4 ms·
As many people seem to take issue with my statement that I find it less safe if I don't have the option to overtake quickly someone who is doing 120-130km/h, i'
by Roritharr 9y ago
As many people seem to take issue with my statement that I find it less safe if I don't have the option to overtake quickly someone who is doing 120-130km/h, i'd like to describe a situation which I notice at least once a week on the Autobahn:
I'm going 130-150 in the center lane, normal traffic flow speed. Someone in front of me in the center lane goes 130, but drives rather unsafely, serves to the left and right, brakes hard, is clearly not used to driving on the autobahn or their car (usually 90s or early 2000s small hatchbacks like a Ford Fiesta) is at the limits of what it can do. I'm behind that car and deem it unsafe to drive behind someone like that for longer periods of time, so intend to overtake. If the driver in front of me goes somewhere between 130-140km/h which is usually the case as this is the topspeed ceiling for many 45PS small hatchbacks, i HAVE to drive somewhere between 150-180km/h to quickly overtake that car without sitting too long on the left lane.
The problem gets worse when the car in front has truck pulling out in front of him because the truck wants to overtake another truck, with a 10km/h difference because its uphill (a blood boiling situation for many experienced Autobahn driver).
Because the acceleration of the small hatchback is rather slow, many drivers of such cars want to conserve momentum, so they change lanes very quickly in such situations, where they suddenly are driving 120-130km/h on the left lane, where cars are shooting by at 180-220km/h which are then breaking rapidly, sometimes on the level of emergency breaking. EVs, having physics on their side, could have much greater acceleration, making that split second decision those drivers take favor the safer option in the future.
I see this too often to not care about it, and have driven one of those small hatchbacks myself when I was younger.
And well, the Autopilot is a great feature, but I'm not yet willing to bet my families life on it for longer stretches than i'm focused. Having tested it on the Autobahn, I found it hard after a while to keep the focus on the same level as I would have it driving myself.
- iplaw 9y agoI had to convert units to miles per hour to get a handle on the situation. For others in my boat: You're going 80-93 mph in the center lane, and the unsafe driver impeding you is going 80 mph. In order to overtake this erratic driver, you need to move to the left lane and accelerate to 93-110 mph. The trouble is, on the Autobahn, drivers in the left lane are usually traveling at speeds of 110-137 mph, and often times even higher, up to 200 mph. With those numbers in mind, I can entirely see your point. Early morning traffic in Dallas flows at 80-85 mph in the left lane. People don't always treat the left lane as a "fast lane" or a "passing lane." Some people cruise at 50 mph without a care for the speed of traffic around them. In order to merged into traffic in the middle lane while rapidly approaching the dangerously slow car in front of me, I sometimes have to accelerate to 90-100 mph. I was reading a traffic study that showed that the single factor that contributes the most to traffic accidents is delta-speed. That is, the |relative speed| of the vehicle in comparison to the average speed of traffic. If traffic is flowing at 75 mph, a car traveling at 85 mph (10 delta) is less dangerous that a car traveling at 50 mph (25 delta). My anecdotal evidence confirms this. Slow drivers are often scared, timid, inexperienced, oblivious, and unpredictable. They'll change lanes without regard for the speed of anyone around them. They cause faster drivers to rapidly change lanes around them. They cause road rage incidents and reckless driving. Anyway, I went off on a tangent, but I agree with what you're saying.
- issa 9y agoI believe you have a slight conversion error. I don't think you're seeing speeds of 200mph. (that would be 320+ kph!)
- Roritharr 9y agoYes, 320km/h is a rare sight. Happens though, a Veyron once blew past me while i was going 180 in the center lane at night. It felt like I was standing still.
- mikeash 9y agoThe Autobahn sure sounds fun. Around here, if you do more than 145km/h they'll put you in jail.
- iplaw 9y agoNo, the 180-200 mph was an observation that I added. I've seen Mercedes AMGs, M3s, M5s, RS6 Avants, R8s, Porsche Turbos, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, motorcycles, and similar performance vehicles doing 180-200 mph on the Autobahn. In person and in videos posted to forums.
- hibbelig 9y agoI don't get it. I used to drive a Mercedes 200D (W123) for some years, and 112 km/h was my preferred speed. Overtaking a truck does take some planning if I don't want to be an obstacle on the left lane, but you know, at that speed I had a lot of time to plan :-) (For the others: that car is from 1978 or so; I had two models, one with 55 hp and one with 60 hp, both Diesel. The car is ridulously heavy at 1.8 tons or so, and so you really don't want to be in a position where you have to accelerate quickly -- it just can't do it.)
- illumin8 9y agoI hate to break it to you, but if you enter the left-most lane of the autobahn doing 112 km/h, you DO NOT have enough time to plan. There could be a vehicle doing 250 km/h overtaking you in the left lane, behind a curve, and you wouldn't even see them until they rear-ended you doing 2x your speed...
- lttlrck 9y agoDon't drive 250km/h if you cannot see the traffic ahead. It's a public road. No speed limit != no responsibility.
- illumin8 9y agoIt's the autobahn.
- detaro 9y agoElementary traffic rules still apply, and driving far above the "recommended speed" ("Richtgeschwindigkeit") of 130km/h puts extra burden of care on you. You have to expect people driving speeds around that.
- Roritharr 9y agoSure, but that thinking won't help you if you're the guy that someone crashes into because you can't go faster on the left lane... You might be in the right, but I'd wager the mortician won't care.