You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

[AndyC]

Ulthar you did bring up good points and personally I've always tried to figure out what is so damn irritating about driving.  I mean when I turned 16 and got behind the wheel I was more than excited to do so.  I didn't care how far I had to drive to get somewhere I just loved it.  Two years later, I joined the group of miserable commuters. 

For me I think it boils down to being around people. That and I'm massively impatient.  I'm that guy that will try to teach someone something and if they don't get it the first time I'm apt to snatch the job out of their hands to do it myself.  I'm not perfect but I know a good percent of society has problems with menial tasks.  And to me driving (unless you're in dangerous conditions which usually in my area thats less that 10% of the time) is a menial task. 

There's also the detachment of driving. Notice that when two people have trouble navigating around each other on a sidewalk, doing that little dance where each tries to make way for the other in the same direction, they'll smile, let out an embarrassed little chuckle, maybe apologize or make a joke. You've each given cues that put the other more at ease. In a car, you are mostly dealing with a faceless machine, and when it interferes with your progress without any of those cues, you react to it as an act of aggression.

The other possibility is that there is more at stake. In a car, you can get expensive fines, expensive damage and serious injuries if things go wrong. If you're at all nervous about driving, your anxiety is going to spike when somebody suddenly makes it go less than smoothly for you. That's going to provoke the same threatened reaction.

And there is also personal embarrassment. If you are self-conscious, and feel like somebody made you look foolish, or that they might be judging you (again, you can't tell most of the time), that's going to bug you.

I notice I don't get mad if the car is familiar. If the driver is somebody I know, I'm much more likely to laugh it off. I think this is because I know the other guy isn't an a$$hole, he isn't an idiot, and he's probably not having any negative thoughts toward me. The insight makes up for the lack of visual cues.

[Mr. DS]

^ Yep very much so especially the last paragraph.  I've gone from saying "you stupid mother f*cker..." to "hey that was funny".  That a weird mix of emotions.

I have to say as bad as I have gotten road rage wise, I don't take it to the point I've seen some people go.  I've seen people swerve to hit people, people get out of their car and start swinging, etc.  I really have to question the sanity of someone getting so PO'd behind they wheel they'd literally try to kill someone.  I mean yeah I get PO'd but I don't think I'd put myself at risk for going to prison for attempted vehicular manslaughter.

I've come across a few guys who were just plain being d!cks for no reason.  Dudes who get on your @ss at night and start flashing their high beams.  Each time this has happened to me I did nothing to warrant it.  I'm not sure if these guys want to get the snot slapped out of them but I've learned to just let it go.  Matter of fact in my old age, I wave now in a friendly manner when someone flips me off.

[ghouck]

It's happened more than a few times here lately that someone, while blocking the flow of traffic waiting to turn, does NOT turn because they are too busy waving another driver out at the road they are turning into...when there is NOTHING stopping them from completing their turn.

I think this is from the whole "drive courteous" junk that's been thrown around and largely missing the mark. I don't remember where, but there was a PSA on TV telling people to drive courteous with the intent on curbing aggressive driving, but it showed a bunch of unrealistic crap that causes more trouble than it cures. I remember it showing some person approaching an intersection where they had a blinking yellow, and they were waving others through. If they had a blinking yellow, the others had a blinking red. There's a reason one pathway has priority over the other, and the safe and efficient flow of traffic depends on it. Although an extreme, think about what would happen if everyone on the freeway started yielding to the traffic coming in from the on ramp. It would be a mess. They also showed people stopping before the yellow, by watching the countdown timer on the crosswalks. Let 2-3 cars LESS through an intersection at every cycle, yea, that's going to HELP traffic. :rolleyes:

[Nightowl]

All these anti-smoking commercial really get to me. Do we really need to tell people that smoking is bad, isn't that sort of well known? It really bothers me that they think cigarette companies are advertising to kids so they take all the flavored cigarettes away then what the hell is alcohol doing? Thats like the pot calling the kettle black isn't it?

[AndyC]

It's happened more than a few times here lately that someone, while blocking the flow of traffic waiting to turn, does NOT turn because they are too busy waving another driver out at the road they are turning into...when there is NOTHING stopping them from completing their turn.

I think this is from the whole "drive courteous" junk that's been thrown around and largely missing the mark. I don't remember where, but there was a PSA on TV telling people to drive courteous with the intent on curbing aggressive driving, but it showed a bunch of unrealistic crap that causes more trouble than it cures. I remember it showing some person approaching an intersection where they had a blinking yellow, and they were waving others through. If they had a blinking yellow, the others had a blinking red. There's a reason one pathway has priority over the other, and the safe and efficient flow of traffic depends on it. Although an extreme, think about what would happen if everyone on the freeway started yielding to the traffic coming in from the on ramp. It would be a mess. They also showed people stopping before the yellow, by watching the countdown timer on the crosswalks. Let 2-3 cars LESS through an intersection at every cycle, yea, that's going to HELP traffic. :rolleyes:

Often, the most courteous thing you can do is keep going and get out of the way. And if you want to do the other driver a favour, start by doing what he expects you to do.

[Leah]

when someone puts up a car ad that advertises the vehicle as something that it is not. let me explain, when someone puts up a car ad that said it is a model 1 but is a model 2. I can if it is really hard to see which one is which at some points, but say I'm selling a T-bird and I, God Forbid, labeled it as a Mustang, then the buyers would expect a mustang, but ends up with a T-Bird.

[Ash]

It really grinds my gears when I see all these crappy Youtube videos that have titles at the beginning.  Most say, "so and so presents" of a "such and such production".

It's like they're trying to polish a turd by dressing up the beginning with official titles.  It's gotten to the point that at least 70-80% of the videos I watch have them now.  Rather than making it look professional, it makes me cringe.

[Trevor]

It's like they're trying to polish a turd by dressing up the beginning with official titles. 

What grinds my gears is that you're not always on here as much as you once were, Ash.

[Jack]

I hate those 2 minute Youtube videos that begin with 45 seconds of credits.    

[Mr. DS]

I hate those 2 minute Youtube videos that begin with 45 seconds of credits.    

I hate youtube videos that begin with ads.  Yeah, I'm sure I'd be interested in some hippy band's album release when I'm trying to listen to a death metal song. 

[AndyC]

I hate those 2 minute Youtube videos that begin with 45 seconds of credits.    

A long intro like that might be to circumvent YouTube's copyright protection. As I understand it, you can fool their audio recognition software by putting a stretch of something else before the copyrighted audio. Kind of makes the system self-defeating, when it prevents people from posting something as-is and causes them to put their own names all over it.

[Flick James]

I hate those 2 minute Youtube videos that begin with 45 seconds of credits.    

I hate youtube videos that begin with ads.  Yeah, I'm sure I'd be interested in some hippy band's album release when I'm trying to listen to a death metal song. 

I hate it too. But, that's why it's free so I just deal.

[Olivia Bauer]

I hate those annoying bastards who get badmovies.org accounts and advertise their services. This isn't craigslist.

[Ash]

Another thing that bugs me about certain Youtube videos is the fairly new practice of reversing the image to circumvent copyright protection.
The user will take a clip from a movie or TV show and reverse the image so what should be on the right side of the screen is now on the left.

Is that even legal?  How does that circumvent copyright protection?

[Cthulhu]

I hate those 2 minute Youtube videos that begin with 45 seconds of credits.    

I hate youtube videos that begin with ads.  Yeah, I'm sure I'd be interested in some hippy band's album release when I'm trying to listen to a death metal song. 

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