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?

  • @generalpotato@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24•1 year ago

    The left lane is a passing lane, not a I’m going to go 5 over speed limit and coast lane. Learn to move over to the right. Please and thank you.

    • @Nobody@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      Exactly. Keep right except to pass. Unless you’re actively passing people, you should be in a right or center lane moving at your speed.

    • @Nastybutler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      I don’t know why this concept is so foreign to the people in my area. My favorite are the drivers I see enter the highway then immediately cross two lanes to get to the leftmost lane only to get passed on the right by the cars coming up behind them.

      This is my second biggest driving pet peeve. My biggest is people who pull out from a side street right in front of me (often without stopping) when there is no one behind me and then proceed to go under the speed limit. Road rage ensues

      • @generalpotato@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3•1 year ago

        I feel like drivers should be required to pass a driving test every few years just so it’s a mechanism to keep people’s bs habits like these in check and as a reminder that we don’t own the roads.

        We should also update our driving laws and tests to catch bs like this, which is incredibly dangerous.

        I’m with you on all of this.

      • @Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        I believe it used to be different, at least here in Belgium.

        Driving below the maximum speed was right lane, driving the maximum speed is middle, and driving over the maximum speed was left lane.

        Some people still believe it to be like that.