And just because an intersection used to be “No Turn on Red”, doesn’t mean it still is now 2 years later. Go!
• When using a freeway entrance ramp, there is no need to stop at the end of the ramp and then floor it to try to get up to highway speed. In fact, that is stupid and dangerous. The ramp is there for the express purpose of allowing you to accelerate as you approach the highway. By the time you reach it, you should be traveling at roughly the same speed as the rest of traffic. This allows you to merge into traffic safely.
•Don’t be a brake tapper. If you are following someone too closely, so that you have to tap the brakes to back off their bumper a bit, guess what? You are following too closely! Pick your lead foot up off the gas pedal and coast until you slow to an appropriate distance behind the driver in front of you. This way, the driver behind you won’t be in a frenzy trying to decide if a dog has run out into the road and you intend to come to a full stop (and I have to stand on the brakes to avoid hitting you) or if your brake lights flickering on means you’re just driving like a douchebag. Furthermore, it’s a waste of gas to tap the brakes all the time because you lost momentum and have to hit the gas even more to get back up to speed.
So you’re the one on 95 last week in Georgia, in the construction. When the rain was coming down so hard the REST of us had our flashers on and had slowed to a crawl. And you decided to pass me, going at least 80. Thanks for that.
ly.
under no circumstances should you eat cereal, read the newspaper, or apply eyeliner while driving, especially on the New Jersey Turnpike (yes, I have actually witnessed these events)
Don’t Be Courteous, Be Predictable.
Otherwise I will be forced to stoop to seemingly-irrational behaviors such as flipping you off when I’m waiting to turn right out of a parking lot and you screech to a halt to let me onto the road, thereby causing the person behind you to very nearly rear-end you.
I will caveat this. “When using a freeway entrance ramp ALL ALONE, there is no need to stop at the end of the ramp and then floor it to try to get up to highway speed.”
However: when using a ramp with someone in front of you who is going to stop at the end of the ramp and wait helplessly for a long break in traffic, stop at the start of the ramp so you have room to get up to highway speed after they finally get out of the way. You can’t trust the person at the far end of the ramp to go soon, and if you motor down the ramp normally, you’ll get stuck there too. Preserve your space and your options by noticing people who are not accelerating to highway speed on the ramp ahead of you and, if necessary, completely stop and wait for the pinhead to clear the ramp while the ramp is still in front of you. Don’t worry if the drivers behind you honk – they’d be stuck even longer if everyone followed you down to the end of the ramp and stopped there. The ramp is for accelerating and you’ll need to use it for that, not for parking.
As a generalization, and obviously making exceptions for emergency conditions, if you have to brake hard immediately after passing me and getting in front of me, you’re doing it wrong.
Passing is to allow drivers who will be traveling faster to proceed on their way IF they can do so without danger. It is NOT just to allow you to get in front of me and slow back down, and it is not “without danger” if you gun it to get in front, just barely squeeze in there, and immediately have to brake to force me backward so you can have my spot. Don’t tell me “there’s someone else in front, I can’t go any faster” – I know that. That’s why I wasn’t going any faster.
When stopped at a light, if you’re the first car in the right lane and planning to continue without turning, it would be awfully nice if you could skootch up a bit, and stay to the left side of your lane, so people behind you that want to attempt a right turn on red have room next to you to do so.
Thanks.
99.9% of the people who are driving at night on highways, if there is no additional lighting, are over driving their lights. Any dark object will not be seen in time to stop even if it has been sitting there before you saw it and did not jump in front of you like a deer or some such.
My turn signals are not requests, they are notification of my next move. Do not act so surprised and do something stupid. Thankyouverymuch.
Cruise control does not mean you should hang in a possible blind spot, nor make a rolling road block and feel it is the person in the right lane who should slow down or speed up.
Well obviously if there is significant precipitation on the road, then yes slow down. Ok maybe it’s not obvious, every time it snows there’s people in SUVs flying past me. Once I got to see one of them in the ditch up the road.
Yes. Four-wheel-drive may help prevent you getting stuck in the snow, but it does nothing to help you stop.
OTOH though, if you can’t handle driving in snow to the point that you crawl down the road (or highway!) at 10 mph, you should probably stay home.
If I’m in the lane next to you, and I put on my blinker to signal that I’ll be moving into your lane … don’t be an asshole and speed up just so I can’t get over. Seriously, people around here are such dicks about this one particular move.
Yeah, I can’t get on-board with admonishing people slowing down for rain or darkness, so long as they aren’t clogging up the left lane doing it. What drives me nuts is the people who don’t slow down at all during a rain or snow storm (and it doesn’t take a lot of rain to make it slippery–the very onset of rain when the dust on the road and rain mix can make for deceivingly slick conditions) and don’t alter the distance between vehicles. Or, worse, you slow down because of the fresh snow, leave a good few car lengths (I maintain about a 3-4 second “rule” in adverse conditions) between yourself and the vehicle in front of you, and jackasses left and right cut into your lane just a few feet in front of you.
Yes! As a motorcyclist I detest trying to pass a tractor trailer only to be stuck behind someone in the left lane who obviously has their cruise set and takes miles to overtake the truck. Any idea how much buffeting a truck causes? Worse, ever see a truck tire blow out at highway speed? When I’m on the highway, I never stay behind or beside a large truck if I can help it. So please, just speed up for the 3 seconds it’ll take to pass.
If there’s no room to come over safely, it IS a request. You change lanes when you can do so safely, and forcing other people to brake so you can get in front of them instead of behind them is not a right.
When you slowly decelerate and pull over to the right, eventually coming to a full stop, all the while using your left turn signal, you’re confusing the rest of us.
The rule is you may make a right turn on red if you can do it safely. I can’t do it safely at this intersection so you can feel free to blow both your horn and me.
A turn only lane is so that people who want to turn can slow down and make their turn without impeding traffic.
It is not a passing lane!
This should be manditorily written on the steering wheel of every single automobile.