Driving in heavy traffic

Heavy traffic differs in the States to quite an extent, depending on location, IMO. Sorry, Californios, but some of the most risk-taking drivers I've seen were Californians. But that's subjective, since I grew up in Chicago.

Definitely, today's in-city freeway drivers are taking much greater risk in their driving habits, clueless of the fact that tail-gating at high speed makes a rear end collision a certainty, should the forward driver tap the brakes. imp
 
I have no problems driving here or in any other city or state. Just steer around the drivers who don't know what they're doing.
 

I do not like driving in gridlock...and rainy nights are the worst on the freeways. I avoid these situations if I can. I'm sorry for commuters and I did it for a couple of years.
 
Hate driving in gridlock, and our motorways are pretty much gridlocked most of the time, particularly at rush hours.....I leave for work earlier than I need to in the mornings to try and get the roads when the traffic isn't at a standstill and gridlocked ...but I can't avoid it coming home. During the winter and these early dark night, and bad weather, it's particularly awful. I drive to work in the dark, and come home in the dark during the winter months ...!!
 
I enjoy driving, but like Holly I hate rush hour traffic, so I too leave before morning traffic. I will be starting my volunteer work at the Houston VA soon, and I'll be traveling diagonally across the city. I've been driving there for about four years now, and I have learned the best back ways to and from, so that I am able to avoid major traffic jams.:cool1::drive::drive:
 
Oh Puleeeze, urban area/suburban border...5:15 and a major snowstorm on the way. Big supermarket along this route. Then this odd behavior of some folks...you have cars double parked and you're waiting for someone to run into a store. Yup you triple park and watch the obscene gestures fly by. My night vision isn't so great anymore either. You are African American and dressed in head to toe black and racing across the street. A drive that takes 15 minutes in day light and regular traffic was an hour.
 
I hate heavy traffic, but log around 1000 miles a week driving down Cajon Pass, through San Bernardino County into Riverside County to get to work.

Driving in Los Angeles is worse, as you can imagine.
 
Very heavy traffic in and around Melbourne (Australia), have to use the brake a lot and really worry when the brake starts to get 'spongy'.
(Driver training in San Jose, Calif. has given me a good background for driving here!)
 
I don't like heavy traffic, but sometimes I'm stuck with it. There's one particularly bad intersection here in town (largely because of the eternal road work there) that I detour around if I can, primarily to save the time just sitting there.
 
I still drive 25,000 to 30,000 miles/year. Would much rather drive in large metro areas than in our home town. Lived in the Kansas City area for 10 years and will go back and drive there in rush hour rather than here. We are a community of about 60,000. We have a State University, a U.S. Army post, in a very rural/agricultural area. So, we have college kids, military from all over, farmers, geriatrics, and the "normal" people!!! Put those all together, the first two categories almost always on cell phones, and you have mayhem.

It is still easy for me to hop in a vehicle and drive 9 to 10 hours. I may not be able to walk when I get there. But, the drive does not bother me. Ice, snow, rain, wind.... I feel pretty safe in that I've experienced any of those conditions more than once. What does bother me is fog. Driving in heavy fog, you have those who will continue to drive the speed limit even though they can't see and those who will slow to 15 mph. You either have a chance of running into the back of the over-cautious driver or getting rear-ended by the less careful one.
 
I use the less inflammatory "Ahhhtso???!!!". An Italian American gesture both arms up...what the heck are you thinking here????
The first flakes are falling and this is the prediction, sucks to be us.
[video]http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/22/us/winter-snowstorm-washington-blizzard/index.html?eref=rss_world[/video]
 
Picking my wife up from the Mesa (AZ) airport last Saturday involved my driving 290 miles there (from home), which took 5 hours, a two-hour lay-over, then a similar drive back home. The area traversed involves freeway driving only within the Phoenix area, perhaps 40 miles of it, the remainder two and four-lane highway, unlit, traversing the deadest of night with nary a town light for distances of 100 miles or more, two small towns passed through, Wickenburg and Wikieup.

The thought crossed my mind more than once: driving a vehicle with 150,000 miles on it, no really serious work done on it (yet), how nerve-wracking would a break-down in those boonies prove to be? What about a break-down interloper stopping to "help"? Safety? I saw not one cop car in 290 miles.

Helping ease such worry is the fact that my center console contains a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun loaded to the gills with it's high-capacity magazine. To us folks bent on self-preservation for ourselves and loved ones, such firearm presence is not a link to paranoia, but rather an available means to an end, should that need ever arise. imp
 
imp said:
Picking my wife up from the Mesa (AZ) airport last Saturday involved my driving 290 miles there (from home), which took 5 hours, a two-hour lay-over, then a similar drive back home. The area traversed involves freeway driving only within the Phoenix area, perhaps 40 miles of it, the remainder two and four-lane highway, unlit, traversing the deadest of night with nary a town light for distances of 100 miles or more, two small towns passed through, Wickenburg and Wikieup.

The thought crossed my mind more than once: driving a vehicle with 150,000 miles on it, no really serious work done on it (yet), how nerve-wracking would a break-down in those boonies prove to be? What about a break-down interloper stopping to "help"? Safety? I saw not one cop car in 290 miles.

Helping ease such worry is the fact that my center console contains a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun loaded to the gills with it's high-capacity magazine. To us folks bent on self-preservation for ourselves and loved ones, such firearm presence is not a link to paranoia, but rather an available means to an end, should that need ever arise. imp
Click to expand...

I don't carry one in town, but if I'm going out of town I sure do. We have those long stretches through the desert of nothing but tumbleweeds, also. I'm also very sure that my cell phone is fully charged and I have plenty of water and a blankie in the car, and my AAA card (though who knows how long it would take them to get there out in the middle of nowhere).

And I always make sure my neighbor knows where I'm going, the route I expect to take, and when I expect to be back.
 
No problems. I flip on the number "1" button for lights and the number "3" button for the siren and I can clear a path in seconds allowing me to drive at will.
 
911 said:
No problems. I flip on the number "1" button for lights and the number "3" button for the siren and I can clear a path in seconds allowing me to drive at will.
Click to expand...

Like "Executive Privilege"? Ha, ha! imp
 
"And I always make sure my neighbor knows where I'm going, the route I expect to take, and when I expect to be back."


The stickler for us: no neighbors to tell, no family or friends within reasonable distance. At least where we are today, cells work pretty faithfully. In Missouri no cell signal for a 15-mile radius around our house. imp
 
911 said:
No problems. I flip on the number "1" button for lights and the number "3" button for the siren and I can clear a path in seconds allowing me to drive at will.
Click to expand...

Smart move.:eek:

I prefer not to drive in heavy traffic but sometimes, it's unavoidable.
 
911 said:
No problems. I flip on the number "1" button for lights and the number "3" button for the siren and I can clear a path in seconds allowing me to drive at will.
Click to expand...


911....in my younger days, I would have pushed the number 4 button on my radio, turned up the volume and drove like hell. I wondering if you are one of the nice troopers that kinda frowned on what I did. :confused:
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top