Driving in this area

[Anonymous]

If you're not using your horn at least 1x per day, are you even really paying attention?

I commute into downtown DC from my home in Georgetown (about a 10 minute drive). Between rideshare morons, slackjawed folks from out of state, and idiots from VA/MD who come in 1x every two weeks for their in-office days and forgot how to drive, I'm using my horn at least once per day.

[Anonymous]

You have to flip a switch in your brain to become a homicidical maniac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're not using your horn at least 1x per day, are you even really paying attention?

I commute into downtown DC from my home in Georgetown (about a 10 minute drive). Between rideshare morons, slackjawed folks from out of state, and idiots from VA/MD who come in 1x every two weeks for their in-office days and forgot how to drive, I'm using my horn at least once per day.

You forgot the smug/self righteous dc drivers that think since they live in the district they have moral authority over everyone else and how they drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're merging wrong, OP. You're not supposed to signal and wait for someone to let you in. You're supposed to pay attention to the movement of cars, look for a gap. THEN you signal and immediately go.

You have to understand and learn the rhythm. Driving is a dance, not a conversation of turn signals.

And you need to be much more regular about checking your mirrors. Check them constantly to have a sense of where people are around you, not just when you need to merge.

This was great advice, thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

We left the area! I know that sounds absurd but my anxiety had gotten so bad with 66, 495 and daily errand traffic in Nova I just couldn’t get past it. It was debilitating and honestly sad with a family and kids that I felt this way. I did cognitive behavioral therapy and it somewhat helped to just continually force myself to go out anyway and push past it. I think that and as others have pointed out paying attention and staying alert. We had a ton of foreign drivers in our area and I swear they were the absolute scariest drivers I’ve ever seen. We had to go back through DC recently around the beltway and it was insane!

[Anonymous]

You all this is not normal living here. This isn't right at all. It's incredibly dangerous. It seems like VA, DC and MD just hand out licenses to anyone and everyone qualified or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left the area! I know that sounds absurd but my anxiety had gotten so bad with 66, 495 and daily errand traffic in Nova I just couldn’t get past it. It was debilitating and honestly sad with a family and kids that I felt this way. I did cognitive behavioral therapy and it somewhat helped to just continually force myself to go out anyway and push past it. I think that and as others have pointed out paying attention and staying alert. We had a ton of foreign drivers in our area and I swear they were the absolute scariest drivers I’ve ever seen. We had to go back through DC recently around the beltway and it was insane!

What did the cognitive behavioral therapy do? I always read about this but wasn't sure how it worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This area has caused me to have such a fear of driving on the highway. Of course it's not practical since I need to get on 66, 28, and busy areas like Bailey's crossroads to get around. It seems impossible to merge on the highways because no one lets you in. How do I get over this? I'm constantly worried I'm going to get into a huge accident. It doesn't help that the highways are a mess, the exit off of 66 is immediately before getting on. I'm honestly surprised there's not more accidents. How do I get over this?

Take an uber. Please stay off the roads. You sound like you drive too slow and probably will cause an accident.