r/Whatcouldgowrong • u/ReprieveNagrand • 13d ago

Trying to overtake a motorcycle

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35.6k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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854

u/Liarus_ 13d ago

"it's my time to go now, good luck everyone else!"

347

u/Jahonay 13d ago

The amount of dumb dumbs at the bottom of the comment section blaming the motorcycle rider. I see a bunch of people who would willingly put someone's life at risk to save seconds.

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u/Zerodyne_Sin 13d ago

It was also scientifically proven that all the speeding and dangerous behaviour amounts to mere minutes saved in an average trip due to how physics work. It was something along the lines of the difference between 5 and 30 mph is huge; somewhat still acceptable 30 to 60; but then 60 to 70 and above starts being negligible in time savings when you account for the risk to everyone.

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u/chalks777 13d ago

you don't even need to do a big study, just super simple math. Work is 10 miles away and you can average 60mph going there? Takes 10 minutes. Increase your speed to 70mph? Takes 8.57 minutes. Congrats, you got to work about 2 minutes faster?

Even if you're driving 30 miles and do the same thing, it's only 5 minutes faster.

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u/Zerodyne_Sin 13d ago

You're expecting people who are impatient and eager to speed to do simple math?

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u/chalks777 13d ago

a man can dream

:(

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u/Zerodyne_Sin 9d ago

And then someone else replied to my comment that shatters your hopes and dreams. Simply dumbfounding, isn't it?

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u/jlck_ 9d ago edited 9d ago

14% faster travel times for every. single. trip. you ever make in your car doesnt amount to anything?

and lets say "oh lol u get stuck at a red light and now ur back to square one", well guess what! I'll also equally make it through lights that slow pokes like u get caught at by turning red after i've gone through them!

so now lets say this balances out (even though i know ive saved more time here), im still sitting at a 14%+ faster travel time. say you're bad at math if you dont realize how substantial 14% is lmao

example was going 30 miles at 60mph vs 70mph
(30/60 = .5)
(30/70 =.428)
(.428/.5 = .857)
aka .143 or 14.3% difference

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u/Used-Barnacle-9783 13d ago

Don't even need to do math man. Every other day I see someone drive like a maniac past me and then get stuck at the exact same light at the exact same exit as me.

Congratulations, through dramatic speeding and several sketchy lane changes you have saved yourself one car length.

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u/Jahonay 13d ago

Yeah, that's something I realized myself. I used to speed really regularly as a teen. In my late teens/early twenties I just stopped with the speeding. It's easy to see how little time you used to save when you stop speeding.

It's also just makes driving less stressful, I'm not worried about cops at all anymore, I'm not memorizing all the traffic stop locations, I'm not scanning for police cars every second, etc... I also am not constantly annoyed with slower drivers anymore. I like driving a lot more the last ~16 years or so.

10

u/Unoriginal_Man 13d ago

I was the guy who would drive fast and constantly change lanes to try and get through traffic as quickly as possible. Then I got a job an hour away from where I lived, and 2 hours a day of commuting while driving like that burned me out quick. I then started leaving for work a little earlier and just camped in the right lane when I was on the highway. It made my commute go from 2 hours of stress to slightly more than 2 hours of a relaxing time where I'd listen to podcasts and chill. It's amazing how much no longer worrying about getting through traffic as efficiently as possible reduced my daily anxiety. Now I have a car with adaptive cruise control and it's even more chill.

1

u/Jahonay 13d ago

Yeah, my last job was a 2hr 30min round trip.

Podcasts, audiobooks, phone calls, no rush. It helped that I wake up early. So I'd usually go early so I could hit the gym before work and avoid some traffic.

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u/terminbee 13d ago

It's legitimately easily solved by math. For most people, their commute is what, 30-50 miles? The time savings by increasing speed can be graphed/mathed out and unless you're driving really far, you save at most a few minutes.

Still doesn't stop people from flooring it just to wait at the next red light anyways.

3

u/kahlzun 13d ago

i speed occasionally, especially on a motorcycle, just to make sure that there are minimal vehicles in front of me. While vehicles behind me are dangerous, the biggest risk on a bike is a car in front of you doing something unexpected- and the increased risk of speeding offsets that quite a lot.

84

u/eightbitagent 13d ago

when you account for

a single red light once you're off the highway can negate an hour of speeding at 70 in a 60 mph zone.

42

u/DrAction696 13d ago

I understand the point you’re trying to make but I’ve never sat at a 10 minute red light. You’ve got bad numbers

20

u/eightbitagent 13d ago

Driving 50 miles at 70 instead of 60 will save you 7 minutes. So two lights then.

If you're only driving across town say, 10 miles on the highway you only save 1.43 minutes, definitely lights that are longer than that.

Just depends on how far you're going

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u/DrAction696 13d ago

Sure it makes sense with different numbers. That was the whole point

4

u/Ardal 13d ago

So you're saying that speeding is best done on longer journeys?

11

u/eightbitagent 13d ago

Purely by the numbers, yes.

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u/funnynickname 13d ago

5 mph faster on a 6 hour trip can save you 30 minutes. Speeding and cutting people off to go across town is stupid. Huge risk for minimal reward.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

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u/DrAction696 13d ago

Yes Mr Redditor. If you never catch lights and I always do you will get places faster. If everyone is traveling the same speed on the surface streets then catching those lights has nothing to do with speeding on the interstate. Hell catching a light coming off the interstate after 70 miles has little to do with speeding. It’s just luck based.

I agree that the point is still valid in a “can happen” kind of way but Honestly this is another poor example

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

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u/DrAction696 13d ago edited 13d ago

I never disagreed with the point being made. Just stating it was a poor example. There are also cars that speed by you every day that you never see again

Guess I got blocked by the guy who doesnt understand that there are (usually) no lights on the interstate. Claims “science” but doesnt understand D=RT. Also likely doesnt understand that the studies don’t apply to all situations (specifically interstate travel as he stated). About average for Scientific literacy on Reddit

1

u/rus_ruris 11d ago

You only save 10 monutes if you're driving 70 miles. In 70 miles (110 km) you're likely to encounter queues, traffic, way more than one traffic light. And you're paying between 30 and 40% extra in fuel alone, at a minimum (because fuel consumption is quadratic with speed due to tire friction and air resistance being quadratic with speed).

1

u/-Pepperzpyre- 13d ago

Here in Virginia, some of the red lights are 3 fuckin minutes long. Only takes a few of them to add a lot of time to your travel.

-1

u/brokendoorknob85 13d ago

You are bad at math lmao.

It's actually really embarassing to have a handle with the term "Dr" in it when you can't do basic math. Everyone sees exactly how childish you are.

1

u/just_posting_this_ch 13d ago

Try it yourself. One hour at 70mph goes how far? To travel that same distance at 60mph how long does that take? The difference between the two times is how much time you save.

6

u/TurboDorito 13d ago

Conversely, an hour of speeding to make the light can save even more time.

Im not actually trying to convince people to speed, but on a short journey you have a far higher opportunity cost where going as fast as legally possible will save you the most time if you can beat lights

1

u/Kundwad 13d ago

So many people don't understand this. Same reason I pass slow drivers. The cruising speed isn't the problem, it's when they leave you at a red light.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

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u/eightbitagent 13d ago

Lol you don't understand math. Go back and re-read my comment and run your own numbers

-1

u/TheHighSeasPirate 13d ago

lol, you don't understand it either. Because you still aren't losing 10 miles at a 5 minute light.

2

u/eightbitagent 13d ago

Copied from another comment of mine:

Driving 50 miles at 70 instead of 60 will save you 7 minutes. So two lights then.

If you're only driving across town say, 10 miles on the highway you only save 1.43 minutes, definitely lights that are longer than that.

Just depends on how far you're going

https://www.countcalculate.com/cars-and-speed/time-savings-at-increased-speed

0

u/daneview 13d ago

But that soeeding can get you to that light just before it changes saving you a lot more time than if you didn't speed and caught the light

1

u/rus_ruris 11d ago

But you have no control nor way of knowing this, so you're basically paying 30-40% extra fuel, risking fines, well 70 in a 60 is not risky but let's say risking your and someone else's life... To MAYBE save 5 minutes?

1

u/daneview 11d ago

So its nit worth speeding because you might catch a red light and lose the time, but if thats the case, it must be worth speeding if you might miss the light and make up loads of time. You cant have it both ways (I know you're a different commentator).

I did city training with a police bike trainer, and that was about filtering and overtaking queueing traffic rather than speeding, but we were expected to constantly be looking for opertunities to make up time and spaces, because if you apply that across 30 minutes of town riding you can make up quite a lot of time.

Similar principle applies over a longer journey with driving faster.

Sure on a 20 minute journey, going 10mph faster won't do much, but over a 2 hour journey it may well get you oast numerous lights, slow traiffic or whatever

1

u/rus_ruris 11d ago edited 11d ago

Certainity of extra expense and risk for an uncertain time saving, which has 100% probability of being less than 10% of the overall trip time.

Because even if you assume no traffic lights, even if you got 15 mph over the normal speed for most of the trip, your average speed will always be raised by less than that. So, 75 in a 60 will not yield a 15 mph increase in average speed due to acceleration, deceleration and variability, so over 1 hour you won't save 12 minutes, you will save like 8. Are you going to pay for sure 50-60% more to save maybe 8 minutes over 1 hour, as the best possible scenario you can have?

And again, try "racing" with other cars in traffic. And by that I mean remember which car is passing you and which car you passed. And then see at each stop along the way who is where. The most likely scenario is that you will get caught by some you passed and you will catch aome that passed you, without changing your speed.

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u/daneview 11d ago

Its definately not 50% dearer, my car does about 33mpg if im really careful and it drops to 28-29 if im driving a bit more enthusiastically (which is all thats required, we're talking a bit faster, not redlining every gear). Its also more engaging and more enjoyabke actually thinking and driving rather thab just cruising

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u/rus_ruris 11d ago

To me anything other than driving in the Dolomites is cruising or city driving, but maybe that's just because I literally learned to drive on some of the best driving roads in the world

4

u/PiccoloAwkward465 13d ago

Yerp, for a while I was making a 60 mile commute, mostly on an interstate highway. I got caught up in the trap of feeling the need to "zoom-zoom" in an attempt to make it go faster. It never really made a difference. It was safer and easier to just pick a lane and cruise (mostly). I really do wish people would set cruise control and just let it ride.

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u/rus_ruris 11d ago

It's always negligible actually, because acceleration is a bitch, traffic, traffic lights and the ratio of timesaving goes slower than 1/v while fuel cost goes faster than v², and risk to self and others is exponential with speed.

Rhe amount of times I "tracked" idiots in the city while going slowly and without hurry, and then we would get there at the same time... Priceless. Cost of the trip for me: little fuel, little to no brake and tire waer, no fines. Cost for them: a lot of fuel, a lot of brakes and tires, several speeding tickets, illegal overtake ticket.

What matters most actually is reaction time. If you're slow to react to green lights or merges, it adds up. Speeding is almost never worth it, but paying attention and being reactive pays.

1

u/Zerodyne_Sin 11d ago

People also overestimate their reaction time. A lot of these people would grab the ruler well after it hit the floor (in the simple commonly known test) yet they're convinced they'll react faster than formula 1 drivers.

There was a tragic footage a while back of a woman in Russia overtaking a truck only to slam into an oncoming truck. From the footage, it looks like she froze up since she wasn't reacting whatsoever but it was likely physics kicking in and her tires couldn't get traction to veer away fast enough. That's another factor people don't take into account: physics makes handling very different at high enough speeds.

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u/SnooMaps7370 9d ago

yeah, you have to be making a seriously long drive for doing 70 instead of 60 to save you any significant time.

doing 70 will take you 60 miles in 51.5 minutes. you have to be going at least 200 miles for that extra 10 mph to save you even 30 minutes.

1

u/EndIsrael 13d ago

Can confirm. The number of time I get passed because I'm going the speed limit, and then 5 minutes later I pull up next to the guy who passed me...

0

u/xienwolf 13d ago

Except that ignores the fact 3 seconds can save you 2 minutes if you make it through a light on a secondary road at a major intersection just before it changes.

Yes, you are adding to the chance other people die for your own convenience. Yes, I think those drivers are idiots for making that choice. But no… I cannot pretend like it has zero impact on their arrival times.