Drivers
09/05/24 01:06
OK drivers, here is a little pop quiz:
1. You are driving on a narrow street with multiple cars parked along both sides of the street. Ahead you see a car coming toward you. Do you
a. speed up so you can get to the next really narrow place in the street before the oncoming traffic.
b. stop right where you are and wait for the other car to figure out how to get past you.
c. slow, but proceed while keeping your car to the right of the center line
d. none of the above
2. You are driving down hill on a street that has a 25 mph speed limit. Ahead you see pedestrians walking. They are facing you, just to the right of the white line that a marks the edge of the road. Do you
a. honk your horn so the pedestrians will get out of your way.
b. speed up and continue to stay in your lane, confident you will miss the pedestrians.
c. cross the centerline when there is no oncoming traffic to give the pedestrians plenty of room
d. both a and b
3. You see a bridge ahead that is narrower than the road on which you are driving. Where you are driving there are substantial shoulders which do not exist on the bridge. Do you
a. proceed with caution because you can clearly see that the driving land is just as wide on the bridge as it is in other places. Only the shoulder is narrower.
b. slam on your brakes without a thought of the car behind you and proceed across the bridge at a snail’s pace
c. cross the center line even if there is oncoming traffic because you are afraid of hitting the side of the bridge
d. speed up so you will cross the bridge more quickly
4. You are approaching a traffic circle with other cars in the circle. Do you
a. wait until there are no other cars in the circle before proceeding.
b. treat the traffic circle like a four way stop, stopping before entering and yield to the car on your right.
c. merge smoothly into the traffic in the circle, yielding to cars on your left.
d. curse at the engineers who designed the traffic circle and show your middle finger to the other drivers in the circle.
5. You are on a long ramp that leads to an extra traffic lane on the freeway that will end about a half mile down the road. Do you
a. proceed slowly down the ramp and pulling into the freeway before accelerating to the speed you want to drive.
b. ignore the other traffic expecting cars on the freeway to make room for you to get into the lane when your lane ends
c. use the ramp and the extra lane to match the speed of traffic on the freeway while looking for a space to merge into the traffic to your left.
d. slow down hoping that there will be a break in the traffic where you can get into the other lane
I think I’ve seen drivers choose all of the options above. Most of the time it is pretty difficult to predict what other drivers will do. We live in an unincorporated village that is a tourist destination. There are often lots of pedestrians walking alongside our somewhat narrow streets. Our village, furthermore, is a golf cart zone where it is legal to drive golf carts on the road even though they are not licensed and lack the safety equipment of a car such as seatbelts and bumpers. The speed limit in our village is 25 mph, though since we are unincorporated, there are no compliance officers checking the speed of the cars unless a sheriff’s deputy happens to be passing through our community. A high percentage of the drivers in our village do not live here and are not familiar with the layout of our streets. They may be looking for a destination to which they have never been before and are uncertain of the location of intersections and other features.
Over the years, I have noticed that cars from particular places seem to share driving patters with other cars from the same place. Here are some examples:
In Montana where the speed limits for trucks are usually slower than the speed limits for cars, the majority of the trucks ignore the truck speed limit and generally drive as fast as the cars so that cars wanting to overtake them have to exceed their speed limit.
In Idaho people don’t fully acknowledge the authority of lanes painted on streets and highways and often ignore those painted lines, driving wherever they want to on the streets.
In South Dakota drivers generally speed up for a yellow light and it is common for two or three cars to proceed after the light turns red at an intersection.
In Washington drivers seem to ignore the general rules of merging into traffic, changing lanes without matching the speed of the traffic or allowing for room to merge, expecting the traffic on the road to adjust to their driving.
These are generalizations, but they come from observations of how people drive. To be fair to Canadians, I’ll comment on a few of the quirks of those drivers. Cars with Alberta license plates are likely to pass other traffic even when they can see oncoming cars. They seem to get a thrill out of close calls. Cars with British Columbia plates don’t seem to know how to convert km per hour to miles per hour and rarely drive at the speed limit when on US highways choosing to drive slower or faster than the traffic on the road setting their cruise control to some number in kilometers that is about what they think they would drive on a Canadian road.
I realize I am getting older and that my reaction times have slowed a bit, but I still know how wide my vehicle is and how to merge into traffic. I also know what the speed limits are where I routinely drive and generally follow those limits. Whether walking or driving it has proven to be a good practice to keep aware of all of the other drivers and their styles of driving. I hope you will be careful when walking or driving. I’ve seen some pretty dangerous behavior from the others on the road.
1. You are driving on a narrow street with multiple cars parked along both sides of the street. Ahead you see a car coming toward you. Do you
a. speed up so you can get to the next really narrow place in the street before the oncoming traffic.
b. stop right where you are and wait for the other car to figure out how to get past you.
c. slow, but proceed while keeping your car to the right of the center line
d. none of the above
2. You are driving down hill on a street that has a 25 mph speed limit. Ahead you see pedestrians walking. They are facing you, just to the right of the white line that a marks the edge of the road. Do you
a. honk your horn so the pedestrians will get out of your way.
b. speed up and continue to stay in your lane, confident you will miss the pedestrians.
c. cross the centerline when there is no oncoming traffic to give the pedestrians plenty of room
d. both a and b
3. You see a bridge ahead that is narrower than the road on which you are driving. Where you are driving there are substantial shoulders which do not exist on the bridge. Do you
a. proceed with caution because you can clearly see that the driving land is just as wide on the bridge as it is in other places. Only the shoulder is narrower.
b. slam on your brakes without a thought of the car behind you and proceed across the bridge at a snail’s pace
c. cross the center line even if there is oncoming traffic because you are afraid of hitting the side of the bridge
d. speed up so you will cross the bridge more quickly
4. You are approaching a traffic circle with other cars in the circle. Do you
a. wait until there are no other cars in the circle before proceeding.
b. treat the traffic circle like a four way stop, stopping before entering and yield to the car on your right.
c. merge smoothly into the traffic in the circle, yielding to cars on your left.
d. curse at the engineers who designed the traffic circle and show your middle finger to the other drivers in the circle.
5. You are on a long ramp that leads to an extra traffic lane on the freeway that will end about a half mile down the road. Do you
a. proceed slowly down the ramp and pulling into the freeway before accelerating to the speed you want to drive.
b. ignore the other traffic expecting cars on the freeway to make room for you to get into the lane when your lane ends
c. use the ramp and the extra lane to match the speed of traffic on the freeway while looking for a space to merge into the traffic to your left.
d. slow down hoping that there will be a break in the traffic where you can get into the other lane
I think I’ve seen drivers choose all of the options above. Most of the time it is pretty difficult to predict what other drivers will do. We live in an unincorporated village that is a tourist destination. There are often lots of pedestrians walking alongside our somewhat narrow streets. Our village, furthermore, is a golf cart zone where it is legal to drive golf carts on the road even though they are not licensed and lack the safety equipment of a car such as seatbelts and bumpers. The speed limit in our village is 25 mph, though since we are unincorporated, there are no compliance officers checking the speed of the cars unless a sheriff’s deputy happens to be passing through our community. A high percentage of the drivers in our village do not live here and are not familiar with the layout of our streets. They may be looking for a destination to which they have never been before and are uncertain of the location of intersections and other features.
Over the years, I have noticed that cars from particular places seem to share driving patters with other cars from the same place. Here are some examples:
In Montana where the speed limits for trucks are usually slower than the speed limits for cars, the majority of the trucks ignore the truck speed limit and generally drive as fast as the cars so that cars wanting to overtake them have to exceed their speed limit.
In Idaho people don’t fully acknowledge the authority of lanes painted on streets and highways and often ignore those painted lines, driving wherever they want to on the streets.
In South Dakota drivers generally speed up for a yellow light and it is common for two or three cars to proceed after the light turns red at an intersection.
In Washington drivers seem to ignore the general rules of merging into traffic, changing lanes without matching the speed of the traffic or allowing for room to merge, expecting the traffic on the road to adjust to their driving.
These are generalizations, but they come from observations of how people drive. To be fair to Canadians, I’ll comment on a few of the quirks of those drivers. Cars with Alberta license plates are likely to pass other traffic even when they can see oncoming cars. They seem to get a thrill out of close calls. Cars with British Columbia plates don’t seem to know how to convert km per hour to miles per hour and rarely drive at the speed limit when on US highways choosing to drive slower or faster than the traffic on the road setting their cruise control to some number in kilometers that is about what they think they would drive on a Canadian road.
I realize I am getting older and that my reaction times have slowed a bit, but I still know how wide my vehicle is and how to merge into traffic. I also know what the speed limits are where I routinely drive and generally follow those limits. Whether walking or driving it has proven to be a good practice to keep aware of all of the other drivers and their styles of driving. I hope you will be careful when walking or driving. I’ve seen some pretty dangerous behavior from the others on the road.
