Say that you were in the following hypothetical situation:
You are driving on the highway at a relatively fast speed, and you notice (belatedly) that a car is stopped in your lane up ahead. You are too close to stop before reaching the car, and your only choice is to pull into the shoulder to your left. It is difficult to judge exactly the distance remaining, so you must enter the shoulder within the shortest distance possible while not also crashing.
This story sounds great, but the question I'm really asking is whether or not you should hit the gas (or brake, or neither) while changing lanes in order to minimize the distance and time required to change lanes, assuming that your turning rate is the same.
Yes, this is a cop-out from actually writing a post. I had many thoughts which I wanted to post here, but I have since forgotten them. This is the norm.
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4 comments:
sounds about right. I would be a bit more conservative when lane changing. i would probably hit the break while moving into the shoulder, especially when there is tire damage to be had when driving at fast speeds on the shoulder.
let us abandon all notions of reducing damage on impact, the roughness of the shoulder, what car you driving, which way the wind is blowing, the color of the sky, the feeling in your heart, etc, since this is a hypothetical situation.
doesn't the distance required to change lanes remain the same no matter at what speed you are traveling? the only difference is time required to travel that distance. hence, i would brake since clearly my reflexes are slow for belated noticing the stopped car ahead of me as to maximize my chance of being able to adequately traverse said distance before colliding with solid stationary object ahead of me.
mike takes the cake.
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