Bad Drivers
 

We have the worse drivers in the USA here in The Villages!!! They do NOT watch where they are going. I have been cut off 4 times this week alone and within a inch of being hit. One was a left turn out of a right lane dead in front of me so they could get to a parking space, then the best is people turning right... at streets and NOT looking to see if a golf cart is there. Either they are talking on their damn cell phone or just not paying attention! People also seem to think that if they have paid their ammenities they do NOT have to stop at stop signs, that they are optional. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!! These people should be taken off the roads. I have ordered a rocket launcher to install on my golf cart!

You've wasted your money, 427dave, I've tried rocket launchers, laser beams, ray guns, and more... nothing works! Just be ready for anything!

We are from the Boston area so the traffic here seems calm. As a matter of fact I find the people here too careful. I have been behind people at stop signs and they seem to take forever to pull out. They will look left and right and if they see a vehicle coming a half mile away, they will sit there until it goes by. After it goes by they see another one coming from the other direction that seems like a mile away, too.
We have only been here two weeks and I guess I will have to learn to slow down. Although I don't want to spend the rest of my life at stop sign.:shrug:

Yikes!!!!
 

My experience (YIKES!!!) is that the worse the driver, the bigger the vehicle they pick (as if they need "protection" from everyone else . . .driving golf cars and small cars). I have no idea why a person would want to drive something as big as a Ford Excursion or bigger on streets of TV. It seems like a "power" thing.

I am from New York and perhaps that it the reason I do not think it is very bad here in TV. Some of the people drive slow but I have been here off and on for over 3 years and have never been cutoff or in danger of hitting someone or someone hitting me.

Yup, there are some awful drivers here. Many can barely see and can hear even less. After you've taught them some lessons with your rocket launcher can I borrow it? Like to get some of the dolts who use absolutely no common sense while driving.

But the worst drivers in the world? Nah. I vote for San Franciscans (with Israelis and Romans right after them). If they put their signal on on the highways, they don't need to look before changing lanes -- the signal told you they were moving over. And no need to slow down if the streets are wet (or leave more room) -- their car will stop in time.

I sooooooo understand exactly how you feel.

There are so many clubs and organizations there at TV, maybe someone involved with saftey ought to start a saftey class open to all and introduce the new tecniques of saftey in driving...Such as the SMITH TEST ....

A safety class would be attended by drivers who are already fairly safe. The careless drivers won't come. I have a brother who fits that category. He has told me several times that he is a better driver than most. He has been in so many wrecks that he can't get insurance and none of them were his fault, though several were single car accidents. If you told him about a safety class for drivers, he would scoff.

I find that the drivers that complain about bad drivers are probably the worst drivers
drd

This is gonna be interesting............:popcorn:

Roundabout and Golf Cart Safety Brochures
 

These two brochures should be mandatory for all new residents (and renters) -
and there are many permanent residents who have never read these from what I have seen:

http://www.districtgov.org/PdfView/P...27&ql=standard

http://www.districtgov.org/PdfView/P...27&ql=standard

If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalks.

I know no one has heard that before.

Looks like many have not read these or have else disregarded them.
 

I laughed at the part where it says that golf cart drivers should keep their limbs inside their vehicles. There are often golf cart with males in them with knees sticking out of each end. They remind me of that English prince--Charles-- or maybe that mascot for Mad Magazine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman

Thanks islandgal. After reading the lively threads about rotaries (round a bouts) I was expecting excitement and adventure here at The Villages. After two weeks here, I find that the traffic flow through these rotary circles to be rather tame and uneventful.
Maybe I have been lucky?

Ajack, you've been lucky. Just don't get complacent. I've seen cars go the wrong way; golf carts accidently get on them; people stop in the middle for no fathomable reason; cars back up to get to their exit; and there's the lane changers who don't look, just change (a friend of mine got sideswiped exiting a roundabout last week by a driver who just moved over). Mind you, none of these are really daily occurrences but you have to be aware they do happen and be ready for them.

Watch out for the 4-way stops when you are in a golf cart. On 2 occasions I have been at the one where you leave the shopping center (La Plaza Grande?) to get onto Paige Place and when it was my turn to go, the car opposite me has turned left right in front of me as I was trying to go straight. The last time I had the presence of mind to blow the horn and the lady looked at me and smiled and waved as she cut me off and made her turn. I was waving both arms, but not in a friendly manner.

No use getting angry, I guess. I was happy that she didn't hit me, and she did smile and wave, so she was at least friendly. I've also witnessed the same thing happen to other golf carts at red lights.

Worst drivers
 

One day I saw a car coming out of the tunnel by the Bonnybrook gate!

You have to remember there are quite a few 'seasonal renters' in The Villages.
They are either lost or confused and do not know how to drive in The Villages.

Just be careful and cautious at this time of year.

Just wait until my Sharon gets to TV. She thinks turn signals are just clues to were your going, so she never uses them. She sees more middle fingers than a manicurist.I told her the way she drives i don't need to worry about my cholesterol.Just hope she stays away from the rotaries, and only uses her golf cart, or alot of villagers will get plenty of excitement and adventure.In Lexington , she has her own reserved parking spot at traffic court.Ajack, i think your luck is about to change !!!!!!

Ok......lets see if I can tick off some people.
Most large cities have terrible drivers....New Yawk, Bahstun,Chicago........then they move here and want to drive like they are in the city.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!! Slow down and use some sense when driving!!

Yesterday going to the medical complex from the detour on Morse roundabout in our golf cart, we met a lady coming at us in her car. We stopped her before she got into the golf cart section of the roundabout. That would have been a trick getting her out of there. She couldn't back out, she said, so we told her to turn around on the grass while we stopped other golf carts from entering the trail while she got back into the parking lot.

It hasn't been very long since I was that confused or worse trying to find my way around in TV, so I refuse to be angry when others screw up. I just try to help them if possible. At least she didn't hit anyone.

When I think of all the times I have made mistakes while driving, I'm thankful that none of them have caused accidents. I doubt there are many flawless drivers around. What irritates me is that a lot of people make mistakes and act like it is the other guys fault.

Ok then i saw the sweet woman driving through the Mcdonalds drive thru the wrong direction. They took care of her as I watched but was fearful had another caqr driven in at the time:shocked:

I applaud your attitude, Iandwk. Kindness, caution and assistance might help in some situation. Frustration, impatience and road rage cannot. Sure, I've been guilty of impatience and anger when another driver makes a mistake. But it's never done any good. I've also been guilty of making mistakes on the road. I've felt terrible, along with relieved at not causing an accident.

To my knowledge, the finger after the fact never has improve the situation.

Oh but if you are the one that was "wronged" it feels so good to give it just to release the stress thats built up in you ( even though the recipient didnt see you give it)!!!!

Folks it's that time of year. It will all clear up in April. Don't worry be happy!

This Happened Tonight
 

Heading south on Morse in right lane approaching gate at 466 that is already up from cars in front of me. Once thru gate I slow because of traffic light that JUST changed to green when all of a sudden there's a golf cart heading north towards me, the wrong way, in the left south bound lane. It went thru the south bound gate. I said "Look at this crazy s.o.b. He's gonna have a head on collision". It was dark so I couldn't identify the drivers gender or possibly canine breed. My dog Teddy would have driven like this to get to a dog park. Okay maybe not.

We should start taking pictures of these types of incidents and posting them here. Each month we could vote on the best one. Just don't get me in one of the pictures, please.

Better not tell Talk Host your plans, or he'll forward your post to the authorities for setting off rocket launchers.

There are some people from large cities that have never driven a car because of the convenient public transportation. Driving a golf cart safely for beginning drivers is not as easy as it looks......just like Golf.

I found all those rotaries to be harrowing, and the golf cart paths immensely confusing whenever I had to deal with a tunnel. For instance - there's one tunnel, that exits to a sign for Morse. It shows that if you go left, you'll get to Sumter Landing. If you go right, you'll get to Sumter Landing. If you're new, and just a visitor, and not familiar with the maps, or tunnels, or golf carts, you'll probably just sit there and stare at the sign until some kind person comes along and tells you the sign is correct - that EITHER way will get you to Sumter Landing.

It's especially confusing, because it's the only sign that does that. All the other signs will say "Belvedere -----> " indicating that Belvedere Road is that way, but no indication as to what (if anything) is on Belvedere that might inspire me to turn.

And then the whole Morse bridge - oh jeez. We were coming from Spanish Square, on a golf cart, and it was already dark (we were enjoying dinner). We had to get over the bridge, and saw the rotary coming up. We never saw any indication that we were -not- following a path that leads to a seperate golf cart path. So we kept going in the direction of the bridge, and suddenly realized we were on the roundabout, NOT on a golf cart path, and the golf cart path was WAYYYYYYY over to the right, and we had no idea how to get onto it. So we just sucked it up, held our breath, said a little prayer, and kept going onto the bridge. We got to the sign that declares it the Lake Sumter water authority bridge or whatever it says, and saw that the grass seperating the now-parallel cart path had thinned out to just a curb, and we jumped it to get onto the path.

The rules regarding the rotaries only apply to people who actually know where they're trying to go, and how to get there. I drove on the rotary looking for an open house - stayed in the right lane where I came from, because I thought it'd be straight through. Turns out it was a left, and I should've been in the left lane. Woops?

Thing is, this is a HUGE community and there are hundreds of rentals, and seasonals. The vast majority of the civilized world does -not- live in a community with 2-lane rotaries at every 4-way intersection. The vast majority of the civilized world has never seen them, and will experience them for the very first time upon entering the Villages. Permanent residents need to accept this. Fortunately many of you are incredibly kind and understanding and happy to stop and help out a lost rider.

anonchick - So that was YOU in that cart we saw doing that!!! :1rotfl: Just kidding! :)

I remember our first time out on a cart at TV - had a somewhat similar experience though not so harrowing as the roundabout and bridge. We were out buzzing around in a cart and suddenly decided it was time to find a restroom. Found a mail station (or whatever proper terminology would be) that happened to have some sort of maintenance building or whatever adjacent to it. Thinking there could be a "facility" in there, we zoomed around the one-car-wide road behind it.......only to find a car coming the other way! He was, after we figured it all out, totally in the right. But needless to say, we hope he's not a part of the official 'Welcome to TV' greeting committee cuz he launched a succinct, pointed, verbal barrage at us (me!) as we got off on the grass to get out of his way. My bad! (And unfortunately, there were no restrooms there...... :shocked: )

Moral: I think the "oops" types of experiences on carts have happened to a lot of us, hopefully coming out none the worse for wear. We always try to be helpful to others if they've got questions or appear to have the deer-in-the-headlights look going on, as I'm sure most other people try to do as well. And I'm learning not to wait so long to try to time the 'pit-stops'!! :)

Bill

My husband and I did come to a conclusion about the whole ordeal, and it really should be posted on a sign in the sales office buildings at the front desk where renters get their keys:

If you are lost, and need help, pull over and open your map. You don't need to actually read it. The open map itself is the "please help" beacon. We got our $5.00 worth out of that map, just by opening it on golf cart paths. Really, residents should have sign-off sheets, and get rewards for helping lost visitors. Whenever they stop at an open-mapped visitor, the visitor would sign the resident's card with a code given to them by the sales office.

And then, when the resident has 10 sign-offs, they would go to the sales office and receive $5 off at their choice of restaurants in either of the two village squares.

I really think it's that kind of warm, caring, forgiving, understanding, and helpful nature of people that attracts people to the Villages.

Love the idea of the sign-off sheet! It would be fun collecting signatures. Of course, I'm sure someone would find a way to shortcut it (okay, I'm kinda cynical).

Anyway, I think we've all goofed driving here. I drive my cart so much that I've been known to turn into the golf cart path with my car when I drive it. Fortunately, never got further than the front end on the path so could quickly back up (and hope no one saw me).

I do remember driving the roundabouts when I first got here and once cutting off a small pickup. He was furious! I followed him and profusely apologized. Amazingly, he went from being an angry man into a man who was smiling and offering to buy me a cup of coffee. I LOVE TVers' attitudes.

I've also been known to chase visitors in golf carts into the roundabouts to guide them back to the paths. I figured at least I knew the ins and outs of driving here and the chance of getting them safely out of the streets was worth the risk. What drives me nuts is when you try to stop someone from doing something stupid and they yell at you for trying to help -- better to be angry at the messenger than admit you made a mistake?

Even after 4 years, my face is red still thinking about my intro to the golf paths. I moved from a golf community
but paths were only on golf courses - streets forbidden.
When leaving Sweet Bay in my CAR, I took a right and tried to ease by the pole in the center of the golf path,
thinking what I saw ahead was a street, not a golf path. I backed out with my head as low as possible hoping no one saw me.
:rant-rave::ohdear: :cus:

There was this clown tailgating me near the Villages High School late yesterday @ 5.
 

She then sped up while I was going just under the speed limit. She hurried to go into the turn lane for the Villages High School as I was coming from Belvedere Gate. This was near the Villages Public Library.

This clown speeds up going about 40 m.p.h. to make a left turn and it looks like she is going to pass me while she's turning into the high school parking lot.

I was not sure this was actually a female because the person driving was actuallly in clown face paint. I guess she was late for a gig as this was just about 10 to 5 p.m. yesterday.

She had been tailgating all the way from near Pimlico Rec Center on Belvedere. I was very happy to have to slow down while approaching the exit gate. Instead she sped up quickly right after I got out of the Belvedere gate.

I hate tail-gaters more then any other driving infraction. It is horrible in the Northeast. Although I will occasionally have someone too close behind my vehicle, I will take Village drivers any day.

Hey Folks,

I'm still living in Los Angeles and the the driving here is terrifying. I just want to survive long enough so I can live in The Villages and be behind slow drivers.

I'll be driving through your area in a few weeks, could you please have them divert traffic away from the orange crush as I make my way north?

I can somewhat understand someone being close behind you while waiting for a chance to pass. Where I am from the roads are winding and it's hard to pass a slower driver unless you are close to them when the opportunity arises.

What really gets me is the one who does this and then doesn't pass when the opportunity arises. I have been known to slow down more and more while they stayed right on my bumper until they get the hint and pass. Once I coasted to a complete stop on a long straight stretch and the guy just stayed behind me. I still wonder what he might have been thinking.

I have to tell you, Taltarzac had me on the floor with his clown.