It is VERY important to keep your distance at all times. I've found it to be the best way to avoid accidents. If you leave an extra car length or two in every direction, you will have time to react to the consistently unpredictable behavior. Maintaining a steady rate of travel is also very helpful. It's best to avoid reacting to the abrupt acceleration and stops of other drivers. Let them pass you and avoid changing lanes unless absolutely necessary. When you do make a lane change, do it very gradually, especially when there are other cars near you on a highway. Finally, be prepared for cars backing out into busy traffic at the most unusual places, even when there is plenty of room for a three point turn or looping around to drive out front first.
- Thread starter Mauricio
- Start date
brake lights
Assuming you had been here longer then 02...
This still bothers you??? I thought I am used to this but everyday I wish there is license to crash law for drivers of cars and passola without any lights. It would be cool if people can just bump into them and not worry about anything. And, now that I thought about it, I hate some of you that have crazy brighter then sun-light beams that makes me wants to puke, too.
This happens to me many times. On a marrow roads on the way home from Moca, following car, camiones or passola without any lights, meanwhile some schmuck blinds with you with that crazy lights. There's no way to avoid this but get completely blinded by lights and pray that whatever infront of you didn't slow down or try to avoid a pothole and jump in front of your car.
God... I hate driving here....
I admit I don't and can't drive like that. Since everybody drives like an idiot I do feel obliged to force my way through traffic as well.
Yes I hate these sunlight beams as well. A while a go I had a friend over and when he left we were talking just outside my place and we came to talk about them and how much I hate them. He said: you mean these? And went to his pickup and switch on his light cannon. I told him he was an idiot, he thought it was funny.
But art its very hard to keep any distance between you and somebody else, because if you leave any thing over a car length some idiot will put there car in there. otherwise 100% agree.
When I first saw those new red led triangle add on brake lights on the cars a few months ago, I told my wife, watch some one will get one that is not red, to be different.
Sure enough a week or so later we saw a car with a "white" led triangle brake light. I then told her, watch, someone will beat that.
Sure enough, days later, we later saw a car that had "TWO" of the triangle led brake lights.
Correction, if you leave ANY space and/or your car is offset from the other driver's car, that gives them an entry point to cut you off.
Sure enough a week or so later we saw a car with a "white" led triangle brake light. I then told her, watch, someone will beat that.
Sure enough, days later, we later saw a car that had "TWO" of the triangle led brake lights.
Correction, if you leave ANY space and/or your car is offset from the other driver's car, that gives them an entry point to cut you off.
There is a reason for that..................
Apparently the law is different here.
AMET will give you a ticket if you do not wait for the GREEN ARROW.
I turned left without waiting for the green arrow and the AMET officer that was there pointed at the light and yelled at me as I made my left turn. There was no oncoming traffic.
Fortunately for me, he was not in a position to stop me.
If they do not permit you to turn left except on the green arrow then the other green light should be an arrow pointing straight.
But they install regular green lights instead of the go straight green arrow.
I assume therefore that if there is a green arrow light, the law only permits a turn when that light is lit.
The fact that the other drivers do not blow their horns at you and the reaction of the AMET officer, kinda indicates that this is true.
I'm not going to test that in front of an AMET officer.
Anyone have a Dominican driver's manual to look it up?
You are assuming that the AMET officers actually have any clue as to what they are doing...
What if I don't know that the traffic light has an arrow and pull up to it when a regular green light is on and the green arrow is off? - I have to somehow figure out that I can't turn left now but in 2 minutes the arrow will be on? - this is too stupid even for Dominican logic.
Not really. Near my house there is a street that is one way for a part and two way for a part. There is only one sign that it's one way, at the intersection with Nunez de Caceres, you can reach that street on five different intersections without any sign. If you don't know the street you can't know that's a one way street.
MANY years ago I dreamed of buying a used Sherman tank and driving to Santo Domingo back and forth for a week or two. With washing station at each end to clean off the blood.
Daydreaming like that eases the stress of watching the idiots here driving. I laughed at the idea of "leaving an extra car length" ...Heysus! That just lets someone cut in front of you...In the states we are taught to leave two seconds of space between you and the next vehicle on the highway. Yeah, right!!
Koreano is right on about those d@amned sunbeams and those led bars...d@mn they are nasty...remind me of the old cartoon from the states that showed a guy mounting a WWII era searchlight on the roof of his car..."For when the on-coming cars don't lower their headlights"
Driving here used to be fun...not too many cars, you knew just about everyone that had one. I could go to Sto Dgo on my old Honda and back before lunchtime...
Oh well....we do live in paradise....
HB, ranting just a bit, feeling just as frustrated as all of you guys and gals.
Daydreaming like that eases the stress of watching the idiots here driving. I laughed at the idea of "leaving an extra car length" ...Heysus! That just lets someone cut in front of you...In the states we are taught to leave two seconds of space between you and the next vehicle on the highway. Yeah, right!!
Koreano is right on about those d@amned sunbeams and those led bars...d@mn they are nasty...remind me of the old cartoon from the states that showed a guy mounting a WWII era searchlight on the roof of his car..."For when the on-coming cars don't lower their headlights"
Driving here used to be fun...not too many cars, you knew just about everyone that had one. I could go to Sto Dgo on my old Honda and back before lunchtime...
Oh well....we do live in paradise....
HB, ranting just a bit, feeling just as frustrated as all of you guys and gals.
i hold to the belief that when some asshat refuses to dim his beam, the answer is to light him up with some rally car driving lights. the only problem with that is that you might temporarily blind him, and he might plow into you.
That's exactly what happened to my hubby several years ago. He had a large pick-up (set up for rallies) with spotlights (basically) on the roof. Going down a country road one night, a sports car was coming the other way at high speed with his high beams on. After flashing his own high beams a few times, he lit up the spots and basically ended up blinding the other guy. The sports can ended up under his truck. Luckily no one was seriously injured but he learned his lesson there...
when i was young and even more insane, i used to operate a rally team. people who have never seen six rally lights pointing at them have no idea what it looks like. you are literally blinded, and have absolutely no sense of where you are.
Some of you might say this is dangerous to all but this is way it is.
Personally I go slow but I was in one of the driver that went nuts and everybody else slowed down.
But..
Be safe go with the flow and watch both way when you are about to go pass oneway streets.
It really is nasty.
I recently seen a pickup had ..===.. led other day...
It was double the amount of others that I've seen...
I really had to pull over, it I just could not see anything...