subysteez

iTrader: (3)

Seriously? You're implying that traffic in the left lane is entitled to go as fast at they please? It would be one thing if he was going the speed LIMIT, or 5mph over, but in congested traffic I think that 80mph is more than reasonable.
That being said, I do not condone brake checking.. that's asking for trouble.

Joe250

I'm not implying anything. I'll state it outright - anyone should be able to drive as fast as they want. They should also be held 100% liable for damage to any one's property if they crash. We basically have the first half of this equation without the latter.

What percentage of drivers in America follow all speed limits 100% all the time? I would say it is so close to zero that it might as well be. So if everyone gets to make up the law for themselves, picking and choosing which laws they follow, when they follow them, and how hard they want to break them, what gives you the right to stop them?

If any of this alarms you for reasons of 'safety' then safe driving practices dictates that you exercise good lane discipline (i.e. no passing on the right, no blocking on the left, etc.) and that you never brake check people.

So what are we arguing about here? The OP admitted to speeding, blocking faster traffic in the passing lane, brake checking, then driving even faster than 85, then exiting (and I'm going to guess he jumped over 2+ lanes very quickly to do so). Funny how he said he just couldn't move over due to traffic when the driver behind him wanted to pass but he certainly could move over when he thought he was going to get shot. He comes here for sympathy and some people on here coddle him just because he drives a Subaru and is an i-club member? I think if you look more critically at what he did you will see that he did several things that were not only unsafe and annoy all of us everyday on the roads, he escalated a situation when he should not have.

slugrx

iTrader: (12)

Maybe it's just me but no matter how fast I am going I always get over to let people pass. ..

Let them speed ahead and get the ticket haha

brucelee

iTrader: (6)

+1

The guy totally over-reacted, but you shouldn't have brake checked the other driver.

Bay Area drivers aren't much better, especially in the South Bay.

Krinkov

iTrader: (21)

holy hell F*** everything about that! I complain about the bay, and there are some ghetto areas here like Oakland but damn, **** gets real in in other places out there. Glad you're here to tell the tale, but if you can afford to move out you should. I mean whats your life worth?

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

*burp*

RAWeiss

iTrader: (12)

this lol, i'll make that lang change with seemingly no room

and to the OP tough situation.. ignore w/e joe250 blamehammer is preaching, i honestly think I/many others would have done most of the same give or take

ultimately glad you're alright.. people are ****ing crazier than ever if you ask me, i've learned all too well especially with my recent crash/ramming incident on 280.. i just play stealth fighter 24/7 now lol.. move back to the bay asap!

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

I agree.

Me too, and I agree.

TheFozz

iTrader: (2)

*Let them speed ahead and hopefully NOT wreck into someone, just into a barrier wall or something like, a-hem, the back of a parked semi that's getting a spot inspection by CHP. We've all seen it happen.

Call it the : popcorn : school of driving.

Also, invest in a fore and aft camera setup, just in case.

PikkaGTR

iTrader: (4)

I learned a long time ago that if you take things seriously about what other drivers do and react to, it makes your commute much more stressful.
If you had just moved over by slowing down, none of the events that put you in danger would have happened.
Maybe the other driver tailgating you while you believe you were driving at at adequate rate of speed somehow offended your manhood or sense of entitlement you sped up endangering more people and then brake checked him to make your point.
I drive over 100+ miles for work 5 days a week over a very large territory from East bay to Monterey and I always move over for people who wants to use the left lane to speed. it takes a few moments then I can get back over, no harm done.

TheFozz

iTrader: (2)

Ditto, I think my daily average just in the work van is hovering around 100-130miles a day. Lately I just sit back and watch the stupidity ensue.

That said even I am considering a GoPro or other in-car surveillance pointed fore and aft to record some of the crazy crap I see on the daily. I've gotten a call, from work, asking basically "WTF r U doin!?" and replied "..driving in a manner that protect myself and YOUR investment(s), me and this vehicle, why?" to be told some idiot that just acted a fool calls the number on the vehicle to complain some random stuff that isn't true.

Give me camera surveillance. Then all the gotta ask the caller is "What's the make/model/color/plate of your vehicle" for me to pull the video and show people the stupid crap going on.

subysteez

iTrader: (3)

I had a long response typed to adress the faulty logic, but instead decided to reduce this fine bit of rhetoric to it's essence of absurdity.
-I'm entitled to drive as fast as I please. If anything bad happens, ill take full reaponability, no lawyer, and seek the maximum penalty. Thats how society works, right ? **** the school zones, residential areas, and yo couch. I'm entitled to to endanger the lives of those around me. Afterall, I got places to go, and doing a buck twenty its gonna shave like 10 minutes off my commute time. Gubment can't tell me how to be safe.
If somebody waves a gun in your face, you probably deserved it.
Mercia. Ron Paul 2016!

wombatsauce

iTrader: (7)

Soooooo agreed. Thank you for all you do. For me personally, having every drive recorded in HD has helped a ton, and makes me more conscious of my actions.

You may have missed the point, though admittedly that probably makes it much more exciting and stuff.

The simple fact is, it's not up to a random driver to police the actions of another random driver who is operating outside of the bounds of their favorite set of rules to follow (since NO ONE follows all the rules). It's up to the police and highway patrol. Taking it upon yourself to "slow someone down" or "teach them a lesson" by brake-checking them is not part of the picture, and it is commonly known that these actions provoke escalation.

I cannot imagine a scenario where you start a car-fight with another driver and they "suddenly realize they were in the wrong and start driving in a way that you appreciate" in this world. I am sure there are some others out there who feel that the can and do "teach others a lesson" but it is literally just not the case.

When you see someone charging all fast and mad down the road, let them go by and get into their own trouble that does not concern you instead of attracting their rage and then asking a police officer to clean up your mess.

The real problem here is pride. Just $#&%ing drive.

Joe250

You seem to be conflating some things here. Notice who is saying they don't respect the current speed limits? And not just say but more importantly their actions demonstrate that they don't care about speed limits. Who is this group? You think it is Libertarians (or insert whatever knee-jerk group name rings your bell) but the answer is EVERYONE! Everyone in California speeds. Everywhere. At all times. Including the very people you and I are paying to enforce the speed limits - that's right: THE POLICE. How often do you see police speeding vs driving the limit?

All California drivers, including you, are demonstrating every day that they believe they are entitled to drive as fast as they please! Don't act like its some tiny minority crack-pot group of crazies. And how fast is 'as fast as they please'? Its usually about 10-20 over the limit on most freeways. You don't need a speed survey to tell you that. Open your eyes. Why don't they drive faster? Because they don't feel safe driving faster and/or they don't want a ticket. Look up research by traffic engineers about psychological/visual inputs that affect the 'natural' speed people drive at when left to their own devices.

But you and everyone else does exactly what I said. Don't act like this isn't widespread. It is, but everyone ignores it until one person gets a ticket then everyone slams them for complaining about it, offering up their usual moronic, snide comment 'Don't do the crime if you can't do the time'. Ugh. Speeding is not a crime. Crashing your car into someone or someone's property is a crime. One does not necessarily lead to the other. Correlation is not causation.

Vote Ron Paul 2015!

subysteez

iTrader: (3)

I get that. But in the OP, it was stated that he could not merge right safely. All of the sudden somebody comes into the thread asserting that he purposefully didn't change lanes, then brake checked, to escalate the situation. I'm sorry, but in my book, that's a dickish thing to assume since he wasn't there.
At best, those comments provide a red herring which by definition serves no purpose than to distract from the issue at hand; people who use weapons to intimidate/assault other drivers. I don't care what you do. Violence or the threat thereof is never an appropriate response vehicular idiocy.