Hey look - a reversing vehicle - let's run behind it!

[Cat_Whisperer]

@brad_d

Thanks. I guess we have those here, too, but I’ve never heard them called that. There’s a strip of grass about 4 feet wide between the sidewalk and the street in front of our house.

Actually, I’m not sure what I’d call it out here in a conversation. “The strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street,” probably, if I wanted to be understood.

We call that the boulevard here.

[E-Sabbath]

@brad_d

Actually, I’m not sure what I’d call it out here in a conversation. “The strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street,” probably, if I wanted to be understood.

The verge.

[Marlitharn]

@tdn

I wouldn’t know about driving schools. I learned from my dad.

He didn’t teach me the parking brake trick. He just taught me to go from the brake to the gas as fast as possible. This inevitably causes some rollback, but with skill it’s never more than a couple of inches.

I was taught to find the “sweet spot” in the clutch where you could take your foot off the brake and the gears would hold the car stationary without stalling out. This may be easier to do in older cars, I’m not sure; I’ve never driven a stick newer than a 92.

Regarding the OP, I’m glad it wasn’t more serious. As a mother of two and aunt of a few more, one thing I learned early on: The little ankle-biters can teleport. I never ran one over in my car but I did turn around too quickly one day with a basket of laundry and knock my toddling son, who I would have sworn was in the living room just a second ago, halfway across the kitchen.

[Neverender]

@Marlitharn

I was taught to find the “sweet spot” in the clutch where you could take your foot off the brake and the gears would hold the car stationary without stalling out. This may be easier to do in older cars, I’m not sure; I’ve never driven a stick newer than a 92.

Well it’s a piece of piss to do in a 2004 Clio, so no. Finding the ‘bite’ of the clutch is a big part of learning to drive in the UK, but then again I suppose with manuals being the default transmission type here, it’s something you’d need to learn anyway.

[Skywatcher]

@eleanorigby

Lute–but they weren’t in the street.

Right; if they were in the street, they’d likely be doing something stupid there as well.

[Folacin]

@Surly_Chick

As for scary kids stories - my mom stopped at an intersection and a kid riding a bike on the sidewalk that crossed the intersection slammed right into her and flew over the hood of the car. My mom was completely stopped at the time. I guess the kid wasn’t paying attention. She was pretty freaked out but so was the kid - he jumped up, grabbed his bike and ran off.

When I was about 12 or so, I totally zoned out riding my bike, and ran into a parked car. Riding along one minute, the next I’m on the roof of a car.

No one was around, so no one knew. Except that my mom asked me why my nose was green when I got home (old car, no wax - I thought it was black, actually). That was an embarassing admission.

Joe

[pullin]

I drive this on weekends. I recently started pulling away from some gas pumps and discovered an adult crouched down, scurrying between the truck and the first trailer (under the overhang). He didn’t want to walk all the way around my rig to enter the building. I can’t count the number of people who try to hop between the first and second trailers.

Now my process is to:
Put in Gear.
Rev motor.
Move 1 inch.
Wait to see if any morons to scramble out of the way.
Then drive away.

This annoys me, but there are too many lawyers willing to punish me for proving Mr. Darwin’s theories.