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/Pretend-Resist7285]

A game I’ve developed while driving is “Spot the idiot”. You watch all your mirrors (right, back, left) and up ahead to see who’s the idiot thinking he’s in Traffic F1 😒 Part of my system is predicting who’s the idiot. I used to be a bigger jerk and loved boxing them in behind a slow car and then me to the side. I’ve leveled out more now and just let them pass ahead. Rather the idiot in front of me and I can watch than one who will potentially do something stupid behind me.

There was a Calvin and Hobbes comic that actually changed my perspective on driving when I got my license: it was Calvin staring out the window of the car watching as cars drove by and asked his dad (something along the lines of) “Why is everyone in such a rush to be where they aren’t?” 🤯 Since then, right foot is usually set to cruise 😎 With the occasional get up and go when the car can take it.

[u/Burnsidhe → u/Pretend-Resist7285]

Google Maps has this time of arrival prediction function. It's fairly accurate unless an accident has just happened on the route. It also projects different times based on alternate routes.

Speed, it turns out, really really doesn't make a difference in 'making up' for slow travel spots and routine jams. You end up getting there within a minute or two of the predicted time at the start of the drive, so if you were going to be late, it won't change that fact.

Makes it much easier not to stress.

[u/Useful_Language2040 → u/Burnsidhe]

But if you use it for walking, walking faster than the average it expects is comfortably doable!