Driving Etiquette in the USA?

Well, he got driving fatalities, but not ones specifically attributed to road rage.

I’m not sure we collect such statistics here (isn’t it harder to track versus, say, drunk driving or speeding?), but I’ll see what I can find

@samul @T3hPwnisher yeah I don’t imagine road rage fatalities are included there, bar the odd case in which someone rams someone else. I would guess most road rage fatalities are the result of physical violence rather than vehicular violence.

Edit: lol nvm it’s America they’d just shoot each other.

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It’s both for sure, but it’s also the truth. There’s a great incentive to be polite on the road because you never know if the dude you honk at and give the finger too is going to follow you to your stop and shoot you.

I’ve actually driven PAST my house on the way home a few times when I had someone that was following me closeby, because I wasn’t entirely sure if it was some dude I had in some way slighted on the road that was trying to come find me and kill me. It’s never happened, but it’s something on my mind when I drive.

One thing I’ve been curious about which just came to my mind now that we’re talking accidents: some time ago, I heard an American guy on yt saying that in the US, people tend not to consider very small “crashes” as accidents, like for example a car driving out of a parking spot at a crawl and hitting the side of another car.

I have also seen videos of people having crashes in the US and then just driving away.

Is that really a thing there? Here you’d stop and have to compile papers on papers even for a scratch on the door of another car (which I think is the correct way to go about it, as you still caused damage to someone’s property)

Huh? Is that something that drivers in Italy find they need to do on their commutes?

Not at all to be honest, haha

I spent so much time practicing it for the exam and have never had to do it once

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If this happened to me I definitely wouldn’t say I had a car accident. That definitely implies a full-on crash.

I presume hit and runs happen everywhere, since awful people are everywhere.

I haven’t reverse parallel parked since my driving test. I definitely wouldn’t be able to pull it off these days.

Legally here it’s considered an accident. We have a pretty specific and bureucratic name for it, but it basically means an accident. And you either sort it your financially with the other driver, or you have to call in the insurance.

Yeah I get it, but the way I saw it happen made it look like it was the normal reaction. That’s why I was a little puzzled by that behavior.

That, I have to do all the time. I probably pull it off 90% of the time on the first try, but even after two years of driving and doing it time and again, I still sweat a little bit when I am about to do it

I’ve done the same thing. I’ve actually driven past my exit a few times and taken the one a couple exists down and backtracked down the back roads home just in case…

Can but, but I’m not sure how common it is. I had a guy very lightly rear end me at a stop light a couple years ago. I signaled for him to follow me to a parking lot around the corner so I could check to see if there was damage and determine whether I wanted to get insurance involved or if it was necessary.

He was apologetic and told me waaaay too much information (like he was on his fuckin’ phone and didn’t realize he was rolling forward). There was no damage to my car so I just gave him a light chastising (like “could’ve been worse” “stay off your phone” “I could’ve had my kid in the car” - that type of thing) but ultimately it was a nothing burger and we went about our days…

On the flip side, my wife has side swiped a couple cars and left notes with her contact information in case they wanted to follow up for repairs. She’s never been contacted and it’s never been reported to insurance as far as we can tell…

Same here. A lot of street parking in the city I live near requires parallel parking. I’m pretty good, usually getting it on the first go around but I’m much better on my left side (driver side) than my right side (we have a lot of one way streets).

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Yeah, same here, but if I came home and told my wife “I had a car accident” she’d assume the car was absolutely fucked. Don’t think we have a conversational term for it; seems like a language difference rather than a legal one.

Law here is you need to notify the police whenever there’s been an accident. In practice, if someone reversed into me in a car park and there wasn’t really any damage I don’t think I’d bother.

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Lads, that is bonkers.

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Omg, so I’m not the only one who thought that!

American Traffic Rules:

  1. Me first

  2. Fuck you

  3. Texting/tweeting is infinitely more important than the safety of others

  4. I can totally drive after chugging 5 beers - this is a HUGE problem with my area because the roads aren’t heavily driven so everyone thinks they can get away with it

  5. Traffic cops are bad because they prevent me from t-boning a family of 6 at 100 MPH

  6. Road maintenance means filling in the minvan-sized pot hole every 6-12 years

  7. In the south, everyone sits at a green light for a minimum of 3 seconds before crawling through the intersection

  8. I can’t keep a Honda Civic in my own lane, so I should absolutely buy the biggest truck possible and widen the stance until the tires touch each lane marker (another HUUUUUGE issue where I live - apparently a lot of people have small physical/metaphorical penises).

Now, I may be a little skewed and jaded because I split my time driving between privileged suburbs and the absolute middle of nowhere, with a little bit of road tripping and city driving thrown in for good measure. In general, I felt safer in Germany with everyone going 100+ MPH than I do here going 35 MPH. The community I live in can’t even deal with a 25 MPH speed limit and there are people demanding we reduce it to 10 MPH…

You aren’t wrong, but it’s life. Too many people can’t handle their rage and are willing to make irreversible decisions in a fit of it.

Probably

EDIT: I should share a personal anecdote though highlighting WHY I do it.

About 10 years ago or so, some guy cut me off on a city street so I honked and gave him the finger. Apparently, he wasn’t having it. He circled around and got behind me, following me, swerving around the road trying to side swipe me, honking his horn, etc. for about 10 minutes before I led him to a police station; at which point he sped off.

Crazy exists and I don’t take chances if I even SUSPECT some weird shit is happening. Most likely you’re right, bonkers … but if I didn’t have that one experience, I probably wouldn’t do it…

What state are you in?

‘Fender Bender’
‘Rear Ended’
‘Bumped’
‘T-Boned’
‘Wrecked’

That’s five quick ways I would describe a car accident.

Where I’m at there is a dollar limit. if it’s over $2,500, you have to notify the DMV. If someone requires medical attention or there is traffic impacts, then you have to call the police.

I’ve mostly avoided rubbing against other cars because I park about as far away as I can. Oregon parking spots aren’t made for trucks.

Edit: One thing I see nearly weekly is people driving the wrong way on a one-way.

I’d be in a terrible state if I was in a car accident.

No way you would describe someone bumping into you in a car park as “wrecked”, surely?

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ya… my point was there is many euphemisms for the gradation of accidents.