StarDestroyer.Net BBS

just got back from driving at school. nasty mistake there, that could have been really icky. it happens over about 2 seconds.

I get into the car. my sis gets in, my mom opens the door to get in. there are a half dozen students 10 ft in front of us. I shift to drive, and put down the pedal that I think is the break. I start to accelerate, and instantly switch to the other pedal.

I accelerate much, much faster. the kids start to pull away, the car makes an unholy sound as it lurches foward, my sis screams, and my mom starts yelling. I notice all of this, and push down on what I think is the break. I go faster, and as I'm about to hit the curb, switch pedals to break.

no injuries, aside from my lost of dignity. I drive home at around 20mph - my usual is 40.

Enforcer Talen wrote:just got back from driving at school. nasty mistake there, that could have been really icky. it happens over about 2 seconds.

I get into the car. my sis gets in, my mom opens the door to get in. there are a half dozen students 10 ft in front of us. I shift to drive, and put down the pedal that I think is the break. I start to accelerate, and instantly switch to the other pedal.

I accelerate much, much faster. the kids start to pull away, the car makes an unholy sound as it lurches foward, my sis screams, and my mom starts yelling. I notice all of this, and push down on what I think is the break. I go faster, and as I'm about to hit the curb, switch pedals to break.

no injuries, aside from my lost of dignity. I drive home at around 20mph - my usual is 40.

? How menay pedals does your car have anyway? 2 gas pedals????

I assume that car is a stick-shift?

Enforcer Talen wrote:just got back from driving at school. nasty mistake there, that could have been really icky. it happens over about 2 seconds.

I get into the car. my sis gets in, my mom opens the door to get in. there are a half dozen students 10 ft in front of us. I shift to drive, and put down the pedal that I think is the break. I start to accelerate, and instantly switch to the other pedal.

I accelerate much, much faster. the kids start to pull away, the car makes an unholy sound as it lurches foward, my sis screams, and my mom starts yelling. I notice all of this, and push down on what I think is the break. I go faster, and as I'm about to hit the curb, switch pedals to break.

no injuries, aside from my lost of dignity. I drive home at around 20mph - my usual is 40.

I suggest puting stickers marked accelerator and break

2 pedals. I confused them.

Enforcer Talen wrote:2 pedals. I confused them.

Automatic then I assume?
Such things won't happen to you with manual.

yep. well, it was first time in 4 or 5 months. so it's not horrible.

Could be worse. I heard of someone who, finishing their driving test and pulling up to a spot in front of the building, made that same mistake and drove through the front window.

Mark S wrote:Could be worse. I heard of someone who, finishing their driving test and pulling up to a spot in front of the building, made that same mistake and drove through the front window.

I heard about a pizza delivery girl who made the same mistake and tore into someone's garage.

Refresh my memory. In the US, the right pedal is gas, right? I ask because I have yet to learn to drive, even at age 16.5.

yep.

you sound like me. I got permit at 17. didn't care much. heh.

Darth Yoshi wrote:Refresh my memory. In the US, the right pedal is gas, right? I ask because I have yet to learn to drive, even at age 16.5.

Say what you will, but the biggest benefit of a large vehicle such as a Suburban is that the gas and brake pedals are widely separated. You KNOW which one your foot is on.

LoL

some things just perfect

I did the same thing out in the country with my dad's pickup truck once.

Mark S wrote:Could be worse. I heard of someone who, finishing their driving test and pulling up to a spot in front of the building, made that same mistake and drove through the front window.

Or you could be my kid brother, who had the misfortune of writing off the family car on his way home from the driving test. In his defence it was snowing heavily and the streets weren't plowed or salted yet. My mum was not exactly happy since she was the poor passenger in the car when my brother spun it a couple blocks from my house and wrapped it around a 'phone pole. Thankfully no one was hurt and thanks to insurance we got a new car out of it.

I scared the hell out of my first driving test

Crazy fucking parent stepped out infront of a van into the middle of the street jay waling in a 45mph zone, I changed lanes so fast that the inspector screamed.

Needless to say she failed me right there

Two weeks later she passed me with a 92, and told me I had good descisionmaking skills.

I just took my driver's test and frankly I'm disturbed that it was so easy. Really disturbed. No highway driving, no interaction with other cars, the closest I ever got to a major road was the parallel parking part, which got within 200 yards of a major road. It was creepy that 1. This is adequate for showing a driver's ability to drive a car and 2. That there are people who fail it. The guy who went before me actually failed it, which was just stupid.

And to all those who feel weird about getting their license late, I turned 18 about a month ago.

You got lucky I had mine in the worst part of Stockton CA

Heh, and I got mine in the richest part of Seattle, WA. It was the poor side of the rich neighborhood, lol. The examiner actually fell asleep as I took the test.

That can't happen in a stick shift?!? BULLSHIT, I know, I've done it, and there is also that annoying little thing of forgetting the clutch and stepping on the gas... The car sounds like it's spinning up for takeoff and you're not moving.

Heh...lucky for me every time I mixed up the pedals my foot was on the brakes instead of the accelerator.

I don't like the stick shift, when I was 14 my mom got a van and didn't need her old truck so she let me drive it around to practice, it was a stick shift and I had got the hole around it. Well I'm driving in circles, and I'm going inbetween a couple of trees except I'm a little ofcourse. For some reason I don't turn, I hit the brake a couple of times, only it's not the break, it's the fucking clutch and a smash into the tree. Fucked up the truck but was complete unhurt. Eventually sold the thing for scrap

I wouldn't want to drive an automatic if given a choice. I learned to drive a stick shift, and I'm quite comfortable with them. 75+% of cars here are stick shift, and automatics cost more (with the price already high, the cheapest new cars, the really small ones, start at around €14000, most cars cost €19000+). But how the hell anyone could get the brake and clucth pedals confused is just beyond me. When driving a stick shift, the left foot is ALWAYS on the clutch. The right foot shifts between gas and brake. Anybody who is unable to adequately drive a stick shift doesn't belong behind the wheel in the first place. Not that making a mistake like that couldn't happen if you've never driven anything before and had nobody to tell you how.

Driving tests, well, they are pretty strict about those here. I failed twice, passed on the third time. The driving instructors are really anal about every single small detail during the lessons, and the officials who conduct the tests are even more so. It is more common than not to fail the first time.

Edi

Stick-shifts are for people who (for the most part) drive for the love of driving, in addition to getting where they're going. My truck is a manual, and I LOVE driving it. I make excuses to go driving, and failing that, I will sometimes just pick a direction and head that way for 20 minutes to see where it gets me. A final subgroup are teenagers who think learning how to drive stick will make them cool.

Automatics are for people who (again, for the most part) see driving only as a means to an end. Going for a Sunday drive notwithstanding, most of the time the trip is not an important part, just the arrival.

Of course, there are people who drive stick as a matter of necessity, and hate every minute of it, and there are people who drive automatic and love driving. In general, however, you can usually see the stratification fairly clearly.

I for one probably shouldn't drive stick shift due to the nerve damage on my left side (crappy responce time for the clutch foot so I tend to pop the clutch more often than not), but I will admit, I'll never drive an automatic unless I have to for whatever reason, I just like the feel of control over the vehicle that I get from manual, that I don't get with automatic.

Oh and Anarchistbunny, don't do what someone I knew a couple years ago (keith) did, driving an automatic with both feet, one on the gas, one on the brake, needless to say he went less than 6 months before causing $9000 in damage to a $6000 mint condition early '90s Firebird, and the moron still didn't learn. It sounds to me like that was what you were doing only you found the clutch instead of the brake. We all do similar things though when we first start driving, it's only normal. Btw, I used to loathe stick shift because of the nervedamage making it harder than hell to sync the clutch and gas, especially on hills, but I finally figured it out (out of necessity more than anything else as you can't really use an '85 Dodge ram pickup with a carb in bad need of a rebuild and many other issues that gets 8mpg on a GOOD day with a tailwind as a commuter car for a 72 mile round trip per day commute)

playing to much GTA3????
Glad no one got smoked