This is the thread where we talk about bad driving/riding/walking

As per RWA's request, here's a thread where we can talk about bad driving. This was sparked by a video in the meme thread of a motorcyclist passing a car on a double yellow and then that car swerving and hitting the bike as it passed. (I'm posting from a phone, so posting the video here is tough, somebody help me out.)

Anyway, there I stated that basically everyone in the video was an asshole, and that's about it. For my part, yes, I realize that the video warrants a more nuanced emotional response. I realize that the driver is an infinitely worse piece of rodent shit than the biker. Unfortunately, I've seen so much evidence of how many awful things people are capable of recently that I just don't have the emotional gumption to parse this whole thing out right now.

You're all assholes, as am I. The next civilization ending asteroid needs to hurry it's sweet rocky ass up. That's all I can really say right now. Ask again tomorrow when I may be able to scrape together some faith in humanity and myself.

Ok, continue discussing the video now and keep your outraged little mitts off my meme thread. That thread is for silly internet shit, and motorcycle accident trauma is decidedly not silly.

1. You can be as much as asshole to fellow man as you like, so long as nobody is physically hurt
2. You can pick and choose the laws you want to follow, and you can expect that others will still be required to follow the law, or where they are participating in Part 2, they must respect Part 1

These are good rules. I'm in.

So robbery is legal as long as no one is there to physically intercede?

I don't think he's talking about laws, just whether citizen justice fits the crime maybe?

The driver was an asshole, which caused the motorcyclist to be an asshole, which caused the driver to cross the line (both figuratively and literally) from simple asshole to attempted murderer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L13Z7Aa7ZXQ

Yes. The status of the action is unchanged, but you can't do anything about it beyond yelling and screaming. You are definitely not allowed to take any physical action in response to, well, most anything. I don't fully grasp whether it's okay to take violent action in response to violent action. That, as far as I know, is untested.

It's really pretty cool. The freedom to do whatever you'd like to do at any given moment with the full assurance that everyone else has to follow ethical and legal imperatives is an amazing feeling. What could possibly be better than "your rules don't apply to me unless I want them to?" Very cool.

Most road users do pick and choose which rules they obey, which they bend a little and which they totally ignore.
What tends to happen is that different types of road users tend to ignore different rules.
Car drivers ignore different rules than cyclists. Pedestrians ignore different rules than truck drivers. I'd say motorcyclists ignore more than the others.
The big issue is that most of this sort of road rage comes when you get upset at another type of vehicle. And it seems to me that it's mostly from ignorance. And is usually justified by "but road user of type X always breaks the rules". And that somehow that allows the person to also break the rules and sometimes to also deliberately try to hurt them.
What's amazing is this faulty logic usually results in the person also breaking rules. You cut me off, I'll cut you off. You speed, I'll speed past you. You cross lines, I'll cross lines.
If the person was that concerned about the law, how could they justify breaking it themselves? Should a 3rd party who sees it happen pull out a rocket launcher and shoot both of them, in the name of safety.

It's purely road rage. The only bit about "but they broke the law first" is that it's a trigger for their rage.
It's also something that can escalate. You road rage someone who is also a road rager or has friends with them who are, then it can get very ugly. That car driver who ran the bike off the road, some groups of bike riders would have assaulted the driver.
I don't agree with that sort of action, but it could happen. And it would be because the people involved have a similar logic to the driver.

Live and let live.
Let the cops look after other people.
If it's bad enough, pull over and call the cops to report someone.
Enjoy your time on the road.
If you get red mist, learn to turn it away and do something positive rather than aggressive.

Hey, I'm totally onboard with live and let live, and totally onboard with the insane sequence of events that results in everybody doing stupid shit. Yep, that's for real.

What I am not okay with is people breaking some laws and looking to others for protection. That's tripping and falling while breaking and entering stupid. That's evading taxes so you can donate to charity stupid. That's speeding and suing for roadway design failure stupid. When you do stupid shit and stupid shit happens to you you're a stupid shit.

Car guy is a fucking psycho. The fact that he even had the thought to swerve at another human being is insane. But that doesn't change the fact that the motorcyclist broke the law and he got hurt, and now he's whining that it's okay that he broke passing laws but not okay that fucking psycho guy broke the staying in his lane and not swerving at other vehicles law. Sorry, I'm not buying it. When people chuck societal rules-following responsibilities out the window and then get hurt they can go merrily fuck themselves. I don't care what happened or who was involved. If that motorcyclist had followed the rules nothing bad would have happened. Period, end of story. If you want my sympathy you have to earn it, and "following some of the rules when they suit you" is not how that gets done. Passing over a double yellow is stupid shit. When you get hurt doing stupid shit you're a stupid shit.

The motorcyclist didn't get hurt because he broke the law. He got hurt because a psychopath assaulted him. That's a bit different than getting hurt due to tripping or cutting your hand on the window you broke while breaking and entering.

In some states, what the motorcyclist did would not be illegal. Those states have laws that you can cross double yellow when safe to do so in order to pass traffic that is going far below the speed limit. It's common sense and common practice. Texas doesn't appear to be one of the states that allows that though.

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Originally Posted by Dicknose

usually justified by "but road user of type X always breaks the rules". And that somehow that allows the person to also break the rules and sometimes to also deliberately try to hurt them.
What's amazing is this faulty logic usually results in the person also breaking rules. You cut me off, I'll cut you off. You speed, I'll speed past you. You cross lines, I'll cross lines.
If the person was that concerned about the law, how could they justify breaking it themselves? Should a 3rd party who sees it happen pull out a rocket launcher and shoot both of them, in the name of safety.

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Yep. There was a story a few years back about a cyclist who got shot because he was dragging his kid in a bike trailer on the road and the kid didn't have a helmet on. It's a special kind of stupid.

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Originally Posted by overpowered

The motorcyclist didn't get hurt because he broke the law. He got hurt because a psychopath assaulted him. That's a bit different than getting hurt due to tripping or cutting your hand on the window you broke while breaking and entering.

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So he would have gotten hurt if he hadn't tried to pass? You're choosing arbitrarily the step in a series of events that led to the injury. Bottom line is, had you not broken the law you would not have gotten hurt. You can make whatever excuses and reasons you like for what specifically caused the incident (hey, the burglar wouldn't have gotten hurt if I'd cleaned up the yard or installed tempered glass). It's insane to pick and choose blame points when the root cause is don't start none won't be none. If you don't break the law and then you get hurt, hey, we have something to talk about. Otherwise, piss off.

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In some states, what the motorcyclist did would not be illegal. Those states have laws that you can cross double yellow when safe to do so in order to pass traffic that is going far below the speed limit. It's common sense and common practice. Texas doesn't appear to be one of the states that allows that though.

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I don't care what other laws are in other places. In other places slavery is legal and you can dump oil on the ground. In either places you can put a Cadillac 500 in a Honda CVCC or grow corn in your front yard. What's true elsewhere doesn't apply to you here.