• glitchdx@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    This comment section is a very good case study in why better public transportation is absolutely necessary: a lot of you should not ever drive.

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      If it’s a 2 lane per side road the best way to get them to pass you is to not break check them but just take your foot off the gas until they get frustrated enough to just go around but this contextually sounds like a single lane sitch which you are correct is dangerous.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I’m a school bus driver and the course material (and test questions) for the CDL state this explicitly. If someone is tailgating you, you slow down. Tailgaters are gonna tailgate no matter what, and slowing down means the damage will be less if they do happen to hit you. If that makes them mad tough tittie (the course material does not use “tough tittie” but you can tell they wanted to).

        The great irony of people who tailgate school buses is that WE CAN’T EVEN FUCKING SEE YOU BACK THERE. Even in your fantasy world of the person in front of you feeling pressured and speeding up (which never ever actually happens), it can’t possibly happen if they don’t even know you’re there.

        • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          I’m not doubting you at all, but how dumb does one have to be to tailgate a bus? As if you can force a bus into anything.

          If you tailgate a larger vehicle, all you do is put yourself into mortal danger.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            how dumb does one have to be to tailgate a bus?

            Pretty fucking dumb but it’s a low bar. The only upside to tailgating a larger vehicle like a bus is that our stopping distance is a lot greater so the tailgater is less likely to slam into us.

    • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 days ago

      I would fully agree that confronting a lunatic face to face is dangerous, but the chances of getting shot for driving slow is next to zero.

  • MetalMachine@feddit.nl
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    6 days ago

    This is why I’m in favor of public transit. So many people should not be on the road. This goes for the granny under the speed limit drivers and the insane road ragers.

    • LoreleiSankTheShip@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      I’ve never understood why people pick on drivers under the speed limit. It’s called a limit, why do we expect people to be over it?

      • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 days ago

        There are speed limits in both directions, in every jurisdiction I’m familiar with it’s illegal to drive both too fast and too slow, to exceed the posted speed limit or to drive so slowly that it impedes other traffic.

        • LoreleiSankTheShip@lemmy.ml
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          6 days ago

          Oh, that’s very interesting. Where I live there are only upper speed limits on most roads except highways. On other roads you can drive as slowly as you want, though everyone will overtake you if they can or honk at you if you don’t.

          • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 days ago

            Where I live there are only upper speed limits on most roads except highways. On other roads you can drive as slowly as you want,

            Are you sure that you really don’t have any traffic rules against causing a hazard or impeding traffic flow by being too slow? That seems both unusual and unsafe to me.

            • colforge@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              Where I’m from an officer can always pull you over for “reckless driving” or “impeding traffic”. The argument can literally be made that you’re driving dangerously no matter how fast you go. These days I just stick to the literal posted speed (as long as road conditions and traffic allow) and I’ll let a lawyer defend me from any citations. I stay in the slow lane and am constantly getting passed but I’ll be damned before I get another ticket for going 6 over.

              • darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                6 days ago

                The argument can literally be made that you’re driving dangerously no matter how fast you go.

                Well, that’s certainly true also in every jurisdiction I’m familiar with, as it should be, common sense, really.

                • colforge@lemmy.world
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                  5 days ago

                  Idk I don’t think an officer should have the right to pull over a person driving the posted speed limit in clear weather with no other proximate reason but maybe I’m insane.

      • CoolMatt@lemmy.ca
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        6 days ago

        Depending where it is, a figure of speech up to a certain point of where they actual enforce it, most cops don’t even go the speed limit on some roads and highways.

        They’re low and out dated as fuck, and mostly just a money grab, again, depending on the street and the limit, for example excluding in front of schools and parks

      • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        because they are assholes who think anyone going slower than them is stupid and they are very smart and the speed limit should not apply to such very smart people.

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      I say this to every coworker who asks why I have a car I rarely drive. It’s honestly just less stressful to commute that way. Idgaf about the weirdos at the bus stop for the most part. 90% of them are high or drunk af passed out cleanly. Every once in a while I have to nudge them out of the way to sit but that’s not usually an issue they just grunt and shift and they’re usually too shitfaced to move in their sleep once they’re out again. One is a lady who is always drunk af but awake and basically just uses the bus stop as a people watching spot and tells me neighborhood drama. There’s a pair of northerners who are polite in a northerner way. There were a brother and sister who were sleeping there for a month but last I heard she found a job and I wished them luck and haven’t seen them since. I’ve had a few really good philosophical conversations. One was a guy who had gotten his phone stolen and we chatted about the positive effects of increased mindfulness of the day to day and not being constantly observed and reachable by both your personal contacts and the faceless corporations. I got bothered by one guy but groundskeepers were hanging kinda close and the admins pass me on their way from their cars into the building I haven’t seen him since so either the facility took care of it or the other inhabitants did. Sometimes I talk, sometimes I just eat my Bacon and biscuit from the cafeteria and drink some tea. I’m trying to listen my way through the Bible just to know what’s in it. Right now I’m listening to the long long list of shit you’re not allowed to do while living in an aggressive war tribe in tents the desert like shitting too close to camp or having sex that doesn’t make more babies to keep fighting the other tribes. The cadence is weirdly chill almost seussian.

  • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Using phone while driving… Great.

    Fuck everyone who ever touches their phone while the vehicle is on. This shit is not okay, ever.

    • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago
      1. The phone is clearly mounted on the dashboard.

      2. It’s not uncommon for people to record their whole trip for social media, not just take to a picture.

      3. This caption could have been pasted over a completely unrelated screenshot of someone else’s video for all we know.

      Don’t touch your phone while driving, but also, don’t believe everything you see on social media.

      • Taleya@aussie.zone
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        5 days ago

        Ikr the number of people going “hurr they do phone use” has me wondering when the fuck people lost basic cognitive skills.

      • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        On your last point… It’s still damaging because it normalises it. UK has very harsh stance on this and you’d get in shit even for point 1. There should be zero tolerance on this. They’re a dickhead driver regardless. Two dickheads don’t make it right.

        • PurplebeanZ@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Incorrect, in the UK you can touch/use the phone if it’s mounted in a cradle. Touch it un-cradled though and wham that’s instant points even if it was out of battery and turned off

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        6 days ago

        It’s not uncommon for people to record their whole trip for social media, not just take to a picture.

        That’s still a distraction. Even if they don’t intend to upload the entire recording they are paying less attention to the road in order to pay attention to their “performance”.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      7 days ago

      I have some great news for you. Look at what took effect yesterday in my state! Using a mobile device, including at a red light, is now a primary offense (you’ll get pulled over for just that).

      This just applies to PA, but it’s a pretty big state with a population between Sweden and the Netherlands, so it’s not nothing!

      https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/penndot/documents/travelinpa/safety/trafficsafetyanddrivertopics/documents/distracted-driving-laws-fact-sheet.pdf

      • coolfission@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Doesn’t matter if it’s not enforced. We have no holding phone rules in GA and I routinely see people using their phones while driving.

        • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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          7 days ago

          Worse, too often these laws are selectively enforced only when cops are looking for an excuse to profile minorities and poorer drivers.

          • LousyCornMuffins@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            yeah i was gonna say. they enforced the no texting law for maybe a year here, then they just started using “I thought I saw them texting” as probable cause to pull over anyone they wanted.

        • Almacca@aussie.zone
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          7 days ago

          They put up cameras to detect phone and seatbelt offences here in Queensland a couple of years ago. It’s been quite lucrative for the state.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I live in PA and I’m not holding my breath for this shit to ever be enforced. I’m a school bus driver and last year I had a local cop pass me when I was stopped with my red flashers on letting kids off the bus. He was driving with one hand and looking at his phone in the other - never even saw me.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      tbf, going 20 in a 50 zone is probably not a terrible situation to be multitasking in. not at all like multitasking at 50 in a 50 zone

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I’m a school bus driver and many of my coworkers use their phones (talking, texting and even doom scrolling) while driving a bus - sometimes even when they have kids aboard. And these buses have internal cameras that are always recording! I don’t understand how they’re not fired or at least suspended for it, but I suppose the driver shortage has something to do with it.

  • 74 183.84@lemmy.zip
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    6 days ago

    When people ride my ass while I am doing (at least) the speed limit I just take my foot off the gas to gently slow down until they go around me. If its only one lane then I will go under the speed limit. Im petty too like that

    • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      It’s not just petty, it’s safety.

      You can’t influence the size of the safety margin between you and the car behind you. But you can influence the speed at which the person behind you slams into you in case of an accident, by reducing the speed that both of you drive.

      • rayyy@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        When I drive in deer country, especially at night, I will always slow up when encountering a tailgater because I might have to brake hard for an animal and don’t want to hit a deer AND/OR get rear ended - going slower means they will at least hit me less hard. They can go around if they don’t like my speed. Also, statistics show that drivers that stay well behind other vehicles have far fewer accidents. Finally, traffic tends to travel at the speed of the slowest drivers on the road, so they gain little on our curvy, hilly two lane roads.

  • Saledovil@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    What to do when you have a tailgater behind you:

    1. Foot off the gas.
    2. Wait until the tailgater tries to overtake you.
    3. PIT maneuver.
    4. Keep driving safely.
  • Manticore@lemmy.nz
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    4 days ago

    I’m reminded of a story somebody shared on reddit years ago.

    An arborist, working with his team. One of his crew had the chainsaw kick and come back and severely main him. He’s bleeding so fucking fast. They need to get him to hospital, and they can’t afford to wait for the ambulance to arrive.

    The woman in front won’t let them past. She’s going slower and slower to make a point. They’re honking at her, but she lines up with another lane to box them in. That car slows down too.

    The guy is fading fast.theyre using his shirt to staunch the blood, but it’s not enough. After several minutes, they finally have an opening they can take. They speed past her little car, throwing the bloodsoaked shirt out the window to slap wetly on her windshield.

    They meet up with emergency services - first, a cop. The woman pulls over to talk to the cop about their reckless driving. While arguing, the ambulance arrives. The injured crew member, and the storyteller, are taken to hospital.

    It’s too late. He dies.

    …don’t fuck around man. You never know. It’s no worth it. Do the safe thing and make space or pull over. Safety over spite.

  • yarr@feddit.nl
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    6 days ago

    Is this lady using her phone while driving, after speeding by 20MPH and thinking it’s a flex? If she uses it at 20MPH I’d bet she uses it at 70 MPH too! Couldn’t this have waited until she was safely off the road?

    • TeddE@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I expect this is sarcasm (can’t know, because of Poe’s)

      But for anyone genuinely thinking this you can see the dashcam source in her glasses reflection.

  • Random_Character_A@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Only time I’ve been close to road rage was when a Mercedes CL had a really bright LED strobe light installed inside it’s front grill and he activating it, if somebody was in his way.

    It wasn’t a cop or other emergency vehicle. Just an asshole.

    I was lucky to be in front of him for 15 minutes when traffic got compacted enough to prevent lane change.

    For a moment I considered hitting the brakes on that particular tailgater.

      • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        That works. Also, back when I delivered pizza I kept a rather large LED flashlight in my cupholder all the time, ostensibly for spotting mailboxes and house numbers. (This was back in the day when having a powerful LED flashlight was a big deal, not like nowadays when you can get 3 for $10 on Amazon or whatever.) Pointing it out the back window usually got the point across when asshats felt the need to sit three feet off my back bumper and shine their high beams at me.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          7 days ago

          Shit if I find myself night commuting again on back roads I might have to keep such a flashlight in my car. I’ve had so many trucks light up my entire fucking cabin with their illegal light mods

          • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            My attorney has advised me to make no statements whatsoever regarding the applicability of the Lumintop Thor Mini I just bought the other week, which outputs a mere 250 lumens but does so in a narrow cone that’s got, to my reckoning, a divergence of only about four or five degrees.

            I’ll have to do some measuring later, but at rear-windshield-to-asshole distance it’ll only throw a spot that’s probably about a foot wide, delivering maximum fuck you with a minimum of collateral damage.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          6 days ago

          Yeah the one time I tried it I ended up just mucking up my own mirrors and not managing to shine the light back in their eyes

  • Landless2029@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I was on a 3 lane highway going interstate. Doing 80 in a 65 on the fast lane. Big rig in the middle lane. Slowly gaining and will pass the bog rig.

    Then a pickup is coming up in the fast lane TOO FAST. Easily 100mph. She tailgates me. Now boxxed in with me in front and the big rig on her right. A sane person would go in the third lane and pass us since zero other cars around. But no.

    She lays on her horn and starts swaying with impatience.
    So I match speed with the big rig. Maintaining the box. She honks ways more and sways even more. Shaking her fist at me.

    I maintain it for another 2 minutes until my wife gets concerned she’ll rear end us and we end up spinning off the highway or under the big rig.

    I give in and speed up past the big rig and change lanes to her wacko pass. They speed off.

    Yeah it’s never worth it. You never know what people will do.

    • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Very true. Many people act irrationally behind the wheel. Only God knows how pathetic their life must be that they want to risk life and limb to get somewhere 3 minutes faster.

      • Landless2029@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        It wasn’t even about going faster at that point.

        I was trying to force them to slow down and go around… Instead they went apeshit.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      Yeah, better to just get them the fuck away from you ASAP than to be petty. They’re not worth the risk since they’ve already established they’re shitty drivers.

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 days ago

      Truly. I’ve been on the motorway before with a dude seemingly angry about something I did, not sure what, that he was chasing me across the motorway even if I went from lane 4 to 1 and back he was there.

      Some people are insane. Best to avoid them even if you can handle yourself as some people won’t let it go and not worth the fight if you’re not immediately in danger.

  • Wolf@lemmy.today
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    7 days ago

    I take my foot off of the gas pedal, if they don’t pass me by the time I’ve coasted to as slow as idle will take me I assume they aren’t going to and return to the speed I was going previously.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      7 days ago

      I’ll slow down to exactly the speed limit (which because my speedometer is ~2MPH fast means going slightly below the limit) if someone honks at me for going too slowly. I’ll also specifically not turn right until it’s green if someone behind me honks to turn right on red

      I’m a pretty chill driver. I don’t speed, I don’t aggressively lane change or push lights, but if someone thinks their horn will get me drive in a less safe manner I will happily slow them down just a little bit more. If they don’t honk, I’ll happily make it easy for them to pass when it is safe

  • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    Wait, so the dude honked after her because she was speeding 20 above the limit (imo justified), and she’s pretending of taking the high road by slowing down 30 under the limit just to spite him for her being wrong? 🤔

    Or maybe it’s oddly phrased and he was going 30 over and the petty lane is justified. (Personally I’d go 40-45, just to be not too slow as to be dangerous).

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 days ago

      Wait, so the dude honked after her because she was speeding 20 above the limit (imo justified),

      How does this work exactly? It would mean the person honking was also going 20 above the limit. So they sped up so they could honk at the person for speeding?

      Just seems like two assholes if you ask me.

  • thatradomguy@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Where are y’all going that you gotta pretend real life is GTA? Ain’t nobody need you that bad. You’re late. Get over it.