[oeabel]

I apologize for bringing this up again but I've got to vent somewhere! I try very hard nowadays to avoid feeling any stress when driving because it is so overwhelming here (southwest florida) when driving. I'm a good driver, observant but not perfect by any stretch of the imagination (speed problem but not too offensive). I've never been prone to road rage or much irritation but in this area, I am daily driven to a point where I don't know whether to scream or cry.

I often get merged into, which is basically either the elderly or the plain oblivious. I was run into the median yesterday while it is scary, I'm so used to it that I react rather calmly. However, my big beef is the younger set, the ones who live here permanently and are usually young. There is such a total disdain for traffic rules that it is about to drive me insane. All the time, people will pull into the non-turning lane to turn around a whole lane of traffic and jump in front of people. It happens all the time. Someone is not feeling like obeying the road signs/markings and pulls into the left turn lane to turn right while people are sitting there waiting to go. And it happens so often! I'm tired of people cutting me off by turning from the wrong lane and speeding to get in front of me before I hit them! And all the people driving on the side of the road to make it past all the people in front instead of merging as the sign says. What about this area makes people feel like they are above any need to just follow basic traffic laws!

Like I said, sorry for venting!

[Racelady88]

Here are the generally accepted rules:

How To Drive Like A Floridian....


1. Turn signals will give away your next move.
A real Florida driver never uses them. '



2. Under no circumstance should you leave a safe distance between you
and the car in front of you, or the space will be filled in by somebody
else, putting you in an even more dangerous situation.


3. The faster you drive through a red light, the smaller the chance you
have of getting hit.


4. Never, ever come to a complete stop at a stop sign.
No one expects it and it will result in you are rear-ended.


5. Never get in the way of an older car that needs extensive
bodywork, especially someone from Florida or Georgia.

With no- fault insurance the other guy doesn't have the anything to lose.


6. Braking is to be done as hard and late as possible to ensure that
your ABS kicks in, giving a nice, relaxing foot massage as the brake pedal
pulsates. For those of you without ABS, it's a chance to stretch your legs.


7. Never pass on the left when you can pass on the right.
It's a good way to prepare for people entering the highway.

8. Speed limits are arbitrary figures, given only as a suggestion and are
apparently not enforceable in any County during rush hour.

9. Just because you're in the left lane and have no room to speed up
or move over doesn't mean that a Florida driver flashing his high beams
behind you doesn't think he can go faster in your spot.



10. Always slow down and rubberneck when you see an accident or
even someone changing a tire. This is seen as a sign
of respect for the victim.

11. Learn to swerve abruptly. Florida is the home of high-speed
slalom driving.


12. It is traditional in Florida to honk your horn at cars that don't
move the instant the light turns green.

13. Remember that the goal of every Florida driver is to get there
first by whatever means necessary.

14. In Florida, 'flipping someone the bird' (The New Jersey State salute) is considered a polite salute.
This gesture should always be returned.


THANK YOU & HAVE A SAFE JOURNEY

[Tarastomsgirl]

There are drivers like that everywhere. I'm used to the swfl driving style becasue thats where I learned to drive and drove for many years. Moving up here to NH its maddening how slllooowww people drive.. we're talking 30 mph and I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. It still amazes me though that at 30mph people will still cut you off, swerve in and out of traffic, run you into snow banks, not use blinkers etc. Get into Boston and its a white knuckle trip I'm usually going about 80 mph driving to boston and I'm still getting passed.. Believe me if you go slower you'll get killed. I was just down in Naples 2 days ago and I didn't feel the aggresivness I did before I left, perhaps becasue season was over but I will say it was nice to be able to drive 55 and actually get somewhere ..

[aesoprocks!]

oeabel, the same things happen in orlando too. i hate the way people drive in orlando, and in many parts of florida. i can assure you that it's many of the newcomers who are used to driving aggressively... unfortunately, they bring their driving styles to florida, and when half of the state of florida is from ny, nj, and massachusetts, sometimes were all gonna feel like we are actually driving in ny, nj or massachusetts.

my family and i are all native floridians, or have been here for many yrs so they are "natives" in my opinion, and we DO NOT drive like that.

[compelled to reply]

FL drivers are crap, simply stated, because there is no such thing as a "Florida" driver. It's a myriad of way too many friggin driving styles!

[oeabel]

I should clarify... I'm a florida native but was in the midwest by the time I learned to drive so, generally speaking, I have a midwestern sensibility about where the line is that is just not acceptable to cross. I can live with just about anything and I can keep up with the best of them driving but I hate the blatant, in-your-face, who-cares-what-the-friggin-sign-says. oh well... I just wish my oldest wasn't getting close to a permit; that's really scary.

[aesoprocks!]

your right compelled. when you have many aggressive drivers from the northeast, many retirees that drive slow, tourists that dont know where they hell their going, and a lot of kids that cant drive a lick, and many ppl that drive while texting, it makes us all look like bad drivers.


and the fact that we are a crowded state with 18 million ppl

[CobraKen]

I can't stand how the drivers here love to just cruise along in the left hand lane even though there's no one in front of them and they're not passing anyone.....

[TKramar]

Originally Posted by CobraKen

I can't stand how the drivers here love to just cruise along in the left hand lane even though there's no one in front of them and they're not passing anyone.....

"You see that guy...WAY up there? I'm trying to pass HIM. That's why I'm going 90." It seems like, in the city, you can't GO 90....you can't even go the POSTED speed limit because the people ahead of you are driving like 25-30 miles an hour. Seriously! That's ONE reason I don't even LIKE to drive. People don't use their signals, won't be courteous to other drivers, turn across three lanes of traffic to make their turns...almost hitting the three cars with the right of way.

My personal pet peeve is people who drive THROUGH parking spaces in parking lots, instead of driving ALL the way up and ALL the way back down. I have no problem with people pulling THROUGH a parking space, so that when they PARK they don't have to back out, but I've seen people drive ACROSS three sets of parking lanes before. No wonder you get people driving the WRONG way down the parking lanes sometimes...when crossing that many, in the middle, how are they to tell which way traffic is SUPPOSED to travel down that lane?

[mazenblue]

No one popped me the bird while flying me on my right on I-95 today. That's a first for me.