DWO and DWI - rant
 

I live in a smallish town that has a Del Webb senior community. Nice place with nice houses. Unfortunately they attract that nasty over 55 crowd. I'm 72 so save your self righteous nastygrams. Most of the ladies from this area seem to drive medium to large SUVs and they are constantly either driving while oblivious (DWO) or driving while indecisive (DWI). The town has more four way stops than stop lights and the agony of getting through one of these is amazing. If you're stuck behind one of these old gals, they will almost never go on their turn. They are frozen in time at the STOP sign. If you blow your horn they get pissed off. If you arrive at an intersection going 90* from one of them, they demonstrate that they don't know the first thing about four way stops. If you arrive first, you go first. If you arrive at the same time as a car on the cross street, the car on the right has the right of way. Simple, no? They will sit and wave cars past because they think that it is a safe thing to do. What they are actually doing is sowing confusion amongst those of us who KNOW who has the right of way, creating the possibility that two or more of us may start at the same time out of frustration and have an accident. One that Brun Hilda in her Lexus 400 will never be involved in, but will have caused. Phew! I'm done.

Sounds like a good reason to move.

We used to call them FOPS when I was in Florida. F#$%$@ Old People. LOL. Now I'm 60, but can still figure out a four way stop.

Wait until some of those 4-way stops are replaced with roundabouts. It'll be carnage!

Welcome to my world! :willy:

Correct! we have several roundabouts... and old people have no clue out to get out of them... and they stop for anyone trying to get in.. Chaos at the git go..:smash::smash::toetap::toetap:

okay. I admit thus thread is funny as hell. Sounds like you've experienced my mom's driving.

We've had several new "traffic circles" (as they used to be called) built around here in recent years.

They are friggin' dumb. There is no advantage that I can see, aside from the contractors who schmooze with the state politicians and get these ridiculously padded jobs.

"The traffic circle to nowhere."

I was driving into the gym today when this person was blocking everyone who was trying to enter the parking area..She would NOT move for like 5 mins.. So I start beeping witch I normally dont do but 5 mins is a long time. Car slowing creeps forward.. finally I have enough room to move forward and around.. as other cars behind me now start beeping. I look to see who was driving and it this at least 90 year old women. Im not trying to be a dick but how do they still have lisences? I mean seriously she had no clue what was going on. Gonna get in a accident some day.

I've always said it is WAY too easy to obtain a drivers license! DMV needs to completely redo the system. These seniors are very dangerous driving the way they do, and I would hope that I wouldn't be able to maintain my license if I couldn't manage behind the wheel in my senior years. Maybe test them annually?

I feel your pain at the four-way stop sign especially. I take people's right away all the time. I just get tired of staring at them when they were clearly there (sometimes for easily 10 seconds) first and the look on their face as I drive through is hilarious! Anyone ever been to Plano, TX? There are dedicated Youtube videos on the bad drivers of Plano, TX. Our problem is we have a lot of people who are not from this country and how they pass the DMV test is mind boggling!

I could almost guarantee you that if you put 100 old, or young, or in-between people in a room and asked them that "person on the right has the right of way" question, you would get 1% correct answers. Or, 0%. Really.

It may be in the driver license book for your state (and all states) but it is one of those things that just is NOT remembered. I can also guarantee you that I have not seen that "person on the right goes first if both arrive at same time" adhered to by any driver in possibly 30+ years. Or longer.

While I'm with you on length of decision time and obliviousness, I'd rather a bit of over-cautious than the opposite. Ever see a "senior" just blow right thru a stop or a light w/o slowing down? I have, and too frequently. And "I are one," too. :D

Yes. Four way stop signs. You explained the rule perfectly. No one these days understands that very simple set of rules. I even heard a cop explain it like this just the other day, "four way stop sign intersections operate as a courtesy", each driver is courteous and allows each other to go as a matter of courtesy. I called him on it and repeated what I was taught about first come first go, and right of way rule. He got angry and tried to swell up on me as if I'd challenged his authority. It was laughable, but really a little sad. Where did this happen? Plano, TX.

It's not just old people. I truly believe someone put something in the water a while back and a bunch of people drank it. For every good driver, there are 10 idiots on the road. It's at epidemic levels. They're everywhere! :willy:

About 6-7 years ago our town put in roundabouts at on both sides of one the sets of on/off ramps to I-15 to replace the 4-way stop signs; since then accidents in that area have definitely increased (don't have any actual stats, but know I have seen them more frequently then in the past) . Might be why they decided to go with stop lights at the set of on/off ramps lol.

Haha!! Gotta love Plano, TX drivers! Even the 5-0 are ignorant to this most basic drivers ed information!! Don't think about even slightly rolling through a red light turning right in Plano! I pull up to a red light, stop....pull the parking brake.....then release, put into 1st and turn right. Ok, slight exaggeration, but I do count to 2 before turning. $75 a pop hurts my tight wad ass!

True, it's pretty bad here. Lots of folks from eastern and central Asia that haven't a clue. I believe that if you can pass the written test in Texas, you are good to go. The great part is that you don't even have to read English. If you can't read the test they will administer it orally. Don't think there is a driving test anymore. I still wonder how they read the road signs. You know, unimportant stuff like, "Bridge Out". The guy that scored my driving test a 100 years ago would have flunked these folks in a heartbeat.

Well gosh. I'm not even gonna ask your thoughts on the people that don't know how to get on a highway anymore......:leaving:

If I get to the stop second (two cars), I make it a point not to look at the other person. I know with their confusion, they're waving me through, but I don't look up. Come on! In the time it takes to wave, they could be through the intersection already. The other one I love is when the other car obviously gets there first and you're still arriving....maybe 50 to 100 feet out. They don't go until you're stopped (and it's obvious that you're slowing to eventually stop). This really gets my goat when I'm on my motorcycle 'cause I want to do a balanced stop and go...but can't because the yahoo that should already be long gone is waiting for me to stop. Stupid, stupid people.

Ah, we used the term q-tips for the same bunch.

OP has issues? Gimme a break. My DD is a motorcycle. These farts lumbering around in their Suburbans are a menace.