Along with my other thread about why people are driving slow, I have noticed that they have been taking off incredibly slowly at lights. Is this also “because of gas?”
So there’s 10 cars sitting at a left-turn red-arrow. It turns green. The first cars in line barely accelerate at all, and by the time the light is turning yellow, only 3 cars have entered the intersection. By the time it turns red, there’s 2 more cars illegally driving through the intersection at a MUCH higher rate than the first cars.
I figure it has to do with the fact that the first 3 or 4 cars in line know they are going to make the light, and don’t give a damn about the people in line behind them. They’re so self-centered that they only pay attention to how their actions affect them, as opposed to other people.
I wait two-mississippis before taking off at green lights because I’m never sure when some idiot is going to run the other, now red light. Also because I prefer to keep 2 seconds transit time between me and the car in front of me. It’s part of my whole policy of trying to die of diabetes-related complications rather than in a mangled mass of flaming metal. Or a fiery heap of twisted metal. The point is to keep the words mangled, mass, flaming, metal, and twisted out of obituary.
This causes me very little inconvenience. You see, if I know I must be someplace at 8 o’clock, and expect the commute to take 15 minutes, I leave at 7:30. It’s called “planning.” Learned it in Boy Scouts.
Planning is PART of being prepared. Being prepared basically comes down to (a)giving thought to the feature, (b) gathering resources to handle the worst eventualities, (c) making a plan to use those resources, and (d) making peace with the fact that nobody is every adequately prepared no much how well they do (a), (b), & (c).
It’s not so much being a hurry as hating wasting time.
It’s a 12 mile drive (10 miles of which is freeway driving), and I was constantly making this drive (to work and back) in 17-20 minutes. Sometimes in 15 minutes when traffic is moving along at 75 at 5:45am. But in the last 6 months, the drive has been taking me 30-35 minutes.
It’s not because there’s more cars on the road, it’s literally because people are taking off very, very slow, and reaching very low speeds. Slow enough to make whole blocks of cars miss lights, and leave behind a ton of people at lights.
I’m not talking about racing out of the light like you are at the track - I’m referring to taking off at a comfortable speed.
Instead of waiting two seconds, what I do is look both ways two times each to make sure that cars are stopping/stopped before I decide to drive out. Sometimes this means I’m waiting 4 or 5 or 6 seconds, sometimes it means I’m letting go of the brake as the light turns green. (That’s another thing that gets me - people continuing to go after their light has turned red, sometimes 2 or 3 more cars!)
So I used to leave 25 minutes before work starts, and get there 5-10 minutes early. Now I leave 35 or 40 minutes before work starts, and am usually there on time. It’s not about rushing, it’s just about wasting time and gas - when my car is running for an extra 10 or 15 minutes, I’m sure it’s using a lot more gas.
Could I save a couple MPG by going 65 instead of 75? Sure. But I could save a couple more MPG by going 45 instead of 30, and also spend less total time with the engine running, and less time taking up space on the road.
The two second thing isn’t simply about making sure you don’t get hit by a red-light runner. It’s about keeping your distance from the car in front of you. No matter my speed, I try to always be two seconds (minimum) behind the car in front of me to avoid rear-ending them.
As I wrote in the other thread, perhaps you should look at your own driving practices. And, you know, allow more time to get to your destination.
You’re not, you know, getting the point of what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about wasting 20 or 30 minutes of my life every day now that I didn’t have to before because other people have changed their driving habits in ways that I do not believe are more fuel efficient or safer.
It’s been stated in these two threads that it’s not more fuel efficient to drive at 30mph instead of 45mph, and now I’m asking - do people feel that it’s safer to drive 30mph in a 45mph zone than it is to drive 45mph in a 45mph zone?
This thread wasn’t to ask you for criticism on my driving, it was to ask why people do the things they do.
I suggest you look. My wife got hit by a red light runner, and she wasn’t even the first car through the intersection. You can’t overestimate the stupidity of some drivers.
I haven’t seen people dawdle more recently. However, while I’m fine with leaving distance, I’m not fine with people turning left on a left arrow dawdling through the turn which reduces the number of cars that can make the turn and leads to congestion. They should get through the intersection and down the street, and then leave more space if they feel it necessary. No one should be turning left fast enough to not be able to stop in time if someone in front decides to slam on the brakes for no reason.
Oh, I DO look. I have to do SOMETHING during those 2 seconds, and there’s a federal court order forbidding me from singing in public anymore. Apparently the Canadians were threatening war or something.
This may not apply to where you live, but here in Minnesota, for about a third of the year, as you approach a yellow light, and you’ve misjudged the timing of it, you’ve got a choice: you can coast through the red light, or slide through it sideways. If you’re sitting at a red light, and it turns green, you’ve got a choice: you can hit the gas and maybe get broadsided by somebody mentioned above, or you can wait to see if everybody else is done using the intersection before heading out into it.
As Gallagher once put it, “If you’re in that much of a hurry to get somewhere, leave home sooner.”
We never get ice here in San Fernando Valley If we did, then I would certainly wait longer before leaving where I’m at.
The more I think about it, the more I think that some of these people are just “used” to hitting every red. Therefore, since they “know” they’re going to hit the next red, there’s no reason to drive faster than 30. They probably “guess” that if they drove 45, they would hit the red anyhow, and have to sit there longer.
About one day a week, I’ll hit a lucky streak and slide through all of the lights between here and the freeway at 45-50mph, and won’t hit a single red, they’ll all be green. It’s like 2-3 minutes to get to the freeway. But when I hit even half the lights, it can take over 10 minutes, sometimes close to 15 to get there.
I don’t get why I should have to leave earlier because other people like stopping at every red light. I do leave earlier, and I’m not late to work, I just think it sucks that I have to leave earlier … because other people drive 30 in a 45, and 50 on a 65.
I don’t have a problem with people not taking off like jackrabbits at most lights, but when you’re sitting at the front of the line on an advance green, MOVE YOUR GODDAMNED ASS! You can sit and listen to the sound of the ocean between your ears at the other lights; pay attention at the ones where we are trying to move a maximum amount of people through a dangerous situation as fast as possible.
And another thing; if you leave a proper stopping distance between cars, the entire line can start moving when the light changes to green. We don’t have to wait for each car to move, then the next can start, and then the next. We’re not a train; we’re not pulling the car after us forward. Again, I suppose that would involve people actually paying attention to their driving, though.
Maybe they are all elderly people who are afraid of the “jack-rabbit” start. My elderly mother criticizes me every darn Sunday for having a lead foot and making said starts…but I don’t. I accelerate at a normal rate…it’s just faster than her creeping along, barely touching the gas pedal because she read in Modern Maturity magazine that quick starts waste gas. I tell her that normal starts like I make save lives, because no one is going to plow into me like they would into her, sitting there barely moving in the middle of the street…
We have told her she’s not allowed to drive anymore…
I hear you Sean, my blood pressure was going up just reading the thread.
If you’re at traffic light your mission is to wait for it to turn green and GO! Not pick your nose, not wait around to see if any one else shows up, not take your foot off the brake and coast while adjusting the stereo, just GO!
I just sat at this light for 6 minutes and I don’t want to sit for another 6 minutes because Mr. Prepared doesn’t have anything pressing going on in his life. Why can’t they leave a little later and get their ass in gear so everyone can get where they need to go in a timely fashion. Or even leave earlier and pull the hell over when you realise you might be first at the light. I gotta piss!
And I hope to God this is no reflection on Biden but you have never seen lights as poorly timed as the ones in Delaware.
Nothing gets me more than the people who are pacing school busses and trucks while taking off from a light. I don’t care about the amount of time it takes to get started when the light goes green, I’m talking about after that and during acceleration through the light. If a heavy vehicle is keeping even with, or passing you, you are the problem.
Uh, maybe you could look 2 seconds BEFORE your light turns green and then go when the light actually changes. Personally, I’m watching to see when the through traffic’s light turns yellow at which point I start to look for potential red light runners. They are the ones not slowing down for the yellow light. But, I know it might be too much to ask people to understand that the act of driving also constitutes the time when a person is stopped at a light, as opposed to considering it a break time spent fiddling with makeup, the radio, masturbating (mentally or otherwise), etc.
My longtime beef is with peoples lack of merging. Here is a clue. World Peace begins with merging. If you leave two car lengths between you and the car in front of you, the people in the next lane do NOT have to come to a screetching halt and force their way into the lane, making you slam on your brakes and the brake snake continue for 5 miles.
I am on highways/expressways most of my way to work, it is 20 miles that takes 40 minutes because people will not allow others to merge.
Try it, it works. You’ll save your brakes, make someone else’s day brighter because they don’t have to get all limbic just to get to work, makes them nicer to you when you deal with them, which makes you nicer to deal with and they told two friends, and they told two friends.
MERGE MOTHER F***ERS!
As far as green lighters. We now have walk signals that count down how much time is left. The idiot next to me revving his engine, creeping forward? Yeah, buddy, you got 43 seconds before the light changes, relax. It is also not necessary to come to a complete halt before taking a turn. Drive like you are behind you. It makes a happier day.
If we did, then I would certainly wait longer before leaving where I’m at.