Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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Running with your headlight on (even if not on full beam) makes you a lot more visible during daylight.
Yes, but that's generally low-beams.
Yes, but reducing the likelihood of being in a collision is not a bad thing to spend a bit on.
Meh, just use low-beams, I think.
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A guy was splitting traffic on a bicycle; not a motorcycle, a bicycle
He was keeping up with traffic, or even passing cars that were slowing for a light, at 30 – 35 MPH, too.
Damn. Was he going downhill?
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Yes, but that's generally low-beams.
Yes. Though high-beams won't matter much in bright sunlight; the sun is a heck of a lot brighter than a high-beam light. Unless you use the sort of laser for illumination that would be best left to being a military weapon or fusion research boondoggle…
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Yes. Though high-beams won't matter much in bright sunlight; the sun is a heck of a lot brighter than a high-beam light.
I think I already mentioned that.
What, you think your high beams are going to overwhelm the sun?
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@abarker said:
Damn. Was he going downhill?
And was he wearing a yellow jersey?
Downhill, yes. Yellow jersey, no.
Moderate downhill heading toward downtown. I didn't try to measure his speed, but I'd say he was probably riding 25 – 30 steady, with bursts of 30 – 35 when mixing with the cars. He definitely wasn't keeping up when traffic got over 35. Not a yellow-jersey pace, but darned respectable.
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Incidentally, I believe that @HardwareGeek's numbers are MPH, not km/h, which makes them more impressive.
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He was riding to the far right, next to the curb, part of the time, but at each stoplight and when approaching driveways where cars were likely to turn right, he'd move over and split between lanes 2 and 3.
An accepted practice. IF the right lane is a turn only lane [I know that is not what you were referring to], then it is actually proper practice.
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Running with your headlight on (even if not on full beam) makes you a lot more visible during daylight.
Indeed. Especially cars in a shade, e.g. on a road through forrest, are almost invisible from full sun without lights.
I've only noticed this specifically with cars doing it (this was something I found during a trip to Sweden where it was standard practice)
It is mandatory in Sweden. They've made it mandatory here in Czechia some (at least 10 already) years back as well (and in Slovakia and Poland and some other countries).
Now when I recently drove to Austria, where it is not mandatory, most cars had their headlights (low-beam) on during daylight anyway. Including me, who has the car set so the lights automatically come on when the engine is running.
It has just one shortcoming. It is not mandatory (here) for bicycles, which makes them virtually invisible. I would not dare to ride a bicycle on the street without flashing (to compensate for the lower intensity) lights both front and back, but many do.
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It is mandatory in Sweden. They've made it mandatory here in Czechia some (at least 10 already) years back as well (and in Slovakia and Poland and some other countries).
I believe low-beams or DRL is mandatory in the whole EU now.
Including me, who has the car set so the lights automatically come on when the engine is running.
I've bought my car in 2008 and it already came with automatic headlights. There isn't a way to disable lights completely when the car is on, I can only switch to position lights only if necessary.
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I believe low-beams or DRL is mandatory in the whole EU now.
No it isn't. It isn't in Belgium, it isn't in the Netherlands, it isn't in France, in Italy it's only on highways, it isn't in Spain or Portugal.
That's about the part of Europe I drove through in the past few years.
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@obeselymorbid said:
I believe low-beams or DRL is mandatory in the whole EU now.
No it isn't. It isn't in ■■■■■■■, it isn't in the Netherlands, it isn't in France, in Italy it's only on highways, it isn't in Spain or Portugal.Add the four countries in the UK to that list. (Though "daytime" in Scotland is probably a misnomer throughout most of the year. Except perhaps the summer solstice. i.e. the day of.)
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I believe low-beams or DRL is mandatory in the whole EU now.
I checked before driving to Austria recently. It is not mandatory in Austria and is not mandatory in Germany.
I've bought my car in 2008 and it already came with automatic headlights. There isn't a way to disable lights completely when the car is on, I can only switch to position lights only if necessary.
In mine the automatic headlights feature can be turned off via menu in the board computer.
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It seems I've misread Wikipedia.
@https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_lamp#European_Union said:
In the past, Germany, Spain, France and other European countries have encouraged or required daytime use of low beam headlamps on certain roads at certain times of year; Ireland encourages the use of low beam headlights during the winter, Italy, Hungary and Romania require daytime running lamps outside populated areas, and Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia require the use of full or reduced voltage low beam headlights at all times.
It isn't in ■■■■■■■, it isn't in the Netherlands, it isn't in France, in Italy it's only on highways, it isn't in Spain or Portugal.
I've driven in France, Italy and Belgium and a lot of the cars had the lights on, though now that you refuted me I recall that not all of them did.
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Am I at least correct that new cars have to be equipped with DRL throughout the EU now? I thnk that was the confusion point for me. My understanding now is: every new car has to have DRL, individual countries mandate their use as they see fit.
In mine the automatic headlights feature can be turned off via menu in the board computer.
Mine doesn't give that option. Considering it is mandatory in my country and all neighbouring ones (and it isn't forbidden to ride with low-beams during the day in any country I know of), I'm quite okay with that.
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Am I at least correct that new cars have to be equipped with DRL throughout the EU now?
I think that's been the law for a long time, maybe not at the EU level but in a lot of member states so it's just cheaper to comply with it for all cars made. It's one of these laws that might've affected a few diehard stupid makers, but otherwise was just reflecting the status quo.
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In mine the automatic headlights feature can be turned off via menu in the board computer.
In mine, the light switch can be changed from AUTO to 0 ...
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I have AUTO and 0 positions too, but they only make difference when the always-on is disabled. Then the AUTO position means the headlights come up automatically when it becomes dark.
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On the freeway heading to work this morning. Guy entering the road merges into the first lane behind another vehicle which is apparently traveling slightly too slow, because the guy immediately points his vehicle into the next lane. This gentlemen apparently doesn't bother looking where he's going because he failed to notice the next lane was occupied until he was halfway into it. Fortunately the guy next to him was paying attention and avoided an accident. Guy finally notices the car and quickly swerves back. He then waves out the window at the guy as if that absolves him of nearly plowing the guy into the next lanes of traffic.
bonus: I caught up to him a ways down the road and he was honking at the car he was tailgating for daring to allow 3 car lengths between him and the wall of traffic ahead.
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Sounds like an impatient nincompoop, straight from central casting.
Filed under: Isn't it interesting how there's loads of synonyms in English for “annoying idiot”?
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After getting kicked out of the topic by a 500 while trying to like that post...
On my drive down the local freeway, I'm starting to see more people forget to turn off their indicators when they merge onto the highway. This wouldn't be so bad, except that there's an interchange immediately afterwards. It is quite common to have people make drastic lane changes through there, so to see someone with a signal on who drives straight through making no lane changes is unnerving. You can't pull up alongside those people for fear of potentially getting rammed off of the highway.
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he was honking at the car he was tailgating for daring to allow 3 car lengths between him and the wall of traffic ahead.
This is the best way to get me to gradually slow down more and more. The more impatient they are, the more enjoyment I get from it. When they finally manage to blast past me screaming and gesticulating, that's when I win. Meeting them again at the next red light is just the icing on top.
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Meeting them again at the next red light is just the icing on top.
It's even more fun when you pass them as they're stopped talking to a traffic cop.
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gradually slow down more and more.
Passed many a happy hour doing this.
Engage "Driving Miss Daisy" mode!
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3. People who blow through lights well after they have changed.
If you mean "changed to red", I did that once in Manhattan. Driving my own car, no less. Of course, two yellow cabs did it in the same lane behind me, so stopping wasn't likely to be an option, even with "LIVE FREE OR DIE" on the plates...
@Polygeekery said:7. Bicyclists who blow through stop signs. Particularly disgruntling when they are all dressed like bananas and riding in a huge pack. I give leeway to people who are obviously commuting, but if you are out riding for exercise...taking off from a proper stop is great exercise.
I once spent an hour or so sitting on the steps outside the Bodleian Library in Oxford, watching the crossroads that are just over there. It was lunchtime on a weekday, but it wasn't all that busy because it is essentially just side roads. About a quarter of the cyclists didn't even slow down for red lights, some slowed a bit and then just blew through them, some even managed to stop for a moment before immediately starting up through the red light. Only a couple stopped and waited for a green light.And this morning in one of the burbs of Lille, I saw a cyclist ride into what is admittedly normally a cycle lane, but at the moment there is a clear No Entry sign, with a "for bikes and motorbikes" panel underneath. Apparently a sign that is "for bikes" does not apply to bikes.
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Are your bicyclists dressed like bananas too, like @Polygeekery's? Or are they dressed like ninja
's, like is common here? And without lights on the bike, of course.
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This is the best way to get me to gradually slow down more and more. The more impatient they are, the more enjoyment I get from it. When they finally manage to blast past me screaming and gesticulating, that's when I win.
That's when you grin and wave "hi". Works really well on a bicycle too!
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@another_sam said:
This is the best way to get me to gradually slow down more and more. The more impatient they are, the more enjoyment I get from it. When they finally manage to blast past me screaming and gesticulating, that's when I win.
That's when you grin and wave "hi". Works really well on a bicycle too!
+ :fa_road_rage:
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When they finally manage to blast past me screaming and gesticulating, that's when I win.
For bonus points, smile and wave--with all five fingers, mind--as they pass.
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Are your bicyclists dressed like bananas too, like @Polygeekery's? Or are they dressed like ninja
's, like is common here? And without lights on the bike, of course.
Most of the ones I saw that day in Oxford were dressed in ordinary (student) clothes, not Jeff The Cyclist dayglo spandex, and the one in Lille the other day was also wearing ordinary clothes. But I've seen my share of spandex cyclists, including three one day in Oxford...They were riding in the main part of the road despite the presence of a physically separated cycle lane (apparently cycle lanes are not for people on bikes?!?), and the opening phases of this incident took place just fifty feet or so after the beginning of the (clearly marked) cycle lane. Worse, at a point where there was some sort of extended traffic island blocking my access to the other side of the road (one lane each way), they decided to do some sort of dance, occupying enough of my side to make passing impossible. (There was enough room for them to go single file as I passed them, and there would have been even more room if they had bothered to use the cycle lane.)
So I gave a little toot on the horn just to let them know I was coming up close behind them, and they responded to that by dancing more widely, so they were distributed across the entire width of the lane, rather than less widely. So I gave them a more insistent dose of horn, and they eventually tired of the game, not before making rude gestures in my direction.
OK, I understand, they are obnoxious morons, but it gets worse. After the traffic island, they pulled back into single file, and I was able to pass them (absence of oncoming traffic). So I did, and a bit further on, I pulled into the side road where I was meant to be going. I parked, and then the spandex boys pulled up beside me and one of them threatened to pull me out of my car and give me a good beating.
And I've seen a few (or almost not seen them) without lights, including one who thought that it was a good idea to ride at night (no moon that night, either) without lights on a road without street lighting, and at a point where most of the cars would have been approaching from a side road, where they had no hope in Hell of seeing the guy before turning into him. I looked both ways before turning, and I still didn't see him until I was almost about to hit him. I did actually miss him, but it was a bit close.
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And I've seen a few (or almost not seen them) without lights, including one who thought that it was a good idea to ride at night (no moon that night, either) without lights on a road without street lighting, and at a point where most of the cars would have been approaching from a side road, where they had no hope in Hell of seeing the guy before turning into him. I looked both ways before turning, and I still didn't see him until I was almost about to hit him. I did actually miss him, but it was a bit close.
That sounds like the bicycle ninjas I'm talking about. They're regrettably common.
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they are obnoxious morons
Obnoxious-moronhood is strongly independent of what kind of vehicle they use. Alas. (Seen all sorts of nutters this week thinking that turn-left-only lanes mean they can go right despite the stream of heavy traffic in the other lane…)
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Obnoxious-moronhood is strongly independent of what kind of vehicle they use.
... and moronhood isn't tied to obnoxiousness. The other day I was walking on the sidewalk of a busy street. I came to a cross street. My light had just turned red (as I was approaching the intersection) and there was a line of three cars whose light had just turned green. Because the cross street is so small, their red is like three minutes long and the green is very short. I was more than happy to wait.
The moron first in line decides to wave me across. It would likely take the entire green light for me to cover the rest of the distance to the intersection and to cross. Maybe the first guy who waved me could go, but he just screwed the two people behind him.
I gave him the finger and turned around so he was very clear than I wasn't going to accept his offer and he could go. The last thing I wanted was to get into a stand-off where he simply keeps waving me until the light turns red.
Inappropriate courteousness is sometimes worse than obnoxiousness.
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Sure, but I was distressingly close to hitting him. But the prize for that actually goes to a guy in a car on a road near Boston (i.e. inside the big loop of I495).
It was night-time, perhaps 8pm, and definitely dark. I was driving east and had just started down a slope, with a red light 100 yards or so beyond the Chinese restaurant on my side of the road at the bottom of the slope. There was a huge line of traffic going west, and as I moved down the slope, someone turned left out of the stream of traffic into the restaurant parking, so moving across my lane, left to right as I looked at it.
OK, so I back off the throttle, and touch the brakes to check my speed a little (it was a 30 mph limit, and I was just not speeding), and the dude stopped completely blocking my lane.
Brakes, brakes, and more brakes (I could have used a couple of anchors as well, please) meant that I didn't mash his passenger-side door, but a wet road or him choosing a moment when I checked what was behind me in my mirror would have left him with a centre-mounted door and a big jump in his insurance premiums.
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That sounds like the bicycle ninjas I'm talking about. They're regrettably common.
Most of the people who ride bikes in my area are Central American immigrants who can't afford a car. They aren't entitled assholes, however, and mainly ride on the sidewalks, so everyone gets along.
I do come across the occasional spandex idiot riding in the road, though. They can't even keep up on a relatively slow stretch of road (25-35MPH limits). Fuck those guys. If I pass one and then get back into the lane and stop at a red light, I make sure to get close to the curb so they can't pass me on the right. Because fuck those guys.
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I make sure to get close to the curb so they can't pass me on the right.
This.
I hate overtaking a cyclist, stopping at red light, seeing the fucker go through the lights only to be peddling before me again in the next block.
Usually they just drive around me on the sidewalk and then return to the street after the intersection.
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and mainly ride on the sidewalks, so everyone gets along.
I don't think it was on TDWTF, but I once mentioned in college that I rode my bicycle to class and for some reason other users thought I was a raging maniac for riding on the sidewalks. Obviously I should have taken the non-existent streets between the campus buildings instead.
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I gave him the finger and turned around so he was very clear that I wasn't going to accept his offer and he could go. The last thing I wanted was to get into a stand-off where he simply keeps waving me until the light turns red.
(Emphasis mine) That gesture seems a bit out of the blue? What if he didn't know the red light was that short?
Still, I agree that traffic lights are meant to be followed so blocking a green light is rather stupid.
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2) Corner-cutting on left turns has always happened, but now people are cutting corners so much that not only is it impossible for them to line-up with the lane they're supposed to be ending up in, but they pass just inches from the poor car waiting to take a left in the protected left lane. This is despite the DMV literally having PAINTED CURVED LINES in the intersection to guide people making turns.
(Sorry for the epic necro, but this is the Necro Edition...)Wait, what? These lines are new? I remember following them when I was learning to drive in Endicott NY in 1983. You know, 32 years ago. How come you think this is a new thing?
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That gesture seems a bit out of the blue? What if he didn't know the red light was that short?
Anything that was remotely polite would have initiated a back-and-forth dialog where he gestures "just go", and I respond "nope". The only way to get him moving in time for the cars behind him to make it was for me to end the dialog by having him think I was a total asshole. I didn't matter that he didn't know the light was short - I had to end the dialog immediately because the light is short.
I've done something similar where some jerk want to let me go when I had a stop sign and he didn't. In that case I got out and stood next to my car, leaving him no choice but to go.
BTW, I was in an accident long ago (as a passenger) where someone waived the driver of my car through and he got hit by someone going around the waiver. The police don't recognize "but he waived me", they only recognize that you didn't obey the existing traffic controls.
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Holy crap, this is still going? Who resurrected this? o_O
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Usually they just drive around me on the sidewalk and then return to the street after the intersection.
Perhaps you should drive around them on the sidewalk the next time you come up to them.
Just, uh, make sure that no cops see you do this...
BTW, I was in an accident long ago (as a passenger) where someone waived the driver of my car through and he got hit by someone going around the waiver. The police don't recognize "but he waived me", they only recognize that you didn't obey the existing traffic controls.
The police wouldn't, but a judge might. I've always heard that you should never wave someone through unless you're 100% certain it's safe for them to go; if they go and get hit because you told them to do something stupid, it's partially your fault (and you can get sued).
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Wait, what? These lines are new? I remember following them when I was learning to drive in Endicott NY in 1983. You know, 32 years ago. How come you think this is a new thing?
They're new on the opposite-of-Right Coast where Blakey lives. Or, more likely, the DMV didn't deem them necessary for that intersection until recently.Filed under: DISINGENUOUS!
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They aren't entitled assholes, however, and mainly ride on the sidewalks, so everyone gets along.
That makes them assholes who think they are entitled to endanger the lives of pedestrians.
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BTW, I was in an accident long ago (as a passenger) where someone waived the driver of my car through and he got hit by someone going around the waiver. The police don't recognize "but he waived me", they only recognize that you didn't obey the existing traffic controls.
waved, waver, waved.Waive and wave are very different things.
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@boomzilla said:
They aren't entitled assholes, however, and mainly ride on the sidewalks, so everyone gets along.
That makes them assholes who think they are entitled to endanger the lives of pedestrians.That's a stretch, but even if I accept this for the sake of argument, there are far fewer pedestrians than cars. It's an excellent trade off. Bikes and pedestrians play together so much better than bikes and cars.
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Perhaps you should drive around them on the sidewalk the next time you come up to them.
Russian style!
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Had a frustrating one last night: driving down the freeway in the fast lane, suddenly everything slows down to about 5 under the speed limit. The slow lane two lanes over is going faster. So I cut over and get around the obstruction in the flow of traffic. It turns out that some idiot in the fast lane didn't want to pass a school bus in the middle lane.
It's on the freeway. It's moving. You can pass a moving school bus! You can pass a stopped school bus that doesn't have its lights flashing! You, sir, are an asshole!
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I've always heard that you should never wave someone through unless you're 100% certain it's safe for them to go; if they go and get hit because you told them to do something stupid, it's partially your fault (and you can get sued).
What are the odds that the waver will stick around long enough to be questioned after the accident? Most of the time, the guy that caused the mess simply drives away leaving two mostly innocent victims.
