MrBobDobalina

Just go double or nothing a few times! Simple!

Firstly, you're either vastly overestimating how good you are at scanning every single gap and new space while also taking in the rest of the traffic, road conditions etc, OR you are the most incredible driver to exist and your brain should be studied by self-driving car companies for their software.

Secondly, and this is the simplest way to show that you're incorrect:

Average driver reaction time is 0.75 seconds (that's to see something, and move your foot to the brake pedal and begin to hit it). At 20mph, you've travelled 22 feet before you even begin to slow down.

And that's a generous reaction time. This article puts it at 1.5 seconds for unexpected side-incursions: https://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/reactiontime.html

You've now travelled 44 feet before even hitting the brake.

If that gap you're looking at is behind a tall vehicle and we're talking about a kid or a dog, you're along side before seeing the entire gap. Your back wheels are hitting that sprinting dog well before you've even touched the brake pedal.

I'm starting to think you're either making shit up just to argue, or your overconfidence in your own driving is actually making you more dangerous on the road than safe

At 20mph, if something sprints into the SIDE of your car and under you back wheel, you're not going to stop in time.

You don't have precognition or superhuman reactions (and even if you did have the reactions of an F1 driver, physics are still going to happen). I applaud your approach to safety but your overconfidence is confusing.

Nope.

If you're driving at 60kph / 37mph (60kph is a standard speed limit in residential areas here, not sure about the limits where you are), people and kids and dogs can sometimes be on the side walks. There can also be cars parked on the side of the road.

You can be as safe as is reasonably possible, but if something shorter than a parked car sprints out at full speed, into the side of your car, what are you going to do?

Yes be aware of your surroundings, yes drive at a speed where you can stop in a reasonable distance for almost anything that can occur in front of you in that environment. But no, not every single thing is avoidable

And most importantly - leash your fucking dogs

The answer to your last question should tell you why everything you wrote above it is fucking awful.

If you're driving safely and an unleashed dog sprints into the road and goes under your car from the side, what the hell do you think you would do to avoid it?

It's the owner's responsibility and fault, not OPs

I'm sorry, that's horrible. Did anyone else see what happened and stop? If so, chat to them first and see if they'd be comfortable backing you up on what happened (dog ran out, no time to react). Hopefully that's not needed, but you never know.

I saw that exact thing happen when the car in front of me hit a dog. Poor thing was dying on the road and I heard someone down the street whistling for their dog to come inside. I went and told them what happened, and made sure to say that the driver is distraught and absolutely could not have done anything to avoid the dog. Fucking sucks for everyone involved

If the dog ran into the path of the rear tyre, what do you think you could have done differently in this situation? The owner is responsible for their unleashed dog

Checking in from NZ, sounds familiar to me

Really? You haven't seen a rise in facts being deemed false? Or maybe news being deemed fake? Maybe there's even been a new term created for it that is being thrown around a lot by one side in particular.

Doesn't seem like a good idea to give them more examples they can point to when they want to discredit your facts

From an outside perspective on the other side of the world, I disagree. Any lie, once uncovered, makes it so much easier for even the the worst positions to be defended. 'See, they have to make shit up about us, they have nothing'. Bam, now even all the other factual points are discredited in the eyes of many people who may have been on the fence.

Jd is a creepy weirdo, but the couch story was made up.

Not directed at you (unless you already knew it was fake, I guess) - I fucking hate it when people feel the need to make up stuff about someone who already has plenty of real red flags that need attention.

With peaceful violence