4 ms·

I love driving... on open, uncongested highways at night. I can't stand driving to commute, straining my foot muscles in a maddeningly irregular pattern of pres

I love driving... on open, uncongested highways at night. I can't stand driving to commute, straining my foot muscles in a maddeningly irregular pattern of pressing and releasing the brake as the cars ahead of me expand and contract at zero-to-five miles per hour.

freehunter 15y ago
Try commuting in a manual :) You can use the brake less by downshifting (which helps relieve congestion, people are seeing less brake lights), but talk about irregular foot movements. Need to be off the clutch to slow your car using the engine, but on it to slow your car using the brakes, off the clutch on the gas to start moving, then (clutch in) into second (clutch out) but whoa hold on, (clutch in) back into first (clutch out to slow down) and we're stopped (clutch in, brakes on, shift to neutral, clutch out). Then we go again (clutch in, into gear, clutch out+gas), and it continues. If everyone was forced to drive a manual, we'd have less slowdowns (and less DUIs, IMO) just from the thinking and movement it requires. No one would want to stop.
- njs12345 15y ago
  Sadly, I don't know if this is true - all cars in England are manuals pretty much and we still have plenty of traffic and drink driving. Manuals are more fun though :)
  - freehunter 15y ago
    True, this only works for places where people don't normally drive manual transmissions. Once the populace learns, this will no longer be effective. I'm all for making driving more involving. If you have to use both feet and both hands to drive, it gets harder to eat a burger and apply your makeup and type on your laptop and wank all at the same time.
  - ljf 15y ago
    I doubt we (in the UK) have the same Drink Driving problem that the USA has, but I wonder if that is more to do with the distance to get to a good pub? It's often walking distance in the UK. That said there are many nice country pubs, and I rarely see /drunks/ leaving them, though I am sure a fair few are over the limit.
Jach 15y ago
Don't submit to playing the stop-and-go traffic jamming game. http://trafficwaves.org/ http://trafficwaves.org/ Even in rush hour I make a goal to press the brake as little as possible which simply means finding the average speed of the cars in front of me and going slower than it. It's a much less stressful way to drive and since I have a manual also requires less work.
- mortenjorck 15y ago
  I actually do my best to maintain a constant speed, though because of the large window in front of me, it often doesn't last long before someone merges in and sends me back to stop-and-go. I'm just glad I have transit options available.
  - Jach 15y ago
    A former roommate had a similar complaint. My response was "Your large window in front of you wasn't large enough." But I've also had a mile in front of me thinking the way ahead was clear only to turn a bend and brake really hard at the sight of yet another traffic jam. So it's not a perfect solution unfortunately. I want to see a startup that tracks people's phone and car GPSes (or other means of locating them since you don't need a GPS to get a cell phone's location) and offers a screen to put in the car or a tablet/phone app that shows you the locations and speeds of everyone in your vicinity it can and offers advice like "See this traffic jam 3 miles ahead? That's why you should slow down to 40 now like the new sign says you should do." (Eventually the app can control the car's speed itself.) Transit is a good solution as well if time isn't important to you or you have a good transit system that doesn't take an hour to go a mere several miles. I've been up to BC's Vancouver a few times and I'm jealous of their skytrain.

freehunter 15y ago

Try commuting in a manual :) You can use the brake less by downshifting (which helps relieve congestion, people are seeing less brake lights), but talk about irregular foot movements. Need to be off the clutch to slow your car using the engine, but on it to slow your car using the brakes, off the clutch on the gas to start moving, then (clutch in) into second (clutch out) but whoa hold on, (clutch in) back into first (clutch out to slow down) and we're stopped (clutch in, brakes on, shift to neutral, clutch out). Then we go again (clutch in, into gear, clutch out+gas), and it continues. If everyone was forced to drive a manual, we'd have less slowdowns (and less DUIs, IMO) just from the thinking and movement it requires. No one would want to stop.

njs12345 15y ago
Sadly, I don't know if this is true - all cars in England are manuals pretty much and we still have plenty of traffic and drink driving. Manuals are more fun though :)
- freehunter 15y ago
  True, this only works for places where people don't normally drive manual transmissions. Once the populace learns, this will no longer be effective. I'm all for making driving more involving. If you have to use both feet and both hands to drive, it gets harder to eat a burger and apply your makeup and type on your laptop and wank all at the same time.
- ljf 15y ago
  I doubt we (in the UK) have the same Drink Driving problem that the USA has, but I wonder if that is more to do with the distance to get to a good pub? It's often walking distance in the UK. That said there are many nice country pubs, and I rarely see /drunks/ leaving them, though I am sure a fair few are over the limit.

Jach 15y ago

Don't submit to playing the stop-and-go traffic jamming game. http://trafficwaves.org/ http://trafficwaves.org/ Even in rush hour I make a goal to press the brake as little as possible which simply means finding the average speed of the cars in front of me and going slower than it. It's a much less stressful way to drive and since I have a manual also requires less work.

mortenjorck 15y ago
I actually do my best to maintain a constant speed, though because of the large window in front of me, it often doesn't last long before someone merges in and sends me back to stop-and-go. I'm just glad I have transit options available.
- Jach 15y ago
  A former roommate had a similar complaint. My response was "Your large window in front of you wasn't large enough." But I've also had a mile in front of me thinking the way ahead was clear only to turn a bend and brake really hard at the sight of yet another traffic jam. So it's not a perfect solution unfortunately. I want to see a startup that tracks people's phone and car GPSes (or other means of locating them since you don't need a GPS to get a cell phone's location) and offers a screen to put in the car or a tablet/phone app that shows you the locations and speeds of everyone in your vicinity it can and offers advice like "See this traffic jam 3 miles ahead? That's why you should slow down to 40 now like the new sign says you should do." (Eventually the app can control the car's speed itself.) Transit is a good solution as well if time isn't important to you or you have a good transit system that doesn't take an hour to go a mere several miles. I've been up to BC's Vancouver a few times and I'm jealous of their skytrain.