Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

research.google

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 577 posts

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#201

Post by ryandrake »

mlyle wrote: post #147
appreciatorBus wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. If people are constantly moving into your appropriate head way this is doubtless annoying but the correct response is allow yourself to decelerate slowly to re-open that space again, repeat as many times as necessary, even if it means a bunch of agros end up in front of you. Better for them to be in front where you can see them, than behind or to the side, were you can't.

Yah. There's something that feels unjust about it -- the perception that the people cutting are getting something over on you -- that causes us to want to behave badly. But even if 2 dozen people go around you and creep into that following space, you've been cost like 45 seconds at worst. Better not to play the game.

Society would have a lot fewer car accidents if we, collectively, could get over that "Oh no someone dared to get in front of me!" feeling.

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#202

Post by its_magic »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #192
bloomingeek wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tailgating is against the law. Tailgating causes hard braking. I recently pulled my travel trailer from OK to Charleston, SC and back. I never drive over 65 MPH for safety and MPG reasons. I always stay in the right hand, slow lane except if I have to take a left lane exit. Since I was always driving slower then everyone else, not once did I have to hard brake. Tailgating is a choice and a dangerous one. I was never…

>I was never honked at, even by the crazy semi truck drivers. Because you were towing a camper and "slow and in the right lane" fits people's mental model of how recreational/nonprofessional heavy traffic or otherwise "handicapped" vehicles ought to behave. When you have problems is when you behave to a standard beneath what other people expect from whatever kind of traffic you are.

In the Atlanta area I've experienced a few times people FLYING up on me in the right hand lane while I'm cruising along at a conservative, gas sipping 55 MPH in my old truck, blaring their horn at me like I'm some kind of maniac.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#203

Post by its_magic »

fredophile wrote: post #197
girvo wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of cruising 15km/h over the limit is absolutely crazy to me. That will get you 3 points and a minimum $500 fine here. We have "average speed zones" too!

Where I live travelling at that speed will get you passed by every cop and state trooper driving on the same road. A lot comes down to local norms and enforcement.

In Alabama on the interstates and highways the rule of thumb is: "8 you're great, 9 you're mine."

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#204

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

sagarm wrote: post #95
mountain_peak wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maintaining a safe following distance is incredibly challenging on busy freeways where hard braking is often 'required'. Most people have likely found themselves in this situation: vehicle changes lanes in front of you; you slow down to maintain a safe following distance, another car sees a gap and changes lanes in front of you. Repeat for your entire commute. Incredibly frustrating, and I've driven all over North Am…

If you think highway driving requires hard braking, you're a bad driver.

If you do it on the regular, or even occasionally, sure, but emergencies are emergencies.

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#205

Post by cindyllm »

its_magic wrote: post #202
cucumber3732842 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I was never honked at, even by the crazy semi truck drivers. Because you were towing a camper and "slow and in the right lane" fits people's mental model of how recreational/nonprofessional heavy traffic or otherwise "handicapped" vehicles ought to behave. When you have problems is when you behave to a standard beneath what other people expect from whatever kind of traffic you are.

In the Atlanta area I've experienced a few times people FLYING up on me in the right hand lane while I'm cruising along at a conservative, gas sipping 55 MPH in my old truck, blaring their horn at me like I'm some kind of maniac. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

[dead]

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#206

Post by its_magic »

Gravityloss wrote: post #162
mountain_peak wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maintaining a safe following distance is incredibly challenging on busy freeways where hard braking is often 'required'. Most people have likely found themselves in this situation: vehicle changes lanes in front of you; you slow down to maintain a safe following distance, another car sees a gap and changes lanes in front of you. Repeat for your entire commute. Incredibly frustrating, and I've driven all over North Am…

I live in a place that has harsh winter conditions with ice, gravel and the occasional loose tire stud flying into people's windshields, warranting frequent expensive replacements. Somebody on the radio said that "just set the adaptive cruise control to max distance and your windshield will last way longer". It does feel overprotective at times, especially in slow and dense traffic, but I think there's a nice point i…

Another trick that works is just to let the windshield get cracked once. Then it will be immune to further rock strikes. Studies have shown that freshly replaced windshields are 937% more likely to be hit with a rock.

#trustmebro

#science

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#208

Post by its_magic »

stevage wrote: post #168
Gravityloss wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a place that has harsh winter conditions with ice, gravel and the occasional loose tire stud flying into people's windshields, warranting frequent expensive replacements. Somebody on the radio said that "just set the adaptive cruise control to max distance and your windshield will last way longer". It does feel overprotective at times, especially in slow and dense traffic, but I think there's a nice point i…

Wow, I didn't know that was a thing. Been driving nearly 30 years, and never had a windshield chip.

Do you have a wood surface nearby? I would recommend giving it a good knock.

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#209

Post by sagarm »

toxik wrote: post #87
yial wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A cousin of mine is abysmal to drive with as a passenger. He follows too closely to the car in front of him, regardless of lane / speed. He will slow down, follow closely, and then aggressively pass. Repeating ad nauseam. No smooth maintaining of speed and nice passes as able without slowing down. Surprisingly, his accidents have mostly seemed to involve gas pumps, barriers, and other obstacles at low speed.

This is left lane driving policy. I am like this, and I was not at first. What makes you drive like this is rush hour traffic. "Move up the lane or move out of the lane" is the sentiment, basically. As others have noted, it is essentially an adversarial process. If you drive nice, people cut in front and you're unable to drive nice to both those behind you and in front.

Letting them "cut in front" is good driving.

Re: Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

#210

Post by luxpir »

Wait, what do they teach in North America? Never heard the term "following distance" before now. Sounds misleading.

In Britain at least we call it "braking distance" and you're supposed to leave 2 seconds at least between you and the person in front. Count it off a lamp post/sign etc.

In certain at-risk areas they use chevrons on the road and signs telling you to keep at least 2 chevrons between you and the car in front.

People definitely always get into my braking distance in slower moving traffic, so that happens here too of course. But when things are moving well I likely push the limit and am generally moving faster than most others: going by GPS speed vs speedo, pushing a little into the discretionary and unofficial +10% guidance etc. And weirdly enough I do this for safety and fuel economy.

I generally prefer to avoid other vehicles as much as possible in all situations. But I was a motorbike rider in my youth. Once a defensive driver...

From that perspective, following distance sounds way more like a gap I want to close up than braking distance does.

Post reply on HN