What is it with the drivers here (Denver, Parker: neighborhoods, buy)

[wenlo]

A lot of military personnel get stationed in Europe, drive the autobahns, and bring back the habit. Europeans are always in a rush compared to leisurely driving styles of Americans. But they're not really all in a rush, they all drive standard cars and are taught to accelerate to desired speed as fast as possible.

[TCHP]

52% of the drivers here are from somewhere else, and they all bring their local driving habits with them. While the largest percentages of transplants are from CA and TX, that doesn't mean they are the predominate driving type but it does mean there is NO consistent local driving mentality in Cos. It is a mash-up of west coast high speed, east coast aggressive, southern laid back, and mid-western courtesy.

These don't always mix well and the jerk on your bumper is pissed because he made eye contact with another driver and lost his spot and is now complaining about how you need to speed up and turn already while the guy with his turn signal on for a quarter mile is wondering why no one will let him in a lane and another driver is marveling about how we get to wake up to the purple mountain's majesty every morning and wondering if they could find a job and relocate here.

A day in the life of driving in Cos...

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by otowi

I wonder if you aren't hearing those cars that have the noisy-on-purpose mufflers - they can sound a lot like motorcycles and I think there are a lot of them.

Gee. You think I can't see what driving down the street?

[phetaroi]

But my biggest complaint is people going through stop lights. Monday I drove to an office downtown and back -- a total distance of less than 20 miles and I counted 7 people going through red lights. I don't mean yellow lights. I mean red. 4 at one stop light alone.

[Tominftl]

It’s not just in Colorado. Bad drivers are all over. Less considerate now than ever. It’s all about them because they think they are more important than you....

[LHS79]

We had Drivers Ed in High School growing up- districts do not do that anymore I assume due to liability concerns so the parent (s) has to do that task themselves now. We went to a class during the day and watched the great Ohio State Patrol movies and then went outside to drive AMC Pacers and Gremlins around the course set up outside the school.

After school was out we then had another hour or so of driving with an instructor as part of that class.

I'm sure my parents paid something extra for that class but it was probably partially funded by the school districts so the cost was not as much as a private driving school these days.

Maybe more parents are trying to do the drivers training themselves because they are cheapskates?

[otowi]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

Gee. You think I can't see what driving down the street?

I said hear, not see. No need to take offense.

[DrDog]

I’ve said before that drivers here are the same as elsewhere, except it seems like a lot of drivers don’t turn on their lights at dusk and dawn. Is this a Colorado thing?

[Phil P]

I know I've picked up "bad" behaviours driving in Denver, bad traffic will do that to you... Certain things like turning left on yellow lights, lots of lane changes, speeding to get through lights... The thing is, is that these things really do save time, because otherwise you get stuck waiting through multiple lights, turning a 18 minute commute into a 25 minute one (for 3 miles lol).

I've never got a ticket or had anything bad happen over my entire driving career. When I get in less stressful, congested roads (going back to CO Springs to visit parents ) my driving tones down back to normal.

The one thing I do a lot is run red lights later at night if it's not a major intersection and it's obvious no one else is there after I've stopped and looked around. To me, this is the least risk, most reward bad driving behaviour.

[Vision67]

Originally Posted by DrDog

I’ve said before that drivers here are the same as elsewhere, except it seems like a lot of drivers don’t turn on their lights at dusk and dawn. Is this a Colorado thing?

I've observed several drivers who fail to turn on headlights at dusk or even at night.

But those cars had one thing in common, electroluminescent, aka "Tokyo by night" instrument panels.

Back in the day if you failed to turn on your headlights, you could not read your speedometer. That told you to turn on the headlights.

The newest cars now all have a green "headlights on" indicator. Its purpose is to indicate the state of headlight illumination. It was required on all cars around 2013. Prior to that, it was easy to forget to turn on the headlights. Most of the cars I've seen with the problem were from that era.