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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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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.
This is the way.
Not mutually exclusive
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”
This applies when you’re a pedestrian waiting to cross too. There are always those drivers who think they’re doing you a favor by stopping one of the lanes of traffic so you can walk out into the other. They smile and wave and look baffled when you don’t take the bait.
yesterday a guy tried to wave me to cross then started angrily raising his hands like “FUCKING GO!” completely oblivious to the car that flew past his left side in the opposite direction
Had guy asking me to turn like that and when I refused he gave me the finger as he finally drove on. How come they hold up traffic and then get mad at you for not driving into on coming traffic?
It reveals how they weren’t actually being polite. They were doing it for themselves, not you, and you denied them their “good deed” dopamine.
You’re right of course, but in a broader sense there is literally no action that anyone takes that is altruistic. We only do things that benefit us or, rarely, our group as a whole.
Feels like at least part of the issue is multi-lane pedestrian crossings. Most of the time that should either be single-lane, a traffic light or a tunnel/bridge.
In an uncontrolled crossing the pedestrian always has the right of way (North America and Europe at least). They should almost never ‘wait’ to cross
Doesn’t matter if I have the right of way, I’m not walking into the other lane (going 35 mph) and hoping they don’t kill me
I’m not saying you should be reckless, but too often I see people be either uninformed or unwilling to exercise their rights. To be fair, I do write with something of an urban bias, where thankfully those kinds of speeds are much less common.
lmao. That may be true in some places but in others it requires a crosswalk. Also, the rules aren’t going to pay your hospital or funeral home bills.
By crossing I mean a crosswalk, some sort of markings on the ground
If you trust every driver to follow the rules exactly and have their eyes open, you can risk your life by walking out. Otherwise you might wait anyway. And the rules about right of way depend on your country and state.
Always where? There’s a bazillion different rules about this depending on where you live
North America and Europe, I made an edit for clarity.
Oh god, this reminds me of a cringe mistake just after I was getting my license. I was driving up to a crosswalk and there was a kid standing next to, maybe 8 or 9, holding their hand out. You know, just like they learn at school that they should do that to make it clear they want to cross even tho the car is supposed to stop anyway. I saw this and what did I do? I thought the kid waved at me and my new license, so I just drove past and waved back. What the fuck, brain?
Generally pedestrians have the right of way at crossings (unless it’s controlled with a light) in my state and neighboring states, most crosswalks even have signs that inform you to yield to pedestrians.
Another thing that enrages me is people who think driving slowly is safer for whatever reason.
Getting on the highway? Let’s SLOWLY merge at 60% the speed of oncoming traffic.
Changing lanes from stationary traffic into a full speed lane? I won’t wait for the lane to clear, I’ll just turn signal and move into the lane REAL SLOW because that’s safe.
Turning right? Let’s slow down to a complete stop and force traffic to a halt so I can turn right.
As a delivery truck driver I can’t tell you how many people think that everyone else can just stop on a dime for them and they’re being safe because they move over at a snail’s Pace.
fucking hate getting stuck behind some slow driver when trying to get on a highway. like fucker we are supposed to be reaching highway speed on this ramp not when we reach the highway🤬
There is an on-ramp for the highway near me that’s pretty long. It’s long because it’s a very straight fast-moving section of highway. In other words, the on-ramp is designed to give you adequate space to get up to highway speed. The number of people who immediately merge into the first lane without getting up to speed is too damn high.
I used to have a job where I drove a box truck. It was slow empty and painfully slow full. It was also speed limited to 75mph. So I would tend to hang out with the semis on the hwy. One time I was driving down the hwy and this guy in a pretty new Volvo( so the fast ones) was coming down the on ramp. I could see he was going to merge right in front of me so I slowed down to give him some space. I figured he would want to be in front of the slow box truck. As he got close to the merge he slowed down so he was even with me. I gave him a little more space to merge in front of me and slowed down again. He had plenty of room left in the on merge lane if just used the skinny pedal. Instead he waited until was almost out of room then started honking at me. I did my best to speed up my painfully slow box truck but I am sure he has to slow down to the point he was merging at 45mph as everyone was doing 75-80mph. I am sure he was cursing me too because he wasn’t willing to get up to hwy speed before merging.
I was taught it was the responsibility of the car getting on the highway to match the speed of the cars on the highway. If you’re already on the highway, keep a constant speed so the people getting on can match you. So he kept having to slow down because you were also slowing down. Just like the assassin pretending to be nice in the diagram, I think you were technically in the wrong here.
He never got up to hwy speed if he had he would have easily merged in front of me. I only slowed down by 5 to 10 mph.
Right, but its not your responsibility to slow down at all. Its kind of you to do so when the merging vehicle picks up on your intention, but when they don’t, it makes a miscommunication like you describe.
Basically, i’d just describe it as being predictable. And bending the rules (even to be kind) is not predictable, usually.
Instead he waited until was almost out of room then started honking at me.
People who haven’t learned the physics of large trucks spend a surprising portion of their driving time competing for Darwin awards.
I want to will this not to be a problem anymore, but still see it all the time. I’m thankful that I’ve seen a lot of truckers react in surprisingly aware ways that save lives.
But every time I see it, I can’t help but think that driver’s luck isn’t too likely to hold through too many more times making that move.
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.
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.
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 middke 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.
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!
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.
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.
2x this if you’re cycling and a driver waves you through
Ugh, I hate this. I don’t care about waiting. As a cyclist, all I want is for it to be really clear what people are doing. Anything that messes with the right of way is sketchy.
People try to wave me on all the time. They refuse to move until I go. I refuse to go until I can fucking see what might fucking kill me. Twice, the guy waving me on has been rear-ended by a vehicle three times their size.
That, to me, looks like an intersection I would never want to turn left on in the first place in anything but the most deserted area.
Which is the delusion that the US’s traffic engineers based all of their decisions on 60 years ago.
“This’ll be fine hardly anybody lives out here”
It’s compounded by the delusion that the US’s traffic engineers base all of their decisions on now.
“It’ll be fine, it’s been here for 60 years.”
It doesn’t work when nobody lives around either.
The only way this can work is if both all cars are from the 30s, only able to move at 50 km/h, and nobody lives around.
Yep, same. I’ll bust a right and flip around a street up the road.
Yeah this is the only legal way to turn left in a road with a median like this in michigan. You have to turn right to turn left.
Roundabouts ftw. Best traffic invention to beat time traveling assassins.
Except the ones with two lanes that can both exit or continue
I have never seen a roundabout here in Australia that allows for these sorts of conflicting movements, that would be asinine. Are you saying there’s multiple lanes that can exit or go straight such that someone in the inside lane can turn out in front of someone continuing around in the outside lane? Is this a North American thing? Of course that would result in accidents, don’t build your bloody roundabouts like that!!
I drive through three lane (six lane road) roundabouts all the time and no one gets hurt. In fact I have to drive through two such roundabouts to get to the nearest freeway.
There are so many like this in the US. I don’t understand who thought they were a good idea or why they keep getting made
I’m absolutely calling BS. I’ve never seen such a thing and wagering that you are just confused about what lanes can do what (or you’re just making shit up). There are several roundabouts near me where an inside lane can turn out or go straight, but in all of those cases all lanes further out are required to turn out. The people that design traffic patterns aren’t idiots, but there’s no shortage of idiot drivers that can’t follow even the simplest patterns.
If you want to insist, all you need to do is link to such an intersection in google maps so I can look at the aerial view. I’m honestly curious how they would paint the traffic lanes to indicate what you’re describing.
Even on that, a driver in the right lane must exit. If they want to continue to the left, they are required to make a lane change, in which case all lane change rules would apply.
I’ve got some near to me that both lanes can exit, but you must be in the inside lane to keep going round. They’re very strangely designed.
Imagine a roundabout where most of the traffic flows straight on only one of the streets. Things would improve a lot of you gave that street the right of way and cut a shortcut on the middle of the roundabout, wouldn’t them?
(/s by the way, but a lot of transit engineers to really believe in this. Unironically.)
You jest, but we do kind of have something like this in Melbourne, Australia. Except the vehicles that get to cut through the middle of the roundabout are Trams. Plus while they’re trundling through, everyone else has to stop and wait for them.
I was not joking when I said a lot of transit engineers believe on it.
That one is one of the least bad I’ve seen. Try imagine it on the cross of two roads (actual high-speed roads, country-side). I’ve seen many of those.
I’m bloody sorry but did you just say this is one of the least bad you’ve seen?? Let me give you a different view:
Trams traverse the traffic lanes at three points, as well as one making an immediate left turn exit. There are four traffic lanes. Royal Parade has inside lanes and service lanes.
But I also don’t have to imagine that at all, those are common here too and I’ve never had a problem at them:
Notice how the approaching lane at the bottom left has an artificial curve added to it? It’s traffic calming to help slow down cars before they get to the roundabout itself.
That second picture of yours is just a normal roundabout. Try making one of the roads pass directly through it. And don’t change the signaling.
I’ve noticed that the tram line cuts the traffic in 3 points. What is the speed of that street? Anyway, the tram line is clearly signed in a way that can be noticed on the photo. And every car there is making a weird curve, nobody is speeding anyway.
Right near my old house, dubbed the “Suicide Circle” for how everyone drives through it seemingly unaware of any other drivers on the road.I don’t see any conflicting movements here. I have a roundabout almost exactly like this just around the corner. It’s not complicated.
It’s more the amount of choke points that turn to gridlock at rush hour. That plus it’s the Midwest so 85% of the population doesn’t understand how they work.I think it’s probably got more to do with the drivers. There are plenty of roundabouts like this where I am in Aus, and they get used just fine. Over here they have a far lower rate of accidents than other types of intersections. We never have 4 way stops either, we just put a roundabout there.
Watching a couple of Dashcam videos is the perfect way to explore this phenomenon in full HD colour and often colourful sound.
Yup. Be predictable, not courteous. You’ll save lives.
I’m fine with moving forward and using his car as my new stop line until the lane is clear. He’s the asshole for assuming everyone waiting behind him wants to be as courteous and patient.
Nothing like getting to a 4-way stop and the cycle is going smoothly then some dipshit starts waving cars and throws everything out of whack and next thing you know everyone is inching forward at the same time.
Equally bad, the entry drives into shopping centers are often made to not stop when entering the lot, this way during busy shopping times traffic won’t back up out into the street. This is a normal, common thing, usually plastered with signs “INCOMING TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP” and you still get people stopping and waving cars through, thinking they’re doing anyone a favor, when instead it’s confusing everyone as to what the rules are at the intersection. Then cars start driving around each other and you get to hear that sickening “scrrrunch-POP” as the other lane started moving without noticing the rules had changed.
I have a feeling these are the same people who push a full cart into the self-checkout having never used a self-checkout in their lives.
Thank you!
You’re not being kind by doing this! You’re being kind to the one person you see but being an asshole to everyone behind you! Follow the rules of the road and everyone will get on better.
People always complain about Altimas because they’re unpredictable, but the absolute worst offenders I see are Honda CRV drivers specifically because they’re trying to be polite on the road. I’d take some busted Altima weaving through traffic over a CRV who decides to be nice and stop at the end of the onramp so they don’t cut anyone off.
A selfish asshole that drives predictably is safer than a generous driver that yields the row.
When driving don’t be nice. Be predictable.
I’m taking a Smith system training and this is said constantly.
Half the people who wave you through have weird little control fetishes. They’re not being polite, they’re pursuing feelings of power. They’re the same people driving 5 mph under the speed limit in the passing lane to “keep other people from speeding”.
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”
If a time traveler takes the effort to travel back to 2024 and try to kill me then maybe I deserve to die
If any time traveler comes to 2024, it’s either great because there’s science in the future, or it’s terrible, because there’s something about to happen that’s worth seeing first-hand.
Or it’s great because something interesting is about to happen. If I had a time machine I would travel to 1989 to see the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I am still thankful our parents woke us up and put us in front of the TV to watch the live broadcast of that happening. That was a watershed moment in post-war politics.
