Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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That doesn't bother me nearly as much as people in a turn-only lane who don't make the turn.
A few months ago, I was waiting in the left-turn-optional lane at a stoplight. There was one car in front of me and one car in the left-turn-only lane. When the light turns green, the car in the left-turn-only lane goes straight through the intersection, cutting off the car in the next lane who was turning left. I'm not sure how they managed to avoid a collision.
Yeah, it's nowhere near as bad. I see it all the time here:
Excuse my shaky hands.
But yeah, someone will be in the outside left turn lane, then not realize that it's a right-turn only lane, and go straight through the intersection.
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My turn signal pet peeve is people who deliberately do not use their turn signal because they are in a turn-only lane.
I have this every workday...a turn-only lane which becomes a highway on ramp,
BUT ~50 feet before that, there's a rarely-used cross-street.
Do I use my signal or not?
It seems super-pedantic, even to me, to wait til after the cross-street and then signal for about .2 seconds before hitting the ramp.... worse, it's 5am, there's no one around to care.
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That doesn't bother me nearly as much as people in a turn-only lane who don't make the turn.
That's nothing compared to the people who make a left turn from the rightmost lane. I was in the car with a guy who did that once--I never got in his car again.
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But yeah, someone will be in the outside left turn lane, then not realize that it's a right-turn only lane, and go straight through the intersection.
Sometimes a ticket will teach you not to do that.
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There are nowhere near enough cops to deal with the idiocy in this city.
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There are nowhere near enough cops to deal with the idiocy in this city.
That's usually the case, but I know someone who DID get a ticket for it, and he couldn't really afford, as he bitched endlessly to me about, so it probably sunk in in that particular case.
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There are nowhere near enough cops to deal with the idiocy in
thisany city.FTFY, but to be honest, I wouldn't want to live somewhere that had enough.
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FTFY, but to be honest, I wouldn't want to live somewhere that had enough.
With how expensive cell phone tickets are, I still see at least a dozen people on their phone every trip. It's amazing.
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Sometimes a ticket will teach you not to do that.
I know quite a few people who seem to enjoy getting tickets, like it's some kind of challenge to see how often they can get pulled over.
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I know quite a few people who seem to enjoy getting tickets, like it's some kind of challenge to see how often they can get pulled over.
I've heard of that. I did it when I was a contractor for Lucent, but it was just BS parking tickets that weren't enforced on non-employees.
A couple of times I'd park "illegally", i.e., not nose-in, and fan out my collection of existing tickets for doing the same thing on the dashboard, right below where they would put new tickets. I like to think it provided an extra frisson of annoyance to the guard.
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Do I use my signal or not?
It seems super-pedantic, even to me, to wait til after the cross-street and then signal for about .2 seconds before hitting the ramp.... worse, it's 5am, there's no one around to care.
I still think yes. There are plenty of people who would cut out of that lane at the very end; having the signal on, even for just a second (35mph is 50 ft/sec), shows you're (probably) not going to do that.As for the 5am thing... I'm forgiving there, though I would encourage you to take a broad view of who might care. For example, another turn signal peeve is drivers who assume that, because I'm a pedestrian (when I'm a pedestrian), I don't care what they're going to do and they don't have to signal because there aren't any other cars around. (Or maybe I'm guessing wrong as to motivation; I haven't interviewed them. :-)) I sometimes make decisions on what to do perhaps-suprisingly far out timewise when both driving and walking.
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With how expensive cell phone tickets are, I still see at least a dozen people on their phone every trip. It's amazing.
People get stopped for that?
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People get stopped for that?
Rarely. One of my friends was pulled over after adjusting her hearing aid, since the cop thought she was on her phone.
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pulled over after adjusting her hearing aid
On the rare occasions you can get away with it, that's pretty awesome.
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Sometimes that's by design
Sometimes. Or then, you have the time I was talking about. Notice the signage in the rightmost lane of Loring, and what that says about a left turn north onto Lafayette.
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Oh, he knows. He was just posting the exception to the rule.
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Oh, he knows. He was just posting the exception to the rule.
I'm shocked to discover people on this forum being wiseasses.
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I'm shocked to discover people on this forum being wiseasses.
Rumor has it that there are also pedantic dickweeds.
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I'm not going to make it harder for them to get back in safely (which they clearly aren't willing to do unless it's in front of me) just to make a point.
I would. Sometimes I'm a dick, but usually it's to show stupid people how stupid they're being by making the consequences of their decisions terrifyingly clear.
Clearly he's in a hurry and his time is more important than your
slife.I'm a cyclist, I ride my bike to work (nearly) every day. I am constantly surprised at the number of sociopaths around me who believe it's acceptable to put my life in danger to save a second or two on the commute.
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Ran into some complete douche canoe this morning. I was going about 65 mph and this little white car started tailgating me. When I mean tailgating, I mean tailgating. I could not see any part of his vehicle except for the radio antenna!
Tailgating is some kind of regional sport where I live. Lots of drivers don't seem to have heard of the two-second rule.
The beautiful thing about the two-second rule, though, is that either driver can enforce it. If you're persistently following too close behind me, I can simply slow down until you are two seconds behind. And I do that. I don't care if I have to slow to walking pace: you will be at least two seconds behind, or you'll overtake. Those are your options. Your tearing hurry to get where you're going is not my concern.
Because if you're not two seconds behind and I have to brake suddenly for a wombat, you're likely to run into me - and given the choice, I would much rather have that happen at 15km/h than 100.
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> I'm not going to make it harder for them to get back in safely (which they clearly aren't willing to do unless it's in front of me) just to make a point.
I would. Sometimes I'm a dick, but usually it's to show stupid people how stupid they're being by making the consequences of their decisions terrifyingly clear.
I don't have the nerve. If they [i]don't[/i] get back in safely, I'm going to be part of the smash.
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I have a really low tolerance for Tailgating, especially for white Audis, which are typically driven by idiots who think "hey I have a car leased by my firm! I am so fucking important! make way!!!". I especially love the use of leights, tailgaiting and horns to tell me that I need to give way for them. Usually that happens at 130 kph on the leftmost lane, when some slower car is in front of me and it is impossible to drive any faster. So usually I take the use of such signals as a hint to drive slower, stay longer in the left lane and maybe wink the nice fellow behind me. Funny to see the red angry faces...
Funnily, I use the horn too - but I usually do that when some idiot switches lanes without watching oncoming traffic or because somebody is driving ~30 in a ~100 street in good conditions.
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I still think yes. There are plenty of people who would cut out of that lane at the very end;
As for the 5am thing... I
It's a funny lane - nobody cuts out at the end, a lot of people cut in at certain hours.
I actually am super-pedantic about using my signals, even at 5 am or when there's "nobody" in the lane next to me. Because there have been "somebody"s that I didn't see.
And I have actually noticed some areas on my commute where people have started to copy the signaling. :-O shocks me too.
It's the conflicting pedantics that leave me scratching my head.
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[Setting: DC beltway headed to Legion bridge - 4 lanes each way, jersey-wall separating the directions, minimal inside shoulder. Pre-dawn hours]
So, tooling along in the 2nd-leftist/fastest lane. Flicker of motion to my left... a guy passing smartly by, hmm, no problem, there's an empty lane between me and him.
Wuuuut?
70+mph on the shoulder.
I guess he had something stuck to his mirror he was trying to scrape off.
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aye, however i find myself doing lane changes to try and let you pass.
which is a WTF in itself but if you refuse to use the left lane for religious reasons(an actual excuse i've seen used in the local poliece dispatches) and want to go 150MPH then i want you in front of me.
if you refuse to pass me even when i change lanes then hells yes i'm slowing down. I'll probably also put on my hazard light.
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if you refuse to pass me even when i change lanes then hells yes i'm slowing down. I'll probably also put on my hazard light.
Fog lights work well. They're so easily mistaken for brake lights…
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not a standard feature of the prius is it?
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not a standard feature of the prius is it?
Rear-facing fog lights? They probably are — it's required for some jurisdictions, AIUI — and they'll be under driver control as the automated systems aren't going to be all that good at judging when visibility is actually poor.
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Yeah - legal (MOT, whatever) requirement in the UK (and probably mainland Europe).
As Toyota would be making them standard fit for EU cars, I can't see why they wouldn't just make it standard on the cars shipped elsewhere but the Japanese are crazy so who knows.
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hmmm... will have to look into that. the blinking hazards have proved effective at encouraging people to pass, so far at least.
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I just put my left foot (lightly) on the brake while leaving the right foot firmly in place on the accelerator.
Seeing brake lights tends to cause people to hang back a bit.
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Another annoyance I'm noticing more recently is people seeing a Police car either on the road or at the side, and forgetting that they can actually pass it at the speed limit and don't need to slow down to $LIMIT-10.
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There's another beautiful thing though, my Chevy pickup likes to be rear-ended. It happened in a parking lot once (I wasn't even there, I was inside the restaurant!) and not even a scuff on my truck. The F150 that smashed into it, though, was nearly totaled! There were Ford bits scattered in like a 20-foot circle around everything.
If someone really wants to destroy their car on my hitch ball, who am I to stop them?
I just put my left foot (lightly) on the brake while leaving the right foot firmly in place on the accelerator.Seeing brake lights tends to cause people to hang back a bit.
This has never ever ever worked for me. Ever. Not even once.
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I wasn't even there, I was inside the restaurant!
That's a much better place to be than the driver's seat, and a much safer speed to be driving, than having some nuff-nuff rear-end you at the highway speed limit as you brake for a fallen boulder or a not-yet-dead drunk or a wombat.
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forgetting that they can actually pass it at the speed limit and don't need to slow down to $LIMIT-10
Given the tolerances of car speedometers, and the tolerances of police radar guns, and the readiness of some jurisdictions to legislate in ways that make it illegal to drive within the region where those tolerances overlap near the speed limit: far better to put up with the extra three seconds on my commute than risk hours dealing with fines and bullshit paperwork.
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A tailgating accident at highway speed (especially as close as this guy was following) would have been like 5 - 10 mph differential, which is less than the parking lot incident. That guy was going 20 - 25 and I (obviously) was going 0.
fallen boulder
These don't exist in the state of Nebraska. And if they did there are no inclines for them to roll down.
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my Chevy pickup likes to be rear-ended. It happened in a parking lot once (I wasn't even there, I was inside the restaurant!) and not even a scuff on my truck
About ten years ago, my Pontiac Grand Am was rear ended by a Chevy Suburban. The plastic bumper of the grand am has some paint scuffs, but popped back out to its original shape. The steel front end of the Suburban was crinkled enough to be ugly and had to be replaced. Stiffer is not usually better.
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encouraging people to pass
The trick (oh fuck off, pink Discourse toaster) is in genuinely not caring whether they pass or just keep slowing down behind you until you're both going at walking pace.
Personally I balance the annoyance due to the need to slow down for a mulch-brained tailgater against the bliss of contemplating the impotent rage I'm causing them to experience.
Having a hitch ball like mott555's obviously helps with that, as does living in a country where most people are not allowed to carry firearms.
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A tailgating accident at highway speed (especially as close as this guy was following) would have been like 5 - 10 mph differential, which is less than the parking lot incident.
Sure. But now you have two cars potentially locked together and still traveling at high speed, at least one of which has a vastly reduced ability to steer. All kinds of ways that can go bad quickly.
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Stiffer is not usually better.
@algorythmics might have something to say about that.
EDIT:
my Chevy pickup likes to be rear-ended
And he might have an offer to make regarding that.
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So usually I take the use of such signals as a hint to drive slower, stay longer in the left lane and maybe wink the nice fellow behind me.
Nothing says "I'm not bothered by your actions" like a wave and a friendly smile. Try it some time--you might give the Audi guy a heart attack or an apoplexy.
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having been rear ended twice already there's also the issue of trust where i'm far more interested in getting you off my ass than teaching you a lesson about safe driving.*
- you in this case being the tailgater, not anoyone in this thread
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>flabdablet:
fallen boulderThese don't exist in the state of Nebraska.
But you have wombats?
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The main road where I live has very generous pavements that are amply big enough for the cycle path and footpath they're divided into. The cycle path is bi-directional, but it doesn't have a dotted line all the way down, only at points where there's a break, where it's marked with lane ends and appropriate give-way symbols just like a real road. Each lane is as wide as an average cycle lane ([i]and[/i] there's an additional cycle lane on each side of the road).
Cyclists seem to be able to grasp, from the signage, that there's two lanes in the cycle path. Somehow, though, they are all under the impression that the entire cycle path is one lane and the footpath is the other, and look daggers at me when I decline to move into the side so that they have to actually get into the cycle path for a few yards to pass me, after which they return to the footpath.
I don't object to bikes on the pavement in general: in most circumstances they're far more of a hazard on the road, but this just takes the p*ss.
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I just put my left foot (lightly) on the brake while leaving the right foot firmly in place on the accelerator.
I keep considering installing a switch to activate the brake lights without having to actually tap the pedal.
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The EU standard dictates that the tolerances are only allowed to over read - not under read, so it's not going to overlap in that way.
How accurate is your car speedometer? #AskTCE
Have you noticed that your car speedometer reads faster than your satnav says? Find out why this happens in this week's #AskTCE at TheCarExpert.co.uk
A speedo must never show less than the actual speed, and must never show more than 110% of actual speed + 6.25mph. So if your true speed is 40mph, your speedo could legally be reading up to 50.25mph but never less than 40mph.
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Nothing says "I'm not bothered by your actions" like a wave and a friendly smile. Try it some time--you might give the Audi guy a heart attack or an apoplexy.
My usual response to red-faced neck-vein-throbbing morons screaming abuse as they hurtle past is to blow them kisses.
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This has never ever ever worked for me. Ever. Not even once.
Then you press a little harder on the brake and let up on the gas. Sometimes you've got to shed 10-25mph, but eventually they'll go around you.
