Driving tips and tricks

[pabster]

I was blabbing away to a friend last night about driving in Europe, which obviously is very different from driving here. It got me thinking about how different countries/cultures drive very differently, which got me thinking on how I drive.

So I thought I'd start a thread where people could post their little tricks of the trade. We obviously all love cars, which would mean we all love to drive, right? So what are some of your tips on being a better driver?

A disclaimer: I am certainly not one of those "drive defensively" types. There is a time for defensive driving, but there are also times where hitting the gas, taking the initiative is the right call.

Anyway: I'll start it off. Many of the strategies and methods I use when driving came from driving transit for 4 years in Seattle, others from riding a motorcycle, and others from experience.

- I tend to move around a fair amount in the lane I'm driving in, depending on the situation. This really comes from motorcycling. I often hug the right side of a lane when I'm going though twisties, since I don't trust oncoming traffic to keep from cutting corners.

-I always stop at least 5 feet from the rear of the car in front of me at any light or stop sign. That way, if the person in front stalls/decides to sit there/etc. I can get around them. Also good in case it looks as though a person coming up behind you won't stop in time, gives you the space to get out of the way.

-I give large vehicles TONS of room, and I don't drive next to them if I can possibly avoid it.

- On hills with stops and starts, I leave plenty of room in front of me to avoid drivers who can't deal with inclines from rolling back and hitting me. (This is a San Francisco thing)

Looking forward to learning something new...

 

[Bruzilla]

- I always avoid driving in the passing lanes. If I'm not actually passing someone, I stay in the travel lane. Cops, especially those using LIDAR, will point their gun at a car in a passing lane before one in the travel lane. And when using radar, they assume the car in the passing lane is the one registering the highest speed. So I can be doing 80 in the travel lane and someone can be going 70 in the passing lane, and they'll get my 80 MPH ticket.

- When I'm number 1 at an intersection, I start moving forward the second the light turns green, and if someone is trying to run the light I'll try to force them to stop in the middle of the intersection. I do this a lot, and twice I've been lucky enough to have a cop nearby who would get behind the red light runner/intersection blocker and have them pull off the road so they can get their just-deserved ticket.

 

[tpodwdog]

im glad you started this post Pabster....good idea...now on to how i drive....youll love this :

I am ALWAYS at the ready with middle finger poised for immediate use. This is reserved for.......

a. young teenage girls on cell phones
b. young wanna be hot rodding boys in their "spit-fires" as i call them(neons or the like with that ANNOYING sounding 4 inch pipe commin out the back)
c. women drivers...( yes all of them)
d. idiots driving in the passing lane at 45 MPH .
e.truck drivers that dont realise they have 500 horses under the hood
f.someone on a 2 lane road making a left....and is all the way on the right side of it so nobody can get around them !
g. morons keeping pace in the fast lane with a semi in the slow lane ( thats a favorite)
h.******** that JUST HAVE to pull out in front of me...causing me to lock up my brakes...only to make a left 50 feet up the road when there is NOBODY BEHIND ME !
i. school buses that have to stop every 15 feet to pick up some future DREG of society that really dont want to go to school in the first place !
j.old men...wearing a hat....usually driving an old Chrysler going 25 in a 45 zone.
k.jagoffs that are on their cell phone sitting there although the light has turned green 45 seconds ago !
l.AND MY ALL TIME FAVORITE..... ding-a-lings that are cruising at a good 80 MPH clip...sees a cop .....slamms on their brakes....thinking that the cop doesn't see ANY of what they just did ....and damn near causing an accident with 4 cars....2 motorcycles.... 3 semi's....and a Volkswagen...AND ME !

BELIEVE IT OR NOT , I AM A COURTEOUS DRIVER... i always use my signals....pull to the extreme left when making a left so people can get around me......the general public AND WOMEN just should not be allowed on the roads....PERIOD .

MY LAST ACCIDENT WAS IN 1984...(most of you know the mustang and the Road Runner headlong into the telephone pole story)...and thats because i was being ...well....just an idiot!

 

[Dako]

Bruzilla,

I can't agree more with your comments...and should someone try to beat a light only to sit out in the intersection, blocking me from traveling on my, now GREEN LIGHT, I will just l-a-y on my horn...I mean take a nap on that thing! I don't care if they are stuck out there 30 seconds or 3 minutes...that horn is solid into the side of their car until they are clear. Does it help? No. Does it make them think twice next time? Who knows. Does it make me feel better? Why yes...yes it does.

 

[67 coronet]

ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION!!!
whenever i am sliding around a turn at 100+ mph i like to know what everbody else is doing.:headbang:
interesting how other countrys view our way of driving.saw an episode of top gear(british one)where they asked a german too drive a ford that had like 10 cup holders in it.he asked what they were for and said"if he is in a car he is there to drive,not drink."

 

[dgraver]

I agree with all of these, but "I" really fires me up. Seriously, I swear buses pick each kid up at their house, not at group bus stops. Lazy frigging country and overprotective *** parents.

Let me add one more hatred, tree huggers who ride bikes to work and take up entire lanes of traffic because it's "their right" and we must share the road. Bull crap, if you can't go the speed limit you should not be on the road! These idiots being cheap and saving the environment make traffic more miserable than it has to be. Ok I'm done.

im glad you started this post Pabster....good idea...now on to how i drive....youll love this :

I am ALWAYS at the ready with middle finger poised for immediate use. This is reserved for.......

a. young teenage girls on cell phones
b. young wanna be hot rodding boys in their "spit-fires" as i call them(neons or the like with that ANNOYING sounding 4 inch pipe commin out the back)
c. women drivers...( yes all of them)
d. idiots driving in the passing lane at 45 MPH .
e.truck drivers that dont realise they have 500 horses under the hood
f.someone on a 2 lane road making a left....and is all the way on the right side of it so nobody can get around them !
g. morons keeping pace in the fast lane with a semi in the slow lane ( thats a favorite)
h.******** that JUST HAVE to pull out in front of me...causing me to lock up my brakes...only to make a left 50 feet up the road when there is NOBODY BEHIND ME !
i. school buses that have to stop every 15 feet to pick up some future DREG of society that really dont want to go to school in the first place !
j.old men...wearing a hat....usually driving an old Chrysler going 25 in a 45 zone.
k.jagoffs that are on their cell phone sitting there although the light has turned green 45 seconds ago !
l.AND MY ALL TIME FAVORITE..... ding-a-lings that are cruising at a good 80 MPH clip...sees a cop .....slamms on their brakes....thinking that the cop doesn't see ANY of what they just did ....and damn near causing an accident with 4 cars....2 motorcycles.... 3 semi's....and a Volkswagen...AND ME !

BELIEVE IT OR NOT , I AM A COURTEOUS DRIVER... i always use my signals....pull to the extreme left when making a left so people can get around me......the general public AND WOMEN just should not be allowed on the roads....PERIOD .

MY LAST ACCIDENT WAS IN 1984...(most of you know the mustang and the Road Runner headlong into the telephone pole story)...and thats because i was being ...well....just an idiot!

 

[Moparsmitty]

ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION!!!
whenever i am sliding around a turn at 100+ mph i like to know what everbody else is doing.:headbang:
interesting how other countrys view our way of driving.saw an episode of top gear(british one)where they asked a german too drive a ford that had like 10 cup holders in it.he asked what they were for and said"if he is in a car he is there to drive,not drink."

That's a big part of the problem. A big portion of people "driving" these days are about 5% driving and 95% everything else. Everything from cell phones, texting, reading, listening to music with ear buds and just about anything else you can think of. It's no wonder that the automakers are trying to come up with cars that drive themselves. Most drivers anymore just flat don't know how to drive and don't really care. They think that if there's a problem that their air bags will save them. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. In the past few years I've had a lot of oncoming cars drift into my lane because the driver isn't 100% driving. Seems to be happening more and more. Scary!

 

[MarPar]

Most drivers anymore just flat don't know how to drive and don't really care. They think that if there's a problem that their air bags will save them. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

my tip, i read the traffic in front of me a little ways...1/8 mile or less and pick out the moron Toyota drivers or the stupid Prius' with all the bumper stickers on it. and proceed to cut their asses off.

 

[Budnicks]

Here in Calif., the state with probably the most cars & worst drivers, we now have our out of touch "Moonbeam Flower Child", Global Warming/Climate Change Environmentalist Activist/Advocate, Gov. Jerry Brown, pushing for & approving funding for driver-less cars on our Hwy's & streets, thinks it will help, save the environment & slow climate change... wow what an freaken' idiot, out of touch with reality, as if the Calif. drivers & especially in the S.F. Bay Area & Los Angeles Area's, aren't all ready "bad enough", now we're going to have machines/computers driving for us... Please guys, I'm not trying to make this political, please don't turn it into a political thread, just information, to those outside of Calif. on driving skills or soon to be "lack of" driving skills here ...

 

[67 coronet]

Here in Calif., the state with probably the most cars & worst drivers, we now have our out of touch "Moonbeam Flower Child", Global Warming/Climate Change Environmentalist Activist/Advocate, Gov. Jerry Brown, pushing for & approving funding for driver-less cars on our Hwy's & streets, thinks it will help... wow what an freaken' idiot, out of touch with reality, as if the Calif. drivers & especially in the S.F. Bay Area & Los Angeles Area's, aren't all ready "bad enough", now we're going to have machines/computers driving for us... Please guys, I'm not trying to make this political, please don't turn it into a political thread, just information, to those outside of Calif. on driving skills or soon to be "lack of" driving skills here ...

not sure of the whole "driverless car" thingy.saw a couple shows on it,and we are not that near the tech we truely need.if they give them there own lane and leave me mine,i dont think i would mind all that much.hey budnick,you should try driving in vegas.at any given time there are 100,000 to 400,000 tourests loose on our streets.i am pretty sure they are all the worst drivers from around the world.

 

[Budnicks]

I laughed when I saw this... Yeah, I remember Vegas & the bad drivers too...

 

[Cranky]

Yeah, I saw Brown on CNBC talking about it the other day. Still have to have a licensed driver behind the wheel.

And Houston isn't exactly fun to drive in and with it being a 'harbor' city, you can pretty well bet on who doesn't have insurance. We also have a huge population from other countries with most of them trying to use their countries driving style.

 

[Bruzilla]

Bruzilla,

I can't agree more with your comments...and should someone try to beat a light only to sit out in the intersection, blocking me from traveling on my, now GREEN LIGHT, I will just l-a-y on my horn...I mean take a nap on that thing! I don't care if they are stuck out there 30 seconds or 3 minutes...that horn is solid into the side of their car until they are clear. Does it help? No. Does it make them think twice next time? Who knows. Does it make me feel better? Why yes...yes it does.

I lay on the horn when I'm in my Interceptor, but not in the Roadrunner... it just sounds weak. ;) The city where I live just approved red light lights, and I would help them put them up myself if it would get them up sooner! I have to negotiate one intersection where the green going in one direction is about 10 seconds, so when asshats coming the other way eat up 3-4 seconds of that time running the red, or blocking the intersection because they kept going when there was no place for them to go, I just want to drag them out of their cars and beat them. At least once the cameras go in they'll be held accountable in some way for their lack of regard for other drivers.

 

[Budnicks]

Where I live in the sticks now, it's much better than it was in the city, but you need to have your head on a swivel to keep the dumb asses from running into you, I haven't been in a wreck/accident that was my fault since I was 16 y/o, 37 years ago, we had a bunch of young teen age girls, in a Mustang a couple cars ahead of us, on a cruise night in Sacramento J St. cruise, in a 67 Mustang, with the 3 tail-lite on each side, they had been modified to say SEX in the tail-lites, when they stepped on the brakes, wasn't paying attention & ran into a jacked up 67-68 Camaro in-front of me, with my nearly perfect 68 Charger R/T, messed it up big time, all the other wrecks or accidents were someone else's fault, been rear ended a few times, smashed my Power Wagon up bad in a wreck on Hwy 680 by the Lafayette/Walnut Creek interchange, 2 fully loaded MMM Carpet Vans, were racing to a job, haulen' *** & didn't see the traffic stopped, sandwiched me between them & a couple cars ahead of me, that were already stopped.... You really have to drive like everyone is out to get or kill you, or move to the sticks & only worry about the occasional drunk or some "dumb ***", no driven Ivan, taking his 1/2 out of the middle of the roads, the freaken' deer are a far bigger issue, than the other drivers....

 

[coloradodave]

re; Middle finger

"I am ALWAYS at the ready with middle finger poised for immediate use. This is reserved for......."

Good examples of current crop of drivers who are doing everything EXCEPT driving.
I might make a suggestion though. If you ever find yourself driving in East Los Angeles, please SIT ON your hand. Oh yeah, any part of Texas as well. Some of these folks don't take kindly to the 1 finger salute, even if they're in the wrong..........

 

[daredevil]

Drive like you own the road and speed limits be damned. Dont second guess yourself. Make up your mind and do it. If you dont you will get run the hell over in Houston.

 

[bigredbird]

When they were learning to drive, I told all of my kids to drive as if every other car on the road was out to kill them. It's advice I use for myself too. I know that I look like the liquid terminator in T2 when I'm driving, with eyeballs scanning 100 different road-data inputs every second. It's exhausting -- but hey, I'm still here to talk about it. :sunny:

 

[kb67mopar]

Around here if they have an illinois license plate you know they won't use a turn signal, will cut you off, and change 4 lanes at one time to save from being one car length farther back. Oh and next time you are in a construction zone and see a car fly down the lane which is ending to cut off everybody else....check the plate....Probably says Illinois

My plan is to stay one lane over from the fast lane, keep out of the truck lane, pay attention to everything people are doing and make sure I block the rich a$$ hole driving 104 from getting thru that little hole...I got between 283 and 345 hp that say you wont fit...depending on which Dodge I am driving...

 

[fiorock]

When driving on a multi-lane highway, I never change lanes with another car abreast of me one lane over. Inevitably, the other guy will pick that exact moment to try to occupy the same space at the same time. I either speed up or back off. It avoids doing 'da bump'...

Like you Pabster, I give trucks (or any towing vehicles) wide berth. I also believe, if you're gonna pass, be decisive. I never 'linger' next to trucks in the passing lane. If he gets cut off, guess where he's gonna go. I don't relish becoming one-with-the-guardrail.

 

[bigredbird]

^ I've been working for 20 years on getting my wife to realize that she needs to get past trucks quickly in the passing lane -- and that she needs to pay attention to who's creeping along the on-ramp two lanes over at the same speed as the truck, because sure as hell the truck driver is paying attention and will need to move when the car driver doesn't. Lots of close calls. She gets annoyed (!!!) when I blame her instead of the truck driver. Still working on it....