More Angle Parking Pet Peeves...

Ever notice that in most newer (or just recently remodelled) stores that there are handicap parking spaces that are rectangular (running normal with the flow of traffic) with hash marks (\\\\\\\\\\) besides it, before moving into traditional angled parking spaces?

Also, ever notice how many morons PARK right over those hash marks?

HELLO, it's ILLEGAL!

Those hash marks delineate a NO PARKING zone!

Those are specially designed parking spaces for wheelchair lift-equipped vans, which REQUIRE 10 feet of clearance behind them to allow the handicapped guest to enter or exit the van.

Contrary to the opinion of many people who TRY (and failing, I might add) to "rationalize" (do I sense some "sour grapes," as Aesop would say?) their illegal parking, "Well, if such and such store/shopping mall didn't draw the lines that way and did all angled parking, there'd be easily another 4 or 5 parking spaces for us with disabled parking placards."

Do you think such and such store or shopping mall did it to inconveniece YOU?

Are you really that fucking arrogant, self-centered, and egotistic to believe that the world revolves around YOU?

No, they place them there because it's the LAW.

Those parking spaces are required by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Any newly built or significantly remodelled business in the past few years MUST have those spaces OR they will NOT get their business plans approved by the appropriate municipalities.

Yet, EVERY day, I see it and can only shake my head.

If only my employer would let me call the cops on the morons.

They say it's not their job to monitor parking lot compliance.

::shakes head some more::

If they get ticketed for illegal parking, they'll think twice before doing it again.

Finally!! We have proof for the "law of diminishing returns"...

Just witness the continuous dumbing down of the American populace, between people that don't know how to drive the right way down a one way to George W. Bush to John McCain (for actually thinking that 4 more years of Bush's failed policies was a good idea) to Sarah Palin to the "standards" (coughcoughyeahcoughcoughrightcoughcough) of public education to the Stella Award namestake (Your Honour, I thought coffee was to be served COLD... you mean, it's not?) to ... ad infinitum.

You get the point.

I hope.

I can't be convinced.

Can I?

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Tell me, why is it so goddamn difficult for people to turn ON their headlights when visibility is poor, even though the law REQUIRES it? I drove over 50 miles home today from the golf course and I lost track of how many people I had to flash my high beams at to try to turn their headlights on after I had hit 90 and I was barely 2/3rds of the way home!

Honestly, it's completely overcast, the clouds are 90% atramental in coloration, do you TRULY feel that EVERYONE on the road, YOURSELF included, have PERFECT visibility?

If you are honest and admit that people don't, then why is it so goddamn hard for you to turn them on?

If you honestly think everyone has perfect visibility, are you delusional and/or on drugs?

Sheesh!!!

More traffic pet peeves

1) The idiot who thinks they are too important to wait for you at an all-way stop sign even though you were already not only there but already stopped. I was JUST about to go (as it WAS my turn to go) when I realized that this moron had absolutely NO intentions of even slowing down, let alone stopping. Just what does he think "STOP" means, anyways? Oh, I get, everyone ELSE stops but me, right? Fucking crackhead. Try to tell THAT to the judge. He's damn lucky I didn't get his fucking license plate.

2) The idiot who thinks I should disobey a cop's traffic directions. The officer was directing traffic last week as I left a sporting event and held his hand up towards me to stop, but the asswipe behind kept laying on his horn for me to go. "Yes, Your Honor, I know the officer said to stop, but Mr. Impatient here behind me said I needed to go, so I went." How well do you think THAT would go over?!

Just to clarify something to both of the impatient fuckers referenced in each of the aforementioned incidents: I am NOT a slow driver, so if you think I'm delibrately slowing you down or I would if you don't run the stop sign to get in front of me, you're delusional.

Other traffic pet peeves

1) People, for crying the hell out loud, use your fucking turn signals! They are NOT an ornament hanging off of your steering column. They are MANDATED by law in all 50 US states, all 10 Canadian provinces, and in most countries, regardless of which side of the road you drive on.

2) Also, headlights are to be used whenever ANY one on the road might have visibility issues. Some states (including this one) actually require them any time visibility is 'less than perfect'. That means: is it raining? Turn on your headlights. Is it snowing? Turn on your headlights. Is is sunrise or sunset? Turn on your headlights. Are you approaching a hill where you can't see more than 50 feet in front of you? Turn on your headlights. So on and on forth.

3) People who do not know how to drive in an angled parking lot. They are designed for you to pull forward into the FIRST spot, not all the way through and for you to BACK out of. Furthermore, too many people seem to have a fetish for driving the WRONG way down one. It's very simple, if you are looking at an aisle and wondering if you can proceed or if traffic is coming against you, check the angles.

\\ // = you have the right of way down this aisle.

// \\ = wrong way, go to the next aisle

// // = bidirectional, you drive down the right hand side and pull in to a spot on the right hand side of the aisle

Are there any questions?

If any of those 3 things are too damn difficult to understand and to DO, then for the love of all the Gods, run (do NOT walk) to your nearest Secretary of State, Department of Motor Vehicles, or whatever else it's called in your governmental entity and voluntarily surrender your driver's license as you are apparently not intelligent enough to be trusted with one.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Cloverleaf ramps to enter an expressway: an idea whose time has past?

Ever happen to you? You're on a frigging cloverleaf ramp exiting off some road on to an expressway and get behind a semi (who HAS to be cautious) or some overly cautious driver who drives a mere 20-25 mph on the loop when the acceleration lane to merge into the expressway is rather short and you MUST be up to 55 mph, MINIMUM, per state law before you merge (barring inclement weather, of course), what do you do? Blow up your engine trying to accelerate hopelessly fast or merge into traffic at 35 and pray you don't get killed? (You know, there IS a reason they set a minimum. It's not just there for the fucking hell of it.)

So what is y'all take on this? As I see the issue, there's only a few possible solutions:

1) Deem cloverleaf ramps to be unsafe and pass a law against them for new construction (since 'ex post facto' laws are forbidden by the Constitution) and then go back and retrofit all of the dangerous previously existing ones?

2) Lengthen the acceleration lanes coming into the expressway to allow for a more sensible rate of acceleration?

3) Widen the cloverleaf by having a turn then a reasonable straightaway to accelerate with a very gradual turn to the acceleration lane?

4) Declare that the cloverleaf is a better alternative than to turn left across a busy road (which can be mitigated with traffic signals, mind you) or to do what is often called a "Michigan left" whereas you either (depending on the situation), turn right or go straight to turn left via an approved U-turn lane?

Keep in mind that should you choose number 4, that you need to convince me that traffic signals and a "Michigan left" are MORE unsafe than a cloverleaf.

::Snorts::

Good luck on that one!