Idiot Things The Yaris Does

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Huh interesting.

My defense mechanisms are so honed that I could never trust ANYONE anytime anywhere while riding a motorcycle.

Just the other day I was going to work and was on a divided six lane unlimited access strech of road. I was in the left lane passing a line of cars when one of them changed lanes into my path. He was looking at his lap (texting?) I have a rule. When you see someone do something stupid they will do ANOTHER thing stupid. Rather than speed up and edge around him I slowed down and changed lanes stage right. About another 200 yards down the road stupid drifted right into the dividing wall between the spilt highway. I was 100 yards behind him and to the right when he came to a stop sideways in the middle of traffic. About half a dozen cars either hit him or one another as they tried to avoid numbnuts.

If I did anything other than what I did I would have been in that mess.

People respecting motorcycles...

That would take all the fun out of it!

You wold be surprised at how different (and enjoyable) it is! In Europe, when you come up behind a car, they will move over to give you room to pass. Traffic coming in the opposite direction will also move to their right to give you room to pass down the middle on two-way roads. It's nice because it lets you know they are aware you are there. It did take some getting used to at first, especially since I had previously been riding in the States; but it doesn't take long to adapt and honestly, it is considerably more pleasant to ride when drivers recognize and respect your presence on the road.

The horror comes when you return to the States and have to resort to the necessary self-preservation tactics required with the brain-dead drivers in this country (those on this board being the exception, of course! )

Needless to say, I miss riding in Europe considerably!

Cheers! M2

[tk1971]

My 08 hatch has a headlight on indicator on the cluster (looks like a little light bulb), so I always know if my headlights are on. But I don't have DRL's, so no problem here.

As for motoring on 2 wheels, I take notice of what I perceive other riders are doing "right" (IMO) while driving, ie: head/brake light modulators (annoying, but gets me noticed), wearing a yellow Aerostich suit, very defensive riding, and absolutely NO LANESPLITTING. Of course, there are no guarantees in life because at any given moment, any one of our lives could end for whatever reason (drunk driver, blue ice from the sky, rapture, etc).

[Spidermandud]

Idiot things the Yaris does:

Forces me to ooh and aah at Micro Image shit i can't afford for hours on end.

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by ilikerice

bottom line:

Always defensive driving and alert for others.

and stay off your cell phones.

Here is an interesting fact that I learned while I was station in Korea: There are roughly, at least there was at the turn of the century, 12 million folks residing in Seoul. On their New Year's Eve the statistics, not sure how they came up with them, estimated that over 10 million of the folks were on the roads driving while intoxicated. Not necessarily drunk, but still inebriated. Even with this they have less issues with accidents then we have in our cities in the US even when folks are sober. The primary reason for this? They are raised to drive offensively rather than defensively. I lean more towards driving offensively personally and it has served me well in the 20 years I have been driving. This is both in autos and on motorcycles as I tested for my motorcycle license 6 months after my auto license (15 yrs old and then right after turning 16).

I completely agree with you on the mobile phone part. I have attempted to reduce my guilt on this one by using Voice-to-Text functionality.


As for the headlights part I trained myself years ago to always turn my headlights on as soon as my motor has been started and then off just as I exit.

I wish that I could think of an idiot thing that our car does, but right now coming up empty.

Then again I have the sedan. I can say something that I am entirely perplexed on which would be why the sedan doesn't have a driver's side glove box and the hatch does? I can only hazard to guess that it was an engineering thing, but one of the folks over at MI just cut into his dash to reveal plenty of space in front of the steering wheel on the sedan to accommodate another glove box.

[jpmck03]

Originally Posted by Spidermandud

Forces me to ooh and aah at Micro Image shit i can't afford for hours on end.

I don't know if that's the Yaris's fault...





...but...





I do the same thing...

[ilikerice]

Originally Posted by Spidermandud

Idiot things the Yaris does:

Forces me to ooh and aah at Micro Image shit i can't afford for hours on end.

I am with you on that one

I don't know if that's the Yaris's fault...

If toyota didnt make the yaris to begin with, I wouldnt be in this dream state!

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

Here is an interesting fact that I learned while I was station in Korea: There are roughly, at least there was at the turn of the century, 12 million folks residing in Seoul. On their New Year's Eve the statistics, not sure how they came up with them, estimated that over 10 million of the folks were on the roads driving while intoxicated. Not necessarily drunk, but still inebriated. Even with this they have less issues with accidents then we have in our cities in the US even when folks are sober. The primary reason for this? They are raised to drive offensively rather than defensively. I lean more towards driving offensively personally and it has served me well in the 20 years I have been driving. This is both in autos and on motorcycles as I tested for my motorcycle license 6 months after my auto license (15 yrs old and then right after turning 16).

I completely agree with you on the mobile phone part. I have attempted to reduce my guilt on this one by using Voice-to-Text functionality.


As for the headlights part I trained myself years ago to always turn my headlights on as soon as my motor has been started and then off just as I exit.

I wish that I could think of an idiot thing that our car does, but right now coming up empty.

Then again I have the sedan. I can say something that I am entirely perplexed on which would be why the sedan doesn't have a driver's side glove box and the hatch does? I can only hazard to guess that it was an engineering thing, but one of the folks over at MI just cut into his dash to reveal plenty of space in front of the steering wheel on the sedan to accommodate another glove box.

Do you think a defensive driver was the cause of this accident?

Id be willing to bet it was an offensive one.

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...cut-half-9664/

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Do you think a defensive driver was the cause of this accident?

Id be willing to bet it was an offensive one.

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...cut-half-9664/

Both offensive and defensive driving techniques can be the cause of accidents. I am just raising the point that offensive style has netted far less accidents in many cultures over ours. Also to raise a point it would appears that either the loose laws in regards to requiring driver's education or not as well as quite possibly poor DE schools is prevalent in many states at least to my recollection compared to 20 years ago when I first began driving. It cannot be denied either that there are much more distractions compared to then as well so I will give today's society that much. Back then you might only be distracted by fumbling through cassette tapes to find the right 2 Live Crew or Aerosmith album or checkin out the sweetness walking down the sidewalk.

[ilikerice]

[QUOTE=fnkngrv;626494]Here is an interesting fact that I learned while I was station in Korea: There are roughly, at least there was at the turn of the century, 12 million folks residing in Seoul. On their New Year's Eve the statistics, not sure how they came up with them, estimated that over 10 million of the folks were on the roads driving while intoxicated. Not necessarily drunk, but still inebriated. Even with this they have less issues with accidents then we have in our cities in the US even when folks are sober. The primary reason for this? They are raised to drive offensively rather than defensively. I lean more towards driving offensively personally and it has served me well in the 20 years I have been driving. This is both in autos and on motorcycles as I tested for my motorcycle license 6 months after my auto license (15 yrs old and then right after turning 16).
QUOTE]

That is very interesting stats. I visited Seoul and Ho Chi Min for a couple weeks, and I can probably say that is correct. There are more scooters then people and cars on the streets. When I took a taxi, if the guy in front of you hasnt let off the brakes withing .0001 of a sec when the light turns green, people will lay on the horn to wake you up. There was also no lanes either. very intersting.. although, this was about 6 years ago, things may have changed.

My teen years I was an agressive driver, but I now am completely defensive. I keep my aggressivness at the track and autocross.

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by ilikerice

I keep my aggressivness at the track and autocross.

You would have to agree however there is a difference between offensive and aggressive driving no?


But, anyway, I digress as this is kind of hijacking the thread now.

[ilikerice]

point made. There is a line between the two.

Agreed, on the Off topic.. sorrys

[FrankM]

is there a way to have the rear lights on all the time when the car is running .

[fnkngrv]

Oh yes...another idiot thing kinda of...love the cup holders on the dash, but terrible that they do not accept today's cup size standards (reference Tim Horton's new cup sizes for example) and therefore for me anyway tend to dump too easy.

[daf62757]

I have gotten very used to people flagging me down to tell me my tail lights are broken. Well, they aren't broken....I am just too stupid to remember to turn on the headlights. So while this is a problem, it is a driver interface malfunction!

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by daf62757

I have gotten very used to people flagging me down to tell me my tail lights are broken. Well, they aren't broken....I am just too stupid to remember to turn on the headlights. So while this is a problem, it is a driver interface malfunction!

The headlights are already on. They never go off once the engine is running.
So at night the drivers thinks all the lights are on because the HLs are on.

They arent.

[why?]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

Oh yes...another idiot thing kinda of...love the cup holders on the dash, but terrible that they do not accept today's cup size standards (reference Tim Horton's new cup sizes for example) and therefore for me anyway tend to dump too easy.

That must be a gigantic cup, the only cup I've found the Yaris couldn't hold is the largest 7-11 cup, which i think was more a function of the design of the cup rather than the cupholder.

The first mod I did to my car was to take out the box that enabled DRL's. So if my lights are on, I turned them on. I don't need a piece of garbage lawyer telling me how to drive.

And foreign drivers drive better, they also have multiple choices for never owning a car at all. The second you choose to spend the trillions in creating a fully functional reliable national transportation system in the US, then you will see less accidents as the people that don't want to drove won't need to. Although trillions probably won't be enough.

As it is now, to live in the US you must own a vehicle, hence the dirt cheap driver training and licensing costs.

[matthewai]

Originally Posted by why?

As it is now, to live in the US you must own a vehicle, hence the dirt cheap driver training and licensing costs.

ummm this is not true what about all the people who live in large citys ? they dont nessacaraly need a car