551–560 of 577 posts
A negative binomial regression fit on observational data cannot establish that a statistical relationship is causal.
I considered writing an app you would take on a car ride that would record accelerometer readings indicative of a pothole. Geotag the reading and push is anonymously to a server. Enough events should show clusters where potholes likely exist. You would think cities would love that kind of data.
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>I'd follow the drivers in front of me too closely Best trick for managing this is to "drive through" the car in front of you. That is, judge your following distance based not on the car in front of you, but on the car in front of THEM. And you don't have to "drive through" all the way down the road - it only takes one car/one level of abstraction for this approach to yield really great benefits, try it if you don't…
This only works if you can see two vehicles ahead. Too many SUVs and pickup trucks are too high and have terrible visibility around them.
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It is more dangerous to be slow and have people constantly merging in front of you, rather than be slightly faster and not have all the merging. Accidents happen when vehicles are going different speeds, all things equal.
That seems like a surprising enough statement to be backed up by data. What is your source? Everything I've read points toward larger margins of safety (longer distances, slower speeds) being safer. See e.g. https://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/252480...
We don't live in an ideal world, and having a bunch of cars merging in front of you definitely makes you less safe than having a static situation. I try to make sure I can see through/around the car in front of me, so that I have advance notice of what's happening down the road.
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It is more dangerous to be slow and have people constantly merging in front of you, rather than be slightly faster and not have all the merging. Accidents happen when vehicles are going different speeds, all things equal.
You might be a bad driver and not even know it.
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Totally. People will just cut you off repeatedly, which puts you (and the cars behind you) in a less-safe situation than if you followed more closely.
> puts you (and the cars behind you) in a less-safe situation than if you followed more closely. Really? All you have to do is lift your right foot very gently until you have the expected spacing again, no need to sudden changes of speed and if you have traffic aware cruise control it will be done for you. My old Tesla S does it pretty well. I keep it set to three second spacing and when someone cuts in front my car…
If this doesn't happen to you, then you're probably driving like I do, and not leaving 3 seconds of follow distance like they teach in driver's ed.
I got one of those dongles from my insurance company that plugged into the ODB2 port and reported my driving habits. I was a bad driver. It would frequently beep at me to let me know that I had braked too hard. I was mystified. "What should I have done differently," I'd think, as I raged at the objective machine that judged me so. The next time my brother came to visit, he called mom. "Oh, and presidentender is a goo…
She said the only time that the data and the rates do not match is after an accident. After an accident, the rates go up, however drivers are more careful and are statistically less likely to have an accident.
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American road laws are insane here. The law should be simple; you must be in the outside lane at all times unless you are overtaking, and once you're done overtaking, you should merge back into the outside lane. https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/overtaking.html
That seems rather inefficient on an 8– or 16–lane road.
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I understand perfectly, 20 years driving, I think people just don't like that the safe answer is to be slow. You will not fix others behaviour, so your options are be slow and generous, get out of the chaotic lanes (unless that's all of them), or join them and be aggressive, claim space, be stressed and annoyed your whole trip. There is no solution to traffic here sorry, this is more about managing your own frustrati…
There is no solution to traffic here There is, people just don’t want to hear it, and it isn’t a quick fix… Build more of our towns and cities such that driving everywhere isn’t necessary.
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Not to mention if that if somebody needs to come over, the proper thing to do is signal first . Then I'm happy to politely ease off a bit and open more space for them to come over safely. It's the people who aggressively slide right over just a few feet in front of me (cutting off nearly all of my safety buffer) without so much as a signal that really drive me nuts.
It's the people who hit the gas when they see your signal, that really irk me. In Austin I stopped signaling because it was a punished behavior.
In Austin if you want to merge, decide if you can, blink and then merge.
Don't expect people to stomp on their brakes and stop to let you in, especially if your already traveling slower than the lane you are trying to get into and decide to further slow yourself.
And if you can't merge, deal with it, exit, or miss your exit and go around. Next time you will be more prepared or you will learn how to properly merge.