this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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I’ll start. Stopping distance.

My commute is 95 miles one way to work, so I see a lot of the highway, in the rural part of the US. This means traveling at 70+ mph (112km/h) for almost the entirety of the drive. The amount of other drivers on the road who follow behind someone else with less than a car’s length in front of them because they want to go 20+ over the speed limit is ridiculous. The only time you ever follow someone that close is if you have complete and absolute trust in them, and also understand that it may not even be enough.

For a daily drive, you likely need 2-3 car lengths between you at minimum depending on your speed to accurately avoid hitting the brakes. This doesn’t even take into account the lack of understanding of engine braking…

What concepts do you all think of when it comes to driving that you feel are not well understood by the public at large?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I live in an area that has a lot of stoplights. Guess how fast you have to drive to beat them? From 35 to 40 mph, or 60 to 65 mph. I simply did some math after timing a couple of streets. It is not perfect, but it will beat most. Guess which one people want to drive at? 50 mph. Guess which is the safest and most economical? It is 30 mph. Guess what is the most common speed by everyone? 50 mph because by law gives us 10 mph difference from speed limit before we get flagged. Guess how badly stopping from a high speed and waiting then accelerate literally every mile of stop lights does to mpg? Instead of a healthy 40 mpg, depending on if the people who accelerate aggressively don't have slow drivers like me in the group, then people are getting 15 to 25 mpg.

I end up having people swerve around me and accelerate aggressively only to stop at the light, but they are either in front of me or at the front waiting to hit the pedal to the metal to get up to their comfortable cruising speed. I drive electric and don't care about the amazing 0-60 acceleration but rather drive slowly and coast to a stop(as little regeneration as possible by staying at 0 kw usage) I usually get 5 m/kwh and could get up to 6 if I did 30 mph but I just try to follow the flow of traffic and the posted speed limit.

People riding my ass annoy me because I have to trust they are paying enough attention to not rear-end me. Surprisingly, I haven't gotten into an accident.

[–] darcy 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

10mph???? we get 3kmh in australia im pretty sure

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cops don't have a desire to do speeding tickets, but the court ruled 5 mph, and everyone pushes to about 10 mph more. I see a lot of 60 to 90 mph drivers, too. Not to mention, the late night racing scene is still going strong enough. Which during summer quiets down majorly until winter and spring. A lot of outliers but when it is happening daily, you start becoming jaded and uncomfortable of driving even though the public transit system here sucks, unless you are downtown, then driving around with these speedsters all around you as you avoid people walking across the streets and hope to not get rear-ended by the guy riding your bumper. The streets that have nothing for miles and have a speed camera are the worst because the speed limit changes from 55 to 40 instantly and you are 300 dollars out of pocket to the scam of a speed trap system that has no effect or is worse on the safety of driving. I live road he'll and want to move. Just haven't figured out where to go.

[–] darcy 1 points 1 year ago