Can't Stand the Drivers in Northern Virginia (dangerous, vs)

[slaminjamin87]

The amount of clueless drivers in this area is very disturbing and downright dangerous. For example, here's what happen to me this morning. I was getting off Westbound Dulles Toll Road onto Centerville Road. One suv and a truck where stuck on the shoulder. I slowed down while trying to pass the vehicles.

All of the suddenly, a vehicle let a suv off the shoulder and onto the exit ramp off the highway. All of the sudden, I have to slammed my brakes from 40 mph to 0 mph, and then swerve right to avoid hitting a vehicle in front of me. Then a random lady stopped her car and rolled her window and yelling at me for my actions. Ironically, if I didn't swerve, I would of got into an accident.

The fact is this shouldn't never happened at all. When a car is stuck on the shoulder and waiting to get on, they have to wait until traffic is cleared. Letting him in while cars are flying at 40 to 50mph off the exit is a dangerous situation and it creates fender bender accidents, and it stops traffic flow for no reason. There was no cop in sight of the area, so letting him in is a bad decision.

Seriously, I'm fed up with these drivers and nearly got into an accident because of someone's dumb decision. Too much self entitlement and idiots on the roadways.

[vademo]

NOVA has some of the worst drivers in the world and it feels like it is getting worse and worse. People are really tired with driving long distance and getting stuck in traffic therefore they become aggressive drivers. We also have these clueless drivers who puts everyone's life in danger. They are extremely bad drivers and cannot stay in their line or will try to change their lane when it is full. There is also left lane lovers. They will join from right and will try to move to left lane in a second. They also do not go faster than traffic and usually block the left lane for passing. Also, these days you can see sudden brakes in the morning because of the sun It is crazy here.

One day, people will not drive anymore and smart cars will drive for us. I cannot wait for these days. Hopefully, this technology will be available in 5 years so we can enjoy sleeping or resting right after the work.

[car54]

NOVA is the perfect storm for bad driving.

Idiot drivers from every State and many parts of the world are here in large numbers.

[airjay75]

I agree. Driving is no fun here. It is arguably worse here than many other places, but it's bad everywhere. Many people just lack courtesy when they drive. Driving is one of those few activities where you remain, for the most part, completely anonymous. Who cares if you cut someone off? You're unlikely to ever see them again in your life. As a result, people's true character shines through and, unfortunately, many people's true character is quite ugly. Just a fact of life. The sooner you accept it, the easier it is. At least that is what I have found.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by vademo

One day, people will not drive anymore and smart cars will drive for us. I cannot wait for these days. Hopefully, this technology will be available in 5 years so we can enjoy sleeping or resting right after the work.

While self-driving cars MAY decrease accidents, it would greatly slow the flow of traffic. This has been well documented. So I look forward to the ***** fests that ensue when that happens and people are pissed their self driving car isn't driving aggressively enough. People will always find something to complain about.

The fact is this shouldn't never happened at all. When a car is stuck on the shoulder and waiting to get on, they have to wait until traffic is cleared. Letting him in while cars are flying at 40 to 50mph off the exit is a dangerous situation and it creates fender bender accidents

The issue here really is a lot of people don't know how to merge around here, and/or people won't let people safely merge. There's very few instances where a car should get stuck on the shoulder. If the other drivers are considerate and let people in and the merger doesn't screw it up traffic flow should never be interrupted.

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by FCNova

While self-driving cars MAY decrease accidents, it would greatly slow the flow of traffic. This has been well documented. So I look forward to the ***** fests that ensue when that happens and people are pissed their self driving car isn't driving aggressively enough. People will always find something to complain about.

True, there are many unknowns about self-driving cars right now and what the integration path will look like as we move from 100% person-driven to a mix toward [almost?] 100% self-driven over the decades.

However, I would be willing to be that most people would prefer a 40 minute stress-free commute where they can read or do other things over a 30 minute stress-filled grind.

Now if it were like 20 vs 50, that's another story, but you get the idea...

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My ridiculous story of the week: Driving east down Ashburn Farm Parkway (4 lane, grassy median divided road) in left lane, and as I approach a non-light intersection (so the smaller side streets on each side have stop signs), I see a car start to pull out from the left side street (across the other lanes approaching the gap in the median).
It's the middle of the day, sunny, and clear sight lines, so he obviously can see me. Pretty spare traffic* in both directions as well. Now, I know how many stupid drivers there are, so I try to be always aware of my surroundings (constantly checking rear and side mirrors to have a sense of what other cars are near me and where). Turned out to be a great call since this guy didn't show any signs of stopping in the median.
Nope, he just came rolling right across ready to semi-T-bone me as he made his left onto eastbound AFP. He didn't even make a tight turn to turn into the left lane, either. I had to swing completely over into the right lane, almost up onto the curb on the shoulder to avoid being hit.


* So not like he had to be diligently focused on avoiding west-bound traffic that he could cut across and thus forgot to check east-bound.

[NOVA_guy]

Originally Posted by vademo

NOVA has some of the worst drivers in the world and it feels like it is getting worse and worse. People are really tired with driving long distance and getting stuck in traffic therefore they become aggressive drivers.

Exactly.

I see it every morning when tons of people ride the shoulder or tuning lane all the way to the end of the lane to try to cut traffic and people pretty much get into a war of 'you're gonna let me over' while the other car inches up as much as possible refusing to let them in not to mention everyone is already on edge and drive agressively because it's taking 20 minutes to go 5 miles and you're not even half way to work, overall it creates a recipe for disaster.

[Fallout Zone]

Originally Posted by NOVA_guy

Exactly.

I see it every morning when tons of people ride the shoulder or tuning lane all the way to the end of the lane to try to cut traffic and people pretty much get into a war of 'you're gonna let me over' while the other car inches up as much as possible refusing to let them in not to mention everyone is already on edge and drive agressively because it's taking 20 minutes to go 5 miles and you're not even half way to work, overall it creates a recipe for disaster.

That is the way it is designed to work.

[NOVA_guy]

Originally Posted by Fallout Zone

That is the way it is designed to work.

Not when you have no intentions of turning and are using the lane soely to cut ahead of traffic.

[Vectorhead]

Originally Posted by NOVA_guy

Exactly.

I see it every morning when tons of people ride the shoulder or tuning lane all the way to the end of the lane to try to cut traffic and people pretty much get into a war of 'you're gonna let me over' while the other car inches up as much as possible refusing to let them in not to mention everyone is already on edge and drive agressively because it's taking 20 minutes to go 5 miles and you're not even half way to work, overall it creates a recipe for disaster.

These are the people causing the problem (bolded). It's more efficient to use two lanes all the way until the point that one of them ends.