The driving thread! Driving experiences and techniques discussion.

[Red Exodus]

I'm learning to drive and I'm going in for my test in a month. Up until recently I wasn't that good [I'm driving with manual] but the other day about halfway through the lesson I didn't cut out, make wide turns or take too long to get the car in drive, it was almost like I had finally mastered basic driving skills.


The same day I almost got in an accident though, I had to drive the instructor to his house to pick up his van which is manual, in an automatic car. Everything was easy with the automatic so I didn't have to concentrate as much but when I switched to the manual I mixed up the brakes with the gas at a T junction [uh oh]. Luckily my instructor hit the brakes before we even got to into the cross section. It scared the crap out of me but luckily I never made that lame mistake again.

I've never been in an accident, the only thing I've ever hit was a curb when I took a turn too sharp.

So what experiences do you guys have with driving?

 

[Eor]

Driving is really easy once you do it regularly. Like riding a bike, after you get it you have no idea how you couldn't have gotten it before. Never been in an accident or pulled over yet.

 

[GoldShadow]

My record, like Eor's, is also clean.

And yet, there are so many people on the road who make you wonder how they got a license.

On the road, I live and drive by the following principle: Trust no one but yourself. I'm confident in my own driving competence, but I'm constantly watching out for others that might get me into an accident. Driving came really easy to me, probably from years of playing Mario Kart and Gran Turismo!

 

[omfgomfg]

i dont drive
will in maybe less than a year

 

[urban_shinobi]

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/418141

nuff said..

 

[OffTheChain]

Driving is fun for me, I got a perfect score on my written exam so when I took the road test I faired equally as well, though I wont lie I avoid the highway if at all possible.

 

[Eor]

Goldshadow hit the golden rule. I don't trust people on the road, it's the safest way to go. If you're about to turn, and a car would hit you, but there's a stop sign in his path, wait for him to slow down or stop. Then go. Same if instead of a stop sign they're blinking to a different road. if they're going to hit you if they don't turn/stop, wait for them to start doing so, no matter what their car/the law says.

 

[commonyoshi]

I'm going for my liscense test on the 16th. What should I expect? Turn this way, that way, dont go over the speed limit, and parrallel park?

I hate driving; I find it much more whimsical to sit in the back seat and stare out the window. Sometimes I play games with myself in order to keep my interests up. For example, today I closed my eyes for thirteen seconds on a straight street at twenty miles per hour just to see if I could do it without crashing. It was pretty fun, actually, though stupid. Very stupid. Never been in an accident. yet

 

[GoldShadow]

For example, today I closed my eyes for thirteen seconds on a straight street at twenty miles per hour just to see if I could do it without crashing. It was pretty fun, actually, though stupid. Very stupid. Never been in an accident. yet

Don't do that again.

 

[Jammer]

I'm going for my liscense test on the 16th. What should I expect? Turn this way, that way, dont go over the speed limit, and parrallel park?

Well, if your state/country has tests similar to New York State, you'll have to drive around some streets, stop at a few crosswalks (always wait for the pedestrians to cross, even if they wave at you to go), navigate on some one-way streets, parallel park, signal with your arm out the window (I know, right?), and other stuff like that. No highway driving, though.

A few hints: always be constantly looking around you. And I mean constantly--move around in the seat so the tester can see that you're trying to get better angles out of the mirrors. Do 360-degree checks before entering traffic and every 2 seconds while parallel parking. Make your parallel park perfect, although I think you get 2 tries. Speed doesn't matter: go as slow as you want when doing tricky maneuvering, but show confidence (and of course speed does matter if you go too fast--stay a few km/h [mph, duh] below the speed limit).

My tester was this super-mean lady who kept trying to trick me. First she refused to put on her seatbelt for like 3 minutes, but I was smart and I wouldn't go until she got buckled up. Then she turned on the heat on max (this was during summer) and she turned the radio on really loud. I asked if I could turn the radio off, and she said yes, but she took off points because I didn't turn off the heating, saying that your driving is impaired when you're uncomfortable (it was boiling), and that I should have turned off the heat. Then she kept telling me to do a three-point turn (oh, you have to do one or two of those, too) in a one-way street, but I was smart to refuse.

Apparently I am an incredible driver, because this lady, who fails pretty much 90% of the people she tests (she really is insane) was only able to take off 10 points. Five for not turning off the heat, and five for only looking to the left at an intersection (I actually looked both ways).

 

[Mediocre]

I'm going for my liscense test on the 16th. What should I expect? Turn this way, that way, dont go over the speed limit, and parrallel park?

Huh. I thought you were older than that.

I hate driving; I find it much more whimsical to sit in the back seat and stare out the window. Sometimes I play games with myself in order to keep my interests up. For example, today I closed my eyes for thirteen seconds on a straight street at twenty miles per hour just to see if I could do it without crashing. It was pretty fun, actually, though stupid. Very stupid. Never been in an accident. yet

You're ****ing insane.

What if you hit a kid? If I did something like that, I don't think I'd ever get over it.


Anyway, I'm a pretty good driver, although I still make some mistakes that a more seasoned driver might not. I've gotten into one accident, but nobody was hurt, so it wasn't so horrible. Driving's a lot more fun if you've got music playing. Listen to music.

 

[Eor]

The place I did it at was odd, they didn't have a driver's test. Instead they just did it as drive times in parts, and at each part they checked a lesson off. I don't know how that was legal, but eh. I'm a good enough driver. Except for once where I pulled too far ahead for a driver through with my friends and decided to get out, but forgot to turn my car to park, so it was forward while I was half out. I managed to stop it, but it made me look like a douche. Though it was funny.

 

[Xsyven]

Once I was looking at my braces in the rear-view mirror, because I'd just gotten them tightened, and I was thinking how much my life sucked, and then I went and rear-ended some old Polynesian couple that barely knew English. That sucked.

Also, I've been pulled over a good handful of times.

-Cracked Windshield (Fix-it ticket)
-Expired tags (Warning)
-Running a Stop Sign/Burned out tail light ($89.00 ticket/Fix-it ticket)
-Speeding ($89.00 ticket?)
-Burned out tail light (Warning)
-Burned out Headlight (Warning)
-Burned out Headlight (Warning)
-Expired tags (Warning)

...yeah. Those last three were all within one month of each other, too. Both of them for the same burned out headlight.

Aside from the fact that I've rear-ended someone, and have gotten pulled over a good number of times (only twice being moving violations), I consider myself to be a great driver. I speed, but I'm smart about it. I'm sure that driving slower is safer, but I wouldn't consider myself a better driver by doing so. Maybe smarter, but not better.

 

[TheFifthMan]

I hate unprotected left turns.

I had my license for about a week when this happened to me.
For those of you that lived in Placentia, CA a year or so ago, there was an unprotected left at Kraemer and Madison (I think it was Madison, it's the street before that one farm). It was a busy intersection, while the city was still selling its homes. I was driving my mother's Corolla with my mother in the passenger seat and my brother in the backseat, and I'm sitting in the middle of the intersection waiting to make an unprotected left turn. The light turned yellow, but there were still cars running through. Then the light turned red and I made the turn.

Out of nowhere, however, this 18 wheeler barreled through the intersection, and it would have T-boned my car had I not floored the gas. The truck just barely made it past me, and I felt the vortex from the passing truck shake my car as I drove off. My mom was still screaming when I pulled over to breathe.

That's probably the closest I've ever been to an accident. My record's clean, and I've been driving for almost three years.

 

[bballstar23]

I still have yet to get my license, and the scariest thing for me, believe it or not is parking. I can't park at all. I guess it has more to do with instructors, because those have been teaching me haven't told me what to look for or when to start turning, so I'm completely clueless. Everyone pretty much just turns the wheel for me, which doesn't do me any favor. The worst part is that we have to learn some crappy maneuvers for the test, like reversing around the corner. Who needs to know that? No one I know of reverses around the corner. They don't teach us to parallel park, but they teach us something pointless like that. I don't even remember how to do it correctly now.

 

[Bahamut]

I just got two warnings a couple days ago, for having an expired registration (which expired a week ago, w/e) and for not having my insurance card on me.

Man I hate being pulled over.

Bmess' driving record is spotless. Mine . . . not so much.

signal with your arm out the window (I know, right?)

I actually had to do that IRL a few years ago when my signal light burned out. It's something you should know, regardless of whether you'll use it or not. It's also good if you ever go cycling on a busy street.

 

[Crimson King]

My record was crystal clear until about a year ago. In total I have two tickets (both have since been removed), 2 warnings (neither actually were valid where I was threatened for "Running a yellow light"), then a car accident where I literally did nothing wrong. It was pretty funny in hindsight. All I did was crack jokes about it.

 

[Red Exodus]

I hate the hand signal thing, whenever I stick my arm out I feel like I'm going to lose control of the car, not to mention it kinda distracts me from the actual driving. I always use my indicators though so I suppose that's ok. I think I'll mainly use hand signals for slowing down, stopping and telling someone to overtake [if I have to] since there aren't clear indicators for that. I'll just ask my testing officer if that's ok before I go out and lose marks for that.

Wee bit offtopic: I'll think I'll tweak the thread's title, it sound almost like I'm talking about a game. I'll do it after dinner though, I just hope I don't auto log out because then all of the subscribed threads go to read so I have no clue what threads have been replied too. /rant

 

[Eor]

Really, I've never used my hands to signal to somebody, other then a wave as a way of saying thanks.

 

[commonyoshi]

You're ****ing insane.

What if you hit a kid? If I did something like that, I don't think I'd ever get over it.

Yeah, I know. I'll never do something like that again. It being Christmas break meant a lack of sleep which definitely impared my judgement on this. It's not as bad as you imagine though. I was driving on a wide, deserted road next to a cemetery. There we no cars around at all so the only thing I could have crashed into would have been either a wall or a zombie.

I'm not defending what I did. If I could I'd travel back in time and slap myself for even considering it.

 

[jmandrummer123]

Hey, what should I study for the learner's liscense exam? (In Georgia?)

 

[commonyoshi]

How about the manual? They're free at the DMV.

And dont study. The tests are easy, at least they are in California.

 

[Rapid_Assassin]

The test depends entirely on where you live. My drivers test literally only required a drive around a block. No parallel parking, 3 point turn, or any of that crap. Probably why RI's drivers are so bad... Written test for the permit is easy: if you've ever been in a car before it's mostly common sense.

As for my experiences, I've never been in a collision before. I've had one ticket for going 75 on i-295 (which is speed limit 65). There was one kind of funny experience, on a ride back home from a tournament:

I was at a red light, which i couldn't even see. I also didn't see any cars around, so i took the left hand turn. Cop comes out of nowhere, and pulls me over.

Cop: Where are you coming from?
friend: Smashbros tournament.
Cop: Are you willing to submit to a sobriety test?

My friends were watching some footage which they got earlier that day on the camera. The cop could probably also see the game controllers, tv, and other crap like that in the back seat. I noticed the letters "DUI UNIT" on the side of the cop car. After realizing that we were just a bunch of nerds, he didn't even make me take a sobriety test, and just let me go with a warning.

 

[Tom]

over the xmas break, I did some driving.

I drove 4 hours from Waycross GA to Columbus GA.
I drove 6.5 hours from Columbus GA to Memphis TN.
I drove 6.5 hours from Memphis TN to Columbus GA.
I drove 6.5 hours from Columbus GA to Memphis TN.
I drove 6.5 hours from Memphis TN to Columbus GA.
I drove 4 hours from Columbus GA to Waycross GA.
= 34 hours of driving. @_@'' carting relatives and siblings around.

that was pretty gay. Though everyone in the car was forced to listen to my techno.

I've got a perfect record though. I've been pulled over twice; once because the cop said I was "swerving back and forth, while still in my lane" O.o which I wasn't doing at all. And then the other time because they said I was going 40 in a "30 School Zone." I went to court for it, and when they said you were speeding, I pretty much said "No, I wasn't. This is a misunderstanding." and I got out of it. The lights were supposed to have turned off at 4pm, and it was like 4:40, so I really wasn't at fault. Boy was that a waste of time and stress. I had already moved to Georgia when my court date took place, so I had to go back to Memphis for it.

 

[Red Exodus]

Dammit I'm really starting to hate driving, a large number of roads other than the highways are really narrow, they're so narrow they might as well be one-way. It doesn't help that a lot of roads don't have sidewalks, so people basically have to walk on the side of the already narrow roads making them even more narrow. Then there are those blasted pot holes. For some reason, my government thinks it's better to build the road out of cheap materials, than find something that lasts longer, like what America uses. It's so bad that some roads are completely full of patche jobs, so the road ends up begin very rough and bumpy, as if I was off road or something.

Most of the houses [including mine] are built right next to the road, if I were to drop something out of my window next to the road, it'd land in the road. This creates a lot of blind corners, and I mean A LOT. One time a big truck drove by and it hit one of my windows, luckily it only broke the glass.

It just pisses me off how much I have to worry about when I'm driving here, I enjoy driving on main roads because most of them are way wider but the secondary roads are just awful. I think if I get my license I'll hardly drive anywhere, the roads suck, parking sucks [no parking meters here, the roads are too narrow] and the whole thing is just really stressful.

 

[Tom]

@Red Exodus

you were talking about how driving where you live totally sucks. Then you contrasted it to America, and I looked at your location to see where you live. LOL

All the buildings are too close together in heaven, probably because of overpopulation.

 

[Red Exodus]

My test is coming up next week, I'm so nervous.

 

[KoreanDJ111]

I love driving.

Driving is waaay too fun.

 

[Teebs]

Biggest drive for me was South Bend, Ind. to Hot Springs, Ark.
16 hours @ 775 miles.

Furthest Smash drive was South Bend, Ind. to North Manchester, Ind.
1.5 hours @ 60 miles.

If you live(d) in South Bend, you grow to hate Michigan drivers. They come
here for work and stuff, but they dont know how to use directionals, they
cut you off, etc. Ugh, so horrible. I bet just about half of the accidents
in SB are caused by MI drivers. I don't hate MI people, except when they
get behind the wheel. But they can say a bunch about us probably, speeding
the big thing.

Been pulled over once (back in November) for going 41 in a 30 @ Ball
State. I've been in one accident, caused questionably by me or other
person. Guy had his truck about 30% into a parking aisle and I backed
into his truck, broke my tail-light, and his truck had the smallest
scratch. Whose to blame? I put it both ways, his fault he was out so far,
mine because I wasn't looking. What do you think?