Our Covid Response
- Thread starter gorfias
- Start date
No, not really. 5 mph over the speed limit is not some death machine driving. I'm not phoenixmgs here where I tailgate by inches in the rain. I just hate rolling roadblocks and don't particularly like driving unless it's an empty road.
I'm by no means slow - I'm probably in the fastest 10-20% of drivers on motorways (usually at or tending slightly over the speed limit of 70 mph, because British speed checks normally allow about 10-15% leeway). I consider up to about 80 mph reasonably safe because its within the sort of range drivers expect. I'm more cautious in urban driving because that's pedestrian territory, and you hit a pedestrian at speed...
But the guys who race up behind and flash are nearly always doing speeds well in excess of 80, where I think they are dangerous because that's way outside what people expect causing them to misjudge, plus of course the appalling tailgating. A subset can also be found weaving and undertaking through the slower lanes to try to get through faster, frequently diving into too-small gaps when changing lanes, which I think even more dangerous.
Most of these guys don't need to get anywhere quickly. They drive like that because they've got a massive, concrete-turgid, hard-on for themselves.
Exactly, which is why it comes off weird to me. I see it plenty though, at least on dash cam videos. Of all the awful drivers I see, I hardly ever have someone brakecheck me. But every time I see that I'm just baffled.
"See, now I'm slowing you down! Drive faster!"
Maybe half the ones I see fall into that category. Far too clean to have seen anything rougher than a gravel driveway. Seems like it's the "I wanna be a seen as a rugged individual' type equivalent to bolting on fibreglass spoilers and shit to their car. Sure, go nuts and drop $30k+ on aftermarket offroading gear, no one cares... just stop driving like absolute fuckwits.
If you see a Toyota badge nested in amongst the bullbar, floodlights, lightbars, bash plate, oversized winch, 'CU in the NT' stickers, and $50k of Kings camping mods... you don't even need to ask if you're dealing with a dickhead or not... the question becomes what kind of dickhead.
I remember a line from ad for something like that. "When adventures calls, you've already answered". That says a lot about their intended market.
Oh, my bad. I just read 'phoenix' in the username and my mind filled in the rest.
The thing that confuses me about those types is they seem to enjoy being in nature, but are happy to trash it whilst doing so. Like, shouldn't they be more likely to sympathise with environmentalism? But no, they always have some kind of 'fuck the greens' sticker displayed.
Most of the outdoors-y types I know are mad keen on conservation, a bit suspicious of environmentalism and consider the Greens a bunch of inner-city Lefty deadshits who'd panic if they couldn't get 5 bars on their phones.
They really don't. The worst drivers by a mile are the ones that come up behind you when traffic is a little denser and you can't get through and you're stuck doing the speed limit, then they tailgate people and slalom through lanes cutting people off trying to get through everyone, and then once the traffic breaks and everyone is back to full speed you catch them back because they only wanted to go 5 over the limit. Nothing is worse than the aggressive, self-entitled, but still not particularly fast driver.
I said the PRIMARY CAUSE...
How is what I said not true? You can see the brake lights reflecting on the street when it rains at night of cars in front of the car in front of you. I pay attention to that and tons of other things when I'm driving that most people don't. Since I have just a normal car, Civic, so often I'm behind a SUV or truck and can't see through their windows in front of them so I actually love being able to "see" in front of me in the rain at night.
You guys think masks work so well that there should be no massive surges in cases. When the south had a surge, the left is like "oh, look at those idiots not doing covid restrictions". Then when the north has a surge, it's "there's nothing we could've done about it". They have such minimal effects that's it's pretty asinine to act like not masking is some stupid/idiotic/dumb thing to do. There's literally no evidence that masks work. China is probably doing more restrictions that the US had at any time (outside the first couple weeks of everyone staying home). You all live in this fairytale land where if you wear masks and do these few other things, you can stop covid, that's not remotely close to realistic. You still think you can fucking contact trace covid and that testing does anything.
If I'm not maintaining safe distances, how have I been driving for over 20 years and never rear-ended someone? As long as you don't hit a car, it doesn't matter how close you get to it. No, many people are bad at judging distances, I've been a passenger with such people and seen many people not understand how wide their cars are. This one hilarious time there was a landscaping services pickup truck and trailer parked on the curb like normal, but that is a BIT wider than a normal car so all these cars would simply not go straight like normal because they thought they didn't have enough room (between the parked truck and oncoming traffic lane). I go right past the parked truck with no problem whatsoever and the guy behind me won't go past the parked truck and it looked like a dog that won't go down the stairs because a cat is sitting on the steps. Also, several times I've had a friend/co-worker I'm riding with ask if they have room to squeeze in somewhere and I'll look up for a second and tell them there's plenty of room. People really have no concept of the actual size of their cars. Hell, 90+% of people don't even no how to make a turn per the rules of the road.
Again, if I'm a bad driver, how do I have a perfect driving record after 20 years of driving? How is paying attention to, you know, the fucking road being clever? It's literally right in front of you. How can you not see it? It's like not noticing there's a person's shadow before you can actually see them around a corner or something.
Speeding is almost never the PRIMARY CAUSE of an accident. The actual accident almost always happens due to something else.
Both are true statements. Speeding is almost never the primary cause of an accident. How is having the intel to brake before the guy in front of me brakes not greatly lowering the chances of rear-ending someone? Did you know you can also change lanes without looking over your shoulder because if you set up your mirrors correctly, you have no blindspot? I only use my mirrors and never changed lanes into a car that I didn't see there. I must just be the luckiest guy ever if I can go over 20 years of driving and not rear-end people (when constantly driving dangerously close a) and not checking the "blindspot" and not hit people, I'm pretty sure that's a statistical impossibility.
I don't tailgate people... I've never rear-end anyone in my life. If I follow too close, It's just basic probability that would've happened at some point.
I've only been brakechecked once because I was coasting to a red light. Then the guy went around me purposefully and brakechecked me and I was expecting it by the way he went around me and then just swung into the other lane and passed him up. IIRC people in those countries like all have dashcams because of the massive insurance fraud vs people actually being mad and brakechecking people. I saw a dashcam of a motorcycle brakechecking a semi-truck...
Your driving is so bad you telegraph to other road users to give you a wide berth. "Park up safely for a bit lads," they say, "it's that guy who thinks he can see the future when it rains."
I've been driving for just short of 25 years, and I also have a motorbike licence (and I can drive a reach truck, though haven't for many years). My record is better than yours (same lack of own-fault accidents, driving for longer, more vehicles), and that still only makes me an average driver.
It's just more of his "I'm the smartest specialist little boy and everyone else is so dumb." At this stage I have to assume he's just fucking with us otherwise he would never have made it past the revelation that he could have toast in the bath.
No, we don't. Nobody here said masks alone were enough. You're just hurling a lazy strawman to avoid addressing the fact that the surge in infection in China provides absolutely zero evidence for your bizarre, anti-scientific aversion to masks (and other basic hygiene and safety measures).
Dude, you're supposed to take a break after about four hours. Talk about unsafe, smh.