California drivers summed up

[Drax240z]

With Canadian license plates. And it was Vancouver where they were stopping on the onramps. And all the Canadian drivers were changing lanes when there was an onramp merging. I don't think you're getting out of this one so easily. I take it YOU don't stop at the end of the onramp then?

 

News flash... rental cars still have BC plates in BC.

 

Do I stop on onramps? More like STOMP!!!

 

And if you think Vancouver is bad, you should try the geriatric convention where I live.

[JMortensen]

When I was in high school (in CA for what it's worth) I watched a car roll at about 15 mph. Girl had her license for 1 day and decided to teach an underage friend to drive on the insanely busy street in front of the school. Driver got freaked by all the cars whizzing by in the opposite direction and gently eased herself into the parked cars, at which point she managed to roll up a parked car and roll the car over. I was probably 150 feet away and watched the whole thing happen. It wasn't like the car was a raised truck or something, it was a Mazda 626 or something like that. Bizarre, but it can happen.

 

I once was driving down Hwy 1 into San Luis Obispo and there was a mid 90's Chevy truck rolled in the middle of the highway. There are no turns where this happened. I've wondered for years what you have to do to flip a truck with no turns, flat road, etc. Maybe someone can help me out with that one...

[Drax240z]

Samurai syndrome? Swerve a few times with a high CoG...

[z2go]

I like this thread. I'm a native Californian, and where I'm from, people drive fast, but somehow effectively... where I am now in California, the boondocks, everyone is on a Sunday drive. They drive 10mph under the posted speed limit, in the middle of nowhere.

 

When I lived in San Antonio, TX, people drove like they were the only ones on the road. You could expect to have someone switch lanes into your car, drive 35mph on the freeway for no reason. Instead of the normal merge rule, for some reason every highway had a yield rule. San Antonians read that as a stop sign, which caused me to almost rear end people many times, while I was looking over my left shoulder to assess traffic, seeing none, speeding up, and then swerving off the road for some idiot stopped at the junction.

 

Maryland/Washington DC drivers are even better! Everyone drives like they hate everyone else on the road and they want to get to their destination twice as fast as the next guy. However, if it starts raining, they slow down to HALF of the posted speed limit and creep slowly down the interstate. Can anyone explain that phenomenon???

[GodZilla]

I drove back from Alaska and found the drivers from BC nuts. Passing on blind corners, into tunnels, etc. This was all out in the middle of nowhere but it was always plates from BC.

 

Cary

 

 

Haha. I live in Vancouver, BC. Yes, BC drivers suck big time. There is a huge international community here, which might explain some of it. They take their driving habits of back home and bring them to Canada. Have you guys ever been in a taxi in India/Pakistan??? After arriving "safely" at my destination, I was doing this to have made it alive.

[Leon]

San Luis Obispo... SLO needs to speed up! People drive like they're half asleep. The short on and off ramps don't help either. I get on it to hop on the freeway but others are going 35-45mph when merging! People merge to the left to get away from that mess also. It's partly on-ramp design, but a much bigger part driver ignorance/stupidity.

 

San Diego was the same, everyone is so sleepy and unaware except everyone drove way too damn fast. Driving through LA has to be the worst thing I have subjected myself to.

[Gollum]

The stopping on the onramp thing astounds me. Onramps are long and at a shallow angle relative to the other lanes for a good reason - you're supposed to match your speed to the traffic.

 

Ahem, you've never been to Vallejo.

 

Not all, not even most, but a chunk of the issues with traffic in CA has to do with our roads. On ramps in many cities are less than a 1/4 mile, which with a civic means you're going LESS than 55mph if you MASH the throttle, which nobody will do (in the wide population).

 

You never know if the left lane is merging with the right, or the right with the left. There's at least 5 spots within 10 miles of the Oakland/Bay Bridge maze that has left lanes merging! Grrr

 

There's also a lovely spot on Tennessee street in vallejo that goes from two lanes, to one, to two, to one, and back to two. One time it goes to one the right lane merges left, the next one the left merges to the right!@!#$!

 

And our roads are constantly under construction, and it's a very competitive market, meaning that all the smaller jobs are done by joe blow that has no clue how to properly setup construction signs. I can't count the number of times I've seen completely WRONG warning signs saying that X lane close, or stop ahead, etc and it was completely false.

 

 

All that being said... We have some BAD drivers. We also have some of the rudest drives too I think. I can't count the amount of times I've had to slam on my brakes because some lady on a cell phone decided she wants MY lane in traffic, even though I'm crawling at 5 mph less than 3 feet from the car in front of me.

 

People don't use their turn signals around here because that almost guarantees that the person in the next lane will speed up and leave you no room.

 

Oh, and it's not truly an exciting day until you can't count the people on one hand that have flown across 4 lanes in less than 1/8 of a mile to get off the freeway. The best is when you're in the right hand blind spot of a semi and a car comes blazing across so fast you can't even catch the make/model.

 

I can go on, but why? I somewhat agree with drummingpariah, our drivers suck. I've seen some pretty bad ones in other states too though.

[Tony D]

It would be my contention that BMW Drivers universally are incompetent.

 

I mean, how many times have you seen some BMW flaming away in the fast lane flashing his / her lights and leaving the left blinker on?

 

It's not the state, it's the driver and the marque. Vust as Valid a conclusion given the evidence proffered...

[Tony D]

Samurai syndrome? Swerve a few times with a high CoG...

 

I owned a Samurai for years... I owned a Samurai... Never came close to flipping it, sliding it sideways on a regular basis. I never seemed to be able to get to that 37.5 mph speed it took to get it to flip like CU determined. I guess the answer is drive slower or faster and you're fine, just don't go anywhere at 37.5 mph.

 

Samurai flipping is like Audi Sudden Acceleration (or is that Toyota now, or ZXT's in the early 80's...)

 

More media hype that truth to the real world experience of the owners.

[PanzerAce]

My parents (who grew up driving in new england) contend that californians are actually pretty good drivers once they're into traffic, what freaks out people from other states is how in traffic everyone is ~30ft from the car in front of them....at 70mph+, and yet in general it isn't a problem.

 

 

Now, prius drivers, THEY need to learn how to drive (or pull their heads out).