Do you count every second you save while driving?

[alkemyst]

Negative. I just put some Cooper RS4's on this bad boy:

Epic fail...and if you repost put a silver spoon on the windshield.

Hey, your bus is leaving.

 

[chimaxi83]

I failed at my first link attempt....... I am a lesser man than you, bro.

/wrists

 

[alkemyst]

I failed at my first link attempt....... I am a lesser man than you, bro.

/wrists

so post up your bad ass ride? You have to have a camera phone.

 

[shortylickens]

I see impatient people all the time. Rarely do they get ahead. They just like thinking they are getting ahead. Its more about their brain processes than anything else. Gotta feed that testosterone or whatever.

 

[akahoovy]

I think it's a lack of being able to foresee the near future. It's just stimulus and reaction.

 

[clamum]

I've got no problem passing people that are slow as fuck and can't even drive the speed limit, but I would not do something like the OP described. No point.

 

[J-Money]

I see this occasionally. Car A is about to turn right and there is Car B in front. Car A speeds up and overtakes Car B in order to make a turn that is only less than a block ahead. What gain did Car A possible achieve? Saving a second or two of time?

It seems as if some people, if not more, are like robots. Just mash the accelerator without considering what is happening up ahead. Whether its a red light, traffic or a sharp turn. Just mash that accelerator.

It seems like everyone is now a lead foot. Everyone is in a massive hurry to get to wherever they are going. Once the light turns green, its off to the races. Get out of the way cause they gotta go somewhere.

I'm just probably expressing my pent up feelings.

This is only "saving a second or two of time" if you know for sure Car B wasn't also going to turn (if the turn is another street and not a parking lot)

If slo-mo turns also, then you are stuck behind them if it's single lane. This actually happened to me on my way home from work on Friday. I was behind a dump truck, my right turn was a block away and I could have passed but I figured "I'll only save a second or two, no point", but then the dump truck turned too, so I had to follow it on single lane streets doing less than the speed limit.

 

[Dirigible]

If a person's time is really so valuable they should leave five minutes earlier

Hell no! Leaving five minutes earlier = wasting five minutes. Leave five minutes later and drive faster.

And yes, OP. I do try different routes, time them, and count every second. The fastest route on average is the one I take. Waze is somewhat helpful.

 

[PliotronX]

i don't understand people that charge up to red lights. you're not saving any time and you're burning money.

True, I always laugh when people do that but when someone is going five under and I pass them I feel defeated when it turns red. Like, I wouldn't have missed the green if it weren't for this old fart in a Kia.

 

[Ruptga]

Hell no! Leaving five minutes earlier = wasting five minutes. Leave five minutes later and drive faster.

And yes, OP. I do try different routes, time them, and count every second. The fastest route on average is the one I take. Waze is somewhat helpful.

I take the time to learn my routes and traffic patterns, but it's entirely possible to be efficient without doing so at the expense of others. Some posters give the impression that they do what they can to completely minimize travel time regardless how how that affects anyone else. That's a case study in the tragedy of the commons.

If I'm going somewhere and I need to be there by a certain time I figure how long it will take to get there while going five over, and I leave at a time that gives me five minutes of wiggle room (if it's less than a half-hour drive, more if it's longer).

If I'm going somewhere and it doesn't particularly matter when I arrive I figure how long it will take me to get there driving at exactly the speed limit, and I leave at a time that has me walking in the door right when I want to be there. If I'm held up by something, whatever. I just get around whatever it is when I can, then I set the cruise back at 70, or whatever.

I burn almost 10% less gas at 70mph than I do at 77, and it's a very relaxing way to drive since I almost never have to bother with passing. Superior planning > superior driving.

 

[Jeff7]

i don't understand people that charge up to red lights. you're not saving any time and you're burning money.

I'll often hurry up and then quickly brake in front of a red light, depending on where I observe it to be in its cycle, primarily when I need to make a left turn.

The inductive sensor in that lane will only look for cars if the light has not yet began to change direction:
- If the cross-traffic has the green as I approach, I will hurry up to get into position at the intersection.
- If I get over the sensor before the cross-traffic's light turns yellow, I'll get the left-turn signal.
- If I get over the sensor after their light turns yellow, the system has already "made up its mind" about what it's going to do, and so it will not give the left-turn signal.

Or if I see a single car sitting at a red light up ahead, I'll hurry toward that if I think I can make it, because if I don't, the light will not stay green long enough to allow me through, and I'll have to wait for another full cycle to pass.



But most people probably don't pay quite that much attention to the timing systems or loop detectors used by traffic lights.
(Based on what I've seen, many people aren't aware that there even are sensors in use, or how to properly trigger them, given how frequently people pull past the heavy white line and into the intersection, thus missing the sensor.)

I see this occasionally. Car A is about to turn right and there is Car B in front. Car A speeds up and overtakes Car B in order to make a turn that is only less than a block ahead. What gain did Car A possible achieve? Saving a second or two of time?
...

One time I'll sometimes do this is when I've been behind someone who has been driving slowly for a long stretch of road. Then I'll pass when I can so that I don't have to remain behind them for the next few miles on a road with no passing lane. Sometimes they do end up taking the same route as me, sometimes not.

 

[soulcougher73]

I love the tards that weave through traffic or streets while i just casually drive but i end up right next to them at the next stop light. I dont think they realize it though as they are that stupid, but it amuses me so its all good.

 

[NoCreativity]

OP it's not a time thing, it's an intelligence thing (lack of). Most drivers out there don't know that anything exists beyond the rear end of the person in front of them. If that rear end is moving too slow they have to, at all costs, get around it regardless of why it was going slow (usually due to a line of cars in front of it).

 

[SMOGZINN]

Low attention span and impatience are the same thing in different contexts. I have noticed that as attention span decreases impatience increases and driving safety goes out the window as people make bad choices because of impatience. How many times have I seen a wreck that could have been avoided if the driver had waited another 3 seconds?

 

[twinrider1]

i don't understand people that charge up to red lights. you're not saving any time and you're burning money.

I think some people only see 30' around them. They only focus on what is immediately surrounding them.

I bet they're the same people that can't merge onto a freeway properly. They don't look ahead to pick a spot and adjust their speed accordingly. They just drive to the end of the on-ramp and then they look for a spot.

 

[positivedoppler]

People have no patience me think and cant control themselves. Its like getting fat. You dont need to eat all that food but a lot people do anyways because they cant control themselves.

 

[SMOGZINN]

People have no patience me think and cant control themselves. Its like getting fat. You dont need to eat all that food but a lot people do anyways because they cant control themselves.

I always thought it was a lot like posting on a forum. People don't need to use bad spelling and grammar, but don't take the few seconds to check over what they are writing and type it out properly.

 

[positivedoppler]

I love the tards that weave through traffic or streets while i just casually drive but i end up right next to them at the next stop light. I dont think they realize it though as they are that stupid, but it amuses me so its all good.

Haha me too. Why not coast into red at 45 to 35 to 25 and 15 mph. Saves gas, saves brake, and you spend less time waiting at a complete stop. Always amuses me how people need to accelerate into a red light like they are in a hurry to wait

 

[Newell Steamer]

Because motor vehicle owners are total assholes. And, usually fat too. It probably has to do with their poor health; since they have AIDs or some shit.

You don't see bicyclists acting like this; speed up pedaling so they come to an immediate stop a few feet later.

 

[Train]

It's about being competitive alpha male.

Soccer moms make pretty hard core alpha males.

Whenever there is a stop light preceding a merge, it's not the dude in the SL 300 or the Mustang or the Ricer next to me that floors it. It's the woman in the Town and Country with the 3.7L.

 

[poofyhairguy]

There is one stretch of my commute where I purposefully speed a little to pass people. After that stretch there is a long part of my commute on a two lane road that is 35 mph but 80% of people (including cops) will go 40+mph on it.

The reason I speed and pass people on this stretch is because getting stuck behind someone that is that 20% who won't speed for anything is torture, and costs me minutes not seconds. So in the part before its two lanes and still four lanes I start speeding 10 miles over the limit to identify the non-speeders.

If the people around me keep pace I know they are cool and I stick with the pack. If they drop behind I can assume they will drive 35mph on the long stretch and I will do everything I can to get in front of them before it cuts down to two lanes.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I take the time to learn my routes and traffic patterns, but it's entirely possible to be efficient without doing so at the expense of others. Some posters give the impression that they do what they can to completely minimize travel time regardless how how that affects anyone else. That's a case study in the tragedy of the commons.

My thought process is that the roads are there to handle traffic. So even if I do something "alternate" as long as I am breaking expectations and not laws everyone's commute is more efficient.

The big example I can think of (and the one fellow ATOTs would want to flay me for) is a stretch of highway on my commute where the off ramps to the service road don't have a light before the on ramps. I take full advantage of these ramps to cut in traffic.

So if there is congestion on the highway (and there often is) I will hug the right lane, get off the exit then get back on almost immediately from the service road basically cutting in the line of traffic. Sometimes I will do this three or four times in a commute.

Often when I do this I will identify one vehicle that is doing it the "right way" (aka staying in traffic on the highway) to verify that I am not doing something counter to my goals. Almost every day the vehicle I track falls out of my rear view by the second or third exit hop.

If everyone did what I did it would be a disaster, but it makes it so I am one less car sitting in the line of traffic adding to that congestion.

 

[alzan]

I love the tards that weave through traffic or streets while i just casually drive but i end up right next to them at the next stop light. I dont think they realize it though as they are that stupid, but it amuses me so its all good.

^This. Never pass up the opportunity to be humored by another driver's ineptitude.

 

[Jeff7]

OP it's not a time thing, it's an intelligence thing (lack of). Most drivers out there don't know that anything exists beyond the rear end of the person in front of them. If that rear end is moving too slow they have to, at all costs, get around it regardless of why it was going slow (usually due to a line of cars in front of it).

It's great when someone's riding my bumper to try to get me to go faster. Nevermind that there's a line of cars in front of me, so I can't really go anywhere. (I drive a small sedan, and it's frequently people in large pickup trucks that will do this, so it's not as though they can't see what's ahead of me.)

 

[GrumpyMan]

I used to worry about it when I was younger, now it's, "I'll get there whenever I get there....yawn."