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PT6A posted:I'd try driving here, except all the roads change names every few blocks, and join each other at strange angles, and I'm still not sure if I get what the traffic lights mean. I was surprised to find out that traffic turning right on their own green light must stop and queue at the crosswalk until the "green man" starts flashing; I'm guessing I probably would've blown all kinds of lights if I rented a car here (and I'd probably still be trying to figure out how to get back to my apartment). I've never seen anyone do this, ever. You only stop at the crosswalk to let the pedestrians through, then gun it the moment there's no one directly in your path.
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May 9, 2015 08:56
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mobby_6kl posted:I've never seen anyone do this, ever. You only stop at the crosswalk to let the pedestrians through, then gun it the moment there's no one directly in your path. I was surprised, too! Trying to work out the rules of the road through observation only is not particularly easy.
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May 9, 2015 09:25
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PCOS Bill posted:Came out of the Fort Pitt tunnel, changed lanes into the far left lane to get on 279N, and as I'm accelerating (because there's a fun curve right there and nobody was in front of me, or behind me) some rear end in a top hat in a minivan decides he HAS TO OH MY GOD GET IN THE LANE RIGHT THEN AND THERE PDQ ASAP and jerks across two lanes, no signal, gets in front of me, and stands on his brakes Guy in a full-size SUV did this today except he started swerving back and forth (deliberately) as he stood on his brakes to a near stop, then the guy in the lane next to me as I'm exiting starts angrily screaming something at me. I have no idea why everyone is so angry and stupid. I hate everyone. Also I went to Robinson this morning so I spent 40 minutes getting from the city to Robinson because 376 is still closed at Carnegie and shuttling everyone through town. Why did I decide to do this. Why.
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May 9, 2015 15:37
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Ringo Star Get posted:So Illinois got schwacked by a bit of a storm earlier today where it must have dropped visibility down to zero. To a lot of people in this state, that means jump in the far left lane and aggressively tailgate people with their lights off. I was driving around Illinois in the post-deluge fog around 8pm and noticed a silverish car hanging off my passenger quarter panel. He's got his lights on and everything's fine except for the fact that he's pacing me. We go through an area that has a bunch of housing and I want to merge over that direction, do a quick glance and don't see the car anymore, so I put on my signal and start to move over. Cue a horn, because this imbecile has turned off his lights and is now upset that I'm merging into him. It's well after dark, in the fog, and he's got a silver car. What could POSSIBLY have possessed him to turn off his lights then act like the aggrieved party is beyond me. I was also upset a bit earlier because there was a z71 suburban with six ladders on the roof next to a kia soul. We were on a stretch of road with a 55mph speed limit and stoplights every 3-5 miles. They would take off from the lights wheel-to-wheel and make it up to almost 53 before we'd hit another set of lights. Ten minutes of this bizarre elephant race left me baffled as to why EITHER of these vehicles can't manage an acceleration profile greater that 1mph/s. As soon as the Kia turns off, that z71 is going 70mph and weaving through traffic. I don't get that at all.
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May 9, 2015 15:50
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xzzy posted:Yeah, lots of plugged storm drains too. Hydro planing can be an issue, especially if it's a car on bad tires. Also there could be debris or a giant pothole hiding in the water.
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May 9, 2015 16:36
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I was heading outbound on the Eisenhower from downtown Chicago about 9:30 last night. In the typically heavy traffic, this 30-ish lady in a Camry was doing about 50 the the left lane. I stayed about four car lengths behind her for a couple of miles, then blipped my high beams since the lane was clear in front of her for a quarter mile or so. Her reaction? She turned off her headlights. At night. In somewhat limited visibility due to rain and the spray from the road. In a silver car. She stayed in the left lane the whole way from the Kennedy to Austin, where the left lane is exit only. As I passed her on the right (finally), I saw that she was just navigating by her weak DRL's and was white knuckling the steering wheel. If I thought it would be of amusement value I'd get the video from my dashcam, but it would probably be more hilarious due to me singing along with Muse.
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May 9, 2015 16:40
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:I was driving around Illinois in the post-deluge fog around 8pm and noticed a silverish car hanging off my passenger quarter panel. He's got his lights on and everything's fine except for the fact that he's pacing me. ... Cue a horn, because this imbecile has turned off his lights and is now upset that I'm merging into him. It's well after dark, in the fog, and he's got a silver car. What could POSSIBLY have possessed him to turn off his lights then act like the aggrieved party is beyond me. ausgezeichnet posted:I was heading outbound on the Eisenhower from downtown Chicago about 9:30 last night. In the typically heavy traffic, this 30-ish lady in a Camry was doing about 50 the the left lane. I stayed about four car lengths behind her for a couple of miles, then blipped my high beams since the lane was clear in front of her for a quarter mile or so. Obviously the same car, because I refuse to believe two people are this stupid
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May 9, 2015 17:01
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Maximum truck driver douch-baggery on the way into the office yesterday. FOUR semi-wide drag race, but instead of one actually slowly pulling ahead and then passing, nope, as soon as one got about 3/4 ahead, one of the others would speed up (or he would slow down) and another one would take the lead for a bit. This poo poo went on for over 8 miles until we hit the normal slow-n-go rush hour section. We seriously need to get the laws like some states have where once the road opens up beyond 2 lanes, trucks are lane restricted out of the far left lane at least. I feel for truck drivers and understand they make money by the mile, but seriously, don't occupy the #1 lane in a vain attempt to pass 3 other trucks when the highway is 4 lanes wide. gently caress you, stay behind one of the other guys that going the exact same (10 under the limit) speed that you are.
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May 9, 2015 17:15
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The Locator posted:Maximum truck driver douch-baggery on the way into the office yesterday. FOUR semi-wide drag race, but instead of one actually slowly pulling ahead and then passing, nope, as soon as one got about 3/4 ahead, one of the others would speed up (or he would slow down) and another one would take the lead for a bit. This poo poo went on for over 8 miles until we hit the normal slow-n-go rush hour section. We seriously need to get the laws like some states have where once the road opens up beyond 2 lanes, trucks are lane restricted out of the far left lane at least. I feel for truck drivers and understand they make money by the mile, but seriously, don't occupy the #1 lane in a vain attempt to pass 3 other trucks when the highway is 4 lanes wide. gently caress you, stay behind one of the other guys that going the exact same (10 under the limit) speed that you are. Here the law is no trucks in the fast lane on the motorway, so there is always at least one truck-free lane. Our trucks are also limited to a lower speed than cars though.
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May 9, 2015 17:26
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Here it goes by signage. You can generally find no less than five trucks in "No Trucks Left Lane" sections.
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May 9, 2015 17:34
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People do the wierdest poo poo. Had someone cut me off in a two lane street that was merging into one lane later on. Why not just stay and merge properly instead of almost clipping my front end? And a dude in a BMW took off from being parked against the flow of traffic, crossing my path so that I had to brake harder than I like. Totally oblivious to what they do.
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May 9, 2015 19:46
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PCOS Bill posted:
They have this in the DC area and the truck drivers appear to be afraid of it, they move right as quickly as possible when the first sign comes up. Wish it included buses though..
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May 9, 2015 20:05
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The Locator posted:We seriously need to get the laws like some states have where once the road opens up beyond 2 lanes, trucks are lane restricted out of the far left lane at least. Such laws would just end up on the list of "traffic laws that aren't speeding or DUI that are only enforced by police when they're pissed off at the driver for some other reason."
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May 9, 2015 20:46
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What the hell is going on outside today? My city is loving insane right now for some reason. I had 20+ people cut me off in like 7 miles of driving. I actually had people cutting me off two at a time and then nearly hitting each other, multiple times. poo poo is proper hosed at the moment. I was going to take the bike out for a long ride today, but not after seeing what the roads are currently like.
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May 9, 2015 21:07
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Geoj posted:Such laws would just end up on the list of "traffic laws that aren't speeding or DUI that are only enforced by police when they're pissed off at the driver for some other reason." Now, why is that? If we follow the logic that cops basically are encouraged to write tickets, and tickets against commercial vehicles bring in even more money, why wouldn't they enforce that as vigorously as possible? Going too slow in the left-hand lane is a judgement call, so it's always chancy, but if trucks are outright forbidden from the left-hand lane altogether, it seems like dashcam video would be enough to secure a conviction every time.
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May 10, 2015 00:03
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Proving citations hasn't ever been a problem before, when you get a speeding ticket the officer doesn't have to actually prove that the laser or radar truly clocked your speed at X MPH. It's all about revenue. A speeding ticket or DUI brings in more revenue for the entire system than what would likely be a non moving violation, so the priority is given to moving violations and DUIs. There's also an institutional opinion within law enforcement of "not my job," which results in cops not caring about certain laws that they don't deem as important enough or worthy enough of their time to enforce.
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May 10, 2015 02:48
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sanchez posted:They have this in the DC area and the truck drivers appear to be afraid of it, they move right as quickly as possible when the first sign comes up. Wish it included buses though.. Getting a moving violation and a potential out of service for the commercial rig is bad news for truck drivers.
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May 10, 2015 04:02
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http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/motorcycle-sprocket-impales-drivers-windshield-1703356397/
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May 10, 2015 04:14
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Someone today was entirely blocking a lane of traffic at a 45 degree angle trying to stick their nose between cars in the turn lane. This is on a pretty busy, 3-lane surface road; condensing suddenly down to 2 is asking for trouble.
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May 10, 2015 04:55
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DEAR RICHARD posted:http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/motorcycle-sprocket-impales-drivers-windshield-1703356397/ Ban motorcycles!
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May 10, 2015 05:00
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The Locator posted:Ban motorcycles! To be fair if roles were reversed in that story we'd be hearing about careless, ignorant cagers and how all drivers of 4 wheeled vehicles deliberately go out of their way to kill or maim motorcyclists...
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May 10, 2015 07:10
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Enourmo posted:Someone today was entirely blocking a lane of traffic at a 45 degree angle trying to stick their nose between cars in the turn lane. This is on a pretty busy, 3-lane surface road; condensing suddenly down to 2 is asking for trouble. These kinds of posts crack me the gently caress up. It's adorable the kind of "bad drivers" you guys run into in your cities where this sort of thing is notable. The same situation in my city would be; car blocks three lanes of a four lane road while waiting to turn, then accidentally guns it onto the sidewalk while pedestrians jump out of the way. Then, when someone honks at them they jump out of their car with a bat. No I am not exaggerating.
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May 10, 2015 15:13
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revmoo posted:These kinds of posts crack me the gently caress up. It's adorable the kind of "bad drivers" you guys run into in your cities where this sort of thing is notable. Where is this place?
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May 10, 2015 15:56
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My first guess would be Florida.
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May 10, 2015 16:24
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xzzy posted:My first guess would be Florida. Louisville. Funny story, I was down in Destin for the week a while back and drove all over the place and was shocked at how not-bad the drivers were the entire time. We encountered one dipshit the ENTIRE TRIP, and what do you know, he had Jefferson County, Kentucky plates on. I get out of town a fair amount and I've driven in something like 25 states. Louisville is by far, the worst place I have ever driven. We're kind of considering relocating actually.
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May 10, 2015 17:06
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revmoo posted:Louisville. 
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May 10, 2015 18:49
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It certainly does. Northeast you get pilled-out soccer moms in SUVs, southeast is probably the safest. Northwest you get crackheads/junkies driving stolen cars, and southwest you get wiggers with no insurance and a propensity to hit-and-run. The country folks are fine. Once you're 10 miles outside of the city limits it's normal. It's always funny driving on the interstate back to Louisville, and as soon as you pass the LaGrange exit, the drivers become notably bad. The closest city I would guess to compare to would be Houston; the biggest scourge is city folk who think they're rednecks and have something to prove. revmoo fucked around with this message at 20:19 on May 10, 2015 |
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May 10, 2015 20:16
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DEAR RICHARD posted:How many wrecks have you guys seen? I am surprised that I haven't seen any yet considering how lovely Portland drivers are. I've seen infinity close calls though. In the 20 years I've been driving, I've been in two relatively minor wrecks and two inconsequential collisions myself (one of which was a hit-and-run, though there wasn't any damage of note to my old beater Saturn and I never saw the other driver's plate anyway). None were my fault; I was rear-ended three times while sitting stopped in traffic and/or at a light, and once way back when I was still on my learner's permit, a dude backed out of a driveway without looking and clobbered the rear door of my mom's car as I was driving by. Strangely, I've only witnessed other people's accidents while traveling, never at home. In London last year I saw a woman on a bicycle get hit by a motorcycle at Northumberland and Embankment (she was hurt enough to lay in the street for a while, and she eventually left in an ambulance), and a couple years ago I was filling the tank just outside Quebec City and saw some dude in a yellow sports car who was apparently running from the cops (or so I assume, since a few police cars with lights and sirens showed up within seconds) wipe out and slam into a stone wall across from the gas station. I have come across the immediate aftermath of some wrecks at home, though, including a guy who speared and crushed a hundred feet of guardrail along the Cumberland offramp on 75, a dude who rolled his little SUV on one of the 75/285 interchange's cloverleaf ramps, and a semi that either drove off the southbound Howell Mill/Northside C/D road or rolled off the Northside cloverleaf ramp and ended up on its side in the dirt halfway up the hill there.
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May 10, 2015 23:26
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DEAR RICHARD posted:How many wrecks have you guys seen? I am surprised that I haven't seen any yet considering how lovely Portland drivers are. I've seen infinity close calls though. Last week I came across a Cavalier that had just smashed head on into an elevated house's retaining wall and already had a huge pile of neighbors standing around comforting the wailing girl who was piloting it while waiting for the ambulance. I'm still not sure what happened. I've seen maybe half a dozen minor fender benders other than that - rear endings, "took the foot off the brake" episodes, "I thought you had already gone" on right turns, that sort of thing.
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May 10, 2015 23:46
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I passed someone today that looked like they broke down on the shoulder and were getting towed. It wasn't until I got closer that I noticed the tire tracks that showed that they went off the road, spun around a few times in the median, and ended up on the other side of the road facing the opposite direction that they were initially traveling in!
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May 11, 2015 02:26
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Saw this choice nugget posted on r/motorcycles from a guy whose bike got backed into by a car:quote:Lady said her reverse alarm on her Audi didn't go off so she didn't know it was there.
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May 11, 2015 17:03
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Today's observation: Nothing says oval office like a badly-driven Overfinch. Also saw a guy in a broken down Sprinter dropsider. He had double springs like i have, but had them bent to a curve in severely the wrong way, was tucking about 2" of tire and sitting on bump stops, i would imagine he was a good 1-1.5t overloaded, and further up the road there was a police traffic car heading towards him to ruin his day. I've had my van 800kg over and it didn't sit anywhere like as low as his was.
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May 11, 2015 22:26
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revmoo posted:Saw this choice nugget posted on r/motorcycles from a guy whose bike got backed into by a car: This is a pretty common statement in backing accidents. "I didn't see them in the camera" or "My backup alert didn't go off!! They came out of nowhere!!" Usually followed closely by a statement of "They must have been speeding"
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May 11, 2015 23:23
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Mr./Ms. Cyclist I'm gonna be frank with you, in a scale of 0 to 10, where a 10 is directly in front of me, you barely registered a 3. You kept yourself out of the way, close to the parked cars. Good for you, congrats. However I still have to tell you to shove it hard, and by hard I mean very hard, with barbs. And with it I mean your bicycle. Wheels first. How the gently caress are you so loving stupid to bike on a street with a dedicated bike path and not use the loving thing? And why would you do that, for loving Jesus loving sake, when the path is safer and actually better than the goddamn street it is on? Please die in a wreck.
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May 12, 2015 02:30
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I'm surprised it's taken me this long to see this. No handicap parking permit parked across two handicap spaces. 
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May 12, 2015 02:31
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HardDisk posted:Mr./Ms. Cyclist I remember seeing a study that said cyclists are less visible to right-turning cars when they use the bike path.
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May 12, 2015 09:30
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Bike paths are often within a foot or so of parked cars, and the people we share a road with often like to throw the doors open like they've discovered the passenger seat is occupied by a particularly ornery bear, launch themselves headlong into traffic, and hurl their multiple ton vehicle across the bike lane without such as a shoulder check. Whereas taking the lane may be the safer bet for visibility, reaction times to assholes coming off the curb, and not meeting the interior of some assholes door. E: Oh god bike derail, make it stop! QuiteEasilyDone fucked around with this message at 09:49 on May 12, 2015 |
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May 12, 2015 09:46
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rear end in a top hat cyclists are not right but they are understandable with our poo poo driving, and the laws for cyclists
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May 12, 2015 09:50
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If i had to ride my bike on the same road as cars i'd be a nervous wreck ready to bite the head off anyone who blinkered at me funny.
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May 12, 2015 12:10
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Then you'll be fine, nobody uses their blinkers anyways! (At least where I live...)
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May 12, 2015 12:58
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