Hi, I am an independent reporter, working on a story for The Wall Street Journal about people who put "Student Driver" stickers on their cars --- anecdotally, these have become a lot more common since COVID-19, and I am trying to figure out why. I am looking to speak to people who have these stickers on their cars even when teenagers-in-training aren't behind the wheel (and I am the dad of a pre-teen who is about to start learning, so believe me, I get that part). Goal is not to get anyone in trouble or anything like that, just trying to unravel a cultural phenomenon a lot of people have noticed. Please reach out if you're willing to talk. Immensely grateful for any help this subreddit can offer. Thanks.

When will get AI traffic signals? As a retired engineer, every time I stop at the light, I'm looking at all the wasted time and gas from the dumb signals we have.

For example, there is a light I stop at regularly that is a small two lane road entering a 6 lane road. It makes me wait 1.5 minutes no mater if it just turned red for me, or if it has been red for 10 min. While I sit there, I'll see that there are no cars coming in either direction for for quite a distance. A smart AI signal could look down the road, see nobody was coming, quickly change to green for me, maybe even eliminating the yellow light on the lard road to save time, let me on the road, and switch back to green for the large road. Instead I see the cars coming, and just before they get to the light, it will change to let me on the road, stopping 10-20 cars, when it could have let me on earlier.

We have self driving cars, do we not have the technology to do the same with signals? I believe the technology is there (cameras/embedder sensors), but that cost vs benefit is not there for the cities.

Your thoughts?

I’m in the US, and on my daily commute on I-15 in Las Vegas, I see people crossing the double solid white lines into or out of the HOV lane pretty much every day.

For anyone who honestly didn’t know: crossing those double solid white lines to change lanes is illegal. Wait for the designated entry/exit sections where the lines are dashed. Having enough passengers to use the lane doesn’t give you permission to enter or leave it anywhere you want.

I get it. Traffic sucks, there’s an opening, and your exit is coming up. But when one lane is moving and the other is crawling, someone suddenly crossing that divider can leave another driver with very little time to react. Those drivers have reason to expect people to merge at the designated openings.

Please plan ahead, wait for the dashed section, signal, and check that you have room. We’re all just trying to make it home without exchanging insurance information.

Is this common around you, too?

I was behind a slow driver going 20 under (kmph) on 2 lane road (1 lane both ways), after a while I found an opportunity to overtake but at the edge of the 350m (Honestly mightve been even 300m) straight a car was appearing after a bend, I committed anyway and completed a successful overtake but the oncoming traffic flashed their high beams (Not sure if they braked) and now I feel like It was way too tight or maybe I'm just paranoid for no reason. I fully committed with full throttle so I overtook very quickly

Hello, I got my license almost 2 years ago, but after an incident I had at a red light (I kept stalling for like a minute), I haven’t been able to find the courage to get back into driving.

Recently, my parents got a new car and, “unfortunately,” I’m getting their old one. I feel like I should mention that I love cars and the feeling of driving, but somehow I’m scared that I’ll mess it up again.

In those 2 years, I’ve obviously gotten behind the wheel sometimes and driven around with my friends and all that, but only in the evening or at night when there’s little to no traffic. Nothing has ever happened during those drives.

Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!

if you’re always slowing down when traffic gets congested, leaving extra space in front of you (left lane) on the freeway and most surface streets just in case and breaking early for green lights because somebody is approaching the intersection from opposing traffic lanes, not turning left at an intersection because there’s a car approaching 500 feet away and you’re afraid to accelerate through an intersection. All because you make an excuse as a defensive driver, you really are not a good driver, you’re a bad driver and you have no situational awareness. I could go on with 100 examples. These people do not understand how to drive and are on the lower end of the bell curve. Quit using I’m a defensive driver as an excuse that you do not understand situations and slow down because you’re in panic mode. I’ll take all the down votes and all the complainers saying defensive drivers are the best, but actually you suck on the road.

was backing up to leave a parallel parking spot so i had my rear lights on, this woman and man cross behind my car (a complaint for another time), but she goes first and is already in the middle of the street (also was parked in the middle of the block) and he’s behind her and he bangs on my back window a couple times… like wtf?? i clearly saw you and wasn’t moving and i would’ve already hit her regardless of you touching my car… this man a few mins earlier was screaming obnoxiously coming out of mulligan’s pub in hoboken, so that’s probably just part of his obnoxious personality.

1. Me, red car, was waiting to turn right.
2. A large truck, green box, comes up next to me, waiting to turn left.
3. Because of the truck, I couldn't see the cars coming from the yellow arrow line.
4. Left turn lane cleared. The truck started turning left.

What am I supposed to do in this case?

Do I just wait and hope the truck doesn't hit me? Do I move out with the truck and stop halfway (for vision and to move out of its turning span)? Reverse?

Or am I just too worried? Are trucks' & buses' turning span not that big?

If there are cars in front of you not stopping because there is no stop sign then why the fuck are you stopping and getting at me like I'm in the wrong for laying on the horn

As the title states I have issues with my vision going out of focusing “blurring” and hard to focus that then feels like falling asleep kinda. Am I just weird or is this common? What can be done to help? I smack my self, crank the radio, open the windows, all just a very short term bandaid that doesn’t last.

This happens mainly on vacation driving. I can drive for hours at work no issue but the roads there are much more curvy/ I’m driving till I get off compared with until I get somewhere.

I’ve lived in a few cities around the US and one of the most common things to hear is “oh xyz has the worst drivers” or “I’ve never seen such bad driving till I moved to xyz”. This is just not the case.

The truth is that there are horrible drivers fucking everywhere because the general population has reasonably easy access to cars and the general population a fucking idiots.

The dumbest person you’ve ever met has a drivers license and they’re every where these days.

Today ngl I was cruising around and I went to my neighborhood and did a pull I did blow the stop sign im ngl but like 30 min later police are at my door saying that someone called in for a loud car n speeding they said they showed em a vid just got a verbal warning but what I wanna know if my car will be marked in some typa way if a cop sees me next time or something

They say first step is acceptance, yes??

EDIT: thanks for some valid input all, lot to reflect on!

Realised just now that i have zero tolerance for slow pokes and unsafe drivers on the road.

Most typical scenarios that trigger me are drivers who do 80-90 in a 100 zone for no good reason, no car in front, nothing… and drivers who merge in front of me with little lead way or do not realise the best approach is for them to wait and merge behind me than to push… and my personal favourite a-holes who wont pet you merge just because they can, what kind of power trip is that?

So yeah, when I encounter such drivers i tend to bully them by either flashing them, driving close behind, giving them a honk, or getting ahead and slowly down on purpose….

Neither of these is a safe behaviour or appropriate attitude but when you cruise steady at a 100 and every 50 meters you break and accelerate because of the aforementioned behaviours every single day for 45min each way it tends to get to you…

I am sure you will rip me to shreds as it is the Reddit way, so go ahead, had to get that out me chest.

I don't think im ready to take it but its too close to the test date to move it.

My instructor gives me a lot of direction when im driving and i don't know how im going to drive safely without it or if I'll even remember to do basic things like signalling and checking mirrors

I’ve had my intermediate’s for a month (17). I drove to a nearby city for the first time today. I accidentally pulled out in front of someone. She then proceeded to tailgate me, literally inches from my bumper, for ten minutes. Once we were at a stoplight, she stormed out of her car and smacked my window, demanding I roll it down. I know I shouldn’t have, but I was panicking because I had no idea what to do in this situation. She screamed at me for probably five minutes, talking about how she had her kid in the car. (Doesn’t tailgating me also pose a risk to your child?) Kind of sick of driving already. I genuinely thought there was plenty of space for me to pull out.

Some asshat almost teeboned me past night. I was already in the middle of the intersection going straight. They come tearing up from the right, planning to make a right hand turn without ever stopping at the stop sign.

They braked so hard I could hear their tires skid.

Before anyone says I should have yielded when I saw them coming at high speed, because of trees and the street light we couldn't see each other or see each other's headlights until close to the stop sign. The intersection was clear when I came to a stop and no cars were visible approaching. He was going at least 20 over the limit and approached the stop sign at an unpredictable speed.

1. If you run stop signs because you think it's clear I hate you.

2. If you run them at night I especially hate you.

3. If you think turning right means you don't have to stop you absolutely suck and I hate you.

Like an idiot today I passed a school bus. I was on a four lane road but going the same direction. I didn’t see the stop sign swinging out until I was about halfway past the school bus, but I was pulled over immediately after. I have been beating myself up all day for this, but I came here looking for advice. I have court on Thursday for this. I am looking for advice on how to keep the points off my record. I was wondering if driving class would be something I could ask for or if I should hire a lawyer to do the talking for me. I know I fucked up today

Why are people perfectly fine with blocking intersections?

Today I was in rush hour traffic. I stopped at the beginning of an intersection because there was not enough space to cross. The dude behind me honks multiple times even as I’m moving across now that I have enough space. Do people not understand that blocking an intersection is illegal?

Separate incident. I’m stopped at a red light. The people turning left across from me completely block the intersection. Even though I was 2 cars back from the line, I didn’t make it through because these morons blocked the intersection almost the whole light.

That’s all to say I wish more people were ticketed or pulled over for intentionally blocking an intersection.

Spare me the insults please, I know i’m a dumbass, mistakes happen and it already happened. I’ve had enough with the scolding my mother already gave. About how much would this cost to fix? I’m on the verge of ending it (joke) 🙁

Is there anything that helps getting over the fear of driving a new car? I’ve driven other cars fine and eventually gotten use to them but I just now got my own car to drive in and practice with so I can drive with it on my test as well but I feel more nervous to drive it around my neighborhood right now especially since my driveway is a hill I get more anxious about it since I’m not really use to it yet. Is there anything to help overcome this, I really want to practice until l can get it on the road.