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I hate people who drive 3 mph below the speed limit and then just skirt through a light as it's turning red.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:16
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Or those moments where you think "Yeah, I probably should've stopped for that one" - and three people come through after you.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:22
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xzzy posted:Okay it's a loaner car so I'll accept that maybe you couldn't find the defroster button, BMW cars get a few more buttons than econoboxes. But you couldn't locate the rear wiper either? Or failing all that, you couldn't use your hand to brush off the thin layer of powder? This pisses me off more than anything after we've had a snowfall. People who minimally remove the least amount of snow possible to drive. I'm talking like scraping off a book-sized port in the front window, enough of the ice/snow on the windows to see the side mirrors and nothing else. Not to mention no one clearing the snow off the hood or roof if you're tall enough or the car is short enough. Nothing like having to dodge giant chunks of snow and ice flying off of cars on the highway.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:24
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Ringo Star Get posted:This pisses me off more than anything after we've had a snowfall. People who minimally remove the least amount of snow possible to drive. I'm talking like scraping off a book-sized port in the front window, enough of the ice/snow on the windows to see the side mirrors and nothing else. Not to mention no one clearing the snow off the hood or roof if you're tall enough or the car is short enough. Nothing like having to dodge giant chunks of snow and ice flying off of cars on the highway. Here in Southern Indiana, we got like 6 inches last Friday, like 10 days ago. Today I've seen 3 or 4 cars with about four inches on the roof still. We've had like two days of rain since then too. I just don't understand how it's still there.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:25
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I live right near an elementary school and pass by it on my commute every day. In the morning flashers indicate a 25mph limit in the 35mph zone. Kind of a pain in the rear end, but whatever. Yesterday I just happened to run home for a late lunch (my commute is unusually, and amazingly, short). I was headed back to work shortly before 3pm, and the flashers were again illuminated as school was letting out. The school is directly across the street from a large YMCA that holds a ton of after-school programs, so lots of kids head directly there. Because of this, there is a crossing guard at the intersection just past the school who helps ferry the massive number of kids across in safety. Well I'm sitting there at the (green) light while the crossing guard is holding up her Stop sign. It just so happened that the trickle of students was intermittent enough that she stood there for two straight light cycles, with traffic building up behind me because of the lack of throughput. The light turns green for the third time, and the SUV in the lane next to me decides "gently caress this" and just guns it straight through. Luckily there were no kids in the actual crosswalk at the time, only approaching it, but the  look the crossing guard gave that vehicle was one for the ages. Yes it's an inconvenience but these are loving schoolkids you're putting in danger, you prick. I wish there was a police cruiser posted nearby to snuff out any bad behavior by shitlords like that.
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Dec 16, 2013 21:41
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The Midniter posted:The light turns green for the third time, and the SUV in the lane next to me decides "gently caress this" and just guns it straight through. I agree it was a lovely thing to do, but the crossing guard should have had the common courtesy to halt the kids and let traffic pass after the second light. Cars get one round of lights, kids get two.
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Dec 16, 2013 21:52
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InitialDave posted:Or those moments where you think "Yeah, I probably should've stopped for that one" - and three people come through after you. I live in Miami, so it's more like three cars, a county-owned tractor trailer, and a pickup truck with the bed stacked eight feet over the roof with scrap/lawn debris/new furniture, without a tie down strap or danger flag in sight, going thirteen miles an hour.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:02
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Unfortunately those crossings are typically staffed by aging mothers dealing with empty nest syndrome and zero training. Those cute little ducklings get right of way NO MATTER WHAT and they brandish their stop sign like it's a machine gun. Fortunately the school crossing I have to deal with gets almost zero kids, but I've dealt with busy ones in the past. It's almost worth a five minute detour to avoid the frustration.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:03
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Team140 posted:I agree it was a lovely thing to do, but the crossing guard should have had the common courtesy to halt the kids and let traffic pass after the second light. Cars get one round of lights, kids get two. Normally I would agree but the stream of kids was intermittent but steady - basically at certain points there was one kid at the end of the crosswalk about to exit while another had just entered, and she was in the middle of the crosswalk with the stop sign so she didn't really have the opportunity to hustle back to the side of the road and allow the cars through. Plus that intersection has an unusually short light cycle - just down the road is a much larger intersection with a much slower light cycle that probably has one full cycle for every three cycles of the intersection in question. Basically this driver was just an impatient rear end and I think the psychological impact of "THREE LIGHT CYCLES NO WAY" got to him/her.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:09
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The Midniter posted:Normally I would agree but the stream of kids was intermittent but steady - basically at certain points there was one kid at the end of the crosswalk about to exit while another had just entered, and she was in the middle of the crosswalk with the stop sign so she didn't really have the opportunity to hustle back to the side of the road and allow the cars through. Plus that intersection has an unusually short light cycle - just down the road is a much larger intersection with a much slower light cycle that probably has one full cycle for every three cycles of the intersection in question. Basically this driver was just an impatient rear end and I think the psychological impact of "THREE LIGHT CYCLES NO WAY" got to him/her. There are some around here who will pull out the sign when the kids are still 20 yards from the actual crosswalk. Extend your arm, extend your middle finger, continue driving.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:46
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In my town the crossing guards are all the same traffic enforcement officers who check the meters downtown (and do some other stuff I guess?). They're actual police officers and can and will write tickets to/radio in people who do things like in that story. Course on the other hand they actually know what they're doing and usually keep the flow of traffic moving as best as it can.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:51
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This morning I saw quite a number of tank commanders. Got cut off rather badly by some idiot in a Forester on the pike, I was doing 40 or so in one lane and he was stopped in the next lane over and decided it was time to whip it out into my lane without checking his mirrors, right in front of me. Fortunately a lot of middle finger and horn resulted in him actually finding the accelerator pedal. I also found out that rolling down your window and holding a snow broom out it with your middle finger extended as if you're going to hand it to some idiot as you pass them doesn't really amuse the kind of person who doesn't clean the snow off their roof. It does, however, amuse me 
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Dec 16, 2013 23:09
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Kill-9 posted:I love it when I'm walking through parking lots and someone decides that they can't wait for me and the family to finish crossing the crosswalk and cuts us off. My wife knows exactly what's about to happen and plays along. As their rear quarter passes me I slap/punch it pretty hard and yell "You hit me, you rear end in a top hat! I was in the crosswalk!" My wife yells right along. I used to do this, but the odds of having a random driver pull over and murder you aren't very well in your favor.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:59
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Why do people think it's a good idea to drive around in the evening, when it's snowing, in a white truck with their lights off? At least after I flashed my brights he figured out what he should turn some lights on.
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Dec 17, 2013 00:14
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It's not snowing here. It's not dark yet. It's not even wet out. But somehow...  
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Dec 17, 2013 01:02
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What is it about SoCal and no one knowing how to tie a loving load down? Just got a dent in my new car because someone didn't tie down a loving sheet of drywall. gently caress.
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Dec 17, 2013 02:44
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8ender posted:I flashed a guy with no taillights last night and he actually turned them on. Then waved thanks as I passed him. That never happens. Earlier this year, I was heading home on the main through road here (a 55 mph two lane road that runs out to the coast), at about 8:00 PM (after dark). I saw a car turn onto the road in front of me under a lone streetlight, and disappear because it had no taillights on. I flashed my lights and honked a bit, and he still didn't turn them on. I assumed he was oblivious or an idiot, and then noticed that his headlights were on. It wasn't until the speed limit changed to 35 and I got close that I figured out he was driving an old Camaro painted primer grey with no taillights, brake lights, or plates.
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Dec 17, 2013 03:20
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xzzy posted:Maybe it makes me an rear end in a top hat, but I hope the accidents get frequent enough that it generates some press and gets some laws passed. I don't know if a hard cutoff for losing your license at age X is appropriate, but annual exams of some sort are definitely in order. A page late but I'm firmly of the belief that once you're old enough to get social security payments(or the equivalent for non-US drivers) you should have to re-qualify your eyes and ears every 3 years, and a full road test at the 10-year mark. I don't think there will be any laws passed until the Boomers are dead and gone. They're going to make up the largest group of one of the most powerful special interest groups/lobbies around: AARP, and telling them "No you can't do X because you're too old" is tantamount to chaining yourself to the ground in front of an out-of-control steamroller, politically. The GenXers will be the absolute earliest chance the country gets to get a handle on dealing with people still living but entirely too infirm to operate a vehicle safely. Maybe we'll luck out and get cool trolleys back again in cities and towns, everybody loves streetcars. nm: it ain't just SoCal, Central and South Florida is rife with junk trucks carring a 10-foot tall load with nothing but twine and the power of belief holding all their poo poo together on bumps and turns. When I was in Orlando I gave those SOBs a wide, wiiiide berth at all times. Kilersquirrel fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Dec 17, 2013 |
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Dec 17, 2013 03:31
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Kilersquirrel posted:A page late but I'm firmly of the belief that once you're old enough to get social security payments(or the equivalent for non-US drivers) you should have to re-qualify your eyes and ears every 3 years, and a full road test at the 10-year mark. gently caress just targeting the elderly, make everyone take a driver's test with mandatory hearing and sight test every five years and then the boomers can't bitch that they're being singled out for being old. There's enough blatant stupidity on the road from people even in their 20s and 30s to justify it.
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Dec 17, 2013 04:01
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I don't disagree but the Boomers are going to be the 500-pound political gorilla until they're more or less dead. The 5-year retest would be a good thing overall but they'd still go insane over it (as would other large portions of the population, to be fair) and it would never happen. I'd also be happy with licenses that aren't essentially "for life" like in Arizona, it's pretty ridiculous. Plus car culture is so ingrained in the US that driving is seen as a birthright rather than a privilege at this point, and our entire country has been planned around that attitude. Maybe a good lever would be "you agree to get full retests every 5 years and we make the upper speed limits on federal highways a challenge to meet" 
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Dec 17, 2013 04:37
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Kilersquirrel posted:I don't disagree but the Boomers are going to be the 500-pound political gorilla until they're more or less dead. The 5-year retest would be a good thing overall but they'd still go insane over it (as would other large portions of the population, to be fair) and it would never happen. I'd also be happy with licenses that aren't essentially "for life" like in Arizona, it's pretty ridiculous. This is why we need to do it before they get any older. Most boomers still remember how terrifying their parents driving is.
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Dec 17, 2013 05:33
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Kilersquirrel posted:The GenXers will be the absolute earliest chance the country gets to get a handle on dealing with people still living but entirely too infirm to operate a vehicle safely. Maybe we'll luck out and get cool trolleys back again in cities and towns, everybody loves streetcars. Nah, by the time genX is calling the shots we'll all be
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Dec 17, 2013 05:33
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xzzy posted:Nah, by the time genX is calling the shots we'll all be GenXers will never call the shots. It will go from Boomers to Millennials.
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Dec 17, 2013 05:40
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fralbjabar posted:the same traffic enforcement officers who check the meters downtown Those are called meter maids. Regardless of gender. Including back at the PD. Just an FYI. Geoj posted:gently caress just targeting the elderly, make everyone take a driver's test with mandatory hearing and sight test every five years and then the boomers can't bitch that they're being singled out for being old. There's enough blatant stupidity on the road from people even in their 20s and 30s to justify it. That sounds great until you're trying to get elected/reelected and realize the that gomers vote in overwhelming droves and don't like that idea.
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Dec 17, 2013 05:50
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Motronic posted:You know the worst part about that? It's often not their choosing to be sitting there. Yeah, I found out here in Nevada how it's done. NHP patrols an area, calls in dispatch, dispatch rolls the plows. This is how it really works. NHP sees it is snowing, camps out at the local whorehouse/donutshop, waits for a pile-up or some shitass fuckfest, heads out after awhile, then gets the plows rolling after there is a plate of ice on the interstate. I've had to call 911 to tell them to get the plows rolling because there are cars all over the loving place off the interstate, I haven't seen a loving NHP or a plow in 76 miles, and I have 36 cars lined up behind me like I'm a loving mother duck with a herd of little ducks heading to the pond. The kicker is I won't see a plow until I'm another two counties over and it's stopped snowing. 
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Dec 17, 2013 06:10
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Kilersquirrel posted:A page late but I'm firmly of the belief that once you're old enough to get social security payments(or the equivalent for non-US drivers) you should have to re-qualify your eyes and ears every 3 years, and a full road test at the 10-year mark. The AARP is the most powerful union ever. And that includes the old Soviet Union. How else do you explain RV having 800+ HP engines, air brakes, 60K GVW and still doing 45 in a 75mph zone? And you don't get your eyes checked every couple of years at the DMV? I know I get my poo poo checked for my medical, but I also always get me vision checked at the DMV when I renew. Funny story about that, I am legal to drive a normal car without glasses, but I have to wear glasses to drive a CMV.
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Dec 17, 2013 06:17
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I'm in Pasadena for a week. 4 lane road with a turn lane, I'm in the inner lane comin up on the same loving intersection where my range rover was totaled. I'm going speedlimit. I'm comin up on the intersection quick and this dickhead comes flying up beside me from the passenger side, yanks over in front of me almost clipping the front of the rover and makes a left turn almost hitting someone head on in the opposite lane. hey. hey pasadena. gently caress. YOU.
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Dec 17, 2013 06:50
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Anyone have any suggestions on getting an elderly relative off the road? While visiting my 80 yr old mom my wife went to the store with her and came back white as a sheet, said mom made a right turn into the oncoming lane (on the wrong side of the divider). Luckily there was no traffic, but it's only a matter of time before something bad happens.
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Dec 17, 2013 06:52
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Hermaphrodite posted:Anyone have any suggestions on getting an elderly relative off the road? While visiting my 80 yr old mom my wife went to the store with her and came back white as a sheet, said mom made a right turn into the oncoming lane (on the wrong side of the divider). Luckily there was no traffic, but it's only a matter of time before something bad happens. Man the gently caress up, and more importantly: provide alternatives. I'm sorry....there's no other way. It was a shitsotrm to get my grandmother off the road. But it all came down to satisfying the real or perceived needs of hers to get around. You make that happen and it's possible.
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Dec 17, 2013 07:01
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InterceptorV8 posted:And you don't get your eyes checked every couple of years at the DMV? Not if your state allows renewal by mail once you reach retirement age...
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Dec 17, 2013 07:21
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I wish I could provide alternatives, but she lives 500 miles away. Her husband is 83 and is still a good driver, but he has his own things to drive to, and he says can't/won't force her to stop driving. I was mainly wondering if there was a way to get the dmv to make her come in for a driving test/evaluation.
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Dec 17, 2013 07:36
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Geoj posted:gently caress just targeting the elderly, make everyone take a driver's test with mandatory hearing and sight test every five years and then the boomers can't bitch that they're being singled out for being old. There's enough blatant stupidity on the road from people even in their 20s and 30s to justify it. Maybe y'all missed a page or two back where I explained the few eyesight / hearing tests the DMV has, DMV employees will happily show you how to fake
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Dec 17, 2013 08:35
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My grandfather (god rest his vulgar, tattooed, Korean War veteran soul) was frightening behind the wheel, and you would've needed to pry his license out of his cold, dead hands. He and I would go on delivery runs together (he retipped drill bits for oil drills, we'd deliver to the midwestern sites throughout IL, MO, and IN) and while he drove decently safe on interstates (safer than I did, at the time), he was a downright terror in parking lots. He just couldn't see the lightpoles for some reason, so every time we had to go through a parking lot I'd have to call out like a fuckin' codriver in the WRC, because he didn't like going under 30 anywhere. Loved the man to death, but he was goddamned dangerous behind the wheel. My other granddad is a farmer, so his problem is just driving too slow, but he only ever drives his farm truck or farm equipment, and they're all properly marked with those "slow vehicle" reflectors, so he's taken care of. He thought it was a good joke when my uncle and I bolted one to his truck and has never taken it off. Both my grandmothers hate driving and being on the road in general, so neither of them really worry me. But jesus, you'd have thought ol' granpaps the Asian killer was still driving a 5 ton through Itaewon with how he handled traffic.
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Dec 17, 2013 08:54
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InterceptorV8 posted:The AARP is the most powerful union ever. And that includes the old Soviet Union. How else do you explain RV having 800+ HP engines, air brakes, 60K GVW and still doing 45 in a 75mph zone? And you don't get your eyes checked every couple of years at the DMV? I know I get my poo poo checked for my medical, but I also always get me vision checked at the DMV when I renew. Funny story about that, I am legal to drive a normal car without glasses, but I have to wear glasses to drive a CMV. Sidenote, I hate the AARP and all the mail they send me EVERY DAY because they think I'm 50+. All they do is sell insurance and now cell phones. Asking to be removed does not work so I will declare to the post office I find their material sexually provocative which forces them to stop sending mail or face prosecution. This is a supreme court approved technique.  Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibitory_Order
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Dec 17, 2013 09:18
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Hermaphrodite posted:Anyone have any suggestions on getting an elderly relative off the road? While visiting my 80 yr old mom my wife went to the store with her and came back white as a sheet, said mom made a right turn into the oncoming lane (on the wrong side of the divider). Luckily there was no traffic, but it's only a matter of time before something bad happens. Make a plan for her. It is hard to keep elderly drivers off of the road, because a lot of places are built around the need for cars. How will she get around? Who will take her to doctor's appointments and to the grocery store? How will she maintain a sense of normalcy once she no longer drives? My dad no longer drives, so now it's up to his family to shuffle him around. There's a lot of days where I've thought that I'd rather let other drivers deal with him than have to drop whatever I'm doing to run an errand for him.
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Dec 17, 2013 12:54
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Drunken Lullabies posted:I used to do this, but the odds of having a random driver pull over and murder you aren't very well in your favor. This is  . We're all armed at all times. We will murder you right back.edit: awww. When did they get rid of the tag?
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Dec 17, 2013 16:45
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I hate hate hate freeway speed cameras but after living in Phoenix Metro I'm all for intersection red light cameras because this:InitialDave posted:Or those moments where you think "Yeah, I probably should've stopped for that one" - and three people come through after you. Even after 12 years here I'm terrified of being 'front of the pack' in a grouping of traffic.
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Dec 17, 2013 16:58
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Seat Safety Switch posted:It's brutal. The final episode airs tonight, but I don't know how they can top last week's running away from the event, breaking into your own motherfucking home and slashing your hand tendons wide open. From the last page... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvE1tqkUzRA Jesus Christ.
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Dec 17, 2013 21:18
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I was just behind a guy in a red Fiesta with Florida plates. While merging, he opened his door, stuck his head out, and looked backwards behind the car.  It was a pretty new car and he had side mirrors.
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Dec 17, 2013 22:06
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FogHelmut posted:It was a pretty new car and he had side mirrors. In his defense, it was a Fiesta. Those side mirrors are likely decoration only.
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Dec 17, 2013 22:08
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