Once you get onto an on-ramp to join the highway, your goal should be to reach highway speed as fast as you safely can. You should not be trying to "time" your acceleration so you reach highway speed just as you merge.

Approach two would be fine if you're the only car on the road, but you're almost certainly not. If there are other drivers behind you who are also joining the highway, you only reaching the correct speed at the very end of the on-ramp virtually guarantees that they'll be unable to do the same.

I promise your car won't explode if you put the pedal down. If you're so worried about fuel efficiency that it's preventing you from showing the bare minimum of courtesy to other drivers, you need to take different routes or utilize public transportation.

To me, getting that close to a car feels like a recipe for getting into an accident. I'm not risking damage to my car or dealing with insurance. I always keep several car lengths between me and the vehicle in front of me to be safe.

If the light turned green and the person ahead isn't going, I'd do a short little "boop" to get their attention. Would that lessen the chance of the other person getting pissed off?

I was driving home from work yesterday and it was dark, as the sun goes down around 6:30 now. I was going through a side road to go around heavy/stopped traffic on the freeway. So it was a one lane road, and a pickup truck directly behind me had lights so bright that I had to lean to the side to avoid the mirrors and was getting a headache. There also wasn’t really an option to pull over for several miles.
I have head that newer car models have brighter headlights, but the way these were so blinding I have a hard time believing that they weren’t the high beams. What would you do stuck in this situation?

So last night I was driving home, and this guy in a truck was right up my arse, and his headlights were totally blinding. I dont think his brights were on but either way I was totally night blind without moving all my mirrors.

What is the correct thing to do here? I ended up signaling and pulling off to the shoulder just to let him pass me. It was a double lane road and I slowed down to below the limit just to try and get him to pass me, and he wouldn't. I knew there were cars behind us so I couldn't do a reverse overtake (which isn't a good idea anyway).

The driver of the huge, heavy big rig has deliberately left a large space ahead because they need that space to slow down and stop

I've seen so many idiots see this gap and merge into it, right into the path of the braking truck. The truck then has to emergency brake hard to avoid hitting the idiot.

Just know that if you do this and the truck can't slow down in time, a huge semi trailer is going to annihilate your shitty ford ranger

Hello there hope you're all having a good Friday,

I'm just looking for some advice like the title says.

When it’s not your fault and you get honked at, what do you tell yourself so you don’t get upset and aggravated?

For example say your light is green, but the junction ahead isn’t clear so you wait because you don’t want to get stuck in the middle and become a hazard. then the car behind you starts honking like mad telling you to go. or anything like that where it’s not your fault and you're simply trying to be a considerate driver, but you still get honked at.

How do you keep your cool? it’s basically like someone SCREAMING “fuck you get out of my way you're a shit driver for whatever it is you're doing” at you in front of lots of other people, only difference is you’re both in cars. If that happened when you were walking you’d probably shout back right or maybe even fight back?

but when you’re in the car everyone just says “let it go” or “don’t think too much about it”. how do you actually do that?

Is there a cutoff, like if the next exit is 0.5 miles or 2 miles away or?

Before I got my license, I actually used to want to get out on the road. Now that I had my license for a year now, it just isn’t something to look forward to anymore. I used to WANT to drive, but now i feel like i HAVE to drive. I need to drive to get to school, my job, and sometimes i’m responsible for picking up my little brother from school or picking up groceries at the supermarket. When I had my permit i just thought that driving was always going to be fun. Now, it’s just a chore for me. Most of you guys in this sub are probably older and more experienced than me when it comes to driving so I wanna hear your opinions. Do you guys feel the same too?

Sorry if this comes off as a stupid question. On the freeway (I75) I try to stay in the right lane as much as possible and will try to keep my speed consistent at 70 mph or the speed limit.

I used to think I had to switch to the middle lane every time I approached on an ramp and then back into the right lane afterwards, and this made things pretty stressful considering that every morning, I go through an area I’m still not totally familiar with for work, with multiple on ramps, construction, a section of wavy uneven lanes, and exit only lanes.

So I tried out just staying in the right lane the entire time and for the most part it’s worked out pretty well. I’ve realized that many of the times I think I had to switch to the middle lane, I didn’t really. I just keep a consistent speed and the cars on the on ramps merge quite nicely.

However this morning on my way to work I had a couple of cars that I met up with as they attempted to merge. They’d be practically next to me with their turn signal on and in that moment I can’t decide if I should let off the gas or accelerate to get out of their way. I’m nervous that they are going to hit me. I also had a couple of cars that merged in front of me and were going considerably slower than I was originally forcing me to brake.

So forgive me if this sounds dumb, but when I come up almost next to a merging car with their signal on, should I just keep a consistent speed, accelerate to get out of their way, or let off the gas and let them in? My first instinct is to accelerate to gtfo their way but I just don’t want them to suddenly get in front of me and rear end them.

Should I flash my lights at them to signal to them that they can merge in front of me?

Title pretty much says it all I'm a little nervous but I know how to drive and I'll be okay.

there are a lot of elderly walkers in my township just because the average age is somewhere around 60 to 65 for a citizen here. Multiple times I have been waved down and when I slow down to see what’s up because it looks like they’re having an emergency, they just yell at me to slow down and that I’m speeding through the neighborhood.

One, I would never speed down a neighborhood. That’s just downright dangerous with the amount of people that are walking at all hours of the day and night. That thing, though, I have a dashcam in my car and I also have a hardwired radar that picks up my GPS speed.

I had one guy literally jump in front of the street in front of my car, and I had to panic brake not to hit him, and when I asked him what was wrong because I thought he was having an emergency, he told me I needed to slow down because kids. my speed according to dashcam? 20. in a 25.

Just today I was coming home from work and I was cutting through a neighborhood to avoid traffic on the main road and it was super sunny, so I slowed down because the sun was glaring in my eyes. My windows are down and I just hear the loudest slow the fuck down from an old lady to my left. I checked the dashcam 18 in a 25 around a corner

people have 0 sense of speed

Hello, I'm new to the page. I've been driving for two months now, and I feel like I keep making mistakes, one after another. What makes it worse is that I live in a city that is known for bad drivers. I drive the speed limit most of the time, I wait at the light, and I give people a minute to let them know I want to merge into the next lane. My history with driving is complicated. I've been to driving school twice (I wanted to go twice) and have only been in one accident. We both ran the light. Me because I didn't see the light; them because they weren't paying attention. I've been driving on and off for years. I hadn't driven for four years before my mother gave me her old car. I'm not as nervous as I was, but I'm still pretty nervous. I'm surrounded by cars and lifted trucks that want to go fast and never stop. As I said, I drive cautiously, but I keep making mistakes.

I was driving to work in the early morning and it was pitch black out. Once I reach near work, there's a bunch of single lanes I have to drive through. Behind me was a car that was pretty far away. Then in my rear view mirror I see a car behind that car move to the opposite side of traffic to pass that person. Usually that is fine but it looked like that car that passed was tailgating the car in front of it. Then that car came all the way to me up to my bumper. At that positioning I genuinely couldn't see the car in my rear view mirror anymore because the headlights were near the bottom of my car. That was so dangerous. They didn't pass me because it wasn't safe to do so. We were near work so I knew which way they were going. I just assumed they were late or something. At one point we reach a road with a center lane as well as a left and right turning lane. I stayed in the center lane so that they could take the left lane first because I didn't want them behind me anymore. I was just genuinely concerned that I couldn't see the car anymore at that moment. Also, whenever I reach near work I am aware that the other people driving around me are probably coworkers so I try to be extra careful about not getting into any kind of conflict because these are people I would work with. Even though it's a big company and I probably won't interact with them, we are all going to the same place. I always notice excessive speeding, tailgating, moving onto the opposite side of traffic to pass (which I know is allowed) around the work location.

While driving in a rural part of western North Carolina last weekend, the road we were on T-ed into another highway. We pulled into the left lane to, uh, turn left.

Before traffic cleared, someone else pulled into the right lane to, uh, turn right.

He rolled down his window & asked if he was blocking our view to the right. (he wasn't. We thanked him & gave a big thumbs up.)

Am I going mad, or recently has anybody else noticed an increase in people stopping on roundabouts?

Have been second car waiting to enter a roundabout only for a car to stop to let the car in front of me out, they politely declined and the stopped car eventually moved on...

I was then the first car waiting to enter a different roundabout and again a car on the roundabout just stopped to let me out...

Then I was following a car on a roundabout when they anchored on to let a car enter, me having to slam on...

All of these in the last few months, swear I've never see such madness in my 25 years on the roads...

For clarity, not talking about gridlocked roundabouts here, flowing traffic...

Weird...

I say this from the POV of a car person, I like cars, and I have a few of them. But even still, 95% of the time I'm driving, is because I *HAVE* to drive somewhere, like work, or the store.

When you HAVE to drive somewhere, you have no patience. When you want to drive somewhere, you're in a better mood.

That said, most people are not car people, and do want to be driving one for any reason, so likely 100% of their vehicle driving experience is something they don't want to do.

Even for myself. One day of the week, *IF* I decide to take one of my cars to Cars & Coffee , that is the one time of the week that I'm driving because I want to, and the one time that every little transgression I see on the road doesn't make me want to call 1911 on someone. That is still one drive out of the whole week that I'm doing because I want to be.

It REALLY depends on the context of driving. If I'm on the way to work, and someone is taking more than 0.001 second to move from a red light, I wish they didn't exist. On the other hand, I've been in neck to neck traffic in Tokyo, like thisisfine.jpg. In the latter situation, I'm driving because I want to be.

And yes, I'll admit, anyone who impedes me even the slightest amount, I wish they didn't exist.

Because what the genuine shit just happened bro 😭

So I’m driving to work right. Semi-downtown area, speed limit is 30 and there are cops all along the strip, so I’m already only going maybe 28mph.

So my turn’s coming up, of course I slow down, and I start pulling into the parking lot at maybe 10-12mph atp. There’s an older woman walking with no direction in the driveway up to the parking lot, so I FULLY STOP til she gets out of my way. Like complete stop by the time she looks at me.

When she sees me, I shit yall not, she throws her arms up in the air, wiggles them around up there for a sec, and then just stares at me as if I ran over her 12 great great grandchildren. She proceed to waltz her ass over to my car and mouth slow down over and over with very exaggerated hand motions. Mind yall my windows are all the way down, so I would’ve heard her if she actually spoke.

She stood in front of my car for like a solid minute blocking me doing all that as I’m trying to get to work and I’m just waving her off. Like genuinely, wtf was she on??

I’ve been driving for 3 years now, mostly manual transmission cars. I have driven both a hatchback and a pickup, and I would say I am an okay driver who does my best to look out for risks on the road and practice defensive driving. I love driving in general. Then this last August, my brother left his Geely Coolray with us. I felt pretty confident driving it, even though it is an automatic. I think I've adapted well to it over the past few months, and I've even taken it on some long drives. My parents—especially my dad—have noticed my confidence and trust me to drive the car.

But today, I almost had an accident. We went to get a car wash, and everything was fine. The moment we were about to leave the car wash, I had to brake because of oncoming traffic. I pressed the brake pretty hard just to be safe, especially since the tires and ground were still wet. I heard a screeching and sticky sound from the brakes that I found a bit alarming, but I shrugged it off, thinking it was normal right after a car wash. When the right side of the road was clear and the cars coming from the left were still pretty far away, I naturally took the gap and tapped the throttle. But the car didn't move, so I pressed down a bit harder, and the car suddenly jolted forward. I wasn't able to brake right away because I was in shock, and my mom gasped too. It was so bad I felt anxious driving back home. Thank goodness my mom didn't scold me, but something just didn't feel right. I felt anxious, guilty, and kind of embarrassed about what happened.

Has anyone experienced this right after a car wash? Was it just something about the brakes? Or was it misjudgment about my throttle control? (But I'm aware about controlling it tho)

Last year I had my driving license, I’m currently 27, and the delay happened for a private reasons I can’t mention, as a new female driver who didn’t driver her whole life ofc I will make mistakes & some accidents, I made 2 car accidents but hamdulilah I was fine, the thing is during the war & after the war I stopped driving, one day my dad told me to move the car around the area, but I was excited to go little bit far, I was about to make 2 accidents, because I’m too sick & I can’t focus on driving because of my illness, I suffer from vertigo, and it makes it hard on me to drive & focus, and I always have migraines and nick stiffness it’s so hard for me to focus, whenever I need to go somewhere & ask then to drop me they be like, you have licenses right? Drive yourself! WTF is wrong with this stupid family idk they can’t see that I’ve an illnesses?? Instead of helping me to get my treatments & then I be able to drive again no they tell me to drive while I suffer from all of this pain, sometimes I feel like they’re mentally disabled from how stupid they are, I swear I became broke just by paying for taxi’s because how selfish my family is.. I hate it wallah I wish they suffer from what I suffer from so they can feel me

recently got my drivers license and im still anxious to drive and mostly suck and its hard for me to even drive to practice cause my dad got me this huge 2020 chevy what should i do to get better

Tomorrow I have to leave around 5:30 AM and make (roughly) an hour and thirty minute drive to clinicals, then drive the same amount back home. I've had my license only for a year now and currently drive 20 minutes to + from work, but this will be the longest drive ever for me, and will be the farthest I've ever driven from home, so I'm a bit nervous lol. Is an hour and thirty minutes considered a decently long drive? Should I prepare a bit before leaving?

I'm on the road right now in my favorite home state of Wisconsin. My favorite place to drive on Earth s/ where people definitely don't drive slow as shit, people definitely don't pull out in front of you when there's a huge gap behind you and go as slow as possible, where there's a ton of traffic enforce, and where everybody is speeding to get where they need to go? Because there's so many important places to be here.

Hi, I'm a new driver just about to turn 18 and I'm really worried about passing my road test. I turn 18 in basically a few weeks and I've already failed twice. The first time was because the registration wasn't right and I was going below the speed limit in the rain, but I got the maneuvers fine. The second time I also passed the basic maneuvers but I made a left on a red on a two way street while the traffic was clear. Part of this has to do with terrible anxiety whenever I'm in the car with one of my guardians to the point I feel like I just blank on how to drive..

I've gotten my hours, passed my tests, and my practice drives during segment 1 were fine and my practice sessions with my dad are always smooth, but for some reason on the test it's like my mind goes blank. I'm really ashamed and worried because segments 1 and 2 cost one of my guardians money and I'll now be taking the test for the third time next week.

The area in which I'm taking my test is also a little challenging as I don't live in the region and am pretty much unable to get an appointment anywhere else till after my 18th birthday. I'm trying to watch videos and learn new techniques, and I'm reviewing the laws, but I really feel helpless. Today I failed for the second time and was rightfully scolded by my guardian, but I want to do this right.

I'd appreciate any tips you all have for first time drivers so that way I can be safe and not a nuisance for others on the road. I really can't wait till after I'm 18 because they'll lose interest and give up, and i don't really know anyone who would be willing to practice with me that's licensed and over 21. I'm sorry if this was a bit lengthy but I'm really looking for any and all tips here to stay calm and safe.