Not Moving on Green (because their phones are more important!)

[S P]

28-May (Rockville, me honking!)

29-May (Rockville, me honking!)

29-May (Rockville again same day, somebody else honking!)

30-May (Baltimore, me honking! THREE LANES not moving, unbelievable!)

3-June (Rockville, no honking just drove past!)

Nobody actually DRIVES here in the Washington D.C. suburbs anymore. They're all just looking at their damned phones! Dumb crap is endless here. I've only had the dash cameras installed two weeks.

 

[flank]

You've honked more in one week than I have in the past 5 years

 

[kamkar]

Damm phone junkies

 

[S P]

Oh I forgot one! This was my first "official" dash cam video right after I got it hooked up. The woman in the white/tan colored SUV is fiddling with her phone, holding me up from being able to turn left, since she does have the right of way. Are you going to go or just sit there? Can I turn or not? Finally after 6-7 seconds she gets moving, only to realize that the idiot in the white pickup truck behind her isn't paying attention either!!!! I just decided to turn, and of course as soon as I did he started rolling too. I had no idea how quickly, so just punched it to clear the turn.

The DC area and suburbs have always been bad to drive in, but it's only gotten an order of magnitude or two worse now that everybody has smartphones and can't manage to stop fiddling with them while they drive!

 

[S P]

You've honked more in one week than I have in the past 5 years

Just wait till I get a road rage variant of this! Yep, it happens! People will "reverse road rage" you around here for honking at them to get moving, even when the light has been green for 5+ seconds. They're so stupid and oblivious that they think it's only "just turned", and then get all pissed faced or will get right up your ass if you happen to go by them. This happened to me several times last December, which is when I just got completely fed up and started shopping around for dash cameras.

 

[dash riposki]

A long honk is 'angry'. A quick tap is not as annoying, but still usually wakes up the problem driver.

I see some pretty aggressive driving and actions on your part. I hope you chill out a bit.

 

[S P]

A long honk is 'angry'. A quick tap is not as annoying, but still usually wakes up the problem driver.

I see some pretty aggressive driving and actions on your part. I hope you chill out a bit.

I'm an assertive driver, yes. You have to be around here. Reckless/careless, or oblivious, no, although I'm sure to have some video footage of other behavior like that soon enough. The sandrail or whatever that was in the first video was weaving and lane-hopping like a maniac in the next few lights after that, but no video footage good enough to bother saving. I experimented with horn taps last year, and it's about 50/50 on getting people moving on a green, they're just that oblivious. So the norm here now is the instant "honk of shame". The funny thing is, "texting while driving" is now a primary offense here in Maryland. People don't care. Things just keep getting worse, and the law doesn't seem to be enforced.

 

[dashy]

The way to do it is to give two quick beeps, I've got the volume turned off, so just going off dash riposki's reply.

 

[Gibson99]

houston's no different than DC apparently. 2 (or 20) quick beeps don't get anyone's attention. have to lay on the horn way more than we should to wake them up on green.

 

[dashy]

We only are supposed to use our horn to worn others of a collusion, sad that we have to use it to do other's job.

 

[dash riposki]

You think it sucks sitting behind somebody who doesn't move as soon as the light turns green while you're driving a car?
Try doing it in a heavy truck, when they finally start moving, but not soon enough for you to get through the green light, and you get stuck sitting through another light cycle.
(while the people behind you beep, and think you are the reason they are still sitting there.)

The acceleration noises I heard in your videos, when you finally escaped whatever was holding you back, and some of the rapid lane changes I saw were the reasons I thought you were 'aggressive'.

Now that you have dash cams, it's a lot more fun to slow down, sit back, and watch the circus, without getting involved.

 

[flank]

I see some pretty aggressive driving and actions on your part. I hope you chill out a bit.

I agree. That type of driving around Cali will get you in hairy situations.

I used to be an angry driver. Now I am very calm and understand people make mistakes, no biggie. We all make mistakes.

 

[dash riposki]

I get 'wound up' sometimes by bad traffic. I have to remind myself to chill out. You ought to hear some of the monologue I have to cover up in my videos with strange music from Youtube.

 

[S P]

The way to do it is to give two quick beeps, I've got the volume turned off, so just going off dash riposki's reply.

Negative on that. Tried that method all last year "trying not to be an ass", but it just doesn't work. The only thing that gets people moving is the solid "honk of shame". I really didn't want to have to start doing that, but I mean, when lights start cycling again in 5 seconds when people aren't moving and running over the sensors, it's just stupid.

 

[S P]

The acceleration noises I heard in your videos, when you finally escaped whatever was holding you back, and some of the rapid lane changes I saw were the reasons I thought you were 'aggressive'.

Now that you have dash cams, it's a lot more fun to slow down, sit back, and watch the circus, without getting involved.

It's a convertible and the top is down in many of them, and the exhaust on the car is quite loud. The one you probably thought was aggressive is probably the one where I had just seen two other near-misses in the previous 5 minutes (but nothing captured on the dash cam), and just wanted to get home. Sorry to say, but the circus is unavoidable when you live right in the middle of it. 99% of my driving including to the office and back is within a few miles of home and typically 5-10 minute drives, yet I can't ever make a trip anywhere without having a near-miss, witnessing one, or seeing an accident. When we're home or I'm out for a run in my neighborhood, I hear emergency vehicles all the time, along with emails rolling in from the county alert system about accidents and road closures. We've even had kids in our neighborhood that have jumped out in front of cars just for fun, or on dares from their buddies.

 

[S P]

We all make mistakes.

That's true. I just wish they'd stop making them around me, every time I get in the car.

I joked to my wife that I had made it all the way down to where we were meeting for lunch without having to hit save on the dash camera even once. Not to worry, an accident to save, and somebody cutting me off from two lanes over on the way home made up for it!

 

[S P]

Sleepy Sunday morning, HONK!!!!

 

[dash riposki]

Wow, you were delayed maybe a full 3 seconds, losing the 2 seconds you gained by not coming to a full stop at that stop sign.

(Edit out the first few seconds of the video and we'd never know.)

 

[dashy]

Stop signs are there to make you stop.

 

[S P]

No, I saved myself 2 minutes and a bunch of fuel wasted idling, because that's a long light and it was already cycling. Actually, I saved myself 45 seconds rather than two minutes, because if I had missed the light, I would have turned right instead, gone down a block and made a U-Turn and come back, and still had plenty of time to get the light in that direction, except now I'd have wasted even more fuel accelerating and decelerating and accelerating again, adding distance. HONKING is very eco-friendly and cuts down on carbon emissions.