I *tried* to be nice...

[vifferman]

... but at the end of the day, I'm just a coont.

I started off my morning communtering nicely - riding only a tad (metric, of course) above the limit, not passing cars just because they were in front of me, obeying the LAW, etc etc., but then I ended up behind a wee traffic snail-up, and Ms Blondie-Bimbo.
Hmmmmm.... driving's just a little erratic... she's on the cellphone!
Then fook me, she hangs up, and makes another call!
So, I pull alongside her.
I give her a look. Kinda an inscrutable look, or an impenetrable stare, as I'm wearing my tinted visor.
I pull in front, and look back at her (inscrutable, impenetrable, kinda enigmatic, etc).
Our eyes meet. (Well... I see in her eyes she's now focused on me, which is more acknowledgement than I usually get).

She transforms: Young, well made up Blondie Professional Working Gurrrll becomes Animated, Angry, Ugly-Faced "Don't Piss Me Off!!" Woman.
Uh-oh...
She starts waving her arms around (somehow still driving, still talking on her CellularMobileTelephoningDevice) and yelling at me (well... I guess in effect it's at the person in the phone). I think she said (she had good diction): "What? What's your problem?!?"
I carry on riding.

At the trafficking lights, the light is red.
Then green.
Oops.
Mischiefman accidentally doesn't notice the light is green, for maybe 5 or 6 seconds, making Cellphoner even more agitated (cue more arm waving, more yelling into her phone, etc.) "What? WHAT?!?!"

So.

There's now some woman somewhere who's had a bad start to her day, and who now hates motorbicyclists. Well... one, at least.

On the subject of arseholes... er.. I mean, cellphoners.
T'other day, I saw summat representative of the general stupidity of The Motoring Public. (NO - not those who deliberately piss other motorists off; the other ones). A woman talking on her cellphone. Not so strange, but what I couldn't understand was she's talking on her phone, driving out of a driveway, from where she'd just left. And of course, having trouble with driving, indicating, turning, negotiating traffic, etc.
Why not just complete her call, then drive off? :spudwhat:
It just shows you how little attention and importance people place on the business of driving. Some even treat it as some kind of a game...

[Blue Velvet]

... but at the end of the day, I'm just a coont.

I got called a 'fucking wanker' when splitting past traffic north of Wellington on Sunday. I hope man felt stink when he realised I was a hot ant in leathers, who waved politely at the car in front of him for moving over

But probably not. He looked like an angry man. Angry men in shitty utes are not FTW.

[Ocean1]

Why not just complete her call, then drive off? :spudwhat:

Multi-tasking dude. They're good at it, perfectly capable of calling the boss to explain they'll be late because the nail polish cap was welded on agaaiiin, tuning the rajo onto the morning channel, ('cause we don't like that smarmy bitch on the evening channel in the morning), aaannd nonchalantly cutting up the Viffer with a perfectly executed feint-right-dummy-left-indicate-swerve-right-pause-dive-back-left-again. You’re just jealous.

I got called a 'fucking wanker' when splitting past traffic north of Wellington on Sunday. I hope man felt stink when he realised I was a hot ant in leathers, who waved politely at the car in front of him for moving over

Give him the benefit of the doubt, probably didn’t spot the extra legs, easy mistake to make.

How much extra did Quasi charge for the leathers?

[90s]

Yesterday splitting down Rata rd and a truck on the dual lane part came to a halt - driver waving cars down out the window - because he wanted to let a car onto the road from a driveway.
This created a dangerous situation (for the other confused cars, not just those filtering through), and as I filtered by I reminded him he was not a traffic cop entitled to direct traffic.
Cue him giving me loads of abuse, the old dangerous fool. I am all for courteous driving (as I imagine he thought he was doing), but talk about a limited view of situations.

[BiK3RChiK]

More reasons to ban cellphones while driving IMO! Damn things! A girl was texting on her phone here last year and killed herself and seriously injured her boyfriend because she drove straight into a trailer parked on the side of the road!! Why don't they ban the bloody things for drivers?

Rant over..

M

[jrandom]

a hot ant in leathers

Try unzipping them for a cooling breeze.

[martybabe]

I got called a 'fucking wanker' when splitting past traffic north of Wellington on Sunday. I hope man felt stink when he realised I was a hot ant in leathers, who waved politely at the car in front of him for moving over

But probably not. He looked like an angry man. Angry men in shitty utes are not FTW.

Oh god,I've killed millions of ants this summer, I do hope they weren't family babe.

[QUOTE=BiK3RChiK;1445937]More reasons to ban cellphones while driving IMO! Damn things! A girl was texting on her phone here last year and killed herself and seriously injured her boyfriend because she drove straight into a trailer parked on the side of the road!! Why don't they ban the bloody things for drivers?

Rant over..

M[/QUOTE

Rant continued......There just is no excuse for it, whilst I hate legislation gone mad ,nanny states,using cell phones and driving is stupid and farkin dangerous, ban them like the uk have.

[steveb64]

More reasons to ban cellphones while driving IMO! Damn things! A girl was texting on her phone here last year and killed herself and seriously injured her boyfriend because she drove straight into a trailer parked on the side of the road!! Why don't they ban the bloody things for drivers?

Rant over..

M

Now THAT was a perfect example of Evolution in Action!

[Swoop]

Rant continued......There just is no excuse for it, whilst I hate legislation gone mad ,nanny states,using cell phones and driving is stupid and farkin dangerous, ban them like the uk have.

I believe that in the UK, even though this legislation is in place, the culture is still continuing. (Bikern1mpho - can you shed any light on this?)
Trying to make that happen here would be just as bad. Our lawmakers and enforcers are unable to stop the red-light runners, who pose an even greater safety threat, so this would also be ignored.

[vifferman]

Our lawmakers and enforcers are unable to stop the red-light runners, who pose an even greater safety threat, so this would also be ignored.

"Unable to"?
Probably more like "unwilling to".
Speeders are easier to catch.
I'd imagine as far as cellphone use goes, that if a cellphone user was involved in a crash they might get prosecuted if the polis were involved.

The bottom line is, all this crap (running red lights, using cellphones to the detriment of your driving, not indicating, not giving way, etc etc) all boils down to bad habits caused by bad attitudes. That's not going to change until there's a massive culture change in the Gummint's programme to reduce accidents, from imposing punitive measures (i.e., focusing on enforcement) to educating instead. The trouble is, education may be one of the Gummint's prongs (Education, Engineering, Enforcement), but it's entirely an expense, no revenue gathered. Which is stupid, given all the revenue they've sucked out of motorists in the form of road taxes and GST.

However, the bottom line is that if WE want things to get better, it starts with US taking personal responsibility. That's kinda why I posted this thread. I've been trying lately to be more self-analytical, and change bad habits and attitudes I've developed, many of them from 8 years of living in D'Auckland. Let me tellya: it's bloody hard.

Like in the weekend, I drove down to Roundabouta (formerly known as Tauranga). I mostly behaved on the road, observing speed limits, being courteous, etc. But like this morning, my resolve was somewhat short-lived when I experienced too much fuckwittery on the road: people not indicating, following too closely (one dick in a 4WD was 2m behind me at 100km/h, in the wet, trying to intimidate me into pulling over), or being very discourteous (the idiot in the car with trailer, who insisted on slowly passing a vehicle doing 90km/h, so I couldn't get past either of them; the dork driving the empty bus, who had numerous opportunities to pull over, but insisted on driving at 85km/h on 5km of winding road).

Still, a minor blip, I hope.
I've found so far that it's more relaxing and safer driving courteously, with consideration for others, and not being impatient when confronted by others who can't do the same.

[jrandom]

I've found so far that it's more relaxing and safer driving courteously, with consideration for others, and not being impatient when confronted by others who can't do the same.

I find that driving stoned helps immensely with that.

[BOGAR]

Like in the weekend, I drove down to Roundabouta (formerly known as Turing). I mostly behaved on the road, observing speed limits, being courteous, etc. But like this morning, my resolve was somewhat short-lived when I experienced too much fuckwittery on the road: people not indicating, following too closely (one dick in a 4WD was 2m behind me at 100km/h, in the wet, trying to intimidate me into pulling over), or being very discourteous (the idiot in the car with trailer, who insisted on slowly passing a vehicle doing 90km/h, so I couldn't get past either of them; the dork driving the empty bus, who had numerous opportunities to pull over, but insisted on driving at 85km/h on 5km of winding road).

Still, a minor blip, I hope.
I've found so far that it's more relaxing and safer driving courteously, with consideration for others, and not being impatient when confronted by others who can't do the same.

I *try* to be nice too. The way i look at it is to try and break as few rules as possible. Just because i occasionally creep over 100 doesn't mean i need to break all the other rules. So driving with consideration gets you far but there is a limit and when thats reached i think it is better just to put some distance between you and the f wit causing you the trouble.
but not being in a rush is a good way to go.

[007XX]

Multi-tasking dude. They're good at it, perfectly capable of calling the boss to explain they'll be late because the nail polish cap was welded on agaaiiin, tuning the rajo onto the morning channel, ('cause we don't like that smarmy bitch on the evening channel in the morning), aaannd nonchalantly cutting up the Viffer with a perfectly executed feint-right-dummy-left-indicate-swerve-right-pause-dive-back-left-again. You’re just jealous.

I officially resign as a member of the feminine specie if that's how I'm supposed to be to fit in.

[Fatjim]

Like in the weekend, I drove down to Roundabouta (formerly known as Tauranga). I mostly behaved on the road, observing speed limits, being courteous, etc. But like this morning, my resolve was somewhat short-lived when I experienced too much fuckwittery on the road: people not indicating, following too closely (one dick in a 4WD was 2m behind me at 100km/h, in the wet, trying to intimidate me into pulling over), or being very discourteous (the idiot in the car with trailer, who insisted on slowly passing a vehicle doing 90km/h, so I couldn't get past either of them; the dork driving the empty bus, who had numerous opportunities to pull over, but insisted on driving at 85km/h on 5km of winding road).

Surely one benefit of motorbycycling is that fuckwittery is only observerd as you fly past on one wheel giving the bird. (so I've heard).

[YellowDog]

I believe that in the UK, even though this legislation is in place, the culture is still continuing. (Bikern1mpho - can you shed any light on this?)
Trying to make that happen here would be just as bad. Our lawmakers and enforcers are unable to stop the red-light runners, who pose an even greater safety threat, so this would also be ignored.

I can vouch that in the UK, cops take great pleasure in stopping you for using your phone. And if you really drive badly, they can also do you for driving without due care and attention; which is pretty serious.

The difference between NZ & UK is that if you break the law here, the cops see it as a source of revenue. In the UK, they can really hurt you with penalty points and a driving bad. You get penalty points for everything and it doesn't take many to lose your licence.

If the NZ penalties were more than just a fine, prople would take the laws more seriously.

I HAVE A BIG PROBLEM WITH DOSEY CAR DRIVERS on MOBILE PHONES.