3 ms·

Yes, absolutely. You are never going to out-accelerate the truck in front of you. If someone hits the back of you, it's a them problem. If you prefer to end u

Yes, absolutely. You are never going to out-accelerate the truck in front of you. If someone hits the back of you, it's a them problem. If you prefer to end up driving into the side of a truck and getting squashed, then I guess that's your decision.

ethbr0 3y ago
I think you're misunderstanding the situation. It is a two lane (same direction) road. The tractor trailer is to your right. There is a car behind you. The tractor trailer begins to merge into your lane. What do you do?
- Gordonjcp 3y ago
  Brake, because if you accelerate you'll drive into the side of the truck. I don't get what's hard to understand about this. Have you ever driven a car? On public roads?
  - jtbayly 3y ago
    When I was in drivers Ed they told us that the accelerator pedal is the most overlooked tool for preventing accidents. I guess now I know why. There are plenty of circumstances where you can accelerate out of danger. If you intend to continue driving you would do well to consider this fact. Start with low speed situations like parking lots, and move up from there.
    - mlhpdx 3y ago
      Physics. Increasing speed (rapidly) increases kinetic (impact) energy. Braking reduces it. Slow down to 35 and if the truck hits your car it will be damaged. Try to race ahead and hit the truck at 80 mph and you will die (or worse). Obviously things aren’t so clear cut but your argument is nonsense.
      - jtbayly 3y ago
        Please think about how long a semi truck is. If you are near the back, obviously it is safer to slow down. If you are near the front, it might well save your life to accelerate. Edit: I’m sure a bit of calculus on the physics of it would reveal the location on the truck where acceleration was more likely to prevent a crash.
      - ethbr0 3y ago
        This thread. >.< The kinetic energy in an accident between two vehicles is their relative speed, not their absolute speed. If you are doing 80 mph and hit a truck doing 70 mph, there's not 80 mph * vehicle mass worth of impact energy. And that's not even breaking things into directional vectors and calculating the fraction of velocity in the direction of impact.
        mlhpdx 3y ago
        Vectors and stuff. Maybe throw a tensor or two in there? Or the Lagranian and Hamiltonian and get it right. Given the choice of two small metal boxes in a field of nearby similarly massive and much more massive objects with positive and negative relative velocities, you really choose the one with the greater velocity as “safer”? Right after you bounce off that truck your next hit may well be one going in the other direction. Or something concrete. Seems pretty clear cut to me (and is backed up by decades and millions of deaths over the last 100 years).
    - Gordonjcp 3y ago
      There are never any circumstances where you can accelerate out of danger, unless you put yourself in danger in the first place. Given that you use the phrase "driver's ed" I suspect you may be American, in which case you live in a country with one of the worst standards of driving in the world.
      - JoeAltmaier 3y ago
        Not reflected in stats? US traffic accidents per capita per year is nowhere near the top. Maybe about average. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
      - jtbayly 3y ago
        I’ll give you a real life example proving you 100% wrong. My BIL was waiting to turn left on a two-lane road with 55-65 MPH traffic. He looked in his mirror and saw a car coming at him and clearly not slowing down. He floored it, and got rear ended with a speed differential of probably 35MPH rather than 60MPH. Edit: Here’s another I just remembered. My father was driving 70 on a divided highway. Looked in his mirror and saw somebody coming up fast, so he accelerated, trying to get out of the way. (There was no space to get over.) The driver behind continued coming apparently in a big hurry, and my dad realized too late that he wasn’t going to slow down. Even having accelerated he got rear ended, but the speed differential was not bad, and it meant my dad didn’t lose control in heavy, high speed traffic. (The other driver had fallen asleep.) In neither case is there an example of putting yourself in danger. Just proper driving. In both cases pressing the accelerator was the single most important safety action taken.
        Gordonjcp 3y ago
        [flagged]
      - ethbr0 3y ago
        > There are never any circumstances where you can accelerate out of danger, unless you put yourself in danger in the first place. I don't know how to parse that, so I'm going to go with your base belief around acceleration. For an average sedan these days, we're talking ~3,500 lbs. Say 175 hp. 0.05 hp / lb. Now, let's say your average loaded semi runs about 50,000 lbs. Do you think semis have 2,500 hp engines? (Generalizing hp/torque as correlated)
pfannkuchen 3y ago
> You are never going to out-accelerate the truck in front of you. Trucks are quite slow though, if you have a reasonably fast car you can absolutely get ahead of them before they close out your lane. Especially if you are alongside them to start with and not behind them.

ethbr0 3y ago

I think you're misunderstanding the situation. It is a two lane (same direction) road. The tractor trailer is to your right. There is a car behind you. The tractor trailer begins to merge into your lane. What do you do?

Gordonjcp 3y ago
Brake, because if you accelerate you'll drive into the side of the truck. I don't get what's hard to understand about this. Have you ever driven a car? On public roads?
- jtbayly 3y ago
  When I was in drivers Ed they told us that the accelerator pedal is the most overlooked tool for preventing accidents. I guess now I know why. There are plenty of circumstances where you can accelerate out of danger. If you intend to continue driving you would do well to consider this fact. Start with low speed situations like parking lots, and move up from there.
  - mlhpdx 3y ago
    Physics. Increasing speed (rapidly) increases kinetic (impact) energy. Braking reduces it. Slow down to 35 and if the truck hits your car it will be damaged. Try to race ahead and hit the truck at 80 mph and you will die (or worse). Obviously things aren’t so clear cut but your argument is nonsense.
    - jtbayly 3y ago
      Please think about how long a semi truck is. If you are near the back, obviously it is safer to slow down. If you are near the front, it might well save your life to accelerate. Edit: I’m sure a bit of calculus on the physics of it would reveal the location on the truck where acceleration was more likely to prevent a crash.
    - ethbr0 3y ago
      This thread. >.< The kinetic energy in an accident between two vehicles is their relative speed, not their absolute speed. If you are doing 80 mph and hit a truck doing 70 mph, there's not 80 mph * vehicle mass worth of impact energy. And that's not even breaking things into directional vectors and calculating the fraction of velocity in the direction of impact.
      - mlhpdx 3y ago
        Vectors and stuff. Maybe throw a tensor or two in there? Or the Lagranian and Hamiltonian and get it right. Given the choice of two small metal boxes in a field of nearby similarly massive and much more massive objects with positive and negative relative velocities, you really choose the one with the greater velocity as “safer”? Right after you bounce off that truck your next hit may well be one going in the other direction. Or something concrete. Seems pretty clear cut to me (and is backed up by decades and millions of deaths over the last 100 years).
  - Gordonjcp 3y ago
    There are never any circumstances where you can accelerate out of danger, unless you put yourself in danger in the first place. Given that you use the phrase "driver's ed" I suspect you may be American, in which case you live in a country with one of the worst standards of driving in the world.
    - JoeAltmaier 3y ago
      Not reflected in stats? US traffic accidents per capita per year is nowhere near the top. Maybe about average. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
    - jtbayly 3y ago
      I’ll give you a real life example proving you 100% wrong. My BIL was waiting to turn left on a two-lane road with 55-65 MPH traffic. He looked in his mirror and saw a car coming at him and clearly not slowing down. He floored it, and got rear ended with a speed differential of probably 35MPH rather than 60MPH. Edit: Here’s another I just remembered. My father was driving 70 on a divided highway. Looked in his mirror and saw somebody coming up fast, so he accelerated, trying to get out of the way. (There was no space to get over.) The driver behind continued coming apparently in a big hurry, and my dad realized too late that he wasn’t going to slow down. Even having accelerated he got rear ended, but the speed differential was not bad, and it meant my dad didn’t lose control in heavy, high speed traffic. (The other driver had fallen asleep.) In neither case is there an example of putting yourself in danger. Just proper driving. In both cases pressing the accelerator was the single most important safety action taken.
      - Gordonjcp 3y ago
        [flagged]
    - ethbr0 3y ago
      > There are never any circumstances where you can accelerate out of danger, unless you put yourself in danger in the first place. I don't know how to parse that, so I'm going to go with your base belief around acceleration. For an average sedan these days, we're talking ~3,500 lbs. Say 175 hp. 0.05 hp / lb. Now, let's say your average loaded semi runs about 50,000 lbs. Do you think semis have 2,500 hp engines? (Generalizing hp/torque as correlated)

pfannkuchen 3y ago

> You are never going to out-accelerate the truck in front of you. Trucks are quite slow though, if you have a reasonably fast car you can absolutely get ahead of them before they close out your lane. Especially if you are alongside them to start with and not behind them.