xkcd #2932: Driving PSA

When driving: Don’t be nice, be predictable.
- You can be nice, just make sure you think about what you're actually doing before doing it.
  Letting a car go in front in the situation above: you're probably causing an accident.
  Letting a car go in heavy traffic when there's one lane each way and everyone's stopped already anyway: won't cost you much time and you've allowed that person to move on with their life instead of being permanently stuck at an intersection he's never going to be able to get out of unless someone yields.
  I live close to a few intersections where if no one is nice and yields, it's impossible to join unless you barge your way in and hope people stop. But to be fair, these aren't designed like death traps like the one above.
  
  think about what you’re actually doing before doing it.
  That's too much thinking for most people.
  
  I was gonna lose my mind reading some of these comments. Thank you for being sensible.
  The majority of cases where one could politely let someone through are not going to be on highways like this.
  It's also ridiculous to assume that the driver that you're letting through would just stop checking for oncoming traffic because you waved them through.
  
  Letting a car go in front in the situation above: you're probably causing an accident.
  I disagree. In this situation, you are letting the left turning car move to the middle lane of this five lane road. From there, they can make a better decision of when to go. You aren’t causing an accident by letting them go TO THE MIDDLE LANE. From that point on, it is their ability to merge that may cause an accident. But they are supposed to stop in the middle lane and check that they can merge BEFORE they merge.
- This is the way.
- Yeah, this had fucking better be the top comment!
- Not mutually exclusive

This happens to me every other day. Ffs please don't be polite, just drive by the rules. I hate it when cars stop in the middle of the road and you have to wait for them to start driving again because you often can't know i f they are being polite of if they are just adjusting google maps and continue to drive.
- I especially hate when you're waiting to cross and people slow down to a stop and then wave you across, but there was no-one behind them.
  You could have just carried on at the same speed and we'd both have got on with our day sooner.
  
  I face away or even walk away from crosswalks as needed. Entirely abates intentions to give pedestrians the right of way when there’s apparently no intention to cross in the first place.
  Go so far as to time my approaches to intersections accordingly. Can’t say the strategy has ever failed - even the Mother Teresa of driving isn’t going to wave somebody who pretty much isn’t there. (YMMV, somewhat density & volume dependent.)
  
  This is every day of my life and I’m like “no, fucker, there’s a space behind you just GO”

Another thing that enrages me is people who think driving slowly is safer for whatever reason.
Getting on the highway? Let's SLOWLY merge at 60% the speed of oncoming traffic.
Changing lanes from stationary traffic into a full speed lane? I won't wait for the lane to clear, I'll just turn signal and move into the lane REAL SLOW because that's safe.
Turning right? Let's slow down to a complete stop and force traffic to a halt so I can turn right.
As a delivery truck driver I can't tell you how many people think that everyone else can just stop on a dime for them and they're being safe because they move over at a snail's Pace.
- fucking hate getting stuck behind some slow driver when trying to get on a highway. like fucker we are supposed to be reaching highway speed on this ramp not when we reach the highway🤬
  
  There is an on-ramp for the highway near me that's pretty long. It's long because it's a very straight fast-moving section of highway. In other words, the on-ramp is designed to give you adequate space to get up to highway speed. The number of people who immediately merge into the first lane without getting up to speed is too damn high.
- I used to have a job where I drove a box truck. It was slow empty and painfully slow full. It was also speed limited to 75mph. So I would tend to hang out with the semis on the hwy. One time I was driving down the hwy and this guy in a pretty new Volvo( so the fast ones) was coming down the on ramp. I could see he was going to merge right in front of me so I slowed down to give him some space. I figured he would want to be in front of the slow box truck. As he got close to the merge he slowed down so he was even with me. I gave him a little more space to merge in front of me and slowed down again. He had plenty of room left in the on merge lane if just used the skinny pedal. Instead he waited until was almost out of room then started honking at me. I did my best to speed up my painfully slow box truck but I am sure he has to slow down to the point he was merging at 45mph as everyone was doing 75-80mph. I am sure he was cursing me too because he wasn't willing to get up to hwy speed before merging.
  
  I was taught it was the responsibility of the car getting on the highway to match the speed of the cars on the highway. If you’re already on the highway, keep a constant speed so the people getting on can match you. So he kept having to slow down because you were also slowing down. Just like the assassin pretending to be nice in the diagram, I think you were technically in the wrong here.
  
  Instead he waited until was almost out of room then started honking at me.
  People who haven't learned the physics of large trucks spend a surprising portion of their driving time competing for Darwin awards.
  I want to will this not to be a problem anymore, but still see it all the time. I'm thankful that I've seen a lot of truckers react in surprisingly aware ways that save lives.
  But every time I see it, I can't help but think that driver's luck isn't too likely to hold through too many more times making that move.
- Getting into the fast moving lane from slow traffic is difficult no matter how you do it. The best way I found is to actually go slightly slower than the person in front of you to get a gap, then use that gap to accelerate.
  
  Yeah, that's because you know how to drive. I can't tell you how many people just turn in front of a truck and expect it to slow down for them. Playing with their lives.
- People are fucking stupid. People behind the wheel of a car are even more stupid.

When driving don't be nice. Be predictable.
- When driving, being predictable is being nice. Being nice is an accident waiting to happen.
  ... That sounded better in my head.
- I'm taking a Smith system training and this is said constantly.
- Half the people who wave you through have weird little control fetishes. They're not being polite, they're pursuing feelings of power. They're the same people driving 5 mph under the speed limit in the passing lane to "keep other people from speeding".
  
  Well that’s certainly one of the takes of all time

Nothing gets me closer to road rage than people waving me on when they have the right of way at a four way stop. Like yes thank you that's very polite, but we both could've been through this intersection if you'd gone when you were supposed to.
- I try to never use "the finger" when another driver is being an ass. In that case I always just give them a thumbs down and a sad face.
  I save the middle finger for people who are being "nice", especially when it is making things dangerous. I find it is the quickest way get them to just go.
  I try to be coniderate while driving. Being predictable is safe. Deviating from the rules is dangerous. I think being safe more considerate than being "nice".
  
  I've never thought about giving drivers like this the finger, but I'm absolutely going to from now on.
  It's not being 'nice'. It's dangerous. That's deserving of a middle finger.
- In some towns, these yokels will stop in the middle of the street to wave you to jaywalk.
  Like Jesus Christ, NOOO! Stop being polite!
- The only two actual rules that apply to four way stops is everyone stops and the first person to start moving gets the right of way. All that crap about the first arrival or person to the right doesn't get applied in real life. They're noble ideas, but just fucking go if no one else is.
  
  All that crap about the first arrival or person to the right doesn't get applied in real life.
  What the hell are you talking about? People obey the first to stop first pull out rule all the damn time.
  
  Growing up, there was a four-way stop near my house that one of my friends absolutely hated. It was a pretty busy intersection, and he hated that drivers didn't seem to follow the rules that the person to the right goes first or whatever.
  One time when I was driving, he was shocked like "what are you doing!? Its not your turn, you're gonna cause an accident!" when I went. I was like "what are you talking about?" I had driven through that intersection hundreds of times and never really thought about it. When I payed attention to the way the intersection flowed, I figured out the unwritten understanding that I and everyone else approached it with. It was basically just "stop and wait for a car or two to go before proceeding". There was no guaranteed order that I could come up with, it was just that everyone in the area seemed to understand.
  Written rules are great if everyone is following the written rules. If you follow the written rules at that intersection you'll be fine, but you're likely to annoy someone for a moment. Nobody is going to be confused if you wait, just impatient.
  I agree with you. More important than following rules is to pay attention and adapt as appropriate. If you're the only one following the written rules, there's a chance that you're the one acting unpredictably.
  
  Yeah this comment should not be so far in the negatives. I much prefer calling someone a dickhead for going before their turn than screaming "YOU HAVE RIGHT OF WAY" at some dipshit who's holding up traffic because they feel like being nice
  
  Found the Cali driver

This applies when you're a pedestrian waiting to cross too. There are always those drivers who think they're doing you a favor by stopping one of the lanes of traffic so you can walk out into the other. They smile and wave and look baffled when you don't take the bait.
- yesterday a guy tried to wave me to cross then started angrily raising his hands like "FUCKING GO!" completely oblivious to the car that flew past his left side in the opposite direction
  
  Had guy asking me to turn like that and when I refused he gave me the finger as he finally drove on. How come they hold up traffic and then get mad at you for not driving into on coming traffic?
  
  "Death waits for no one!"
  But seriously, glad you're safe...
- Feels like at least part of the issue is multi-lane pedestrian crossings. Most of the time that should either be single-lane, a traffic light or a tunnel/bridge.
- In an uncontrolled crossing the pedestrian always has the right of way (North America and Europe at least). They should almost never 'wait' to cross
  
  Doesn't matter if I have the right of way, I'm not walking into the other lane (going 35 mph) and hoping they don't kill me
  
  lmao. That may be true in some places but in others it requires a crosswalk. Also, the rules aren't going to pay your hospital or funeral home bills.
  
  Always where? There's a bazillion different rules about this depending on where you live
  
  If you trust every driver to follow the rules exactly and have their eyes open, you can risk your life by walking out. Otherwise you might wait anyway. And the rules about right of way depend on your country and state.
- Oh god, this reminds me of a cringe mistake just after I was getting my license. I was driving up to a crosswalk and there was a kid standing next to, maybe 8 or 9, holding their hand out. You know, just like they learn at school that they should do that to make it clear they want to cross even tho the car is supposed to stop anyway. I saw this and what did I do? I thought the kid waved at me and my new license, so I just drove past and waved back. What the fuck, brain?
- Generally pedestrians have the right of way at crossings (unless it's controlled with a light) in my state and neighboring states, most crosswalks even have signs that inform you to yield to pedestrians.

Do what is expected of you, not what is polite.
- Rules of the road:
  Be predictable
  Nobody else is predictable
  Everyone is indifferent to your existence; you are merely a car to them
  Your phone wants to kill you - leave it alone
  The faster you go, the less of a difference 5mph makes - be safe, not fast
  FFS maintain your damn car
  
  Drive sober
  If you're even remotely tired, you're attention and reaction time is impacted more than you realize
  
  to expand on number 5, drive the flow speed! If traffic is moving at 55, yeah that sucks but you're not going to make up more than a minute or so by speeding through them. And if traffic is doing 75, don't do 55 unless you're desperately low on gas. The savings from not maneuvering so much are huge. (Unless you're driving EVs, they have constant power instead of gears and RPMs. Which is why they should be far more clearly marked.)

2x this if you're cycling and a driver waves you through
- Ugh, I hate this. I don't care about waiting. As a cyclist, all I want is for it to be really clear what people are doing. Anything that messes with the right of way is sketchy.
  
  People try to wave me on all the time. They refuse to move until I go. I refuse to go until I can fucking see what might fucking kill me. Twice, the guy waving me on has been rear-ended by a vehicle three times their size.

That, to me, looks like an intersection I would never want to turn left on in the first place in anything but the most deserted area.
- Which is the delusion that the US's traffic engineers based all of their decisions on 60 years ago.
  "This'll be fine hardly anybody lives out here"
  
  It's compounded by the delusion that the US's traffic engineers base all of their decisions on now.
  "It'll be fine, it's been here for 60 years."
  
  It doesn't work when nobody lives around either.
  The only way this can work is if both all cars are from the 30s, only able to move at 50 km/h, and nobody lives around.
- Yep, same. I'll bust a right and flip around a street up the road.
  
  Yeah this is the only legal way to turn left in a road with a median like this in michigan. You have to turn right to turn left.

Roundabouts ftw. Best traffic invention to beat time traveling assassins.
- Except the ones with two lanes that can both exit or continue
  
  I have never seen a roundabout here in Australia that allows for these sorts of conflicting movements, that would be asinine. Are you saying there's multiple lanes that can exit or go straight such that someone in the inside lane can turn out in front of someone continuing around in the outside lane? Is this a North American thing? Of course that would result in accidents, don't build your bloody roundabouts like that!!
  I drive through three lane (six lane road) roundabouts all the time and no one gets hurt. In fact I have to drive through two such roundabouts to get to the nearest freeway.

Watching a couple of Dashcam videos is the perfect way to explore this phenomenon in full HD colour and often colourful sound.

Yup. Be predictable, not courteous. You'll save lives.
I'm fine with moving forward and using his car as my new stop line until the lane is clear. He's the asshole for assuming everyone waiting behind him wants to be as courteous and patient.
- Nothing like getting to a 4-way stop and the cycle is going smoothly then some dipshit starts waving cars and throws everything out of whack and next thing you know everyone is inching forward at the same time.
  Equally bad, the entry drives into shopping centers are often made to not stop when entering the lot, this way during busy shopping times traffic won't back up out into the street. This is a normal, common thing, usually plastered with signs "INCOMING TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP" and you still get people stopping and waving cars through, thinking they're doing anyone a favor, when instead it's confusing everyone as to what the rules are at the intersection. Then cars start driving around each other and you get to hear that sickening "scrrrunch-POP" as the other lane started moving without noticing the rules had changed.
  I have a feeling these are the same people who push a full cart into the self-checkout having never used a self-checkout in their lives.
- Thank you!
  You're not being kind by doing this! You're being kind to the one person you see but being an asshole to everyone behind you! Follow the rules of the road and everyone will get on better.
- People always complain about Altimas because they're unpredictable, but the absolute worst offenders I see are Honda CRV drivers specifically because they're trying to be polite on the road. I'd take some busted Altima weaving through traffic over a CRV who decides to be nice and stop at the end of the onramp so they don't cut anyone off.

A selfish asshole that drives predictably is safer than a generous driver that yields the row.

As a pedestrian I had to turn my back to make a guy stop trying to "help" me get in a fatal accident. He was bound and determined to get me killed... By being a "nice guy"

This happened to me, I was the fast car. Here's the dash cam video: https://streamable.com/q98ojg
- I've got several years of experience riding motorcycles. It's taught me to read traffic. I see a gap in a line of traffic like that, it's either a driver who's smart enough not to block an intersection (rare), or someone letting another someone out.
  
  When I saw the gap I started watching it closely. I probably wouldn't have been able react fast enough otherwise.
- Dang, and they just zoom off after without a care
  
  She had to slam on her brakes or she still would have hit me. When I looked back she made a clear "I fucked up" gesture that wasn't caught on cam.
- Damn, you have a store that specializes in maps, that's cool
- tbh there weren't many options for them besides waiting for the entire line of cars to pass which could've taken forever
  
  The guy leaving the gap tried to wave her through but I guess she didn't see the "STOP" gesture he started throwing when I got too close.
  
  To quote alice in wonderland:
  "How long is forever?"
  "Sometimes, just one second"

Does this intersection not have traffic lights? It seems very dangerous without, since the driver from the left can't see the fast through-traffic well. They are also crossing three streams of traffic at once.
In the comic would be space for an extra merging lane at the top, so that the driver from the left only crosses two traffic streams and then safely merges into the 45mph stream from the merging lane
- A grocery store near my house has an entrance exactly like this, except the roads are 3 lanes each. It's genuinely a nightmare to navigate if it's even remotely busy.
  
  A simple (albeit inconvenient) way to improve safety in this case is to prohibit turning left and allowing for a U turn somewhat close by.
- So one of the reasons I'm moving is to get away from this. I have this intersection by my apartment. A few hundred feet behind the assassin is a highway intersection, and the road the victim is coming from has 4 huge apartment complexes.
  There is no light. Making a left there(which leads to a outdoor mall) during rush hour requires atleast 3 virgin sacrifices...
- My neighborhood has this exact intersection in order to turn left out of it, no light. I only go left if the roads aren't too busy. Otherwise I go right then U-Turn.

If a time traveler takes the effort to travel back to 2024 and try to kill me then maybe I deserve to die
- If any time traveler comes to 2024, it's either great because there's science in the future, or it's terrible, because there's something about to happen that's worth seeing first-hand.
  
  Or it's great because something interesting is about to happen. If I had a time machine I would travel to 1989 to see the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Also worst design for crossroad EVER.
- Yes. The future serial killer is clearly the person that designed this shit. The one waving is just a useful idiot.
  
  Indeed.
- it sucks that is a common revision in most cities I've been in. Let's just have a highway with 8 lanes and have a tiny turn lane in the middle into a major road without lights at the turn it'll be great. Not to mention it splitting the city in half and pedestrians who don't want to walk a mile to the next crossing cross this 8 lane highway splitting the city in half.
  
  When I saw this sketch I immediately recollected all those traffic accident compilations from YouTube. Who in the right mind designs a road such that is cuts 8 lanes and thinks it's safe enough.
- I grew up in Michigan and this traffic pattern is insane to me. In intersections like that in Michigan, there is no left turn. You drive past the intersection, after which there will be an immediate turnaround. You get into the turnaround lane, go back towards the intersection, then approach the intersection from the opposite side so that you can turn right.
  It's so common that it blows my mind how it isn't more normal nationwide. Michigan left
  
  Even this intersection is not a good design if you ask me as it still forces you to cut who knows how many lanes, but at least it's a bit safer. Best would be overpass, but that's more expensive.
- Looks like it might be a stroad.
  https://youtu.be/ORzNZUeUHAM?si=-MgK7wtqZ6YUJA2J

wave of death

Happens all the time as a cyclist at 2 way stop signs. No I don't want to go through when you've stopped and are waving me on but the other direction hasn't. I usually just shrug and point at my stop sign
- Especially as a cyclist, there's a solid chance they're literally trying to kill you

Yesterday, by an accident, I made such a "generous" gesture. Thank god they did not use it.

do people in the middle turn lane actually try to get people on the side road to go before them? wtf is even the point of that?
- I've had people do it, usually it's when the road is packed and they realize it's your only chance. So there's no risk of getting hit like the comic shows. But I've also seen people try it exactly like the above. To be fair the guy turning left here should just turn right and make a U turn at the next light.

This road design seems also be done by someone completely insane. Who thought it was a good idea to cross two lanes without any kind of traffic regulations.
Luckily no every country has insane roads like that.

I see this and worse daily here and I rarely drive.
I've seen this exact scenario but the "polite" person is in a normal lane, not a turning lane. I hate drivers here.

I was the car they were waved into a few hours ago. But the car doing the waving was from the incoming lane (left lane on this picture) so it didn't even register that they stopped. I wasn't even looking left, I was just suddenly cut off and hit the brakes as a reflex all the while wondering what happened and why my car is slowing down.

This'll sound unhinged but I think commuting by car is a lot like playing League of Legends (emotionally)
- commuting by public transport is a lot like playing stardew valley
  because you're playing stardew valley on your steam deck
- "You shouldn't do it"

I’ve had pedestrians try to wave me to turn. It is as if they think are the only people on the road I have to consider. One got outright angry at me for not taking his gift with gratitude…there he was yelling at me, nearly being mowed down by a truck coming from an oncoming lane at a 3 way stop. And it still didn’t register to him the danger it would have been to himself and to me and the oncoming truck.
I like the idea of calling them would-be assassins even though assumes the general public are a whole lot smarter than they actually are.

is Randall on Lemmy?

You go, no you go, no you go, you go, no you go
- Yeah if this happens I'm just turning right and doing a U-turn. I would rather take 5 extra minutes to get where I'm going than play a game of polite chicken where the stakes are human lives.

Runner up is the assassin that seizes the traffic circle, instigating collisions behind them, just to let someone in out of turn. Only their MO is to delay or prevent a destiny altering meeting of some kind; an advanced tactic.

https://explainxkcd.com/2932

That's just a shitty road design
- Very normal when small sidestreets are intersecting with larger roads.
  
  45 mph multilane traffic, with unsignalized intersection of cross traffic? No, it's a shitty design. Just because it's normal where you live, doesn't mean it's a good design.
  How to fix? Just a few examples...
  Signalize intersection
  Slow down thru traffic
  Roundabout
  Reduce thru lanes, increase turn lane offset
  Prevent left turns from side street

I'm a high school teacher and students and parents both pull this shit. Drives me nuts.

It doesn't just happen when both people are trying to turn. I have a busy multi-lane road near me with a left turn lane that's just past a stoplight (the stoplight is behind me, but in front of the people whose lanes I need to cross to get to where I need to go.
I'll be stopped in the turn lane waiting for traffic to clear. The stoplight will turn red, and oncoming traffic will back up past the turn lane I'm in. Someone in one of the oncoming traffic lanes will stop before the turn lane to try to let me past, but the people in the other oncoming traffic lane (who are now in my blind spot thanks to the car that stopped to try to let me through) will keep on coming. That's just an accident waiting to happen at that point.

This intersection is the start of my daily commute. Drive to the median, clear of traffic in both directions, then check incoming traffic before proceeding

The very first time I drove a car on my own this happened (i.e. I was waiting to make the "left" turn) and I went and nearly hit another car lol

I was just thinking about interactions like this I've had a few times with different nice drivers, where I think they'll be trying to wave me through (no flashing brights or anything), I'm assuming to be nice, but they're far enough away that I can't see them, so I'm not entirely certain of their intent. Usually it's a busy road, so there's very little margin for error, if I misjudge what they're doing, then there's gonna be a problem. And then you both end up missing a chance to go because they screwed up the process, when, if they just hadn't tried to be nice and just went like they were supposed to, we both could've gone. Just follow the dumb traffic laws.
The exception to this though is at my kid's school. To turn into the school, there's a system that most of the parents follow and it works well, we essentially treat the entryway as a modified 3-way stop. Whoever has the easiest time to get in/get out go last in the order. So people needing to pull out and make a left turn onto the main road get first priority, then people needing to make a left turn into the school, finally people making a right-hand turn either into or out of the school go last. Anyone not going into the school just keeps going.
This system works better than when a traffic cop is occasionally posted to direct traffic (for whatever reason). With the cop, traffic gets backed up everywhere around the school and it takes everyone forever to get where they need to go. Without the cop, most people follow "the system" and traffic flows smoothly. When someone doesn't follow the system, it's not necessarily a surprise because they just don't wait, but usually a car or two later follows the system and everyone goes where they need to. You're rarely waiting for long.

Well phrased!
If one doesn't control the intersection, one doesn't get to be nice.

i always called this the "wave of death"

Rhode Island in shambles

This specific situation wouldn’t be an issue if it was left side driving.
- Mirror the comic and make the guy want to turn right and you have the exact same problem
  
  That’s not the exact same problem, it’s mirrored and therefore technically different.
- The issue is stupid intersections like this, roundabouts or bridges and slip lanes are the way to do this.
  
  I prefer the Mad Max style thunderdome intersection...
- Wait until you learn about turn right on red...