Or at least it must be, based on what I see every day on the road. Aside from what's in the various drivers ed classes and "rules of the road" books, the single most important rule for drivers is pay attention to the road. Of course almost no-one does this, they're busy with their cell phones or car entertainment systems or yapping with passengers, stuff like that. So you get things like not moving when the traffic light turns green or the car ahead of them starts going, rear-ending someone who has slowed to make a turn, and so forth. The second most important unstated rule is move your stupid ass. I don't mean speeding, I mean doing the speed limit, maneuvering smartly instead of slowly, accelerating when the light turns green, or accelerating once the car in front of you that slowed down to make a turn is out of the way. And as an aside, there are two rules governing how fast you should be going. One is the speed limit, the other is traffic flow. If you're in light traffic, you should be doing the speed limit. If you're in heavy traffic, you should be matching the flow. Even if that flow is moving significantly above the speed limit. Needless to say, if you're in heavy traffic and it's moving slowly, odds are you're going to be forced to go slowly yourself just because there's no way to move any faster. Related: Don't camp out in the left lane of a multi-lane highway while going below the speed limit. Simple rule: if you're consistently being passed on the right, you're going too damn slow. Move over or speed up. If someone has to hit their brakes because you pulled out, you shouldn't have pulled out. And if you pull out like that just so that you can turn off again a hundred yards down the road, fuck you right in the ass. You should have waited. A turn signal is not a "get out of my way I'm coming into your lane right now" pass. It's asking permission to move over when it's safe for you to do so. Incidentally, they're called "turn signals" because you use them to signal your fucking turns. That's so the rest of us know you're about to maneuver and we can take measures to avoid, you know, crashing into you. Don't change lanes to get in front of someone who is obviously moving faster than you are, or at least if you do, fucking accelerate. And don't we all love it when the truck going 41mph up the hill pulls into the left lane to pass the truck going 40mph up the hill. Isn't that just special? When it snows, you clean all of the snow off of your vehicle. Not just off the windshield and not, God help me I've actually seen this, just off of the half of the windshield in front of the steering wheel. Snow or ice flying off the roof of your car at highway speeds can smash windshields behind you. Clean it off. In a line of traffic that's stopped, like at a light or a stop sign, it really isn't necessary to leave three car lengths between you and the vehicle in front of you. Shit like that contributes mightily to gridlock. Also, at most intersections you'll find a white line painted across the lane that indicates where you're supposed to stop. Not in front of it, not five car lengths back from it. That said, there is no shortage of intersections where the traffic light is placed incorrectly and you can't really see it from where you're supposed to stop. Traffic engineers are still people, which means yes, they are idiots and get things wrong sometimes. We all know we can rant about traffic and driving all day long and not cover all the stupid shit we see on the road. If you want to entertain yourself, watch dashcam videos on Youtube. The parade of idiocy will make you want to murder a hobo, but most of it comes down to people simply not paying attention to the road. Don't be one of those people. This has been a public service announcement.
Oh, some basics that apparently need explaining: 1) Red light stop, green light go. 2) A "yield" sign is not a "stop" sign. If you were meant to stop, there would be a stop sign there. Yield means stop if there's traffic on the main line. 3) A four-way stop means everyone stops and waits their turn, not everyone stops and waits for you. And a dead traffic light is usually treated as a four-way stop, btw. 4) Acceleration lanes on major highways are there for you to accelerate up to highway speed. NOT to crawl slowly out to the end and then sit there with your turn signal blinking. 5) A drive-thru is just that: a drive-thru. Not a walk thru. For God's sake, this shouldn't need to be explained . . . 6) Yield to emergency vehicles displaying lights and/or siren. Every. Fucking. Time. Not just when you feel like it.
I'm with you on all of it but this. I use turn signals every single time, but I do so to let other drivers know what's about to happen, not to ask "permission". Adding to your list: many drivers don't know how to deal with yield signs and treat them like stop signs. It says "yield", not "give up".
I think touch screens in cars should be banned. Mazda has eliminated them from their cars. It helps, but still there's a lot of stuff in modern cars that can distract drivers. I've had my new Mazda3 for just over 3 months and the learning curve for dealing with the controls was a little scary at times and there are still times when I catch myself taking my eyes off the road. The instrument panels on Hondas give me the heebie-jeebies. Yeah, yeah... But distraction is distraction no matter what your age.
Anyway, one thing I hate is the stupid courtesy bullshit. Like when people wave you to turn or go ahead, even though they have the right of way. I just sit there until they figure it out. Like Lanz said, obey the fucking rules of the road. Be predicable. It's nice you're trying to be nice, but you could actually cause an accident with your stupid courtesy.
This. So much this. Especially at cut-throughs on multi-lane streets. Yeah, your lane might be clear but that doesn't mean the guy trying to cross won't get t-boned by a speeding car in the lane next to you.
Some radio host here in Chicagoland commented that the reason Chicogoans don't use them is because you never want to let the enemy know your next move. I just thought it was funny. I often repeat that even though I always use my blinker to turn or change lanes.
This is true in the DC metro as well. As soon as you signal, the guy behind you will speed up to prevent you changing lanes. I signal anyway, because I won't change lanes if I don't have room to do it safely.
I pretty much drive like an old lady these days anyway. very little lane changing unless absolutely, positively necessary. And, since the lockdowns, never drive during rushhour.
Although I agree with most of what Lanz wrote, I can't help but think it's much funnier if you imagine hearing it in Dana Carvey's Grumpy Old Man voice from SNL...
I hate that. I've told my 16 year old who is now learning to drive - just wait. That car has the right of way and you have no idea who the other drivers are going to react. Let that car proceed, then, when you have the right of way, you proceed. Worst case scenario, you are not at fault in case of an accident. I also hate people who don't understand 4 way stops. Years ago, I came up to a four-way stop and was going to make a left turn. I pulled into the intersection and when the person opposite me cleared the intersection, I made my turn. The driver perpendicular to me yelled out his window "wait your turn!" Well, it was my turn. But, other people think that same way. and when I'm four cars back with each person in front of me waiting to make a left turn, presumable every fourth car, one intersection could take all day. Just fucking go. Read the rules of the road before getting in your car!!
Indeed. Here's a good summary of the four "Golden Rules" governing a four way stop. https://911drivingschool.com/the-fo...ht goes first,has arrived at the intersection. Also I will add to the list: If your neighborhood / area has roundabouts or traffic circles, please learn how to use them. Around here, traffic circles are the "traffic in the circle has the right of way, entering traffic yields" variety. Not everyone knows this. I see people in the circle yielding to incoming traffic sometimes and that hurts my brain.
This is a floriduh thing too. If you have plenty of room to come in and you make a signal that means the guy way back behind you has to floor it to stop you from coming into their lane. If it even looks like you might turn into their lanei they will hit the car in front of them to black you, even if they were leaving 20 car lengths. The only reason people use their signal here in floriduh is what lanz was saying about them telling you they are about to hit you making a lane change so get out of their way. It really does mean slam on your breaks because I am coming in.
I have a couple of things to add. When entering a three lane highway you do not cross every lane at once in a suicide run for the passing, left hand turn, or u-turn lane. You alsao do not wait twenty minutes to get a clearing so you can get to the far lane or turn lane. You wait until the right lane is clear, pull out, accelerate, and then change lanes as it is safe. If you have to go an extra light to make your left hand turn or u-turn then you do that. The same applies to making a left hand turn from the far right lane or a right hand turn from the passing lane. Just because you missed your turn does not mean you get to kill everyone else because you are going to slam on your breaks and cut off three lanes of traffic. Oh, and some people will chase you down and drive you off the road for that sort of shit as a public service to the rest of the drivers out there. Speaking of people rushing into the passing lane, if you are old and tired do not get in the passing lane and go 10 mph below the speed limit. Do not make a floriduh blockade. that is three cars driving across the road at the same exact speed blocking everyone while they go slow. Consolidate into one lane so others can pass. Just because you are on a bike does not mean the rules of the road do not apply to you. As a matter of fact, they should apply even more because when you just drive your bike wherever you are a skid mark.
I amuse myself sometimes by watching self-entitled assholes on bicycles and counting how many traffic laws they break . . . running stop signs, crossing against lights, turning without signaling, and so forth.
We only have really small traffic circles in some of the neighborhoods here, and they're so small that nobody's ever going very fast through them anyway. I really liked the roundabouts I encountered in the UK; I thought they were very efficient.
One thing I love about some of these people is if you do not pull up far enough to be on the road sensor you won't get a turn arrow. So if the guys at the front of the left hand turn lane do not pull up to the line the light does not know they are there and will skip the turn arrow. They have recently been upgrading the lights so some of them will give you a blinking yellow when the straight lane is allowed to go, but there are few of those lights around. One night I ended up sitting through three cycles before the assholes in the front decided the light was broken and pulled into the straight lanes almost causing an accident. Then the guys in the front of the line pulled up onto the sensor and we got a green light. If one of those people leaves space on the sensor I will cut in front of them to piss them off. I have also been known to pull into the gap someone leaves at a stop light just to be annoying. If you do not want me pulling in you should not have left room for me to do it.
Mostly they do work well, although I could point you to examples which seem to confuse people about lane markings with depressing regularity. By and large those are poor examples of the system rather than standing as wider criticisms. I'm very much a fan of the autobahns and German driving in general.
I learned to appreciate roundabouts in the Cayman Islands after Hurricane Ivan knocked out most of the power grid. The intersections with traffic circles flowed normally whilst it was worth your life to get through intersections where traffic lights were out. As far as bikes are concerned, bike lines don't cut it. There needs to be at least some sort of barrier to separate bikes from cars. It's better to just have completely separate trails. Boise's Greenbelt shows just how nice a bike trail can be. The only problem is trying to get to it from my where I live means crossing several very busy intersections.
I agree, but there also needs to far more stricter licensing and regulation for bicycles in urban settings.
My job has me driving in and about Atlanta, on a daily basis I run into pretty all of these. And I have at least 1 or 2 close calls where some dumbass nearly causes an accident every day, by doing one of the above.
I have a new 6 and a CX5 and yeah you have to use the command wheel. But I’ve gotten used to it and it works great. I accidentally touched my screen at a stop sign the other day and accidentally turned off my music. I hadn’t used the touch screen function in so long I completely forgot about the consequences.
Automakers moving things into touchscreens makes me crazy. I want everything I might have to use while driving to be operable entirely by touch.
I do not mind the touch screen being there on my toyota because I figure it is for the passenger to use. they are putting so much stuff on the steering wheel where I can get used to the buttons and quick glance information on the dashboard. I do not even need to look to the screen. They are doing a lot of experimentation with how they display things to the driver which is somewhat good. I like a lot of the new gadgets my toyota has. One safety thing I think is cool is if you are switching around devices you have to be in park. I cannot switch devices while driving. I use my laptop, pad, and phone through the blue tooth. So I have to make sure they are set up to use through the car's steering wheel controls before I drive. That is probably something true jerks would hate and cause annoyance, but it makes me settle all that shit before I take off, or else it won't work. It also locks out passengers fucking with things which that sucks on the very rare occasion I have one that wants to operate thet radio. I think it is pretty reasonable. Fucking car knows if my head is nodding, if I am driving aggresively, if I am getting to close to someone, if I am leaving my lane. And I am driving the corolla and not the high end model. Some of the stuff might be distracting, but the driver has got to have their shit together too because the car cannot do everything.
