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Over the weekend I made a classic mistake of complacency. I was headed through campus to briefly parade through the bar district in my shiny new jacket (yup, I'm That Guy.) when I spied a parked 70's C3 Corvette convertible, black, in great condition. As I'm oggling it I do not see that two vehicles ahead are preparing to turn left and are stationary. As this is a two lane street with parking on either side and a concrete median, there is no place to go, I am tooling along at 20 mph, and I make the snap decision to swerve between the stationary vehicles and the parked vehicles and slalom my way back into the road. Lane splitting isn't legal in my state, so I've never been inches from cars on either side. Massive adrenaline dump in what was a scary situation that I'm sure plenty of metropolitan riders wouldn't think twice about. I wound up making a brief circuit back home by the shortest route and called it a night.
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Apr 5, 2011 04:16
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| # ? May 4, 2024 22:50 |
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Mushika posted:Nearly got rear-ended by a dick in a Buick In our pre-learner training in Australia it is taught to us that as you slow down to a stop you check your mirrors and ascertain whether the vehicle behind you appears to be slowing too, in conjunction with maintaining a "ready" position once stopped (first gear, back brake on, head up and monitoring mirrors) until vehicles behind you are stopped also. At least this way you are poised to react if it looks like someone behind you has dozed off or is in a particularly engrossing mobile phone conversation. Sounds like you would have seen this coming had you done something similar, and in your case you had an easy escape route, i.e. gas it straight ahead. Glad to hear the guy was able to miss you though!
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Apr 5, 2011 07:08
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Mushika posted:About an hour ago I had probably the most frightening experience I've had riding so far other than actually being hit. I was riding home from physical therapy (from having been hit in February by an oblivious oncoming driver making a left turn into me). Traffic was a little crowded but running smoothly. I'd been riding beside this humongous beat-up Buick for several miles on a four lane street. I accelerate to get in front of him to make a left turn a few blocks ahead. We come to a stop at a red light that then turned green and we all continue on, no problems. Several blocks later, I put my left turn signal on, look in the rear view mirror to see that I'm far ahead of the rest of traffic, including the Buick, decelerate slowly from about 35mph to a stop and wait for an opening in oncoming traffic to make a left turn. 8-10 seconds later I hear the terrifying squeals of locked up brakes, look in the mirror to see the tremendous Buick careening towards me. All I had time to do was transfer to the rear brake instead of the front brake; there wasn't time to hit the throttle to get out of its way. Fortunately, his skid took him into the right lane just beside me inches away. All I could was throw my hands up and scream "what the gently caress" into his his completely unconcerned face before he just drove away. I made my turn, pulled over, and sat down to stop the adrenaline shakes. I still get nervous at stoplights every so often. I was stopped at a light and traffic came to a stop behind me. The car directly behind me kept creeping forward a little bit at a time until he was just inches from my rear tire. Next thing I know the guy just completely let off the brakes and the car bumper rolled up and over my rear tire and didn't stop till I reached back and punched his hood. (he was looking at cross traffic and apparently never saw me.)
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Apr 5, 2011 20:57
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One of the ways that I often take to get home involves me taking a left hand turn into a neighborhood in the middle of a 4 lane road (2 in each direction). There's no traffic light or anything, and it's a 45mph posted limit. I'm always sketched out about being rear ended there, especially now that I have LED's in my tail which aren't as visible as OEM. I'm basically in the habit of constantly checking my mirriors, flashing the hell out of my brake light, and being ready to launch the bike if it looks like someone isn't going to stop. To add content to the thread topic, apparently my bike decided it wasn't happy with me being on it today. I was coming home from work and was slowing down as I approached a left turn lane. I was looking a couple of lanes over because I thought I saw someone I knew, and apparently there was a huge slick of antifreeze in my path of travel. Obviously didn't see this, and even though I was barely on the front brake, it was enough to tuck the front. I was probably going 15-20mph at the time so I don't really consider it a crash. I'd say it was moreso that the bike kind of fell onto its side. Clutched in once I knew it was going down and picked it right back up without even stalling the bike. I'd say the whole process of moving->on ground->moving was about 5 seconds total. People probably thought I was an idiot. Just goes to show that poo poo can happen at any time, and even the shortest lapse in attention will bite you in the rear end.
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Apr 6, 2011 07:24
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-Inu- posted:..I have LED's in my tail which aren't as visible as OEM. Why on Earth would you do this? To put a light on the back of your bike which is less bright than stock seems crazy to me. The whole point of LEDs is the brilliance of the light they put out when done right, surely? I'm working on an LED conversion for my tail light at the moment and one of the goals was specifically to be brighter than the stock unit so that it makes the bike more visible:   Sure there's a lot of work in it (I'm still working on the plan to integrate it with the bike's wiring), but it will be a substantial upgrade in terms of visibility. It happens to look great too, but if it hadn't met that prime requirement I'd have aborted it or gone back to the drawing board..
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Apr 6, 2011 10:30
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 Makes it so I don't have to touch my tail section at all when I'm going to the track. I don't really subscribe to the idea that higher visibility really helps much as far as safety goes. I've seen people in full hi-vis gear and reflective tape all over get taken out because the person in the car simply didn't look at all. I prefer to ride with the mindset that everyone is going to do the most retarded thing possible and plan my escape routes accordingly.
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Apr 6, 2011 18:34
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Here4DaGangBang posted:Sounds like you would have seen this coming had you done something similar, and in your case you had an easy escape route, i.e. gas it straight ahead. Glad to hear the guy was able to miss you though! GnarlyCharlie4u posted:Next thing I know the guy just completely let off the brakes and the car bumper rolled up and over my rear tire and didn't stop till I reached back and punched his hood. (he was looking at cross traffic and apparently never saw me.) I know I shouldn't be surprised, but it never ceases to amazing me how invisible you can be to drivers, even when right in front of their faces. Not really a near crash, but I was dangerously cut off today by a tiny woman in a huge pickup with a "WATCH FOR MOTORCYCLES" sticker on the back windshield. I always love when that happens.
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Apr 6, 2011 23:01
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I hate any vehicle bigger than a 4 door with a passion. Especially since there will be just one small person in it.
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Apr 6, 2011 23:08
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Mushika posted:Not really a near crash, but I was dangerously cut off today by a tiny woman in a huge pickup with a "WATCH FOR MOTORCYCLES" sticker on the back windshield. I always love when that happens. Maybe somebody stuck that there to try to tell her something.
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Apr 6, 2011 23:21
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Bondematt posted:I hate any vehicle bigger than a 4 door with a passion. Especially since there will be just one small person in it. I dont think I've ever seen a car with more than 4 doors.. hatchbacks exempt.
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Apr 6, 2011 23:28
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4 door = sedan....
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Apr 7, 2011 01:00
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-Inu- posted:I don't really subscribe to the idea that higher visibility really helps much as far as safety goes. I've seen people in full hi-vis gear and reflective tape all over get taken out because the person in the car simply didn't look at all. I prefer to ride with the mindset that everyone is going to do the most retarded thing possible and plan my escape routes accordingly. Sure, you still have to be prepared because having bright lights doesn't change the fact that people can still be oblivious fuckheads, but surely dimmer lights just decrease the chances of being seen even further. Being the brightest active light source in someone's field of view certainly can't hurt. Stand by for the update when I am rear-ended due to the driver behind me being dazzled. :P Did you make those yourself?
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Apr 7, 2011 04:11
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Here4DaGangBang posted:Sure, you still have to be prepared because having bright lights doesn't change the fact that people can still be oblivious fuckheads, but surely dimmer lights just decrease the chances of being seen even further. Being the brightest active light source in someone's field of view certainly can't hurt. Stand by for the update when I am rear-ended due to the driver behind me being dazzled. :P They're LED strips, I drilled each hole individually and popped them in. Details and pics are in my project thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3388968
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Apr 7, 2011 05:45
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-Inu- posted:Definitely -- having brighter lights won't do anything except help you. It's just that in my case I feel that the tradeoff of having slightly dimmer lights for a gain of extra convenience is worth it. Fair enough.  If you could find a way to have the individual LEDs firing straight backwards you should get a decent boost in brightness, but judging by the pics of the rear fairing and the LED strips that would be a bit tough.Anyway I'll be sure to post finished pics of mine when it's all on the bike. /derail
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Apr 7, 2011 06:50
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Worst ride ever today, nearly had 2 accidents within 2 hours. Pretty happy to be alive. In chronological order, first near miss: Was riding one road I have ridden before, but only once. For some reason it is slippery as hell, it must be something about the surface or it was dusty or something. I lost traction on the back on one or two turns just previously so I should have been expecting the following... There is one 15mph right hand turn which I hit too fast and the bike started sliding and shuddering side to side mid turn. Im not sure if I got into a two wheel slide or not as my memory is a little fuzzy on the details but in the process of getting it under control I ended up in the middle of the oncoming lane. I remember thinking that I should lean it more to keep it in my lane but thinking that the sliding + more lean angle = lowside. The really bad bit is there was a volkswagen jetta coming the other way. Luckily they were far off enough that I had time to get back in my lane and wave them a sorry without too much drama. That was pretty early on in the ride and I slowed it down after that point. Its also only the second time I've crossed into the other lane since I started riding a year ago... the funny part? The first time had been on exactly the same corner last time I was on this road about a month into having my bike and I'd forgotten about it. Cause - me riding like a total rear end in a top hat/dong. Second: Turning right onto a highway feeder. This is in rural texas and they have two way feeders which are possibly the worst design I can think of. Anyway, not used to this, not seeing the (somewhat faded in my defence) yellow lines and thinking it was a one way feeder I turn right into the left lane so I can overtake the slow pickup in front of us and get onto the highway which is on the left side. I seriously didn't even see the jeep grand cherokee which had to pull off the road onto the grass until he yanked it over due to it being hidden by the pickup. There was probably about 15-20 feet between us before I snapped over to the right and he pulled off. My riding buddy was behind me and nearly followed me into the oncoming lane too. I pulled over to the side, but the jeep kept on jeepin' down the road. I owe that guy a huge apology. Cause - Im a loving dumbass. That was probably also the closest I've been to death, or at least severe injury for a long time. After the second incident I wasn't feeling it any more and turned back home. The hour or so ride on the highway to get home was different than usual I really felt my mortality for a change. Massive wake up call - thought of selling the bike and everything.
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Apr 17, 2011 01:59
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I know what you're sayin with those two-way feeders. It's a wonder that even with those flimsy yield signs there isn't catastrophic accidents commonly...
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Apr 17, 2011 06:37
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Space Pornography posted:I know what you're sayin with those two-way feeders. It's a wonder that even with those flimsy yield signs there isn't catastrophic accidents commonly... When I was sitting on the shoulder with my buddy after the incident I was watching some of the cars turning onto the feeder and in the 2 or 3 we sat there there was at least 2 which did the exact same thing I did.
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Apr 17, 2011 16:33
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I don't even know what a two way feeder is, as in a 2 lanes perpendicular to a freeway and the split right before it or something? Internet is being useless
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Apr 17, 2011 20:58
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Bondematt posted:I don't even know what a two way feeder is, as in a 2 lanes perpendicular to a freeway and the split right before it or something? Internet is being useless Also called a "two way frontage road." Instead of two one-way roads on opposite sides of the highway that move with the direction of traffic, you now need to cross a lane of oncoming traffic to get to the freeway onramp or to get off of the freeway. They are a terrible, terrible invention.
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Apr 17, 2011 23:49
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Ah thanks. In Socal so the closest thing we have is getting to Palomar mountain heading eastbound.
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Apr 18, 2011 00:04
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Weinertron posted:Also called a "two way frontage road." Instead of two one-way roads on opposite sides of the highway that move with the direction of traffic, you now need to cross a lane of oncoming traffic to get to the freeway onramp or to get off of the freeway. They are a terrible, terrible invention. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. The worst death traps we have here are the on/off ramps that are combined so you have a huge cluster gently caress of people trying to speed up to 70 to get onto the interstate and a bunch slowing down from 70 to exit. I think they're called "clovers" The biggest problem is that it's not a long off ramp and there is an immediate 30 MPH curve so the people exiting are slowing down. You combine the two and it's just craziness. Here's a picture of the intersection. I-380 and I-80 are the two interstates. 
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Apr 18, 2011 22:00
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Scrapez posted:That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Yeah two way frontage/feeder roads are retarded. In the case I posted up I don't even understand why it was 2 way because there is one on each side of the highway. There is a couple clovers/on ramps with a cloverleaf like curve in Houston which are also really badly thought out. Key in mind is Allen Parkway onto I-45 North. There is very little room to merge onto 45 before the lane ends - its WAY too short. And because youre just coming out of a tight turn your car/bike basically WANTS to go straight into traffic. Basically I always take this one like a grandma because you never know if you'll have a gap in traffic to fit into when you get to the freeway or if you're gonna have to slow or stop and wait. This one also has a nasty decreasing radius to it - I don't know what the gently caress they were thinking. There is also the Allen Parkway/Waugh clover which is less dangerous but still also potentially throws you out into traffic without much if any merge room.
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Apr 18, 2011 22:23
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Scrapez posted:That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. You post that and say it's horrible, but all I see is an endless string of toasted right knee pucks, wheelies, and stoppies. 
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Apr 18, 2011 22:31
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Seriously, I *love* cloverleafs. There's one I use everyday about 3 minutes from my house to get on and off the freeway and then one for my work exit. They are the highlights of my commute
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Apr 19, 2011 00:06
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Try it in a minivan full of people and you'll instantly feel the hatred.
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Apr 19, 2011 02:14
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So wait... There are people that don't just run the cloverleaf over and over again in the middle of the night when no one is around?
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Apr 19, 2011 03:42
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Bondematt posted:Try it in a minivan full of people and you'll instantly feel the hatred. Try it stuck behind a minivan full of people and you'll instantly feel the hatred.
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Apr 19, 2011 14:28
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I prefer them with a semi merging in and a semi exiting and about 25 cars that think they can't wait for them to clear so they are zig zagging around all over the drat place cutting everyone off. Fun times those clover leafs.
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Apr 19, 2011 16:41
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Pvt. Public posted:So wait... There are people that don't just run the cloverleaf over and over again in the middle of the night when no one is around? Actually yes, San Antonio has some crazy interchanges and one really really insane one. I present to you, the unstoppable I-10 1604 interchange.  It is perfectly symmetrical.. you never actually have to leave the clover if you don't want, and it just goes on and on.\ And without labels, for your viewing pleasure 
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Apr 19, 2011 17:03
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I thought about posting the same exact thing. It's a giant cluster where people are merging to get off/get on in the same spot. There's also red lights under the interchange for axis road.
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Apr 19, 2011 17:52
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Empire Waffles posted:I thought about posting the same exact thing. It's a giant cluster where people are merging to get off/get on in the same spot. There's also red lights under the interchange for axis road. I knew some Texans could be a bit racist, but holy poo poo they have roads that don't allow Jews?!?  But yeah, that looks like a goddamn mess.
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Apr 20, 2011 21:24
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Got on the brakes yesterday, since the light turned yellow, and I was over driving my brakes on the Vespa (drums, don't ya know). Locked up the rear and started sliding it around. Left quite that black mark on the pavement, kept her up, and didn't stall or over rev the engine. Scared the poo poo out of me though, but kept it in my lane and didn't lowside it (ATGATT though).
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Apr 24, 2011 12:46
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This wasn't me almost crashing, but someone almost crashing into me. I was stopped waiting to turn into my dealership access road while on a test drive. Left blinker on, pulled close to the double yellow just waiting for a few cars to pass. The road I'm on is only 35mph with a ton of parking lots that are a total pain in the rear end to pull out of. Everyone hangs half their car out into the road because you just can't see past all of the parked cars meaning you are an idiot if you ever go faster than 35. I usually go about 30 covering the brake the entire time. Anyway, I'm sitting there minding my own business when I hear the thunder of freedom coming up from behind. I look in the rear view and see some dickhead on an ape hangered HD come flying around the slight bend at least 50. I guess he didn't notice me sitting there in a silver MDX because I hear the throttle chop, he starts wiggling from too much rear brake but finally decides not to lay 'er down instead choosing to squeeze between me and the box truck going the other direction. Lucky sumbitch that guy.
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Apr 24, 2011 19:57
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Alright, let's do some crash analysis: What options did the rider have here? What behaviors should the rider have used to avoid getting in the situation in the first place? http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/04/dramatic-video-from-dallas-nor.html
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Apr 25, 2011 20:12
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Z3n posted:Alright, let's do some crash analysis: Jesus, I guess if he saw them coming, he might have been able to get out of the way, but he was pretty well boxed in. I think the only real thing to do in a situation like that is not get into it in the first place. It does say that he saw the occupants of the car "acting like fools" earlier, so maybe the lesson here is to pay attention to possible dangerous drivers and put another car between them and you. I'm also always a bit torn as to whether or not it's safer to ride in the left or middle lane on the expressway. The middle lane has twice the risk of somebody merging into you, but if something goes wrong and you need to get out, you have twice the possibility of an escape route. Of course, if the left lane has a shoulder then that's the best of both worlds.
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Apr 25, 2011 20:22
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Z3n posted:Alright, let's do some crash analysis: Maybe I'm imagining things, but it looks like he breaks the rear loose or something when he brakes? I'm seeing a little smoke. I mean, clearly the silver car is a fuckwit, but it looks like he was following a little closely to the vehicle in front for the traffic conditions and had to brake quickly.
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Apr 25, 2011 21:49
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Yeah that's what I saw too. Didn't get to see why traffic slowed so quickly, but he was probably following too closely anyway. Had I seen that car before and noticed what the occupants were doing, I'd have definitely done my best to get away from them as quickly as possible. That being said, the fuckhole driving that car should have been arrested and the car seized at the least. gently caress just getting citations. And I avoid the interstate at all possible times, and if forced to ride it will only take the left lane for passing and in traffic I will split my way out of Dodge as fast as possible, laws be damned. gently caress being pinned in unprotected. Especially in traffic, which is a situation that will only escalate all other driver's anger levels and cause impatience and assholishness to come to the forefront.
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Apr 25, 2011 22:17
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that guy mashed his rear way too hard, but he didn't crash into the car in front of him so I can't fault him for that. However, it wasn't much of an emergency braking situation as a 'did not see the jam soon enough to back off speed a lot earlier as to keep control and not end up in an emergency situation' situation. And he did not check his mirrors when he emergency braked. To be honest, I wouldn't look behind me if I had to brake in an emergency either.  Edit: another option would be to swerve and point yourself in between the two cars, but whatever emergency maneuver he'd chosen he would have to practiced it properly to be aware of them being an option. Always do your controlled emergency drills, people! karms fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Apr 25, 2011 |
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Apr 25, 2011 23:26
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Mashed his rear too hard? You do realize the rear brake doesn't do poo poo right?
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Apr 25, 2011 23:31
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/\/\/\ Rear brake assists, and should be applied lightly and smoothly. It does provide additional stopping power, and in an emergency stop you want all you can get, which means knowing how to use your rear brake. This guy locked up the rear; practice so that you don't. Whenever the shoulder allows I'll be in the left most lane on the left side of the lane, so that in a traffic situation like that I can dart up the left side of the car in front of me. If traffic comes to an abrupt stop like that I say gently caress the laws and I'll ease off into the shoulder coming to a stop next to the car that was in front of me if I have to, keeping an eye on the car behind me if I have time. If I don't have time and I need to stop so abruptly that I'm worried about hitting the car in front of me, I pretty much just assume I'm going to be rear ended and get out of the path of the car behind me regardless of if I think a crash is imminent. Like someone said, gently caress being unsheilded and waiting to get hit. If there is no shoulder, or there is a bridge, allow yourself more space, but the same strategy can be applied on the right side of the lane going into the middle, or even splitting between the guard rail and car if need be. I have had a car screech to a stop about a foot into where my bike would have been if I didn't already negate their poor driving by being two and a half feet over from where I would have laid bleeding. Once you've had someone merge into you going 65 on the highway and literally push you at full speed over onto the shoulder; the shoulder doesn't seem like such an unfriendly place.
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Apr 25, 2011 23:48
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