What the hell? Has anyone else found drivers like this?
I’ve been driving for 11 years now and I’ve never noticed it… but in the past two months I’ve found swarms of drivers who find it in their interest to ride the brake pedal. No, not ride the brakes, I don’t think the breaks are in any way engaged, I think their foot is just resting on the pedal enough to trip the light.
I can’t fucking stand it! I drive a small car as it is, so any help I get from the car in front of me blocking my view is a blessing. Big back windows aid me greatly. But holy hell, that’s all I have to go on with these people (and a stressed level of proximity detection; ie, fuck, that car is slowing down!). I have no idea when they’re breaking.
Normally, I don’t condemn people who drive automatics. I personally hate them with a passion, but what the hell, it is just a car, and if it gets you to point B then fuck it. But this is abominable.
Don’t they teach people how to drive anymore? Right foot controls the break and the gas. Right foot controls the break and the gas. If you have a clutch, use your left foot for it; otherwise, leave that puppy dangling off to the side. It doesn’t mind, honest.
Break lights aren’t there as a means of getting you to purchase consumables. They are there to let the car behind you know when you are breaking. Shit!
Has anyone else seen these people? Man alive they are a hazard, especially when city-driving and traffic is closed up to begin with (nevermind the highway, when you only have precious few moments to break in the first place).
Well, there’s you’re trouble. You’re looking at the break lights. The rest of us are watching the Brake lights, which are a much better indicator of impending deceleration.
I know what you mean, though. I can only hope they are wearing out their brake linings faster and will someday rear-end a Pinto.
What I can’t stand is when people brake when they see a green light. WHAT?!? WHAT THE HELL?!?! It’s frigging GREEN you morons!!!
This seems to be unique to Hooterville, I didn’t see it happen in L.A. The sad thing is, I’ve caught myself doing it a few times as well. Idiocy is contagious, I guess.
After all, I learned that here in Washington state, there are a number of dumbfucks who have decided that since they’re making a left turn, they have the right of way.
Now, on the one hand, slowing down makes it seem like, yes, I too think they have the right of way, and encourages such dumbfuckery. OTOH, it means that I’m going slow enough to not plow into their stupid asses when they decide to turn (which, AFAIK, they were going to do anyway).
Billy: :smack: Sheesh. I spelled it right in the title, and the rest of the post I miffed it. WTF? See how angry they make me? See?!? [waves finger accusingly]
Yeah, it drives me nuts when their brake lights are on but they still appear not to be slowing down. Gaaah! What are you doing, idiot?! Don’t you realize those lights on the back come on when you do that?!
Grr. And the stop-at-green phenom is a killer too. Where did these people learn to drive? Brakeland?
Maybe people slow down at lights so they can stop if it goes red. Or maybe they’ve learnt that people sometimes go on red, and want a fighting chance to stop if that happens.
My experience with left-foot-brakers who ride the pedal is that they generally strongly deny doing so. Even when relatives driving behind them confirm it. Not even the fact that their brake pads only last 10,000 miles seems to suggest anything amiss…
There was a rather contentious thread about left-foot braking a couple of months ago, I believe…
It must be different where you are, ut around here there’s this light between the green one and the red one. It’s yellow, and the light usually turns yellow before turning red, giving the person enough time to get through the intersection or stop.
As for the second part, that’s just stupid.
There are these two guys driving in a car. The guy driving blows right through the red light, and the passenger says, “man, you just ran that red light!” “Don’t worry, my brother does it all the time,” says the driver.
Well, they continue to drive when the guy goes flying through another stoplight. “You ran ANOTHER stop light! You’re gonna get us killed!” screams the passenger. “Don’t worry, my brother does it all the time,” says the driver.
After a while they come to a green light, and the driver stops. “Why are you stopping?” asks the passenger. The driver turns around and says, “because my brother might be coming.”
[QUOTE] Originally posted by Wikkit After a while they come to a green light, and the driver stops. “Why are you stopping?” asks the passenger. The driver turns around and says, "because my brother might be coming."
Ummm… can I keep my right foot on the brake pedal when I’m going downhill? Is that OK with you guys? Or should I just let gravity take control and do with me as it wills?
Nah, they’ve learned to drive in Massachusetts or New York where it’s “OK” to go through a red light.(Seriously folks, in Mass people will blatantly go through red, not signal, and even try to cut you off even if it means you would kill them if you didn’t stop in time.)
Alessan has a sort of a point. I’ve had to deal with shitty automatics which insist on doing twenty miles an hour on level ground in idle, which translates to a hell-ride with the same shitty car drifting down a hill in third gear like a penguin on an Arctic slope. Sometimes the careful application of the brakes (which are usually heavily biased toward the front wheels) with the left foot is advisable in rear wheel drive cars, so that the braking can be lightly applied in the turns while traction is simultaneously applied to the rear.
But you will be killed in a firey crash and die in a pool of your own boiling excrement if you take my advice, so don’t. I’m just pointing out the theoreticals.
Another example might be that of rally racers I see on the Speed Channel. A lot of those dudes do some fancy footwork. Sometimes, for reasons I cannot discern beyond that of safety for themselves and onlookers, they accellerate while keeping a watchful left foot on the brake. Theoretically, such an application might be beneficial to hard ass-out cornering, as well. Not that I would know, as I am now a law-abiding citizen on a cell phone in traffic.
However, I’m willing to bet that erislover has encountered neither of those situations with other drivers. Grandma Buick ain’t got a damned excuse except when she has to come up with one at the numerous checkpoints in the traffic jam to Purgatory.
Good drivers get the HOV lane in the afterlife, or at least that’s what my traffic shaman tells me.
I’m not talking about people who don’t accelerate as soon as the light turns green. I was also taught that you don’t want to do that—you might get clipped by someone who thinks they can make it through before the light turns red.
But when the light is clearly green, has been green for a spell, and they STILL want to slow down? Why? It’s freakin’ GREEN! You are supposed to GO on GREEN!
