road hazards--or--hazardous roads

[Ronj Schryer]

Every once in a while I come across a situation that is kinda glossed over in the driving learners handbook.

I will cite a couple of examples--do you have similar things where you live?


EX*1.. Each year where I live,on the shore of a large lake, we have a sudden,overwhelming infestation of "fish flys" as they are known locally. (possibly called MAY FLIES elsewhere). They all hatch,in many millions, on the same day. They are about the size and shape of a small grasshopper and they look like a cloud of smoke hovering over the lake.
All is ok until after dark when they congregate in hundreds of millions around any light source.
Now picture the situation--as you near the lake on your journey to the cottage and come upon a street light you suddenly run into a dense wall of insects. I mean a real wall of them--immediately you are completely blind - as though a bag was placed over your head. Turning on the wipers results in a mess not unlike a banana being smeared across the windshield.
Oncoming traffic gets the same treatment so you don't know what the other guy is doing either.
makes for some interresting skid marks on the highway.



eg #2 Picture this situation----driving out of a brightly lit city into dark countryside-speed limit increases just as you reach a RR overpass so you boot it to climb the hill-off ramp curves to the right,downhill so you pick up speed even faster-beautiful constant radius curve-foot in it and go-at about the 180 degree point,just as you are facing into the bright lights again,and have the back end starting to drift- the road turns in like a pigs tail and you are left out to dry. the marks in the ditch attest to what i say.
It is fun though to lead someone unfamilliar with the road(especially if what they are driving is red) into the trap and watch his taillight disappear from your mirror he he

as ever......RON

[Jay]

I should be taking my drivers test soon, so I will probably come accross some of them then.

Anyone else have any others?

[Neil C]

Off-camber turns. Those are turns that are banked the wrong way. They produce an unsettling feeling, even if you are not in danger of going off. There is one such turn at Road America. You can pick up a lot of time over the drivers that let up because they think they are going to slide off...unless of course you slide off yourself!

[Redneck]

Turn #6 Roebling Road Raceway in Savanah, Georgia is an off camber unless you get on the very inside edge where it is flat. It seems to be more off-camber when you are racing than when you walk the track. Used to love to drive around the outside in a "hail mary" pass. SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY!!!

[bella]

neil c - there's a classic off camber bend near me. someone we know ttok one of our cars out, and did it at 120mph. hence, it's a bad driver. in most cases it is.

insects? ewwwww!!!! close all your airvents!!

jay - good luck - and remember, don't drive like you want to

[Bluebottle]

Diesel on wet roads- usually spilled from "White Van Man's" choice of vehicle! I once managed to spin my Dutton on diesel spilled around half of a large busy roundabout (Hunton Bridge, for those who know it!)during the morning rush!- I didn't hit anything other than the kerb- and I made use of the slick to turn the car around before the next wave of traffic came around!!
There should be a really heavy fine and a firm kick in the nethers for anyone spilling diesel on the roads!!!
Rant
Rant
Rant
Nurse!- It's still not working!!!

[TimD]

I'll second that - diesel on the road.

Last year, coming back from Snetterton, I managed to spin my Vauxhall Corsa on a roundabout near Lakenheath air base.

Entering the roundabout was not a problem, and then I had the horrible sensation of understeer (front wheels wanting to go straight on, instead of in the direction they are pointing). I shall never forget the look on the face of the Sierra driver I was heading towards. I managed to straighten up, re-steer and boot the accelerator (front wheel drive car, automatic gearbox leaves you VERY few options in that situation) and the wheels bit, so I missed the Sierra, but now found myself fishtailing the other way.

I caught that one, and then the damned front wheels found more grip, and flicked me back around, and this time I found the back overtaking me. I found myself sideways on down the road exit I had originally wanted. Fortunately, in all that, I hadn't hit anything. Once stationary, I discovered a Lotus Europa which had spun right around and found the central barrier, and a Renault 5 Le Car which had wiped its front end off.

And all because of some wally who filled his van up with too much fuel oil.

Yes, diesel on the road is evil.

[TimD]

On a more pro-active note,

Jay (and anyone else having driver training) one of the best £20 I ever spent was having a driving lesson directly AFTER passing my test when I had my full licence. I don't know if Britain is unique in keeping student drivers off the motorways, but the result is that we get freshly qualified drivers with absolutely zero experience of how a car behaves at speed.

I took some advice, and paid for my trusted driving instructor to give me further coaching, in motorway driving, teaching me how a car would react at 70mph, as opposed to the maximum of 30/40mph I was used to. I can honestly say that extra tuition saved me from an accident within weeks of qualifying. I can still remember the yellow bus and the silver BMW 525 which made me take evasive action on the M40....

And that was 15 years ago.

[Diabando]

Oh where do you begin on a topic like this?

I guess over here, we have all the same sort of road hazards as far as turns/corners/intersections...but what do we have, that is particluar to this country? KANGAROOS!!!

Certainly not in the "inner" suburban or city areas, but as soon as you get out into open spaces...watch out! I always assumed that hitting a roo wouldnt cause too much damage...wrong...I also assumed that if you were alert and watching the road properly, you could avoid one...wrong...

I have been involved in my fair share of accidents, enough to say the "shock" value doesnt freak me anymore, but this was a doosy...travelling at about 80kmph (speed limit was 100), light rain, very dark and roadside was thick bushland ...next thing I know, I have a big male roo, which has decided to leap out of the bush directly in front of my car. I didnt even have the split second to make a decision, I hit it instantly, which bounced it off my car, and then again, when I ran over it. It bent the entire front end of my car, pushed the radiator into the engine, and took part of my exhaust system off...

No advice I can give, I cant even tell you to watch out. All I can say is...good luck.

[Sharky]

Well....I don't know a lot about the first situation but I do know a lot about the second since the topography where I live is full of mountais so there are a lot of curves, steep climbs and falls....plus bus and truck drivers that are realli killers with drivers licences. For example...the road to my mother's town is a pretty dangerous road as touy have a 1000+ meter drop just a few centimeters from the road and you can usually see the fences that some unlucky drivers broke as they were either going too fast or lost control of the car. Word of advise for when you drive trough those roads. Use the gearbox (if it's manual) a lot to avoid using the brake in the downhill portions so yo don't overheat the brake and you can therefore count on it when you need it.

[elephino]

I've been doing well with my driving record. So far I haven't caused any accidents and only been involved in one as a driver (and that was someone running up the back of me in a carpark).

Had a couple of close calls though. One of them was about thinking ahead. A narrow back street with cars on both sides and also a big rubbish bin (large metal thing basically) also on the road. Came up to this on a bend and thought to keep over to the side just in case, and another came came around this blind (cos of the bin) corner at about 70km/h.

There's also a very nice road near where I live (a rare thing in Sydney), and a long corner. In the wet and bad tyres (I didn't think they were too bad in the wet till then). Not much camber and downhill, started at the top at about 55 and the car sped up..and then the back end started to move around. As it was front drive and the way it was balanced, all I could do was not touch the brakes and correct the sliding.

Luckily I've only spun a car once and that was on a racetrack, the car didn't help either (Volvo 440). Haven't come across diesel on the road yet either, I hope not too as well.

[KC]

We have much of the same problems here in the states.

When I lived in Florida, every spring we would get a similar version of the May Flies that everyone called the Love Bugs. These small mosquito like insects would fly about mating, with the back ends hooked together like some perverse circus act, in clouds so dense that they could immediately clog your windshield. The roads would also get slick from the slime left over from the billions of them that died during this time.

The highway engineers in Oklahoma must not actually drive themselves anywhere. Every single access ramp to a major highway usually circles about. Instead of the radius beginning sharp and becoming looser to allow a car to accelerate and merge on to the highway they operate in reverse. The curve becomes so tight that one can usually only enter the 75mph traffic at around 40mph if you are pushing it. Being that our highways are clogged with incompetent drivers in massive 3 ton sport-utes that will never handle, they enter the highway at around 20mph.

There are many country roads near Tulsa that beg for me to push the envelope, but the area is hilly enough that prudence comes into play. After all, no one wants to come around a bend or hill only to find a horse and buggy driving Mennonite in the road and get everyone killed in the process.
Still, there are a few gravel access roads near the navigational channel that are tons of fun to drift around on. My Dodge Dakota has the optional sport suspension package and the tires are wide and soft and it makes for good fun.

[fatbloke]

Hey! Don't be dissing the white van men!

[TimD]

Okay - fair do's, Stout Fellow. The outcome of the investigation into my diesel slide was that it wasn't a white van in my case.

It was a red one.

A red Ford Transit Mk2 with a Luton body, which a witness had seen on the roundabout.

[Bluebottle]

Actually, it was a white one, but it was embarassed!

[fatbloke]

At least it wasn't a SPRINTER!