Author Topic: High beam etiquette  (Read 3881 times)

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Offline Glock32

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High beam etiquette
« on: December 18, 2014, 07:37:00 PM »
So I'm driving home tonight and there is a drag-ass in the left lane of the Interstate. This is probably #1 on my extensive list of traffic irritants. But tonight I am able to add a new one to the list based on what occurred behind me.  I am like 5 or 6 cars back from the drag-ass, and suddenly some guy comes zooming up behind me flashing his high beams.  I am like "WTF? Do you not see that there's an entire line of cars ahead you moron?"  He then goes over to the right lane, which is moving no faster, and cuts back into the left lane right in front of me, which had barely a car length between myself and the car in front. I returned his high beam favor, and threw in a few gestures on the house.

So what is with people tailgating and flashing lights at people who are merely stuck behind some other slow-ass? Being a lead foot myself, I get the frustration, but I have never once thought about flashing my high beams at people obviously just stuck in the middle of the pack. I could see doing the whole "drift over into the shoulder just so the lead car knows he's an idiot and we all hate him" routine, but this was a new one.

I don't even know why stupid stuff like that manages to set me off like it does.
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Offline John Florida

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2014, 08:02:08 PM »
  So Tell me about the relationship you shared with mom?   ::confused::
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Offline Glock32

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2014, 08:20:42 PM »
I was thinking more Seinfeld than Freud....
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Online Pablo de Fleurs

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2014, 09:48:00 PM »
Whenever I sense someone is going to attempt to cut in...I ride the lane dividing line between us, leaving zero "wiggle room" to creep in & cut me off & pepper the gas pedal so as to shrink the distance between me & the car directly in front of me. If the car in front speeds up, I remain at the speed which will most frustrate the car alongside me...until the car behind me catches up...then I zoom ahead & let the asshole sizzle.

Less frequently, I'll turn my head and pucker my lips...as if kissing through the window OR flip them off without looking (as if they're not worth the effort).

Of course all this makes it extremely difficult to text & read those digital billboards.  ;D
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Online Pandora

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2014, 11:36:10 PM »
More often than not, I just let the guy irritate himself and give him enough room in front of me to do it .........  NOW.  Once upon a time, it was a duel to the death and I always won.  Always.  I was an extremely precise and talented driver; never got a (well-deserved) speeding ticket and never caused a crash nor had one.  My skills have atrophied to a certain, but not large, degree; what has atrophied more is the need to fight with  'em.  I just let 'em aggress as they will and murmur to myself, "go ahead, asshole, your ticket/accident is up there a-waitin' fer ya".  Mostly.

Plus, I have finally hit on adjusting the sideview mirror just right to reflect their high-beams back at them.  A little passive micro-aggression, if you will.

Lastly, several years ago, as a Christmas present, Gunsmith installed a dual exhaust system on my truck.  Nice low rumble, right?  Talk about a loss-of-license waiting to happen.  Since then, I've had a small number of truck drivin' fools sidle on up at a light and give it a little gun as, you know, an invite.  Shiny, but no dice.  But sometimes I'm sooo TEMPTED.
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Offline Libertas

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2014, 07:38:27 AM »
Heh, I like these stories.

I ran into a classic a-hole several years ago.  Idiot with a pickup with the full hillbilly lighting package comes up behind me, headlights on high and fog lights and utility rack lit up like a fricken UFO...I slow down...he slows down...I slow down more...(there is nobody in the right lane, we are the only two on the fricken highway at about 10:30 at night!)...I slow down more, he slows down more...I am now thinking I might be shooting someone...I slow down some more and come to a complete stop in the middle of the highway in the left lane...the idiot stops...he must have sensed I was loaded and ready, he peels right and hauls ass down the road about an 1/8th a mile, turns off on a road going East and books down that road and disappears into the night...

Must have been a dumbass kid wanting to play a game and realized the game changed.
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Online ToddF

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2014, 08:45:44 AM »
I encountered some tard in a Yukon XL, tiny dick edition, who was so excited to get around me (on a city street) he managed to pass me in the main lane, as I was getting in the left turn lane, get back in the left turn lane in front of me, just to turn off into a business 2 blocks away.   

There is a lot of trash polluting Obama's America. 

Offline Libertas

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2014, 11:20:50 AM »
The gene pool is so tainted I am not sure anymore if we can see the bottom even from the shallow end...   ::unknowncomic::
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline Predator Don

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2014, 06:29:40 PM »
The drivers who won't leave the left lane is my big pet peeve. It's the passing lane people...it's why there are signs that read " slower traffic keep right".

I'm an 80-85 MPH guy on the interstate. I'm more careful now because I have my truck wrapped with my business name, because I've been known to ride a bumper or two.....so I try to stay back, but I couldn't today. First, it was an 18 wheeler. Normally they know better but today there is a huge line in the left lane, no one in the right.....for like a half mile. So....off to the right I go, others followed and we went around the 18 wheeler. Now, I'm still in the right lane and I'm approaching another big truck, start around it but there was a WV in the left lane, exactly the same speed as the truck.....Great, I'm thinking, from my county.....But eventually I'm pushing up close, sending the message to speed up. She never did. I did get around her, the truck had to slow down on a hill...and guess what, I knew the lady, one of the wifes good friends. Of course she called my wife. Of course my wife called me. Since the wifey KNOWS my displeasure of slow left lane drivers, she has already figured out what happened. I told the wife to call her back and ask her where she was going......she actually did and I found out she was headed to the mall....Now, from here I don't know if my wife called her again because I told my wife to tell her I was concerned for her safety because you must get in the RIGHT LANE to exit to the mall.
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Offline warpmine

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2014, 04:28:37 PM »
The drivers who won't leave the left lane is my big pet peeve. It's the passing lane people...it's why there are signs that read " slower traffic keep right".

I'm an 80-85 MPH guy on the interstate. I'm more careful now because I have my truck wrapped with my business name, because I've been known to ride a bumper or two.....so I try to stay back, but I couldn't today. First, it was an 18 wheeler. Normally they know better but today there is a huge line in the left lane, no one in the right.....for like a half mile. So....off to the right I go, others followed and we went around the 18 wheeler. Now, I'm still in the right lane and I'm approaching another big truck, start around it but there was a WV in the left lane, exactly the same speed as the truck.....Great, I'm thinking, from my county.....But eventually I'm pushing up close, sending the message to speed up. She never did. I did get around her, the truck had to slow down on a hill...and guess what, I knew the lady, one of the wifes good friends. Of course she called my wife. Of course my wife called me. Since the wifey KNOWS my displeasure of slow left lane drivers, she has already figured out what happened. I told the wife to call her back and ask her where she was going......she actually did and I found out she was headed to the mall....Now, from here I don't know if my wife called her again because I told my wife to tell her I was concerned for her safety because you must get in the RIGHT LANE to exit to the mall.
Yes sir-ree, driving for 90 miles in my daily commute I have this issue as well. Trucks looking to pass another semi up hill with a major hefty load and in PA the freaking hills are a pia from the get go like anywhere else but no extra lane for them to creep up the incline. Dorks in the left lane that drive at or below the speed limit refusing to either pass the car next to them nor give me any room to go around them in the right lane. The car coming up in a blaze of speed will never get an invitation for me to move out of the way, I just do it as a courtesy but it's rarely returned from the rest of the commuting bunch.
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Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2014, 10:54:22 AM »
I've always been an aggressive driver. My car has 375 horses and by God I'm using all of them!

I recognized years ago that my attitudes toward driving invariably pitted me against others on the road. A few of them turned into road-rage incidents. It took a couple of them to have the basic principle sink in that "even if you win you lose".

My habits changed with I joined the carseat set. Having a little human depending on me forced me to grow up a bit.

Here are a couple of tales from the darkside...

I'm about 22. I'm cruising North Seattle in my Nova (a pseudo-SS that I built myself). A car cuts me off so, a block or two later I return the favor. When I do I see that there are four guys in the other car. He proceeds to follow me about a foot off my rear bumper. I use the old trick of biding my time at a light until it turns and then blasting through (leaving him stuck on a red light) only he goes ahead and runs the light anyway.

Now it turns into a chase. We're in quiet neighborhood (narrow) streets at 40-50 MPH, running stop signs and generally behaving like total fools. I've finally had enough and yank the wheel spinning my car perpendicular to his. I leap out of the car and put four shots into his engine compartment, and then jump back in and take off, leaving him in a haze of steam.

For two weeks I expected the cops to show up at my door and take me away. They never showed. Why didn't I learn from this lesson?

Several years later I'm coming home from work on the freeway. Traffic is moderate and at speed. Naturally I'm in the left lane as it is the fastest. I notice a Toyota working his way through traffic by weaving through the lanes. I remember making a mental note that this guy was trouble. A few minutes later he's about two cars behind me and in the next lane. A few minutes after that he's next to me and I can tell by his "body language" that he intends to cut me off. Of course my response is to inch forward closing the distance between me and the car ahead of me. Now we're in that delicate dance, sizing each other up, jockeying for position (all the while pretending not to even notice the other driver).

When he realizes that I'm not going to cede to him he starts to inch over into my lane, trying to intimidate me into backing off. This is not a good thing. We're going 70 MPH on a freeway loaded with other cars. The weird thing was that he was in a car that had to cost 15k-16k and I was in a $200 Pinto station wagon (with the imitation woodgrain sides). So it comes down to am I willing to back off and surrender my lane to him? Of course the answer is Hell No!

Instead I let the Pinto meander a bit (granted, the mighty Pinto tended to have a life of its own most of the time anyway). This cooled his jets - for about half a mile. Then he was back at it, drifting over into my lane, only more aggressively now. I looked over at him and damned if he wasn't wearing driving gloves! This made me laugh out loud - which pissed him off even worse.

I could tell it pissed him off by his more overt weaving. Since he was well within my lane and acting like a turd I felt the only reasonable thing to do was to give the wheel a little twerk. I didn't hit him hard but I did make contact. He lunged back out of my lane and violently weaved back and forth. For a moment I thought he was going to launch it into a spin.

Then he comes back over into my lane again, within a couple of inches of the side of the Warrior Wagon and rolls down his window so he can scream obscenities at me. Phooey - the Pinto doesn't have power windows (or power anything for that matter) so I can't do the same. I have to let me grin do my talking for me. That was sufficient provocation apparently for him to bash into the side of my $200 beater with his 14k rice rocket. That sure showed me a thing or two.

I remember thinking, "I wonder what this looks like to the cars behind us?"

This time I flash him the full-face grin. It has to be plain to him that 1) I am utterly unfazed and non-intimidated by him, and 2) I'm willing to sacrifice my sacred piece of automotive Americana if necessary. Mind you, the whole time we're sparring I have my .357 unholstered and sitting on seat next to me. I'm gauging the severity of this incident and if I think it will become mortal I will end it....and him.

At about this point the absurdity of the moment apparently sunk in for Mr. Ricerocket. The side of his stealth racer is stove in (ironically the phony woodgrain on the side of my wagon absorbed the blow and it only showed scuff marks). He Wiggle-waggled a time or two and then merged right, and immediately right again, leaving the freeway (and cutting off other drivers in the process).

I never saw him again.

When I finally started learning from these episodes (and thus stopped having these episodes) I realized that I would much rather have these kind of drivers ahead of me where I can keep my eye on them rather than behind me sniffing at my azz. I still will gently close the distance to discourage someone from attempting a foolish maneuver that is likely to get us both killed, but if he insists I let him go. I would much rather he spar with someone other than me.


Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2014, 01:24:12 PM »
Oh, and I ran across this and thought it share-worthy:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=22c_1419067738

I couldn't find this one on u-toob but one could spend (waste) an entire day watching all the fools...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=truck+road+rage

Offline Libertas

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2014, 02:09:04 PM »
I had a co-worker of mine had a favorite saying: "People, they're the worst!", heh!
« Last Edit: December 23, 2014, 07:48:24 AM by Libertas »
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Online ToddF

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #13 on: December 23, 2014, 06:28:42 AM »
Two lane (same direction) street crosses major highway into a mall.  The left lane goes left, the right lane goes right.  Unless a dingbat driving a Lexus SUV wants to go left from the right lane...no signal, right in front of me.

I hate Christmas shopping....

Offline warpmine

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #14 on: December 23, 2014, 07:30:17 AM »
Two lane (same direction) street crosses major highway into a mall.  The left lane goes left, the right lane goes right.  Unless a dingbat driving a Lexus SUV wants to go left from the right lane...no signal, right in front of me.

I hate Christmas shopping....
You DO know that the signs are just suggestions, right?
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Offline Libertas

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #15 on: December 23, 2014, 07:52:59 AM »
Two lane (same direction) street crosses major highway into a mall.  The left lane goes left, the right lane goes right.  Unless a dingbat driving a Lexus SUV wants to go left from the right lane...no signal, right in front of me.

I hate Christmas shopping....

Yeah, last night...I hit a pothole in a parking lot I did not see, it is rainly, dark as Hell and there is so much grime on my headlight covers it almost appears like my lights are not on, and the hole is full of water...BAM!  WTF was that?  I am surprised my rim isn't dented in!  And trying to get out?  OMG, people all backed up...I was one of the few who was smart enough to tack the opposite direction of the nearest exit and find open ground...fricken people have become such unthinking herd animals...it is scary yet in this case worked to my advantage.  Still, I ran across a couple morons who said "Hi'" by smacking into each other and were exchanging info as people filed past them.

Fricken cows!

 ::asskicking::
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.

Offline AlanS

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Re: High beam etiquette
« Reply #16 on: December 23, 2014, 02:05:51 PM »
Plus, I have finally hit on adjusting the sideview mirror just right to reflect their high-beams back at them.  A little passive micro-aggression, if you will.

I really hope I can remember that little trick.

Two lane (same direction) street crosses major highway into a mall.  The left lane goes left, the right lane goes right.  Unless a dingbat driving a Lexus SUV wants to go left from the right lane...no signal, right in front of me.

I hate Christmas shopping....

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