I hate snow, volume whatever the hell number it is....

The person in the post above is only braking because he insists on going faster than the cautious driver.

Then he blames the cautious driver for "making" him brake. His own impatience and frustration is what's making him brake.

I'm a very cautious driver and put less stress on my brakes than most people. I coast into stoplights and stop signs, taking my foot off the gas pedal long before I get there (what's the hurry? You have to stop anyway?). Saves gas, and I invariably meet up with all those people who passed me a few moments ago (and slammed on their brakes at the stoplight).

 

You don't need to brake. You need to not being going as fast to begin with.

 

Yeah, he could have meant that. I just assumed he equated "cautious driving" with "driving slower than I want to go."

If you're braking too much, you're doing it wrong --- at any speed.

 

YOu and I driving side by side would be amusing, because I do the same thing. I have an 2004 Monte Carlo SS that I bought new with 12 miles on it. The car now has 104,000 miles on it and still has the original brakes. Anytime someone comments on my driving I ask them how much they've spent on brakes the past eight years.

 

I always think those "abandon your car goofs" consider what they are doing an expression of artistic composition. They always seem to find a creative way to put their vehicle at a jaunty angle to the traffic flow such that it blocks at least 1.5 lanes of normal traffic.

What goes through my head is something like this:


If I had the time and a safe place to stop, I'd get out right now and let the air out of all four of those tires...

 

Agreed. Part of the wisdom of slowing down is that you don't have to rely so much on your brakes, which, as someone pointed out above, is when most of the skidding and collisions occur.

 

A few years ago, I got caught in a freak snowstorm. Pulled off and was going to let it pass. The morons in front of me (WITH MINNESOTA PLATES, NO LESS. Shouldn't they know how to drive in snow?!) come to a stop in the middle of a one-lane bridge. I stop (because what else are you supposed to do?), help them push their car to traction so they can get going.

Does anyone stop to help the girl driving by herself? Nope. I was practically in the ditch (because it was the only place with snow so I could get some traction and get going) and I had assholes passing me. I was so pissed off, not only at the people who were passing me without even really slowing down, but to the idiots in front of me who couldn't help me get unstuck after I helped them. It took me roughly 45 minutes to make it to the rest area a quarter of a mile down the road.

 

It's the people who can't drive worth a fuck on dry conditions who are utterly worthless in snow.

If a guy is slamming the gas and brakes, not keeping a safe distance and constantly changing speeds on dry roads, odds are pretty good this dope ass isn't going to pull it all together and start driving at a steady reliable speed with conservative application of brakes and gas. When snow hits I already have a year's experience on that fool because I practice gradual acceleration year-round, regardless of weather conditions.

Yeah, I get cut off occasionally by the occasional pissed driver who is mad that I didn't pull out of a green light like it's Tallafuckingdega. I also don't have any transmission or engine issues, like that clown inevitably will.

 

When impatient assholes honk at me these days, I honk back. For a couple seconds. Sometimes it even shakes them up and they swerve a little. I love it.

I'm a fairly aggressive driver, and still they're in a hurry to get past me. Fuck 'em.

 

Almost put my middle finger in a sling today for the amount of dumbasses on the road thanks to the slight ice/snow fest we had overnight.
First, the guy plowing our apartment's road decided to start backing up at full speed while I was following him. Obviously he didn't see me...had to lay on the horn.
Then the morons that ride someone's bumper, slam on the breaks and then fishtail...yet continue to tail people. I, of course, leave a shit-load of space between he and I...and asshole No. 3 comes cruising by and gets in between us...then starts tapping his breaks as well.

Holy crap people! Learn to drive!!@!

 

we're going on 20 hours since the snow stopped falling and the landlord has yet to plow. One of my neighbors said the landlord told him it would get done sometime this afternoon. Nope. There are naught but a pair of tire tracks running the length of the parking lot, enough to pull in, see there is no way in hell you can get into an actual parking spot, and pull through to find someplace else to stash your car for the night. I think my landlord is operating under the philosophy that eventually the temperature will go above 32 and the problem will just take care of itself.
Also our city fathers have decided to plow down either side of some of the streets downtown, leaving a long, packed snowy median on every street, like a long white middle finger extended towards anyone who might have to make a left turn at any point ever. Also the sidewalks are only cleared intermittently so everyone has taken to walking in the streets. You get a few dirty looks from motorists, but sidewalks are civilization's rules. Civilization went bye-bye Thursday afternoon. We're on anarchy's rules now.

 

You should be a writer...or sumthin'