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Pulling into a restaurant tonight, had to make a left turn across traffic. No problem, it's clear, I make the turn as the Porsche in front of me does. The Porsche slams on their brakes as soon as they're in the driveway. Leaving me stuck blocking the road (the driveway is also only wide enough for one vehicle; one way entrance that's basically an alley). I honk a few times, honk a lot more, finally roll down my window and try to get their attention. Both driver and passenger emerge, ignore me, start chatting about the latest Gucci watches or whatever poo poo people who drive brand new dealer tag Porsche SUVs are into. At this point people are angry with me, because I'm blocking most of the eastbound side of the road. Lots of horns honking. I couldn't back up, because people were trying to go around me. I couldn't go forward, because loving entitled dumbfuck and his passenger are too busy chatting about what versions of the missionary position they'll use later, and they had stopped so quick that I was only a couple of inches off of their bumper. In short, I was stuck until they moved. Finally dumbfuck and tweedledee get back in and roll forward... slowly... very slowly. I guess I shouldn't have made the turn until they had completely cleared the driveway, but I fully expected them to continue into the parking lot, not jam on the brakes and get out to discuss stocks in a busy restaurant entrance on a very busy road.
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Jul 21, 2018 07:44
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 00:48 |
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Phanatic posted:ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED I've seen less damage after an EF4 hit my area.
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Jul 24, 2018 06:11
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bigbillystyle posted:This, but add in merging from one highway to another. In 800 feet take the I-495 exit. Take the I-495 exit. In 800 feet merge onto I-495. Merge onto I-495. Follow I-495 for 13 miles. Do the majority of people really need the directions in between Take the exit and Follow the new road for X miles? I guess my beef is that I listen to mostly talk radio through my phone which also supplies my directions and 5 interruptions within a minute for the one or two odd times it happens during a trip is too much interruption for me. Google Maps gets particularly frustrating with the "in 400 feet, at the second right past the Jack in the Box, turn right onto Jefferson Road" poo poo. My vision is mostly alternating between street signs and the GPS screen at that point, NOT loving BUSINESS SIGNS. I discovered that if you manually specify a language within Google Maps, even if it's the same language that your phone is set to, it drops that same poo poo down to "in 400 feet, turn right", which requires just a quick glance at the display to make sure it matches the street I thought I was already about to turn on, with a fuckload less distraction. Blue Footed Booby posted:And God help me if I forget to tell it to avoid toll roads. "Take the I-95 EZ Pass Only or we sodomize you with a trout lane." Oh good, I'm not the only one that's noticed that Google Maps ALWAYS defaults to toll roads if there's one nearby, even if it's bumper to bumper on the toll roads... with surface streets or free highways being faster (sometimes by 20+ minutes). Waze just has too much distraction for me. I don't give a poo poo about getting a verbal alert about a broken down car on the shoulder. Nor do I care about the red light camera warnings, or the cop ahead warnings. I'm generally going with the flow of traffic.
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Jul 26, 2018 06:14
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No, it's not "turn right at the jack in the box", it's the "take the second/third right after jack in the box"... basically telling me to count the 1-2 driveways for Jack in the Box before making the right. It could just say "turn right on <x street>" instead of "after the second right at Jack in the Box, turn right on <x street>". It's flat out information overload. Just tell me "turn right on loving street", not "make the third right after 7-11, onto loving street". That's how I figured out the little hack to get it to just say "in 400 feet, make a right" (change language from Android Default to US English... despite my default OS language being US English).
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Jul 26, 2018 07:54
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Colostomy Bag posted:I enjoy when it tells you to get on the express lanes and then off them over and over.  Whenever I'm on the portion of I-635 with the underground TEXpress lanes, it flip flops between thinking I'm on I-635 itself, or the TEXpress section... then it'll sometimes think I'm on the access road instead. Thus, it switches back and forth between it screaming at me to take the next exit (since I keep "avoid tolls" turned on), get on the highway, or (most rarely) actually telling me my exit. Making it more fun: a couple of lanes (each direction) hang over the underground section, so unless it's using altitude, it has no way to actually figure out if you're underground or not. There's enough of a sky view that my phone can usually still get a GPS lock down there. I can't wait to see what it does with Austin's upper and lower deck on I-35 once I move!  Thankfully I won't be dealing with that too much.Also, when you go west on I-30 and hit the I-35E split, and you're trying to either go to I-35E, or, horror of horrors, take one of the exits on the ramp to I-35E immediately before the flyover for I-35E... keep right at the fork keep left at the fork keep right at the fork keep left at the fork keep right at the fork keep right keep left keep right at the fork  Javid posted:I'm rather curious to see at what point physical maps stop existing. Right now they're only useful for olds, and places without data service. As both categories shrink, so should the popularity of such relics. UPS drivers still carry them. They're not allowed to use GPS of any kind - standalone, or phone based. They're not even supposed to have any personal electronics turned on while in the trucks. Though the printed maps in the trucks are generally limited to the area that particular truck normally serves. I need to get a decent printed atlas, at least one covering TX. I've found a lot of rural areas in TX that T-Mobile doesn't cover - I'll roam onto AT&T for voice, but I can't get faster than EDGE while on AT&T (which is 100% useless for google maps). And when I'm really bored, I just start driving until I find the end of roads, then drive until I find the end of connecting roads, etc. If I haven't preloaded the maps onto my phone, I'm stuck driving until I find something I'm familiar with, or someone that can tell me how to get to a major road/town.
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Jul 30, 2018 08:07
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big crush on Chad OMG posted:Is this enforced for UPS? The last guy rolled up to my house with AirPods in. Yes, but once you've been driving awhile, it's generally only if someone complains. Just like the "all doors must be closed while the vehicle is running" rule - you can spot the newbies when they close the (cabin) door a few times. Once they've been on the truck more than a day, those doors only get closed when it's raining or cold. You have no idea how amazing it feels to have your leg hanging out just enough to catch the breeze when you're doing 60 mph in one of those tanks.  Though the ball sweat stench will probably cause multiple wrecks behind you..Cocoa Crispies posted:I honestly hope it's not enforced. If you're dealing with a big non-air-conditioned vehicle on public streets all day you deserve to listen to your own music while you're on the clock. This too. Even Fedex trucks are (mostly) air conditioned, and USPS is moving that direction. The LLVs aren't, but they at least have fans (something UPS drivers may or may not have, depending on how decrepit the truck is). Their current bidding for the LLV replacement includes AC, and a lot of letter carriers that have to dismount (walk the neighborhood instead of driving mailbox to mailbox) are now driving either Dodge Caravans or Sprinters. Funny enough... the LLV's original replacement, which was based on the Ford 4.no SOHC Explorer drivetrain, got phased out really quick, it's pretty rare to see one today. Pretty sure they got killed off because of the horrific timing chain setup. Sad that the 80s S-10 the LLVs are based on just keep going (when they're not bursting into fire). Ornamental Dingbat posted:I used to run a package car operation for UPS and the most certainly have GPS in the vehicles tied to their DIADs which can provide directions to their next stop. Good to know; the guy I rode with last swore up and down the DIAD couldn't do anything to help. He'd ignore the "cross this major road multiple times into the same neighborhoods" routing to avoid the no left turns rule, but that didn't seem to deviate enough to set off any alarm bells. But he would also plan u-turns well enough that he only spent 1-3 seconds in reverse - usually pulling into someone's driveway, giving it reverse just long enough to get it moving, then back into neutral to coast back to the road. He claimed he was generally expected to make about 200 deliveries off peak, up to 400 during the holidays. We'd have to offload to other drivers who finished early several times, but I was just a seasonal helper for 2 holiday seasons. He was driving a much older truck though - I had a picture of the build tag (can't find it now), but it was a 1995 with an International + 5+1 Muncie (granny low). Odometer was stuck at 399,999 (driver claimed it'd been that way for well over a year), and it would chuff its way downhill if you didn't yank the parking brake as if your life depended on it on even the slightest incline. Guessing he was more of a creature of habit than anything if the DIAD could actually provide routing. Then again, he was also an external hire, and had only been with them for less than 2 years. Phanatic posted:I kind of wish you could turn this on with Waze. A few times it's taken me to make a left turn across a busy multilane road where I have a stop sign and nobody else does, when there's a traffic light a block away. This is where the "make a right turn, then make the nearest legal u-turn" comes in handy. It's a strategy I use multiple times a day. 
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Aug 6, 2018 09:01
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Colostomy Bag posted:Yeah, read they were always struggling with NVH but figured there was something else that really did it in. They always had issues with oiling, head gaskets, water pumps (timing chain driven, even), and timing chains. They just weren't long-lived engines. The first and second generation of Ecotecs that replaced it also had a timing chain driven water pump.  Not sure if the newer ones still do.
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Aug 6, 2018 19:19
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The Door Frame posted:Wait, why is chain driven water pump a bad thing? I thought chains were better than belts Water pumps don't always last the life of the engine. In addition to what Colostomy Bag mentioned, the bulk of these engines were in FWD vehicles - making a water pump replacement an engine-out job (can't get the timing cover off with the engine in the car, at least not easily... it's easier to just drop the subframe). If for some reason the water pump were to lock up, you can also kiss your valvetrain goodbye. Alkydere posted:And yeah, thank gently caress Texas police are still too into tradition to do sneaky poo poo like that shadow-text. All of their cruisers and SUVs are black and white with visible lightbars, and the sherrifs are in brown. Not so fast there buddy. There's a city on I-45 that does shadow text on their speed trap cruisers, and they're dark brown or black to begin with (they're city cops). Richardson PD used to use exclusively blue cars. Dallas PD uses a mix of white, black/white, and black. Arlington uses blue and white. Plano uses a mix of all black, and black and white. I've seen TONS of Frisco, Plano, and Garland cops with hidden lights and no markings, and even saw a Frisco cop in an Escalade before, hidden lights galore. Dallas County Sheriff uses white cars, IIRC. Even DPS (highway patrol) has mostly switched to almost all black (with a white hood). Corinth has at least one shadow text vehicle, I wouldn't be surprised if Hickory Creek does. Austin, so far, seems to have very bland, traditional cars that just say "POLICE". They have a shocking number of Crown Vics still on the road here too, I'm having to re-train myself to watch for Crown Vic headlights behind me. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Aug 6, 2018 |
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Aug 6, 2018 21:59
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Long Francesco posted:I can tell you that unless its one of their main fleet vehicles that come with a factory package (taurus/explorer/charger/impala/crown vic/whatever), you will have a very hard time telling unless you get a good look up close or know where and what to look for. Typically most jurisdictions will buy a bunch of random vehicles off lease, sometimes not even american cars, and if their install shop is worth a poo poo you'll have no idea until you're getting pulled over. University Park TX currently (well, as of a few months ago, but I've seen it several times in the past year) has an unmarked Ford Fusion with both driver side doors caved in (probably purposefully; no paint damage, looks like they were kicked). No markings, just dark as hell tint (which UP would pull you over for the moment you hit their jurisdiction), and when the light hits just right, you can see the LED bars in the back window. I saw that car pull people over a couple of times. Lewisville TX used to have a riced out 99-00 Civic Si (this was in the early 00s) - I'm guessing they'd seized it from someone in some kind of bust. Dropped, loud exhaust, 17's, dark tint. If you revved at them, they'd rev back, the light turned green, you'd take off, they'd pull up next to you and hit the lights. I, uh, used to have a bit of fun baiting people if I saw that Civic at the same light (since I also drove a riced out Civic at the time... shut up I was 22). Carrollton TX used to have a 1st gen Ford Aerostar with peeling paint and plenty of patina (this was in 2000, but it was an early Aerostar with the sealed beam headlights).
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Aug 7, 2018 06:03
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xzzy posted:Somewhat related: I had an out-of-state tagged driver drop anchor hard on an interchange when they decided they were in the wrong lane a couple weeks ago. I had to bury my foot and let ABS save me to keep from plowing into them. It would be fair to suggest that I not follow that closely, but my gap was about average for what people do on highways these days, that's my defense and I'm sticking to it. 35 is a clusterfuck in Austin, and I had someone do the same thing last night... they changed lanes right in front of me and threw the anchor out, coming to a complete loving stop in a 65. The only reason I didn't plow into them is they heard the screeching tires and horns (since they blocked TWO lanes) and decided they'd be in better shape if they dragged that anchor to the shoulder in a hurry. I maintain well above average following distance, but you can leave a mile between you and the next car, and the village idiot is still going to cut you off. Texas plates, guessing out of town though. But... I mean... I've lived here less than 2 weeks, and after the first couple of days I had the highways mostly figured out (35 is a pain, but that's more figuring out upper decker vs lower deck). If *I* can figure out the roads, anybody can. I'm still getting lost now and then, but gently caress man, if you miss your exit, just take the next one and deal with the extra few minutes. Smell the
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Aug 11, 2018 11:16
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Saw some instant karma the other day. Now, it's legal to pass on the shoulder if traffic is stopped and there's an immediate turn ahead that you're making (here), so long as you do so carefully and at an appropriate speed, but I've been stopped for doing so before; I tend to be pretty cautious about making such turns if a LEO is nearby. Enter Miata with loud fartcannon, slammed, plenty of stickers (shocker sticker, no fat chicks sticker, etc), blowing past me doing ~40ish (traffic totally stopped) and obviously WOT. With a cop in front of me. The cops in my suburb don't cut you any breaks. This one lived up to the stereotype. Miata happened to pull into where I was going (library) once the red and blues came on. When I came back out from returning my books, cop was still there and had just handed Miata driver his ticket. I asked him how often the tickets come that easy, he just chuckled and said not often. Then mentioned he saw me with my signal on behind him (I wasn't 100% on if I could make my turn legally so far back from the turning lane, esp with a cop in a city known for not cutting any slack right there, so I held off on cutting onto the shoulder) and told me that I could have passed him legally on the paved shoulder to make the turn, so long as I wasn't a dick about it. Nice of him to let me know.
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Nov 23, 2018 09:16
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Looks like it's making potholes now.
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Sep 10, 2019 09:58
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 00:48 |
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These are the people you share a road with: Too much Freiburger
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Dec 3, 2020 15:12
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