What''s your worst driving experience?

[Lilac]

I am absolutely exhausted. So I was supposed to go away with DH to a house upstate for the weekend (we were leaving Friday afternoon before the Sabbath started and staying until yesterday when we had visiting day at sleepaway camp for my sister and brother). I was REALLLLY looking forward to going away with him!

So the Sabbath started around 8:00 in New York on Friday evening, and once it starts we can''t drive anymore. So we decided the best way for us to get there before 8 is for me to pick up DH at his office and we would go together from there. His office is usually about a half hour-45 minutes away from our apartment, but I left at 3 thinking I would leave extra time for traffic (he was planning on leaving by around 5, so I left 2 hours to get to him).

I went every single way imaginable. I left Long Island area at 3pm. Drove on 3 highways/bridges just to see there was a TON of traffic on the George Washington Bridge. Standstill traffic that wouldn''t move. So I got off and decided to go another way through the city to get to his office. I took another 3 highways/bridges and a tunnel. Got into the city. Drove for 2 blocks and then saw they blocked off half of a street so I didn''t know which way I needed to go - a cop was yelling at people who were hesitating and he pointed to the left and made me go to the left. That took me to the tunnel I had just come from - except the WRONG DIRECTION. No way to avoid it. I was forced to go back OUT of New York City after having just sat through traffic to get INTO the city. I called my husband and couldn''t figure out what way I was going I was so confused - I had started off the day saying I didn''t want to go through the city because I HATE New York City drivers, but with all the traffic everywhere else I had no choice. But it was worse than I expected.

So I finally got through the tunnel and was back outside the city and needed to pay another toll. The one I had just paid a half hour earlier. I needed to re-pay it again to get back into the city again. I finally get back into the city through another highway and going very far out of my way because I couldn''t turn around at that point, and when I get in I need to make a left turn. Except there''s no way to do that because the street I need is closed. So is the next street and the street after that. I finally go several blocks down and get to another street to turn down because I need to get to the Holland Tunnel. I sit on that block from 5:00 until 6:40. Literally just sit there. Red light, green light, yellow light, red light. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Nobody moves an inch for an hour. Literally not an inch. Finally we start moving a couple inches each time the light changes. I was crying at that point because I was so alone and frustrated and knew we couldn''t make it up where we were going for the weekend so I was crying out of frustration I guess - and a guy next to me starts laughing at me. He''s sitting there staring and laughing at me. And since none of us can move, I just have to sit there and try not to look at him.

Nobody is moving much on the street and finally when I get close to an intersection I see there are cops stopping people who got stuck in the middle of the intersection and they''re giving them all tickets. So the traffic isn''t enough, now the cops have to block more lanes with people who have to sit and wait for their tickets and now everyone is afraid to cross the street without a TON of room on the other side because everyone is afraid of getting a ticket if they get stuck in the middle!

Finally I get to the Holland Tunnel (after sitting and waiting for an hour and a half on that ONE street) and get through it and get through more traffic. I get to my husband''s office at 7pm. It took me 4 HOURS to get somewhere that''s only supposed to take a half hour/45 minutes. DH gets in the car and we sit there realizing we can''t go upstate anymore because it''s an hour until the Sabbath and a 2 and a half hour drive just to get there (and that''s without any traffic, which we both know there will be!)

We go home. After being on the Southern State Parkway, Cross Island Parkway, Whitestone Bridge, Cross Bronx Expressway, FDR Drive, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Major Deegan Expressway, RFK/Triboro Bridge, Queens-Midtown Tunnel (twice I think), Holland Tunnel, streets in New York City, and many different exits and places in between (and paying about $50 in tolls) I end my day right back where I started, except with the sore back and legs that come from sitting in one place for so long and swollen eyelids from crying for 2 hours. It was the worst driving experience of my life.

I am utterly exhausted and it''s only Monday morning.

What''s your worst driving experience??

 

[atroop711]

my worst experience was during the blizzard of 2002 on christmas day. We were at my sister''s home in Long Island. She lives 35-40 minutes from me (in Manhattan) and that night it took us 4 hrs to get home. We left as soon as the snow started but it came down quick and hard. It was HORRIBLE. I was in the car with my husband (he was driving), my brother was in the front passanger seat. I was in the back seat with my 19mo old...she was hungry and tired. I felt claustrophobic with the car surrounded by snow and no visibility. The car was slow and sliding from side to side...I was so scared and felt like I couldn''t breathe.

I told my husband that NEVER again will we leave during a storm...don''t care if he has work the next day (that was his reasoning for not staying put at my sister''s). Meanwhile...the city was shut down...he didn''t go to work.

 

[princesss]

Oh my goodness, Lilac, that''s crazy!

BF and I were driving back from NYC and we got stopped in rush hour traffic around DC. We were about 1 hour away from school and ended up sitting in traffic for almost an hour. Just sitting there. Not moving. We''d been in the car for 8 hours at this point and still had 65 miles to go.

Traffic sucks.

 

[purselover]

What a horrible start to the weekend!

I had a similar experience with the Lincoln Tunnel this month, and we ended up being one of those people ticketed for being stuck in the middle

 

[D&T]

worst experience was on moving/driving day, What should have taken us 10 hours took us 17 hours! (non stop driving, we got hit with hail, snow, pouring rain (both DH and my car, were hydroplaning) then thick fog which made us go about 15-20 miles an hour when we should have been going at least 50!, we were caravaning Had my FIL drive our moving trailer, then my DH, then me (along with bald tires

)

Another one was when I was 16 driving to school (my high school is perched right on top of a hill on a fault line) there are two hills that you have to climb up to get to school, and normally people gun it during the snow storm, otherwise, you''ll just slide down. One time a car was ahead of me, and they slammed on their brake- well so did I but started sliding backwards, then I hurried to accelarate (I was far away from the front person that I was able to steer to the right of him) whew!

 

[vip0802]

Holy cow Lilac!! I''m so sorry you had to go through all that...what a way to start the weekend huh? I can''t believe the guy next to you started laughing at you! What a jerk!

What did you end up doing for the rest of the weekend?

My worst experience was probably a couple of years ago. I was trying to get to work during a snowstorm, and all possible ways to get there was at a standstill. It took me over 2 hours to get to work when it normally only takes me about 20 mins. DC traffic is a nightmare everyday anyway.

 

[April20]

Oh Lilac, that sounds absolutely horrific. I''m sorry that happened to you.

My worst experience was a couple of years ago in Boston. My mom and I flew to Boston to attend a cousin''s wedding in NH. DH stayed home as it was a last minute trip for me. I made a rental car reservation, printed out directions and met my Mom in Boston. Rental cars had been really expensive for that weekend and I finally found a decent price. Though it wasn''t a "name brand", I looked them up online and they seemed legit. Key word = SEEMED. We make our way outside to where you get the rental car shuttles and my mother asks if we should call them. I tell her no, they circle and you catch them when they come by. After 15 minutes of not seeing them, I went inside to check for a desk and had my mother call them. The lady that answers the phone tells my mother she is the only one working and she''ll be there in a few minutes. After another half hour passes, we call again. She''s still trying to get away and she''ll be there "soon". At this point, I start calling every other company only to find out that there are no cars available. I mean NONE. It''s Columbus Day weekend. Evidently, this is the last hurrah before winter sets in. Finally this woman shows up. In a beat up Neon. Like a 1995 era beat up Neon. And I have a sinking feeling that this may be our rental car. She takes us to the rental car office and I swear to you, it was a converted photo hut type place. It was on a corner lot, surrounded by a chain link fence and there was a big abandoned boat in the front corner. And wrecked cars in the back. And abandoned panel vans that hadn''t seen the road since 1986. Did I mention that the "bench" where you wait while you do paperwork or they bring the car around was the bench seat out of a van? After I fill out the paperwork and give her my CC, she hands me the keys. To the Neon. And I then notice that it says that normal drop off hours are 6 am to midnight and if you need an earlier or later time, to inform them now to make alternative arrangements. So I do. Our flight home leaves at 6 am, we need to drop off at 4. She tells me they aren''t open that early. I point to the sign and tell her that I know that and that I need alternative arrangement. She tells me her boss won''t open that early, so when we get there, just park the car outside the gate, lock it and THROW THE KEYS OVER FENCE. I kid you not.

I somehow managed to navigate my way out of Boston and up to our hotel in NH courtesy of MapQuest. I was rather proud of myself. That was short lived. We left our hotel that evening to attend a rehersal dinner of sorts at my cousin''s house. By the time we left after the dinner, it was pouring down rain and I''d figured out that the brakes on this car sounded really, really sketchy. As in they were making grinding noises. You know when you brake pads have been squeeling for a while and than all of the sudden they''re gone and you get that awful grinding noise when you brake? That''s where these were at. I''m now more convinced than ever that I''m driving this woman''s personal car and it''s a death trap.

The next day we went up to Maine with some other family and came out rather unscathed. I was proud of myself once again. We attended the wedding later that evening (it was a Sunday) and then needed to leave to drive back down to Boston. We had a hotel that evening that was closer to the airport since our flights were so early. When we got into the car, it was dark. As in pitch black. And I then discovered that the rental car did not have a dome light. Or any light in the interior for that matter. And my mother had broken her reading glasses earlier in the day, so she wasn''t going to be much help in navigation. I drove us back to Boston using the reflection of trucker''s headlights in my rear view mirror. It was a nightmare. I thought it couldn''t get much worse. I was wrong.

This is the part where I will tell everyone to rent a freaking GPS if you don''t own one personally (I do now). We got off the freeway and start following these directions. We are making a million turns and not getting anywhere. They were so awful, I finally called the hotel to ask directions. It ended up taking us about two hours and six phone calls to get to this place. I''d managed to pick a hotel that was in a small city, off the beaten path, for us to stay in. (At least it was a great hotel for a great price!). We arrived about 1230 or 100 am. We had to get up at 3 to make our flights. We managed to navigate back to the freeway with no issues, but then we got lost on the freeway to the airport (combination of bad directions from Streets & Trips this time and bad signage). I don''t know how, but somehow I recognized the exit I accidently took and managed to make my way back to the sketchy rental car place. We''d called a cab to meet us there. I parked the car, locked it, threw the keys over the fence and ran like hell into that cab.

It was by far the worst car/trip experience ever. I NEVER want to go through that again. I still tense up thinking about it. I will admit, on some level the whole thing is rather funny now- everything that could possibly go wrong did and then some.

 

[sunnyd]

Lilac I''m so sorry that traffic messed up your whole weekend, I know you were so looking forward to it.

My worst happened 2.5 years ago. It was 3 days into my first career job out of college in downtown Seattle. Seattle is not a good city for snow. There are way too many hills, and nobody knows how to drive in it. This day, it started snowing like crazy right before I left the office. I got on my bus, which was full of people leaving early because of the snow. It took us 1 hour to get to the freeway (usually a 5 minute ride). The freeway was absolutely packed, at this point there was probably 6 inches on the ground (which never happens here!). People are swerving, going slow, not going anywhere. I think I finally got to my car in the park-n-ride 2 hours later. But there was no way my Civic was going to make it anywhere in the snow, now with 1'' on the ground. Luckily, my dad works in the same office as I do but he drives in. He''d left after me and was able to pick me up an hour later. When we finally get off at our exit (2'' now), we see that all the roads up to my parents'' house were blocked by cars and jack knifed buses. We were preparing to walk the few miles to my house in suits and dress shoes but we finally found a way up that no one had tried, so it wasn''t closed yet. Thank god for AWD!!! We walked in the door at almost 11PM. 5 hours after I''d left. Ridiculous. The ride should be about 25. We ended up with about 3'' of snow.

The sad thing is that in the last few years, we''ve been getting so much snow! My office closed for 4 days this past winter. They''ve never in 12 years had to close!

 

[HollyS]

St. Louis. Spaghetti bowl. Rush hour. Morning and evening. Anybody who''s ever lived there knows what I''m talking about.


But for a one time experience, a 2 1/2 hr trip from Dallas, that turned into 5 hours, thanks to unmarked road construction and subsequent accidents that left traffic on IH35 at a complete standstill for hours. At night. We inched our way up to the next exit, got a map, and found an alternate route out of there. That gas station must have pulled in tens of thousands in gas, maps, and sustenance for everybody who''d been trapped out on IH35. Later, we heard TxDOT had to bring out gas to hundreds of people who had been trapped for hours and had run out of fuel.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Date: 7/20/2009 7:46:08 PM
Author: HollyS
St. Louis. Spaghetti bowl. Rush hour. Morning and evening. Anybody who''s ever lived there knows what I''m talking about.



But for a one time experience, a 2 1/2 hr trip from Dallas, that turned into 5 hours, thanks to unmarked road construction and subsequent accidents that left traffic on IH35 at a complete standstill for hours. At night. We inched our way up to the next exit, got a map, and found an alternate route out of there. That gas station must have pulled in tens of thousands in gas, maps, and sustenance for everybody who''d been trapped out on IH35. Later, we heard TxDOT had to bring out gas to hundreds of people who had been trapped for hours and had run out of fuel.

I got to enjoy some lovely I35 construction this weekend! If you''re planning on driving North of DFW, give yourself plentyyyyyyy of time!

 

[Upgradable]

My father was a drivers'' ed teacher for 35 years. We''ve talked about writing a book together. I''m going to be with him for a week at the beginning of Aug. I''m really going to have to write down some stories.

I do have to say that I''ve seen him attend the funeral of several young people he taught to drive. I''ve never seen so much pain coming from one person!