h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I find a 50 Cal is excellent for keeping the peace

I suppose so. We built a root cellar/tornado shelter out by the barn. I have the mound of dirt that covers it beautifully landscaped. Jim wants to put a machine gun nest up on top, complete with sandbags and a model 50 cal. We may just do it. Probably scare the h*ll out of the neighbors, but, oh well.

Traveller in Time on his head
"You are only going to need some extra licence < A4113866 >


Still need to use the indicators though. "

An M16 means never having to say you're sorry.

I thought that was a sidewinder...

Just wanted to mention the exact same thing happens in Cambridge, MA, US where I used to live all the time.

I was riding with a friend not 2 weeks ago, a girl starts pulling out slowly into the road, without ever looking at us. My friend at first assumed she was just adjusting trying to parallel park. But I realized that wasn't the case and got my friend to hit the brakes in time to avoid a collision.

The other driver never once looked over her shoulder, didn't have blinker on - nothing to indicate she was pulling out.

I actually feel safer biking in the less congested, but higher speed limit roads in my current area of suburban Maryland, than in congested/slower Boston/Cambridge.

The most dangerous people around here, surprisingly, are the buses. When I'm on my bicycle, they will routinely rush around me, then slam on the brakes to make their stop. This has happened countless times...

I don't think the bus driver is being selfish, just sloppy/careless and on a timetable...

What really nips my , are drivers that think indicating means they don't have to look. On a motorway, overtaking a line of traffic some indicates just as you reach her bumper and pulls out at the same instant !!

Re the driver's licence thing..........

My friend has been driving in Israel for nearly twenty years.
She moved here 18 months ago and was allowed to drive in the UK for a year on some sort of Visitor's Licence.
For the last six months she's been back on a provisional licence and can't drive unless a suitably qualified person sits in the car with her. Now she has to sit the written and practical tests to get a full UK licence.
Bit daft really.

And that non-signalling thing..........



My husband is one of the worst for signalling late. He uses the indicator as if it's a gadget to make the car turn a corner - not as an indication of his intentions so other drivers/pedestrians/cyclists/bikers can see what he's up to.

"You are only going to need some extra licence " I don't believe I mentioned tracks, just the rocket launcher. A military humvee (not that idiotic piece of cr*ap called the Hummer produced by General Motors) has rocket launchers and 50 cal machine guns as options. Then when I got really annoyed I could just drive over the personin my way after I trashed them with the machine gun. Did I say I was a pacifist?

One weapon which can be deployed against the adjacent mobile phone users is a 30 second burst on a pair of very loud air horns - builds up their adrenalin levels no end!

Novo

http://www.rootburn.com/pics/rockets.jpg
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/186500/186726rwYV_w.jpg

That second link is broken.

I believe Dave Barry proposed, in the 1980s, that drivers who had exhibited a certain level of maturity (such as himself) would be allowed to fir atomic land torpedos to their cars in order to eliminate bad drivers permanently.

Lately, I've been using my middle finger as a weapon against those who don't indicate. So far, results are disappointing.

Oh, what I wouldn't give for a loud noise to kill, er, bring attention to mobile users that they should not be talking on them while driving...

Proposal: All new cars muct be fitted with a small mobile interference device, such as they use at concerts to stop people broadcasting the gig to their unpaying friends. This thing would be automatically activated while the motor is running, and would stop people talking on mobiles while driving.

Now, if only there could be some sort of wheel lock mechanism that could only be undone by activating the relevant indicator...

I always liked the idea that a 12 inch iron spike be fitted to windscreens, facing inwards 2 inches from the driver's head. That might provoke safer driving

I fail to understand why people get so wound up about others driving habits. If *you* are driving correctly, then you don't need the assistance of another drivers indicators to enlighten you as to what they may do any more than you need them to have working brake lights. What you are saying is that their driving is not up to your standard. So what? That makes you superior - get over it.

<> Apollyon

<> TiT

Sorry guys, but total tosh. All this demonstrates is your prejudice towards others lifestyle choices or envy at their 'status'. I don't know of any statistics that indicate that above middle class SUV drivers have worse driving habits that anyone else.

For those of you driving in the UK, think yourselves lucky. A report last week (sorry haven't got the source) showed that the UK's roads are the safest in the world, with less deaths per ca-pita. You'll never eliminate all accidents, but around 5000 deaths a year in a population of 60 million is pretty good. A tiny percentage, if any, of these deaths will be solely attributable to lack of indicator use. We all know that most deaths are caused by other factors.

<> SWL

Couldn't agree more. I considered myself an excellent driver during 15 years of UK driving. No accidents, no convictions and always attempting to drive to the best of my ability. Now I'm in Portugal, I still drive defensively, but I find myself more and more driving like the locals. Indicator use stamps 'tourist' on my forehead and makes them even more determined to cut me up or overtake on blind bends while out of their heads on Super Bock. Driving standards need to be rigorously reinforced with offenders regularly fined in order to keep them high. The only way people learn is to hit them in their pockets. The UK authorities do that fairly well.

<> Whisky

I think that comes about from the requirement for driving licenses to correctly show your current address. The DVLA will not issue a license to an address in another country, so your only course of action is to change the license to the prescribed form in your country of residence.

If *you* are driving correctly, then you don't need the assistance of another drivers indicators to enlighten you as to what they may do any more than you need them to have working brake lights.

Tosh! Total Tosh!!! So you're in favor of no car inspections or any warnings TOSH!!!!!

Traveller in Time on his bicycle
"Well, ther is something in it, I know what other cars are going to do even before they take the most stupid actions. It is sometimes like I also drive 'the other cars'.

And the 'above middle class' is _not_ a prejudice, it is a confirmed observation from way before I drove. Some of my friends had the habit of car spotting, counting the number and brand of cars. I joined them often watching cars on a crossing and at first we were confused by the number of broken lights, later finding out the more expensive a car is the more often the indicator lights seem to fail. "

"That second link is broken."

For some reason, the BBC's Go server is refusing to redirect it. If you (a) click on the link and then delete all the BBC gunk or (b) copy and paste the URL into your address bar, it will work.

It's a picture of a car with a turbo motor attached to the roof.

The other image is funnier.

TRiG.

Apollyon: "Predictably, SUVs are the aorts offenders for lack of indicator use."

TiT: "Observing not signalling vehicles it occurs to me most are at least above middle class."

DDD: "Sorry guys, but total tosh. All this demonstrates is your prejudice towards others lifestyle choices or envy at their 'status'. I don't know of any statistics that indicate that above middle class SUV drivers have worse driving habits that anyone else."

They were both offering personal observations, not general rules.

Can't say I've noticed that trend myself.

TRiG.

If *you* are driving correctly, then you don't need the assistance of another drivers indicators to enlighten you as to what they may do any more than you need them to have working brake lights.

Tosh, total tosh! I can be driving totally correctly and if some bozo in the oncoming traffic decides to make a left turn in front of me without signalling I may t-bone him despite all my precautions.

I don't believe I am envious of other people's lifestyle choices, and my observation is that the SUV driver becomes callous and arrogant in driving style probably because they feel invulnerable.

There are rules. If you're going to turn either to the right or left, then you indicate this.

It's not even a question of good/bad manners. If you'd failed to do this during your driving exam you would have failed it.

But somehow it seems okay to some people to think what they'd been taught during their driving lessons is a matter of personal choice once they have their license.

I once had a job driving nine hours a day in Winnipeg, Canada during the winter as a courier ... I learned just how important driver courtesy is, and also how important it is for drivers to know how to drive in inclement weather. After six months of driving all day there was nothing you could tell me about anything ... I'd already done it a million times. And the main thing I learned was driver courtesy ... me and the taxi drivers had it down. And other professional drivers. For example, bus drivers often gave me right of way to pass and I would wave to them. But so many of the idiots out there were such accidents waiting to happen - made me reel sometimes.

az

I agree wholeheartedly with Az. Except ...

"For example, bus drivers often gave me right of way to pass "

Where?When?Who?

Bus drivers are the enemy. Never ever let a bus pull out. They've got their own lanes so sod off into them.