4 ms·

We need to be teaching kids offensive driving tactics. Too many drivers are passive and have no idea about the physical capabilities of their vehicles. This lea

We need to be teaching kids offensive driving tactics. Too many drivers are passive and have no idea about the physical capabilities of their vehicles. This leads to more accidents than needed. For example, merging into the right traffic lane of a freeway from an on-ramp. Most drivers think the correct way to do this is to accelerate to 50mph and use their left turn signal. Wrong. The speed of traffic on the freeway is 85mph and inadequate acceleration produces a huge hazard when other drivers have to make a sudden lane change to avoid your stupid Honda CRV. The correct action would have been to accelerate to 98mph while merging to minimize the probability of a collision with existing drivers on the road, no turn signal necessary. There are numerous other examples, such as four Honda CRVs pulling up to a 4-way stop simultaneously, but the general solution to all roadway problems is aggressive acceleration and disregard for other drivers, since they’re probably dumb anyway. Source: I learned to drive in California.

diggan 3y ago
> no turn signal necessary You're a BMW owner by any chance? If you're planning to turn to the left/right, use your turn signal, even if someone would deem it unnecessary. Better to use the turn signal too much than too little. Overall, highway on-ramps looks wildly different all across the world, and what you say would be impossible in lots of places around me as an example, where you need to be able to basically stop at the on-ramp if there is too much traffic, to find the right gap, otherwise you'd run straight into others. > We need to be teaching kids offensive driving tactics Hard disagree :) I think Spain where I live has a huge problem with too offensive driving, where even if the rules/laws says something, people act on the "first come, first served" basis when it comes to preference.
- henriquez 3y ago
  Not a BMW driver but I never keep my blinker fluid topped up. In California, turn signals just telegraph your intent to make a move, giving other drivers valuable milliseconds to block your approach. The element of surprise is crucial to an offensive driving regimen.
  - seadan83 3y ago
    One thing I do like about California drivers - they do generally let you in. Hard disagree to not use turn signal in CA. > The element of surprise is crucial to an offensive driving regimen. Really is fun and games in the abstract. Unfortunately we lose the idea that the roadways are a communal space, instead everyone else is just an obstacle. I love that fore-sight, the ability to predict a mere _30_ seconds into the future disappears for so many drivers. Just observe what people will do to gain 1 or 2 car lengths of ground, as if they could not predict that they would do effectively nothing swerving around to the lane that happened to gain 10 feet of open concrete.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    There’s a joke that in LA, a turn signal is used to tell other drivers what you just did. In other parts of CA, it’s pretty different. Even in LA, I used my blinkers like normal (but yes, sometimes you do have to start moving in your lane for others to take you seriously).
  - mindslight 3y ago
    > turn signals just telegraph your intent to make a move, giving other drivers valuable milliseconds to block your approach You're thinking of turn signals wrong. Generally you shouldn't be using them as a request, but rather a declaration of "this is happening". If another driver can act to thwart your action in "milliseconds", you didn't have the margin to do it in the first place.
    - henriquez 3y ago
      That's just ignorant. I've been playing Mario Kart for decades and I know how to drive. It's not my fault if other drivers are terrified by my sudden maneuvers.
kjkjadksj 3y ago
People in CA are some of the worst drivers and I’ve drove in probably 30 states. No respect for the speed limit either way because no cops in socal run radar, so you get people ripping 100 miles an hour on the same highway as someone going 40mph with ten feet of metal scrap pilled in their pickup truck. No respect for posted signage or even the directionality of the lane; today on the 101 an accident caused traffic and I saw people driving on both shoulders as well as exiting the freeway through the onramp, jumping a curb in the process. All the guardrails on the highways are beat and scraped up, almost every square inch has had an impact since it was built it seems. I’ve also seen probably a half dozen cars by now lodged into a storefront, like it must not even be that rare if I’ve encountered that six times already, and I’ve never seen that anywhere else. Also whenever it rains even a little, people devolve even more and go about 35mph on the freeway with no one in front of them.
- henriquez 3y ago
  > Also whenever it rains even a little, people devolve even more and go about 35mph on the freeway with no one in front of them. And God forbid it snows. Even with a light dusting people just stop on HWY 17 halting traffic for hours until emergency services is able to tow everyone off the mountain.
seadan83 3y ago
Your point has validity to it, I would not agree regarding: 85mph vs 98mph (1) The right hand lane of any free-way should not be going that fast! The fastest speed limit I've seen I think was 80 in the middle of Kansas. (2) 98mph is unsafe for a number of cars, it's a lot of momentum. You need to have decent tires, and be a bit lucky nothing goes wrong. (3) Merging at +15mph compared to traffic flow is not going to be that smooth. You'll be running too fast and will need to brake or merge left too quickly. Either way, it's not being part of the flow of traffic. (4) You mentioned, "accelerate to 98 while merging". I think that is also wrong. When changing lanes it is a good idea to accelerate by about +3mph. +15mph is overkill. Further, a merging car should be at speed before it even starts to move left. The acceleration ramp, the on-ramp, that is where you match traffic speed and then merge in. Though, if I had to pick between merging at 15mph too slow vs too fast, I'd probably pick to merge too fast.

diggan 3y ago

> no turn signal necessary You're a BMW owner by any chance? If you're planning to turn to the left/right, use your turn signal, even if someone would deem it unnecessary. Better to use the turn signal too much than too little. Overall, highway on-ramps looks wildly different all across the world, and what you say would be impossible in lots of places around me as an example, where you need to be able to basically stop at the on-ramp if there is too much traffic, to find the right gap, otherwise you'd run straight into others. > We need to be teaching kids offensive driving tactics Hard disagree :) I think Spain where I live has a huge problem with too offensive driving, where even if the rules/laws says something, people act on the "first come, first served" basis when it comes to preference.

henriquez 3y ago
Not a BMW driver but I never keep my blinker fluid topped up. In California, turn signals just telegraph your intent to make a move, giving other drivers valuable milliseconds to block your approach. The element of surprise is crucial to an offensive driving regimen.
- seadan83 3y ago
  One thing I do like about California drivers - they do generally let you in. Hard disagree to not use turn signal in CA. > The element of surprise is crucial to an offensive driving regimen. Really is fun and games in the abstract. Unfortunately we lose the idea that the roadways are a communal space, instead everyone else is just an obstacle. I love that fore-sight, the ability to predict a mere _30_ seconds into the future disappears for so many drivers. Just observe what people will do to gain 1 or 2 car lengths of ground, as if they could not predict that they would do effectively nothing swerving around to the lane that happened to gain 10 feet of open concrete.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  There’s a joke that in LA, a turn signal is used to tell other drivers what you just did. In other parts of CA, it’s pretty different. Even in LA, I used my blinkers like normal (but yes, sometimes you do have to start moving in your lane for others to take you seriously).
- mindslight 3y ago
  > turn signals just telegraph your intent to make a move, giving other drivers valuable milliseconds to block your approach You're thinking of turn signals wrong. Generally you shouldn't be using them as a request, but rather a declaration of "this is happening". If another driver can act to thwart your action in "milliseconds", you didn't have the margin to do it in the first place.
  - henriquez 3y ago
    That's just ignorant. I've been playing Mario Kart for decades and I know how to drive. It's not my fault if other drivers are terrified by my sudden maneuvers.

kjkjadksj 3y ago

People in CA are some of the worst drivers and I’ve drove in probably 30 states. No respect for the speed limit either way because no cops in socal run radar, so you get people ripping 100 miles an hour on the same highway as someone going 40mph with ten feet of metal scrap pilled in their pickup truck. No respect for posted signage or even the directionality of the lane; today on the 101 an accident caused traffic and I saw people driving on both shoulders as well as exiting the freeway through the onramp, jumping a curb in the process. All the guardrails on the highways are beat and scraped up, almost every square inch has had an impact since it was built it seems. I’ve also seen probably a half dozen cars by now lodged into a storefront, like it must not even be that rare if I’ve encountered that six times already, and I’ve never seen that anywhere else. Also whenever it rains even a little, people devolve even more and go about 35mph on the freeway with no one in front of them.

henriquez 3y ago
> Also whenever it rains even a little, people devolve even more and go about 35mph on the freeway with no one in front of them. And God forbid it snows. Even with a light dusting people just stop on HWY 17 halting traffic for hours until emergency services is able to tow everyone off the mountain.

seadan83 3y ago

Your point has validity to it, I would not agree regarding: 85mph vs 98mph (1) The right hand lane of any free-way should not be going that fast! The fastest speed limit I've seen I think was 80 in the middle of Kansas. (2) 98mph is unsafe for a number of cars, it's a lot of momentum. You need to have decent tires, and be a bit lucky nothing goes wrong. (3) Merging at +15mph compared to traffic flow is not going to be that smooth. You'll be running too fast and will need to brake or merge left too quickly. Either way, it's not being part of the flow of traffic. (4) You mentioned, "accelerate to 98 while merging". I think that is also wrong. When changing lanes it is a good idea to accelerate by about +3mph. +15mph is overkill. Further, a merging car should be at speed before it even starts to move left. The acceleration ramp, the on-ramp, that is where you match traffic speed and then merge in. Though, if I had to pick between merging at 15mph too slow vs too fast, I'd probably pick to merge too fast.