I’ll start. Stopping distance.
My commute is 95 miles one way to work, so I see a lot of the highway, in the rural part of the US. This means traveling at 70+ mph (112km/h) for almost the entirety of the drive. The amount of other drivers on the road who follow behind someone else with less than a car’s length in front of them because they want to go 20+ over the speed limit is ridiculous. The only time you ever follow someone that close is if you have complete and absolute trust in them, and also understand that it may not even be enough.
For a daily drive, you likely need 2-3 car lengths between you at minimum depending on your speed to accurately avoid hitting the brakes. This doesn’t even take into account the lack of understanding of engine braking…
What concepts do you all think of when it comes to driving that you feel are not well understood by the public at large?
Don’t be polite, be predictable.
This one. I live in the Netherlands and I walk our little kids to school. So I try to teach them the rules of the road. But then every motherfucker stops all the time to let us through because little kids. I know you’re all thinking “that’s considerate and safe” but really it’s infuriating. Be careful around children? Of course! Stop all traffic and insist on waving us through whether we want to or not? NO
Same thing happens to me when I ride a bike, especially with kids on the back. I’ve resorted to aggressively shaking my head “no” and gesturing that they have the right of way and need to fucking take it already.
It’s especially infuriating when the car could’ve gone before I even reached the stop sign but didn’t, so it forces me to come to a complete stop and put my foot down. It would’ve been faster for both of us if they’d just take their turn!
I’d suggest stopping at stop signs regardless of whether a car driver is trying to wave you through.
What I meant is that I have to put my foot down and wait instead of doing a quick track stand while looking both ways.
Fair enough. I was getting “run through the stop sign if you think you can get away with it” vibes, but it sounds like that’s not what you actually do.
As a rider, my nightmare is cars running me over just to be ornery.
As a driver, my nightmare is hitting cyclists who aren’t following traffic rules.
In both cases, I’m always disappointed at how many people – in both roles! – ignore traffic rules.
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Eh, I’d rather drivers be extra careful rather than run the risk of a car accident. Good on you for teaching your kids, but not every kid is taught to be predictable too.
My issue with people stopping for us when they shouldn’t is that it teaches the kids that cars will always stop for you. That’s not really what you want them to learn.
Or another way to say that is:
Being predictable is being polite
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