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rscott posted:I had to show a (male) friend of mine how to open the hood on his corolla, which is his winter beater. His DD is a E46 M3. If this thread is supposed to be tales from people who fix cars for a living, should we really poo-poo the people who don't know anything about servicing their own cars and just have more money than mechanical smarts? Are those people not heroes who provide a living for mechanics, sending their kids to college with their lack of car ability.
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Sep 6, 2013 20:55
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some texas redneck posted:GM started doing the "retained accessory power" in the.. early 90s, I think, originally on their luxury cars. I seem to remember mom's old 1990 Cadillac having that, and I know the 1992 she replaced it with after it got wrecked had it. They do it on pretty much everything now, even their economy cars. What confuses me is my family had a 1998 Chevy Malibu that kept accessory power but my 1998 Corvette doesn't. Wouldn't want to go sticking all those high-tech Malibu standard features in your flagship model I guess. I think the first model we had with it was a '96 Buick Regal?
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Sep 11, 2013 18:21
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I saw that video yesterday and I was bummed about how many internet videos I see that I never hear any sort of resolution to about what happened. Then I come into work today and it was like the second headline on cnn.com. I'm not saying I want every news outlet to just cover memes and youtube from now on, but in this one instance it was nice. I just don't get people who go to these huge gatherings for the sole purpose of clogging roads and being dicks. Wouldn't you rather ride with a couple of people on some back roads than just try to get into Times Square surrounded by 1000 other bikes and not going anywhere? "Hollywood Stuntz" indeed. Edit: vv at one point I saw an ATV with what looks like a small yellow New York license plate on it. Are those actually road legal in New York if they have blinkers or something? davebo fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 18:04
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bolind posted:Idly browsing the for sale section for stuff for E87s, I come upon these wheels: Do used tire places sell stuff like that cheap to people who swap them out for drifting competitions at tracks or something? Surely there are penalties if police catch you with tires like that on public roads, right? Edit: apparently 1/16th inch is the legal minimum but I'm not sure if a cop would actually allow you to drive away on those tires or just write you a ticket. davebo fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 22:28
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bolind posted:While that's quite Well that's pretty responsible of him to do that, but that guy is definitely a statistical anomaly. I can't imagine how hard it is for some people to have to take away that amount of freedom from their own parents, and I really don't think they should have to. This should absolutely be the state's responsibility to have some sort of frequent re-test for the elderly to ensure the safety of everyone else on the road. My boss had to take away his mom's license like 10 years ago and she still gives him poo poo for it. Well let her blame Obama since she's gonna blame him for everything anyway. I really don't feel comfortable relying on everyone's ability to stand up to their parents to determine my safety. My dad has a 1970 E-type, how the hell am I gonna just take that away from him when the time comes if he doesn't want to give it up?
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Oct 4, 2013 17:05
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, many elderly, my granma included, don't really know when to say stop and have no business being on the road at all. I really hope that when my time comes, I'll have the balls to call it quits in time, and be in a position where I'm not dependent on a car.
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some texas redneck posted:Is there any real interest in a dashcam thread, or at least a "I caught this stupid poo poo on a dashcam" thread? It seems like several of us are either in the process of obtaining a dashcam, or already obtained one. I'd be happy just seeing youtube or whatever links to anything capture-worthy posted in this thread. Or if it's not about terrible drivers you encounter just the AI youtube thread?
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Nov 4, 2013 19:14
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I used to have a cloth-seat nothing special 2002 Monte Carlo that people would ask if it's new up to around 2010. Meanwhile a coworker had a BMW X3 where the passenger side was full of McDonalds poo poo about halfway up to the seat. My girlfriend may not like that I make no effort to hide computer/video cables in my house and there's a fair amount of clutter, but one thing I won't do is leave food garbage out, and especially not in a car. Sitting in the hot sun all day too, that's just gross.
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Nov 14, 2013 00:02
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kastein posted:I had a giant cup of dunkin donuts iced coffee thrown at me by a road rager one time. Fortunately he was in front of me so I swerved and caught it on the hood For some reason I just want to know more about this instance. Were you blocking the left lane, he started raging, passed you then threw it? I'm trying to imagine why someone would rage at the person behind them. Also, if he's in front and throws the coffee and you swerve to the left or right, how does that make it land on the hood as opposed to I assume the windshield he was aiming for? Or did you mean you just slowed down so it landed on the hood instead of the windshield? What did he do once it didn't work?
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Nov 25, 2013 21:26
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West SAAB Story posted:The problem I have with roundabouts is that people here in the US don't seem to know what their purpose is, and they use them rather than speedbumps to hinder traffic. So, The road my dead end street was off of growing up had two roundabouts placed in it, just small enough to be a nuisance since it was just a two lane road with a single lane road intersecting at each point, all residential. They'd put some plants and small trees in the center. The whole purpose of it was to slow traffic down, which makes sense, but then at one end of this road they stuck a no turn on red light just to create huge gaps so presumably people who lived on the road had plenty of opportunities to pull out onto it. Well all the roundabouts did was space out the traffic that was hindered by the no turn on red, so it was counterproductive. Plus every now and then the signs in the roundabouts had to be replaced by people not paying attention and plowing right through them. One time I left for work in the morning and there was I think a Suzuki Vitara, the little one, balanced perfectly with its rear on the ground and it's front up on the bent over tree. It was a thin little tree, but strong enough to carry the weight of that thing, but no wheels were on the ground so it just sat there. Anyway, people realized it was stupid but it still took about 8 more years for them to actually get removed. They got leveled so now the road is just lumpy where they used to be. One was replaced with 3 speed bumps, while the other was replaced with those 3' high rubber markers in the center line and edges so people slow down as if they're incapable of staying in the center of the lane at 35mph.
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Dec 4, 2013 00:01
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Tha Chodesweller posted:Almost hit a guy last night. Waiting to turn, don't see any cars, HOLY poo poo A BLACK PRIUS WITH NO LIGHTS ON. It was 8:00 at night, so the sun was definitely set. Guy just cruising down an unlit road in a black car with no lights. You can't tell me with all the technology onboard that a Prius doesn't turn its lights on automatically at night. How are people accidentally manually turning their lights off at night?
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Dec 11, 2013 18:58
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Does anyone here watch Canada's Worst Driver? I've been enjoying this season where they've brought back some of the "winners" from previous seasons so it's really a worst of the worst scenario. I watch on youtube since I'm not Canadian but I just can't fathom how bad these people are. I wish the state could step in so that the loser actually lost their license. Or just have some patrol cars wait outside the facility to tail them home and catch their first mistake. It's a fun show but there needs to be more schadenfreude.
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Dec 16, 2013 17:51
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0rganDonor posted:You don't need a special license to drive a tank on the road. So long as it has road treads and you follow all the weight and width restrictions that we on the commercial side follow and are not driving it for profit, you're golden. If I'm driving a tank around on public roads, one way or another, I'm getting some money.
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Dec 23, 2013 19:26
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Professor Bling posted:I raced it down a frontage road and then, yeah, through the gates and across the crossing. Yeah, that's pretty dangerous alright. My office is on a short straightaway across from the metro tracks, and I get more than enough thrill just pulling out of the parking lot when a train happens to be coming up then accelerating so I can beat it to the light where it disappears behind some buildings. Granted, it's only going about 5mph over the speed limit, but it's less about the speed and more "I'm racing a train! Bet I'm blowin' those bored commuters' minds!"
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Dec 26, 2013 22:04
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It's hard to tell from the photo but aside from the dotted white line in front of eat train track, are there lights or anything to alert drivers that hey, a tram is coming and you should not be on the train tracks? Do they just stop everyone with lights outside the roundabout with enough lead time before a tram gets there?
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Dec 27, 2013 17:05
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xzzy posted:This is my first winter with traction control, and while it's pretty nice to get effortless starts when a light goes green (it does make me feel like a lazy bastard though), it loving sucks when I want to goose the throttle for some intentional wheel spin and the car is all "sorry bro, safety first!!" Thank goodness though. I can't imagine what a dick driver I could potentially be if I didn't have to think to myself "this is an appropriate time and place for me to do a little burnout" and then physically push a button to disable traction control. I assume you are able to turn it off in yours?
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Jan 2, 2014 18:26
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It's hard to tell from that gif but did that beetle somehow manage to be the only car to just scoot over and land on all fours? That's pretty respectable.
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Jan 31, 2014 22:00
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Hey we have one of these in Rockville, MD, except on ours your vision is completely obscured by trees while on the ramp, so once you clear the trees I guess you better just floor it and hope there's a break! 
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Feb 4, 2014 18:32
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8ender posted:I was almost that guy once. I turned onto the on ramp for the highway and heard a clunk. The turn felt very very wrong. Pulled over and my left tire was hanging on with three half backed out lugs. I was gonna say, it probably wasn't that guy's fault but rather whoever rotated his wheels last. Not like the infamous autocrosser who I'm sure swapped wheels out himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4m41viy4I
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Feb 25, 2014 18:05
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Deeters posted:Sometimes I put my automatic in neutral at long stoplights because it vibrates less. I do that sometimes if there's no incline. It has the added benefit of making people think my car that I wish was manual actually is. Screw cars where a manual is a more expensive and harder to find option.
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Feb 27, 2014 18:22
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Geoj posted:Last night I'm driving home - I don't get it, it looks like you both have your own lanes so why would he even have to stop? Even if you pulled out from the stop sign and immediately got into his lane, couldn't he just go around into your lane? Also, I usually have a nice uneventful 14 minute commute to work through mainly stop lights, but for some reason both of the last two days someone has been in the left turn lane then wide turned. Today it was some young girl who started coming into my lane then realized at the last second hey I don't need a full 3 lanes to turn and there happens to be a car right next to me. But yesterday the dude turned right into my lane and it was the first time I've used my horn in the almost 2 years I've had this car. I know the leftmost turn is supposed to turn into the left lane, but if you've got 2 lanes turning into 3 and I'm in the right lane, I'll go ahead and turn into the rightmost one just to be safe, but that's as far as I go. I'm not jumping up onto the sidewalk so you can take 3 lanes to turn so get your poo poo together.
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Mar 14, 2014 17:14
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IronCastKnight posted:I am one of those inconsistent speed while driving properly types, and I'm sorry. I can't help it, I drive an Insight most of the time, so whenever I hit so much as a one degree incline no matter how hard I nail it I just can't not lose velocity. It's just so goddamn gutless. Good mileage though. I don't think there's any need to apologize for this type of driving so long as we're all not doing it in the passing lane or passing others, moving back into their lane then slowing down forcing them to pass us again at each hill. It should be fine to fluctuate your mileage with hills as long as you're not disrupting the flow of traffic.
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Mar 21, 2014 20:57
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Uthor posted:I hate when I'm stuck behind someone cruising in the left lane and the other lanes are packed and/or even slower so I can't get around on the right. Then the person behind me gets pissed, crosses over 2-3 lanes to the right, cuts multiple people off, rides some bumpers, then cuts me off to be stuck behind the person I was stuck behind in the first place. On the other hand though, when that guy does decide to cut through every lane and ends up getting back over and cutting off the idiot blocking the passing lane, and he realizes what an idiot he's been and merges over clearing the way for the rest of us. Kudos to that guy. I mean I wasn't about to swerve all over to show that guy what's what, I was content to just ride his rear end, but sometimes being more proactive helps.
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May 20, 2014 21:27
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I guess Left Lane Blockers have been a problem for longer than I realized.
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Jul 17, 2014 06:08
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GramCracker posted:So I guess this is one way to park? What I don't get is that before he smashes the car it looks like he's fitting in there just fine. Wouldn't just keying the guys car be easier and not damage his truck?
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Jul 18, 2014 17:56
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Deeters posted:It's a little hard to tell, but sitting at the light you see that the two straight lanes are perfectly lined up with the lines on the three lanes on the other side of the interesection. Maybe it's more obvious from ground level but it doesn't seem like they're lined up that well.  Edit: Wait I think I misread your post, that's exactly what you're saying right? That the lanes are lined up with the lines. Me read good. davebo fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 16:20
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Lamar Smith R-TX posted:The footage used for this video was pulled from maybe 10 minutes of my commute home from work. So this is actually your video? kastein would like a word with you.
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Sep 19, 2014 21:09
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Cakefool posted:I once honked at a guy on his phone and he dropped his phone on the road. How did that happen? Was he hanging his head out the window while holding his phone? As for baby on board stickers, I do admit if someone is driving unreasonably slow I won't tailgate them if I see one of those signs. Of course sometimes I won't tailgate anyway and just assume they have poorly secured potted plants they're transporting.
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Oct 9, 2014 20:46
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xzzy posted:There's a guy I see all the time who has a silver Accord, always parks in the most distant remote corner of the parking lot. It's been this way for years. either that or he recognizes that he's a terrible and dangerous parker and is doing us all a favor by staying the hell away from us, in which case I endorse this behavior. Vovo posted:A while ago I was filling up my car at a gas station, and a lady asked me if I could help her. I was a bit apprehensive 'cause I didn't feel like changing a tire or something. She was confused about why her headlights were on but the taillights were off. "Am I just overlooking something or are they broken or what?" So I turned on her lights for her, she looked pretty embarrassed. This I don't quite understand. If you turned her lights "on" were the headlights not already on but she thought she saw them? Did she think the daytime running lights were the headlights or something? If the car has censors and automatically turn the headlights on when it gets dark don't the taillights come on too? I was leaving Baltimore Saturday night and it had recently gotten dark and this guy had no taillights on as I passed him on the highway, seeing he had tiny DRL's on. The semi behind him gave him a honk and sure enough he turned them right on. I wish I could say I wasn't ever guilty of that but driving my boss's van out of DC at sunset one day by the time I got to the beltway it was dark and someone had to flash me before I realized the lights didn't come on automatically. Technology has spoiled me. davebo fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 19:51
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Wait... what?
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Oct 22, 2014 22:37
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sbyers77 posted:Around here, traffic turning left from a single turn lane onto a multi-lane road are SUPPOSED to turn into the nearest lane, but only about half of the cars (if that) actually do it. Gorson posted:I get nervous when I'm in a 2-lane to 2-lane left turn, I have to hope the car on my left holds his lane. This is why everyone in the second lane of a 2-into-3 left turn always goes into the third lane. No one trusts those sketching looking left-laners. I mean why were they in the leftmost lane to begin with? Probably passing people because they're reckless ne'er-do-wells.
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Oct 28, 2014 22:51
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PT6A posted:I think, if I were a cop, I'd just drive around at night writing large tickets to morons who don't turn their lights on. Seriously, I don't drive at night much, but every time I do, I see at least one (usually more) car going down the road without lights on. Turn your goddamn loving lights on, you horrible morons! Automatic lights are no excuse, in my opinion: they're there as a fallback. Personally, I always turn my lights to the full on position even though I have automatic lights, especially in bad weather or near dusk when I want to be sure they're on. This is apparently me every time I drive my boss's van for work. First time I drive this van at night I was doing a job like 6 months ago in D.C. with a coworker and the sun was just setting as we left, so with traffic it was pretty dark by the time we got to the beltway and I finally noticed my lights weren't on. Felt like an idiot since I'm used to automatic lights or popup lights where it's obvious they aren't up. Then two weeks ago the same coworker and did a job at the same place and I was joking about how I didn't turn the lights on last time. We leave and it's still a bit light but slightly raining and first thing I do when we get in the van is twist the knob, I see a light go on the dashboard that clearly looks like headlights and off we go. Sun sets as we wade through traffic and about a half hour later I realize my lights still aren't on. That dash light that looks like headlights is just to let you know the interior lights are on, and you have to twist the knob further to turn headlights on, which doesn't have any kind of indication. So I'm just gonna stop hating on people without lights on and assume they're just driving their boss's lovely hondas for the first or second time since I'm clearly one of them.
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Oct 30, 2014 17:03
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SpannerX posted:I haven't read through 190 pages (too many threads to keep track of), but man, Canada's Worst Driver makes me want to take public transport everywhere. God there are some bad drivers on that show. Oh man thanks for mentioning this. I love this show but I can only find it on youtube so I never hear when new seasons start. Usually that works out because by the time I find out there are four or five episodes I can shotgun but it looks like it just started two weeks ago. It's my only reality tv guilty pleasure.
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Nov 5, 2014 17:20
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CharlesM posted:I've seen this a lot at the state college with exchange students. Their license from overseas is valid I guess but they have an absolute lack of experience or comprehension of driving here. I admit I haven't been to a lot of foreign countries and I know some of them even have the nerve to drive on the opposite side of the road, but all of the cars in other countries still have 4 wheels and the turny thing in the cabin you roll around to direct the car right? I worry that if I drove in some foreign land it'd be like that one episode of Star Trek where Wesley didn't realize if you play on the grass they put you to death and there's just one obscure law I won't know that'll ruin everyone's day, but if I can pull into a parking spot in the USA I'd think I can manage the same feat in Azerbaijan.
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Nov 10, 2014 09:04
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AncientTV posted:This one's even worse. I've personally witnessed three accidents and dozens of near misses here: I thought it was funny this dangerous intersection was on "Race Track Rd." but after scrolling east a bit was disappointed that it's just a horse track.
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Nov 11, 2014 20:13
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I used to be a stickler for full stop even if no one was around, but I've eased up over time. Obviously full stop if anyone can see me, even if its just pedestrians hanging around, but empty suburban neighborhoods late at night I roll slowly through. I did get my first stop light camera ticket earlier this year for slowly rolling a right on red at night. I thought those things just flashed photos when you went straight through, but sure enough the ticket linked me to a nice little flv video file. A 4:3 flv file? What is this, 2005?
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Dec 4, 2014 21:54
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xzzy posted:It makes far more sense to offer cars that are self driving instead of artificially making them more difficult. We're already almost there in terms of having technology that can do it. That's what I was thinking, in a decade all these people who do that kind of garbage will have self driving cars and won't be a problem. The problem will be our highways are 4 lanes packed full of cars doing exactly 55mph and suddenly I'll be the rear end in a top hat putting everyone in danger. At least the robots will have finally mastered zipper merging.
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Dec 10, 2014 17:30
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Ludicro posted:I see this thrown about a lot, how is this legal? In the UK and most of Europe there is some form of annual inspection (MOTs in the UK) to ensure your car is safe and roadworthy. To fail one of these basically renders your vehicle illegal to drive on public roads until the issues are rectified. I tried googling again, but it seems the US doesn't seem to have anything like this apart from emissions. This can't be right surely? I think it varies by state, and we do have emissions inspections every 2 years in Maryland, but we only have to have the car inspected when we go to sell it, or if you move here from out of state car and need to reregister it for Maryland. But to answer your question of how it's legal., it's legal because of freedom 
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Dec 10, 2014 20:14
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Here's a follow-up to the last bit about getting a license. This course is where I took my license test 20 years ago and looks pretty similar aside from the parallel parking used to be on the second half of the course, but basically now you parallel park in between cones set up at A, do a three-point turn at B and have to stop at all the S's and look both ways before proceeding. I got a point off for not turning my head to make it obvious i was carefully looking to my left on the grass where there used to be a row of bushes. Silly me for assuming there wouldn't be oncoming traffic from bushes. Edit: I should add that if you make contact with any cone you insta-fail.
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Dec 10, 2014 20:26
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IOwnCalculus posted:Years ago my wife and I made a game of this. Despite Arizona's rather lax gun control laws, neither of us were filled with lead. However, it only really worked well when dealing with malls that had massively insufficient parking; ever since the recession the lots at the malls we go to these days rarely get over 50% full, even during the holidays. I feel like some of the malls around me rarely get over 50% leased out on the inside.
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Dec 15, 2014 21:34
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I just had to ride with my boss for about a 50 minute round trip, during which he was on his phone about 20 minutes, used his turn signal zero times, and had his seatbelt buckled for none of it. I don't understand how that intermittent dinging doesn't annoy people. That's specifically what it's designed to do.
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Feb 19, 2015 21:02
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