Re: I STILL hate driving in the north east!!!
You need to get exorcize or something. You're luck behind the wheel is terrible.
That's the thing I don't see my self as a BAD driver, I don't consider my self the best person in the world either. I always try to leave a margin of error, I don't push my car to the max, I don't out drive my headlights (well with HID's that's actually kinda hard to do) I always try to make sure there is a place for me to go in an emergency (Ex when on the highway I always check to makes sure there is no car next to me so I can make an emergency lane change or I make sure there is an clear emergency lane I can go it etc...)
I seem to have near misses every time I get behind the wheel. I wont even attempt to drive during rush hour(s) anymore. (Infact that's what happened today with my friend, I decided to go to his house because I was in the area and I didn't want to drive during rush hour. When I got there he decided he wanted to go for a drive.) I'll park my car and not go anywhere till its done (you really can't get anywhere anyway, the entire area gets full out gridlock, I figure its not worth the frustration, or the wear and tear on my car. Instead of spending an hour to go somewhere at that time in gridlock, I just wait an hour for it to be over and then just take a 10 minute drive anywhere) Some of my friends houses I wont leave till 2:30 am because that is the only time I can leave and not get slowed down by traffic. If I leave any sooner than that I hit a ton of traffic and it takes me almost an hour to get home instead of 20 minutes.
I just hate coming to terms with the fact there is just NO way to keep a car nice in this area. There is just SO much traffic, and so many bad drivers, that its almost impossible not to get into some kind of accident on a regular bases. Right after you have a crash its just a count down till the next one. I don't know a single person who has not been in some kind of accident with what ever car(s) they currently own. They ALL have dents and scratches. Its getting to the point here people are putting the extra rubber strips on there bumpers here (people only used to do that if they drove IN the city (NYC) but the traffic here is getting to the point that its almost just as bad.) I see brand new $50,000 cars driving around all the time with scratched up bumpers, because people who own the cars can't justify replacing the bumper to just have it messed up again.