Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

Move the fuck to the right. Always drive in the right lane unless overtaking. If overtaking, do it then get the fuck back to the right. It's not the "slow lane" and "fast lane", it's the driving lane and overtaking lane.

Don't be polite, be predictable.

Signal BEFORE you switch lanes. Like enough time for other drivers to see it before you make your move. Also, turn off your signal if it doesn’t automatically. I don’t understand how people don’t notice the continuous ticking and flashing light and just keep going as usual.

Taking your foot off the gas and slowing down gradually when you see a red light ahead. People seem to floor it up to the light then stop as quickly as possible.

You’re supposed to accelerate as you merge onto the highway. Not stop and wait for an opening

For a daily drive, you likely need 2-3 car lengths between you at minimum depending on your speed

It's not car lengths, it's seconds. You need roughly 2 seconds between you and the person in front of you. That gives you time to react and emergency brake if needed. At 70mph, 2 seconds is a little over 200 feet, not 3 car lengths. Average reaction time is about .75 seconds; you see something, and you start reacting to that thing--not you finish reacting--in .75 seconds. At 70mph, you will travel 75 feet before you can even realize that you need to get your foot off the gas and hit the brakes.

The passing lane is for passing.

I know, I know.... tough to understand, what with the fact that the lane is named after what it is meant for and all.

People don't realise how little time they save by speeding and weaving in and out of traffic.

Just chill. You can spend 20 minutes relaxed and comfy, or 19 minutes gripping your wheel with white knuckles, screaming at grandmas and jacking off at red lights.

Choose wisely.

I didn't invent the phrasing, but I think most of these things can be summed up as people not understanding that driving needs to be a cooperative team activity rather than a competition.

In the US, when you come to a multi-way stop, the person that stopped first goes first. If people stop simultaneously, then the person farthest to the right goes first.

Trying to wave someone through to be "polite" just snarls traffic patterns.

The left lane is a passing lane, not a I’m going to go 5 over speed limit and coast lane. Learn to move over to the right. Please and thank you.

It doesn't matter what the posted speed limit might be - in traffic, the correct speed to drive is the same speed as the majority of the cars around you.

When you turn onto a multi-lane road, you turn into the closest lane. THEN you signal and change lanes. This is a big cause of accidents.

Zip merges really show who the dumb drivers are.

FUCKING TURN SIGNALS.

Christ, the number of times I've almost hit someone who swerved into a turn at the last second without a signal...

Letting someone in won’t make a difference in the time it takes you to get somewhere.

I drive a pickup w/ trailer all day, people will see me signal and then speed up to not let me in.

Mind you, I work in the “rudest city in Canada”.

The problem with following distance is that it becomes room for other cars to insert themselves into your buffer zone with the car that was in front of you.

Tailgating me wont make the car right in front of me go any faster. Aggressively cutting in front of the next car in line doesn’t get you to your destination any faster.

When merging onto a highway you have to press the gas pedal.

Double lane roundabouts.

You only use the fucking outer ring right before you want to exit. If you want to exit on the 3rd, you go inside, so others can come in in the first and the second. Otherwise it just becomes a very expensive single lane roundabout.

The two main ones I think about are zipper merges and space in traffic. The most efficient way to handle a lane merger is to do a perfect zipper merge right at the point of merging. But everyone in the lane that’s ending always tries to merge early, and too many people in the other lane don’t want to let anyone in when they get to the merge point.

As far as space in traffic, traffic jams are actually waves that propagate back though the stream of cars. The only way to end them is to have enough space between vehicles to allow the traffic stream to compress without losing speed. The spaces in traffic also make room for people to change lanes without causing anyone to brake for them. Those braking events are often the triggers for traffic waves.

A solid green on a left turn is not the same as a green arrow. It's a yield sign.

due to cognitive bias, roughly 80% of drivers think that they are "above average" in their driving ability.

AKA, you're probably overestimating your driving ability and are not as good of a driver as you think you are..

Tailgating doesn't get you there faster. Most highway accidents would be avoided if people would just leave some space, and then we wouldn't get stuck in accident traffic jams for hours.

Somewhat counterintuitively, traffic will flow better and you'll get places faster if you just leave some space (and you'll be safer and use less fuel as you won't be always on the accelerator and brakes)

That they are driving around a 1 tonne piece of metal.

Getting up to speed to merge. Don’t stop on a highway on-ramp. If there’s a car in the lane you want to be in, then speed up to get in front of that car, or slow down and get behind it. There’s no “stop in the middle of the road to let you in” on a freeway.

Driving is an unnatural, fairly sophisticated activity that many people don't have an intuitive sense about. Especially when it comes to the proximity of danger to themselves or others.

I live in a developing SE Asian country where the only rule is: there are no rules. You can assume that everyone will always maneuver for their own benefit, especially if their vehicle is larger. This includes turning right in front of you, driving the opposite way, and stopping in the middle of all the lanes.

In a sense, this brings a certain type of order because it's predictably disordered. The key rule is that you will die if you trust anybody to look out for you except yourself.

Yield doesn't mean stop

It means go unless not clear (ie stop when not clear)

If there's no oncoming traffic, then you keep going. If there is then you have to stop to allow the traffic to pass before continuing (or enter safely before said traffic reaches you).

This is fundamentally how roundabout entrances also work. You're supposed enter when you have enough time to accelerate into an open slot. You don't have to wait until it is completely clear, nor do you have to explicitly stop at an entrance.

Is 95 miles (~150km) one way considered normal in the US? I live in Bangalore, India and my commute is barely 20km (takes me 45mins - 1hour) which is too much for me.

Me and most people I know would rather shift than travel 150kms a day. Can’t imagine the toll it would take on me, my fuel budget and my car

Not using your phone while driving

I think people generally understand stopping distance. They're deliberately creating an unsafe situation in order to intimate the driver in front of them.

If you're using your brakes a lot it's probably because you were using your accelerator a lot a few seconds prior.

Your headlights are for other people as much as they are for you. Get them adjusted every so often, don't put LED lights in halogen lenses.

Just because the car in front of you went through the yellow doesn't entitle you to do the same, if you're behind a large truck and can't see the color of the light, back off just a tiny bit, or use the other turn signals located 45 degrees to your left for your safety and convenience. If you're so close you can't see the light, you're probably so close traffic getting ready to move can't see you.

Getting out of the slow lane, passing, then getting off at the next off-ramp, and having the only car you just passed continue on past the offramp you just took saves you literally no time. And even if you're behind that car on the off ramp, you've probably saved no time.