Dear driver behind me
Just so you know, driving really close behind me doesn't make me want to go faster, so that you can get where you want to be so very quickly.
In fact, it has quite the opposite effect.
Monday, February 27, 2006
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13 comments:
Hey Martha, o/t, but I thought I'd mention - I just saw the Bats play a great set at the Auckland Uni quad.
I just hate tailgaters.
Cunning tip
At an appropriate moment, just touch the brake pedal enough to trigger the brake lights, while actually accelerating.
Can be great fun.
The problem is that they're trying to see if you're someone famous or not. Just stop in the middle of the lane, hop out and autograph their car.
Driving here does scare me. Having spent many years racing around the M25 and other "proper" motorways I thought I could handle little old Johnsonville - Nah. "Trying to get into traffic are you? Bite me!" this is usually from a 50ish otherwise respectable member of society who behind the wheel turns into a monster....
My dad complains about other drivers. But at least he has the excuse that he is in his 70s.
Why not just drive faster?
Jessie, I told them you liked it and they seemed very pleased.
Violet - tailgaters! That is the term I was after.
Doddery, love it. I'll try it next time.
Susan, I think you're right. And maybe one day I will be, so they're not necessarily wasting their time (cough).
Sir Reasonable. I hate it. It isn't just boy racers that are crap, it is everybody. For instance, NOBODY knows to stay out of intersections, drives me mad.
And David. What a fantastic idea! Why didn't I think of it? I could get everywhere moments faster, and in the extra time earn some money to pay all the speeding tickets.
I do know of someone who had a trailer on the back and was being tailgated. He touched the break pedal too hard and the car behind when right into the back of him.
Have been on a trip from Palmy to Welly where we did it several times very firmly and the woman still kept tailgating! Crazy.
NZ drivers just aren't as courteous as they are overseas. We put “merge like a zipper” signs up and people still don't get it, or don't seem to care.
Moments faster? Auckland to Wellington takes 6 hours at a constant 100km/hr. Probably more like 8 with all the substandard road sections and small towns you drive through rather than bypass. At 140km/hr it would take 4.2 hours. And at 200km/hr, which you can quite happily do on an autobahn or a lawless Italian autostada, you'd be there in 3 hours. That's 10 hours you'd save on a round trip.
True. However the trip I was particularly irked by was along Cuba St between Alicetown and Petone, and the car in front of me didn't allow much movement either.
Funny thing though, found myself tailgating a person along Jackson St last night. They were only travelling at 20 kms though, which is kind of annoying in anyones book.
Just a thought, Martha. I understand you're probably well over this now, but I'll add the old two cents worth anyway. Last June, my father was ill in hospital. I got a phonecall that he had arrested, and I should get there as soon as possible. I live in Mt Eden, the hospital's in Takapuna/Milford - just a wee trip over the Harbour Bridge, and at 8pm at night, so it shouldn't have been too arduous. So here I am making my way up Mt Eden Rd, anxious as hell and screaming inside because my beloved, adored dad is quite possibly dying (and indeed was to do so, a week later), and there is a lovely man in front of me who refused to pull over and let me past. I didn't beep or make rude gestures, but I was swearing mightily, and it did cross my mind to pull of one of those heroic manoeuvres they do in the movies where you stop the person in the car in front with much swerving and determination. But I didn't. If I had have, I would have told him that sometimes the person in a hurry behind you isn't a speed hog but may just be on their way to a situation where two minutes or five or ten may make the difference between them getting to say goodbye to a dying father, and not. Thankyou person in front of me going 40K, my Dad just died, and I wasn't there, because you decided to hog the road. Long reply, terribly sorry, not at all making any inference that that was what you were doing at all. As it happened, my father didn't die that night. He died a beautiful death a few days later. But still.
Thanks Jackie, I did think of that possibility, and checked for signs of labour pains etc!
And I managed to refrain from obscene gestures... but without making awful generalisations, sometimes you just know that someone is a bogan motherfucker.
Oh yes indeed, you do!
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