Despite having driven cars for 10 years, I sometimes scare myself by doing dangerous things on the road. The other day, I looked to my left lane to prepare to change into it. Unexpectedly and unbeknownst to me, traffic in MY lane had slowed the moment I looked away, and I subsequently slammed on the brakes to avoid a rear-end when I looked back.

Should I go back to driving school, or does anybody else find themselves doing similar things? If so, it would be nice to have a catalog of common driving slip-ups.

I hate when that happens, and I can't think of any particular other common driving slip-ups I've been prone to lately. Not to say I don't slip up; I simply can't recall a trend or particularly dangerous example.

Also, since I don't think anyone else did this yet -- welcome! Please deposit your soul in the soul box. And, of course, don't be afraid to post out the Interactive Story Board!

What brought you to Massassi anyway?

Thanks, Gebohq! I used to play JK and DF, and read these boards frequently for entainment purposes. Since it seems you are a dying community, I decided to post (especially now that funny people like SF_Gold, Casperhead, Em_playa, John Travolta, etc. don't).

Crashed my Camaro twice being a ****ing idiot. First time spun out accelerating around a corner way too fast and wound up with my front tires on the median. 2nd time I was slowing down to make a turn and wheels locked up went straight over one of those triangle shaped island thingies that pedestrians stand on before they cross the main portion of the road. Got lucky nobody was waiting there since it was like 3 AM. Both times I just bounced so I still have a perfect driving record. These were both years ago and I don't **** around anymore.

I don't really slip up like you describe anymore, I've gotten to be pretty good at smart driving and predicting what other people are going to do.

Dash, your first case is a common one, I'm sure; I did the same in my first year or so of driving at a green light doing a U-turn. I wouldn't have skidded into the median (that's all that happened, the traffic was still at the light) if my tires weren't in such bad shape and the ground wasn't wet.

Welcome to the board. Be advised that 90% of what I post should not be taken seriously at all.

Can't say I've really done anything that scared me in a long time. I know the limits of my car pretty well and I really don't try to test them unless I've got a whole lot of empty space. Sometimes I do like to do things well within those limits that scare the **** out of my friends riding with me though.

Were I not familiar with your silliness just from lurking, your unicorn avatar would would have given you away.

My Toyota pickup has such a small amount of power that its hard to break it loose even on snow. >_>

New members? in 2012?
strange things are afoot at the circle k

Everyone makes at least the occasional mistake when driving a vehicle. However, if "sometimes" is more often than a few times each year or so, I'd say there's a problem & that you should at least attempt to discover the solution. I can't say definitively what said problem is, if there is one, but I would like to add that a good driver has enough "awareness" to know what's going on around him/her & that a look to either lane beside you should be so brief & that the vehicles in front of you should be so far away that being surprised by slowing traffic (stopped traffic maybe-if there was an accident or something of that nature, but not slowing traffic) should be nearly impossible. I suspect that in this particular situation, you either weren't paying the proper amount of attention to your surroundings, you spent too much time looking towards the left lane or you were much too close to the vehicle in front of you (all of which are caused by a lack of awareness &/or recklessness--doubtfully the latter considering the fact that you're at least concerned enough to think about it).

A thoughtful post, Mentat -- thanks. Reflecting on it, I believe I can point to the fact that I was probably going too fast. Not over the speed limit, but speed limits are lower in hairier areas for a reason. In this case, the line of cars ahead had slowed and then stopped to turn right onto some side-street.

I thought to share because this was the second time this happened to me, and I thought for sure it must be a common cause for accident in your average (scary) driver.

I make more mistakes when I'm in a hurry, thats why I never try to be, wake up slightly earlier, get on the road 5-10 minutes before you were suppose to and youll feel in less of a rush and less likely to do something stupid

I am typically not a bad driver, but I usually let others know. If I'm tailed, I either slow down or I match the speed of the car next to me in a 4-lane. I don't mind that you have somewhere you need to get to, but respect the other drivers, *******!

Trying to piss people off on the road accomplishes nothing. Don't be one of those people.

Then quite frankly, they shouldn't ride my tail. If they rear end me, its their fault because they are so impatient to get to where they are going. I drive 5 over the limit. That's fast enough.

Let me correct my previous statement. Trying to piss people off on the road accomplishes nothing except increasing the chances of an accident. If you have the capability to get out of someone's way but choose to camp in the left lane because you feel you're going fast enough and no one else should go faster than you, then you're doing nothing but impeding the flow of traffic and increasing the chance of an accident. Swallow your pride and get out of the way. Trying to "punish" people for tailgating is just as bad as tailgating.

But it's common enough for some jerk to sit right on your bumper even in the slow lane. If that's the case, I'll slow down too just so they'll get impatient and pass me.

And neither should the other 10%.

shut up you damn massassi elites

Perhaps I should clarify as well. 9 times out of 10, I'm in the right lane. Most of the other time, its a two lane. At those points, its get off my ass or I'll annoy you about it. If I'm passing a long line of cars that are going the speed limit and the car behind me is going 75 (speed limit is 60), I will get over when I can. I will not merge into traffic going slower than me. Slow down and wait.

The correct response, if someone is tailgating you, is to slow down. This is so that in the event of an emergency (such as a deer jumping out in front of you, as is common here), they would be less likely to slam into you. This is especially important for motorcyclists that are being tailgated.

My scooter (and I) got run off the road by a prius during spring break.

Now it's wrecked.

silent-but-deadly

...now I have to tell everyone I was farted off the road by a vegetarian.

Since it was a Prius, you might well have been. Doubly so if you saw an Obama bumper sticker.

I don't understand, how did the Prius get wrecked?

Like he said, it hit a scooter. The scooter drove away with minor damage.

I didn't say "hit" anywhere you *******s.

Rev Jones, In addition to what Mentat said above, there is another trick you can try to help avoid this. It's something that truck drivers, bus drivers, and drivers of other large vehicles with big blind spots use, but it works well for smaller vehicles also.

Basically what you do is use your side mirror to check your blind spot, rather than looking over your shoulder. If you look in your mirror and lean forward towards the steering wheel, the angle you're viewing the mirror will change and you will be able to see into your blind spot. The advantage to this is that since your head is still generally pointed forward, you can maintain a view of the car in front of you in your perherifiral view, and should be able to notice brake lights much more easily. I've found this works especially well when changing lanes to the left. If changing lanes to the right, I will still look "over my shoulder" (but really more just to the side) to see the blind spot, since I don't have to look as far, I can still see to the front relatively well even when checking the blind spot.

One last thing to keep in mind, is that if you are looking over your shoulder to check your blind spot, make sure you're not looking too far back. It is a common mistake to look all the way behind you (to the point where you can see the car traveling in your current lane behind you, instead of looking mostly to the side, and only slightly to the rear to see the specific blind spot area.
B

I love having blind spot mirrors.

Where my hat is at? It isn't in the post box!

Or under this auto that I always all the time drive around.

.

And call an auto.

Wow, I had no idea signing up for Massassi would be so practical. Every part of your message has been educational for me. Thanks.

Glad I could help. Most of what I posted there are things my dad taught me (or tried to teach me) when I was learning to drive. And I've found them to be helpful over the years.