Learn to drive...

[Utar]

I never was a bicycle rider, but I road motorcycles for years, and have had a few near misses. I learned to watch what I was doing, but also watch what other people were doing.

I did have something strange happen when I was pulling a heavy trailer behind my pickup truck. When pulling a heavy trailer, one must start stopping further back than when only driving the truck, because the trailer will push you forward, even when it has its on breaks. It was late at night and just enough rain to make the road slick. I was coming up on a red light where only one car was stopped waiting on the light. I panicked when I realized that I was not going to stop before hitting the car, with my truck pulling the trailer. But just before I reached the car, the light changed and it took off. I sighed a large sigh of relief and knew it could have been bad.

 

[EllRog]

I was once riding my motorbike home, after work, on my 21st birthday. The road i was riding along was full of bends and in a very wooded area. Behind me was a very impatient car which decided to attempt to overtake me on one of the bends. Mid overtake, another car appeard on the bend, coming in the opposite direction which forced the overtaking car to return to the correct side of the road. Unfortunately, meaning the car returned into the side of my motorbike. This made me lose complete control of the motorbike and collide with the embankment that lined the side of the road with enough impact to set off my horn. As this happened, I front flipped over the handle bars, flew through the air upside down and hit a tree before collapsing, still upside down, in the ditch bellow. As luck would have it, what remained of my crippled motorbike joined me down there shortly afterwards, right on top of me. I lifted my arm up from my now twisted body to turn the key in the ignition off and push the bike off of me so that I could move my legs from around my head.

The car which was coming in the opposite direction had pulled over and the elderly man who was driving, rushed to the edge of the embankment, overlooking the ditch, to see if I was dead. He said he was surprised to see my hand turn off the bike and push it. The car which caused my accident didn't stop and I presume the last thing they saw in their rear view mirror was me flying through the air like superman. I didn't die though, the bike did.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I would actually love to own a motorcycle when I get older, but a car would be a lot more practical. It would be kind of hard to carry that brand new 110g fish tank to my house, on a motorcycle.

 

[Essjay]

My younger son has a motorbike but i don't like him riding it. Luckily for me it's been in our garage for almost 2 years now so he can't.

When he first got a motorbike he bought a lot of protective clothing, and when my elder son's friend bought a bike he advised him to do the same.
A few years later the friend was riding his motorbike to work via the scenic route rather than the main road. A pickup truck in front of him slowed down without indicating (no-one indicates round here ) so he pulled out to overtake only to find the truck doing a U turn. The friend was knocked unconscious and was taken to A & E. When he came round he was told he had a broken bone in his neck but his spine was not damaged, and he had been saved by the reinforced jacket my son had advised him to buy.
Witnesses said that the driver of the truck got out, screamed "I've killed him", got back in the truck and drove off

 

[FFGuest6357]

Don’t even get me started on motorcycles!

its a seasonal thing here, because we have pretty long winters.

mine more thing to pay attention to, which is really quite easy if you’re an attentive driver, but some of them come out of no where.

I know many guys who ride, and I make sure to always know where the riders are on the road and give them their space, like car drivers, some of them are fulpies, but most are decent occupants on the road.

Speaking of fulpies, one of our in class lessons is going to be how round abouts work.

we absolutely had a great week at work, so boss man gave us an early day and it was absolutely spoiled on the way home when some idiot who wasn’t paying attention decided it was his turn and cut me off. I had to stop so quickly I locked my brakes and came within a few inches of t-boning him.

Some over use of my horn, some well timed hand gestures and a handful of curse words later, he drove off embarrassed and hopefully thankful he still has use of his legs....

the reason he can still walk right now, is because I AM AN ATTENTIVE DRIVER. I prevented an accident in spite of his lack of abilities and awareness of the road.

Had someone been behind me, I would’ve been rear ended again, for the second time in seven days. So I’m only grateful that wasn’t the case.

LEARN TO DRIVE!!!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[FFGuest6357]

I was once riding my motorbike home, after work, on my 21st birthday. The road i was riding along was full of bends and in a very wooded area. Behind me was a very impatient car which decided to attempt to overtake me on one of the bends. Mid overtake, another car appeard on the bend, coming in the opposite direction which forced the overtaking car to return to the correct side of the road. Unfortunately, meaning the car returned into the side of my motorbike. This made me lose complete control of the motorbike and collide with the embankment that lined the side of the road with enough impact to set off my horn. As this happened, I front flipped over the handle bars, flew through the air upside down and hit a tree before collapsing, still upside down, in the ditch bellow. As luck would have it, what remained of my crippled motorbike joined me down there shortly afterwards, right on top of me. I lifted my arm up from my now twisted body to turn the key in the ignition off and push the bike off of me so that I could move my legs from around my head.

The car which was coming in the opposite direction had pulled over and the elderly man who was driving, rushed to the edge of the embankment, overlooking the ditch, to see if I was dead. He said he was surprised to see my hand turn off the bike and push it. The car which caused my accident didn't stop and I presume the last thing they saw in their rear view mirror was me flying through the air like superman. I didn't die though, the bike did.

For f-word’s sake.

that’s the exact crap I’m talking about.

a-holes are every where

 

[EllRog]

For f-word’s sake.

that’s the exact crap I’m talking about.

a-holes are every where

Serves me right for going to work on my birthday and not spending the day in the pub!

 

[FFGuest6357]

Serves me right for going to work on my birthday and not spending the day in the pub!

No it doesn’t, you should have done that anyways, because that’s a great thing to do on your birthday.

Thats no guarantee that anything worse wouldn’t happen on any other day.

Man I wish I could curse here, because I would say these “blanks” are on the road every day. Stupidity doesn’t take a day off...

 

[EllRog]

No it doesn’t, you should have done that anyways, because that’s a great thing to do on your birthday.

Thats no guarantee that anything worse wouldn’t happen on any other day.

Man I wish I could curse here, because I would say these “blanks” are on the road every day. Stupidity doesn’t take a day off...

I know what you're saying. I travel 45 minutes to and from work everyday on dual carriage ways and through towns. The driving that I witness on my commute is always interesting. Just the other day I had someone pull out on me to block me from merging, in a merge lane (!) and then immediately almost drive into the side of my car on the roundabout because he didn't go around it, he went through it and came into my lane. People suck

 

[jonny-5]

Driving is 1 of my hates, Too many a..holes here, besides that crowded roads, Parking & expense of owning a car here is not pleasurable any more, i would rather walk most times and i do. We own 2 cars & my main ride is always parked on the drive for months at a time. I have passed every driving test here in the U.K except for H.G.V & hold a advance driver & a public service vehicle licence(Bus or Coach)

 

[Colin_T]

I know many guys who ride, and I make sure to always know where the riders are on the road and give them their space, like car drivers, some of them are fulpies, but most are decent occupants on the road.

I like to give motorbike riders plenty of space too. At the lights or intersections I slow down earlier than normal and leave a good car length gap between me and the bike so if someone drives into me, there is less chance of me hitting the bike.

We have idiot cyclist and motor bike riders around here. Every night there is a group of motor bike riders that race up and down the highway at 200-300kph. I contemplate going down there with half a brick and throwing it at them some nights.

Then we get the cyclists riding around at night in black clothes with no lights or reflectors and cars hitting the brakes and swerving to avoid running them over. These are the people that should be hit by cars, not the careful riders.

Speaking of fulpies, one of our in class lessons is going to be how round abouts work.

Round abouts are wonderful things if put in the right place and people know how to use them. Unfortunately governments tend to put them in stupid places and half the motorists don't know how to use them.

In Australia we give way to the right because that is where the traffic comes from that is closest to you. In the US I assume they give way to the left. Silly Americans driving on the wrong side of the road

With round abouts we stop at the round about and give way to vehicles on our right side. If there are none there we can go.

We use our indicators like normal when turning left, basically indicate left as you approach the round about and if it's safe, turn left.

If we are going straight ahead, most people don't indicate but the law says we are meant to indicate 90 degrees before we get off the round about. So theoretically we go straight ahead but half way through the round about we indicate left to get off at the second exit.

If we are turning right, we indicate right as we approach the round about. If it's safe to enter the round about we turn right and as we get to the second exit, we indicate left to show other road users we are exiting the round about at the next exit.

Big round abouts are more interesting and there is one down in Albany in the south-west of WA and it is huge and has 5 or 6 exits. It's a nightmare in the morning during peak hour. There are 2 lanes going around the round about and you get trucks and cars moving from the outside lane to the inside lane to exit. And you need to be in the outside lane when turning right or going straight ahead, but there is always someone turning right from the inside lane and people turning left from the outside lane. It's a bloody nightmare sometimes.

Man I wish I could curse here, because I would say these “blanks” are on the road every day. Stupidity doesn’t take a day off...

FUPLIE FUPLIE FUPLIE FUPLIE FUPLIE FUPLIE IDIOTS

 

[eatyourpeas]

Big round abouts are more interesting and there is one down in Albany in the south-west of WA and it is huge and has 5 or 6 exits. It's a nightmare in the morning during peak hour. There are 2 lanes going around the round about and you get trucks and cars moving from the outside lane to the inside lane to exit. And you need to be in the outside lane when turning right or going straight ahead, but there is always someone turning right from the inside lane and people turning left from the outside lane. It's a bloody nightmare sometimes.

You should make a requirement to pass the test in the "Naterjm and Colin_T" school of driving a successful run at L'Arc de Triomphe during rush hour!

That does not mean either @Naterjm or @Colin_T need to be in the vehicle at the time.

 

[Essjay]

I know what you mean about inattentive drivers.

Our town is next to a river. The bridge joining our town to the one on the other side of the river is narrow and at rush hour the traffic builds up on each side of it. In the evening the build up is worse on the opposite side so several years ago the council created a bus only lane heading towards the bridge. There is a big sign saying the bus lane is only in operation between 3:30 and 6:00 pm and there are 13 repeater signs - I've counted them. But virtually all drivers pull out of the bus lane outside of those times, then just pull back in without looking when the bus lane ends at the bridge.
Can no-one read? 14 times?

 

[jonny-5]

Nevermind read most drivers cant even see thats a fact.
We have bus lanes all the way to the city from every village here, Most lanes are between certain hours but some are Bus Lane only all the time to enforce the lanes we have cameras every few hundred metres. The penalty is a fixed £60 & im unsure if it also carries penalty points too

 

[madmark285]

Last year before the pandemic hit, a very nice Toyota Tundra truck rear ended the bus I was driving. He hit the rear corner of the bus. Funny thing about those big yellow buses, their crumple zone is your vehicle. The bus had very minor damage, the whole front passenger side of the Toyota was destroyed

WTF, how can you not see a 50 foot yellow bus on the road.