Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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Status: not amused at the person who decided to jump the divider* and cross three lanes of traffic to get to the highway using the simple expedient of laying on the horn and hoping everyone got out of their way.
Addendum status: Extremely amused that not half a mile later i run across the same car on the curb, surrounded by two city police cruisers and one state police cruiser. Someone's day just dropped into the outhouse. :-D
* traffic on both sides of the divider were going the same direction. i don't know who thought the divider was a good idea.
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A few weeks after the new Camaro came out I saw one saddle-bagged on a median where a woman tried to do a u-turn. Apparently cars with 4" of ground clearance and an 8" median do not mix well. ;)
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Reminds me of the time when I was driving along the main road along the south coast of Ireland and this idiot pulled past at high speed, in the face of oncoming traffic, forcing both myself and the people coming the other way to stamp on the brakes to prevent an accident. Nerve-wracking.
But it reminds me of your incident because 25 miles further on, we passed the idiot, stopped by the side of the road, “helping some nice police officers with their enquiries”.
(Yes, that was indeed quite a way further on, but it was a distinctive car with a fancy number plate and there really wasn't that much traffic that evening.)
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seen that too.
I've even seen a SUV on it's roof in a median with a very confused (and concussed) looking .... shall we say "young man"... standing next to it.
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One winter I was traveling on the interstate in the middle of a snowstorm. Very, very slick. Very treacherous driving. At the time, I had a 4WD pickup that did great in the snow and I was traveling at ~40mph. I see a Jaguar fly up behind me and start riding my ass. There was just enough room for paint...
I merge over and let him pass and see dealer plates on the car, so it was less than 30 days old. As soon as he passes the grade changes so that we are going up a shallow hill. The Jaguar starts to fishtail, swaps ends and hits the center divider trunk first which spins the car around and slams the driver's side of the car in to the divider wall.
Moral of the story, in a snow storm you should never try to go faster than a King Ranch F-350. Short of a rally car, there are not many things that travel much better in slick conditions. ;)
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Yup, I had that same situation once on I-95 in New Hampshire in driving snow, only the cars were a Geo Metro and and an SUV. He went whipping past me--I was going pretty fast for the weather--and a mile up the road, there he was in the ditch in between the two halves of the road.
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@Intercourse said:
Short of a rally car, there are not many things that travel much better in slick conditions.
Doubt it. Any car with brake assisted steering and decent tires will run circles around you. 4WD is worthless for anything other than getting un-stuck.
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More fun when you get honked at and there's at least 5 signs saying "No Right on Red"
(In true Discourse tradition, replying while not even close to reading the thread)
While I understand this rule, it's really concerning for me, since we don't have that, and I can't even imagine what kind of stupid it would entice if we did.
We do, however, have crossroads where it is allowed, but only by means of a (physically) separated lane and no traffic light for it specifically, but with this sign:
Don't know if it's used worldwide or in Europe only, so in case it isn't: It means "main road ahead, you're allowed to turn onto it if there's no oncoming traffic" (as opposed to the STOP sign which means you have to stop no matter what).
Which reminds me of a WTF I rail about every freaking time: there's a road I travel on sometimes that has that sign, with "STOP 100m" additional sign below. And there is, indeed, a STOP sign 100m later. It's not the same fucking thing! Proper signage would be a STOP sign with an additional sign that says "100m" only on it.
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Don't know if it's used worldwide or in Europe only, so in case it isn't: It means "main road ahead, you're allowed to turn onto it if there's no oncoming traffic" (as opposed to the STOP sign which means you have to stop no matter what).
That's called Yield in the US, and the symbol is the same (probably because you ripped us off), but it has rounded corners and usually the word "Yield" actually printed on it. If you come across a really, really old one, it's yellow-- they were changed to red in 1971.
(BTW, stop signs were yellow until 1954. Until the invention of reflective coatings, and in an era where car headlights were wimpy as shit, yellow was much easier to see in low light. If you ever wanna find continuity errors in a historical movie, there you go-- look at the road signs.)
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That's called Yield in the US, and the symbol is the same
Ah, good, so I can reference it and expect it to be understood (as much you can expect people knowing what shit means, that is). I wasn't sure since I do notice some differences in signs between US and Europe at times.
BTW, stop signs were yellow until 1954.
Interesting. I did have an opportunity to see a lot of old and disposed signs during the years, and I think I did see some yellow stop signs then. I assumed it was discolouration due to the age, but now you mention it, it could be that they actually were yellow.
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@Intercourse said:
Don't fuck with my UI.
Allow me to introduce you to Citroën Visa dashboard:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8248/8584546831_008cb0f930_z.jpg
Yes, it's insane. No, they never did it again. But damn is it fun to see people trying to figure out what the hell is going on the first time they see it.
And it's actually pretty usable once you get used to it.
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Riiiiight.
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Which reminds me of a WTF I rail about every freaking time: there's a road I travel on sometimes that has that sign, with "STOP 100m" additional sign below. And there is, indeed, a STOP sign 100m later. It's not the same fucking thing! Proper signage would be a STOP sign with an additional sign that says "100m" only on it.
Do you mean this?
I have never seen the same done with an actual stop sign so I assume this is the legal way to do it. I can kinda see why. A stop sign is just a modification of the yield sign but very distinct since you need to react to it pretty much immediately. The small sign underneath may not be necessarily noticed at first so you could end up with people slamming the breaks for basically no reason.
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Speaking of bad car dash design, guess what the only control in my Ford Fusion that isn't softly lit by a LED when it's on with the lights off? That's right: it's also the only one you need to find at night, the switch to turn on the headlights (which also turns on the whole shebang of dash lighting including, ironically, a nice soft LED behind the headlight switch. AAAAARGH! What were they THINKING!)
Volkswagen Passat, an old model admittedly. It has a switch for headlights with three positions: off, position light, and on. It is not lit in any way. Turn on position light and it lights up. Turn on headlights proper and it turns off. Oh, unless you turn off your engine, then it DOES light up. I guess that's compensating for having any audible warning for leaving the lights on by accident. Fat load of good that does considering the position of the switch where it's very easy to overlook it.
Also, no tachometer. It has a huge-ass analog clock it's place. Because a LED digital clock was too expensive I guess. On a car that's vastly overpriced as it is.
Before I got tired of gently tapping my brakes as discouragement for that, followed by moving to where I don't need to commute on the highway, I came up with the idea of a switch that would engage the brake lights without tapping the pedal.
I had a friend who used reversing lights for that. The lights reacted way too early to shifting to reverse, so he could just hit the clutch, move the stick in the general direction of "reverse" position and the whole back side of the car would light up as a damned Christmas tree. Had an argument with him after he blinded me a few times doing that as a "joke".
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What I was taught (and have frequently seen used) is doing it like this:
Now, it might just be that my teacher was so adamant to explain the difference between stop and yield at the time, or me just being a pedantic dickweed, but it really grinds my gears, despite of there being logic in what you said above.
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What I was taught (and have frequently seen used) is doing it like this:
Interesting, I have honestly never seen that used here in the Czech Republic.
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Allow me to introduce you to Citroën Visa dashboard:
That still looks much more reasonable than the Swift I was doing my driver's training in. Some idiot decided that the best location for the headlight control was on the indicators lever. As a result the procedure for turning left was:
- Check in front
- Check behind
- Indicate left
- Turn left
- Check the goddamn lights didn't get turned off by accident
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My old Xantia had that. But it was designed well and I have never managed to turn my lights on or off by accident.
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Renault also does this but in a sane way
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Almost forgot: you can also loose your license when you are caught drunk driving your bike
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as much you can expect people knowing what shit means, that is
I'm always pleasantly surprised when I see someone actually yield at a Yield sign. It's not as bad in Texas as there are more of them here, but when I lived in Michigan, the typical interpretations were:
- Go through without stopping even if there's someone coming the other way.
- Stop and wait a few seconds even if there's no one coming the other way for half a mile.
- Stop, wait for an oncoming car to approach the intersection, then pull out in front of him.
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Several municipalities near me (Midwestern US) have bought into roundabouts / rotaries / traffic circles / circuses / whateverthefuck in a big way over the past few years. Personally, I think they're great, but you can spot an out-of-towner by the look of fear on his face as he negotiates one with two lanes.
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Several municipalities near me (Midwestern US) have bought into roundabouts [s] / rotaries / traffic circles / circuses / whateverthefuck [/s] in a big way over the past few years. Personally, I think they're great, but you can spot an out-of-towner by the look of fear on his face as he negotiates one with two lanes.
Pendanted that for you. Modern roundabouts are not the same as traffic circles or rotaries!
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Several municipalities near me (Midwestern US) have bought into roundabouts / rotaries / traffic circles / circuses / whateverthefuck in a big way over the past few years. Personally, I think they're great, but you can spot an out-of-towner by the look of fear on his face as he negotiates one with two lanes.
They're not too hard, but you've got to be careful. You must make sure that the car in front of you has entered before entering yourself, or you can easily end up shunting someone if they decide it isn't safe. Still, they work better than lights in low-to-moderate traffic. Lights work better in heavy traffic. (In very heavy traffic, nothing beats grade-separated junctions, but those are hugely more expensive to build.)
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Around here, there's a campaign to replace all 4-way stop signs with roundabouts (NOT traffic circles, which SUCK! Seattle is cram-full of those, ugh.) We have a ton of intersections that had 4-way stop signs just because lights were too expensive-- roundabouts perform WAY better at these intersections, and still no lights required to maintain.
Sadly, there are a lot of intersections with lights that would be better-served by roundabouts, but those probably won't ever be revised.
EDIT: Google seems to suggest the terms "traffic circle" and "roundabout" are used interchangeably. Hm.
I think of "roundabouts" as those intersections which have enough roadway that you can go around the circle at 15-20 MPH or so, and "traffic circles" as those little round islands that build in the middle of square intersections for no apparent reason and everybody hates them.
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(In very heavy traffic, nothing beats grade-separated junctions, but those are hugely more expensive to build.)
I agree but only if the faster road is the lower one, e.g. proper interstate junctions. Lincoln has these backwards, they built overpasses and made I-80 pass over the local streets. It sucks trying to accelerate from a stop up to 70 - 80 mph on an uphill on-ramp.
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Pendanted that for you. Modern roundabouts are not the same as traffic circles or rotaries!
I learn something new every day: http://www.alaskaroundabouts.com/mythfact1.html
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http://www.reddit.com/r/Dallas/comments/2l2eko/this_is_what_i_expect_from_our_local_drivers/
Intentionally going through red lights is common in Detroit, but at least there they won't do it if there's heavy traffic going the other way.
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It sucks trying to accelerate from a stop up to 70 - 80 mph on an uphill on-ramp.
Not as much as having to wait for an age for the traffic to have a gap in it (possibly created by traffic lights) to allow you to cross or join, which an at-grade crossing would entail. ;-)
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I think of "roundabouts" as those intersections which have enough roadway that you can go around the circle at 15-20 MPH or so, and "traffic circles" as those little round islands that build in the middle of square intersections for no apparent reason and everybody hates them.
We don't really distinguish those two. The main distinctions we have are between roundabouts, which have a solid centre, and mini-roundabouts, which make do with some paint and maybe a small mound of extra tarmac.
There's also magic roundabouts (which have been mentioned elsewhere) but they're really rare and b*****ming crazy too.
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Seeing someone that has failed at hooning is funny.
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TIL: "hooning"
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And honestly, that looks like a rousing success.
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3rd lane referred to as the suicide lane.
If you live on the bottom left, that's the top lane. If you live on the top right, that's the bottom lane.
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to "Louie, Louie?"
I... think that we may have actually done that down here in Oregon.
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Almost forgot: you can also loose your license when you are caught drunk driving your bike
Even riding a wheelbarrow while drunk counts as drunk driving, since it has a wheel. Riding a horse while drunk is drunk driving.
Both can cost you your drivers licence and the fine is higher than what you get for being drunk while on foot.
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the fine is higher than what you get for being drunk while on foot.
Wait what?! Where do you live that you can get fined for that?
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Wait what?! Where do you live that you can get fined for that?
See the location thingie on my profile.
Probably something got lost in translation. What I meant was "drunk in public". You usually won't get fined for it, but when you're being an ass and the police interfere, they just add that to the list of violations you get fined for.
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Where do you live that you can get fined for that?
I would tell ya but giving up your location is not allowed here ...
belgiumYou see? It gets blocked out ...
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Even riding a wheelbarrow while drunk counts as drunk driving, since it has a wheel. Riding a horse while drunk is drunk driving.
Yeah, but loosing your drivers license for driving drunk on a bicycle seems more common
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Wait what?! Where do you live that you can get fined for that?
More than one place I'm guessing: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/80/section/91
Drunkenness in a public place.
(1)Any person who in any public place is guilty, while drunk, of disorderly behaviour may be arrested without warrant by any person and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F1 level 3 on the standard scale].
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(1)Any person who in any public place is guilty, while drunk, of disorderly behaviour may be arrested without warrant by any person and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F1 level 3 on the standard scale].
WTF does that mean‽
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Any person who in any public place is guilty, while drunk, of disorderly behaviour may be arrested
Yes, that makes sense, OffByOne's post sounded like you can get fined just for being drunk.
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Yes, that makes sense, OffByOne's post sounded like you can get arrested just for being drunk.
I never mentioned getting arrested. I merely stated you could get fined for being drunk.
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I never mentioned getting arrested. I merely stated you could get fined for being drunk.
Apologies, that's what I meant.
