• Went out for my first 'real' drive. Other drivers are cunts.
    121 replies, posted
[QUOTE=sltungle;23079750]Why not? That's the way things work back in the homeland (Scotland). That's the way things work in the rest of the UK for the most part (at least from everyone I've ever known). Why should I be a little bitch, some panzy, and learn in an automatic for a while THEN switch to a manual later on?[/QUOTE] Trust me, its easier to learn road rules and how a car actually handles without worrying about gears and shifting, etc. Your problem is that you think you become a bitch if you drive an auto, but in reality it just adds more problems at the start. im on my P's now and learnt pretty much on an auto, but i knew gears from a young age so i guess thats just me.
[QUOTE=hehe;23079784]Trust me, its easier to learn road rules and how a car actually handles without worrying about gears and shifting, etc. Your problem is that you think you become a bitch if you drive an auto, but in reality it just adds more problems at the start. im on my P's now and learnt pretty much on an auto, but i knew gears from a young age so i guess thats just me.[/QUOTE] I mean a bitch in comparison to people who I consider badass. Like my dad.
OP, tailgaters are as common as sliced bread. You will get them throughout your driving life. I can't really sympathise with you because you shouldn't have taken your attention off the road, even if he was close enough to reach over and smack you on the back of the head. You're very lucky that it didn't become a major accident.
[QUOTE=sltungle;23079794]I mean a bitch in comparison to people who I consider badass. Like my dad.[/QUOTE] why would you care? its driving, not how cool you are in you dad's view.
I ran a guy off the road last week for cutting me off at an intersection. Fuck that guy.
You guys should drive around Massachusetts. Aggressive driving is being courteous.
[QUOTE=sltungle;23075682] We ended up driving down some long, straight, empty, country-road with the coast visible 3 or 4 kilometres down the road from us. The speed limit was 80km/h, but I was sitting at 60 because I felt more comfy there for the time being. We passed a small side road with a car waiting to turn out, and he proceeded out just as we passed him. I checked the rear-view mirror after a few seconds and noticed that he seemed a little close, but it wasn't too bad, so I proceeded onwards at my speed of 60km/h figuring he'd pass me in a few seconds. As I've said, the road was completely straight, and devoid of any traffic but he and I. He had no reason not to. I looked up at my rear-view mirror again and was a bit shocked to find out he was only about 3 metres from he rear of my car. Dad told me just to concentrate on the road ahead of me and ignore him as he'd no doubt pass in a few seconds. About 10 or 20 seconds later though he was STILL there. I was getting a little nervous now and kept checking behind me, and then suddenly there was a loud splashing noise and the car was pulling to the left. I tugged on the wheel and braked bringing the car back straight and coming to a stop by the side of the road and looked in my rear-view mirror again. The guy behind me had skidded and spun his car 90 degrees to avoid hitting the back of our car (how he DIDN'T hit us when he was that close I have no fucking clue. Maybe he saw me beginning to veer off centre a split second before I hit the puddle). Turns out I'd veered slightly off centre and hit a big puddle just off the side of the road because I hadn't been focussing ahead of me and had been looking in my rear view mirror. But to be fair, the cunt in the car behind me shouldn't have been bloody [b]THREE METRES[/b] from the back of our car. That's WAY too close on a road that's TOTALLY empty. We could have avoided the entire situation if he'd just backed the fuck off, or overtaken me. I sat at the side of the road deciding just to take a breather and the guy in the car behind me set off down the road again giving me an evil fucking stare on the way by. Should you be reading this: you sir, are a motherfucking cunt. Later on, about an hour after this, we were heading home and drove back into our suburb. Up until now I had only encountered 3 or 4 vehicles at a time as we had been driving on country roads. Here, however, there were a fair bit of cars driving about, so I was a little bit nervous. I was driving down the long road towards the traffic lights (again, SLIGHTLY below the speed limit (nothing too major though. Only about 10km/h); the lane I was in merged into the lane to my right about 100 or so metres down from our current position. I was about to turn into the right lane when a big 4x4 came up next to me in the right hand lane (it was travelling [b]AT[/b] the speed limit when it approached) and then immediately SLOWED to meet my speed when it got next to me (preventing me from merging). I managed to slow down and find a way into the right hand lane, however there was no fucking need for the other guy to do what he did. He almost caused a crash. I'm not gonna pretend that I'm a good driver, far from it. It's my first time driving. I [b]SUCK[/b] at driving at the moment. But these guys, these people with FULL LICENSES don't seem to have ANY FUCKING CLUE WHAT THEY'RE DOING EITHER. I, or another L plater MIGHT have an excuse for making mistakes, but not these people who have a license. Are they all incompetent? Do they all have road-rage? Are they trying to scare L-platers? Or is it a combination thereof? [/QUOTE] First situation, you were going 20 under the limit, yes he shouldn't be following you so closely but you should not go so slow in a higher limit area, you can get pulled and arrested for going too slowly because it is so dangerous as people getting up to speed could plow into the back of you. Speed up and keep your eyes on the road. Secondly, he's driving a 4x4 and probably didnt check his blind spot on the lane and probably didn't see you. No other reason for it, it's very easy for big trucks to do this and the huge articulated trucks aswell. Just go the speed limit, don't go too slowly. The guy probably wouldn't have been pissed if you weren't also on plates. He probably would have overtaken but its the fact that your a learner and then doing 20 under probably made him attach some road rage to you. Hell, when i learnt my instructor [U]made[/U] me go the speed limit, and he'd make sure i didn't go too slow. You need to travel at the speed limit unless there is good reason not too, and people who overtake you are going faster than the limit, and that's their choice, but never go slower when you can help it. If you don't feel comfortable at speed then, imo, you shouldn't be on the roads yet.
My girlfriend was doing her P's test last week in Melbourne, she had to cross a busy inner-city street, with tram tracks in the middle, during peak hour. She'd been driving perfectly for about half an hour, was crossing the 4 lanes, but had a guy tailgating her across the tracks. This meant she couldn't really stop appropriately in the centre and when she finally did, she stalled trying to start again. So basically that was a "critical error" which caused her to fail the test, all 'cause some dick wouldn't back off and let her cross into Lygon street first.
[QUOTE=sltungle;23075682]Here in Victoria, Australia in order to get your P plates you must complete 120 hours of driving while on your L plates. Despite having had my L plates for almost a year now I hadn't really driven at all. So today, after a bit of debate with my father; he insisted I drive the automatic car for the first few hours just to get the hang of things, then I can do the majority of my driving in the manual (I wanted to drive manual from the very beginning); I hopped into the car (he won: I drove the auto today), and he drove me just outside our suburb to the back, country roads. So we switched places, I hopped into the driver seat, and we set off on our way for what would be 1 hour and 20 minutes towards my 120 hours (yay!). There were a few hiccups along the way (it's my first time 'really' driving (I'd driven up and down a small road before, but that was it until this point), but I got progressively better. We ended up driving down some long, straight, empty, country-road with the coast visible 3 or 4 kilometres down the road from us. The speed limit was 80km/h, but I was sitting at 60 because I felt more comfy there for the time being. We passed a small side road with a car waiting to turn out, and he proceeded out just as we passed him. I checked the rear-view mirror after a few seconds and noticed that he seemed a little close, but it wasn't too bad, so I proceeded onwards at my speed of 60km/h figuring he'd pass me in a few seconds. As I've said, the road was completely straight, and devoid of any traffic but he and I. He had no reason not to. I looked up at my rear-view mirror again and was a bit shocked to find out he was only about 3 metres from he rear of my car. Dad told me just to concentrate on the road ahead of me and ignore him as he'd no doubt pass in a few seconds. About 10 or 20 seconds later though he was STILL there. I was getting a little nervous now and kept checking behind me, and then suddenly there was a loud splashing noise and the car was pulling to the left. I tugged on the wheel and braked bringing the car back straight and coming to a stop by the side of the road and looked in my rear-view mirror again. The guy behind me had skidded and spun his car 90 degrees to avoid hitting the back of our car (how he DIDN'T hit us when he was that close I have no fucking clue. Maybe he saw me beginning to veer off centre a split second before I hit the puddle). Turns out I'd veered slightly off centre and hit a big puddle just off the side of the road because I hadn't been focussing ahead of me and had been looking in my rear view mirror. But to be fair, the cunt in the car behind me shouldn't have been bloody [B]THREE METRES[/B] from the back of our car. That's WAY too close on a road that's TOTALLY empty. We could have avoided the entire situation if he'd just backed the fuck off, or overtaken me. I sat at the side of the road deciding just to take a breather and the guy in the car behind me set off down the road again giving me an evil fucking stare on the way by. Should you be reading this: you sir, are a motherfucking cunt. Later on, about an hour after this, we were heading home and drove back into our suburb. Up until now I had only encountered 3 or 4 vehicles at a time as we had been driving on country roads. Here, however, there were a fair bit of cars driving about, so I was a little bit nervous. I was driving down the long road towards the traffic lights (again, SLIGHTLY below the speed limit (nothing too major though. Only about 10km/h); the lane I was in merged into the lane to my right about 100 or so metres down from our current position. I was about to turn into the right lane when a big 4x4 came up next to me in the right hand lane (it was travelling [B]AT[/B] the speed limit when it approached) and then immediately SLOWED to meet my speed when it got next to me (preventing me from merging). I managed to slow down and find a way into the right hand lane, however there was no fucking need for the other guy to do what he did. He almost caused a crash. I'm not gonna pretend that I'm a good driver, far from it. It's my first time driving. I [B]SUCK[/B] at driving at the moment. But these guys, these people with FULL LICENSES don't seem to have ANY FUCKING CLUE WHAT THEY'RE DOING EITHER. I, or another L plater MIGHT have an excuse for making mistakes, but not these people who have a license. Are they all incompetent? Do they all have road-rage? Are they trying to scare L-platers? Or is it a combination thereof? Any fellow Australian Facepunchers feel free to answer those questions if you wish.[/QUOTE] I suck at driving too (i only drove once after about 2 hours driving around a parking lot with my brother) and then my neighborhood. I keep forgetting the turn signal and i keep forgetting to get into the turning lane (thank god my neighborhood was empty)
Op I feel for yah bud. But here in america, when we drive and someone's an asshole we just drive like an asshole back. If someone's tale gating my friend he stops, swiches it in reverse and gets within an inch of the car behind him. (he's gone through a private driving school for racing and shit because his parents are rich fucks, well I shouldn't say that becaues if I get a 100% in drivers ed and can prove I am a real good driver his parents said they would pay for me to take the same class) Or if the guy behind him is bitching at him for going too slow and he's going the speed limit and so is every other damn car, he makes a point by going 20 miles an hour when the speed limit is 30 for the next block. So the moral of the story is, asshole drivers are everywhere and idiots can get a license because it's too easy, so don't bother being mad about it because unless we make the test harder and rules more strict we are never going to be able to enjoy driving unless it's 2AM when no one is on the road except truckers and street racers. [editline]09:31AM[/editline] [QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;23079114]What the fuck why?[/QUOTE] Because if you drive a stick you can drive a lot more vehicles, automatics suck, and a standard if you know how can be a much faster,more fuel efficient vehicle. Also if you can drive a standard you can drive an automatic because it's a lot easier. Plus automatics are for the lazy.
That's one thing I'm going to hate about driving are the bad drivers. But man, stories like these piss me off.
[QUOTE=JDK721;23078670]try driving in Florida you get to deal with a bunch of idiots on cell phones/old people[/QUOTE] I started driving with my brother out here in Florida (i live here) now no offense to hispanics (even though i am one) but they CANNOT DRIVE WORTH SHIT.
[QUOTE=Benf199105;23080190]First situation, you were going 20 under the limit, yes he shouldn't be following you so closely but you should not go so slow in a higher limit area, you can get pulled and arrested for going too slowly because it is so dangerous as people getting up to speed could plow into the back of you. Speed up and keep your eyes on the road. [/QUOTE] 20 under the limit (which is only 5.6 or so metres per second, may I add) on a road DEVOID OF ANY TRAFFIC other than him and I. And with a straight line of sight for about 4 kilometres ahead to the coast. He could have easily overtaken me. On the few occasions when their were a few cars about I went up to about 75km/h just so I wouldn't encounter any situations like that (where I was holding everyone up and getting them angry), but I wasn't too comfortable with that. I was still getting a feel for how little pressure you need to exert on the accelerator to actually increase your speed a fair bit and travelling at 75km/h gave me a good 5km/h fluctuation on either side. I was just getting a feel of the way things worked on a road full of potholes and with huge puddles at the side of it (when the fuck did it last rain in Melbourne anyway?) in a car that keeps pulling to the left. 60 felt like a good speed to me on that stretch of road with just one guy behind me. No sense in overestimating my abilities, then crashing or something. And the only way I can get experience and be good on the road is to drive on the road in the first place, unfortunately. The reason we chose the back, country roads for the start was to avoid any unpleasantness like that in the first place.
People who drive big trucks are usually safe drivers, but the worse parkers. 99% of people who drive huge ass S.U.Vs usually cannot drive them.
Well depending on which side of the road you aussies drive on you could've given the guy driving behind you a signal to overtake. Signal Left if your driving on the left hand side and vice versa for right hand. Then again I don't expect you to know that if it's your first time driving so it's just a bit of friendly advice. It also states in the driving learner's book here in Iceland that going well under the speed limit if there is no condition that hinders road grip is unnecessary regardless of the situation. So your are also in the wrong major imo.
[QUOTE=Nonikai;23081392]Well depending on which side of the road you aussies drive on you could've given the guy driving behind you a signal to overtake. Signal Left if your driving on the left hand side and vice versa for right hand. Then again I don't expect you to know that if it's your first time driving so it's just a bit of friendly advice. It also states in the driving learner's book here in Iceland that going well under the speed limit if there is no condition that hinders road grip is unnecessary regardless of the situation. So your are also in the wrong major imo.[/QUOTE] I'll keep that in mind for next time. And I think the speed thing only really counts for when there's a decent amount of traffic around you. I mean, WAY OUT in the country, like in the middle of nowhere, the limit is 110km/h. But half of the time you won't come across another car out there for like an hour. So... if you want to, you can creep along at 30km/h. I mean, it'd be pointless, but you could do it if you wanted to. I don't think you'd get done if a cop drove past you. He'd probably pull you over and ask you if you were having mechanical issues, and, if not, why you were going so slow, but I don't think there's technically anything illegal with it unless there's a reasonable amount of traffic around you. Remember, the speed limit is there as an indicator to the MAXIMUM speed you can travel. It doesn't mean, "TRAVEL DEAD ON AT THIS SPEED!" It means, "don't fucking go past this speed."
The thing I hate is when you need to move over a lane and the guy in that lane speeds up or slows down to block you. If you're cruising along at 65mph and the guy next to you starts speeding up, DON'T speed up to match him you idiot! He's trying to get some space to move over. If you're cruising along at 65mph and he starts slowing down, don't start slowing down too, he's trying to move in behind you. People are allowed to change lanes, that blocking shiat is a lame move.
Everyone starts somewhere, man. Be grateful you have the long straight roads to get the feel of your vehicle. Also lessens the chances of accidents and lets you work at leisure. :3 I live in the NC foothills and we have some fine hairpin turns around here. Would probably make a decent stunt driver now were I not worried about watching my speed and being concerned about nimrods who can't stay on their side of the road going around the turns. My sister was recording our commute one time, and we got two people within 500 feet of each other who were obviously in our lane. I pity not turning around and getting their plate numbers. And highway driving is always a pain in the ass, particularly when you get multiple people traveling together in huge vehicles during high traffic hour. And I have far too many stories to share about town/city driving... [QUOTE=JDK721;23078670]try driving in Florida you get to deal with a bunch of idiots on cell phones/old people[/QUOTE] You don't even have to drive to deal with those people. Last time I was down there, I was at a crossing in front of a parking garage, and a bitch on a cellphone nearly took me out. The little light had a man on it for my right of way. :<
My advice here is that ALWAYS know your surroundings and always look back when your backing out no matter where you are or how fluent you are in backing out of your drive way, because I was careless when i backed away from my drive way and i hit my sisters car. Which shattered her driver's window and fucked up her door, fucking up my right rear bumper. Damages are an estimate of $2000 with the insurance company paying only $200. This all happened yesterday too so be careful.
Honestly you're always gonna find some drivers like that. I was driving 60 down the highway and some hot blond come flying past me. I thought she was pretty hot. Two minutes later I see her slam the brakes and swerve into MY lane. Dumb bitch was riding the car in front of her (she had an SUV) and cut me off pretty bad. Driving is one of those things that'll make you butthurt for a few hours (hopefully way less) then you just let it go and move on.. saving the bad ones for the stories you tell with your friends and such. [editline]11:14AM[/editline] [QUOTE=cheeseburg;23082222]My advice here is that ALWAYS know your surroundings and always look back when your backing out no matter where you are or how fluent you are in backing out of your drive way, because I was careless when i backed away from my drive way and i hit my sisters car. Which shattered her driver's window and fucked up her door, fucking up my right rear bumper. Damages are an estimate of $2000 with the insurance company paying only $200. This all happened yesterday too so be careful.[/QUOTE] ...Why would you back up without looking? At least make a half assed attempt to see what's out there so you don't run over something.
[QUOTE=BlueSaint;23080427] Because if you drive a stick you can drive a lot more vehicles, automatics suck, and a standard if you know how can be a much faster,more fuel efficient vehicle. Also if you can drive a standard you can drive an automatic because it's a lot easier. Plus automatics are for the lazy.[/QUOTE] Each to their own. But the OP really should start on automatic if he has the choice. Its one less thing to think about when your a new driver. He should be concentrating on learning the rules of the road rather than shifting. When he gets more comfortable, then he can go to standard. And yes, I agree learning to drive standard is something everyone should do. Even if you don't like it, at least your not screwed if you are forced to drive one for any reason.
[QUOTE=sltungle;23076159]I wouldn't bullshit 60 hours, but I'm gonna round up to the nearest 5 minutes just so it's much easier to tally-up at the end. What'll happen if one or two of your times don't have an odometre reading for them? I forgot to mark them down this time around, but I'll make sure to next time.[/QUOTE] how the hell do they know if you've actually racked up 120 hours? can't you just lie?
it's funny. you say that they're all incompetent. but after a year or so of driving you'll be doing the exact same things.
There's a simple equation to remember. [I]The more aggressive the drivers are in your area, the more likely they are to be good drivers as well.[/I] This has rung true for me in Houston, Texas. People there would speed, never let you in, occasionally cut you off; but they never caused accidents and knew when to back off. In my fifteen years there, I only saw one dangerously drunk driver. In Mississippi however, dear lord; the drivers are really nice, but they can't drive. They swerve between lanes, blow through red lights, don't know how to use signals and don't even have a concept of basic road laws. :v:
Are you kidding me america has some of the worst drivers in the world I just got my learning license about a week ago and I'm really nervous about driving, I feel horrible every time I imagine that this whole two ton hunk of metal is entirely in my hands, and even the slightest error could bring myself or someone else into harm
Be glad you don't live in America. It's even worse over here.
Worst drivers go 30 in a 60, of course I WANT to overtake you, so don't swerve over and stop me when i try [editline]07:24PM[/editline] oh shit wrong account
I'm on mums laptop thats why
[QUOTE=Comtochus;23078923]You ever get those drivers that cut you off without signaling and maybe slow down when then do? I got the finger when I honked at one of them.[/QUOTE] yeah I hate people who do that, or cut people off just to get 10 feet ahead at a red light. I only change lanes when it's absolutely necessary. if everyone else just maintained their lane and changed lanes only because they had to make a turn, etc. then there would be far less accidents.
I hate driving around drivers that are learning, I'm always nervous that they are going to fuck up and get me in a accident.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.