I’ll start. Stopping distance.
My commute is 95 miles one way to work, so I see a lot of the highway, in the rural part of the US. This means traveling at 70+ mph (112km/h) for almost the entirety of the drive. The amount of other drivers on the road who follow behind someone else with less than a car’s length in front of them because they want to go 20+ over the speed limit is ridiculous. The only time you ever follow someone that close is if you have complete and absolute trust in them, and also understand that it may not even be enough.
For a daily drive, you likely need 2-3 car lengths between you at minimum depending on your speed to accurately avoid hitting the brakes. This doesn’t even take into account the lack of understanding of engine braking…
What concepts do you all think of when it comes to driving that you feel are not well understood by the public at large?
Don’t be polite, be predictable.
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FUCKING TURN SIGNALS.
Christ, the number of times I’ve almost hit someone who swerved into a turn at the last second without a signal…
due to cognitive bias, roughly 80% of drivers think that they are “above average” in their driving ability.
AKA, you’re probably overestimating your driving ability and are not as good of a driver as you think you are…
sucks for everyone else but im different
You and me both. Come on, we don’t need these bad drivers bringing us down!
you’re probably overestimating your driving ability and are not as good of a driver as you think you are…
Every day I drive, I prove that I’m a superior driver. I keep my head on a swivel and look at all my rear view mirrors on rotation. I can tell what people are going to do before they do it.
Yeah, that absolutely holds water. I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve seen making stupid decisions on the road and barely recovering from the mistake. It’s a bad combination of misjudgment and lack of skill. I’ve been run off the road by someone merging into where I was because they didn’t want to brake, I’ve been cut off by someone who almost lost all traction after merging so quickly, I’ve been “challenged” by someone revving their engine wanting to beat me in a race (while there were many, many cars around) and much more.
I think people in general need better driving classes, stricter requirements to begin driving, and police should be more worried about behaviors like these on the roads compared to just speeding.
Honestly, one of the biggest reasons I want to build a car for auto crossing is because I want to become a better driver. It will be fun, sure, but if I can train myself to know how to react to extreme situations, then my thought is that in an emergency, I should be able to make the right reactions.
It’s because it’s true. Think about how many drivers you see on the road on a journey. Sure you’ll see some inattentive ones and some dangerous ones, but really it is a very small percentage that cause almost all the issues.
On an imaginary bell curve it is a huge spike of terrible drivers, then a normal bell making the vast majority above average because of the skew.
That they are driving around a 1 tonne piece of metal.
I didn’t invent the phrasing, but I think most of these things can be summed up as people not understanding that driving needs to be a cooperative team activity rather than a competition.
Getting up to speed to merge. Don’t stop on a highway on-ramp. If there’s a car in the lane you want to be in, then speed up to get in front of that car, or slow down and get behind it. There’s no “stop in the middle of the road to let you in” on a freeway.
I swear I’ve seen more people merge on to a 65 road at 45 than I have at 65
Where I am this seems to only be capable by people who work at NASA as everyone else can’t seem to grasp the concept at all. I’ve seen people crawl off the ramp into 70+ mile an hour traffic, not get over until they’re damn near in the dirt, even if they have a shit ton of space to merge or slow down while on the freeway to 35mph then get onto the off ramp to exit.
Why is this such a damn hard concept??
Driving is an unnatural, fairly sophisticated activity that many people don’t have an intuitive sense about. Especially when it comes to the proximity of danger to themselves or others.
I live in a developing SE Asian country where the only rule is: there are no rules. You can assume that everyone will always maneuver for their own benefit, especially if their vehicle is larger. This includes turning right in front of you, driving the opposite way, and stopping in the middle of all the lanes.
In a sense, this brings a certain type of order because it’s predictably disordered. The key rule is that you will die if you trust anybody to look out for you except yourself.
I feel like it would be the perfect time for an “it’s a Dodge eat Dodge world out there” but you probably don’t have that much over there, if at all
Haha that’s a good one. You’re right, Dodge hasn’t made it here yet!
Yield doesn’t mean stop
It means go unless not clear (ie stop when not clear)
If there’s no oncoming traffic, then you keep going. If there is then you have to stop to allow the traffic to pass before continuing (or enter safely before said traffic reaches you).
This is fundamentally how roundabout entrances also work. You’re supposed enter when you have enough time to accelerate into an open slot. You don’t have to wait until it is completely clear, nor do you have to explicitly stop at an entrance.
There are way too many stop signs in the US. Most should be yields in one direction and nothing in the other.
same with a stop sign. you gotta slow right down, but a complete stop isnt often needed
Are you sure about that? Where I’m from stop means stop regardless of traffic. I’ve been warned about it after been pulled over but not from US
idk about legally speaking, but its what everyone does in australia
Am from Australia. You are legally required to come to a full stop. You will fail your driving test if you don’t, and police can fine you if they catch you.
driving test will fail you for basically anything. i personally rarely see anyone come to a full stop if there are no cars and its a known area. im not an expert on the law obv but i know its not the be all and end all
In almost all jurisdictions of the world, a shield with the word “stop” instructs you to actually come to a stop. That’s why it says “stop”. It is not a recommendation, and it’s really dangerous that so many people don’t treat them as such. There always is a good reason for placing a stop instead of a yield sign. Their purpose is not to inconvenience you, but to save lives. Collisions caused by people ignoring stop signs are common, and they commonly have bad ( deadly) outcomes as well. All to save a single second.
In addition, it’s totally fine to come to a full stop at a yield sign of you feel it’s necessary. If
People don’t realise how little time they save by speeding and weaving in and out of traffic.
Just chill. You can spend 20 minutes relaxed and comfy, or 19 minutes gripping your wheel with white knuckles, screaming at grandmas and jacking off at red lights.
Choose wisely.
I’ll admit it took me way too long to learn this one, but man, commuting is so much less stressful when you can take a zen approach and accept that 95% of your travel time is out of your control. Focus on some music or a podcast you enjoy and you probably won’t even care if it takes you an extra minute or two to get there.
I agree.
But some people are really irritating to drive behind. So sometimes overtaking them is the only way to have a zen commute.
That’s a different thing. Normally people who are annoying are not safe.
100%. If I see a driver sifting back and forth over the edges of both sides of their lanes, I’m 100% going to stay backed rn further than I usually do. Until I have a clear shot to pass them, and them I’m going to slip by as quickly as possible and get some distance, because there is no way I’m sitting behind a wreck waiting to happen for a whole drive.
ZIPPER! ZIPPER MERGE YOU STUPID FUCKING COCKS!
You expect too much from people who can’t even signal before turning.
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am i stupid or how would the person behind you see your windscreen being wiped, or at least notice it?
At high speeds, spraying your windshield will result in some overspray from the wind, meaning the person behind you gets their windshield sprinkled with drops of washer fluid
ohh ok thanks
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i see
While that guy’s response to you was completely unacceptable, you should know that there are several reasons not to use the wiper fluid while moving: it obstructs your view of the road for a period of time, in most cases you can and should use the wiper fluid before you start driving (I realize this is not possible if the windshield gets dirty in transit), and it’s inconsiderate to other drivers - you don’t have to be tailgating someone to be hit with their dirty soap spray and in general it’s best not to piss people off on the road if you can avoid it.
It may be unreasonable to ask someone to pull off a highway to use their wiper fluid every time they hit a bug, but it isn’t unreasonable to ask someone to consider waiting until there is some free space behind them and it isn’t unreasonable to ask them to wait until they are at a stop sign or stop light (if one is coming up).
Bro if my ass can’t see I’m not waiting until there’s space behind me to use my wiper fluid. I don’t have a waterfall coming down in the front you can usually see through it. What kinda car you got that pours a bucket of water down the front of your window
As I already mentioned, I’m not talking about situations where your windshield is suddenly obstructed since that situation is especially rare, so if you can see clearly enough to drive safely in the first place, then you can see clearly enough to evaluate your surroundings.
It seems obvious to me that spraying your windshield with soap obstructs your view for a moment, but I’ll admit that the occlusion is likely variable depending on the make and model.
I stand by the claim that it is safer to not use your wiper fluid while moving when possible. If you disagree, that’s okay. It’s a pretty minor point - there are many other driving habits that are far worse in my opinion.
Signal BEFORE you switch lanes. Like enough time for other drivers to see it before you make your move. Also, turn off your signal if it doesn’t automatically. I don’t understand how people don’t notice the continuous ticking and flashing light and just keep going as usual.
To add on to that, signal BEFORE turning! I see so many drivers signal just when the lights go green and they are about to turn.
The point of signalling is to notify other drivers and pedestrians, not for yourself!
You signal before BREAKING
I know you meant “braking,” but I’m imagining someone in an absolute shitbox going “ah, there’s my axle about to fall off again” and hitting their hazards or something lmao
Blinkers. Firstly, just using them at all, but also:
You need to let your blinkers blink a couple seconds before changing lanes. You don’t turn your blinkers on while changing lanes. You need to give the people beside you a second to notice your intention. One of my most hated features of newer cars is that quick 3-blink signal a lot of them have where you can tap the turn signal and it only blinks a couple times then turns itself off. People mostly use that AS they change lanes which defeats the whole purpose of a signal.
Also: Turn your blinkers on BEFORE you make the right or left hand turn, not as you are doing it. The other people at the 4-way need to understand your intention.
I live in an area that has a lot of stoplights. Guess how fast you have to drive to beat them? From 35 to 40 mph, or 60 to 65 mph. I simply did some math after timing a couple of streets. It is not perfect, but it will beat most. Guess which one people want to drive at? 50 mph. Guess which is the safest and most economical? It is 30 mph. Guess what is the most common speed by everyone? 50 mph because by law gives us 10 mph difference from speed limit before we get flagged. Guess how badly stopping from a high speed and waiting then accelerate literally every mile of stop lights does to mpg? Instead of a healthy 40 mpg, depending on if the people who accelerate aggressively don’t have slow drivers like me in the group, then people are getting 15 to 25 mpg.
I end up having people swerve around me and accelerate aggressively only to stop at the light, but they are either in front of me or at the front waiting to hit the pedal to the metal to get up to their comfortable cruising speed. I drive electric and don’t care about the amazing 0-60 acceleration but rather drive slowly and coast to a stop(as little regeneration as possible by staying at 0 kw usage) I usually get 5 m/kwh and could get up to 6 if I did 30 mph but I just try to follow the flow of traffic and the posted speed limit.
People riding my ass annoy me because I have to trust they are paying enough attention to not rear-end me. Surprisingly, I haven’t gotten into an accident.
10mph??? we get 3kmh in australia im pretty sure
Cops don’t have a desire to do speeding tickets, but the court ruled 5 mph, and everyone pushes to about 10 mph more. I see a lot of 60 to 90 mph drivers, too. Not to mention, the late night racing scene is still going strong enough. Which during summer quiets down majorly until winter and spring. A lot of outliers but when it is happening daily, you start becoming jaded and uncomfortable of driving even though the public transit system here sucks, unless you are downtown, then driving around with these speedsters all around you as you avoid people walking across the streets and hope to not get rear-ended by the guy riding your bumper. The streets that have nothing for miles and have a speed camera are the worst because the speed limit changes from 55 to 40 instantly and you are 300 dollars out of pocket to the scam of a speed trap system that has no effect or is worse on the safety of driving. I live road he’ll and want to move. Just haven’t figured out where to go.
wow
Drive slower when it’s snowing… Also, put your lights on near dusk. It’s more for other drivers to see you better.
