Acura MDX

This is a vehicle that has never really made an impression on me, it was always one of those that just kind of sat in the side of my mind as sometimes it is good sometimes it is not. Nothing outstanding. I might say that if Honda drivers are average, then Acura drivers like to flaunt the fact that they spent $10k more for the same car with leather so may be inclined to drive faster.

Well yesterday afternoon on my way back from work, this one did a pretty aggressive start off of the line and passed on the right so that she could get over before the lane ended. 

Now it could be that there were other factors involved, like being late for a soccer game or her house was on fire or something. However, I will definately say that by the time I got this picture she was not doing the 45 mile an hour speed limit that is posted just down the road.

So how do you react to an Acura MDX? Well, for right now I think that the jury is still out, but it has entered my radar and now that there is a category to track, maybe after a couple of months there will be a pattern that is more discernible. Just watch out for the MDX as you play with traffic and let me know if you have run ins of your own.

Farm Trucks

There are a couple of general rules that all of my littler rules stem off of. American cars are driven faster than Japanese cars but usually not as fast as German cars, if there is a small dent in the body work of the car that person is more likely to drive recklessly and fast. Well I also have a general rule involving big trucks, namely that they are driven 10-20 mph over the speed limit, and the drivers usually drive like they have a small sports car weaving in and out of traffic.

There are all kinds of big trucks that you need to keep an eye out for and this one over here was no exception. I break these big trucks up into more specific categories like farm trucks (the ones with six wheels and extended mirrors), off road trucks (raised and covered with dirt), and compensating for something trucks (raised and immaculately clean). This truck started off behind me and was content to ride my bumper really close for the mile where Pecos Rd is only two lanes. Once we crossed over to the four lane part of the road, it took about two seconds before he started spewing his $5 diesel all over the road because 10 over the speedlimit was just not fast enough he needed to go 20 over. So this episode served to reconfirm the rule that I have in my head which is stay away from big trucks because generally they will only drive more recklessly if you mess around with them.

Try to keep this in mind as you play with traffic.

Ford Focus

 

This stop light seemed like a no brainer. There was a Hyundai Tiburon, usually a good choice which seemed to be sitting all alone on the line, a double stack of a honda Accord and a Dodge Nitro, (newer Accords are a good bet but the historically slower Nitro detracted) and then a Lincoln Navigator, which have been slowing down lately because I think because their owners finally realized that rolling on DUBs at $4.50 a gallon is not as cool as it was at $2.00 a gallon.

So I pull up to the light and then as I am looking through the glass of the car in front of me I realize that there is another car in front of them. I start to try and guess what kind it is based soley on the rooflines and the best that I can come up with is some kind of Ford but not sure even then. It was at this point that I assumed I was going to get hung out to dry.

Sure enough, the Honda Accord lived up to all of my expectations as did the Dodge Nitro. The Navigator suprised me and accelerated quickly. I know all of this because I was basically still sitting at the light by the time they were down the block. I was experiencing some major chaffage behind whoever was in front of the Tiburon so I decided that it was time to take matters into my own hands and do some passing.

It was at this point that I realized why I had gotten totally wrecked in my assumptions. I missed the Ford Focus. A silver one at that. My general rule of thumb is to avoid them because I have not found a decernible pattern in three years other than you never know what you are going to get. This is also a perfect example of why it is important to look three or four cars ahead in all lanes as you drive because you want to make sure you do not get blindsided by something like what happened to me.

So the rules that apply here are look multiple cars ahead sometimes even looking at shadows to determine if there is a car that is not easily visible, avoid Ford Focus in any color especially silver because it is kind of a “cant make up my mind color”, and also for those of you keeping your own score put a negative score next to bumper stickers. It can be helpful to read the bumper stickers to determine someones demographic and political leanings but there will be a whole post about those rules at a later date.

That about wraps up this entry. Hopefully, you enjoyed the observations about this situation and will be able to apply some of these observations as you are playing with traffic.

Yellow Ford Mustang

First and foremost there is the general rule about Mustangs: The condition, color and series all play a significant role in determining how you should assume that person will drive. The driver of this car is almost irrelevant. Because it is a yellow mustang with some custom options and obviously well taken care of my correct assumption was that he would jump off of the line for no reason other than he is proud of his car and wants to show off to total strangers that he will never meet again.

Usually though the real trick is looking at the correct combination of demographic of the driver eg college age girls just enjoy being in the Mustang so drive normally, while college age guys flaunt that they are in any kind of Mustang even if it is an old crappy one so expect them to drive faster and weave through traffic. 

I find that my rules about bumper stickers generally do not apply here because it is not often that you see a bumper sticker on a “sports car” albeit a common one. 

That about wraps up this entry. Hopefully, you enjoyed the observations about this situation and will be able to apply some of these observations as you are playing with traffic