RE: Bad Drivers: Born to run off the road?
Bad drivers are not born; they are just plain arrogant, stupid, ignorant, irresponsible, selfish, and inconsiderate about how their driving affects other drivers on the road. If you are going to claim that bad drivers have bad-driving gene, then you must first prove also that arrogant, irresponsible, selfish, and inconsiderate people are also born, not made.
When I took the road-test in St. Louis, MO, it was quite difficult for me to pass the test since I was new to the whole driving thing. What I don't get is, do people pretend to be good drivers during the driving tests and that's that? People make rolling-stops in St. Louis at stop signs. No one EVER comes to a complete stop at a stop sign, unless there is someone already there on the other side of the intersection with a left-turn signal. This just bothers me because stop means stop, not slow down and go. I really can't stand the rolling stop culture which seems to be the norm here in St. Louis. There's a danger of being rear-ended by someone because they are not actually expecting me to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, and if this driver behind me is talking on his cell phone, the danger of my being tail-ended increases. You see automobile accident deaths on local news everyday here in St. Louis, and yet I am shocked to see how many people are on their cell phones without headsets while they are driving. I am telling you; even the police (while their sirens not turned on) do rolling stops at stop signs. I have observed this and telling you form my experience.
Other bad drivers that bother me are people who tailgate on a 25 mph two lane hilly roads with double yellow lines. I am maybe going a couple of miles above the speed limit (this area is known for giving out speeding tickets), there are stop signs every block, and there are hills (hence the double yellow lines). They know that they can't pass me (even if they decide to ignore the double yellow lines, they will hardly be able to see the oncoming traffic from downhill) and they know I can't go any faster. So why are they on my tail? It is not like I am doing 25 mph on a 40 mph road or anything. Regardless, there is always someone on my tail, RIGHT ON MY TAIL. It is even worse at night, someone with a giant pickup with their super bright headlights cruising right on my tail. RIGHT ON MY TAIL!
I do a commute of about half an hour a couple of times a week on two interstate highways with 55 and 60 mph speed limit respectively. My commute is an unfortunate one requiring me to leave home around 4:45 pm ? the rush hour begins while as I am getting the ramp to the highway ? and my return commute being at night around 9 pm, which is normally stress-free. On a normal day, I could cope with St. Louis' bad "I'm-a-selfrighteous-and-I-don't-give-a-ratsass-about-others" driving culture, but I have to use all the nerves I have to cope a rainy day during rush hours on these commutes. All these cars are speeding in the rain like it wasn't raining. They use their wipers but their brains couldn't warn them that they need to turn on their head (and tail) lights at the same time when they turn on their wipers. I am talking about a really, really heavy downpour that caused floods in many counties, so I am not being unreasonable here. When it is raining, the spray from these high speed cars are spraying on you that it makes it difficult to see what's ahead of you when people don't turn on their lights.
Of course there are people who weave, they pass you for no reason and slow down as they got in-front of you, requiring you to break for them. There are people who stay on the lane no. 4 and try to change to lane no.1 only 100 ft. before their exit. Most of these things happen because people are on their cell phones and are NOT paying attention to the moving vehicle that they are in. Their hands might be on the steering wheel - one hand in most cases since people seem to feel the need to yulp on their cell phones, having phone-sex or whatever when they drive - but their minds aren?t on the road. When people?s minds aren?t on the road, it delays their response time by many seconds, a crucial amount of time that most of the time determines between life and death, their lives plus others.
If you are telling me that bad driving is a genetic disorder, then I can also go around stabbing these bad drivers and claim that killing bad driver is in my gene. How about that, huh?
