Idiots in a hurry.......

[FUNKED1]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Of the two offices I occupy Mon-Thurs, there are no fewer than 4 computers at my fingertips.

On Friday he studies Hindi.

[CyranoAH]

Ouch! Low blow

[fd ski]

I've driven across germany recently, and having driver in US well over 90,000 comparison is rather interesting.

No speed limit in germany, but roads feel much safer. you always know what to expect of people. Passing on the right is forbidden ( you lose your licence on the spot if I'm not mistaken ) and people generaly keep to the right unless passing ( this goes for cars doing 150 mph as well !!! )

In US people pass whereever they feel like, drive slow in left lane and there is a speed limit ( none in parts of germany ).

Aparently death rate per 100,000 travelers is something like 2x higher in US then it is in germany, so maybe speed itself is not a problem ?

[Dinger]

yeah, try death rate per mile travelled though.

[Dinger]

....that being said, from my experiences driving in Europe (including a few autobahn hauls and putting it in reverse in the left lane of the B. Peripherique), there are a lot less cupholders in European cars.

[frank3]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Of the two offices I occupy Mon-Thurs, there are no fewer than 4 computers at my fingertips.

1 for work, 1 for emails, 1 for aces high, 1 for the bbs and one for....I have the feeling we don't even want to know

[lazs2]

part of the problem is the cars themselves..  they "feel" safe at speeds of 100 or more.  they isolate their drivers from the real world and the loudest thing is the cell phone pressed to your ear.  If a person can steer with his/her knees at 100 mph in the first rain of the season while talking on the cell phone and turning around to yell at the kids then they will.

about 1 in 100 people that drive 100 mph can stop or evade at that speed safely.  

lazs

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Dinger
yeah, try death rate per mile travelled though.

Exactly, I love it when people try to compare driving in Germany to the U.S.  Just take a look at volume, and number of roads, then throw in population compression.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by lazs2
part of the problem is the cars themselves..  they "feel" safe at speeds of 100 or more.  they isolate their drivers from the real world and the loudest thing is the cell phone pressed to your ear.  If a person can steer with his/her knees at 100 mph in the first rain of the season while talking on the cell phone and turning around to yell at the kids then they will.

about 1 in 100 people that drive 100 mph can stop or evade at that speed safely.  

lazs

Seriously, there was an hour long program on the Discovery channel about this particular subject, the false sense of security we live in with airbags, selt belts, and high speeds we drive.  It certainly attributes to the reckless risks people take.

Maybe we should go back to a "Horse and Buggy" styly automobile, where you ride in FRONT of the bumper.  That way, there would be fewer rear end collisions, and fewer bad drivers on the road.

[Mini D]

When I lived in Idaho, there was a gent that stopped behind 3 cars waiting at a railroad crossing.  He grew impatient and sped around them right in front of the train.  He, his wife and his 2 kids were killed.  That pretty much sums up my definition of "idiot".

As for Germany... I don't know many people that have gone there and not seen a fatal accident on the Autoban.  I don't mean driven by the wreckage, I mean actually saw the accident.  You just can't have a lane where people are doing 100 next to a lane where people are doing 40 and expect that to be safe.

Speeding isn't necessarily dangerous... it's speeding when others aren't that gets people killed.

MiniD

[Ripsnort]

Bad news for Archie "Lazs" Bunker!
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&ncid=1503&e=6&u=/afp/20040511/ts_afp/britain_motoring_women_040511114451

British courts say women are the 'better' drivers

2 hours, 21 minutes ago  Add Top Stories - AFP to My Yahoo!
 


LONDON (AFP) - Women, much-maligned by the opposite sex for their supposed lack of ability behind the wheel, make far safer and more law-abiding drivers than their male counterparts, British officials said.


AFP/File Photo
 
   

Of those found guilty of all driving offences by courts in England and Wales in 2002, 88 percent were male motorists, according to statistics published by the Home Office.


Men committed almost all the most serious offences, such as causing death and dangerous driving, but women's share of speeding offences rose from 13 percent in 1998 to 17 percent in 2002.


The category in which women committed the highest number of offences was obstruction, waiting and parking -- being responsible for 23 percent of such cases in 2002.


Women committed just six percent of the death or bodily harm offences in 2002 and just three percent of dangerous driving offences.


But female offences relating to driving with excess alcohol or drugs in the system increased -- up from nine percent of the total in 1998 to 11 percent in 2002.


Men were responsible for 96 percent of vehicle thefts and 97 percent of offences relating to motorcyles.


Overall, women's share of motoring offences rose only one percent between 1998 and 2002.

[Mini D]

My mother has been pulled over for speeding probably 30 times.  She's gotten 2 tickets... one by photo radar.  My aunt was pulled over for driving the wrong way down a one way street in the middle of the day... the cop enjoyed her story so much he let her off.

Eventually you'll see a migration from the "isn't that cute" aproach to bad women drivers... but till then, we'll just sit back and look at stats.... and the fact that men make up a large majority of the traffic.

MiniD

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Mini D
When I lived in Idaho, there was a gent that stopped behind 3 cars waiting at a railroad crossing.  He grew impatient and sped around them right in front of the train.  He, his wife and his 2 kids were killed.  That pretty much sums up my definition of "idiot".

As for Germany... I don't know many people that have gone there and not seen a fatal accident on the Autoban.  I don't mean driven by the wreckage, I mean actually saw the accident.  You just can't have a lane where people are doing 100 next to a lane where people are doing 40 and expect that to be safe.

Speeding isn't necessarily dangerous... it's speeding when others aren't that gets people killed.

MiniD

Its hard to argue that the faster you go, the less reaction time you have, and the more distance that is required to stop. But I will agree that slow traffic and fast traffic combined can be more lethal than all traffic traveling at a high rate of speed.

[lazs2]

rip... in london they probly are but...

not getting tickets is not a good indicator of how good a driver you are.

lazs

[1K0N]

Originally posted by AKS\/\/ulfe
The same people that taught other dip****s to go slow in the passing lane.
-SW

Two wrongs dont make a right.... passing in the slow lane and then cutting off drivers in the fast lane is two wrongs...

Funny thing is I wasn't fishing but I seemed to hook a fish, must have struck a nerve describing your driving habit eeehhh...

IKON