Rearing It's Ugly Head Even More

PianoMan

Nitrous
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Messages
1,244
Location
Overland Park, Kansas USA
In the past few weeks I've noticed an alarming increase in ROAD RAGE and just felt compelled to spout off about it for a few paragraphs.

The first incident happened while sitting at a stop light. I'm the second car from the light and in the inside lane. In front of me is a young woman, probably in her early 20's, talking on a cell phone. Right before the light turns green, the car to my right honks his little horn at the car in front of him. I say little horn because it sounded exactly like my stock horn on the Rocket. Now, the light turns green, she barrels out of the intersection, giving me the bird, and I stayed right behind her. As we two approached the next red traffic light, I pulled up next to her car and when I noticed her front window was down I said, " Pardon, I wanted you to know I wasn't the one honking the horn back there". Before my last word left my lips, I got a barrage of expletive deleted comments that didn't stop until the light turned green. Some of the words I'd never heard before but I'm guessing they pretty much went along with the words I did recognize. Her rant had to be around 110 db and she was still yelling obsenities as she pulled away. She didn't share the hand gestures until she was down the road a half block or so. SO MUCH FOR ME TRYING TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!

Next was in the parking lot at my local grocery store. The two lane drive directly in front of the store has numerous makings, yellow paint and signs that say " NO PARKING - FIRE LANE". As I parked I noticed a young man in the drive and letting a young woman out of his car. He then placed it in park, turned on his stereo and dialed up someone on his cell. I walked past his front window and asked him to roll the window down. After a few seconds of " Who is this old fart and why is he tapping on MY window". I politely mentioned the posted signs and warnings and also told him there were 2 cars behind him that could not get by to exit the lot.

It took him all of a split second to tell me he didn't appreciate my talking down to him like that and I could go &*($ myself. (Hell, if I could do that....I'd never leave home) I stood there smiling and gently mentioned the police being called when I got in the store. As he layed rubber and pulled into the lot, the two elderly ladys behind me started laughing and said, " That a boy ". When I came out, he and his girl had left the scene.

Last, but not least. Today I was enjoying Kansas City's attempt at having a few days of San Diego weather without the ocean and mountains. I'm riding the bike and on the inside lane next to 2 left turn lanes onto I-35 South. I'm crossing over I-35 and because of traffic I'm only doing 30 mph (Posted 35) Several cars are to my left and slightly ahead when their left turn signal changes from yellow to red. The first car had slowed down and was easily able to stop but the guy behind him quickly swerved into my lane and ran around the stopped car. He was probably 3/4 into my lane and no more than 10 feet in front when this occured. There was just enough room for me to lean right, hit the brakes and still stay in my lane. I think I even remember looking quickly in my right mirror in case I had to go there. I caught up to him and yelled, " Next time you change lanes like that...... why don't you at least check and see if anyone else is using it at the time" He turned left on to the on ramp and launched the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate" at me and it was over.

I guess all of this is more for me venting than any real good reason for writing it on the forum. I remembered back to the weeks and months after 9-11 when I noticed that what I had seen as ROAD RAGE in the past seemed to disappear. For the longest time everyone seemed to be thoughtful of others, careful in their driving and even polite in letting cars pull into their lane or slowing down to allow vehicles on side streets to get into the flow of traffic. Like so many other things....... I guess all of us have a short memory disorder and seem to revert back to the old ways in short order.

Anyone else have a venting moment they'd like to share. Please tell me I'm not the only one this has happened to recently!
 
Driving any vehicle is serious business. It's something that's laden with responsibilities but something most people take very lightly. Folks seem to think that you can do a number of things while driving like talking on cell phones, primping your hair, reading a magazine or even masturbating when in fact the driver should be driving and nothing else.

Most people think that driving an automobile or motorcycle is a right when, in fact, it's a privilege. If people looked at their driving as a serious responsibility instead of just a convenience, I suspect the road age would drop dramatically because people would be concentrating on driving their vehicle instead of concentrating on everything else and letting the driving take a back seat. Most accidents are avoidable. Accidents happen because of inattentiveness or distractions on the part of the vehicle operators.

That's why I'm against having audio accessories, GPS units and cell phones on motorcycles. When you ride a motorcycle you need to be focused on the task at hand which is riding the bike and avoiding situations that put you at risk, 110% of the time and any distraction to that attentiveness can be fatal, to you.

Like an automobile which is no match (in a crash) with a big truck, a motorcycle is no match for an automobile or the big truck. Bikes are at the bottom of the pecking order and you, as a motorcycle rider, need to be constantly pro-active in your approach to accident avoidance.

I just had to slip that in there.:D
 
Dave, I think people in general have just become more irate whether sitting in an automobile or just going about their everyday lives. A female clerk in a local grocery store, looking to be in her late 30's, recently got on my case because I referred to her as "Mame" when thanking her when checking out. I was told that she was not a Mame at her age, that was a term intended for her mother. She seemed to quiet down when I informed her that manners were appropriate at any age and I would not apologize for my up bringing. The way I have heard some kids these days talk back to their parents makes me cringe. I guess I should probably take a "time out".
 
I stopped giving the middle finger salute a few years ago, I have found a sarcastic thumbs up works just a good.

P-Man- The other day I was making a left hand turn across two lanes of traffic into a Wendy's. Traffic was heavy so I had to dart across pretty quick however when I started the turn in an elderly couple walked out of the restaurant and started crossing the parking lot about 20 feet in front of me. So I had to slow down mid-turn and caused a lane of the on-coming traffic to slow, at which time they honked at me. The couple looked at me thinking I was honking at them and gave me a dirty look. As I was sitting in the drive threw and they drove past the old man gave me the bird. Whadayado?
 
The image of success

You should have been in jeans, ratted out tee shirt with a Levi's jacket with cutoff sleeves, well washed but slightly greasy with a commonly recognized club name embroidered on the backside.....Then you'd be treated with respect and called 'sir'.

Shirt and tie in your Ford pickup......certainly hooligan.....:)
 
Often I think of how, as the generations pass, the ability to show politeness & respect has diminished. I think, as the years pass, that I won't have to put up with the evolution of mankind (in most cases, "kid-kind") for much longer. This country has become something other than respectful & courteous.

I was in the grocery store years ago when I observed a young boy, about 5 years old, pick up a block of cheese (one of the large ones sealed in wax) and chomped into it. As he threw it back into the bin (most likely because it didn't taste the way he thought it should due to the wax coating), I thought about why he would think that was allowed. I grabbed the cheese block & showed his mother the small teeth marks & stated her son had done this. She turned to him & mildly scolded him, then turned to me, and with much more zeal, told me to "mind my own business". I returned her comment with, "It's things like this that are making the cost of food go up. Now the store has to absorb the cost of item".

She could care less, as many people in America have become. People don't give a second thought to throwing trash out the window of their car, disrespecting others property, etc.

Kids feel they have the right to walk down the middle of the street & if you drive too close to them, they "fly the finger" in your direction. Just makes you wish you could stop & give 'em a dose of what they never got from their parents. Speaking of parents, that may be the basis for most of this caos.

I will tell all of you this, there is no turning around. This country's inhabitants are becoming rude, nasty, selfish, etc. I'll be glad when I no longer will encounter folks such as this, although, come to think of it, I'll meet lots of these types of folks in hell, won't I?

****!!!!

See ya.
 
I will tell all of you this, there is no turning around. This country's inhabitants are becoming rude, nasty, selfish, etc. I'll be glad when I no longer will encounter folks such as this, although, come to think of it, I'll meet lots of these types of folks in hell, won't I?


Rusty, Do you think we will have access to this site down there?
 
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