Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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I sometimes think of an SF story I read a long time ago (probably back in the 70's, although the story itself may be older, and whose name and author I have forgotten) in which road rage has become a competitive sport, and even family sedans are equipped with at least defensive weaponry.
I guess you're not referring to Spiro Bikopoulis?
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How hard is it to look to the lane next to you before you move into it? Almost got merged into again this morning. Quick reflexes and strong brakes saved me.
Hey! Me too! Closest call in a longgg time.
Also, as pointed out above by Blakeythe turn signal comes on BEFORE you START to change lanes.
Oh, wait, it's not illegal in MD to change w/o signaling (TRWTF), so that split-second warning I got was actually a gift.
Less than a mile past the spot from my spin-out story. (dry today tho).
Filed under: OK, probably avoidable on my part since I was passing[1] on the right. At least knowing I was being sketchy made me keep an eye on the dude, so I was ready.
[1] two three-lane highways merging - I was in the fast lane of the RH highway (lane 4 after the merge) and he was in the slow lane of LH highway (lane 3 after the merge)(lane 1 being the left-est lane). Pretty much a giant game of chicken every single day - ~200,000 cars a day.
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Death Race 2000, starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. One of trash cinema's greatest works.
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From what IMDb tells me, it looks like the movie Carmageddon was based on.
I'll add it to my to-watch list.
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Plus Fred Grandy!
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Plus Fred Grandy!
And +1 intermemes.
Filed under: I am too old. Didn't even need wikiimdbgoogle-fu.
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I guess you're not referring to <a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mjh/spike.html">Spiro Bikopoulis</a>?
WhyTF does Dicsores escape the link in that quote‽
I've read that, but it's not what I was thinking of.
Rough summary of the plot, as best I can recall: Guy is driving family car. Other guy does something that pisses guy off. Guy challenges other guy. Guy is warned that other guy is much more heavily armed; guy challenges anyway. Through some bit of smart tactics and extreme good luck, guy defeats other guy, but is badly damaged in the process. Guy starts receiving steady stream of challenges. Kicker: Turns out other guy was national champion, or some such, and guy is now champion and legally obligated to accept all challenges.
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Two or three months of nice, dry summer, and even in Seattle everyone forgets how to drive in the rain. I-5 was at a near stand-still.
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Because formatting in quotes is mostly but not completely escaped, because formatting in quotes is bad, mkay?
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other guy was national champion, or some such, and guy is now champion and legally obligated to accept all challenges.
Like "The Rifleman", then....
"Hey you kids! Get off my ranch!"
Waves rifle.
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As I used to say, you have to remember that 3 months of summer means 50,000 new Californians move up here, and those are the assholes clogging the roads.
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Hey! Me too! Closest call in a longgg time.
Also, as pointed out above by Blakeythe turn signal comes on BEFORE you START to change lanes.
Oh, wait, it's not illegal in MD to change w/o signaling (TRWTF), so that split-second warning I got was actually a gift.
Less than a mile past the spot from my spin-out story. (dry today tho).
The worst part for me was that he was in the HOV lane that was separated by a double yellow line.
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>HardwareGeek said:
Or else I dream of having a tank and just driving over them.Ooooh Yeeees! Do you know what an Abrams M-1 can do to one of those little eurotrash shoe-cars?
I was just looking through a list of past Ig Nobel Prize winners, and this one from 2011 seemed appropriate here:
PEACE PRIZE: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, LITHUANIA, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank.
REFERENCE: VIDEO and OFFICIAL CITY INFO
ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Arturas ZuokasOn an unrelated topic, this one is personally applicable, although it seems like too much work:
LITERATURE PRIZE: John Perry of Stanford University, USA, for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which says: To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important.
REFERENCE: "How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done," John Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1996. Later republished elsewhere under the title "Structured Procrastination."
ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Colleague Deborah Wilkes accepted the prize on behalf of Professor Perry.
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REFERENCE: "How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done," John Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1996.
TL;DR — Maybe later.
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My wife's minivan (Chrysler T&C) is that way. The surroundings make a big difference, too - if there's other ambient light from street lights, etc., most people don't seem to be bothered. Get out in the country a bit, and pretty much everybody we meet will flick their lights at us.
Of course, the lights go from "yeah, that's a little uncomfortable" at low-beam to "My eyes! The goggles, they do nothing" at high-beam. I've adjusted them as low as seems safe, but I suspect at least part of it is because it's a larger vehicle so the lights are just higher off the road than on a normal car.
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but I suspect at least part of it is because it's a larger vehicle so the lights are just higher off the road than on a normal car.
Quite possible. It is a Silverado 2500HD with a 3" factory lift kit. If the lights pointed downward any farther all the illumination would be hidden by the blind spot caused by the hood area.
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This happened on the way home last night.
Driving on the 5 south, doing 80 mph in the left-most lane with traffic. Come up on a guy doing 70 mph in the lane to the right of me, with his left blinker on. I cautiously go to pass him, wondering if he'll pull in front of me at the last second. Looking at him, I notice that he's looking straight ahead, so he obviously has no idea that his blinker is on. As I pass him, the car doing 75 mph behind him pulls out behind me, and passes the clueless guy. The kicker is that he didn't use his signal.
So the a guy who didn't signal to switch lanes did switch lanes to pass the guy who had his blinker on to switch lanes.
Fun.
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So the a guy who didn't signal to switch lanes did switch lanes to pass the guy who had his blinker on to switch lanes.
And this surprises you?
5 south, doing 80 mph
TRWTF. Not to mention, how? Unless you were in middle of nowhere in the Central Valley.
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Between Pendleton and the 805 split, traffic moves pretty quickly.
The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News
News about San Diego, California
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TRWTF. Not to mention, how? Unless you were in middle of nowhere in the Central Valley.
Pfft. I5 goes that fast through like 2/3rds of Washington and Oregon.
However, since chubert said "the 5" that makes him Californian.
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However, since you said "the 5" that makes you Californian.
I didn't say "the 5," @chubertdev did. I didn't even quote "the."
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So the a guy who didn't signal to switch lanes did switch lanes to pass the guy who had his blinker on to switch lanes.
Around here, when I see somebody tooling along with his left blinker on, I can pretty much count on him changing lanes to the right.
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Maybe this is a new thread "Anti-Anti-Patterns", um "Pro-Patterns"??
Has anybody noticed that more people are using/expecting their brake-lights as "signals"?
Say you're in the next-to-the-fast lane ("2nd lane") and you're catching up to somebody - steady, definite, but not too fast.
Guy comes up in the fast lane ("1st"), passing you on the left...
I'm finding that if I tap my brakes, 1st-lane guy takes this as a signal that I'm staying put and he passes me straight-away, neat and tidy - and then I can smoothly pass the guy in front of me.
I'm seeing more people using this "brake signal" in the last year or so...
Also spreading, using your right-blinker on a long-long off-ramp to demonstrate that you're not intending to run up to the end of the ramp and swerve left.
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Brake lights as signal is reasonably common here, but typically indicating to the person behind them to increase following distance.
Right blinker to indicate you will take the off ramp is also used here, especially with combined on/off ramps (where the on ramp from the previous exit transitions into the off ramp for the next one).
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Around here, when I see somebody tooling along with his left blinker on, I can pretty much count on him changing lanes to the right.
The only questions is how many lanes to the right that they actually change. They usually average around 3.
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Or, they cut across four lanes of rush hour freeway traffic and the gore point in order to make their exit. Because they couldn't plan ahead, for some reason.
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A couple of nights ago I was driving home. Traffic was moving at the speed limit, and all the lanes were travelling at the same speed. I was in the second lane from the right, and a ways ahead of me the three right-most lanes happened to have cars directly abreast of each other. Some guy passed in the right-hand lane at 10-20 mph faster than the flow of traffic, braked abruptly behind the car travelling at the limit, and swerved into the third lane, where the car ahead of him was maybe three feet further ahead than the ones in the other two lanes. He drove about half a car-length behind that car for a while, then swerved back into right lane to exit.
This exit happens to be the same one I take. The right lane must exit, and the second lane has the option to exit. He exits in the right lane, and I exit in the left, as I usually do. Both lanes lead to another freeway. It's actually the start of the freeway; there's only one lane to the right as the ramp (which itself merges to a single lane) joins it.
Shortly after the merge is the exit for the main street of town. It is also a two-lane exit — the right lane must exit; the second lane may exit. Both of these lanes split into two, so there are two lanes that turn right onto the surface street, and two that turn left. If you want to turn right, you have to get in the right lane of the freeway, so that you are in the right lane of the exit, then you have your choice of the two right lanes when they split; if you want to turn left, you want to be in the second, optional-exit lane.
So this guy, though not driving as fast as he had been earlier, is rather a bit ahead of me by this time, but I'm still watching to see if he's going to do anything else stupid. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.
He merges to the right lane of the freeway and takes the rightmost lane of the exit when they split. He stays in this lane all the way to the stop light, then swerves across the second-from-the-right lane, the gore point and the second-from-the-left lane into the far left lane. Of course, he never signaled any of his lane changes.
The most amusing bit, to me, was that for all his rushing and crazy driving, he was still sitting there waiting for the light to turn when I got there and made my right turn onto the street.
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My wife thinks I'm crazy because I have a plan for when to switch to particular lanes for routes that I drive regularly.
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Makes sense to me. When commuting, I changes lanes at roughly the same places every day.
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Makes sense to me. When commuting, I changes lanes at roughly the same places every day.
What? You plan ahead?
Filed under: Yahoos who like project requirements
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Not sure about Dallas, but around here I don't come into contact with a stopped school bus often. I was upstate once and a school bus was stopped around the corner from me, so when I made my turn, the school bus driver seemed pretty mad that I would do that when he's stopped. How exactly am I supposed to see his stop sign from around the corner? And apparently I can't pass him going in the other direction either?
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apparently I can't pass him going in the other direction either?
Yep, because kids might be crossing the street.
How exactly am I supposed to see his stop sign from around the corner?
That's a good question that I don't have an answer to. Could you see his flashing lights?
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I was upstate once and a school bus was stopped around the corner from me, so when I made my turn, the school bus driver seemed pretty mad that I would do that when he's stopped.
The detail you're missing is, when you did see the flashing red lights, did you stop? Or pass him anyway?
If you did the first, then he's in the wrong for being mad. If the second, then you're in the wrong for passing a loading school bus.
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Could you see his flashing lights?
This is why I (almost really) think sirens are next. Because clearly, as I (sarcastically) said, two strobes, multiple flashing red lights, and up to three moving arms, up to two of which have stop signs that also might have more flashing lights on them, just isn't enough.
Seriously, though, I am not sure what you can do if you actually can't see the bus until you're around the corner. Roll down your window and yell at the driver to pull forward from now on before stopping? That way at least you could stop behind him after turning. Would suck for the next guy trying to turn, but what are you gonna do?
Some the bus drivers around here have taken to driving on non-main streets with yellow flashers on the whole time. They should be dragged out of their buses and beaten.
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What? You plan ahead?
I iterate. The plan evolves over time to minimize driving time and blood pressure.
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They should be dragged out of their buses and beaten.
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If you did the first, then he's in the wrong for being mad. If the second, then you're in the wrong for passing a loading school bus.
We do actually have the potential for edge conditions, though. What happens if the bus is stopped so close to the intersection, yet there's a fence or something such that a driver cannot see the flashers until he's halfway through the turn? You'd be required to stop in the middle of the intersection. I would be willing to bet this actually happens. The best thing I can think of (other than time in a reeducation camp for the bus driver to teach her that she needs to pull up a bit before stopping) is you stop, and then slowly roll forward, at least until you're entirely out of the intersection. This will leave you at the least, next to the bus instead of behind it, but there's no real solution.
I mean, in @russ0519's case he can remember that incident, and either not drive by there at that exact moment, or, if he has to, try an alternate route.
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And apparently I can't pass him going in the other direction either?
Usually only if it's a divided road, i.e., there's some sort of median in the middle. I suppose some states may vary.
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You're probably pretty sure I'm kidding. I'm almost not. A significant fraction bus drivers are active assholes who try to fuck over drivers. (For example, the ones on a narrow two-lane two-way street who collect 10-15 cars behind them and don't pull over to allow some of their retinue to pass.)
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What happens if the bus is stopped so close to the intersection, yet there's a fence or something such that a driver cannot see the flashers until he's halfway through the turn?
Normal buses are like 3 car-lengths long. If you don't have room, that's either because the bus' ass is in the intersection (in which case you'd have seen the flashers), or you yourself are driving a bus.
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My wife thinks I'm crazy because I have a plan for when to switch to particular lanes for routes that I drive regularly.
When she's driving and I'm navigating, I'll be very precise about that.
"Turn right at the next set of lights, but then it's an immediate left, so stay in the left-most right turn lane."
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When she's driving and I'm navigating, I'll be very precise about that.
I go back and forth, because sometimes she gets very angry when I do that. Other times she gets angry when I don't. I'm sure this is familiar.
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I met the guy who shot the cow. Worked construction with his son-in-law.
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If you don't have room, that's either because the bus' ass is in the intersection
This is the case I am thinking of.
(in which case you'd have seen the flashers)
Boy, I bet it must be nice to have never lived anywhere where there's a high fence, shrub, or something else that COMPLETELY blocks the view of anyone trying to turn until they've committed to the turn. I've seen several places where you wouldn't even be able to see a bus's flashers if it stopped, say, 6 feet forward. That's not enough room for a car.
Now I don't know that has never happened, but I can believe it, because I've seen lots of buses stop in wildly inconvenient places. That includes city transit buses. ("Hey, I'm running 5 minutes early. I need to burn some time so I'll just stop across the street from the convenience store and get a coke." Driver parked on a fairly narrow street--granted, forward a bit from the turn--on a fairly narrow street with parked cars on both sides. It's actually happened about 1/4 the time I've been on that bus, which isn't a large number of times.)
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I go back and forth, because sometimes she gets very angry when I do that. Other times she gets angry when I don't. I'm sure this is familiar.
My wife only gets angry when I used cardinal directions instead of left/right. I only do that when there are huge signs saying "Morena Blvd East", etc, but yeah, I stick with left/right with her.
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This is why I (almost really) think sirens are next. Because clearly, as I (sarcastically) said, two strobes, multiple flashing red lights, and up to three moving arms, up to two of which have stop signs that also might have more flashing lights on them, just isn't enough.
Or we could admit that we're taking the wrong approach to the problem. If schoolkids (and keep in mind this includes high school teenagers) really can't safely board a bus without making everyone in the general area stop, maybe the answer is that they shouldn't be left unattended.
