Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition
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it's quite feasible to take them at the posted limit — springs and shock absorbers do their job — thump-ump — and hardly even feel it
Are you driving a land yacht? A big American Yank tank? They are notorious for soft suspension which gives a comfort ride and poor handling.
Mine is comfortable over speed bumps going very slowly or fairly quickly but usually not in between, depending on the speed bump. I have a very new 4x4 with bigger tyres but no suspension lift yet.
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I drive an aging (2001) minivan. It does have a fair bit of mass, and therefore inertia, that reduces its impulse response. I can understand that a car with less mass and/or stiffer suspension would feel the bump more, but not enough to require the extreme care that many drivers use.
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I can understand that a car with less mass and/or stiffer suspension would feel the bump more, but not enough to require the extreme care that many drivers use.
If the suspension is set a bit too soft, bumps aren't so much absorbed as set the whole vehicle wallowing.
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Some side-streets with a speed limit of, say, 25MPH have speed bumps to discourage traffic from exceeding the limit
In my home town they installed rumble strips in a 20 zone, with the idea that they make the stretch of road horrible over the posted speed.
It worked well until the local boy racers discovered that around 50-60 the vibrations get damped out and its smoother than slower speeds.
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the local boy racers discovered that around 50-60 the vibrations get damped out and its smoother than slower speeds
Ye cannae change the laws of physics.
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It worked well until the local boy racers discovered that around 50-60 the vibrations get damped out and its smoother than slower speeds.
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but even 4WD trucks with so much ground clearance you need a helicopter to airlift you in and out of the cab slow down to 0.1MPH and inch carefully over the 2" bump as if it were going to rip their bottom out.
Apparently, lots of people with expensive cars think their suspension is made of tissue paper.
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@Jaloopa said:
It worked well until the local boy racers discovered that around 50-60 the vibrations get damped out and its smoother than slower speeds.
Ye cannae change the laws of physics.At higher speeds the car rides over the top of the corrugations rather than going up and down. It's a common driving technique in outback Australia on the corrugations that form over time on the non-bitumen roads.
http://www.outbackcrossing.com.au/FourWheelDrive/Conquering_the_Corrugations.shtml
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At higher speeds the car rides over the top of the corrugations rather than going up and down. It's a common driving technique in outback Australia on the corrugations that form over time on the non-bitumen roads.
It's a technique I know from driving in backwoods Sweden too (and 90% of Sweden is nothing but backwoods). I suppose the main difference is that they re-grade the roads every year in the spring; it's cheaper than building road foundations that can resist significant frost heave for roads that only carry a handful of vehicles an hour.
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At higher speeds the car rides over the top of the corrugations rather than going up and down.
I was actually agreeing with you.
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In my home town they installed rumble strips in a 20 zone, with the idea that they make the stretch of road horrible over the posted speed.
Down in Florida they installed speed tables, which are speed bumps on steroids. I wouldn't want to hit one of those at 50.
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I love speed bumps on my dirt bike. They make me stand and speed up!
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Down in Florida they installed speed tables, which are speed bumps on steroids. I wouldn't want to hit one of those at 50.
Around here, they often elevate entire crossings for speedbumps.
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Around here, they often elevate entire crossings for speedbumps.
I've seen that once: an entire two-lane by two-lane square raised a couple of inches. It's evil.
When I lived in South Carolina, they built a new strip mall and some bright soul put in a stupidly-high speed bump. It was tall enough everyone went over it at a crawl because, as I discovered the first time I went there, even at that speed, if you weren't in an SUV or pickup, you'd scrape the bottom of your car. It was all gouged up already, too. I went by a few days or a week or two later and they'd dropped the thing a couple of inches.
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When I lived in South Carolina, they built a new strip mall and some bright soul put in a stupidly-high speed bump. It was tall enough everyone went over it at a crawl because, as I discovered the first time I went there, even at that speed, if you weren't in an SUV or pickup, you'd scrape the bottom of your car. It was all gouged up already, too. I went by a few days or a week or two later and they'd dropped the thing a couple of inches.
I've found it works better if you hit those things at an angle. Which drives my wife nuts, but still beats bottoming out.
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I've found it works better if you hit those things at an angle. Which drives my wife nuts, but still beats bottoming out.
That wasn't really an option in this particular spot--it was a bottleneck.
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Even a slight angle. Just get the axle so it's not parallel to the bump. I'm not an off road guy, but they seem to do that sort of thing a lot, from what I've seen.
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Even a slight angle. Just get the axle so it's not parallel to the bump.
Hmmm. Might be doable, but it would have been tricky. This was a two-car-wide aisle between two rows of parking with buildings beyond on either side. Angling at all would probably mean dipping into a parking spot, or taking up part of the other traffic lane, and the traffic was always heavy, if I remember correctly.
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If memory serves, it was here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.8277505,-82.2987677,415m/data=!3m1!1e3
probably it was the road just to the south of the pair of buildings in the middle of the shopping center, in the middle where the lighter-colored section was, but I can't spot it so it's possible it was removed or redesigned since 2006 or whenever that was.
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Yeah, I can imagine lots of situations where it's not really possible. I'm just sayin', for future reference.
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Back to the magic roundabout that was referenced many, many posts ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D22BOOGbpFM
Not sure if it has been posted or not, but I found it interesting.
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I've not seen that video, nor been to Swindon but there are others.
I've done the one in Hemel Hempstead, and he has a point. Know the basic rules of the road/roundabouts and you're good.
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I've not seen that video, nor been to Swindon but there are others.
When I watched the video I thought of this thread and remembered people mentioning multiple ones and wondered what he was getting on about.
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Trying to drive a rear-drive muscle car in heavy snow.
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/why-do-people-insist-that-rwd-is-terrible-in-the-snow-1508277897
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I think the bolded part may be relevant:
Nothing is hard about driving in the winter, you just have to pay attention to what your doing.
My first car was a Chevette (also RWD) and was fine in the winter (to the extent that it ran at all). On the other hand, it had slightly more torque than the average riding lawnmower.
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Yeah, I've had two RWD cars that both have been in the snow. I used to have sticky summer tires on lightweight rims, and winter tires on the stock rims. Between those tires, traction control, ABS, and most importantly, a decent amount of experience in the snow, I never had issues. Definitely easier to drive than my FWD car.
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As for the DRL/headlight thing, I can't believe how many people around here drive around without their headlights on at night. You're going at a speed that can best be described as "fatal", and you're not paying attention to the state of your vehicle?
I have DRLs that are wired to be on whenever the car is:
http://www.speedstersource.com/GOODSTUFFS/PnP_HL_P46_AE_LED_W_J.jpg
But I also never have to worry about turning on my headlights:
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You're going at a speed that can best be described as "fatal", and you're not paying attention to the state of your vehicle?
You'd love driving around Dallas. At night, I'm glad if the other drivers aren't visibly drunk.
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My first car was a Chevette (also RWD) and was fine in the winter (to the extent that it ran at all). On the other hand, it had slightly more torque than the average riding lawnmower.
The lack of power had little to do with it. I was perfectly happy driving my Challenger R/T in the winter.I can think of very few scenarios where how the drive wheels are configured matters in the winter. Most likely ways you will bend your car in snow:
- Driving too fast around a curve - end up in a ditch.
- Not leaving enough room to stop - end up rear-ending someone.
- Driving too fast in deep snow and end up hydroplaning (snow-planing?) - could end up anywhere.
Front-wheel drive (or four wheel drive) will not improve your outcome in these cases. Rear-wheel drive is more likely to leave you stranded in a parking lot or your driveway, but that doesn't result in an accident and isn't a safety issue.
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But I also never have to worry about turning on my headlights
I just bought a Mazda and I'm very disappointed that, for the first time in twelve years, I have to turn my headlights on when it gets dark. My previous three cars had automatic headlights. It's the little things that are the difference between a good car and a bad car.
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Rear-wheel drive is more likely to leave you stranded in a parking lot or your driveway
I still don't see how. I drove RWD cars in the snow for 5 years, and never had a problem.
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There is less weight on the drive wheels. It's only a few hundred pounds, so it is only a marginal difference, but it's real.
As I said earlier - I also never had a problem with RWD. But that doesn't mean it's better.
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My last pickup truck was absolutely worthless on snow and ice unless 4WD was engaged. Though I think the weight differential between the front and rear axles is way more pronounced on pickup trucks.
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There is less weight on the drive wheels. It's only a few hundred pounds, so it is only a marginal difference, but it's real.
As I said earlier - I also never had a problem with RWD. But that doesn't mean it's better.
Ahhh, I have nearly a hundred pounds of extra dead weight in my cars over the rear axle.
Not to mention the whole power/steering issue that FWD cars have, RWD cars don't have that.......so the weight thing is relatively minor.
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I have nearly a hundred pounds of extra dead weight in my cars over the rear axle.
You really ought to get rid of the bodies before they start to stink.
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You really ought to get rid of the bodies before they start to stink.
Less than a hundred pounds, and plural bodies? That implies something...
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Dead midget hookers?
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@chubertdev said:
in my cars
Plural cars.Yes, I had the same setup in my previous car, as well as my current one.
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@HardwareGeek said:
Plural cars.
Yes, I had the same setup in my previous car, as well as my current one.
DiscoNestedQuotes all of its own accord. I didn't do anything special to get the nested quotes.
So you only have one current body to get rid of. Still should do that before it decomposes.
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@chubertdev said:
Yes, I had the same setup in my previous car, as well as my current one.
<small> DiscoNestedQuotes all of its own accord. I didn't do anything special to get the nested quotes.</small>
So you only have one current body to get rid of. Still should do that before it decomposes.
Actually, now that I think of it, I do have a different setup.
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The last three days - anybody else finding it's been nuts out there??
So much butt-clowns.
Aside: I pulled my own this morning, passing a guy semi-slowly on his left while he was coming up on a slow-moving work-truck. Didn't realize the work-truck was doing, I dunno, 50 mph in 65 mph zone - and slowing. (Me: lane 2, Them: lane 3; of 4).
The anti-pattern seen yesterday...
Huge American Intersection... two left turn lanes, let's call them "1" for the left-most, and "2" for the extra one.
Yahoo in the 2nd left turn lane decides to make a U-turn.
which really, really, mad me mad, because the stupid light is like 5 minutes long, and he pulls this stunt as the light is turning yellow RIGHT IN FRONT of MEEEEE!!!!!.
ITS ALL ABOUT ME YOU MORON!!
*adopted from "Road Rage" - performed by DaVinci's Notebook
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Huge American Intersection... two left turn lanes, let's call them "1" for the left-most, and "2" for the extra one.
Yahoo in the 2nd left turn lane decides to make a U-turn.
Dallas variant: yahoo in the 1st left turn lane decides not to turn after all and goes straight through the intersection, cutting off surprised driver in lane 2.
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Dallas variant: yahoo in the 1st left turn lane decides not to turn after all and goes straight through the intersection, cutting off surprised driver in lane 2.
You have it exactly - that's the Right-Handed version, tho.
What do they call that in Chemistry?
(Physics too? Nooo... that's the asymmetry of matter vs. anti-matter. Hmmmm)
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Just had this happen at lunch. Idiot with Ohio plates sitting at a red light with a green arrow, my co-worker taps the horn to get him to go. Another tap, and he flips us off, then goes. How hard is it to understand what a green arrow means?
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Yahoo in the 2nd left turn lane decides to make a U-turn.
Ugh.
OTOH I love making right turns on red from the left-hand right-turn lane, which is a thing in Texas.
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Dallas variant: yahoo in the 1st left turn lane decides not to turn after all and goes straight through the intersection, cutting off surprised driver in lane 2.
I watched a guy do something like that yesterday, except halfway through the intersection he decided he needed to be in the left lane, so he just wandered across the path of the other guy.