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Nervous passenger

Basil

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Have you ever ridden as a passenger with someone whose driving made you really nervous? For example, when I drive, I am (rhymes with A Nail) about keeping both hands firmly on the wheel, usually either at 9 and 3 or 10 and 2, but I keep a grip on the wheel at all times (I might reach over occasionally to tune a radio, but otherwise...).

I recently had occasion to ride as a passenger on a long trip with a very nice fellow who drove either with his hand/wrist just resting lightly on the top of the wheel or a finger or two resting on the spoke of the steering wheel. He also had a disturbing habit of taking both hands off the wheel and waving them in the air while talking. In other words, he would have had no control if a front tire blew or anything else happened suddenly that would require immediate control of the car.

At one point, as he was waving his hands in the air, I politely said "would you mind keeping your hands on the wheel - I'm just a nervous passenger."

Oh, and turn signals? What's are those?

Anyone else ever ride in a vehicle with someone whose driving skills made you happy to get to your destination in one piece?
 

NutmegCT

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Y E S !

Get in friend's car, he backs into a hedge before heading forward on the driveway. Then pulls out into the road without looking; two cars screech on brakes to avoid hitting us. He says "where'd they come from?"

We then proceed down the highway, crossing the center line, even veering into the shoulder area, while he's playing with the digital control screen. Our speed varies from 20 over the speed limit, to 20 under the speed limit.

I ask if we can let in some fresh air (vent button shows "recirculate" - fresh air vents are closed). He says "always wondered how to do that". He's only had the car for two years ...

This continues for 40 minutes until we thankfully reach the destination. I silently wish for someone to plow into his car while it's parked, so the return trip won't happen.

Forgot to say - he's a volunteer driving instructor for a group of retired folks.

yeesh
 

65_BRG_Sprite

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I had a supervisor that was (is) a super guy. But as he drove and talked with phone in one hand and waved the other around with his conversation, worried me no end.
 

DrEntropy

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It is VERY rare for me to allow myself to be a passenger unless I know and trust the driver.
 

TRMark

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So, the driving instructor, was he driving a Buick?
 

pdplot

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1. Many years ago, I volunteered with a friend to help sail a mutual friend's sailboat from Cataumet, MA to Newport, RI for the America's Cup race. We took the train from CT up to someplace on Cape Cod, then hitchhiked to Cataumet. A kid picked us up in an old car and proceeded to scare the crap out of us by careening down the road at very high speed, racing through a stop sign and weaving all over the road while Bill and I prayed silently. We did arrive in one piece and thanked our "benefactor". I really thought our life was ending on that lonely road.

2. After attending a party in NYC, a friend gave my wife and I a ride home to CT. He had quite a bit to drink, and to make it worse, his wife had been flirting with another guy and he was burning mad. He drove like a maniac while my wife and I held hands in the back seat. They were divorced not long after in a bitter divorce.
 
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Basil

Basil

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1. Many years ago, I volunteered with a friend to help sail a mutual friend's sailboat from Cataumet, MA to Newport, RI for the America's Cup race. We took the train from CT up to someplace on Cape Cod, then hitchhiked to Cataumet. A kid picked us up in an old car and proceeded to scare the crap out of us by careening down the road at very high speed, racing through a stop sign and weaving all over the road while Bill and I prayed silently. We did arrive in one piece and thanked our "benefactor". I really thought our life was ending on that lonely road.

I think that kid must have grown up to become a Taxi Driver in Boston because I took a cab ride in Boston once that sounded a lot like that.
 

DavidApp

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My Wife's Uncle Charlie had suffered a bad farm accident causing him to lose the use of his left leg. He still had the leg but it was of little use as a clutch operating leg.
Rode with him several times on short trips. He drove an old farm truck with a column shift. The clutch was operated with his walking cane. Gear changes involved both hands off the wheel as he depressed the clutch with the cane and shifted with the right hand. All the while going down bumpy farm roads.
He refused to get an automatic for some reason.
Rode his 4 wheeler side saddle.
A real character.

David
 

Bayless

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Several years ago I caught a taxi ride from Veracruz, Mexico to the airport. It was a Datsun 510 wagon with, I think it was, only 3rd gear. The driver didn't like to stop or even slow down much because the shortage of gears made it hard to get going again. Anyway, the whole trip was mostly at 40-45 mph in quite busy traffic. At one point, a garbage truck appeared stopped in our lane. There was way too much oncoming traffic to pass it and I knew that little 510 was no match for the truck. But the driver still didn't slow down at all. Instead, he swerved up onto the sidewalk and passed the truck on the right at 40 mph.
 
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Basil

Basil

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<snip> But the driver still didn't slow down at all. Instead, he swerved up onto the sidewalk and passed the truck on the right at 40 mph.

And you were yelling "weeeee! This is fun" the whole time, right?
 

Popeye

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Shanghai taxis. Much better today than, say, ten years ago. Holy bleep was driving with them insane. A friend wore a sleeping blindfold; he figured he can't do anything about the driving, so at least try to reduce the associated stress.

Then there is driving in India - not nerve-racking due to speed, but due to all the stuff going on on the streets! Cows to cars.
 
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Rode to a day long meeting once with this woman I worked with, drove like she was being chased by the devil. Told me she'd passed me a number of times when going home at the end of the day and wanted to know why I drove "like a grandma" when I generally went with the traffic flow instead of cutting in and out of traffic..

Also learned that day not to criticize some drivers of an opposite gender.. She complained that she'd replace the clutch in her Mazda every year and that it was the worst thing anyone ever put in a car. Well, watched how she drove, never took her foot off the clutch pedal and used it to hold the car at lights when facing uphill. I mentioned that was why it wore so quickly and using the brake was a much better way. Well, I got yelled at. She wanted to know just who I was to criticize how her sainted father taught her to drive, that I was lucky she didn't haul off and smack me, and exactly what type of "idiot" I was. The lesson learned was, "don't offer a female driver advice on driving"....
 

Bayless

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Actually, never offer a female advice on anything unless she specifically requests it and then only if the advice is what she wants to hear.
'
 

DavidApp

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Working in China in the 1990s being driven anywhere at night was a harrowing experience.
The Chinese drivers had got the idea that the headlights drained the battery so they only flashed them on and off when they suspected there was another car coming the other way.
Best place to sit in the cab or buss was directly behind the driver with head phones on and hope for the best.

David
 

DrEntropy

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Bangkok taxi driver.

All four off the ground crossing a "klong" bridge.

Asked why he drove with his butt wedged between the door and the seat. His answer was: "Something happen, I let go of wheel and let Buddha drive." :eeek:
 
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