Driving habits of rural folk

[Industrial Toys]

I totalled a girls Cutlas with my 94 Dakota. I was on a roll with lights that night, second last stop light before my destination, wet road, I was sure she was going through the yellow and I was going to follow, on a roll, but stopped.

Female cop liked me, and said how things went depended on what I told her. Could be dangerous driving or follow too close. I got the following too close. Felt bad for the girl driver and called her family that night. She was thankfully OK.

 

[Ken]

I totalled a girls Cutlas with my 94 Dakota. I was on a roll with lights that night, second last stop light before my destination, wet road, I was sure she was going through the yellow and I was going to follow, on a roll, but stopped.

Female cop liked me, and said how things went depended on what I told her. Could be dangerous driving or follow too close. I got the following too close. Felt bad for the girl driver and called her family that night. She was thankfully OK.

Driving through Victoria , Texas. and had stopped at a red light. When the light turned green was immediately hit from behind hard enough the bumpers locked over my rear bumper. Police arrived and we separated the vehicles. . Then the officer told me he knew the lady driving the car that hit mine .she worked for a laundry .and large family, no insurance, and borrowed a car with weak breaks. no rubber on the tires. the list was long. but boiled down if you can repair your car there will be no ticket for causing an accident. Told office that mashed in trunk damaged tail lights will be glad to travel on and remember the city,
so far have never returned to check if improved.
ken

 

[daugen]

and we aren't getting any smarter either....
NHTSA Confirms What We Already Know, People Drive Like Idiots

yellow lights are always a question. Some areas have 3 second yellows, usually considered the shortest possible allowable time. Other areas are up to 5 or 6 seconds.
But if you don't know, better to stop if you can. I see yellow lights as stop if you can do it safely and I sure wouldn't if someone is tailgating me into the intersection.
Always thought our brains were like computers in intersections, processing, processing, taking in all factors; learned that when driving a big truck that simply would not stop fast enough so really had to look and think "ahead". Today's red light cameras make running yellows a risky and expensive proposition.

I love cruise control, like adaptive cruise but honestly some of the latest safety gizmos are seriously bad news. I have 2018 Audi with every conceivable driving "aide" and one was so dangerous I had to have the dealership turn if off. Going down I-95 doing 70mph on adaptive cruise, in heavy but spaced traffic, middle lane, when all of a sudden my car comes out of CC, felt like it slammed on brakes, horns all around me, guy behind me swerving around, and what was it? Artificial intelligence saying the speed limit was dropping 10mph a quarter mile ahead and that caused car to take control of my driving and almost kill me. Something called Audi Assistant. Well that assistant got dis-invited quickly, but this is becoming standard on German cars and I'm sure others too.
Some of these driving aides assume the lowest common denominator in driver attention, and maybe there is some benefit there, but hitting the brakes hard in the middle of four lanes of high speed traffic is just stupid and dangerous.

Have also found lane centering to work surprisingly well, but reminded me of autopilot on my boat, gave a very artificial feel and resistance to manual steering. Most of the time I turn it off and the car handles better. But if I'm tired and have been driving for many hours, I'll put it on, just in case I nod off.

so many comments here reinforce that as we get older, we simply slow down. Not racing to get to an appointment on time is a big part of it. I always try to get to places fifteen minutes early so if traffic is a problem I have buffer time and less worries.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I know a gal who uses cc so her speed does not drop below her set limit.

 

[3Ts]

As for automatic braking: Going down the freeway with traffic and a plastic bag blows across the road. The car applied the brakes thinking it was a car that pulled out in front of me. Fortunately no one behind me.

 

[3Ts]

Both 225 and 227 are largely imagination. Modern CC does not act that way. As for going down hills and having to hit the brake. You have to do that wihtout CC also and there is no need to 'recalibrate' the CC, just puch ="resume"

I grew up learning to drive on 3 and 4 speed crash box vehicles (36 Plymount)_ and 34 Chev tone and half truck. I won't even look at a verhicle that does not have CC.

Up hills CC will maintain speed with out loosing more that 1 mph when it shifts and on todays highways thare are not very many that require a downsift and than only from 6th to 5th or so. Downhill CC will kick out if you touch the brakes, hit resume at the bottomand you are ack at your desired speed. As for varying speed in traffic? You have the same probvlem CC or not.

There is no valid reason for not using CC except dense traffic or bad weather conditions.

I cordially invite you to come out here and drive my car around the hills in my area so you can determine if it's my imagination. I'm having a hard time understanding how someone sitting in a chair in front of a computer halfway across the country can determine that my personal experiences are only my imagination.

 

[MossRoad]

Around here, we often use the center turn lane that services both directions as a merge lane. That can be pretty much be your only option certain times of the day unless you want to back up a bunch of folk that think you are an idiot. On legality... no clue.

Many times I've pulled into the center turn lane to turn left into a business only to be confronted by an accelerating car coming right at me. I have the right of way. They don't. Then they have to either slam on their brakes, or hit me, or pull to their right and hit the traffic they were trying to beat, or pull to their left to hit oncoming traffic.

The safe option if traffic is too heavy is to turn right out of the business, then go around the block to get back to the way you wanted to go. But no one will do that, because it might take an additional 2 minutes out of their busy day, so they risk other people's well being VS doing the right thing.

 

[MossRoad]

Not the grandpa in me, I stop on a yellow unless I am already in the intersection.

That's the way it's supposed to work. Yellow means stop if you can safely. Otherwise, clear the intersection at normal speed. General rule of thumb is if you will have to brake hard to make the stop on yellow, you should probably continue and clear the intersection. If you can brake normally, then stop.

 

[Sigarms]

That's the way it's supposed to work. Yellow means stop if you can safely. Otherwise, clear the intersection at normal speed. General rule of thumb is if you will have to brake hard to make the stop on yellow, you should probably continue and clear the intersection. If you can brake normally, then stop.

Might add that if someone is front of you going through a yellow, you might as well start to break at that moment in time and wait your turn. Generally speaking, you shouldn't be tailgating anyway, and if you're giving the car in front of you enough space, for the amount of time it takes for yellow to turn to red, you most likely aren't going to make it anyways

Got to love the yahoo's who follow another car through a yellow and are generally at Red when they're under the light (which means cross traffic has the right away).

 

[Industrial Toys]

ALL life experience is just your imagination. Well, maybe also collective imagination or illusion.

Running yellow lights becomes a really bad habbit, so best just get into the habit of trying to stop.

I get more ticked at people making a left and not proceeding into the intersection to give at least one other person a chance to get through in that cycle.