Category: Funny stories

Funny stories of things that we have seen or done inthe drivers ed car

Super Cool Bicycle People

Continuing our bicycle theme. Another fun moment from Main St. Texting while driving is illegal. Bicycles on the road are supposed to follow all the same rules as cars. They are supposed to stop at stop signs, signal their intention to turn, and I assume NOT text. Also, giant prolonged wheelies while swerving all over a busy road might not be my first choice, but to each their own.

Super Cool Bicycle People https://spark.adobe.com/video/vUc3RJlPvO4ro

Take it to the Mattresses

Has anyone ever seen a mattress on top of a car that looked safe and properly secured?

Yesterday we saw a car on Main St. with two mattresses bungee corded to the roof, leaning precariously. The passenger had his window down trying to prop them up. We were very glad to not be next to or behind them. Please take time to properly secure any items you are transporting for your safety and the people around you.

Thank you!

Police Update

So much fun!  Tonight we were stopped at a red light and a police SUV pulled up next to us and rolled his window down.  Matt, who was driving, rolled down his window in return.  The police officer, with a great big smile and the proverbial head nod, said, “Do you want to race?”  

I said, “At exactly the speed limit? ”  What a sight that would be!  

Bicycle texting

This week’s winner for Main Street Monday is… bicycle texting boy.

Joe and I were driving down Main St. and stopped at a red light.  We looked over to see a man riding his bicycle down the wrong side of the road.  Now,  lot of people think that bicycles are supposed to be on the sidewalk, which is not true.  On Main St., I may occasionally feel that with all the traffic the sidewalk looks like a safer place to ride but this is not technically correct.  Bicycles are supposed to be just like cars, on the road, following all the same rules.  He should have been on the right side of the road going with traffic.  We do give him thumbs up for wearing a helmet.

Not only was this man on the wrong side of the road, but he was out in the middle of an oncoming lane.  He may not have noticed since he was staring at his phone, texting.  Look ma, no hands!  Thankfully, it was a red light because pointed straight at him in the lane in which he was biking was a big blue city bus.

We watched and waited, and while it was close, he didn’t actually ride his bike straight into the front of the bus.  It would have been pretty funny, since the bus wasn’t moving and he probably wouldn’t have gotten too hurt.  We think it might have been the wake-up call he needed though.  So, once again the winner for craziest thing we saw this week on Main St. is… bicycle texting man who almost hit a city bus.  Thanks for playing, tune in to see who it might be next week!

One way

This week the strange thing we saw the most, believe it or not, was people driving straight at us on one way streets.

I know this leaves me thinking, how is that possible?  There are always signs telling you that a street is one way.  There are pavement markings to reinforce the idea.  You should always have a yellow line on your left and a white line on your right.  If this is not true, you are going the wrong way.  The biggest clue should be if you make a turn and there are cars driving straight towards you.

I can make excuses for these folks.  It might be that they were simply following directions from their magic phones that mislead them.  It could be that they were lost and confused, and not thinking clearly enough to recognize the signs.  It could be that they thought that one way meant any one way that they chose as opposed to that specific way designated by “the man.”

In any case, once headed the wrong way, it was not easy to right themselves, no pun intended.  They had to make a quick turn in each case onto a nearby street, in one case I’m pretty sure it was also a one way street the wrong way, but once they were committed to process, I guess they chose to see it through.  In another case, pedestrians in the crosswalk waved madly at them and got them to realize their error and turn onto another road.  It’s very hard to watch this happened, because there is no way to help them really.

If you find yourself in this position, you really want to find a way out as soon as possible.  Stop, turn around, turn onto a close street and get yourself pointed in the right direction.  We all make mistakes so stay safe, watch for signs, be aware of your surroundings, and use your pavement markings.  Good luck, friends!

Driving with a foot out the window

This picture was sent to me by a loyal subscriber, and I thought I’d share with you.  Any thoughts?

I’m going to go ahead and say I think this is a bad idea.  The driver definitely cannot use that side mirror, which they may need seeing as they are travelling on a multi-lane road.  I think there is a possibility that this passenger could easily snag this limb on something passing by.  And can I just mention airbags?  I think in the event of an accident if that passenger side airbag deploys, this person will have serious problems.  I am thinking you can go ahead an visualize just what the consequences might be.  I know it’s summer, and we like windows down, and we want to be comfortable.  There is no way this will be comfortable if any of the above mentioned things were to happen.  Think people, think.  I’m guessing this may also be a distraction to passers-by, worried about this person and the future of their limbs.  Thanks for your consideration, and please keep hands and feet inside the ride at all times.

Puddles

Standing water on the road can be a big driving hazard.  Not sure about the image of water standing, but we’ll leave that for another time.

At the end of fall we had one of those weeks where we got too much water for it to have anywhere to go.  It rained and rained and rained, and the storm drains just could not keep up.  They become full of whatever sticks and leaves that had been sneaky enough to escape the vigorous rakes of New England neighbors.  Little streams flowed down any sort of a downhill coming together in larger and larger rivers flowing freely across roads, sweeping up more debris as they went.  Windshield wipers were on “frantic mode,”  sending little splashes off the edges of the windshield, adding to the raindrops.   There was a muffled hum of rain dulling the rest of the sounds.  My poor country music was not to be heard today and chit-chat was kept to a minimum as concentration was required and it became hard to hear the people in the backseat.

Staying centered in the lane became secondary to trying to stay out of the deep end of the lakes forming.  We crept closer to the higher ground in the middle of the canted roads.  Headlights bravely tried to make us visible to the oncoming cars since even in the daylight, it was difficult to see.  We were vigilant in watching the road and doing our best to navigate the situation.  Our eyes were so focused on the road itself and the water that it wasn’t until the last second that I saw our mistake.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted colors in all the gray water that made the rain and road look like one big splotch.  There was a woman.   Despite the cold, she was wearing shorts and rain boots with a t-shirt plastered to her.  She had something long and skinny in her hands, and the drops momentarily cleared just enough to make out that she had a rake and was trying to clear out the storm drain at the bottom of the not-usually-there pond in which she was wading at the bottom of the hill.  I started to warn my student driver to notice her and give her some room, with my all purpose word that comes out when I don’t have time to explain, “Careful!”  before I understood what was about to happen.  She looked up as we approached and opened her mouth as if to speak, knowing we could not hear her from inside our nice dry car.  Just then tires closest to her hit the edge of the puddle she was standing in.

It was one of those slow motion moments where a tsunami type wave of water from our tires seemed to flow straight up from the ground and crest right over her, stunned open mouth and all.  A gasp came from all of us in the car as we realized what we had done.  Having no recourse, we all laughed in that way you do when you don’t know what else to do, knowing it was not really funny of you were her.  We hadn’t actually done anything to her since she was already soaked to the bone, but boy did we feel bad!

So, to the nice lady out there in the pouring rain, trying to to do your civic duty by clearing the storm drain in front of your house who got extra soaked by a drivers ed car, (I’m sure you know who you are,) we are truly very sorry.  We didn’t see you until it was too late, and we still feel really badly about it.