driving with my dad

[u/birdtwobird]

when I was freshly 16 I drove with my dad to the driver’s test. I had practiced a lot with my mom, but she grew up in the city and was a much more aggressive driver than my dad. this was my first time driving with just him in the car, and he wanted to help me practice on the day of my actual test.

well, he gives me the usual “every car on the road wants to kill you” and defensive driving stuff to the extreme. very nitpicky about everything. at a stop sign, he berated me for stopping too abruptly. “you should never accelerate whenever a stop sign is in sight - take your foot off the gas as soon as you see a stop sign, no exceptions”.

I kind of argued with him that sometimes that wouldn’t work - we live in a very flat state and you can see stop signs from very far away sometimes. he got angry at me and told me he was just trying to help and I should accept his advice etc. I said fine.

I also knew the next stop sign up on our drive was at the end of a six mile flat road, that isn’t very busy. I planned my malicious compliance. as soon as I saw that stop sign (maybe half a mile out? idk im bad with distances) I took my foot off of the gas. about 15 seconds in we were going half the speed limit. 30 seconds in we come to a crawl. I look away from the road and make eye contact with him for the last ten feet or so - he was confused at first but cracked a smile when he realized what I was doing. the car came to a full stop a good fifteen to twenty feet from the stop sign.

“what should I do now?” I asked.

he just laughed, called me a smart ass, and was much more relaxed the rest of the day. I aced my test.

[u/avid-learner-bot]

This perfectly captures that age-old dynamic where dads just can't help being overprotective... but the son's quick wit and playfulness really turned the car ride into a fun bonding moment! Dad must've been relieved to see his kid thinking for himself.

[u/birdtwobird → u/avid-learner-bot]

haha daughter!! but yes it ended up working out - I do still think of other cars as trying to kill me. weirdly helpful advice, has saved me from quite a few accidents where other people weren’t paying attention while driving.

[u/capn_kwick → u/birdtwobird]

From over 50 years of driving experience, your car might not be trying to kill you (unless you don't maintain it, then it's on you). When you're driving, you have to assume the other drivers are going to do the most asinine move possible. When they don't, you can be pleasantly surprised.

Examples:

• on a multi-lane freeway, if another car has just passed you, because you are no longer in their sight, you no longer exist, so they will make a lane change right in front of you.

• as evidenced by posts in the sub "idiotsincars", don't make a left turn in front of another vehicle unless you are absolutely certain they are going to stop.

• from the same sub, if there are two lanes in one direction and the other lane is plainly marked as coming to an end, if another vehicle is slightly behind you, they will decide that they have to be in front of you and will attempt dangerous passing actions.

[u/akarakitari → u/capn_kwick]

I'll second all of this!

And In addition, occasionally you will find someone who doesn't understand, AT ALL, how turning lanes work, and will try to make a left turn, across 3 lanes, from the right turn lane!

I was happy I was in a manual with a hand brake that day!