|
Neptr posted:Sounds perfect for some people, those people being the ones that have to put their wipers on high/hurricane mode with the slightest amount of precipitation. The actual perfect answer is a little adjuster on the stalk that sets the time between intermittent wipes, and it makes me sad it's not universal on cars.
|
#
¿
Sep 10, 2013 19:16
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 23:21 |
|
|
It's SOP on British motorways to blink the hazards if traffic is coming to a stop, just to highlight the difference between "we're slowing a bit" and "we're actually stopping right now slow down jackass". As a rule Coventry drivers aren't too bad, everybody who lives here knows the score about the ringroad, how to get into the Skydome / IKEA car park etc. but throw some tourists in and everything goes to poo poo. I've seen people drive the wrong way around a one-way road to get to IKEA, even barging through traffic cones to do it. The only thing people seem to be bad at is sticking in the correct lane on a roundabout, my housemate almost got in a wreck just yesterday because some chucklefuck decided to try and straight-line a roundabout where every lane was already occupied. 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2013 16:44
|
|
|
Geoj posted:Is this a law in the UK, or more of something that everyone gets taught in driver's ed because its a really good idea? It's neither, it's just something I've picked up via osmosis but you'll see almost everybody doing it. If you're doing it right you shouldn't be braking heavily, more coasting / braking gently down to give the people behind you space.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 5, 2013 22:14
|
|
|
Snowdens Secret posted:That would confuse the crap out of a lot of people, and we're at a point where cars that radio each other and slam the brakes automatically are close enough that fancier lights for humans to mis-react to is rather pointless. What might be more effective is lights just spelling out obscenities instead. Obnoxious LED brake lights flashing the work "gently caress" at people would probably grab their attention.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2013 10:56
|
|
|
Coventry's ring road has many traps, this is probably the best one. You come popping over a crest and down to this which looks far tighter than it is thanks to that tree on the inside, and you can't really see that it's actually on-camber either. Every single person brakes for it but you can happily zoom around at 40-45, you even get some fun compression because the bottom of the dip is right on the apex.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 21, 2013 23:27
|
|
|
Das Volk posted:Belgium is indeed automotive anarchy. Things are fine when the roads are empty but in heavy traffic you get people trying to lane split in cars and other lunacy. Oh lordy the one and only time I've been down the E40 and back (I assume you were going Calais -> Nurburgring too?) from the moment we crossed into Belgium to the moment we left again I was in fear of my life. If we're generalising about drivers the French are rude but competent, Germans are competent but terrifyingly fast, Belgians seem to combine the worst of all these traits with a dash of schizophrenia. P.S. gently caress driving anywhere near Brussels.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2013 15:40
|
|
|
Tha Chodesweller posted:I will never understand why people glare at you when they do something stupid. Unless they're just really stupid. I guess I figured it out, didn't I? I love that "oh shiiiiiit" face people pull when they realise they've completely hosed up on a roundabout and it's only some quick braking that's just kept you from plowing into their door. I had one person a couple of weeks ago make it all the way out into the middle of the road before even looking my way and spotting me doing an emergency stop, who then had the gall to mouth some words my way before speeding off again. My car isn't small and my headlights are on unless it's the brightest of sunny days, I'm not a fan of making myself hard to spot.  (My current car is also the first I've owned with ABS, and that was the first time I've engaged it in 1 1/2 years of driving it. I had a proper little panic moment before realising what it was making the brake pedal vibrate.  )
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2013 11:48
|
|
|
Hammer Floyd posted:The double red arrows at the bottom indicate that you've got a service lane as well as a road that merge AT the round-about which causes loving chaos in peak hour. You've just reminded me of one of Coventry's most egrerious road design decisions, which only got fixed fairly recently. Behold:  Doesn't look too bad, right? But that road you see appearing from the bottom right corner is the exit of a one-way loop past Coventry station, the road parallel and above it is a slip road from Coventry's beautiful ring road and the road that takes a hard 90* left under a building is the entrance to said one-way loop. Now obviously on a UK roundabout you give way to the right, which means that people trying to leave the station give way to people coming off the ring road in that direction, many of whom are likely trying to get to the station. The result is you can end up with traffic completely unable to leave, whilst more traffic comes off the ring road into the one-way system, blocking exiting traffic as it does so. I've witnessed tailbacks go all the way around that block clockwise, down the slip road and back out onto the ring road because of it. This in turn causes compound problems elsewhere because there's a second much smaller loop infront of the station itself, where again people can't get out of the loop but traffic can keep piling in. Also there's a small car park in the middle of that, so you can be stuck trying to leave a space that some other stuck person needs to get into. It's one of the only situations where adding traffic lights to a roundabout has made it flow more smoothly, but for the longest time there were no lights at all on this roundabout. Trying to make a right turn from the station in rush hour was one of the most difficult bits about driving in this stupid city.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2013 18:08
|
|
|
Beach Bum posted:I've finally started passing as I would on a two lane road: plan ahead, hammer down until you get past the vehicle and coast back into cruise. When you come up on one of these douchebags at 15+ they don't have time to be dicks. Related, people on the motorway that cruise along and then hit the brakes at every single speed camera so your average speed ends up fractionally higher than theirs. I've taken to planning where they're next likely to brake, jumping out a lane and breezing past at ~80 whilst they tap the brakes yet again (and continue loving up traffic in the process ). Just loving pick a speed and go at it, idiot. Have you never noticed all the cars rolling through a bit over the limit and still not setting the cameras off?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2014 23:07
|
|
|
Oh god, I had one of those this morning and almost got sandwiched between a lorry stuck in the inside lane and the car that was trying to edge back past me as the slip road shrank down to one lane (sorry for overtaking your dawdling rear end at the top I guess?  ). Person at the front of the line suddenly slammed on the anchors from ~65mph despite there being at least 100m of empty lane infront and behind them.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2014 18:10
|
|
|
Colonel Sanders posted:Also, what is up with LA and on ramps? The last time I was there, I remember seeing a ramp with a light at the end that would flash from red to green, I had no loving clue what that meant. It seemed like it would be red for 5 seconds, green for 1 second, I remember the pattern was really short. What am I supposed to do to not be an rear end in a top hat if I am ever in LA again? Do those lights actually work to improve traffic? What you would normally do at a traffic light, stop on red, go go go on green. We have them in some places in the UK too, but by the time they come on the motorway is already at a crawl so you can't play race driver and book it the whole way down the slip road. 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2014 18:34
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:Some massive rear end in a top hat cut right in front of me on the motorway today, so I flashed my high beams at him while I braked. He retaliated by brake-checking me I saw an E-Class cut off a lorry with Italian plates today. Turns out Italian truckers aren't as forgiving as their British counterparts, the guy stuck his high beams on, whipped out into the outside lane* and almost took the front off the Merc pulling back in. Then the Merc cut the car in front of me off to dive down the next exit. *Fake edit: For those of you not familiar trucks in Europe are speed limited, and in the UK not usually allowed in the outside lane. jammyozzy fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Jan 21, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2014 21:51
|
|
|
Yesterday evening *I* was that guy you all share the road with. Stuck in a column of cars waiting to get off the M6 at the next junction, checked my mirrors and when I looked back traffic was stopping in a hurry. Felt the ABS starting to kick in as I hit the brakes while consciously going "oh-poo poo oh-poo poo" when some unconcscious part of my mind had me spit the car out onto the hard shoulder. I ended up stopping a few metres short of the car in front and very sheepishly had to be let back into traffic. 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 14, 2014 15:24
|
|
|
Doesn't look like any bit of the circuit that I can remember, plus I saw a speed camera sign flash past which would surely be redundant on an island with no national speed limit.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2014 15:29
|
|
|
There's also the fact that your closing speed will be much higher riding a bike into traffic as opposed to walking, giving any crash that much more energy.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2014 18:01
|
|
|
IDGI with lovely enough tyres on the back the handbrake lets me U-turn my big FWD car around in roughly its own length.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2014 09:10
|
|
|
I genuinely think a 4-way stop requires more thought than a roundabout, based on all the complaints I see on here about people being overly polite about the right of way. A single lane roundabout is easy even for the dumbest of the dumb.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2014 15:12
|
|
|
I guess they lose their appeal somewhat when those powerful RWD cars have oxcart suspension. 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2014 18:20
|
|
|
When the exhaust fell off my 50hp Polo I did the only thing any sane driver would do; ragged it around every roundabout on my 5-mile drive home, pinging off the rev limiter and heel-toeing every downshift. In my 18-year old head it sounded awesome. 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2014 14:55
|
|
|
PT6A posted:I think, if I were a cop, I'd just drive around at night writing large tickets to morons who don't turn their lights on. Seriously, I don't drive at night much, but every time I do, I see at least one (usually more) car going down the road without lights on. Turn your goddamn loving lights on, you horrible morons! Automatic lights are no excuse, in my opinion: they're there as a fallback. Personally, I always turn my lights to the full on position even though I have automatic lights, especially in bad weather or near dusk when I want to be sure they're on. I actually saw this happen (I think) about an hour ago as I was cycling home. There was a van ahead of me at a red light with no lights on, and in the middle of the next hill a police car came ripping past me, flicked the blues'n'twos on and pulled them over. I almost crashed straight into the police car I was so suprised. 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2014 19:05
|
|
|
I've watched a trucker lean on the horn for an entire light cycle at a car that darted out and managed to block the entire opposite lane from entering the junction when their light changed.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2014 12:04
|
|
|
May Contain Nuts posted:Traffic circle in my town: Perhaps us brits have different attitudes to roundabouts. Hope your pedestrians aren't daft enough to try and cross using the middle. 
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2014 21:13
|
|
|
ratbert90 posted:Am I a bad person from secretly getting pleasure out of every bro truck I see spun off or on its side after a huge snow fall/deep freeze? Because I do, and those jack holes tend to drive like morons because they have 4 wheel skid. We don't really have bro trucks in the UK, but I cackle like a mad man every time I pull away from a set of lights in the snow and leave some knob in a Range Rover standing. Best was when I had the MX5 and could give a cheery wave as they sat there spinning their low profile summer tyres.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 17, 2014 20:17
|
|
|
atomicthumbs posted:"You're backing up. Why didn't you turn on People look at me like I'm a crazy person when I take a longer route back to the car to avoid idiots, but I don't want to be turned into people pâté when granny's foot slips off the clutch.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 24, 2014 21:04
|
|
|
 I can't tell if this is malice, apathy, incompetence or a mix of the three. My only regret is I no longer drive a car narrow enough to squeeze in there without also blocking the Fiat driver's door.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 5, 2014 14:31
|
|
|
An A-Class I drove had a speed limiter instead of cruise control, which was nice in that I could set it to 70ish and guarantee I wouldn't get a speeding ticket in the company car but resulted in a few panic moments when I went to nip past somebody and immediately bumped into the limit.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 13, 2014 09:39
|
|
|
InitialDave posted:My car has that as well as cruise control, and full throttle will let you override it if you need to without turning it off. Unfortunately the Merc wasn't that smart, you'd have to flail at the stalk to either turn it off or just bump the speed up a few ticks. Oddly it almost felt like it was riding the brakes rather than limiting the throttle input to keep the speed in check. *E* Holy poo poo speaking of, the Zoe is pretty crazy cheap. I'd jump on that in a heartbeat if I could afford a 2nd car for long trips. jammyozzy fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Dec 13, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Dec 13, 2014 16:09
|
|
|
The look of rage I got the other day when I (quite honestly) walked up the wrong row of the car park, thus denying the idiot that was creeping along behind me my space is seared into my brain. People get loving scary around Christmas. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2014 11:39
|
|
|
Solar Coaster posted:Was out walking the dog yesterday, and on one of my routes, there's a bunch of roundabouts. Apparently they are really difficult. Honestly this looks like a road design failure more than anything. In the UK a roundabout that small will just be a mound of tarmac so long vehicles can straddle it rather than plowing across it trying not to knock the reflectors over. Cakefool posted:
Some stupid part of my brain wants to get some film and make my Peugeot's fog lights selective yellow. I'm not even sure why, I was 3 when France got rid of mandatory yellow lights.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2015 20:51
|
|
|
West SAAB Story posted:Since when is a roundabout a half-a-vehicle-to-about-a-full size? They're loving huge out here. Probably to keep the natives from literally driving over them (as well). When you don't have space for a big one and come from a land where a four way stop sounds more like some obscure card game than a junction.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2015 21:57
|
|
|
Theris posted:I always slide over to the middle lane when I'm approaching an on ramp with cars coming up it to avoid that poo poo. But I do move back to the right as soon as there's an opening and I'm not passing people anymore. I do this, but then you get the occasional person who wants to go quicker than you but is so scared of accidentally undertaking they'll pace alongside you instead, preventing you from getting back over.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2015 16:54
|
|
|
Bovril Delight posted:Dear guy in the Civic doing 80mph with a donut on the front axle: if you want to die, please do so in a manner that doesn't endanger everyone else. Oh man, once upon a time I got passed by an A5 that then proceeded to have a blowout at like 100mph a few hundred meters further down the road. Guy does a good job keeping it all together, gets it over to the shoulder without wrecking and I carry on my merry way. Like 30 minutes later the same loving Audi came screaming past still going around a ton with the donut spare on the back. 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2015 19:55
|
|
|
I swear people lose their minds around grit trucks. I'm used to people slowing down the moment they're past the back of them and out of the paint-shredding zone, but today I watched cars slow down and pace two seperate trucks while still behind them, chunks of road salt pinging off the whole front and side of their cars. 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 3, 2015 23:11
|
|
|
DEAR RICHARD posted:I love it when people swerve without looking into oncoming traffic to get around a bicyclist...only to have the bike pass them a few seconds later at a red light. From the cyclists point of view this is terrifying too, because the passing car will probably swerve back into the lane before they're completely past. And then people way back in the queue at the light will pull right to the kerb so you can't roll up to the bike box at the front, it's so petty like "I'm not going anywhere so neither are you."
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2015 21:35
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:Recently there was a campaign by Seat in Denmark where you could win prices by passing a 25 question written test, similar to the one you have to pass to get a driver's license. You have to get 20 out of 25 correct answers to pass. Are you sure people weren't just throwing the test to avoid winning a SEAT?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2015 18:54
|
|
|
IOwnCalculus posted:The freeway ones have been gone for a few years now, and thank god. Nothing like having all traffic driving 74MPH and then standing on the brakes to 64MPH every few miles. This is basically the whole southwest portion of the M25, except every few hundred metres rather than miles.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2015 08:10
|
|
|
CannonFodder posted:In California trucks are always at 55 (unless the whole highway goes lower or downhill grades) while car traffic can go 65-70. That's insane. Europe is identical, HGVs Europe-wide are limited to at best 56mph (90kph) while light traffic can do like 70+ (or whatever you like on the Autobahn).
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2015 20:11
|
|
|
I once got screamed at for mowing down a pheasant because it chose death by my car rather than the tractor coming the other way. I didn't want to die by tractor either.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2015 20:25
|
|
|
88h88 posted:I'm just imagining how quiet my mate's old Mini would be if I were deaf... Seems there's an upside! As someone who only has one working ear left, you'd miss the noise if it was gone. 
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2015 20:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 23:21 |
|
|
Perhaps it's just me but I still see people on the M4 speed through roadworks at 60+ and then pile on the brakes at each SPECS camera.  It's probably terrible but some part of my brain loves undertaking these chucklefucks simply by going at a single speed.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2015 12:55
|
|