Driving at highway speeds and only being a couple of feet away from an oncoming car in the other lane is weirdly normalized. amirite?

Giant. Metal. Death. Machines. And people go as far as texting, eating, doin their freaking makeup! While operating one. F*ckin hell.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Right?! One loose tire, a bad bump, some idiot texting, an icy road and boom dead or messed for life. Roads are scary

by Anonymous 2 years ago

"There were car gods there: a powerful, serious-faced contingent, with blood on their black gloves and on their chrome teeth: recipients of human sacrifice on a scale undreamed-of since the Aztecs." ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That book completely changed how I see the world.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Is it fiction? I just looked it up at my library and it seems to be. What was life changing? I might read it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It's very good and worth a read

by Anonymous 2 years ago

What did you like about it?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Pages and words.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

They were very good

by Anonymous 2 years ago

i make sacrifices daily, dont worry car god

by Anonymous 2 years ago

This just bumped the book higher up my wish list

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I wish Americans had high speed rail gods instead 🥲

by Anonymous 2 years ago

the problem is that America is big. Like, really big. there are countries that fit in some of our states. he'll, there are multiple countries that can fit in just one state! Rail is not feasible for most of the country as a regular transportation option. I was 12 miles \*as the crow flies\* from DC. there was \*zero\* public transportation.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Honestly the highways today remind me of the descriptions of the six lane roads in the book Fahrenheit 451. Lol they were just an idea then, but oh how it came true! My brother is a paramedic and tells me horror stories, it's a wonder vehicles are even a thing…

by Anonymous 2 years ago

The electric billboards along the highways are there as well.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That seems like an easy prediction though. All you needed was a more efficient and size friendly means of projecting an image. Low and behold we got LEDs.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

(I think it's just "lo"; "lo and behold")

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Drive in Ireland. Couple inches.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I'm most scared of the 17 year old kid that just broke up with his girlfriend.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

What's worse is we expect little *painted* lines to keep us safe. Humanity is wild.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It's not the lines that keep us safe, they just make it easy for people to know what they need to do in order to keep themselves safe. And it works. Lots of people die in traffic accidents each year, most because one of the drivers was being an idiot. But so many millions more people drive every day every year. The fact that the ratio to the number of people who drive to the number of people who die driving is so low is actually a massive testament to how well the system we have in place works.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

This is why I never wanted to start driving, but living in a rural area of America, it's a necessity. I'm hoping I'll have to drive a lot less once I move

by Anonymous 2 years ago

The US backroads are wide expanses of pavement compared to English country roads. Try driving "55" down a hedge lined curving driveway.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Bold of you to assume rural US backroads are paved. In my state our dirt roads are lined with sharp falls off the side of a mountain.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I just got my first car a month ago. I'm 52. I never wanted to drive but this last two years made me very aware I have to have this option. Highways are nowhere near my future. I barely handle 45 let alone the crazy speeds done on the highway by others. I'll go ahead and take that extra 30 mins to hour to avoid it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Go Amish! It's really not that bad, and sooooo much better for the environment!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

And they run on explodo juice.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Used to be lead poisoned explodo juice!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Doesn't taste nearly as good anymore.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Try mixing it 25/75 with diesel

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Yea and worse mpg

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I prefer the term dinosaur sauce

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Mine instead runs on a high voltage battery that contains enough power to run an American home for at least three days!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

And if it ever catches fire it could take up to a week to put it out!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Your car runs on angry pixies that taste like pain.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Speeding and tailgating in wet conditions. It's actually insane.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I think a lot of this has to do with how comfortable cars have become. Pillowy suspension, insulated from noise, the elements, wind, in big cushy chairs that hug every curve of your body, cruise control, sound systems, etc. If we were strapped to a chair with the cruel, unforgiving asphalt peeling past just a foot beneath us, feeling the shockwave of the envelope of air blasting us every car that passes us in the oncoming lane, we'd realize how close we are to death at any moment. Of course, the beauty of engineering with crumple zones, air bags, exhaustive testing and decades of experience for engineers means we are safer than we would otherwise be, but it still needs to be treated with respect and caution.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Too many people carelessly operating bulldozer

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Giant Metal Death Machines - there must be a Metal band with that name!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

A frightening majority of people do not comprehend physics. I do, and I've also seen what heavy machinery can do to a body in a split second right in front of me. (Miraculously they were fine, the human body can sometimes be strangely elastic). I instead was traumatized twice by partially being blamed for talking to someone at the end of a shift maybe a little further out than I should have (we weren't in the middle? So.) my fault, not the driver who didn't look before/while backing up and didn't see the person I was talking with. That driver was back on the forklift like a few nights later. I couldn't stare at wheel wells for months. Plus guilt because I wasn't the one that was hit, but was blamed for it. I've also been in a couple small wrecks (my fault) and one big wreck (NOT my fault). I've noted to my roommate multiple times that she drives in a manner that I would expect of someone not having been in any accident. This is not a compliment, I've seen people do something stupid like, driving into incoming traffic that was visibly approaching at speed, turning in just as I was about to pass by them. An extra split second in either direction, I might have reacted in time. Or they might have not turned so quickly and nothing would have happened. Some people might think I drive like a grandma. I drive like a survivor, in my opinion.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Do you know the Darwin Award? Basically, it is a prize won by those who helped the process of natural selection, by not spreading their.. defective(?) genes forward As an example, an elderly deceased man has received this award after dying in a highway car crash, having masturbated while driving.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

My wife does her makeup while driving to work. It drives me insane. Not because of the foundation powder all over everything, but because I get worried. She thinks I just bitch about the powder but I always tell her "I don't care about the powder, it's not safe and if something happens to you I don't think I could handle it." She still does it 😑

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Yep, I don't drive because of this. I let my husband drive. I don't trust people and I trust his driving. Lol!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Imagine how I feel as a construction worker on the highway. Blatant disregard for our guys on a daily basis, everyone is in too much of a rush because they left late. Speeding to your destination only saves minutes at most. Slow down and save lives. We would also like to go home to our families.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It terrifies me that people think only being a few feet away is acceptable. I hate it when leaving a proper gap is seen as an invitation to slide in front of me without indicating.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Even if Ai driving is 100% safe, it still safer than some of the idiots on the road. At least the AI is getting smarter. And Drivers are getting dumber. :)

by Anonymous 2 years ago

You have to trust the other people not to do something idiotic too.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Unfortunately this doesn't always work, I was tboned back in November by some silly prat driving a van, he shot out of a yield road on the right of a cross roads and struck my front drivers side wheel arch, that shunted me into a car waiting in the left yield road. My car was a write off, only had it for 7 months by that point -_- ended up off work with concussion for 3.5 weeks.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

how many months?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I'm guessing they meant 7

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That is correct XD

by Anonymous 2 years ago

7, I fat fingered it

by Anonymous 2 years ago

u

by Anonymous 2 years ago

There's a social construct that everyone is going to follow the rules and not drive head first into traffic. It's the same thing as the shopping carts but with consequences scaled to the extreme. Maybe that makes it different?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

And we trust a brightly coloured stripe of paint will keep them on their side.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

"rules"

by Anonymous 2 years ago

We live in a society

by Anonymous 2 years ago

> rules of the road More of a suggestion, really.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

You can pay for the privilege to not respect them, technically.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Also barely clearing a semi truck's front end before they cross over in their lane. Stupidity at its finest.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Nothing stupider than entering a wagon's braking distance. You're asking to die.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Yet, if I hit and kill someone in my semi I'll go to jail until I'm cleared. And even then I may still get sued.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Sometimes I think about this while driving down the highway and need to exit and take the back roads.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

We're trusting the average person not to stray across a painted white line and destroy us and our family.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

One time I was riding passenger in a car while I was on acid and I realized the whole system of control for these heavy pieces of metal rocketing at 100 km an hour is painted lines and colored light bulbs Haven't been the same since

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That's because people usually respect them, because they don't want to die. Which is usually good motivation for humans.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

In EU there is 2-3 seconds rule, you keep your distance in seconds, not meters. You search for an object that car in front of you will pass and you count to 2-3s. If you pass that object under 2s you are too close

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I was taught that in the US as well.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Good to know!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Well, that's what you are supposed to do. I've never really seen it happening in L.A., but people are remarkably skilled at driving way too fast and tailgating the entire time.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

If you put that much distance between you and the car in front of you, someone is going to merge into that space.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

So then you slow down to create distance between you and the car that merged. I'm not risking my life to be petty.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Good for them. Then you slow down and open up more space. I've been driving like that for years. You'd be surprised, most people respect the space

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Yes, you should always have enough room for someone to merge in front of you safely.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Seems like a good rule of thumb, but i was taught in the US to keep 1 car length distance behind the person in front of you per 10mph of speed you're doing

by Anonymous 2 years ago

OP is talking about the cars going in the opposite direction — it'd be hard to maintain 2s from them at all times

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I don't think we have actual highways without a big divider between the sides? Fastest road without divder i can remeber is 100kmh.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

There are plenty of roads in texas with 70mph speed limits with only a double yellow in between. So everyone drives 75mph (120kmh).

by Anonymous 2 years ago

99 Grand Parkway around Houston was a surprise for me that stretches of it go down to 2 lanes with no barrier.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

And in Texas, they'll put traffic lights on roads like that! Insanity!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I think that is universal because I learned the same rule to earn my drivers license in Montana. The rule has been proven useful in several situations.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

OP means the contra flow on undivided highways. I guess in the EU, those have lower speed limits, but in the US, especially places like Texas, you can easily and legally cruise at 70 mph on an undivided farm-to-market (FM) highway.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I was taught 4 seconds. It takes on average 1 second for you to start reacting to anything, so 2 seconds leaves you with 1 second to actually dodge whatever is there, which in my opinion is just not enough.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Lol it seems like so many of you never took math or physics. There's no set time number. If you're going 25 then 1 second probably is enough if you have good reflexes. Going 50 you need like 3 or so then 80 you'll need a few more.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

It seems like you never took either math or physics. Timing the distance in seconds means that the actual distance adapts to the speeds. | **Speed (km/h)** | **Speed (miles/h)** | **Speeds (m/s)** | **Distance in 2s (m)** | **Distance in 4s (m)** | |------------------|---------------------|------------------|------------------------|------------------------| | 20 | 12.4 | 5.6 | 11.2 | 22.4 | | 40 | 24.9 | 11.1 | 22.2 | 44.4 | | 60 | 37.3 | 16.7 | 33.4 | 66.8 | | 80 | 49.7 | 22.2 | 44.4 | 88.8 | | 100 | 62.1 | 27.8 | 55.6 | 111.2 | | 120 | 74.6 | 33.3 | 66.6 | 133.2 | | 140 | 87.0 | 38.9 | 77.8 | 155.6 |

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I was taught to give one full car-length distance per 10 mph. So 60mph = 6 cars distance

by Anonymous 2 years ago

That's not a thing in Europe. You can only drive at highway speeds on highways, which are roads where a physical barrier is required between lanes of trafic going in opposite directions

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Uh, def been driving 100kph (legally) on many European roads narrower than US roads. Some of which don't even have painted lines between lanes.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Oh come on. All good to be pedantic but I think you know what is intended here. There are many many miles of higher speed roads in Europe that are only separated by paint. Maybe they're not called "highways" but you know what OP means.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

>That's not a thing in Europe. You can only drive at highway speeds on highways, The limit on secondary roads, without any kind of separation, is only 20-30 km/h lower in Spain. True for most of Europe.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

And literally no one complies. I've had people on European highways be 5 to 10m behind me while going 120km/h

by Anonymous 2 years ago

We all can agree on only one thing in this country and that is follow the rules of the road.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Since when do people follow the rules of the road?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

There's rules?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

They be more like guidelines

by Anonymous 2 years ago

We don't though...eg, speed limits are de facto quasi-minima, with most people going about 20 percent over them.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I say just be predictable. Fast or slow, holding your lane or bobbing and weaving, I can feel safer if you keep doing what you're doing and I'll act appropriately.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Why is it clear to me that America is the only country you could be referring to?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I always get an involuntary shiver when one passes very close

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I'm a trucker, you'd be surprised just how many people don't seem to care that they're passing a 40 ton metal missile just a few feet away. We can see you watching Netflix while doing your makeup, Deborah

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I sometimes liken it to Blue Angels flying in close formation. You get three lanes on Highway and every lane is full but moving at speed, yet you are less than 3 feet from the other cars in some lanes. Then there is the the 50mph two-way back roads. Sometimes the center line there rumbles so you are aware you may be riding on it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I believe that driving is a normalized activity. Given our current level of generally imposed safety limits, if cars (as they currently exist) were invented today, we'd never be allowed to drive them.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Nothing will de-normalize this for you like traveling to a country where they drive on the opposite side of the road. I went to Scotland, my buddy picked us up, and the ladies sat in the back to catch up. So needless to say, I'm riding shotgun in a VW Polo, sitting in my normal "drivers seat", with no pedals of steering wheel, oh and driving on the opposite side of the road. My right calf had a cramp from pushing the imaginary brake pedal, and I was as close to a full blown panic attack as I've ever been.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

This is why I never got a driver's license. I wouldn't trust myself behind the wheel. I know there are literal teenagers driving cars but still

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I am the same. I have no idea why people are down-voting you.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Not getting a license won't save them from all the people that have one but shouldn't as long as driving is practically a requirement to get most places.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

This is why we build dual carriageways (divided highway) and it doesn't always have to be a motorway or highway to have the lanes separated

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Only thing keeping you alive everyday is the mutual agreement between you and strangers, to stay on your side of a painted line on the the road

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Its amazing people are willing to trust the other drivers on the road!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Yes. All it takes is one driver with high cholesterol who experiences a common TIA and it's a tragedy.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

My phobia agrees with you. I do not drive nor own a car. I'm 32 years old. I walk or ride bike every where. I do take rides but it's from two people only that's it. It's hard but I'm getting better.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Don't worry! You are completely protected from oncoming traffic, by a line of paint.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

So weird, I learnt to drive pretty late in life and its the most terrifying thing. How do you just trust that the car isn't going to veer off sideways into you, its very stressful overall

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I'm 28 and more than half the friends I've lost up to this point were due to auto accidents.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Now think about being on a motorcycle. Every time I ride to work I think "doing 75 between all these cars should feel way more dangerous."

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I think about this all the time. We get in a chunk of metal hurling through the open space at 75 mph a mere 6 feet from another ton hunk of metal coming at us at 75 mph with trust that they will stay in their lane because we have some paint on the ground telling them to stay over there.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

If cars were first proposed in the year 2002 we probably wouldn't allow them.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Eating a lunch that could give you lethal dysentery or ecoli poisoning is weirdly normalized. Walking on a sidewalk where if you were to fall backwards you could fracture your C1-C2 vertebra leading to internal decapitation is weirdly normalized. Riding in a train car packed to the brim with the most aggressive and deadly predator the world has seen is weirdly normalized. Sitting on your couch watching TV when you could blow a brainstem aneurysm and die in moments is weirdly normalized. Life is risk. Death will happen.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Only because we started out moving slowly and worked our way up, if cars were invented today every street would have barriers

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Don't know where I heard it but for every 10mph you should be one car length away from the car in front of you. I try to do this. Just a month ago headed to GA a car in front of me slammed into the back of the car in front of him going over 80mph. Because I was a handful of car lengths back I was able to slow and switch lanes.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I long for the future to be strictly public transportation. Or teleportation. I'll take that as well.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

You are supposed to be 1 car length away for every 10 miles per hour you are doing.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I sometimes imagine one of the cars just swerving into my lane and I get into a head on collision. You're trusting that every single car that passes you in the opposite lane doesn't just decide (or accidentally) swerve into you. It's insane.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

If you're scared to drive then don't do it. Someone who is scared of driving and drives is a menace for others

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Don't understand why you say that -- having fear of the consequences of acting stupid in a car seems to make people a much better driver by default. I have never gotten a ticket or been an accident in my 10 years of driving so far and some of that is just luck but I'd say a lot of it is just being afraid of dying in a car and being cautious

by Anonymous 2 years ago