scum who overload their broken down leaky dumptruck and don't even take the two seconds to cover the load as supposedly required by law.

I also have a special pit of hatred in my soul reserved for fat, lazy cops who would rather abuse their authority and rape the public trust by sitting at the side of the road with a radar gun extorting money than enforcing laws with some actual relation to safety. Like, for example, the laws regarding properly securing loads on dump trucks.

To be fair, this bit of black bile should be mostly aimed at the police chiefs and politicians who require this behavior. Many of the cops I've talked to are sickened by the way they are placed in danger and their time utterly wasted by requirements to generate municipal revenue by writing speeding tickets.

In Indianapolis, part of the "solution" for the current city budget crisis was to increase fines for moving violations and parking tickets. This pretty much verifies that the main purpose of writing these tickets is to generate revenue at the expense of the safety and efficiency of the police. It's disgusting, but the voters here don't seem to care.

I agree that smokers suck, too. Flicking the butts out the window is just nasty. Stop it!

[Anonymous]

Re: Things I hate....

Exposed manhole covers (though those are cool to slalom).

Watch out for those. They're remarkably slick, and if you're doing the slalom and really trying to make one, you're liable to lose traction just while you're trying hard to make a slalom turn. They're especially slippery when wet.

The white strips they use to mark lane lines and crosswalks are also notoriously "slick as ice" when wet.

[bobo]

what i hate , is everytime i'm out on the bike , no matter how fast i'm going...somebody wants to pass !!! i think a lot of 'cage' drivers are guys who never had a bike and just have to prove how 'macho' they are by overtaking one... h.g.

[skreemer]

Just thought of another one...

Every kid in a Japanese sport compact car, even with no modifications, wants to try and race you from a stoplight. A kid a few weeks ago in a Mazda MX-6, and just the other day another kid in a Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V....

[Anonymous]

#1. People passing me on the right. I have no idea whhy but on a particular section of rather wide single lane road in Elgin I get passed on the right side all the time. I hate it there's alot of driveways on the right and folks turn in to them a ton. I slow down to the speed limit and get passed. Hell I even had a guy bump the curb to get around me.

If people do pass you on the right all the time, as you say, then you should move the hell over to the right! You're probably going too slow and driving people crazy.

If you do the speed limit, say 65 mph in many States, on an interstate, you should be in the right lane. You have no business in the left lane. 65 is what some of us do on the way to 75 to 85, which is my usual cruising speed. Even then, I don't stay in the left lane when most of the traffic is going 90 to 100, which is quite common, especially on roads like I-81 in Virginia, for example.

Nick

[lhanscom]

Just thought of another one...

Every kid in a Japanese sport compact car, even with no modifications, wants to try and race you from a stoplight. A kid a few weeks ago in a Mazda MX-6, and just the other day another kid in a Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V....

I don't know, I find this to be amusing. A lot like playing with a cat with a mouse on a string. Just when he thinks he's caught you blip the throttle. Good old fashioned fun.

[Poot]

why wont anyone try that on me? mofos....

you know what I hate???



MOUNTAIN SHEEP! stupid *@%^$*@%^$*@%^$*@%^$ers never have any firm decisions on what they'll do to get on and off of roads....half the time, they just sit there licking oil spots in the middle of a highway!

[Planecrazy]

Re: Things I hate....

people who smoke in cars and flick thier ashes and cigarettes out the window of thier vehicles. The ashed get sucked into my helmet if I have the visor open and they tend to for some reason bounce the cigarettes right off my headlight.

Newsflash Buddy -- if flicked cigarettes are getting sucked into your helmet or are bouncing off your headlight "for some reason," the reason is you're following waaaay toooo close, or you're sitting in their blind spot if you're in the lane next to their open window when the butts go flying...

Greg and Jared both wound up in the hospital because they each made at least one critical error while riding with us in Galena. Don't let this tendency to ride too close behind cars (or in their blind spot) be your one critical error, Steve!

The last thing I want to hear is that all three roommates managed to check into the emergency room!

BTW, I hate people who flick their burning trash out the window too, but you're "playing with fire" by being too close in the first place.

Ride safely Bud,
Steve 8)

[skreemer]

The folks passing me on the right are doing so on a two lane road. only one lane in each direction. I'm usually going at or slightly over the speed limit. Most of the time when they pass me they immediately jam on the brakes trying not to hit either the slow moving car in front of me or the guy that pulled up to make a left hand turn.


if I'm behind a car I usually give them two car lengths. If I'm behind a truck/suv/school bus/van I'll usually give em 3 - 4 car lengths. If that's too close then I'll give em more room. Usually it's the smokers too lazy to open thier windows all the way... or the ones that flick em up in the air.

[bradleymaynar]

Honda Accords! (see tagline)

Brad tt

[Anonymous]

things I hate

just the other day I was slowing for a light ( 2 lanes left turn) and this guy whips past me into my lane missing my front by about 3-4 ft and stops as the light was red. I'd had enough this being my second time that day getting cut off so I pulled up to his window and asked him exactly what the f**k he was doing cutting me off like that. He says sorry... I said sorry won't help me if you clip my front wheel. He goes I said sorry...I was mad and told him that he was lucky I didn't punch his lights out (emphasizing with my fist in his window) he looks at me and says "Is that a threat?") I said yes and he says get this, give me your licence number. As I put down the side stand I replied come out and get it. You cut ME off I didn't cut you off. I offered to give him a Glasgow kiss.(head butt) anyway on the biker build off I saw one if the guys hang a ballpeen hammer from the ignition wires if his harley, maybe it isn't a bad idea.

[Planecrazy]

Re: things I hate

just the other day I was slowing for a light ( 2 lanes left turn) and this guy whips past me into my lane missing my front by about 3-4 ft and stops as the light was red. I'd had enough this being my second time that day getting cut off so I pulled up to his window and asked him exactly what the f**k he was doing cutting me off like that. He says sorry... I said sorry won't help me if you clip my front wheel. He goes I said sorry...I was mad and told him that he was lucky I didn't punch his lights out (emphasizing with my fist in his window) he looks at me and says "Is that a threat?") I said yes and he says get this, give me your licence number. As I put down the side stand I replied come out and get it. You cut ME off I didn't cut you off. I offered to give him a Glasgow kiss.(head butt) anyway on the biker build off I saw one if the guys hang a ballpeen hammer from the ignition wires if his harley, maybe it isn't a bad idea.

In this day and age that was a mighty stupid thing to do! I can appreciate your anger, but for all you know this guy could be sitting on a handgun ... pop pop pop ... you're done, end of story. People who are stupid/ignorant/oblivious enough to cut you off without a second thought are probably also just as likely to do something stupid with a gun (or their car). Don't look for trouble. Take HIS license number down next time and report HIM.

Stay Safe,
Steve 8)