100%. It's all about minimising risk, my tone with my other comments probably came across a bit harsh. But that fucker was telling someone it was all their fault. And that when they drive, there's literally nothing that they couldn't stop in time for.
They were so confidently incorrect it was annoying the shit outta me
That's a good point, we had road safety ads and signs saying that the speed limit is not a target: drive to the conditions.
I would have gone into more detail about the type of roads that are signed at 60kph, 50kph and 40kph here, and the expected hazards on each etc. But at the end of the day, you aren't going to slow down to car-park speeds for every parked car you go past, that would be making yourself more of a danger for other traffic.
And if you look at the reaction speed / velocity / distance travelled calculations I mention further down, you'll never be driving slow enough to avoid a fast and low surprise side-incursion like a sprinting dog from between parked cars.
Safe driving limits the amount of hazards that would be unavoidable, but it doesn't eliminate them.
Just go double or nothing a few times! Simple!
Firstly, you're either vastly overestimating how good you are at scanning every single gap and new space while also taking in the rest of the traffic, road conditions etc, OR you are the most incredible driver to exist and your brain should be studied by self-driving car companies for their software.
Secondly, and this is the simplest way to show that you're incorrect:
Average driver reaction time is 0.75 seconds (that's to see something, and move your foot to the brake pedal and begin to hit it). At 20mph, you've travelled 22 feet before you even begin to slow down.
And that's a generous reaction time. This article puts it at 1.5 seconds for unexpected side-incursions: https://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/reactiontime.html
You've now travelled 44 feet before even hitting the brake.
If that gap you're looking at is behind a tall vehicle and we're talking about a kid or a dog, you're along side before seeing the entire gap. Your back wheels are hitting that sprinting dog well before you've even touched the brake pedal.
I'm starting to think you're either making shit up just to argue, or your overconfidence in your own driving is actually making you more dangerous on the road than safe
At 20mph, if something sprints into the SIDE of your car and under you back wheel, you're not going to stop in time.
You don't have precognition or superhuman reactions (and even if you did have the reactions of an F1 driver, physics are still going to happen). I applaud your approach to safety but your overconfidence is confusing.
Nope.
If you're driving at 60kph / 37mph (60kph is a standard speed limit in residential areas here, not sure about the limits where you are), people and kids and dogs can sometimes be on the side walks. There can also be cars parked on the side of the road.
You can be as safe as is reasonably possible, but if something shorter than a parked car sprints out at full speed, into the side of your car, what are you going to do?
Yes be aware of your surroundings, yes drive at a speed where you can stop in a reasonable distance for almost anything that can occur in front of you in that environment. But no, not every single thing is avoidable
And most importantly - leash your fucking dogs
The answer to your last question should tell you why everything you wrote above it is fucking awful.
If you're driving safely and an unleashed dog sprints into the road and goes under your car from the side, what the hell do you think you would do to avoid it?
It's the owner's responsibility and fault, not OPs
I'm sorry, that's horrible. Did anyone else see what happened and stop? If so, chat to them first and see if they'd be comfortable backing you up on what happened (dog ran out, no time to react). Hopefully that's not needed, but you never know.
I saw that exact thing happen when the car in front of me hit a dog. Poor thing was dying on the road and I heard someone down the street whistling for their dog to come inside. I went and told them what happened, and made sure to say that the driver is distraught and absolutely could not have done anything to avoid the dog. Fucking sucks for everyone involved
If the dog ran into the path of the rear tyre, what do you think you could have done differently in this situation? The owner is responsible for their unleashed dog
Checking in from NZ, sounds familiar to me
Well goddamn it. I was just having this convo on another thread. My main point: don't spread lies especially when there is SO MUCH real shit to laugh at them for...
Edited from my other comments elsewhere:
JD is a creepy weirdo, but the couch story was made up.
I fucking hate it when people feel the need to make up stuff about someone who already has plenty of real red flags that need attention.
Yes it's funny, and it's working in the short term. But any lie, once uncovered, makes it so much easier for even the worst positions to be defended. 'See, they have to make shit up about us, they have nothing'. Bam, now even all the other factual points are discredited in the eyes of many people who may have been on the fence.
You know the whole 'fake news' thing being thrown around a lot by one side in particular? It doesn't seem like a good idea to give them more examples they can correctly point to when they want to discredit you and anything else you say.
Keep calling them weird, keep having fun with it. It's fucking great. But use the real shit. There's so much
Get them on the real stuff, there's plenty of it. The couch thing is known to be made up and is just misinformation now (well, always was).
He certainly seems like someone who might fuck a couch because he's fucking weird, so keep the jokes about it coming, but the book excerpt was fake