Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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The only reason I can see for that driver to have opened his door at that time would have been to deliberately interfere with the motorcyclist.
He looked genuinely surprised (shitting himself) after the collision so while I agree most drivers seem to behave like homocidal maniacs I'm not so sure that's the case here.
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In a car without a six-point harness you need to use the same foot to brake and accelerate so it's much more difficult.
Define "need". I know someone who is left foot dominant and always uses his left foot for braking. He uses his right for the accelerator because it is too far over to comfortably reach with his left. He could easily cover the brake pedal while accelerating.
For those of you who drive on the left side of the road, imagine that left and right are modified in my anecdote as necessary.
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Define "need".
I mentioned the six-point harness for a reason. Without one, you need to use your left foot on the foot brace (it's not a foot rest) or the floor under the clutch to keep your arse in the seat and your upper body braced when making drastic manoeuvres. Otherwise you will be sliding and moving all over the place and you will have no solid position from which to work any of the controls in the car.
I know someone who is left foot dominant and always uses his left foot for braking.
My old man does the same in an automatic. He's an excellent driver (really, he used to drive competitively) but this technique gives me the shits. When you brake hard your weight shifts forward. With neither foot on the floor you can't push back, instead you push harder on the brake. More brake, more weight forward, etc. It's a terrible technique, don't do it.
There are a few situations, mostly off-road, in which it can be appropriate, but when you train for those situations you'll be told when so don't do it unless you're instructed to do so by a competent trainer.
For those of you who drive on the left side of the road, imagine that left and right are modified in my anecdote as necessary.
The accelerator is still on the right, brake in the middle and clutch on the left. We just didn't forget which side of the wagon the driver sits on.
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Same as it does for the driver of a car
I'm glad you bothered to actually explain the term because this bit wasn't helpful at all. I'd never heard it before, so telling me that meant nothing.
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Define "need". I know someone who is left foot dominant and always uses his left foot for braking. He uses his right for the accelerator because it is too far over to comfortably reach with his left. He could easily cover the brake pedal while accelerating.
My last car had an unfortunate tendency to stall while idling at red lights, so I tended to drive with both feet, using the gas to keep it from idling, and the brake to keep it from moving.
You don't want, for obvious reasons, to mix one- and two-foot driving styles, so I tended to two-foot all the time.
When that car died I went back to driving normally, though.
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I'm glad you bothered to actually explain the term because this bit wasn't helpful at all. I'd never heard it before, so telling me that meant nothing.
Do you know it by another name? I'd be interested to know.
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Do you know it by another name? I'd be interested to know.
Maybe, 25 years ago when I learned, but if so I've long forgotten, because it's honestly not a term you use in everyday conversation.
Well, not one I use.
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You don't want, for obvious reasons, to mix one- and two-foot driving styles
That's not so bad. What's really bad is left-foot braking when you normally drive a manual. The brake doesn't take nicely to being stomped to the floor just before you stop as you would the clutch.
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That's not so bad.
I'd hate to forget whether I was in one-foot or two-foot mode and stomp the wrong pedal!
What's really bad is left-foot braking when you normally drive a manual.
Yeah, I can imagine, but I've never learned stick. The one opportunity I had, the guy who was letting me use his car freaked out because I couldn't master shifting gears instantly.
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it's honestly not a term you use in everyday conversation.
I don't use it every day because I don't talk in this detail about riding and/or driving techniques every day, despite my interest and enjoyment in the activities of riding and driving.
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Hand in your man card. Real Men drive manual transmissions.
In downtown city traffic? The fuck you say.
If I drove stick I would, no exaggeration, be shifting more or less continuously my entire commute.
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In downtown city traffic? The fuck you say.
Damn skippy in downtown city traffic. It's really not hard, should you choose to drive in city traffic. There are alternatives.
If I drove stick I would, no exaggeration, be shifting more or less continuously my entire commute.
Sounds like fun!
Hang on, haven't you said your commute is abour four minutes? Harden up, Princess!
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If I drove stick I would, no exaggeration, be shifting more or less continuously my entire commute.
Then get a bike and learn to filter.
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There are alternatives.
I am not about to buy a different car just so I can have the "fun" of another thing to suck up part of my attention while driving.
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Hang on, haven't you said your commute is abour four minutes?
7, I think, actually.
But until I moved, I had a 60-minutes-and-20-miles-each-way commute, all through metro traffic, including a ridiculous number of school zones. Ugh.
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Then get a bike and learn to filter.
Bike? In 100-degree weather?
Maybe for pleasure, but not to commute. (I actually did that for a couple of months, and then someone stole my bike right off my porch.)
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I am not about to buy a different car
I didn't mean for you to buy another car. Think outside the cage!
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I didn't mean for you to buy another car. Think outside the cage!
I'm not buying a motorcycle, either.
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Bicycle? Skateboard? Hoverbike? Jetpack? Good walking shoes? Bus? Car pool?
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I've addressed bicycle already. Skateboard would be silly. I've walked--half an hour each way in 100-degree sun isn't fun. Due to weirdness with the bus lines, I would pay $5 a day to get 3/4 of the way there, or else it would take half an hour because I'd have to get to a transit station and then take a different bus to get the last of the trip. As for car pool, the one person who lived anywhere near me had his last day Friday--everyone else lives in wildly different directions, not to mention coming in an hour later.
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Bike? In 100-degree weather?
All you need is a change of clothes (probably, depends on your job really).
I've walked--half an hour each way in 100-degree sun isn't fun.
All you need is a change of clothes, and then you won't need to deal with traffic or parking either.
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I've gotten repeated honked at for not mowing down pedestrians currently in the crosswalk that I must make a turn across. Some people lose their goddamn minds when they get behind the wheel.
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Bike? In 100-degree weather?
@another_sam said:All you need is a change of clothes (probably, depends on your job really).
I cycle 10km each way to work in Brisbane and in the summer it does get that hot on occasion.
The places I've worked at in Brisbane have all had bike parking and showers; our current place has lockers as well. I don't suppose everyone has an office with those facilities though.
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Define "need". I know someone who is left foot dominant and always uses his left foot for braking.
The left foot is needed for the clutch, which needs to be pressed along with the brake, otherwise the engine will stop.
Now if you have automatic gear (which most of you do, but here in Europe it was uncommon until recently) you can conceivably use left for brake. In fact I was told, that to make some cars with automatic gear accelerate more quickly from stop, you have to press accelerator first and then release brake, which clearly requires using one leg for each pedal.
That's not so bad. What's really bad is left-foot braking when you normally drive a manual. The brake doesn't take nicely to being stomped to the floor just before you stop as you would the clutch.
That. If you've been driving manual before, you must stick your left leg under the seat and resist the temptation to use it. Otherwise you are likely to hit the wind-shield with your forehead now and then.
I mentioned the six-point harness for a reason. Without one, you need to use your left foot on the foot brace (it's not a foot rest) or the floor under the clutch to keep your arse in the seat and your upper body braced when making drastic manoeuvres.
I never had that problem. The 3-point harness and the seat seem fine to me. Besides the leg is far in front and wouldn't do much good preventing motion to the sides.
When you brake hard your weight shifts forward. With neither foot on the floor you can't push back, instead you push harder on the brake.
When I brake, my left foot is lightly over the clutch, waiting to press it when the speed drops below what the engine needs to run. It's definitely not bracing me.
More brake, more weight forward
And if I brake hard, my weight is already completely on the brake pedal. Because that's what you need to do to brake really hard. You want to put all your weight against the brake pedal in such case.
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I've gotten repeated honked at for not mowing down pedestrians currently in the crosswalk that I must make a turn across. Some people lose their goddamn minds when they get behind the wheel.
Where you drive, do pedestrians always have right of way (as they do here) or only when you are turning?
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I live in the US, so pedestrians always have the right-of-way, but can be ticketed for jaywalking if they fail to use a crosswalk, or use a crosswalk against a red light or "Don't Walk" signal.
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I don't live in the USA, so I didn't know how it is there, but it appears to be the same as here.
Here they introduced the rule that pedestrians have right of way on crosswalks (unless they have red light) about 20 years ago and despite the bad reputation local drivers have most seem to have got used to it.
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In a car without a six-point harness you need to use the same foot to brake and accelerate so it's much more difficult.
I've never observed the problem in a car with a three-point seatbelt. But as a driver, you (should) get very good at moving your foot between accelerator and brake pedals rapidly. More so with a manual, where the other foot is required for the clutch pedal; get the clutch control wrong and you won't go anywhere…
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But most motorcyclists don't split lanes in the first place except in heavy traffic
Even then, I won't lane split. People get all road-ragey when they're stuck but someone else isn't, and doors tend to open up in your path while loud curses and certain fingers are gestured in your general direction.
Fortunately, I'm rarely in heavy traffic so it's kind of a non-issue for me.
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People get all road-ragey when they're stuck but someone else isn't
That's why I ride on the shoulder to avoid stopped traffic.
No, I don't. Filtering is illegal here (Indiana), but the traffic is (almost) never bad enough for me even to think about doing so. Still, next time I'm approaching a freeway traffic jam from behind, I may actually try to stop between cars that are at the end of the jam, to avoid a rear-ending. Then again, some prick may think I'm filtering...
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People get all road-ragey when they're stuck but someone else isn't
Do they also scream at helicopters flying overhead? Every motorcycle that escapes traffic by lane splitting reduces congestion and makes everyone's life better (as long as it's done safely).
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Every motorcycle that escapes traffic by lane splitting reduces congestion and makes everyone's life better (as long as it's done safely).
Unfortunately, logical thinking is in short supply these days, as evidenced by the prohibition of filtering in 49 states...
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Do they also scream at helicopters flying overhead?
Yes.@Jaime said:lane splitting ... (as long as it's done safely).
Hah, you and your silly contradictions!
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My Range Rover (with its 1997 electronics) disengages cruise control if you touch the brakes and won't allow you to enable it below 30mph. Also if you've dropped below 30mph since you set the cruise control, it won't resume the last set speed. Presumably this is to stop you tapping Resume and having it spool up to 70mph unexpectedly.
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My previous car (a late-90's Chevy) wouldn't allow setting the cruise to one speed, and then setting it to a higher speed, without turning the cruise off and back on. It was an annoying "safety" measure.
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All you need is a change of clothes
And change in the men's room, like an animal?
I'd want a towel, too, to mop up all the sweat.
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I don't suppose everyone has an office with those facilities though.
Sadly, I don't.
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In fact I was told, that to make some cars with automatic gear accelerate more quickly from stop, you have to press accelerator first and then release brake, which clearly requires using one leg for each pedal.
Maybe back in the old days.
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Maybe. It was some 15 years ago somebody told that to me and they did it in a rented car which probably was not newest either.
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Maybe back in the old days.
Nope. There's several modern cars that are supposed to be launched this way (example). However, sometimes it turns out to be not such a great idea.
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Bike? In 100-degree weather?
Hey, if it's a dry heat...
I wear mesh overpants and a mesh jacket, so I stay reasonably cool as long as I keep moving.
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Hey, if it's a dry heat...
It's dry-ish, as in not nearly as humid as Houston, but a lot more humid than Albuquerque or Phoenix.
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Right. And my building is small--no built-in gym or anything so I'd have to change, towel off, etc, in the men's room.
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lot more humid than … Phoenix.
Are you talking Phoenix in mid-June, when it's around 10% humidity, or late-August, when the monsoons push humidity up over 50%?
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@antiquarian said:
lot more humid than … Phoenix.
Are you talking Phoenix in mid-June, when it's around 10% humidity, or late-August, when the monsoons push humidity up over 50%?
Mid-june or something. The one time I visited Phoenix en route to Sedona, it was mid-November. I was the only one not wearing shorts (I was visiting from Michigan).
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What's really bad is left-foot braking when you normally drive a manual. The brake doesn't take nicely to being stomped to the floor just before you stop as you would the clutch.
Even after driving an automatic for the last 9 years, I still can't use my left foot on the brake. 20 years of muscle memory. (I'd still be driving a stick, but Subaru took that option away with the current Outbacks... sigh)
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I cycle 10km each way to work in Brisbane and in the summer it does get that hot on occasion.
I ride 16km each way (see my brag there?) in Canberra. In summer we often get a string of days around 40C. It's pretty nasty. At least it's drier than Brisbane, that place... yuck.
The places I've worked at in Brisbane have all had bike parking and showers; our current place has lockers as well. I don't suppose everyone has an office with those facilities though.
I've always had showers available, sometimes bike parking, sometimes not. One place was on university campus so parking a bike outside was a good way to have it stolen so one of the offices was emptied of furniture and used as a bike parking lot.
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The left foot is needed for the clutch, which needs to be pressed along with the brake, otherwise the engine will stop.
While that's true, it's not the situation I was talking about. During sudden drastic manouvres you don't use the clutch.
hit the wind-shield with your forehead
I never had that problem. The 3-point harness and the seat seem fine to me.
That's not a harness and it doesn't stop you sliding around. It's supposed to stop you hitting the windshield at high speed.
Besides the leg is far in front and wouldn't do much good preventing motion to the sides.
You should try it. Assuming you have a bucket seat and not a bench because that's a deathtrap, pushing your butt into the seat will drastically improve lateral stability.
When I brake, my left foot is lightly over the clutch
Oh god you're one of them please stop doing this it's a terrible terrible technique.
And if I brake hard, my weight is already completely on the brake pedal. Because that's what you need to do to brake really hard. You want to put all your weight against the brake pedal in such case.
If you have ABS and you're trying to STOP RIGHT NOW, yes. If you don't have ABS, no. If you're braking hard for a corner, no. If you're braking moderately hard but aren't in STOP RIGHT NOW mode, no. If halfway through your stop you might go from STOP RIGHT NOW mode to "crisis averted, don't stop!", no. So... most times, no.
