This just in: shitty drivers don’t know the size of their vehicle. More on this at 6 (apparently).
Local news did an entire segment featuring a guy who's mad about having to drive more carefully.
Submitted 3 days ago by Wudi@feddit.uk to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://imgchest.com/p/9rydd6d3dyk
Comments
Ditti@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
echodot@feddit.uk 3 days ago
He’s complaining about having to turn it into opposing traffic because the road is now too narrow. Then the footage shows him very clearly barely turning the wheel. I’ve taken sharper turns than that without going on to the opposing lane. This guy just doesn’t know how to drive.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 2 days ago
If he can’t make that turn he both bought too large if a vehicle and also is a shit driver.
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 3 days ago
To be honest those gray small concrete blocks with funny useless poles in them are really a bad road UI design.
Not visible enough and too small to be effective anyway…
So while the complaints are stupid, they have a point: make those road blockers bigger and more visible. Maybe more signage as well…
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
it’s more UX than UI here, no?
0ops@piefed.zip 3 days ago
I guess you could say that the user interfaces with the concrete block via their shiny chrome rims on bald rubber band tires
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 3 days ago
Yeah … No native speaker here … :)
AA5B@lemmy.world 3 days ago
They’re less ugly than a jersey barrier and do less damage to cars that can’t stay in their lane while still protecting cyclists.
But yeah, visibility is key. I wonder if they are still visible in ten years. That’s my only objection to things like raised crossings: once the paint wears off or in snow they become a lot less visible and no longer as effective. I hate that both as a driver and a cyclist
echodot@feddit.uk 3 days ago
This is mostly a US problem though. Road designers in the US just don’t seem to actually understand how to implement these things in a sensible manner.
The way to do things like raised crossings is to make them out of a different type of road surface, moving over to brick pavers is common, so there’s always a visual indication.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
My sneaking suspicion is that they make things like these or medians almost invisible on purpose to piss people off and make the situation worse, so that they can then point to the idea of “safer road design” as a failure and go back to the old way.
Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 1 day ago
Maybe, but more probably it’s just incompetence due to ignorance … It take time to learn how to do things properly and in the US it’s not like they have experience on that, don’t they?
And probably lack general regulations on how to do it properly, like they have in Germany on in the Netherlands …
isyasad@lemmy.world 3 days ago
“it was intended to make roads safer, but guy told us it’s done just the opposite”
Okay, so I guess that one guy being angry is the opposite of safety.Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 days ago
“I’m going to drive recklessly out of spite!”
victorz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I mean, the blue shirt guy admitted that some vehicles might have to turn over the median into incoming traffic to avoid the thing on the road. That isn’t great, in defense of people not liking this change. That’s dangerous, and bad design.
AMoralNihilist@feddit.uk 3 days ago
The large vehicles he’s referring to are industrial large vehicles. Which require special licensing. Even the big ass pickup truck they showed could make the turn with no issues at all going at a reasonable speed.
kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Even the truck they showed in the video that went into the other lane didn’t need to. It’s just shit drivers in vehicles that are too large. So many large ass truck grocery getters.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Not every truck a municipality’s public works department uses is this size. You don’t need special licensing to drive a dual wheel F350 long bed, and I’d wager that might be a problem to turn that corner depending on what it has in it. If they need to replace signs, or even just do road work, they need to be able to turn that corner. I have a lot of questions about this.
What happens when it’s an ambulance (a lot of those are built on f450 chassis and don’t require an CDL).
victorz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Fair point. Just might not be great adding those things near turns. Or what are they even for?
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 3 days ago
Just go slowly and stop if there is a car coming.
bryndos@fedia.io 3 days ago
Yes , pretty common for large vehicles to have to to this sooner or later.
Driver shouldn't be operating such large vehicles if their training and licensing, and knowledge of turning circle isn't enough for them to know how to do this safely.Iconoclast@feddit.uk 3 days ago
Going slow doesn’t make the wheelbase shorter. Forcing people to drive onto the lane of oncoming traffic is bad infrastructure design.
Naich@piefed.world 3 days ago
The example they used had the turning circle of an oil tanker and would have trouble with a lot of corners. Any normal vehicle would be fine.
victorz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Crashing into an oil tanker would probably be worse for the oncoming vehicle than crashing into a normal vehicle though. Forcing any vehicle into incoming traffic is dangerous design.
echodot@feddit.uk 3 days ago
Also from context I think that’s a residential neighbourhood so how many large trucks are going to be driving through?
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I live on a dead end residential street and have big box trucks come through all the time for deliveries. There’s also the garbage/recycling/yard debris trucks that come through every week.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Any municipal vehicle. They don’t get sewage backups or anything?
danekrae@lemmy.world 3 days ago
They can either claim land of the residents to make the road wider, they could leave it dangerous for pedestrians/bicyclists, shut the road down completely, or just do what they have done in the video.
reddig33@lemmy.world 3 days ago
If they are comcerned about speeding, they could install speed bumps or speed cameras. Those actually work.
Iconoclast@feddit.uk 3 days ago
That’s not what the guy is complaining about. It’s a perfectly valid point that with a longer vehicle you have to cut into the oncoming lane or your rear tires will hit the curb.
Feel free to criticize people you disagree with, but at the very least you should criticize what they’re actually saying rather than your unfair interpretation of it.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Firstly, that’s a big ass car and no one other than tradesperson or people who work closely with construction should be driving that. Secondly, that’s a big ass gap, at least 1m, dude purposefully went all the way out there to proof his point.
HereIAm@lemmy.world 3 days ago
And if that is the smallest turning circle of that vehicle I don’t know what to say. These shit bags are just too lazy to turn the wheel and likely have no idea where the corners of their truck are.
Iconoclast@feddit.uk 3 days ago
As I said, feel free to disagree but at least disagree with their actual point - not your interpretation of it.
It’s unclear to me what your personal opinion on pickup trucks has to do with any of this. I’m talking about fairly representing people’s views. I don’t know what it is you seem to take issue with.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
No offense but that’s a basic F150. It’s got one of the shortest beds of the lineup.
A vehicle with a longer bed or dual wheels, or even with a trailer (say a municipal vehicle for the sake of argument) might have trouble making that turn. It’s not necessarily that his personal truck can’t do it. Just because his truck can doesn’t mean all vehicles can.
It needs to be safe enough for all vehicles that might have to travel that road.
FatVegan@leminal.space 3 days ago
The truck they showed who was goint into oncoming traffic was 2m away from the curb. These people can’t drive or should buy a smaller car that they can drive.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 3 days ago
The traffic engineer explained it was a skill issue.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
it’s not a valid point because you can clearly see in the video that you don’t actually need to go out into the oncoming lane, they showed a pickup making the turn unnecessarily wide
Objection@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
I think the main thing to criticize is the fact that the news picked this one random person’s grievance to platform.
Would the news do the same if a cyclist complained that a road was unsafe for cyclists? A driver being upset, while an expert disagrees, is considered newsworthy. But I’d bet that if it was a random cyclist who was upset, even if the experts agreed with them, it wouldn’t make the news.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 2 days ago
Great point, I didn’t see them talk to any pedestrians or cyclists!
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 3 days ago
- yes, those gigantic trucks need to fuck right off (the expert also essentially said that)
- it is meant to make people drive slower and more carefully. If they don’t do that then yes, that means more accidents
- good project but in my country those 2 poles every 100 yards or so wouldn’t be enough. Yes, it costs a little more to implement this properly
Considering I just came up with good arguments, maybe those 3min weren’t wasted after all.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Going forward they should do it think it through,
mutes audio for the rest of the sentence
RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
What is the problem? Looks like enough room for the cars.
CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I’ve never heard of a city making a road less safe with the intention of slowing down traffic.
draco_aeneus@mander.xyz 3 days ago
Depending on how you frame it, that happens all the time. For example, a speedbump causes speed reduction, but at high speeds it causes (momentary) loss of control. Or narrowing the road, which means less margin for error.
People will drive their cars as fast as feels safe. By introducing hazards, you make people slow down which increases safety, but each feature in isolation could be said to be dangerous in some way, y’know?
Demdaru@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Look to Europe then. Roads here have less width compared to USA to force you to focus. Or roundabouts which also make the crossing less safe…if you try to keep your speed.
Both end up making roads safer by slowing you down and forcing you to focus.
calcopiritus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You either make driving fast less safe, or you put a speed camera on every corner with the appropriate punishment. Cameras are expensive, and drivers will complain about them. If you make driving fast less safe, only the ones that remember how the road was before can complain about it.
Naich@piefed.world 3 days ago
There’s no entitlement like the entitlement of shit drivers.
danekrae@lemmy.world 3 days ago
“But my car wouldn’t have any damage if it was just the usual soft pedestrian!”