Because the car is smaller than the Dakota I traded in, I still haven't found a convenient way to install the rocket launcher and flame thrower.

 

Robert A. Heinlein touched upon the deeper, darker meaning of widespread rudeness in his book, Friday, wherein he answered the question "What are the marks of a sick culture?"

The quote is often shortened to "The loss of common courtesy is one of the first signs of a dying civilization," though I think it loses something out of its full context.

 

I read my girl Friday first maybe 20 years ago and remember this passage well. I, too can see these symptoms every day especially in the young. In their behavior at the market. in restaurants and most clearly in their driving habits. My own children don't act this way, knowing that if my wife or I hear of it, there would be hell to pay.

A Clockwork Orange is coming to pass...

A sad, but true state of affairs.

 

If you are on a cell phone when driving then you are part of the problem .

I travel many many miles riding motorcycles each year so don't even get me started on people talking on cell phones or any number of other attention distracting things people tend to think is ok when driving . Everybody thinks they can talk handsfree and it's somehow ok but most drivers can not do two things at once . 99% are already maxed out by having to turn a steering wheel while coordinating thier foot and eye movements

 

I'm not a bumper sticker kind of guy. I don't feel the need to share my opinion with everyone else on the road.

BUT: I saw the most tempting bumper sticker the other day. It had a cell phone inside a circle with a line through it and said "Shut up and drive!"

I would almost put that on my car! Almost.

 

I wish I hadn't mentioned I was on the cell phone for people to start picking on that. I only mentioned it because the person I was talking to heard our mirrors hit and has no bearing on the other person that caused the problem in the first place. Maybe they were on their cell phone not paying attention, I don't know.

However, let me reiterate one more time.(Why am I justifying my actions anyway? I stayed in my lane and even tried to get out of their way, but wasn't able to safely due to the other cars around me. Where's the attaboy for situational awareness?)

I was hands free, paying attention to my driving. I've always been the hittee and not the hitter. (I've been hit by someone changing a radio station, so do we have a prejudice against them too and ban all radios?).

If I hadn't been paying attention, the person that DRIFTED INTO MY LANE WITHOUT LOOKING OR CARING (thank you very much) would have caused more damage to my car.

Nowadays there are so many distractions. Everyone needs to be responsible. We all do these things to some extent, but we should be more careful about our driving while we are looking at a map, checking the GPS, talking on the cell phone, changing the radio station, singing, talking to others in the car, shaving, smoking, chewing tobacco, chewing gum, taking medicine, putting on makeup, eating, drinking, playing the flute, checking directions on a note, reading the mail, reading the newspaper, reading a book, combing our hair, texting, etc., etc.

I guess if I was stopped at a red light and talking on the phone and got rear ended, someone would say that was my partly my fault too. No further comments about this part of the incident needed.

Thanks. I know you will continue to sympathise with me due to the careless actions of another which was the whole purpose of this thread anyway.

 

Wow. it sucks that that happened to you. i wouldn't have stopped. i would have chased the car down and made him pay. it's all good it's all expreience.

my car is a target for everything. just at work the other day this guy with his Volvo SUV parks so close to my passenger door that when i walked out to get lunch i looked at his door and then at mine, and thought how the hell did h even get out of the car! came to realize AFTER i got my lunch that he had made a pretty deep ding on my door. so what was i supposed to do? since it's a co-worker im thinking just suck it up and get the ding done on my own...

also the other day while driving on the hghway i huge snowball hit my windshield so hard that for a minute i was in complete shock because the noise was so loud that i assumed my window was going to crack and i was going to die.

then at school this girl while backing out of the parking lot scratched my backside and when i was coming to my car she was writing me a note. well i got $200 out of her for buffing. still pissed me off cause i had the car for not more than a week!