Encountering a Puna road-rage driver

[ericlp]

whenever I encounter nut cases with road rage ...that they want to force me off the road to have a conversation about it, I just open up the trunk and pull out the spear gun. They happily get back to be on their way.

[Chas]

quote:

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Originally posted by HereOnThePrimalEdge

"...compared to the east coast the people in Chicago are sooo nice!"

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Being from the east coast, I agree. In general, it seems the further west you go, the nicer the people are. Then you get to Hawaii, which is the bestest place ever! [8D][8D][8D]

[randomq]

Three times now in Hilo, I have pulled into a parking lot with backed up traffic, and noticed everyone pulling around what appears to be a running vehicle in the middle of a lane. Each time it has been a middle aged but seemingly petrified Japanese woman clutching the steering wheel and staring straight ahead avoiding eye contact or communication...

"Are you ok? Need a push?"

(Silence, knuckles white on steering wheel)

What am I witnessing? Is this a common occurrence?

[ElysianWort]

I like the bravery Eric. Will probably work well for most until they encounter a nut like Oahu's Mark Charr who is ready to take the driving argument to the next level and puncture someones body with a shiv. Chas: yes Hawaii people are nice but we lead the nation in road rage. Crazy. I think that stat is boosted by Oahu and it's nightmare traffic. Randomq: I've seen those ladies too. Poor timid creatures. So much aggression out there. They usually do something to irk the drivers though like create a moving road-block with the person in the next lane, or drive 45 in the left lane from Keaau to Hilo.

[Eric1600]

quote:

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Originally posted by ElysianWort

I agree with you Eric. It would be better if the left lane was only used for passing then people go back into the right. Just couldn't watch the whole video at the time. That may lessen the road rage. It'll never happen though. The left lane thing.

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There are countries where it works great, but mostly in Europe where it is strictly enforced. In fact many Europeans refuse to pass people on the right. They will slow down and try to get the person out of the left lane (usually a foreign driver) and then move to pass them on left. It makes traffic run really smoothly. You approach someone from behind in the left lane and they immediately search for a spot to get out of your way and it prevents those looky-loo type backups where everything slows down for no reason then speeds up again.

[Eric1600]

quote:

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Originally posted by terracore

...I have a theory.

As far as traffic enforcement goes, the police only enforce the speeding laws. There could be somebody driving 25MPH in the left lane on the highway and the cop will go around them instead of pulling them over. Don't use a turn signal? I think they assume the light is out and it will be fixed within the year so they can get a safety sticker, no reason to pull them over. We have these suicide lanes to get onto the highway from the subdivisions and when somebody doesn't use their blinker getting off the highway the person trying to get on has no idea what they are doing. Headlight out? Tail light out? Nobody ever gets pulled over for that because the safety check will take care of it. On the mainland that's how many of the alcohol/drug/impaired driving busts are made. It's "normal" here for 3-4 people to turn left on a red light. In some intersections (Leilani in Hilo for example) it's 5-6 every time. It's not a secret... if they wanted to give 100 tickets a day, there's a place to do it. Instead they pull people over for driving 6 MPH over the speed limit where's safe to do so. As usual, JMHO.

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On Oahu I find the drivers are particularly oblivious. I often imagine their driving strategy to be, "Hey! Watch out for where I'm going!" Followed by random unsignaled lane changes, sudden stopping in the left lane to let someone turn across two active traffic lanes often causing a collision in the right lane and in general not going with the flow of traffic. I've even seen the cops do it.

Here the biggest problem here (besides lack of signals) is people don't seem to know how to merge or get out of the way if they want to drive slowly.

I agree. On both islands I've seen cops completely ignore really bad drivers. Yet I've had them stop me for jaywalking on an empty street, give my friend a ticket for riding a bike for 1 block on the sidewalk where the bike lane quit in the business district.

Even in the Puna roundabout no one signals (even the cops), when it is a law and would be very helpful to know if you're exiting the circle or not.

[kimo wires]

Drivers turning left from Hwy 11 to Hwy 130 get in the left lane in Hilo in preparation to make the turn. And don't even go the speed limit a lot of the time.
Never see them look in their mirror.
Meanwhile car after car passes them on the right.
SMH

[terracore]

There are public service announcements every year including on the radio and the big lit signs on the highway for the annual "click it or ticket" campaign and they give a ton of tickets for not wearing a seat belt. Would it kill them to use 5 seconds of the air time to remind "slower drivers keep right...it's the LAW" ?

[TomK]

"There are public service announcements every year including on the radio and the big lit signs on the highway for the annual "click it or ticket" campaign and they give a ton of tickets for not wearing a seat belt. Would it kill them to use 5 seconds of the air time to remind "slower drivers keep right...it's the LAW" ?"

I can't think of anything I have agreed with more.

[TomK]

If only this could happen here:

https://youtu.be/LZhdvl_P1Zc

Suggest you mute your speakers, the couple taking the video are almost as annoying as the slowpoke.

And there is this:

https://youtu.be/9JrEf3-O2s8