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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.
When driving: Don’t be nice, be predictable.
this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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."
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Watching a couple of Dashcam videos is the perfect way to explore this phenomenon in full HD colour and often colourful sound.
Roundabouts ftw. Best traffic invention to beat time traveling assassins.
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.
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A selfish asshole that drives predictably is safer than a generous driver that yields the row.
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"
This happened to me, I was the fast car. Here's the dash cam video: https://streamable.com/q98ojg
I've got several years of experience riding motorcycles. It's taught me to read traffic. I see a gap in a line of traffic like that, it's either a driver who's smart enough not to block an intersection (rare), or someone letting another someone out.
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Does this intersection not have traffic lights? It seems very dangerous without, since the driver from the left can't see the fast through-traffic well. They are also crossing three streams of traffic at once.
In the comic would be space for an extra merging lane at the top, so that the driver from the left only crosses two traffic streams and then safely merges into the 45mph stream from the merging lane
A grocery store near my house has an entrance exactly like this, except the roads are 3 lanes each. It's genuinely a nightmare to navigate if it's even remotely busy.
A simple (albeit inconvenient) way to improve safety in this case is to prohibit turning left and allowing for a U turn somewhat close by.
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If a time traveler takes the effort to travel back to 2024 and try to kill me then maybe I deserve to die
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wave of death
Yesterday, by an accident, I made such a "generous" gesture. Thank god they did not use it.
Happens all the time as a cyclist at 2 way stop signs. No I don't want to go through when you've stopped and are waving me on but the other direction hasn't. I usually just shrug and point at my stop sign
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do people in the middle turn lane actually try to get people on the side road to go before them? wtf is even the point of that?
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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.
I was the car they were waved into a few hours ago. But the car doing the waving was from the incoming lane (left lane on this picture) so it didn't even register that they stopped. I wasn't even looking left, I was just suddenly cut off and hit the brakes as a reflex all the while wondering what happened and why my car is slowing down.
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