Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

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Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by DevilsFan »

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There will be a time where you will no longer be able to use, "But...I didn't know!", as an excuse. And if you're exiled from society, well, you were warned.

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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by lonerider »

:bow: :cheers:

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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by Damumz »

Man, that is two pissed off Canadians right there!! :blink:

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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by MadCow »

Damumz wrote:Man, that is two pissed off Canadians right there!! :blink:
Yeah, those two should get anger management counseling, for crying out loud!
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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by jeffcoslacker »

I like that. Sometimes we get so caught up in hostility and having to be right we forget people just make mistakes, and maybe we contributed.

I remember one time I was riding very early on a Sunday morning down Lemay Ferry and there was ONE car ahead of me, otherwise the roads were practically deserted. I was overtaking it quickly, it was an old man in a big Buick land barge, going about 5 under the limit.

I slowed down, because I just had a feeling...something in his body language or something made me believe he was going to change lanes to the left...I was giving him the opportunity to do so. But nothing happened, so I gassed it a bit and attempted to pass him quickly and get out of the situation.

Right on cue, he slapped his turn signal and moved over, right as I was at his back wheel. I jinked into the oncoming lane and continued to pass, since there was no traffic. I half expected that to happen, but it pissed me off anyway. But I had forseen it, and just went with the backup plan.

But I was mad. Down the road we stopped at a light, him now in the left lane, me in the right. I was giving him a kinda hard stare, being an asshole I guess. He put his passenger's window down and I could feel my temper rising like WTF kinda shit is this old guy gonna say here?

He says "I am so sorry. By the time I realized you were going to let me come over, you were suddenly passing me. I should have looked again. I'm very sorry...."

And just like that, I felt like the biggest heel in the world for being so angry at him. He was just an old guy, doing what old guys do, thinking slowly, and I was a young guy doing what young guys do, being impatient. We just had a moment of crossed signals. Nothing got broke, nobody got hurt, nothing to be angry about.

I smiled, told him it was OK, sorry we misread each other. No harm done.

I have to watch that...I often pick up on what people want to do just by watching them and reading what they are telegraphing with where they are looking and subtle lane position changes, etc...and I'll do something to try to give them the option and stay outta their way...but they often don't expect it...and it throws the whole rhythm off in some situations.

So if I'd just overtaken him at the rate he was expecting me to in the first place, none of that would have happened, most likely. And what I was trying to avoid ended up happening anyway, so it was probably a pointless gesture on my part.

And it was not entirely lost on me that being at the same red light down the road showed there was really no point to my haste to be ahead of him in the first place...

Live and learn...

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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by jeffcoslacker »

You know...that brings me around to another thought I've had from time to time over the years...we have SO many different gestures that indicate anger and aggression to others...but as far as I'm aware, not one universally understood, unmistakable gesture to convey "I'm sorry, that was my fault"...

It seems so many things, especially road rage type incidents, could be defused by that. People do something dumb and piss someone off, and they know it, but there is no sure-fire way to express that you take responsibility for it and are sorry. So what's the option? Either avoid any eye contact, which the enraged party often interprets as indifference, or be hostile back at 'em. Either way just escalates it.

I've experimented with a few of my own. If I got their attention long enough, I'll sometimes do a point at my chest with one hand and gun-finger shoot myself in the head with the other, which does seem to get the point across, and even has made people laugh a couple of times...but it's too complex for the fleeting moment in traffic usually.

The palm-out, fingers spread raised hand, like a one-sided surrender, does work, but you gotta be sure they can actually see it correctly, because the palm-in, fingers spread raised hand is the universal "WTF IS YOUR PROBLEM?" gesture, and that's not gonna go well. So I don't like that one. Too easy to get in trouble.

We need one that is deliberate, unmistakable, and universal. :donno:

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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by jeffcoslacker »

One more that came to mind, as this rolls around in my head.

Me and my friend Kirk were leaving a gas station in his car, turning right onto a 30 mph street that's a big hill, left high, right low.

He starts to pull out, and instantly realized he was pulling out in front of a motorcycle. Kirk's a rider too, so he doesn't make that mistake much. But on this occasion, he did.

Part of the problem, I think, was this guy was on an old-school hardtail panhead, with no headlight illuminated and that narrow profile, just got lost in the background clutter of what you see looking to the left from there. But no excuse, shoulda seen it.

The old bearded rider locked his (sole) rear brake, did the classic "I had to drop it" moves, skidding the rear out to the right, and I flinched, thinking I was gonna feel a bang. Kirk had stopped partially out into the lane, and all things being equal, the rider could have jinked around his front end...but he'd already made his decision.

Turned out the bike rotated parallel to Kirk's car as it stopped, and the rider had one leg on the ground solidly on the low side and was making a monumental effort to keep it off the pavement, but just stuck in that position...no leverage to push it upright, with barely enough room between the two vehicles for Kirk to open his door. We both jumped out of the car and grabbed the bike and helped him lift it upright.

The guy was obviously not happy. But he kept it in check. He looked his bike over, saw that nothing had touched down said it was no biggie. Kirk felt awful. He told the guy how bad he felt, since he rides too and knows the frustration, and couldn't believe he did that. They got in a brief discussion about bikes, wherein Kirk mentioned his XLCH hardtail, and then we were all good friends, it seemed.

Dude kicked the pan to life and said "Well...I'm gonna head home and clean the shit outta my pants..." :lmao:

Didn't know whether to laugh or if he was serious, way he said it... :uhh:

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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by Suzuki Johnny »

Something came to me while I was reading the above post.......years ago we headed out to the Texas Hill Country some 315 miles west of my home town and the guy who was leading a group of six bikes decided before we left that one of the group wanted to visit a friend who lived in Katy , Texas so we were going to take I-10 through Houston, Texas...
.normally we would avoid the deadly Houston morning traffic at all costs...but it seemed to be the quickest route to his friend's home......that's when things went south.....got midway through the tangled mess of concrete when we came unto an accident ....traffic was backed up for miles....this was the classic Japanese cluster fuck....no where to go forward, even on motorcycles and headed back was sure suicide ... sitting in congested traffic..bikes heating up ..we killed our engines but never dismounted......

Then the dude right in front of us started backing up...there was about 4 feet between us and for whatever reason :bonk: he wanted to back up...
Three bikes horns a blowing didn't deter this asshole... he never stopped until he bumped into my buddy s front tire alongside me.....he was not amused...he tried desperately to back his bike up a bit but we were clustered up pretty tight...then he hit my front tire and that's when I threw my
3/4 helmet hitting his rear window...he finally stopped his car but never made a move to pull forward so as to get off our front tires....that's when I dismounted my bike and approached his door window....and gently :lmao: tapping my helmet on his window...he never made a move to lower his glass and neither pulling up...giving us the one finger salute the whole time....
Luckily for us our bikes were not damaged but it sure could have escalated big time if he would have opened his window or his car door...
traffic began to move right after that and no further action on either side took place
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Re: Freakin' Canadians are crazy!!! (Road Rage)

Post by jeffcoslacker »

Suzuki Johnny wrote:Something came to me while I was reading the above post.......years ago we headed out to the Texas Hill Country some 315 miles west of my home town and the guy who was leading a group of six bikes decided before we left that one of the group wanted to visit a friend who lived in Katy , Texas so we were going to take I-10 through Houston, Texas...
.normally we would avoid the deadly Houston morning traffic at all costs...but it seemed to be the quickest route to his friend's home......that's when things went south.....got midway through the tangled mess of concrete when we came unto an accident ....traffic was backed up for miles....this was the classic Japanese cluster fuck....no where to go forward, even on motorcycles and headed back was sure suicide ... sitting in congested traffic..bikes heating up ..we killed our engines but never dismounted......

Then the dude right in front of us started backing up...there was about 4 feet between us and for whatever reason :bonk: he wanted to back up...
Three bikes horns a blowing didn't deter this asshole... he never stopped until he bumped into my buddy s front tire alongside me.....he was not amused...he tried desperately to back his bike up a bit but we were clustered up pretty tight...then he hit my front tire and that's when I threw my
3/4 helmet hitting his rear window...he finally stopped his car but never made a move to pull forward so as to get off our front tires....that's when I dismounted my bike and approached his door window....and gently :lmao: tapping my helmet on his window...he never made a move to lower his glass and neither pulling up...giving us the one finger salute the whole time....
Luckily for us our bikes were not damaged but it sure could have escalated big time if he would have opened his window or his car door...
traffic began to move right after that and no further action on either side took place
I've noticed some people have a mindset where bikes are concerned...like they are not "real" vehicles, just overgrown toys or something....and that cars and trucks take precedence over them, and if you were to say, bump one in traffic, or knock one over in a parking lot, that's ok, it's not a "real" accident...my son was sitting waiting to turn out of a gas station on his, and he thought he had an opening and started to move, then saw a vehicle coming that he'd missed, and stopped moving....the minivan driver behind him was pulling up as soon as he began to move, and when he stopped she bumped him, knocking him off balance and made him drop his bike.

He said then she just sat in her van and watched him pick it up, and had the nerve to honk at him while he was checking it for damage! Get outta my way! "Real" vehicle trying to drive here! WTF? He had some choice words I'm sure...takes after me. [emoji2]

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