Thread: Driving Test

My test is tomorrow, wish me luck!

Break a leg!

I hope you fail.

You are a fucking idiot if you speed on purpose. Just coz everyone else does it, does not mean it is safer.
Everyone has the same mindset as you which is why everyone does it.
If someone sees you driving at the speed limit, they may slow down too. Because they'll go "oh fuck I just sped
ahead of that guy and ended up stopping at this traffic light 50m down the road and he just calmly rolled up beside me,
I didn't gain any time at all and I'm a moron for speeding".

So your three points for speeding are

A: You get fun. There are safer ways to have fun.
B: You get to your destination faster. Barely. As marvo said, it will save you a minute at the most
C: You stay with the flow of traffic, instead of being an obstruction.People are able to overtake you, you know?

Cons

A: You have a dramatically higher chance of dying.
B: You use over 25% more fuel than if you drive at the speed limit and take off at a normal pace.
C: You have a dramatically higher chance of killing somebody else.
D: You are much more unlikely to avoid even minor accidents.
E: You will ruin your car much more quickly.
F: You will ruin your tires much more quickly.
G: You will get more fines.
H: You will encourage other people to drive the same as you, thus increasing all of the above for them and others as well.

You really don't even realise how fast you are going when you drive.
Try this - Seriously TRY THIS - Find a quiet road with no cars, drive along
at only 10mph, when you get up to 10mph slam on your brakes as hard as you can. Remember how sudden this stop was.
Try it at 20mph. Feel the incredible difference in the force. Times that by 20 and it will be somewhere near how much force is put
on your car and body going from 100mph to zero.

Before you try this you will undoubtedly be thinking it will feel like barely anything, 10-20mph to 0. Tell me what you think after you try this.

Originally Posted by tommo

If someone sees you driving at the speed limit, they may slow down too. Because they'll go "oh fuck I just sped
ahead of that guy and ended up stopping at this traffic light 50m down the road and he just calmly rolled up beside me,
I didn't gain any time at all and I'm a moron for speeding".

Not really, they'll more likely tailgate you until they're fed up and then pass you on the double yellow and flip you the bird.

Originally Posted by Spartiate

Not really, they'll more likely tailgate you until they're fed up and then pass you on the double yellow and flip you the bird.

You have a really bad driver culture in NA, don't you?

Originally Posted by Marvo

You have a really bad driver culture in NA, don't you?

Lol, I'd call it "aggressive". Especially in the province of Quebec. I know lots of canadians who are terrified to drive in Montreal, where it's common to drive 40 km/h over the limit. It's honestly safer to just learn to drive that way and go with the flow. If you back up traffic you'll just cause frustration and pile-ups, especially in winter when it's slippery.

Being used to it though, I can't stand some driving practises in other places. My least favourite are people who accelerate extremely slowly (regardless of what speed they end up at) and people who brake waaaay back and creep up to the intersection just because the light is red, as if I might not want to take the turning lane that you're blocking.

Originally Posted by dave1701

If you are a halfway decent driver you should have no problem going 80 on a freeway.

That is 100% dependent on the traffic around you. If they're all going 80-85 you should be able to do 80. If everyone's ding 70 and you're doing 80, you're just a dick.

By the way, most cars start to decrease in fuel efficiancy after you pass ~35mph

Passed!

Originally Posted by tommo

I hope you fail.

Gee thanks. Maybe you live in a different type of driving environment than we do, but you do not need to act like the world is about to end for going 5 miles over the speed limit on the expressway. The best drivers I know all speed, they know what a safe speed for them to go is. The speed limit may be the safe speed for the masses, but it is closed minded to say that in all situations, going over the speed limit makes you a horrible driver. You need to be able think for yourself, not let a sign indicate what speed is safe. People do stupid shit going at the speed limit all the time, stupid people are stupid, at any speed. I've seen loads of people weaving through tragic at various speeds above and below the limit, that is stupidity, not going slightly over the speed limit on a safe road.

Anyways, I PASSED

YAY!!!!

Cakewalk.

Just brush up on the guidelines before taking it, stay relaxed, and you'll do fine.

Originally Posted by dave1701

Gee thanks. Maybe you live in a different type of driving environment than we do, but you do not need to act like the world is about to end for going 5 miles over the speed limit on the expressway. The best drivers I know all speed, they know what a safe speed for them to go is. The speed limit may be the safe speed for the masses, but it is closed minded to say that in all situations, going over the speed limit makes you a horrible driver. You need to be able think for yourself, not let a sign indicate what speed is safe. People do stupid shit going at the speed limit all the time, stupid people are stupid, at any speed. I've seen loads of people weaving through tragic at various speeds above and below the limit, that is stupidity, not going slightly over the speed limit on a safe road.

Anyways, I PASSED

YAY!!!!

Congratulations. Are you getting your own car now then, or are you just sticking to your parents'?

I would like to focus on the bolded part of your post. You are saying this like these people have experience with accidents. They do not. Keep this in mind at all times. Nearly all people that claim they have not been in an accident 'because they are good drivers' are full of shit. Most of the time accidents happen for reasons out of your control, especially if you are an experienced driver. The best thing you can do to avoid accidents is to keep at least 2-4 seconds distance from vehicles in front of you, having good mirror awareness and not speed.

Thanks.

The best drivers I know all speed, they know what a safe speed for them to go is. The speed limit may be the safe speed for the masses, but it is closed minded to say that in all situations, going over the speed limit makes you a horrible driver. You need to be able think for yourself, not let a sign indicate what speed is safe.

Ok man, tell that to the parents of the child you kill, or the child of the parents you kill....
Seriously remember this when something bad happens. Remember that I warned you and you were too stupid to listen.

The speed limits are there for a reason, they're not just arbitrarily decided upon.

You need to be able think for yourself, not let a sign indicate what speed is safe.

That's a bit of an ignorant statement I don't really follow the logic coming from speeding becoming a better choice. The speed limits are not just numbers they smack up for the fun of it, they are the result of scientific analysis on data such as Tommo already mentioned, like breaking distances based on your current speed. The speed limit for towns and cities here in Denmark is usually around 50 Km/h, that number is an approximation of a responsible speed when you look at things like breaking distances in case of a child running out on the street or other such situations. As Tommo already mentioned, just going 10 Km/h over this speed limit increases your breaking distance by a vast amount. The instructor I had made us try it out for ourself on closed training gorund, and having to come to a complete stop quickly from 60 compared to 50 km/h was actually really shocking, the breaking distance really becomes a deciding factor.

I had a friend of mine driving in his car through our town a few months after he got his drivers license, going at the speed limit of 50 Km/h. Suddenly a kid from the sidewalk on a children's scooter loses balance and falls out on the road in front of my friends car. After my friend came to a complete stop he was just a few centimeters away from the kid. The story wouldn't have ended quite as good if he had been coming at 60 Km/h.

One of the big problems with mentally in traffic today is that people will feel pressured into going as fast as most other drivers because if you are in front of 2 other cars who would like to go 60 while you're going 50, people can actually start to feel as though they're being an annoyance to the others. This however does not even in the slightest give enough reason to be going that much faster, and does not solve any safety related problem at all, it only increases them. I always make sure to do my best to keep the speed limits, and if people behind me feel insulted like they're entitled to go faster, I just let them bitch and moan all they want

On another note, and I can't really say if this is true, but when most experienced drivers say they go faster or shit like that because they're experienced and haven't been in any accident, I usually just get the impression that they are really just becoming way too confident in sleazy driving just because nothing happened to them yet, increasing their own risk of actually ending up in an accident.

Originally Posted by SomeDreamer

That's a bit of an ignorant statement I don't really follow the logic coming from speeding becoming a better choice. The speed limits are not just numbers they smack up for the fun of it, they are the result of scientific analysis on data such as Tommo already mentioned, like breaking distances based on your current speed. The speed limit for towns and cities here in Denmark is usually around 50 Km/h, that number is an approximation of a responsible speed when you look at things like breaking distances in case of a child running out on the street or other such situations. As Tommo already mentioned, just going 10 Km/h over this speed limit increases your breaking distance by a vast amount. The instructor I had made us try it out for ourself on closed training gorund, and having to come to a complete stop quickly from 60 compared to 50 km/h was actually really shocking, the breaking distance really becomes a deciding factor.

I had a friend of mine driving in his car through our town a few months after he got his drivers license, going at the speed limit of 50 Km/h. Suddenly a kid from the sidewalk on a children's scooter loses balance and falls out on the road in front of my friends car. After my friend came to a complete stop he was just a few centimeters away from the kid. The story wouldn't have ended quite as good if he had been coming at 60 Km/h.

One of the big problems with mentally in traffic today is that people will feel pressured into going as fast as most other drivers because if you are in front of 2 other cars who would like to go 60 while you're going 50, people can actually start to feel as though they're being an annoyance to the others. This however does not even in the slightest give enough reason to be going that much faster, and does not solve any safety related problem at all, it only increases them. I always make sure to do my best to keep the speed limits, and if people behind me feel insulted like they're entitled to go faster, I just let them bitch and moan all they want

On another note, and I can't really say if this is true, but when most experienced drivers say they go faster or shit like that because they're experienced and haven't been in any accident, I usually just get the impression that they are really just becoming way too confident in sleazy driving just because nothing happened to them yet, increasing their own risk of actually ending up in an accident.

You are assuming that everyone drives at the same level of expertise. I think you are also misunderstanding me. I am not talking about speeding down residential streets, or busy city streets. I am talking about going with the flow of traffic at 75-80mph. Would you really slam somebody for going a over the speed limit on an empty, deserted road?

I am talking about going with the flow of traffic at 75-80mph. Would you really slam somebody for going a over the speed limit on an empty, deserted road?

Ah well in that case I most certainly misunderstood you ^^ And well, it depends on what type of deserted road haha But in those scenarios probably not.

Deserted roads are non-existent.
There are always animals that could come out of the bushes on the side.
Or potholes.

Freeways still have accidents. And it's only a matter of time before you decide you're
okay to speed on other streets as well. Because that's the mentality that you end up getting.

Anyway, good luck. I really hope nothing bad happens.

grats, dude. i'll get shitfaced for you.

Congrats

I failed the first time because someone honked at me (don't actually remember what I did wrong). I was worried most about the parallel parking but I did that no problem. Don't take it personal when people tell you that speeding is a dumb thing to do, because it is. In my opinion, it's better to just go with the flow of traffic, but I try to never go above 75mph/120km. I am guilty of a speeding ticket I got a couple of months ago, I was going about 80mph coming back from L.A. but I was also going with the flow of traffic. But I do accept responsibility, there's no real excuse for that.

If the possibility of killing someone or yourself isn't convincing enough (since most people think it will never happen to them), try a $450 speeding ticket. Do you have money set aside for that? Stay out of the fast lane or you will feel obligated to speed. If you stay in the slow lane, maybe behind a truck, you can just chill and go the speed limit.

Oh, and I cheated on the written test.

Not sure about where you live but here you will never ever get stopped for speeding less than 20 km/h over the limit (under normal weather and road conditions).

Originally Posted by Spartiate

Not sure about where you live but here you will never ever get stopped for speeding less than 20 km/h over the limit (under normal weather and road conditions).

Everywhere your chances of killing someone rise dramatically however.

I'd be much more afraid of someone who is completely unable to safely control their vehicle a few km/h above the speed limit than your average driver pushing 115 on the highway.

If you want to eliminate any risk, then perhaps the sidewalk is for you.

Originally Posted by Spartiate

Not sure about where you live but here you will never ever get stopped for speeding less than 20 km/h over the limit (under normal weather and road conditions).

I know people who got speeding tickets for going 10 km/h over the limit.