- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Alt text:
This PSA brought to you by several would-be assassins who tried to wave me in front of speeding cars in the last month and who will have to try harder next time.
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wave of death
As a pedestrian I had to turn my back to make a guy stop trying to “help” me get in a fatal accident. He was bound and determined to get me killed… By being a “nice guy”
I’ve had pedestrians try to wave me to turn. It is as if they think are the only people on the road I have to consider. One got outright angry at me for not taking his gift with gratitude…there he was yelling at me, nearly being mowed down by a truck coming from an oncoming lane at a 3 way stop. And it still didn’t register to him the danger it would have been to himself and to me and the oncoming truck.
I like the idea of calling them would-be assassins even though assumes the general public are a whole lot smarter than they actually are.
Rhode Island in shambles
I see this and worse daily here and I rarely drive.
I’ve seen this exact scenario but the “polite” person is in a normal lane, not a turning lane. I hate drivers here.
This happens to me every other day. Ffs please don’t be polite, just drive by the rules. I hate it when cars stop in the middle of the road and you have to wait for them to start driving again because you often can’t know i f they are being polite of if they are just adjusting google maps and continue to drive.
I especially hate when you’re waiting to cross and people slow down to a stop and then wave you across, but there was no-one behind them.
You could have just carried on at the same speed and we’d both have got on with our day sooner.
I face away or even walk away from crosswalks as needed. Entirely abates intentions to give pedestrians the right of way when there’s apparently no intention to cross in the first place.
Go so far as to time my approaches to intersections accordingly. Can’t say the strategy has ever failed - even the Mother Teresa of driving isn’t going to wave somebody who pretty much isn’t there. (YMMV, somewhat density & volume dependent.)
Sometimes though I am waiting to cross and then the last car in the train slows down, like noooo
This is every day of my life and I’m like “no, fucker, there’s a space behind you just GO”
The very first time I drove a car on my own this happened (i.e. I was waiting to make the “left” turn) and I went and nearly hit another car lol
This road design seems also be done by someone completely insane. Who thought it was a good idea to cross two lanes without any kind of traffic regulations.
Luckily no every country has insane roads like that.
When driving: Don’t be nice, be predictable.
You can be nice, just make sure you think about what you’re actually doing before doing it.
Letting a car go in front in the situation above: you’re probably causing an accident.
Letting a car go in heavy traffic when there’s one lane each way and everyone’s stopped already anyway: won’t cost you much time and you’ve allowed that person to move on with their life instead of being permanently stuck at an intersection he’s never going to be able to get out of unless someone yields.
I live close to a few intersections where if no one is nice and yields, it’s impossible to join unless you barge your way in and hope people stop. But to be fair, these aren’t designed like death traps like the one above.
I was gonna lose my mind reading some of these comments. Thank you for being sensible.
The majority of cases where one could politely let someone through are not going to be on highways like this.
It’s also ridiculous to assume that the driver that you’re letting through would just stop checking for oncoming traffic because you waved them through.
you dont have two lane roads in your town? i sure do and this is a real issue. the driver pulling into traffic cannot see the car coming along at higher speed.
Driving is one of those things where we’re supposed to be human - make choices, act sensibly, think about what we’re doing and adapt to others around us. But often people assume it’s something entirely deterministic - “if the light is green I’m going to launch forward even if there’s still traffic moving past me and I’m going to get hit or hit someone, because green means I HAVE to go”.
Being polite to others, asides from the nicety of it, is often more positive to everyone on the road than going “I have the right of way so I won’t let anyone in” and allows traffic as a whole to move with less issues. But some people go way too hard on the mentality that every road user other than them is stupid and stop acting like humans because they assume others won’t be able to cope. Which usually complicates traffic for everyone.
There’s a roundabout in my daily commute in which at the end of the afternoon 80% of drivers are coming from and going to the same direction and there’s usually heavy traffic in that specific direction that blocks the roundabout. Often, drivers who are approaching the roundabout to go to a different direction will signal their intention, and users already inside the roundabout will give way - even if they technically have the right of way and don’t have to - because those users aren’t going their direction and will only increase the number of cars stuck if they’re not allowed through. Roundabout users being polite effectively makes traffic as a whole go more smoothly and everyone benefits. Sometimes someone inside the roundabout will be an ass and not let people through - and the result is always that everyone is stuck for more time because there are now cars inside the roundabout which could’ve already vacated it which are stuck behind someone who could easily let them through.
It’s also ridiculous to assume that the driver that you’re letting through would just stop checking for oncoming traffic
That’s why the asshole future assassin creates an entire wall of cars stopped behind him, making it impossible for you to see if any car is coming on the other lane.
And also stays there, for as long as needed, stopping the flow on two different directions, putting the social pressure on you to follow along.
you dont have two lane roads in your town? i sure do and this is a real issue. the driver pulling into traffic cannot see the car coming along at higher speed.
Letting a car go in front in the situation above: you’re probably causing an accident.
I disagree. In this situation, you are letting the left turning car move to the middle lane of this five lane road. From there, they can make a better decision of when to go. You aren’t causing an accident by letting them go TO THE MIDDLE LANE. From that point on, it is their ability to merge that may cause an accident. But they are supposed to stop in the middle lane and check that they can merge BEFORE they merge.
There is no middle lane here wtf are you talking about
Edit: Woof, sorry my phone mangled my comment into a hot mess. Fixed it and re-commented here.
You are supposed to be in the middle near that rounded portion just above the time-traveling assassin.
These…
Turning Left on a Straightaway: Most main roads have median lanes into which you can move your vehicle if you need to turn left off of a straightaway. Move into the median, and yield the right of way to the oncoming traffic. Once there is an opening, you can complete your turn.
Turning Left onto a Straightaway with a vehicle in the median: Every once in a while, you’ll be trying to turn onto a straight away, and you’ll find someone already in the median—right where you need to be! The rule is that the vehicle in the media has the right of way. The idea is that they are in the most vulnerable position because they are literally stopped in the middle of the road. Let them complete their turn before you move to the median.
… from this.
That is not what that excerpt is talking about, that is talking about a road with a middle turn lane.
The road pictured here has a median which cannot be driven over, generally there’s a kerb and it’s usually just grass on top. The center part is not for stopping in, it is only for driving through. You should not proceed unless you have a clear view of traffic from where that car is sitting on the left. In some cases there will be a white line to stop there, and in that case that is okay, but that is not what is pictured here.
What are YOU talking about? The median can 100% be driven over (circled in red below), and the center part (again, circled in red) is entirely intended to stop in prior to merging.
The entire middle area is the median, which also contains protected left hand turns, a raised section, and what I assume is a painted median (maybe, maybe not, but again the circled portion). I am talking about stopping here, in the circled portion, prior to merging. You are supposed to stop there, assuming you aren’t towing or driving a longer-than-average vehicle, if you do not have visibility into the lane you are merging into.
The quoted text I have above specifically mentions a left hand turn onto a straightway WITH ANOTHER VEHICLE IN THE MEDIAN, so clearly they mean a median that allows driving through.
Edit: The predictable thing to do here, turning left with low visibility into the lane you are merging into due to obscuring traffic, is to yield to traffic coming from your left until you have: no traffic coming from the right, or someone from the right waves you through. You then stop in the middle, circled red portion until it is safe to complete your turn. You don’t just Hail Mary blindly drive from where you were initially stopped into the desired lane. That is how you cause an accident.
I think you are entirely missing the point of this comic and misunderstanding the rules of the pictured intersection. There’s a reason these were outlawed in my state (michigan). They are a dumb way to direct traffic, the “stopping room” you’ve circled is not meant for stopping in, or else there would be far more space there, likely an entire lane of room. I’m not suggesting making blind turns. You are not supposed to proceed without visibility or merging room, hence why the stopped line of cars in the middle lane have the right-of-way as they are blocking your view of that and possibly the traffic behind them, which the person at the front of the line has almost no way of knowing. You stop in the middle then you are still blocking them for as long as it takes to merge into traffic now that you’ve got yourself in this situation.
It just does not make sense to do it that way. If you can’t make the turn left then you turn right and find somewhere to turn around, which is how our roads are designed from the jump here in michigan.
Anyways, this is a really stupid argument and I’m really not interested in continuing it.
Just FYI, cars are longer than they are wide.
deleted by creator
think about what you’re actually doing before doing it.
That’s too much thinking for most people.
That goes for the driver that’s being waived through, too.
Yeah, this had fucking better be the top comment!
Not mutually exclusive
This is the way.
I’m a high school teacher and students and parents both pull this shit. Drives me nuts.
Do what is expected of you, not what is polite.
Rules of the road:
- Be predictable
- Nobody else is predictable
- Everyone is indifferent to your existence; you are merely a car to them
- Your phone wants to kill you - leave it alone
- The faster you go, the less of a difference 5mph makes - be safe, not fast
- FFS maintain your damn car
- Drive sober
- If you’re even remotely tired, you’re attention and reaction time is impacted more than you realize
really good point. Sleep on your friend’s couch, get a motel room, sleep in your car in a Walmart parking lot… Just don’t drive when you’re tired
Example warning!
This is from real life.
I hit the road late in the afternoon after working most of the day. It was a 14 hour drive. I had to be there as soon as I could. With my own car. Getting to my mom when Dad died.
I pushed myself so much that I got so tired that I kept missing the freeway exits. I was desperate to pull over and go to sleep but I was also so exhausted that I kept driving past the turn offs unintentionally. A nightmarish feeling being in that situation. I only managed to make it by going turtle slow and then turning off at the next exit, and once on a regular road I just pulled over on the shoulder and fell instantly asleep.
I was 31 and physically fit. The point is, assume you are more tired than you think you are. Take it easy on yourself. Be cautious. If I had hurt someone I couldn’t live with myself.
Been driving between Chicago to Houston in single shot trips the past few weeks while relocating. Only 25 and can still stay awake for a good 42 hours or so before I collapse, but mix in the hypnotic highway constantly running past/the car vibrations and it’s a different story.
So I always stop for coffee to make sure im mentally present before hoping on I45.
to expand on number 5, drive the flow speed! If traffic is moving at 55, yeah that sucks but you’re not going to make up more than a minute or so by speeding through them. And if traffic is doing 75, don’t do 55 unless you’re desperately low on gas. The savings from not maneuvering so much are huge. (Unless you’re driving EVs, they have constant power instead of gears and RPMs. Which is why they should be far more clearly marked.)
This goes especially for EVs. Wind resistance really chews up your power budget once you’re above 55mph or so. May as well run the heater with the windows down at that point.
is Randall on Lemmy?
This specific situation wouldn’t be an issue if it was left side driving.
The issue is stupid intersections like this, roundabouts or bridges and slip lanes are the way to do this.
I prefer the Mad Max style thunderdome intersection…
Mirror the comic and make the guy want to turn right and you have the exact same problem
That’s not the exact same problem, it’s mirrored and therefore technically different.
Hey man, I laughed
Technically correct, the best kind of correct
… and this right here ladies and gentlemen, are the kinds of people who you share the road with. Someone that was competent enough at a time to pass a multiple-answer test, but somehow still knows nothing, and will argue about their answer and flawed reasoning.
Just something to think about on the way to work. I was a first-responder to something like 7 collisions, from motorcycle riders getting cut off, to pregnant teenagers running red lights and almost losing the baby, to people getting rear-ended at highway speeds and trapped in their cars. Physics doesn’t give two shits about technicalities and what-ifs. Stay safe, everyone.
This specific situation
The original comment of mine and every one since has been a joke.
Take that stick out of your arse and stop letting it post walls of text.
Ever see a standup comedian try to repeat a joke when people didn’t laugh at it in the first place, and figured they just didn’t get it the first time?
If a whole lot of people are collectively deciding it’s not funny, stop trying to make it work.
If you have to explain the joke, it’s not funny.
Wait until you learn about turn right on red…
Nothing gets me closer to road rage than people waving me on when they have the right of way at a four way stop. Like yes thank you that’s very polite, but we both could’ve been through this intersection if you’d gone when you were supposed to.
I try to never use “the finger” when another driver is being an ass. In that case I always just give them a thumbs down and a sad face.
I save the middle finger for people who are being “nice”, especially when it is making things dangerous. I find it is the quickest way get them to just go.
I try to be coniderate while driving. Being predictable is safe. Deviating from the rules is dangerous. I think being safe more considerate than being “nice”.
I’ve never thought about giving drivers like this the finger, but I’m absolutely going to from now on.
It’s not being ‘nice’. It’s dangerous. That’s deserving of a middle finger.
And it gets them to stop doing it. There’s no “oh don’t worry I’m good” that they listen to.
The only two actual rules that apply to four way stops is everyone stops and the first person to start moving gets the right of way. All that crap about the first arrival or person to the right doesn’t get applied in real life. They’re noble ideas, but just fucking go if no one else is.
All that crap about the first arrival or person to the right doesn’t get applied in real life.
What the hell are you talking about? People obey the first to stop first pull out rule all the damn time.
Yes, but there are also a lot of times where they don’t in my personal experience. If there’s a question about who technically got there first - like two cars approach at roughly the same time - the rules aren’t always followed as written by other drivers.
Not in my experience. Of course, as long as people are actually stopping, someone already stopped has an advantage. But that’s a difference between East and West Coast US driving. In the East people come to a complete stop before moving again. In the West they’ll slow down a lot, nearly stop even. So there’s definitely regional characteristics. But the most common law is that of our childhood, possession is 9/10ths of the law.
First to stop is the safer option. I feel that most people around here follow that too.
It also has a rare benefit of seeing the interaction between a majority first-to-goers at a 4 way.
Growing up, there was a four-way stop near my house that one of my friends absolutely hated. It was a pretty busy intersection, and he hated that drivers didn’t seem to follow the rules that the person to the right goes first or whatever.
One time when I was driving, he was shocked like “what are you doing!? Its not your turn, you’re gonna cause an accident!” when I went. I was like “what are you talking about?” I had driven through that intersection hundreds of times and never really thought about it. When I payed attention to the way the intersection flowed, I figured out the unwritten understanding that I and everyone else approached it with. It was basically just “stop and wait for a car or two to go before proceeding”. There was no guaranteed order that I could come up with, it was just that everyone in the area seemed to understand.
Written rules are great if everyone is following the written rules. If you follow the written rules at that intersection you’ll be fine, but you’re likely to annoy someone for a moment. Nobody is going to be confused if you wait, just impatient.
I agree with you. More important than following rules is to pay attention and adapt as appropriate. If you’re the only one following the written rules, there’s a chance that you’re the one acting unpredictably.
Yeah the written rules seem logical. But they just don’t match with human behavior.
Yeah this comment should not be so far in the negatives. I much prefer calling someone a dickhead for going before their turn than screaming “YOU HAVE RIGHT OF WAY” at some dipshit who’s holding up traffic because they feel like being nice
Found the Cali driver
Nope, been all over the country. It’s always been that way.
In some towns, these yokels will stop in the middle of the street to wave you to jaywalk.
Like Jesus Christ, NOOO! Stop being polite!
That’s just a shitty road design
Very normal when small sidestreets are intersecting with larger roads.
45 mph multilane traffic, with unsignalized intersection of cross traffic? No, it’s a shitty design. Just because it’s normal where you live, doesn’t mean it’s a good design.
How to fix? Just a few examples…
- Signalize intersection
- Slow down thru traffic
- Roundabout
- Reduce thru lanes, increase turn lane offset
- Prevent left turns from side street
I came to this thread to complain about a road I know that’s exactly like this, but I just checked it out on Google Maps to make sure I’m complaining with proper details. and it looks like they actually added traffic signals sometime in the past few months!
Not every side street is worthy of building out a whole intersection for, or slowing down traffic for. Maybe if there actually is that much traffic turning left, but I suspect if that were the case it’s likely at very specific times of day. And what, are you going to restrict cars off the side street to turning right and then making a u-turn? That’s not better, especially if it’s a long way to the next intersection.
This is just a common as dirt configuration, especially in rural areas. I don’t find it remarkable at all.
And what, are you going to restrict cars off the side street to turning right and then making a u-turn?
Yes. If there is not enough traffic for a better treatment, and the intersection cannot be made safer intersection, then left turns should be prohibited.
This is just a common as dirt configuration, especially in rural areas. I don’t find it remarkable at all.
Multilane thru traffic with turn lanes is not a typical rural configuration, at all.
Rural areas shouldn’t be this busy. This design is fine as long as it’s quiet, but it would take 1 more car waiting to turn left to back up the whole upbound road.
