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SFH1989
Apr 23, 2007

Over the weekend I saw a woman stopped at the end of an on-ramp on I95 in Milford CT waiting for a gap to open in traffic. There were a good amount of cars on the road but it wasn't heavy and certainly not slowed down. I'm sure her Volvo 240 wagon had more than enough power to get up to speed to merge with the 70mph traffic on the very small amount of on-ramp she had left at that point.

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BLARGHLE
Oct 2, 2013

But I want something good
to die for
To make it beautiful to live.
Yams Fan
Back to the icy roads discussion from like 10 pages ago- I was supervising the snow and ice removal operations for I-66 during Snowmaggeddon, and I saw some stupid loving poo poo...................

People stopping in the middle of the road to get out and clean off their windshield wipers
People stopping on the side of the road to...abandon their cars? I don't know what their plan was, but we almost destroyed a number of abandoned vehicles buried in the snow
People driving entirely too close to the plow train- when I say "too close", I mean they were basically rubbing tires with one of the trucks
People darting between the trucks in the plow train to try to get by them, only to discover that oh poo poo, there's a foot of snow on the road in front of those same trucks!
Just...so many other stupid things...idiots driving way too fast in the snow made my job so much harder, especially after that one big pileup out by Gainesville during the first little snow...


I also saw some ridiculous stuff from the plow trucks!

A lot of our trucks were older vehicles bought from PA, CT, and NJ just to fill VDOT's equipment requirements, never actually intended to be used...well, they also didn't intend for five total feet of snow to fall for that season!
We had trucks that were literally rusting apart, and trucks that had to be loaded onto flatbeds to get from one location to the other because they were so bad. We had a pair of old(like 70s old) freightliners that were all air...air brakes, air throttle, air wipers, air dump bed...those were the biggest bitch to get started, because there was no way to give them any throttle until they were already on and warmed up!
We had one truck literally catch fire while plowing(dualies rubbing), and we had several others that had air-powered shutters on the grill(add that to the list of air-whatever) that were frozen up, which led to a bunch of cracked everything from overheating...

Our main new fleet of plow trucks was comprised of JB Hunt day-trip tractor trailers minus the trailer with salt spreaders on the back and plows bolted onto the front. Guess what happened when the spreader was empty and the plow was raised! That's right, even with the locked diff, there was absolutely no traction!
On the first day of the first blizzard, we had two separate exits entirely blocked by our own tractionless trucks...I had to go out there with a front-end loader and dig them out...

It was glorious, and I thoroughly recommend everyone try it at least once(assuming you want to lose 30lbs and possibly the best girlfriend you've ever had from working 24/7, and also are okay with being salary while all of the drivers under you are making tens of thousands of dollars of overtime, and then maybe having some kind of nervous breakdown or something...)

CovfefeCatCafe
Apr 11, 2006

A fresh attitude
brewed daily!

GOD IS BED posted:

I dodge it, then watch them take it in the rearview. No way for them to dodge when I barely avoided it.

Can we get some more horrible maintenance pics/stories like in the OP?

Alright, these two anecdotes come from my brother who is an assistant manager at a national brand tire and lube shop.

Guy comes in with a AWD Ford Explorer. The right rear tire has been making all sorts of racket ever since he had a flat on that tire and bought a new one. Well, since then, he's replaced the bearings, the struts, pretty much a once over on everything mechanical. He was in for four new tires that day. The noise stopped.
(I know, this is probably one of those things that's not very well known to the general public at large, but I can still imagine how the guy felt knowing the issue was simpler, and probably cheaper, than everything else he tried to fix).

Guy comes in for new brake pads. Rotors are worn down to the pegs. Doesn't understand why he needs new ones.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

BLARGHLE posted:

People darting between the trucks in the plow train to try to get by them, only to discover that oh poo poo, there's a foot of snow on the road in front of those same trucks!


This one, this is where you made me choke on my cup of Earl Grey. The notion of somebody trying to pass or overtake a plow truck is...oh god.

xzzy
Mar 5, 2009

I pass snow plows all the time. But I might be partially insane, having grown up within a couple hundred miles of the arctic circle.

Down here in the south plows habitually putter around at 30 mph with their blades down, ineffectively trying to direct a half inch of slush over the curb. They produce nothing but a nonstop shower of sparks.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

Jonny 290 posted:

This one, this is where you made me choke on my cup of Earl Grey. The notion of somebody trying to pass or overtake a plow truck is...oh god.

This gives me bad memories of childhood.

To put it lightly, my dad drives like a madman.

Back 20 or 30 years ago he could get away with it. His reaction times were very good, he is a very skilled driver. Now his reaction times aren't as good. He still thinks they are.

He grew up in upstate VT, so he knows how to loving drive in snow. I've seen him keep a FWD minivan in the lane in 6 inches of heavy wet slush doing 50mph and never even come close to wrecking, while we passed dozens of 4x4s stuffed into snowbanks and bridge abutments on their roofs.

I've seen him pass plow trucks. Not stupid enough to try and cut between them, but you bet he passed those fuckers because they were going too slow or something. He stopped doing that when he passed one on the right, I distinctly remember the feeling of hundreds of pounds of wet slush hammering the side of the van, us sliding sideways (but continuing perfectly straight down the road, like I said, he's good, just insane) and the engine nearly dying. Turns out the storm of slush almost completely filled the air intake :lol: van had no power and fell on its face every time he stomped on it the whole way home, but mysteriously fixed itself the next time it got above freezing for a few hours.

I'm honestly not sure how he hasn't gotten in more accidents.

Anyone who has ridden with me and thinks I drive fast... it seems tame to me because I grew up riding with my dad. I basically can't ride with him anymore because he tailgates incredibly close to people while complaining about people tailgating him and I don't deal with hypocrisy very gracefully. A few "man that guy is really riding your front bumper :haw:" comments and he blows up, I just don't get it :shrug:

So even when we're going the same place and it's a few hours away/carpooling would save money, I generally drive myself. I've realized I can't change his behavior and I don't fancy being a passenger in his car when he crashes it, either.

Shrapnig
Jan 21, 2005

SFH1989 posted:

Over the weekend I saw a woman stopped at the end of an on-ramp on I95 in Milford CT waiting for a gap to open in traffic. There were a good amount of cars on the road but it wasn't heavy and certainly not slowed down. I'm sure her Volvo 240 wagon had more than enough power to get up to speed to merge with the 70mph traffic on the very small amount of on-ramp she had left at that point.

Honestly this may be my biggest issue with other drivers. Why is the concept of getting up to speed to merge into traffic so difficult. If you're getting on a highway where everyone is going 70+ why do you think you should edge out into traffic at 45?

SFH1989
Apr 23, 2007

I've never had an issue with state/town plow drivers. Landscapers on the other hand drive like loving assholes once the plows go on. I once had one try to pass me at a stop sign. It was at a three way intersection I stopped normally and he popped out and tried to pass me but had started going again. It's not like I sat for a long time or anything either, it wasn’t even snowing.

Edit:

Shrapnac posted:

Honestly this may be my biggest issue with other drivers. Why is the concept of getting up to speed to merge into traffic so difficult. If you're getting on a highway where everyone is going 70+ why do you think you should edge out into traffic at 45?

Not only is it unsafe but accelerating up onramps if fun then some rear end in a top hat in front makes me brake after I've gotten up to the speed of traffic.

SFH1989 fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Oct 30, 2013

FogHelmut
Dec 18, 2003

Onramps are generally very wide, and it's a good place to practice hitting the apex. I still do this when stuck behind someone doing 15 mph on a ramp I would otherwise safely take at 45. I wonder if they notice me swinging from their left mirror to their right and back to the left.

Queen_Combat
Jan 15, 2011

SFH1989 posted:



Not only is it unsafe but accelerating up onramps if fun then some rear end in a top hat in front makes me brake after I've gotten up to the speed of traffic.
It's the only time I legally get to "open up all the taps," and I'm pissed when an rear end in a top hat interrupts me.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

Geirskogul posted:

It's the only time I legally get to "open up all the taps," and I'm pissed when an rear end in a top hat interrupts me.

The BEST is when they slowhand into the lane at ~50, carefully tucking in behind a truck, you say "gently caress this" and go all the way over in the fast lane to overtake, and they get offended at this and immediately lanechange and hammer on it to stay in front of you. Then they get scared because they're doing SEVEN OVER and immediately tap their brakes just as you come up parallel with the big rig they were passing. That poo poo can spontaneously generate aneurysms.

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON

xzzy posted:

I pass snow plows all the time. But I might be partially insane, having grown up within a couple hundred miles of the arctic circle.

Seconding this, I live in the snow belt of NE Ohio and use seasonal tires. Aside from levels of snow that render the road impassable for anything other than a lifted 4x4 I'd rather pass the plow truck than follow in its wake for miles, getting pelted by rock salt the whole time.

SFH1989
Apr 23, 2007

FogHelmut posted:

Onramps are generally very wide, and it's a good place to practice hitting the apex. I still do this when stuck behind someone doing 15 mph on a ramp I would otherwise safely take at 45. I wonder if they notice me swinging from their left mirror to their right and back to the left.

Geirskogul posted:

It's the only time I legally get to "open up all the taps," and I'm pissed when an rear end in a top hat interrupts me.

Yes one of my favorite bits of road is the I95 Exit 39B onramp in, again, Milford CT. You can see it here. Also the onramp right before "Point B" is where the woman in the 240 was stopped. This ramp is always ruined if anyone is in front of me. Since there are some bends their car will tip or skid off the road if they do any more than 30.

Astonishing Wang
Nov 3, 2004
I picked up one of those G1W dash cams, here's some sample footage. Not exciting but it shows how the camera does with vibration and low light. There's some shmootz on the lens but I couldn't get rid of it. It's not there any more though, which is weird :)

I start moving at around 1 minute. I can't wait to take this off road, but I'll probably have to make a sturdier mount.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbFJ8wtG8HU

Chillbro Baggins
Oct 8, 2004
Bad Angus! Bad!

ExecuDork posted:

When I don't have my GPS running, I tend to drive at the speed limit - but my in-car speedo says I'm speeding. When people try to kiss my back bumper as a result, I just ignore them. In this part of the world, a nice safe passing zone will open up fairly soon.

I once tested my mom's speedometer against my phone's and her Garmin's GPS. Her Kia reads 5mph under at highway speeds; indicated 80 is actual 75.

If your speedometer is off, it's going to read high partly for marketing and partly so people don't bitch about getting speeding tickets because of factory tolerances. It's more advertising-biased on older cars -- I once pegged the speedo on my '71 Nova just to see if I could; I figure I was definitely in the "reckless driving" range, probably over 100, but nowhere near the indicated 120mph.

My Crown Vic's speedometer, on the other hand, is admissible as evidence in court, so I drive like a little old lady. Every other car I've had, when the Highway Patrol pulled me over, the first thing they said was "Do you know how fast you were going?" The P71 Vic, they see that "Police Interceptor" badge on the trunk and have the ticket written out before they get to my window and just say "Sign here, please." But he only wrote me for 5-8mph over when it was actually a tier up (I was straight doing 80 in a 60, but I missed the sign and thought it was 70 and goosed it to pass an old man in a Buick doing 55 before the passing lane ran out.)

CharlesM posted:

Is it easy to do a speedometer calibration? My brother's car is pretty far off.
Yeah, the speedometer drive gear just kinda plugs into the transmission tailhousing, or you can adjust it in the ECU in modern cars. If you want to half-rear end it, there are calculators on the internet for working out how a change in tire size affects your speedometer reading. Put in stock tire size and new tire size and it gives you a percentage, some even tell you actual vs indicated speed for the common speed limits.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
It depends on the car, but yeah, many common RWD vehicles just have a gear.

I'm mildly annoyed by the fact that the gear I need to correct for the tires I just put on is a 37 tooth. 34 tooth is factory and I have a 35 and a 36 tooth on hand... might just put the 36 in and call it close enough.

Bathroom Surprise
Feb 15, 2005

SFH1989 posted:

Over the weekend I saw a woman stopped at the end of an on-ramp on I95 in Milford CT waiting for a gap to open in traffic. There were a good amount of cars on the road but it wasn't heavy and certainly not slowed down. I'm sure her Volvo 240 wagon had more than enough power to get up to speed to merge with the 70mph traffic on the very small amount of on-ramp she had left at that point.

Probably used to driving on the parkway :shrug:

TrueChaos
Nov 14, 2006




I will happily pass plow trucks all day long, especially when they're plowing the highway at 60km/h ish (35-40mph), because that's about as fast as they go even when there's only an inch or two of snow on the ground. Of course, I've gotten a few strange looks as I drive a miata.

Also, I need to be at the ski hill for 8am (Ski patrol) and have grown up driving with lots of snow. I've driven in a few storms before the plows got out where I was plowing with the front bumper. Definitely one of those if I stop I'm not getting going again kind of situations.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

TrueChaos posted:

I will happily pass plow trucks all day long, especially when they're plowing the highway at 60km/h ish (35-40mph), because that's about as fast as they go even when there's only an inch or two of snow on the ground. Of course, I've gotten a few strange looks as I drive a miata.

Also, I need to be at the ski hill for 8am (Ski patrol) and have grown up driving with lots of snow. I've driven in a few storms before the plows got out where I was plowing with the front bumper. Definitely one of those if I stop I'm not getting going again kind of situations.

Yeah, that's where we were headed when we got slammed by slush from a plow, too. Well, we were on the way home actually. Used to spend every single Wednesday up at Ragged Mountain in NH skiing from the minute the lifts opened till the minute they closed.

TrueChaos
Nov 14, 2006




kastein posted:

Yeah, that's where we were headed when we got slammed by slush from a plow, too. Well, we were on the way home actually. Used to spend every single Wednesday up at Ragged Mountain in NH skiing from the minute the lifts opened till the minute they closed.

I'm less likely to pass a plow on the way back, and the roads are usually better anyway. Once after getting 3 backboards in one day and skiing the toboggan down for all of them, I was ready for driverless cars, or even an automatic, as operating the clutch was a ridiculous amount of effort. Leg burrrrnnnn

BLARGHLE
Oct 2, 2013

But I want something good
to die for
To make it beautiful to live.
Yams Fan

Delivery McGee posted:


My Crown Vic's speedometer, on the other hand, is admissible as evidence in court, so I drive like a little old lady. Every other car I've had, when the Highway Patrol pulled me over, the first thing they said was "Do you know how fast you were going?" The P71 Vic, they see that "Police Interceptor" badge on the trunk and have the ticket written out before they get to my window and just say "Sign here, please." But he only wrote me for 5-8mph over when it was actually a tier up (I was straight doing 80 in a 60, but I missed the sign and thought it was 70 and goosed it to pass an old man in a Buick doing 55 before the passing lane ran out.)


My formerly-a-sherrif's-cruiser caprice's speedo has carried similar weight in court. I got pulled over one time for doing 82 in a 65, but my speedometer read 78. I brought this up in court, and they dropped it from reckless driving(up to $500 fine, a possible six month suspension, and six points on your license) to simply speeding(up to $200 fine, and four points).

Joke's on them though, because it's actually off exactly as much the cop wrote me for, and it only gets further off the faster you go! By the time it reads 130, you're going almost 140!

Ponies ate my Bagel
Nov 25, 2006

by T. Finninho
I love and hate this thread. It's kind of making me realize I'm "that" rear end in a top hat. I came to that realization when my reason for not getting a dashcam was "I don't want to catch myself doing stupid poo poo". I generally ride a good bit faster than traffic to get into the open spaces between groups of cars. I don't lane-split moving traffic, but I will lane-split cars at stop lights. I guess I should ride like less of a dong.

Astonishing Wang
Nov 3, 2004

Ponies ate my Bagel posted:

I love and hate this thread. It's kind of making me realize I'm "that" rear end in a top hat. I came to that realization when my reason for not getting a dashcam was "I don't want to catch myself doing stupid poo poo". I generally ride a good bit faster than traffic to get into the open spaces between groups of cars. I don't lane-split moving traffic, but I will lane-split cars at stop lights. I guess I should ride like less of a dong.

Just don't tell the cop you rear-ended that you have it all on tape.

InitialDave
Jun 14, 2007

I Want To Believe.

Ponies ate my Bagel posted:

I came to that realization when my reason for not getting a dashcam was "I don't want to catch myself doing stupid poo poo".
Perhaps more accurately, "I do not want to provide evidence that would allow someone not qualified to make the decision to declare me to be doing stupid poo poo".

trouser chili
Mar 27, 2002

Unnngggggghhhhh

Ponies ate my Bagel posted:

I love and hate this thread. It's kind of making me realize I'm "that" rear end in a top hat. I came to that realization when my reason for not getting a dashcam was "I don't want to catch myself doing stupid poo poo". I generally ride a good bit faster than traffic to get into the open spaces between groups of cars. I don't lane-split moving traffic, but I will lane-split cars at stop lights. I guess I should ride like less of a dong.

As I've aged and subsequently become more mature, I came to the realization that I drove like a jackass precisely because it was easy. It's easy to run 10-30mph than the rest if traffic, dart between lanes, and cut into lines at the last second. If driving were dogfighting, speed would be altitude. The more you got, the easier it is to maneuver where you want to be. Far harder is driving within and negotiating inside traffic moving at more or less the same speed. My 240d was a great car for me precisely because it took away the advantage of speed. Instead it rewarded careful planning and conservation of momentum. I highly recommend trying out a dreadfully slow car for a while, it'll make a better driver out of just about any enthusiast.

Black88GTA
Oct 8, 2009
After a close call last week, I'm looking into getting a dash cam myself. I rounded a blind corner on my way to work (on a narrow, windy road barely wide enough for bi-directional traffic) and some stupid gently caress in a CR-V came flying around it in the oncoming traffic lane, because he was taking the corner faster than his piece of poo poo would allow. All I had time to do was stand on the brakes, lean on the horn, and hope he either stopped or got out of my way. He (barely) did the latter, while giving me a "my bad, bro" handwave. gently caress you rear end in a top hat, you almost ramped off my hood. :mad:

As long as I'm picking one up, I want to get one that'll shoot simultaneously through two lenses so I can get everything in front and behind me. HD through both lenses would be awesome, but I'll take what I can get as long as the video is clear enough to see a reasonable amount of detail, and in a standard video format. Also, I wanna keep it $100 or less, and easy portability between cars would be a major plus (so no permanent installations). A secondary remote mount lens would be a bit of a pain in the rear end, but I'd deal with it if I had to.

There's a whole bunch on Ebay that seem to at least come close, but dashcamtalk doesn't seem to know much about these. Either that, or I'm not seeing it. Don't suppose anyone has any first-hand experience with any of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331013368582
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321089910370 <Kind of leaning towards this one atm, but I have to do more research.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360765035510
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400541072358

Queen_Combat
Jan 15, 2011

Black88GTA posted:

After a close call last week, I'm looking into getting a dash cam myself. I rounded a blind corner on my way to work (on a narrow, windy road barely wide enough for bi-directional traffic) and some stupid gently caress in a CR-V came flying around it in the oncoming traffic lane, because he was taking the corner faster than his piece of poo poo would allow. All I had time to do was stand on the brakes, lean on the horn, and hope he either stopped or got out of my way. He (barely) did the latter, while giving me a "my bad, bro" handwave. gently caress you rear end in a top hat, you almost ramped off my hood. :mad:

As long as I'm picking one up, I want to get one that'll shoot simultaneously through two lenses so I can get everything in front and behind me. HD through both lenses would be awesome, but I'll take what I can get as long as the video is clear enough to see a reasonable amount of detail, and in a standard video format. Also, I wanna keep it $100 or less, and easy portability between cars would be a major plus (so no permanent installations). A secondary remote mount lens would be a bit of a pain in the rear end, but I'd deal with it if I had to.

There's a whole bunch on Ebay that seem to at least come close, but dashcamtalk doesn't seem to know much about these. Either that, or I'm not seeing it. Don't suppose anyone has any first-hand experience with any of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331013368582
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321089910370 <Kind of leaning towards this one atm, but I have to do more research.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360765035510
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400541072358

I will follow this closely, as I want one for both my Subaru and one for my motorcycle, and dual-lens seems pretty good for catching sideswipers or something on the bike. For the car I think I'm going to boost for the one STR has.

briefcasefullof
Sep 25, 2004
[This Space for Rent]
Nearly totaled my truck today. I was on the interstate near a junction that usually gets clogged down, so I'll switch to the left lane to bypass people getting on and off. I'm riding behind a box truck when this guy passes me on the left. No problem there, so I decide to pass the box truck. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I went to pass and the guy that passed me loving stops in his lane because he just realized he's got to get off the interstate NOW at that exit right over THERE. I went from 65 to 40 and locked up my tires (and sphincter), applied horn and flipped him the bird.... only to have him oblivious to it all because he's on a cellphone.


Not ten minutes later on another section, there was some congestion (but still moving at 50mph), and I was riding in the righthand lane. Some rear end passes me on the right from the emergency lane and nearly takes my front end off. I flipped him off and in turn he flipped me off like I'm the rear end in a top hat. :wtc:

atomicthumbs
Dec 26, 2010


We're in the business of extending man's senses.
Dear ALL YOU FUCKERS,

WAIT UNTIL THERE IS SPACE FOR YOU TO LEAVE THE INTERSECTION BEFORE YOU EXIT. I had to wait TWO LIGHT CYCLES IN THE TURN LANE BECAUSE YOU FUCKERS WERE PILED TWO THICK IN ALL THREE THROUGH LANES AND THE RIGHT-HAND TURN LANE I'M TRYING TO TURN LEFT INTO.

Sincerely, gently caress

bolind
Jun 19, 2005



Pillbug
On my morning commute I was stopped for red, in the right turn lane, in a fairly big intersection. But I got out the door a little late, so rush hour was winding down, and on the particular road that I was turning on to, traffic comes in weird waves due to other lights. Long story short, there was probably 30 secs left of my red light, and the intersection was empty.

So this dude two lanes over from me, stopped in the left-turn lane, suddenly did a perfectly executed left turn. On red.

I honked my horn like a maniac, mainly to alert anybody that hadn't seen it. He stopped for 10 secs in the middle of the intersection, then did his turn, and went on his way. Nothing happened, and he didn't get plowed down by forty tons of semi-truck.

Crab Ran
Mar 6, 2006

Don't try me.
Maybe this is just the way people do things, but it made my butt pucker.

I was approaching the High Five Interchange and I see a huge truck pulling an even more ginormous tractor on a flat bed. No big deal, seen it every day.





But the tractor tires overhung the flatbed by 2/3 their width. At 70mph, this makes me feel a little sick.

If that's not enough to fit in the "people you share a road with" thread, just consider that I was driving at 70mph, taking these photos.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


atomicthumbs posted:

Dear ALL YOU FUCKERS,

WAIT UNTIL THERE IS SPACE FOR YOU TO LEAVE THE INTERSECTION BEFORE YOU EXIT. I had to wait TWO LIGHT CYCLES IN THE TURN LANE BECAUSE YOU FUCKERS WERE PILED TWO THICK IN ALL THREE THROUGH LANES AND THE RIGHT-HAND TURN LANE I'M TRYING TO TURN LEFT INTO.

Sincerely, gently caress

This. So very much this.

It's not even that hard. Don't enter the intersection if you will not be able to leave it again before the light turns red. Of course there's some leeway since you can't predict the future, but if it's backed up with stationary traffic, stay the gently caress back, even if the light is green.

It's the same thing with cross traffic. Green doesn't mean you should practice your best drag race launch while blaring the horn to get people out of the way, it means "proceed when the intersection is clear".

Intersection not clear? Don't loving enter it, no matter which color the light is. I've had people honk, flash their lights and flip me off because I remained stopped at a green light because the road was packed up on the other side all the way back into the intersection.

KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Oct 31, 2013

angryhampster
Oct 21, 2005

rear end in a top hat casserole posted:

Maybe this is just the way people do things, but it made my butt pucker.

I was approaching the High Five Interchange and I see a huge truck pulling an even more ginormous tractor on a flat bed. No big deal, seen it every day.





But the tractor tires overhung the flatbed by 2/3 their width. At 70mph, this makes me feel a little sick.

If that's not enough to fit in the "people you share a road with" thread, just consider that I was driving at 70mph, taking these photos.

I don't really see anything abnormal about this.

MrYenko
Jun 18, 2012

#2 isn't ALWAYS bad...

angryhampster posted:

I don't really see anything abnormal about this.

Just needs a wide load banner on the back end and some load-edge marker flags, IMO.

ijustam
Jun 20, 2005

MrYenko posted:

Just needs a wide load banner on the back end and some load-edge marker flags, IMO.

Looks like he has one but it's dirty as poo poo

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Those tires are every bit as flexible as a board. In fact I can think of a great many boards that are likely more flexible than them.

I don't really see a problem with it as long as the binders are properly chosen, tightened, safetied, and yeah, he needs a new wide load banner badly.

Opensourcepirate
Aug 1, 2004

Except Wednesdays
I feel like "Don't Block Intersection" signs are magically incomprehensible to the average driver. They recently did a ton of work on Western Ave. in Cambridge MA. It's a two lane one way street carrying a lot of traffic out of Cambridge and into Boston / onto I-90, with a lot of small cross streets and sets of lights as you go down. It turned into one lane at points due to the construction, so it became an extremely slow drive. They ended up putting up big DO NOT GRIDLOCK $100 FINE signs at like every intersection, and people still blocked them constantly.

I was coming up to an intersection recently, probably 6 cars back from it - enough that making it through the light wouldn't be an issue when it turned green. There are two lanes at the light, but where I was it was still one lane, and also there's a big driveway leading to a shopping center there. So I stopped right at the end of the one lane section, right in front of the driveway, with maybe 1.5 car lengths in front of me, just to leave the driveway totally open to anyone that wants to get in or out.

After about 30 seconds of this, the car behind me honks quickly and starts furiously pointing to the right. I'm like "oh, I guess he actually wants to get into the shopping center, and I'm blocking him by trying to keep the way open" so I pull forward into the left lane. Nope, he just couldn't stand the thought of there being empty space between him and the light. He pulled up next to me, with us blocking the driveway.

Kia Soul Enthusias
May 9, 2004

zoom-zoom
Toilet Rascal
The more signs are posted, the less people will read them.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

CharlesM posted:

The more signs are posted, the less people will read them.

Yup. "Too many signs here. This must be dangerous. I need to get out of this intersection ASAP."

People are really bad about clogging the street in front of the exit to our building, as there's a major intersection less than a block away. I have found that exiting with my window down, giving my best crazyman stare, gets 'em to hold off clogging the driveway.

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kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
The intersection at the end of the road my job is on is pretty bad, there's no light or traffic control of any kind (aside from a stop sign for the side road) and it pulls out onto a persistently jammed up 4 lane main street with lights every 200 feet. Putting someone in the drivers seat and getting them to take a left through traffic is a great test of whether they know how fast they can accelerate or have any balls at all.

Most people take the "inch forward out of the side street until they are blocking two lanes of oncoming traffic, then take a left when possible" approach. I'm not sure I can blame them.

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