Oh joy. My sister-in-law is learning to drive, and her driving-school instructor told her that when she’s in a lane on the highway that’s about to end, she should accelerate to the very end of the lane and then cut back in just as the lane ends.
Of course, I’ve known about people who drive like this for years. Who hasn’t encountered one of these assholes? But it’s certainly news to me that there are driving instructors out there who are teaching people to drive like this! Other gems from this imbecile include “you don’t have to slow down in a school zone”.
When any asshole who can spell his own name is allowed to teach driving school, it’s no wonder we have so many shitty drivers on our roads. It’s funny how we will commit huge resources to saving relatively small numbers of lives in other areas of society, but we don’t seem willing to do something about the absurdly high casualty rates on our national highways. Idiots like this driving instructor are a big part of the problem, along with the bizarre notion that a driver’s license is for life.
Personally, I’d strongly push for periodic re-testing. Everyone should have to re-test for his license every 5 years. And as for driving instructors like the cretin who’s giving bad advice to my sister in law? They should be drawn and quartered. Slowly.
Youch, I hope I don’t get an instructer that bad. I’ve allways wondered how much of the blame is on the actual drivers and how much on their teaching.
-Ace
Sometimes, I’m outright terrified at the idea of driving, with some of the idiots I see on the road. That combined with the rising gas prices lately is more than enough incentive for me to simply use public transport for the time being.
This is the same shit my instructor told me when I was training for my full G license. The dipshit said I must always accelerate to the end of the lane before merging, and got pissed at me when I was up to speed and merged well before the lane ended. It’s bullshit, merge in as soon as you’re up to speed so that in case you get cock-blocked by traffic or whatever you have some road to play with without fucking up traffic flow. If I had a dollar for every time I see some incompetant fool bring traffic to a standstill or cause accidents from not knowing how to merge and running out of road, I could quit my job and buy a Ferrari.
You’re on a two-lane road when you go past a lane that merges in from the left. You can’t get into the other lane because you have to make a left turn 30 feet after the merging lane ends. And some dipshit in a fat SUV comes up at full speed expecting you and your little compact to move to the right. Did the whole concept of the right of way just miss these people?
That’s um… strange. The cop who gave me my driver’s test told me the same thing. I don’t do it of course because that’s not the way my Dad taught me to drive. Of course, now I do alot of things I was told never to do while driving, but I digress. I still don’t do that.
America is one of the worst countries in the world as far as driving competence and courtesy go (I don’t think it’s quite as bad as Italy, though). Almost 60% of Californians can’t pass a written driver’s test, even when they repeat it.