Question of the Day: What Grinds Your Gears?
I know the fat dude on Family Guy coined the term, and Berkowitz adopted it, but man– did this dude grind my gears yesterday. Many of the freeways in Los Angeles have traffic lights at their entrances. This is a very well thought out system to temporarily delay you from getting stuck in traffic. I mean, 10 seconds at a red light beats sitting in traffic (somehow) right? And many of these very same freeways have carpool entrance lanes. This means that if their are two of you in the car, you can bypass the red light and get stuck in traffic immediately. See, that's progressive. Anyhow, today I'm getting on the 134 in Glendale and even though there isn't any traffic, I have to wait for the light. Clocking my rearview I notice the white white Honda Civic with exactly one passenger in it is going around me on the right in the carpool lane. Solo. As my bile is building — I don't like cheaters — I notice when he passes me his car is slathered with yellow High Occupancy Lane access stickers. It's a fragging hybrid! That's right, if you drive a Prius-like vehicle you can bop along in the carpool lane all by your lonesome while the rest of us sit still. But here's my point — I don't care how good your city mileage is, a hybrid under hard acceleration getting on a freeway is going to make as much pollution as my car. Probably more, as its puny NA engine is going to have to work harder to schlep the extra battery weight. Thanks for always thinking ahead, California! And am I weird for being more upset that a hybrid was essentially able to cheat it's way in front of me legally than if the putz had just broken the law and ran the light? Maybe I am. But I'm calm now. So, you?
Cleanup driver for Team Black Metal V8olvo.
More by Jonny Lieberman
Comments
Join the conversation
- People who exceed the speed limit; - people who tailgate at speeds over 70 km/h (~45 mph); - people who act unpatiently in public traffic; - groups of cars passing at 160+ km/h (~100+ mph) with 1-2 car length between each other; - people using cell phones while driving (sometimes obviously worse than driving drunk); - Harley drivers with excessive sound, molesting 500 people at any given time. I avoid Autobahn driving.
-People who drive the speed limit or under the speed limit. -People who advocate that driving at these speeds somehow makes you a "safer" driver when it most certainly does not. - Police who blantantly disobey traffic laws and believe they are untouchable. - The same police who harass you when you are at the back of an mall parking lot smoking a joint with your friends at 11:35pm, bothering nobody.
A note to davey49 re: reverse tailgaters. If you notice, semis do that. I do as well because of the manual transmission. Traffic moving at 10mph does not stay moving at 10mph. It varies from 0-25mph quite erratically at times. I'd rather not have to constantly be on and off the clutch, so I allow an extended following distance at low speeds to soak up speed variations and minimize clutch engagements. Is the extra 75 feet really worth it? Thankfully, I have a commute where I don't ever have to do this. The only times I do are in construction traffic and the occasional rush hour on the highway when I take extended trips. As to what grinds my gears, general stupidity as listed by previous poster. I have always asserted that just because you know how to operate a motor vehicle, this does NOT mean you know how to drive.
*I REALLY hate people that don’t have proper depth perception. Don’t abruptly stop 3 car lengths before the car in front of you – ONLY to inch your way to their bumper while at the red. We all waste gas this way and less of us get through the intersection. *Also a close second is the guy who blocks the right hand turn at the red. There would be enough room if you were more to the left! Basically inconsiderate motorists are what really gets me. We’re all sharing the road. Add two seconds to your commute by letting me merge – I’ll return the favor. As a side note I did get pretty annoyed the other day. This really was the trifecta for me: A duely Chevy Silverado, engine running, country music blarring, windows down WITH AC running, sitting in the bank lot while the guy went in to use the ATM. I had half a mind to steal it if it wasn’t for the pit-bull in the backseat. Seriously dude – do you make that much money that not only can you run your massive truck for no reason you can also cool the outside too?? @golden2husky: Awesome post btw.