What’s with people actively not accelerating on the on-ramp to the highway? This seems to be a new phenomena. People are getting in front of me anywhere between 25 miles an hour, and 40 miles an hour, as though they are on a local street and then once they’re actually in a lane of traffic on the highway they might takeoff and hit 80 or they might gradually accelerate like a grandpa. Most of these people appear to be 40 years older or less.

Not everyone behind you is turning, and your turn isn’t “right up ahead,” it’s in a quarter mile. You’re forcing people to drive slower for no reason because you can’t be bothered to think of anyone other than yourself.

Have some basic awareness and courtesy and drive like there are other people on the road.

EDIT: How do we better enforce the laws or regulations?

This was a particularly jammed road,one way, police decided to just randomly get into the wrong side while staring people.

What about you?

When I see people complaining about the traffic nightmares created by school lines, so many comments just say people need to put their kids on the bus. Comments that say the bus isn't an option, seem to get downvoted into oblivion. What is the school traffic and bus situation like where you live? Do you think most of the parents sitting in the lines are there because they want to be, or because there's no bus for their kid?

That's the question but here's why I'm asking. I sympathize with the people complaining about the traffic and hate that I'm part of it, but have no realistic other choice. Average pay for bus drivers in my state is $17 an hour and my district has starting pay of $22 but still can't get enough drivers so many of the buses the district owns are unused. Routes are so limited that anyone who lives within 2 miles of a school is not eligible to ride a bus. Unless something changes my kid can't take the bus until he's in 9th grade and by 11th he can use the high school parking garage. This sucks!

I want to say first: I am a Rider, and I also have lived in Sturgis, so I see/have seen this A LOT.

We legally require people in cars to wear seatbelts, yet in many states, adults can ride motorcycles without even wearing a helmet. How does that make sense?

Motorcycling is inherently more dangerous than driving a car. You don’t have airbags, crumple zones, or a metal frame surrounding you. In an accident, your body is taking the impact.

I’m not saying motorcycles should be banned or that riders should be covered head to toe in racing equipment. But at the very least, helmets should be mandatory, and I think there’s a reasonable argument for requiring additional protective gear.

The usual argument is that adults should be free to decide what risks they’re willing to take. But couldn’t you make that exact same argument about seatbelts?

We already accept that the government can require basic safety measures when operating a vehicle on public roads. Why should motorcycles be the exception, especially when the consequences of an accident can be so much worse?

If you are so timid that you can’t handle turning right for 30+ seconds of absolutely clear unobstructed opportunity…. Then just sit your ass until you get the official green! Hint…. When every car is stopped there will be cars coming out of the turn lane or straight in a few seconds. It’s not the time to very slowly and badly creep out and then not even be able to handle turning into the right lane. Nope you are going 2 mph and 4 people just slammed on their brakes mid intersection. You had a chance like 50 seconds ago. Not now!

When you're running late, do you check the time every chance you get, or are you like, "Don't tell me. I don't want to know."?

We’ve universally accepted that flashing your high beams signals there’s a cop/speed trap ahead (or you forgot to turn your brights off and the other driver is letting you know you’re an ass).

What can we adopt as a society to signal to others they don’t have their lights on at night??? Cause boy has it gotten horrendous.

I was approaching an intersection northbound behind traffic three seconds after the light turned green, and some jerk driving southbound made a U-Turn to cut off all lanes and nearly hit me in the process. Aren’t you supposed to wait for traffic to clear up before you attempt to turn left or make a U-Turn, not gamble on seizing a twenty foot opening when there are oncoming cars approaching at 35 miles per hour? For more context, there was a solid line of cars behind me and two cars ahead of me in both lanes, the gap was a little over two car lengths between each northbound car.

I'm in drivers Ed in the driving portion and just drove on the rode for my first time and I am terrified for tomorrow now I didn't do bad I think especially for my first time on the rode my driver instructor even told my mother I did good and he'd see me tomorrow but I'm scared out of my mind not because I ran a red light stop sign I didn't get hit or ran off the rode just didn't realize he was telling me to go because I thought he was talking to himself about a car needed to go I was only today made aware I could fail the driving part of drivers Ed and now I freaking out because I think I'm gonna somehow fail also is it normal for the teacher to sometimes guide the wheel? I haven't gone off rode or anything just lightly drifting a little to far to one side and he'd correct it for me does that mean I could be in trouble too? Please someone tell me this isn't fail worth material I'm so scared of driving and of failure no one else I know that has gone has failed and I'm freaking out its only three days one alright down and I'm terrified 🥀

Sorry I'm just yapping Edit: sorry for the absolutely terrible grammar and writing this was all mainly just to vent and I didn't care enough to make it look pretty or fully understandable just wanted to get this all out

Seriously, that's just negligent and putting other people's lives at risk. Driving is a privilege and comes with responsibilities - including checking the functionality of your lights.

Edit: I can't edit the title but I meant brake lights

Hi guys, I struggle with merging on the highway especially when my lane is ending and leads to an exit. I put on my blinker and try to speed up, but the cars in the lane I’m trying to merge into usually speed up too and match my speed, so I can’t get over.
I know it’s dangerous but even when I see a car in my blind spot, I still try to merge sometimes because they won’t let me in. I can still see the front of their car in my blind spot, but I speed up then proceed anyway and I literally see them crash out through my mirrors. Then I speed off or try to change lanes so they don’t come after me :(
So what’s the safest thing to do in this situation? Should I slow down and let the cars pass, or is stopping when my lane is ending in the freeway more dangerous? How do you safely merge when your lane is ending and other drivers keep matching your speed?

Edit: I forgot to include an important detail. When I’m getting onto the highway, there are tracks that everyone has to stop at before getting on. This slows me down, and by the time I try to speed up to match the highway’s speed, there isn’t much road left for me to do so.

So when writing this about 30mins ago I made my first big driving mistake and I feel like shit for it so to tell you what happened I was at a four way red light and I was turning right now I know this doesn’t excuse it but I was on the phone not like holding the phone but it was connected to my car and I was trying to figure something out about my car so I was talking thinking and not paying attention so I accidentally ran a red light almost hitting another car and I know I’m in the wrong this isn’t about if I was or wasn’t I just wanted to vent about it and how it made me feel like such a asshole (for the record I would say I’m a pretty good driver but I am still new I just got my license about 5 months ago)
(So just wanting to hear anyone’s thoughts on it anyways have a good day)

Moved from a small town to the big city. It seems normal here for people turning left and right to just turn into whichever lane they want. This is bizarre to me, because I turn into the "correct" lane when I go right or left, and then merge over. Normally, the lane I'm merging into should be clear, because at a red light there should no through traffic. But here, when I start my merge the person who was behind me quickly turns into my lane, cutting me off. It's scary af. I then miss turns because I don't have space to merge over, because everyone is doing it.

In Canada, can you go from a one lane turn into a1ny lane you want? I've seen people turn into the lane three lanes over in one go. This happens to me multiple times a day, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm the problem and if I should just turn into whichever lane I want to be in too, without doing any merges. There's no road sign or traffic lines indicating this is expected. I'm very much confused.

From what I gather, the 3 on the right are for the right lane and the 1 on the left is for the left lane, and it's split for a unprotected left and a protected left. Why would you need 3 lights for the right lane though?

I think what he's describing is what I've long understood but didn't have the words for.

People shout at you that "driving the speed limit is easy", which is a bit of an equivocation. Walking sideways is, in a literal sense, "easy", but that doesn't make it intuitive to sustain over a hike.

Even though you see non-compliance rates of well over 90% where limits don't match the road, and under 10% where they do, the only explanation normally offered is some variation of a hasty generalisation about the attitudes or recklessness of people in cars, whereas Charles Marohn from Strong Towns actually tries to offer a better explanation. It might be imperfect, but it's still better than a hasty generalisation, because the latter isn't really an explanation at all.

I also wonder whether the Pygmalion effect might be at play here, particularly when you see examples of average speeds actually going down slightly after the speed limit has been raised.

like if you have to put a lotta strength into turning the steering wheel especially if you have a big ass truck or something, isn’t it normal to moan when making turns?

I live in Fort Lauderdale and I’ve never seen anything like the driving here. I’ve driven all over the country and nowhere else is it this bad

On main roads 10-15 mph below the speed limit is the norm. On the highway, 20-25 below

People in absolute zombie mode jamming on the brakes with nobody in front of them

Has the collective cognitive decline gotten that bad?

I’m a new driver and I’ve noticed myself driving more and more recklessly (not intentionally of course). Today I was driving my sister and me to school and we were about five feet away from getting t boned by a bus and I would definitely have been killed and she might have been killed. I know what I need to do (pay more attention to the vehicles around me, keep my head in a swivel, always double check if I’m clear) but I don’t know how to form these habits. On top of that I have adhd and I get lost in my own head sometimes when driving (which makes it even MORE dangerous)

Tl;DR: I have adhd and am trying to form better driving habits for my and my family’s safety, any tips?

Today I had my 3rd driving test and I performed worse than my actual lessons. My problem is that I can't look ahead. And now I do not how to. I take my lessons very seriously, am always punctual to my classes, try my utter best to not make any mistake. Is spending on more lessons the only solution? Does anyone have tips on how to be more aware of their surroundings? To be present and see potential danger. This is where I lack and apparently the only solution is to buy more hours on the road.

I have tried saying things out loud but it also kind of doesn't work because I don't keep up with it.

Thanks in advance!

I have been working with a learner to help them learn to drive. Their single biggest problem at this point is not noticing road signs, like "stop," "one way," and red lights. Seriously the last time they were out they ran one stop sign because there was also a "one way" sign on the same pole (which they pointed out to me that they noticed), then they turned right through two red lights without stopping, even after being corrected after the first one ("ALWAYS stop first, THEN you may turn if clear").

They have at least 35 hours of driving time so far. They have run at least 10 stop signs and red lights with me, at minimum. They know what the signs mean and what should be done according to the rules. They know to look for the signs at intersections. They have no vision issues. They have no learning disabilities. They can quote the rules. And they care about driving properly. And yet...???

How can I break through this barrier to get them noticing and reacting to the signs?

Can everyone actually be taught?

My driving instructor is a great guy but he often gives instructions that are contradictory to ones he gave before previously. Here im just gonna list some examples: One: 1. Always downshift to 2 before corners 2. This corner could be done in 3 3. Not everything is black or white 4. No You shouldnt rely on feeling, you must follow the procedures

So he wants me to always follow the procedures, but he also says its not all black or white. Yea what is it?

Two: 1. I drove on a busy high speed road and accelerated gently. The instructur floored the gas pedal to show me I shouldnt be afraid of accelerating faster and told me to accelerate faster. 2. Another later lesson I remembered this lesson and we got onto another busy high speed road where I had to merge so I thought he probably wants me to floor it here too so I did and then he said calm down

Three. 1. A light turned orange and I honestly thought the most appropriate reaction wad to keep drivinf because we were already so close to it. The instructor braked very hard. 2. Then a later lesson I saw a red light too late somehow, but then cotrected myself by braking maximum force and was still able to stop before the red light. Insttructor: dont brake so hard!!! Why do you always vrake so hard, traffic behind can get scared or collide with us

So a lot of his instructions seem to contradict eachother and that confuses the heck out of me. Im supposed to do something but at the same time also not supposed to do it?

How do I know what im supposed to do when the instructions randomly change like that.

Could I be the problem and misinterpreting tbings somehow?

If im not replying seemingly, its because this subreddit behaves weirdly in the way that after some comments it shadowbans the rest of my comments in the thread so if that happens I will reply further to comments by editing the post or commenting tomyself there then.