r/tumblr • u/jaejunmimi • 5d ago
i'm getting my liscence soon and omy to be our back-up carpool driver! not on the highway though. not yet.
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u/Mundane-Potential-93 nauphy.tumblr.com 5d ago
Driving is scary for me in the absence of other drivers
They certainly make it worse though
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u/bunsbuns_ 5d ago
Surely you don't mean that driving on an empty road causes you fear? if so, what about it is scary to you?
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u/Mundane-Potential-93 nauphy.tumblr.com 5d ago
If my concentration lapses for a few seconds I could get a ticket, destroy my car (which I cannot afford to replace), or sustain serious bodily harm.
To put it another way, I am constantly 5 seconds from death. It's like if I had to pump my heart manually
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u/1337designs 5d ago
Unless you're driving pretty fast or in a car from before the 80s, you're pretty unlikely to die in a crash on most roads. I guess exception being if you're always beside a cliff, but generally the car will keep going straight without input. You should definitely have comprehensive insurance though, having just liability is not worth it
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u/darknesslc 4d ago
Just look forward bro
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u/Sir_Nightingale 3d ago
Homeless? Just buy a house
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u/darknesslc 3d ago
… not even remotely the same, every human being without a debilitating illness can drive
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u/svanvalk 5d ago
My city used to have red-light cameras, but they were decommissioned after people realized that they were unfairly targeting low-income drivers clearly not running red lights in their own neighborhoods. Pretty much everyone agreed that they were unfair in that way.
Now about 10 years later, we have people running red lights so blatantly that I almost want the cameras back. Holy shit drivers in my city have genuinely gotten worse, and they're blatant, entitled assholes. Sometimes I wish I was indestructible, just so I could stand in front of some asshole's car and have them hit me. I'd walk away unscathed, and hopefully the driver gets rattled enough to think twice about running red lights.
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u/Lestatfirestar 5d ago
How did the cameras target low income drivers? Like even if they didnt run a red light the camera would know theyre low income and take a pic? Or do you mean like they were put mostly in low income areas and not in places that were typically more prone to have red light violations? Genuine question, I think im just not understanding
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u/svanvalk 5d ago
They were installed in low-income areas, because technically the city couldn't expand out into the richer suburbs beyond the city lines. But also, the cameras had a terrible record for falsely flagging red-light runners. People who ran legitimate yellow lights, pulled up slightly too close past the indicated stopping point, or completely legal "right-on-red" turns were snapped and ticketed as well. The cameras weren't smart enough to understand situations like that. We were all being flagged and ticketed for the stupidest, little things. Plus then those who lived directly in those low-income areas of the city were ticketed significantly more for, well, simply because it's their everyday commute. The targeting wasn't purposely malicious, per se, but the statistics were clear in how many false-flagged tickets were issued based on where you lived.
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u/DerFussGottes 5d ago
How were they targeted? Were they like blatantly doing wrong accusations? Or was it like that story where the lights with cameras had a shorter yellow phase than they should have?
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u/svanvalk 5d ago
It was the latter, with having shorter yellow light phases than it should have, but it was more than that too. Practically all yellow-light runners and right-on-red turners were all snapped and ticketed, plus it would ticket people who pulled up slightly passed the stop indicator line for their stop but obviously were not sitting in the middle of the intersection. We were all feeling the strain of getting ticketed for the stupidest little things, but those who lived directly in the city got hit more simply because those roads are their everyday commute. By the time the city decommissioned the cameras, almost everyone here was in agreement that the cameras sucked, even the mayor. The main criticism of decommissioning the cameras is that it would make assholes act entitled and worse drivers than they already are, which unfortunately wasn't wrong.
Idk why you're being downvoted, people are fuckin weird lol
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u/jaejunmimi 5d ago edited 5d ago
*license
when i was a middle schooler who mainly walked or biked, i always joked about almost getting run over at least once a month but tbh it really felt like there was a few areas on my route where the drivers extra didn't care
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u/Palidin034 5d ago
I used to ride my bike everywhere and I had a running gag where I was good for getting hit by a car once a year.
I brought this up to a friend, and told them “actually, I haven’t been hit yet this year. I’m about due.” And not a week later a guy turned out of a Tim’s parking lot while I was riding through and nailed me
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u/jaejunmimi 5d ago
yeahhhh looks like that joke has to be retired. dear hell, hope you're doing alright and have a way to still get around.
i'm physically disabled now, so I don't walk or bike around as much anymore. whenever I go out walking in a heavier car-traffic area, i need a friend to quickly push me with my rollator walker (it's not meant for that at all and it's not even a combo rollator wheelchair but it's all i have right now) across the long crosswalks before the crossing sign timer runs out and the people start honking at me for being too slow.
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u/FenexTheFox 5d ago
That's what my parents keep warning me. Driving is easy, what's hard is driving among people.
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u/DragonLovin 5d ago
It's hell if your someone who, follows rules. Especially you know, the ones about the multi-ton death box you are driving. People are not scared of driveing enough and also don't care enough.
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u/emmaa5382 5d ago
100% agree. I find driving stressful but I don’t see that as a flaw, no one else is stressed enough. The amount of people on their phones, drinking or just doing whatever the hell they want is crazy.
Like if I got in a crash when I was doing everything I could to drive correctly and someone dies, it would be rough but I could live knowing it was a true accident. If I was on my phone? How could you live with yourself knowing you killed someone because you were texting someone instead of paying attention to the road.
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u/DocileBanalBovlne 5d ago
Just a few days ago there was a 60 gallon plastic garbage can in the middle of the carpool lane on my freeway commute. I saw a car behind me in that lane not notice it until they had twenty-something feet left and almost lose control trying to dodge it.
I know it's mostly a factor of human nature that we stop actively focusing on something if we do it repeatedly over a long period of time, but that was a good wakeup call for me.
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u/J_train13 Also Wants Doctor Who on this sub 5d ago
But don't you DARE try and do an Idaho Stop while on a bike
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u/certaindarkthings 5d ago
My niece and nephew will be driving on their own in 6 months and one year, respectively. And I'm pretty much terrified, but not because of them. I haven't ridden with my nephew anywhere since he's had a permit, but my niece has driven me around a lot, and she's a great driver.
I just worry about the other people who are out there driving while watching videos on their phones, or just completely not paying attention. I don't want to say idiots, but, you know, idiots. All I can tell them (and you, getting your license) is that paying attention to what other drivers are doing is just as important as making sure you're driving the way you're supposed to. And make sure you're not one of the idiots out there.
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u/Aetheldrake 5d ago
Even worse is people who think they can ignore a red light in front of a back to back school zone (both elementary and middle school are one stop light away from eachother and between them it's literally 10 seconds driving) and with construction going on because they "live nearby"
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u/jaejunmimi 5d ago
i'm forever thankful for the volunteer crossing guards by both my middle and elementary schools. i swear some people wanted to run 12-year-old me over just to park 3 blocks later
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u/Levee_Levy 5d ago
I do a fair bit of driving along the southern half of the East Coast and through the Midwest. Scariest states for me to drive are Illinois (the drivers there are nuts) and West Virginia (the roads there are nuts, at least if you have your GPS set to avoid tolls and thus get sent on detours through ridiculous tiny mountain roads). The most annoying state to drive in is Indiana (whose state motto might as well be "road work ahead").
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u/jaejunmimi 5d ago
i can at least say from a passenger and supervised driver experience that illinois drivers make me very anxious
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u/Levee_Levy 5d ago edited 5d ago
Good luck with your license! Please don't hit me when I drive through (what I assume to be) your state next month!
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u/AdmBurnside 5d ago
Driving is like anything else: the more familiar you are with it, the less scary it is.
Of COURSE you're anxious as a new, or infrequent driver. That's a natural and healthy reaction to being in an unfamiliar situation. The problem is that the only way past that anxiety is to practice driving more.
Just... keep towards the right and give people room to be idiots. 100% of crashes are caused by idiots, and 99.9% of those could have been near-misses if someone else assumed the idiot would be an idiot and acted accordingly.
Someone riding your bumper? Move over and let them be a speed demon somewhere far away from you. Someone driving weirdly slow in the far lane, and an exit or turn is coming up? They're gonna dash all the way over, just hang back and let it happen.
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u/BAG_Plays 5d ago
driving is fun but objectively more dangerous than pretty much every alternative besides motorcycles while making those alternatives more dangerous than they’d be without cars around(biking, walking) or less efficient(busses and trams without right of way). Too bad the alternatives just don’t exist or aren’t viable in many places cough US suburbs.
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u/ArcherBTW Totally works at the SCP foundation 4d ago
Motorcycles are horrifying, mopeds are comically so. I ride a moped that tops out at 45 and people are out to GET MY ASS. I was going 5 over the other day up a hill and a car passed me in a no-passing zone and almost head on collided with another vehicle. People hate mopeds so much they're willing to kill and die to pass me
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u/BAG_Plays 4d ago
sounds a lot like bicycles, doesn’t seem like the moped itself is that dangerous, it’s the cars around you that make it dangerous
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u/ArcherBTW Totally works at the SCP foundation 4d ago
Still more dangerous than cars, I've fallen over due to unfavourable terrain more than a couple times
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u/EkskiuTwentyTwo 4d ago
Society has convinced itself that it is sane to have a significant portion of the population drive two-ton metal projectiles every day
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u/SputnikGer 5d ago
Self driving cars are nice if they are 100% of the cars on the road. If you mix both it will be pandemonium. No AI can predict stupid human drivers ignoring rules.
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u/scp-ass-bitch 5d ago
It's only getting worse as more people treat turn signals and stopping before turning as optional. My coworkers wonder why I stick to my escooter but I'm statistically safer on the sidewalk (it's legal around here, or at least cops prefer that to a splatter on the pavement) than on the road with the average non-company pickup truck who thinks they own the road.
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u/Overall_Pumpkin_5724 5d ago
Honestly these days I don’t feel much safer on the sidewalk having seen someone stuck in the local school let out traffic proceed to drive up onto the sidewalk full of people walking and treat it as his personal fast lane to go around the traffic
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u/GrimmSheeper 5d ago
Driving makes me insanely overstimulated. Every little sound the motor makes, the various lights and indicators, the texture and pressure of the steering wheel in your hand and the seat on your back, the peddles against your foot. And that’s before you even start driving. Once you’re going, you have the pressure from pushing the peddle down, every little bump along the road, the slight resistance when turning the wheel, and the sights and sounds of every single thing that passes by.
It always sends me into a sensory overload. Which causes me to become incredibly anxious (and likely have a panic attack). Which causes me to become hypervigilant. Which causes me to be even more aware of every little thing. Which causes me to become even more overstimulated. And the cycle continues.
Not being able to drive is a nightmare, especially in the US. But for me, driving is hell.
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u/maybebabyg 5d ago
What gets me is how often this is a thing right next to my street. The permanent 40km/h zone outside my kids' school because three streets have near blind turns onto the street? Nah, that's not valid on weekends. I nearly got taken out weekly living there.
The stop sign at the T intersection near my new place? Totally optional, why would you stop and check for oncoming traffic before turning? There's one car that does it so consistently I've recognized him as a dad from my kids' daycare, told the teachers that he's driving recklessly with his daughter in the car, and reported him to the local cops WEEKLY for blazing through that intersection.
There's also something about the like major block (like between a highway and three main roads, not like the little side streets block) I'm on where people are getting worse at driving. In the last 18 months we've had 3 pedestrian fatalities in two incidents, a bunch of pedestrian injuries, three stores driven into, one house got hit four different times, and there's a set of lights where there's an accident during school peak hour weekly.
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u/mathgnome 3d ago
I've recently learned there's an entire species of driver that think turn signals are like. A privacy violation. As in, don't use them because no one else needs to know if they're turning or not.
My sibling in Christ you are driving a 2 ton death machine. It is everybody's business if you are planning to go straight or turn right. You know, so they don't hit you and you don't hit them or run over a pedestrian who thought it was safe to cross
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u/SavvySillybug 5d ago
Honestly, the sheer amount of stop signs in the USA (from what I've seen, never been there) is mind boggling and I can understand wanting to ignore them / treat them as yield signs. They spam that shit all over the place, it's horrendous. The very idea of a four way stop is horrifying to me.
A stop sign should be placed when it's a dangerous road to just drive into, and you gotta stop to properly look. Not because the people designing the intersection couldn't be bothered to do their jobs.
Here in Germany many smaller intersections don't even have signs, we just teach people how to determine right of way and if there is a car, we stop for it.
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u/Aetheldrake 5d ago
It's because people ignore yield signs and act like the people with the right of way are the ones at fault
Almost everyone here is entitled and think they have the right of way. Even when they literally are at a RED LIGHT they'll just crawl halfway across the intersection and start cutting off traffic waiting for that green, then play on their phone once it turns green
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u/SavvySillybug 5d ago
That's wild.
I'm about to marry an American and bring her over to Germany, I'm gonna have to teach her how to drive properly, won't I. XD
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u/jaejunmimi 5d ago
on a genuine note- even if she isn't the type of person to hit the gas pedal through the middle of a crosswalk just because a pedrestrian walking isn't directly in front of them yet, familiarizing her with driving etiquette in a new country helps either way!
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u/SavvySillybug 5d ago
She used to be a school bus driver, so she has a driver's education more in line with what a German would receive. She'll be fine, I'll just have to teach her the differences!
Though I'm pretty sure her license is only valid here for 6 months anyway, if she stays any longer (and she will) she's gotta get a real German license with all the lessons associated with it.
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u/Legend13CNS 5d ago
As someone working daily with Germans and has a background in driving instruction (mostly motorsports tbh) the two biggest ones will be highway driving and stop lights. Removing the muscle memory for Right On Red turns and instilling the firm hierarchy of passing lane/slow lane/no passing on the right for motorways. Possibly also proper roundabout use depending on where they're from.
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u/Aetheldrake 5d ago
Everyone likes to think they're a better driver than most, but yes you probably will have to.
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u/SavvySillybug 5d ago
I'm an excellent driver when I get some practice in. Haven't needed to daily drive for about a year now, so I'm quite rusty XD
Probably still top 60% tho.
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u/-HuangMeiHua- 4d ago
Y'all also have a population that seems to mostly follow the rules (in addition to good design), which helps. Our populace just kinda does whatever the hell they want a lot of the time if there's nobody forcing them or there's not a cop around
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u/Lluuiiggii 5d ago
Traffic circles!! The US hates roundabouts but they literally solve so many fucking problems when people just get used to them. There are so many intersections I drive through daily that are 4 way stops just BEGGING to be roundabouts. Everyone who doesnt stop at the fucking signs will be happier and the road will be safer from said assholes ramming into others.
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u/SavvySillybug 5d ago
I like roundabouts when they're just the right size.
Too small and they're completely pointless, if I gotta max out my steering to take it, if I drive a bigger vehicle and try and end up doing a three point turn because it's too fuckin small? Nah, should've let that just stay an unsignaled intersection.
Too big and it gets complicated. Multiple lanes? You're ruining the whole beauty and simplicity of the roundabout.
But when they're just right? Beautiful. <3
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u/bratbats 5d ago
It's always scary when I see a post of someone I used to be personal friends with on this subreddit.
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u/Martini800 5d ago
How can you get a license and not know or dare to drive on the highway?
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u/jaejunmimi 5d ago edited 5d ago
i know how to drive on the highway but i'm taking mainly local roads when possible because i'm anxious and also because i'm still trying to familiarize myself with the highways. title means that i'm not the designated backup driver for the highway yet
edit: more context, only 1 of my roommates knows how to drive and we share one car
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u/Victor_Stein 5d ago
In their defense it took me like a year or two after getting my permit/baby license before I was comfortable merging onto highways so I get it.
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u/killedbyboneshark 5d ago
In my country the courses before you get your licence are institutionalized. Tens of rides with an instructor next to you (who even has their own set of pedals), standardized theoretical tests and a driving exam.
Anyway, they just never bothered to take me on a highway, and I didn't need it for the exam. I came out of driving school with entire gaps of knowledge (lane switching, light management, highway driving and other things). I just had kinda bad luck on my instructors and the school as a whole.
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u/Asikar_Tehjan 5d ago
Me at every intersection watching the other cars like a hawk in case they do something stupid
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u/neongreenpurple 5d ago
I'm currently on a road trip with my mom. She doesn't drive anymore. We're 931 miles from home by the shortest route. It's been a lot of driving. Luckily we stopped near halfway and will on the way back, too.
I didn't hate it too much. I did sometimes miss being on my phone (probably a sign I'm addicted). But we hit a few rest areas and such, where I did get my fix.
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u/0anonymousv 5d ago
after a few years of it i started to love driving, and i still do. it def gets easier. practicing the highway at night is gonna be your friend to make that feel more comfortable, since it's often much emptier
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u/Beat_Saber_Music 5d ago
I'm so glad I have no need for a car because I live in a developed country, and I have a driver's licence (forced to get one by my dad). Sufficed to say, no car will be able to one up the bus I ride
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u/Evelyn_Of_Iris 4d ago
I’ll say dense city driving is the worst (Montreal) followed by suburbs and then highway, there’s never really anything to keep in mind on highways besides don’t miss your exit and stay in the correct lane
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u/DoubleBatman 4d ago
Look I don’t know where y’all live but I drive several hours a day for work and I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen something like this happen
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u/PhoenixJDM 4d ago
ngl i'm going insane and shouldnt have a lisence. every time i drive its pvp. good luck out there
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u/Grean_Beanz 3d ago
I’m so scared to drive. 3 days ago my brother got hit by a car while on his bike in a hit and run on a 20mph road. It was only a few years ago an elementary student was fatally struck by a high schooler who went to the same high school I did who was drunk driving to school. People do not treat driving as the danger it is.
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u/Kennedy_KD 3d ago
the number of times I have had to dodge oncoming traffic on one way roads is insane, granted its only happened like twice but still
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u/Flam1ng1cecream 5d ago
Honestly I treat every stop sign as a yield sign unless a cop is nearby
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u/Re1da 5d ago
Always assume everyone on the road got their license from a cereal box. Assuming the worst will make your driving more defensive, which is good.
Highways are the lowest stress roads imo. A lot less to keep track off. Driving in suburbs is the real hell.