Who's at fault?

[Katana]

Originally Posted by superchow

I was taught to have to trust other people's driving - which here in the US is quite impossible.

My driving instructor and other ones from people I've spoken to, all say that you are to assume everyone on the road is stupid and does not know the rules (British highway code in this case). Rather oddly you are also taught not to assume anything will go as you think it should and drive defensively.

Driving stupidity is universal and not limited to one country, i've done some stupid things myself, and seen plenty of stupid and dangerous driving in my 3 short years of driving.

This talk of american driving makes me wonder what it would be like if America had roundabouts like here in england.

My town has a lot of this merging crap as mentioned in the thread starter, one half mile stretch goes from 1 lane, to 3, then 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, then another half mile down the road goes to 1, 3, 2, 3, 2, 1 and this includes having roundabouts in them. You really do need to have your wits about you on this section, even if you traverse it frequently, had rather a few close calls i can tell you.

[MazdaMatt]

That's a silly road configuration! Go slap a city planner! I've noticed that FINALLY some of the subdivisions here (Canada) are replacing stop signs with 1-lane roundabouts (i guess people are too stupid for a simple yeild sign). It is incredible how many people nearly collide on this simple 1-lane roundabout in a subdivision. Of course, every house in this subdivision has 1 or two of [minivan, suv, pickup truck].

[Chiefdruid]

It's my personal belief that most drivers suffer from Cranial-Rectal Inversion.

The running joke amoung my friends is that I drive like a grandpa. Drive the speed limit, use signals consistantly, turn into same lane as turning out of, right turn on red after stop, etc. If that makes me a 'grandpa' driver then so be it... lol

[greenitup]

i almost had an accident the other week, the schoolbus (empty with crazy driver) tried to pass me after a stoplight with 2 lanes then they merge. I was accelerating and they were accelerating really fast and they almost drove me into the other lane and i wondered if it was my fault or theirs and i think it would have been theirs because they didn't get in the corresponding lane after the turn, they they had to merge with me and they would have hit me on the side.

[Tourigjm]

Originally Posted by BlackDeuceCoupe

Maybe we should start a "GetOffMyAss Project" here!

Everybody has the same problem...

Wanna be the president?

yeah, but i'd have to get off my lazy ass

[superchow]

I am not saying that there aren't any crazy drivers, or that Austrian traffic is all perfect. However, as a general rule, people will concentrate on their driving. Maybe its the smaller cars (less protected feeling), narrower roads, majority of manual transmissions or generally expensive nature of driving in Europe. In the US I have noticed that most people do not have an option - they must use the car to get around.

I see this as an opportunity in disguise: we can shape the traffic around us and make people safer.

[equation112]

part of the problem is that law enforcement here in the states never enforces the law equally. how often do you see a hummer pulled over? pickup truck? SUV in general? officers are insanely quick to target cars - especially ones that are somewhat customized like mine - wether they are breaking the law or not, while they let the hummer doing 90 whiz right by. honestly, our speed limits should be based on vehicle type much like the autobahn, where trucks are restricted to slower speeds than cars.

another option would be to take a page from the new nissan GTR - they have a built in database of japan (the JDM model has it) and a ECU-integrated GPS. if the GPS determines that the car is *not* on a nissan-approved track, the car is nerfed to a hard limit of 120mph or so. a more draconian measure would be to have a GPS database of all roads in a given country, and allow the GPS to govern the vehicle to the legal limit at all times.

only glitch to this is that it would never come to pass, as a system like this would effectively eliminate speeding tickets, and thus cost government a great deal of revenue.

[IndyIan]

I seem to have bad experiences with people driving expensive cars or trucks, they seem to think they get the right of way or cannot slow down for a second.
My last little adventure was in a parking lot with a 4 way stop. I got there and stopped first signalling to turn left, but an older guy with a nice big Lexus coming from the opposite way slowed to a near stop and then kept going as I starting going, he saw me but decided to ignore me. It was a very low speed game of chicken and I decided I wasn't going to yeild which seemed to really surprise the guy. He stopped but looked at me like I was crazy. Anyways, no harm done and in hindsight it wasn't super smart but maybe the guy is a bit more courteous at 4 way stops.

[superchow]

Originally Posted by equation112

...how often do you see a hummer pulled over? pickup truck? SUV in general?...

It was truly satisfying to see a Cadillac Escalade EXT (the Avalanche in drag thingy) getting pulled over in Oregon, near Pendleton. He (or she... let's not discriminate...) just passed me going at least 90 in a 65.

It felt good to know the law extended to the ones that "needed it". Sadly, about 15 minutes later the same Caddy whizzed by at about the same rate of speed like before.

Either we don't punish extreme speeding enough, or that truck must have had a speedometer malfunction.

[SVOboy]

Given his speeding he would be at fault. You can't judge pullouts times when people are exceeding the posted speed limits, so it's legally 100% their fault, unless something else is at play.

Glad you're okay though!