My kid’s just finished the classroom part of driver education and it prompted a discussion of crazy things we’ve seen other drivers do.
The craziest thing I saw, many years ago now, was I came up behind a guy driving a Ford Ranger pickup and could see through his rear window that he was doing tricep extensions with a dumbbell in his right hand. I was more surprised as I passed to see he was shaving with an electric razor in his left hand. I don’t really know how he was steering.
Kiddo said they were told personal grooming was the fourth leading cause of accidents.
I’ve climbed out of the passenger window across the roof and back through the window of the door for the seat behind the driver while my friend was driving us around once.
E: oh yeah this friend didn’t have his license at the time either
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I imagine they do a drumroll when the cops come over.
I was on a highway doing around 60 when the car in front of me suddenly spun around in a 360 and stopped. Luckily they were some distance in front and there was no other traffic. When I passed, it was a teenage boy in the passenger and his grandmother driving. She was yelling at him and reaching down between them trying to do something. I think he had pulled the e-brake just to see what would happen.
Dude let the intrusive thoughts win.
While stopped at a red light, a taxi casually got onto the right sidewalk and drove on it to get to the front of the line.
I’d give an A for dedication to customers I guess.
Next we’ll be learning taxis are amphibious.
Late '70s, on a winding paved backroad heading into town, a smaller car coming in the opposite direction lost traction (a light, misty rain had just gone through) and rolled twice in a field before landing upright.
My buddy and I quickly pulled over and ran towards the car to make sure everything was alright.
They drove off before we got to them…
Ok…I want THAT car!!! Forget airbags, and modern safety standards. This dude rolls his car TWICE and just drives off.
…until you get in a collision and the car crumples up and squeezes you out like red toothpaste.
Cars like that don’t crumple up, you just bounce around inside till you die
Oh they sure do. They really like shoving the steering column through your spine.
Ya, iirc, it was something like a Datsun or Toyota compact car, which were a lot smaller and fragile than today’s compacts.
This is one of those events that you chalk up to pure luck.
Crazy luck, 70s imports in the US were very fragile. buddy lost a wheel and most of his suspension hitting a curb in a cvcc.
I once saw a car driving the wrong way on a one way, make a turn to drive the wrong way on a second one way.
I’ve seen two people clearly on phones hit each other as they were accelerating at a stop light, and then keep going. Fortunately the really only screwed up their front quarter panels from what I could see.
I’ve seen someone use an entry ramp to pass on the right.
I’ve seen someone who missed their exit try to still make it by driving through the grass, it didn’t really work.
I’ve seen several impromptu street races, the best was a hellcat and some crotch rockets.
The craziest was probably a pickup truck with a huge load of straw bails that had caught on fire.
This has gotta be made up!!!
In Attack of the Clones, Kenobi probably broke a handful of driving laws.
I saw someone who used their turn signals.
I hate when I leave an actual stopping distance between me and the person in front of me and someone else just decides to dart in and then tailgate the person in front of them.
I remember commenting about people going over the speed limit here on Lemmy, and getting so many downvotes from people who could never explain to me why they thought they deserved to go over the speed limit. Emergencies, with your emergency lights on? By all means! Going over the speed limit because you got up or left late for work? No bueno.
To be fair, most speed limits aren’t very accurate to the design of the street. If you wanted, you could speed up for straightaways and slow down for turns. Obviously though, they aren’t going to put a speed limit sign every 5 feet, so it won’t match the street design everywhere.
Case in point the freeways where I live are limited to 65MPH but you cross the border into either neighboring state and magically 70-75MPH is the safe limit. It makes no sense apart from generating revenue from speeding tickets. Most commuters do 75-80MPH depending on traffic.
The low speed limit also has the side effect of causing those slow, oblivious drivers to immediately crank the wheel over into the left lane the second they merge on the highway and then set their cruise control to 62MPH while they get passed by every car around them causing massive congestion behind them and lots of lane changes.
While I understand both of your points and views, the fact of the matter is that the speed limit is set to whatever it is, whether it be 65 or 70. You are aware of this, and daily commuters are also aware of this. In my eyes, that means it is not a surprise, or shouldn’t be, to anyone except travelers. This also means that you should be prepared for that commute at that speed limit. Unless it is an emergency, just follow the speed limit. It’s as simple as that.
This is specially egregious since most speed limits are too high
why they thought they deserved to go over the speed limit.
So I don’t obstruct traffic? To improve safety by driving consistently with other vehicles. Yeah, sometimes I speed but most of the time I’m over the speed limit is to go with the flow of traffic.
My bigger annoyance is construction/school zones. I’m not compromising there but it is frustrating to get honked at, or have other drivers try to pass
During morning rush hour (a near-standstill occasionally broken by brief periods of 10mph movement), I once saw a woman eating a bowl of soup/oatmeal/whatever while steering with her elbows.
It seemed to be a regional norm to eat breakfast in the car because a 20 mile commute generally took 1.5-3 hours and often moved slower than a walking pace, but that was the only time I’d ever seen someone eating food that required a dish and utensil.
Sounds like the kind of commute where an ebike would be life changing in time savings
This was my experience going down the GW Parkway. People frequently had the morning Post unfolded all the way reading it, and others applying eyeliner and mascara.
Ooh, thought of another. I once saw a gentlemen driving down the mountain who must not have known that riding his brakes all the way down would cause them to overheat and fail. He was free rolling and honking his horn, weaving in and out to avoid hitting people. Sheer panic on his face.
Fortunately, he had the wherewithal to steer up one of the emergency offramps. I caught up to him a couple mins after he passed me. He was standing, leaning against his car, and just breathing. He was not a white guy, but somehow he still looked so pale. Glad no one got hurt with that one, that could have easily led to one or more deaths if things had happened just a little differently.
That seems more like a crazy situation caused by an honest mistake rather than a person doing something crazy, but I upvoted anyway.
Wait I never knew that you could overheat and fail if you rode it down the mountain. Holy shit
Yep, you want to do engine braking. That’s when you downshift and the engine slows the car. Even with an automatic transmission, you can downshift to 2nd so long as you’re under 50mph or so. You want to be slower than 20 before shifting down to 1st gear.
If you ever have a chance to drive up Pikes Peak in Colorado, 1) it’s gorgeous and 2) they have a stop halfway down where park rangers will check your brake temps with an IR thermometer. If you’re too hot, they make you sit there in your car for a while for the brakes to cool off and they give you tips on engine braking. Lots of flatlanders driving in the mountains for the first time and learning lessons the hard way.
Wow that’s crazy. You have taught me a valuable and potentially a life saving lesson today. I really appreciate your knowledge here.
So I have an automatic so how do I keep it under 50 or 20 without using the breaks?
You can use your brakes to slow down to where you can then engine brake, you just don’t want to use them for miles all the way down a mountain.
Once you’re under ~50 and you shift down to second, your engine does the work. It will keep the car slower. Maybe you need to tap on the normal brakes here and there, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t have to keep them pressed the entire time.
My dodge will engine brake if I use the cruise control. Down near the bottom (or far side) of your shifter you should have a low gear that isn’t first. You can shift into it under 50 and let off the gas, your car should slow down. Test it’s rpm range on some flat ground first by accelerating to around 50… On the mountain is not where you want to first try it.
At minimum, shift out of overdrive into regular drive.
I have a versa so I’ll have to take a look at that later
I also had no idea, even thought it’s completely logical. I just never would have considered that.
they have a stop halfway down where park rangers will check your brake temps with an IR thermometer
My wife’s family did that once and the ranger was apperently shocked at how cold the breaks were from very effective downshifting
If I were a ranger at those stops, I would totally turn it into a game based on make and model, which state they’re from, and judging the driver.
“Soccer minivan from Illinois? They will have no clue how to drive in mountains, their brakes will be hot”
“Ice cold, dude, I’m up by three, next Coke is on you”
I was riding down the highway and spent time looking out the window as I often do since I’m bad at keeping up in conversations. Parallel to our vehicle is this very highbrow lawyer, who I recognized because I had been to the courts before. Maybe he didn’t think he would end up driving so parallel to any vehicle, but there he was, quite visibly texting while driving. Or maybe playing Candy Crush, I don’t know. I definitely don’t snitch under those circumstances, but my friend’s kid, who was in the passenger seat behind me, hears me mutter to myself about the willingness to “if only my hand was forced”, takes my camera which I always have with me and takes a picture, and within minutes, it’s all over the airwaves. The lawyer’s standing did not exist for much longer.
Drove past a guy on the highway, driving 100kph, wondered why he first drove so slow, then sped up, then slowed again… He was reading a book while driving 🤦♂️ One other guy, driving 80kph hardly could keep the truck on his own lane, so I drove past him. He was filling in some paper forms, while he had a cup of, assumably, coffee in the other hand, and tried to keep the truck going straight with that. Jeez these people…
and people wonder why I’m 40, but never had a drivers liscense.
A guy in a convertible shaving with an electric razor.
Turning right from the left turn lane when the lights turn green, in front of the cars going straight and right.
I guy undertaking on a sidewalk outside a school, over the speed limit.
Woman with a pink suction cup dildo attached to the inside of her window, vigorously sucking it while going throughly an intersection.
Did uh…did you catch that liscense plate???
Cincinnati, tis a strange place.
