DrumGit, Curtis Cunningham’s blog.

Today while driving I noticed my rear windscreen wiper looked a bit weird, thought it had got lifted and put back upside down, if you know what I mean.

When I got a chance to stop and look, I saw it had been deliberately twisted up and basically broken beyond useless…

Then I walked around the car and saw the passenger side had been badly keyed (i.e. key dragged deep into paint work along the side).

I’m surprising unmoved by this (except to write this blog ) as my give-a-shit-o-meter about damage to my car blew out a long time ago.

Before coming to the US I only owned used cars, and never had any accidents in the 12+ years I drove in England/Ireland.

I bought this car brand new in 2001 when I arrived in the US, my first ever new car. Since then I’ve been hit 7 or 8 times, and lost count of the number of car door dings. In the last few weeks alone, I found 2 new dings with paint marks not matching my car paint color.

Highlights of road mayhem I have been involved in or witnessed have included ..

• I’ve been rear ended many times, the last time was a few years ago. We were stopped at a light, he was behind me in a big SUV. The light went green and he and accelerated into the back of me (from a stop!) before I or the cars in front had actually moved anywhere. He was shitting himself, offered me $800 at the scene which I refused. He’d actually caused $8k+ of damage. He was only 22 years of age and turns out he had a trial coming up for an accident he’d caused a year before (after his prom) where someone had been killed. Seriously. I claimed on his insurance in the hope that it would be brought up in trial so he’d been taken off the roads permanently.
• I’ve had someone stop in front of me, put their car in reverse and back into me while I had my hand on my horn.
• I saw someone drive down the on-ramp of a freeway pointing the wrong direction.
• I’ve seen someone in front of me make a left turn into the left lane and start driving down a street the wrong.
• Lost count (seriously!) of the number of times I’ve nearly been sideswiped on the freeway with someone trying to pull into my lane who had no idea I was in the spot they intended to drive into, for the simple reason they were too careless to look first. Only my swiftness to the car horn or ability to swerve into next lane has saved me to date.

I had to do a driving test when I arrived here. It felt like it was over in minutes and I was pretty shocked how easy it was. I wasn’t tested to see if I could start my car on a hill, park it in a tight spot, turn it around on a tight road, all staples of the driving test back home.

Sorry California, you have easily the worst drivers I have had the misfortune share a road with and you have no respect for these big expensive cars you like to buy. I can’t see me ever buying a new car again as it hurts too much to (e.g.) arrive back home on a plane, go to pick up my car and see new dents on my doors.

I miss cycling. I used to cycle a lot before coming here 7 years ago, but I’ve not been brave enough to go on the roads without at least a car shell around me for protection.

I think the US needs realistic car and gas prices here, and by that I mean at least another 50% on top of today’s car and gas ($4+) prices. That’s closer to what we have at home in the UK/Europe, and would encourage folks to buy smaller cars, drive less, drive more safely (no big SUV skin around them).

NOTE TO SELF: read my own posts