IIRC, they postulated that people have a tendency to speed while driving in fog because they loose the sight of objects in their peripheral vision, which under normal conditions gives them feedback regarding how fast they are traveling.
Am I the only one who drives the speed limit?
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idleprocess
Flashaholic
I cannot find the link, but I recall an article about aerial drone navigation and how state-of-the-art algorithms combine the task into two distinct roles: flying the drone manages the second-to-second movement and is responsible for maintaining safety while navigating the drone provides macro coarse input to the flying function which manages the micro details. When reading that article it occurred to me that's roughly analogous how driving works for me: the subconscious mind manages most of the little details - including hazard avoidance - while the conscious mind decides where to go and occasionally exerts full control of the experience.
This delegation of tasks was really made apparent to me more than a decade ago. I was driving to the folks' house at night along a largely deserted rural highway. I do not recall the exact specifics but I was futzing around with the radio and it wasn't cooperating. After about a minute of doing this I get the sense that something is wrong and look back up at the road to realize 1) I am behind another vehicle I wasn't consciously aware of, and 2) I have dropped speed by more than 10 MPH and am following at a consistent distance. Decided that maybe securing the radio's cooperation wasn't all that important.
Driving in horribly adverse conditions.... At nearly 15 years old, my car can easily handle it. I take good care of her and honestly, her Odometer is significantly under what most folks would expect from a 15 year-old daily driver. But yeah, I'm not up to it. Got that confirmation just late last night. You'd think the expressway would be clear of cars late on New Year's Eve. Nope! Also, hate the rain and the glare off the pavement it causes, at night.
¨You're three times more likely to have a fatal accident at night than in the daytime.¨
www.caranddriver.com
Decide to clean your windshield, make sure headlights are aimed properly, restore or replace hazy headlight surfaces, right?
Dos and Don'ts for Safe Night Driving
Follow these tips and you'll stress less and be safer during your nighttime trips.
www.caranddriver.com
Decide to clean your windshield, make sure headlights are aimed properly, restore or replace hazy headlight surfaces, right?
I avoided the interstate for my first few years driving. All those cars and trucks flying past used to scare me as a passenger so I figured as a driver I'd panic. But life changed paths and the interstate became a daily thing. Often several hours at a time. I just got used to it. Never have learned to like it, mind you.
One place I used to drive was a main road between cities out in the middle of nowhere. That one was scarey because of all those gigantic suicidal white tail deer at night. But I learned to look for eyeballs in the nearby woods. There were a number of near misses.
One year driving down a main road I was swapping cd's in the in dash player without looking when out of the corner of my eye I saw the screen had a message saying "avoid changing discs while driving". It led me to look at the screen to see what it was saying. I took the time to read the stupid message and almost ended up in a ditch. It was ironic that the so-called safety warning was the distraction that nearly caused me to crash. 👎. Ah, another better idea by Ford.
When I first got that Ford truck sometimes it would start talking. "Do you wish to make a phone call?" Or "please enter a command". All of those buttons on the steering wheel were foreign to me so if I bumped one while steering I had no idea it was the reason the truck would start talking. Eventually I learned how to turn off everything but the cruise control and radio controls. So when I bought my wife a newer car and when we got home I explained all of the gadgets and doo-dads it had and commenced to turning off features she didnt want like "steering assist" and "phone calls". Nothing like driving down the road signing the song out loud Mr Bojangles and your car starts calling the local Bojangles chicken place....
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Singing Mr. Bojangles out loud?! How can you drive with all those tears in yer eyes? 
Yeah if that deer doesn´t get you, the next one right behind just might, or the next. Watch out for more than one, right?
Right. Sometimes a half dozen.
What I noticed in most cases though was ones with no horns were in skee-daddle mode making a straight path from point A to B in a big hurry. The ones with horns would just meander out onto the pavement like they were digging on a Barry White song, sometimes pausing like Pepi-Le-Pue as if to say "my darling, why do you flee my advances" "I just want to share my love"....lol
It was not unusual to see a big buck laying on the side of the road with car parts nearby.
What I noticed in most cases though was ones with no horns were in skee-daddle mode making a straight path from point A to B in a big hurry. The ones with horns would just meander out onto the pavement like they were digging on a Barry White song, sometimes pausing like Pepi-Le-Pue as if to say "my darling, why do you flee my advances" "I just want to share my love"....lol
It was not unusual to see a big buck laying on the side of the road with car parts nearby.
idleprocess
Flashaholic
Folks live out in the country - not terribly far off the interstate but the road to their house is just significant enough to the county to be paved. Naturally it's a twisting road through undulating wooded terrain and has very nearly motivated me to install stealth lightbars on my vehicles.
The closest I've come to a wreck in recent memory I was approaching their house shortly post-nightfall when I saw a deer run across the road ahead of me with two fawns left to right. They were a good ~dozen car lengths ahead of me and I would not have struck them at current ~40MPH speed but I slowed anyway and they crossed without issue. As I get within ~6 car lengths one of the fawns starts to turn back. I don't have the margin to stop but smash the brakes anyway to near full depression ... and mercifully it decides original plan was best plan and about completes returning to its original heading right as it disappears from view behind the hood/passenger door sightline. The moment passes without a dreadful thump and a glance at the mirrors suggests there are no ungulates in the road nor thrashing about on the shoulder and I make it to the folks' house without incident.
Last week I observed Wie E. Coyote's cousin at the head of our driveway. He looked both ways before crossing the street. I named him Wary Coyote.
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Apparently yes!
Seen way too many obnoxious drivers going way too fast, jump into the right lane. Car in front of them doing the limit. Obnoxious driver quickly flashes his high beams at the car in front. We all know what that means. But you're not supposed to do that in the right lane! And in NYC, Oh! Great way to get brake-checked. Or, driver in front starts slowly slowing down to a more leisure pace. You don't flash your brights at a car in front, in the right lane, to get out of your way because you want to use that lane as your personal drag strip.
EDIT: Typo.
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Probably about a year ago, maybe a little longer I was in a 65mph zone going about 64 when I came up on a vehicle going about 62. Now it was a fairly busy time of day and I wanted to go around the guy. I cranked it up to about 70 and commenced to passing the when this bloke comes flying up behind me flashing the headlights. I continued going 70 and had passed the slower vehicle. Actually I was expecting the guy in a hurry to dart to my right and pass me. He didn't. I could see this guy in the vehicle with bitter beer face all hollering-like and flipping me the bird.
Well, at that point he had set the tone. He refused to pass me on the right and was right up on my bumper. I turned on my right turn signal to say "I'm going to move over for ya" when he starts to dash to my right. Ok, so it's like that huh?" I started moving right just like my signal had indicated but when I saw he was moving right, stopped and went back left. Well so did the mad guy.
"Oh so now it's stupid games, aye? Watch this bucko" and began to slow down some. As he went left I went left, as he went left I went left. It went on for like 3 miles. I played "last lap at Daytona block the guy behind me as we were passing cars or coming up on cars. I gave the guy a bunch of chances to pass me but he chose to be a moron. Eventually I reached my exit and turned off the interstate going about 60mph. Dude's all honking his horn, banging on his steering wheel as he went by.
Well, at that point he had set the tone. He refused to pass me on the right and was right up on my bumper. I turned on my right turn signal to say "I'm going to move over for ya" when he starts to dash to my right. Ok, so it's like that huh?" I started moving right just like my signal had indicated but when I saw he was moving right, stopped and went back left. Well so did the mad guy.
"Oh so now it's stupid games, aye? Watch this bucko" and began to slow down some. As he went left I went left, as he went left I went left. It went on for like 3 miles. I played "last lap at Daytona block the guy behind me as we were passing cars or coming up on cars. I gave the guy a bunch of chances to pass me but he chose to be a moron. Eventually I reached my exit and turned off the interstate going about 60mph. Dude's all honking his horn, banging on his steering wheel as he went by.
idleprocess
Flashaholic
Some highway driving archetypes I've encountered:
- Left Lane Cruiser : Always drives in the left lane - usually around the speed limit. Will only yield the lane under duress. Mystified that they're routinely passed on the right.
- +0.1%'ers : Overtake average traffic at about 1 foot per second and no faster treating the speed limit (or whatever their cruise control is set at) like an aircraft's Vne. Their 1-2 minutes' to overtake OTR trucks results in significant stackups. Almost righteous when they're passed on the right. Drivers practicing more conventional accelerate to overtake maneuvers will routinely find themselves almost passed by these types again and again only to close on another slower vehicle at which point they boost past them for another 2, 5, 15 minutes. Will generally return to the right lane after passing, however there's overlap with the Left Lane Cruiser.
- You Ain't Gonna Pass Me! : Toodle along at the speed limit or lower until a pass is attempted at which point they randomly accelerate. Maybe they play stupid games ala bykfixer's encounter, maybe they give up after the gap has widened to more than 3-5 car lengths. Maybe you pass them then five, ten minutes later they're passing you ... at which point they may decide to up their cruising speed and recede into the distance or maybe they soon slow down and it's all wash rinse repeat.
Here's another one....
Bumper Passers : Before they can possibly pass into a different lame, they simply MUST ride up to the bumper of the car in front of them. Staying there for several seconds, before even attempting to pass on either the left or the right.
Bumper Passers : Before they can possibly pass into a different lame, they simply MUST ride up to the bumper of the car in front of them. Staying there for several seconds, before even attempting to pass on either the left or the right.
rwolfenstein
Enlightened
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2017
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- 552
Well I have noticed lately since the whole defund the police movement (don't care how people feel about bad policy, public safety is more important than feelings), there are way more high number speeders. I also see memos from the state police on how they picked up people doing well over triple digits and they cant seem to make an impact. Unfortunately universal, consistent and fair enforcement is the only way to get it to stop.
rwolf, in my state they can't fill the vacant slots of statees so many 'districts' have 2 patrol personnel for the entire district. But that began over a decade ago. The local district police departments offer cash bonuses to steal good cops away from the state police as well.
I work with statees on highway projects and they're mostly dedicated to their role and fair in their decisions. But we do on occasion have a self-professed dudley do-right who thinks the badge gives them unlimited authority and that the travelling public are mear scum who deserve a beat down on a regular basis.
Sometimes we do a rolling road block with blue lights in the middle lane and orange lights on each side. Hanging a steel girder across the highway for example, it is best that traffic is not flowing under that. When traffic is released we pull over on the shoulder and discuss the next round or not as a wall of cars go flying past. Most statees call ahead and tell the next officer down stream bolo a silver mustang or that sort of thing. Sometimes the call back is "well I didn't see a silver mustang but this one red nissan went past going 124mph so thanks for the heads up".
One project we did one of them and the super speeder that got caught was a super star college football player destined to turn pro who had a trunk full of drugs, cash and firearms. He never did make it to pro football.
I work with statees on highway projects and they're mostly dedicated to their role and fair in their decisions. But we do on occasion have a self-professed dudley do-right who thinks the badge gives them unlimited authority and that the travelling public are mear scum who deserve a beat down on a regular basis.
Sometimes we do a rolling road block with blue lights in the middle lane and orange lights on each side. Hanging a steel girder across the highway for example, it is best that traffic is not flowing under that. When traffic is released we pull over on the shoulder and discuss the next round or not as a wall of cars go flying past. Most statees call ahead and tell the next officer down stream bolo a silver mustang or that sort of thing. Sometimes the call back is "well I didn't see a silver mustang but this one red nissan went past going 124mph so thanks for the heads up".
One project we did one of them and the super speeder that got caught was a super star college football player destined to turn pro who had a trunk full of drugs, cash and firearms. He never did make it to pro football.
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knucklegary
Flashlight Enthusiast
You! That was YOU in front of me!!
Heck, one year while travelling out of state for my job I was approaching a right lane closure and I was in the center lane going past a guy. He sped up as if to race me to the electronic arrow like some game of chicken. Suddenly he honks his horn. I look over and dude's pointing a pistol my direction..... yeah he won. lol
