I'm currently driving a Ford Explorer, which I think has tempered me somewhat. I used to drive a Mustang (and I'd like to again someday) and that
tended to encourage my lead foot.
But around here, I'd almost consider having a lead foot a survival trait.
I know all about the faster = crazy, slower = idiot "equation".
I'd add that for where I live and drive, if all the people around me are doing the same speed, I get paranoid - "Get me OUT of here!"
Around Dallas/Fort Worth, the drivers are STUPENDOUSLY BAD. It didn't used to be this way. It really didn't. 25 years ago or so, you'd actually see
people politely waving other people ahead, hanging back to let people from the on-ramp onto the freeway. Signaling turns. Just generally being decent and even
polite if not expert drivers.
Not anymore. Putting on your turn signal in this town anymore is considered an invitation for the guy behind you in the other lane to SPEED UP to cut you off!
As if you pulling ahead of him WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY AHEAD OF HIM is an affront!
Speed limits are either treated as suggestions only or enforced ruthlessly. Figuring out which area is which is absolutely a non-trivial aspect of life around
here.
I'd be more upset with all the damn traffic light cameras and the implications of same if they weren't ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO KEEP THE MORONS FROM
SMASHING INTO EACH OTHER.
I blame emigration and immigration, of the legal and illegal types both. North-easterners from incredibly aggressive and hellish places to drive like New
Jersey/New York, clashing with the more laid-back, but still lead-footed ways of Texas natives, and then layer that with illegal immigrants who barely know the
rules of the road at all...
Oh yeah, it's always an adventure around here.
tended to encourage my lead foot.
But around here, I'd almost consider having a lead foot a survival trait.
I know all about the faster = crazy, slower = idiot "equation".
I'd add that for where I live and drive, if all the people around me are doing the same speed, I get paranoid - "Get me OUT of here!"
Around Dallas/Fort Worth, the drivers are STUPENDOUSLY BAD. It didn't used to be this way. It really didn't. 25 years ago or so, you'd actually see
people politely waving other people ahead, hanging back to let people from the on-ramp onto the freeway. Signaling turns. Just generally being decent and even
polite if not expert drivers.
Not anymore. Putting on your turn signal in this town anymore is considered an invitation for the guy behind you in the other lane to SPEED UP to cut you off!
As if you pulling ahead of him WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY AHEAD OF HIM is an affront!
Speed limits are either treated as suggestions only or enforced ruthlessly. Figuring out which area is which is absolutely a non-trivial aspect of life around
here.
I'd be more upset with all the damn traffic light cameras and the implications of same if they weren't ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO KEEP THE MORONS FROM
SMASHING INTO EACH OTHER.
I blame emigration and immigration, of the legal and illegal types both. North-easterners from incredibly aggressive and hellish places to drive like New
Jersey/New York, clashing with the more laid-back, but still lead-footed ways of Texas natives, and then layer that with illegal immigrants who barely know the
rules of the road at all...
Oh yeah, it's always an adventure around here.