Are people stupid or what?

[BadBird]

Yesterday, (Friday) Carol and I were on our way home on 132nd street towards Mill Creek. There was a 56 Yellow Chevy Pickup in the center turn lane not running. Stopped to see if we could help. He was out of gas, so drove him to AM-PM, bought a gas can and gas. Got back to the truck and he was putting gas in.
What absolutely drove me crazy were the drivers going past. He was on the side, pouring in gas. Cars were going by at 45-50 within a foot of the guy. Even when there was room for them to go further away, they stayed way to close to him.
I yelled at him to watch out as a woman in a SUV came within a foot of him with her mirror.
Carol and I were amazed he wasn't hit, but what really bugs me, is why didn't these idiots at least slow down and/or move over. What is wrong out there? Larry

[ew1usnr]

Why didn't these idiots at least slow down and/or move over. What is wrong out there? Larry

Hello, Larry.

My theory is that new cars ... (being so quiet and smooth, the six-speaker sound systems are so nice, the air conditioners, along with power steering, power anti-lock disc brakes with traction control, etc. etc.) ... isolate drivers from everything to such an extent that they are detached from what they are actually doing.

The close their windows, flip on all the accessories, zone out, and essentially drive on brain dead auto-pilot.

I think that it will be a good thing when self-driving cars become available, because most people (especially young drivers with new cars) do not understand what they are doing.

6065

[Gitanesteel]

Would have scared me to death. I was on the freeway the other day here in E. WA with a trucker standing on the fog line and I was in the lane next to him. I wanted to move over but the idiot right next to me wouldn't slow down or speed up so I could. I was not comfortable being that close to a pedestrian.

Kind of a luxury now to live in the country.

[doghows]

Out here where I live, my property had a busy road down one side of it. I maintain my property which has me doing the mowing and weed wakking along side this road.
I have literally been hit three times by passing cars. Once knocked me to the ground and I though for sure had broke my shoulder. The other two times were mirror slaps. All three times the drivers did not stop to see what happened.
I've recently wrote a letter to my county and told them I would no longer be taking care of the road area on my property due to these reasons.
People get in their capsules and just don't care anymore, I think everyone should drive old cars. At least you have to pay attention.

[Jeff W]

A lawyer for the car industry said he "was scared of self driving cars... but absolutely TERRIFIED of people driving cars".

I am ready.

[Luva65wagon]

Oblivious more likely. Distractions, phones, GPS's, all may play a role in this, but I see people just being too comfortable and blind to their surroundings. I wonder anymore what kind of schooling these drivers received in school - if they even did.

When I was coming back from the Tri-Cities in the near white-out over New Years, you saw all these people plowing past you at double the safe speed. You read about and see the multi-car pile-up on the snowy roads and you know, for a fact, everyone was one car length away from each other doing twice as fast as they should have been going for the conditions.

Then you got the others...

Just Saturday morning I was coming back from the recycling place out near Boeing (Payne Field) and due to so much traffic on this road they have "high occupancy lanes" in effect certain times of the day. Not on Saturday mornings though - so you can be in both lanes. I was in the regular lane approaching the intersection of HW99, light is green for these lanes, left-turn lane has a red. On my right, in the HO lane, a Honda Odyssey comes up fast and passes me by on my right about 50 feet from the intersection, signals left and moves in front of me.

And stops at the green light.

Not expecting this at all I have to nearly slam the brakes to avoid plowing into her. Of course I give her a good long honk because the light is still green. "Go!," I yell a her. Nothing. She sits there. I'm too close to go around without backing up some (tough there is no other cars in our lanes), but before I could go into reverse and get around her the yellow and red light comes. Now she's sitting there with her left turn signal still on and now I'm thinking maybe she really needed to turn left onto HW99 and just acted too late. Fine, but thank you very much for making that decision in front of me.

This is a long light-cycle and I wait, and wait, and finally left turn goes green and as the last car goes left; she doesn't go. So much for my thinking. Our light finally changes and she's off to the races running the 1/4 mile. I guess she didn't like the glaring stare I gave her those so-many minutes she took away from me.

:bicker:

[SmithKid]

I'm sure we all have "idiot/scare" stories. My (not) favorite .... I was sitting in a left turn lane at a busy intersection of a 7-lane main road here in my home town waiting for the light to change so I could make my turn to go home. When the light changed, I looked at the oncoming lane to be sure no fool was running the red light toward me (happened before). None. I started to make my turn, when some fool passed me on the left in the oncoming lane. I nearly t-boned him as he cut back in front of me and the traffic that was now going straight through the now green light for them too. The fool nearly got t-boned by the car that was to my right also. AMAZING!!! Seems like these idiot/fools will do ANYTHING to pass a car or two to maybe save a few seconds in their terribly important day.

[BadBird]

As we all know, if you drive for 30 minutes in a day you will see some overly aggressive driver trying to kill someone. It appears to me, that people are doing everything but thinking about driving.
BUT! When someone is standing alongside their car I cannot fathom why they at least don't slow down a little bit. It wasn't just one or two drivers that came way to close to the guy, it was every single car.
I think that part of the problem is what Roger mentions, little or no training. But, it goes deeper than just training, gadgets in the car, phones, radios, and other crap. It is a respect for our fellow humans.
Not to long ago, a young man in an older car was broke down in the left turn lane. Carol and I jumped out and pushed him around the corner into a parking lot. There were people clapping as we went back to our pickup. But, we are 70. Why the holy heck didn't some of those "clappers" get the heck out? They didn't give a rip.
Society has changed. It is all about me. I don't always stop to help stranded motorists, but make it our habit to help every chance we get.
My belief has not changed. It is do unto others as you would have it done unto you.
Don't get me wrong, there are a whole lot of good, kind and helpful younger people out there. Just seems to be too many who don't care. Larry

[dhbfaster]

I think there's actually a psychological name for this. I remember it from psych class. I don't remember the name, But it's something to do with the sheer volume of what's going on in people's heads and what they have to get done so they desensitize. It's why people in New York City will walk by three dying people on the way to work and do not even look down. (They have actually done experiments on this.) If they looked down and stopped they would have to do it every day and then never get to work! So, they look straight ahead and ignore it. They never say hi to anyone on the way to work either. Meanwhile if you live in a small town, you say hi to everyone and give them a hug too. Not only that but if you don't know someone you pass someone else you know will know them.

So far, I have to say these Canadians are living up to their extra friendly reputation...