People who piss you off

[plthijinx]

houston traffic. there are a few roads here that i just plain LOATHE. hwy 6 for example. the posted speed is 50 and everyone, no matter what time it is or how many people are on that road it seems, can only do 35mph. and of course it goes without saying that i always manage to get behind the s-l-o-w-e-s-t driver on that road.

then there's always the obvious: my ex-wife.

[wolf]

I don't have one of the damn things. I think they are clunky, too expensive, and annoying in just the way described above.

However, I sometimes have to use one at work. I don't need to carry it, or interact with it much, but we have one in the Commitment Office so we can contact the ambulance crew ... some of them have nextels supplied by the hospital, but the wacker community got them first and so many of them are personal phones of the crew members.

It's bad enough that I have to carry a pager ... but I will not give my employer my cell phone number. I do not need to be THAT available.

Beyond the annoying in public places aspect, the main problem that I have with the Nextel walkie-talkie service is that the sound quality is horrible ... worse than the average cellphone. If you're dealing with someone who ordinarily speaks V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y A-N-D C-L-E-A-R-L-Y you're okay, but foreign accent, or tendency to mumble, forget it.

There are folks that we'll lie to and tell them that the signal is bad, please call on the landline.

There are also folks in my department that the ambulance crew can't understand, so they call on the landline and ask to talk to me, even if it's this other person's case.

[crossfire]

I work at a company that relies on the walkie talkie feature and yes, i believe it is only nextel that does the walkie talkie thing. The advantage of the walkie talkie thing is you don't have to necessarily wait for someone to pick up and call you back, but it is rather annoying, both conversations and the chirps

[Dagney]

Originally Posted by crossfire

I work at a company that relies on the walkie talkie feature and yes, i believe it is only nextel that does the walkie talkie thing. The advantage of the walkie talkie thing is you don't have to necessarily wait for someone to pick up and call you back, but it is rather annoying, both conversations and the chirps

Actually, it's not just Nextel - the patent on the technology is up, and a number of other carriers with GPS/GPRS service are starting to test the technology in certain markets.

So, the chirping phones from hell will be everywhere.

[Roosta]

Well, it was almost written in stone that the first post would be about driving. I hate everything about everybody else when i'm in a car. People who drive slowly, dawdle along in a daydream, take time turning, stop without warning, drive in my tailgate, fog lights in good weather, no signals, lights on full beam, sitting in the middle lane. need I continue?
Oh yeah, and anything to do with banks.

[Troubleshooter]

I'm thinking about getting one of these:



Cell Phone Jammer

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Roosta

Well, it was almost written in stone that the first post would be about driving. I hate everything about everybody else when i'm in a car. People who drive slowly, dawdle along in a daydream, take time turning, stop without warning, drive in my tailgate, fog lights in good weather, no signals, lights on full beam, sitting in the middle lane. need I continue?
Oh yeah, and anything to do with banks.

Try being a pedestrian around cars. All drivers, all of them, including each one of you reading this right now, think that pedestrians have no right to cross the street. Ever. Even in a cross walk with a walk signal in their favor. You will, of course, protest that you yield to pedestrians when you are supposed to. But you don't. You just don't realize it. You do it subconciously.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by glatt

Try being a pedestrian around cars. All drivers, all of them, including each one of you reading this right now, think that pedestrians have no right to cross the street. Ever. Even in a cross walk with a walk signal in their favor. You will, of course, protest that you yield to pedestrians when you are supposed to. But you don't. You just don't realize it. You do it subconciously.

Ahh see, this is where you're wrong. As for me, if they're crossing on the their green or WALK sign, then they can cross as much as they please but they'd better out of the way when it's my turn to move. They can cross the street as much as they like as long as they don't step out in front of my car. However, those who cross in the middle of the block are fair game.

[glatt]

I would respectfully disagree. You do it subconsiously and don't realize you do it. You only stop for a pedestrian if the only alternative is to run them over. If they are trying to cross the street, and are in the crosswalk, but are not directly in front of you, you don't stop for them. Also, if you have a green light, but are turning, and a pedestrian is in the crosswalk with a walk signal, you don't stop for them unless you are about to run over them.

You will disagree. But you are wrong. ALL drivers do this, including you.

Car drivers always force pedestrians into a game of chicken, when the pedestrian will only be yeilded to if a failure to yield to the pedestrian will cause the death of the pedestrian and imprisonment of the driver.

The only exception is when there is a red light for the car. But then the car is stopping for the red light, not for the pedestrian.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by glatt

I would respectfully disagree. You do it subconsiously and don't realize you do it. You only stop for a pedestrian if the only alternative is to run them over. If they are trying to cross the street, and are in the crosswalk, but are not directly in front of you, you don't stop for them. Also, if you have a green light, but are turning, and a pedestrian is in the crosswalk with a walk signal, you don't stop for them unless you are about to run over them.

You will disagree. But you are wrong. ALL drivers do this, including you.

Car drivers always force pedestrians into a game of chicken, when the pedestrian will only be yeilded to if a failure to yield to the pedestrian will cause the death of the pedestrian and imprisonment of the driver.

The only exception is when there is a red light for the car. But then the car is stopping for the red light, not for the pedestrian.

You think what you will. Only I know what's going on in my head.

[flippant]

Originally Posted by glatt

I would respectfully disagree. You do it subconsiously and don't realize you do it. You only stop for a pedestrian if the only alternative is to run them over. If they are trying to cross the street, and are in the crosswalk, but are not directly in front of you, you don't stop for them. Also, if you have a green light, but are turning, and a pedestrian is in the crosswalk with a walk signal, you don't stop for them unless you are about to run over them.

You will disagree. But you are wrong. ALL drivers do this, including you.

Car drivers always force pedestrians into a game of chicken, when the pedestrian will only be yeilded to if a failure to yield to the pedestrian will cause the death of the pedestrian and imprisonment of the driver.

The only exception is when there is a red light for the car. But then the car is stopping for the red light, not for the pedestrian.

I do not even do this subconsciously. I have a basic respect for human life pedestrian or not. I drive slower when there are a lot of pedestrians in the area. In the eyes of the law if you hit them you are at fault. It would feel awful to clip them even if they weren't in a crosswalk. A lot of my car safety comes from riding bicycles, motorbikes, mopeds, and of course being a pedestrian and driver with common sense. Honk Honk. Get off the road.

[OnyxCougar]

Originally Posted by Roosta

fog lights in good weather

My car is manufactured so that I have no choice. If my engine is running and the emergency brake is off, my fog lights are on. So nyah.

[wolf]

Regarding Pedestrian v. Car ...

My sister lives in Rhode Island. Seems that they have a very stern law there about yielding to pedestrians.

No exceptions, harsh penalties.

People will lock up their brakes and get rear ended rather than risk not yielding to a pedestrian.

I was even patiently waiting to cross a street (in the middle, rather than at a crosswalk. I learned to cross streets in Phila, and that's just how it's done) and knew that there was a nice break in traffic coming within about 30-40 seconds. Drivers on BOTH SIDES of the street stopped their cars and waved me across.

I was flabbergasted.

How do they deal with natural selection in that state? Slow stupid walkers survive to breed in that environment ...

Oh, yeah, and the other thing that blew me away ... if you're entering the highway, the people in the right hand land move over or slow down to let you on safely. What is that about? Merging is like a game of chicken, isn't it?

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by wolf

Merging is like a game of chicken, isn't it?

Not if 1) you have a vehicle that will adequately accelerate and 2) you know how to merge.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people (around here at least) simply don't know how, and figure merging onto highway traffic that's going highway speed or faster involves slowing down in the acceleration lane, which does nothing but force the people behind you who are speeding up to slam on their brakes and possibly swerve into the highway traffic at inadequate speed. Obvious exception is when there's gridlock and no one is moving very fast.

As for me, I am at or above posted highway speed and on the highway itself long before the acceleration lane ends. It's not difficult. Really it's not.

[jinx]

Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf

acceleration lane

Ha! Acceleration lanes are for pussies.