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Long road trips =/= car accident.
Sara Lynn
I can handle myself.Registered User regular
I can handle myself.Registered User regular
HELP ME REALIZE THIS.
My bf is driving 5 hours to see me in a few weeks. I hate interstates because they are full of really big trucks, even the kinds that have logs on the back. Those are extra dangerous.
Please tell me of all the times you drove long distances and didn't die.
My bf is driving 5 hours to see me in a few weeks. I hate interstates because they are full of really big trucks, even the kinds that have logs on the back. Those are extra dangerous.
Please tell me of all the times you drove long distances and didn't die.
Sara Lynn on
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Anyway, been on much longer road trips(50+) and my life has been in danger only one time (which, while it won't help you feel better, was really freaking awesome!) If you feel yourself being really nervous, just take a few deep breaths, and relax. Nothing anyone on the internet can say will make you feel less scared, you're just going to have to wait out your boyfriend coming and get used to it.
He'll be bored, but fine.
One time we were driving down an interstate and apparently one of the SUVs infront of us kicked up a rock, which came hurtling at our windshield and smashed into it at about 80 miles an hour. Amazingly it held up.
Another time, we were on the highway and some dude clipped a guy who was in his blindspot. About 3 cars crashed and we nearly did too if we hadn't swerved onto the grass.
Keep in mind you can even be killed when you are just driving for 5 minutes to the store. So don't get caught up with it.
The fifteen minutes he'll spend driving in your neighborhood are exponentially more dangerous than the five hours he'll spend on the interstate. There aren't exactly a lot of red-lights for old ladies to run and the like on the interstate.
This is true.
Portland, OR to Holton, Kansas in a hair over 27 hours, on a bike. Took a nap on the side of the road somewhere in Wyoming. That was about 1700 miles of interstate, no deaths.
Portland to Washington, DC and back, helping my Dad move. Took about a week going east, maybe three coming back because we were sightseeing. Shitton of miles, didn't die once.
He'll be fine.
I did this on a BMWF650ST Motorcycle, which is not only a deathtrap because it is a motorcycle and as much as I love the things they're dangerous to the point where the best drivers in the world will still at some point in their life dump a bike, but also it is a street variant on BMWs attempt at an Enduro/Dirt bike. So it's really high off the ground in comparison to other bikes. So wind is even more of a problem, and big trucks on the interstate have quite a draft behind them, and it's windy out there. There were literally times when I was leaning into the wind at an angle that surely would've driven me off the road and into oncoming traffic were it not for the wind. This was all done while going 75 or so.
I never once died doing that.
Ok, how's this. 2 years ago, I bought an old VW Kombi van... (God I loved that van...) Ahem. So, I'm currently in London, where I hadn't had a car for 2 years.
I jumped in, drove 4 hours down to Dover, and caught the ferry across. So what I'm getting at is that for 3 months I drove on the "wrong side of the road" sometimes for about 10 hours a day till we found a camp site to pull into. We're talking Highways (even the Autobahn) side roads... whatever Europe had to throw at me. Just remind him to stop for a coffee/toilet/sandwich break a couple of times.
Trust me, your man will be fine. Highways are actually a great deal safer than normal roads. He'll put on some music, relax - and be with you before he knows it.
I regularly did 4hr+ journeys when I was studying at Wolverhampton to visit family and girlfriend in Dumfries and Edinburgh. I've also done two day drives to Switzerland several times (and in fact, when I was younger the same journey took three days because the car was slower and we couldn't travel for as long due to being young children).
Five hours isn't a dangerous journey by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the physical length of a journey isn't what makes it dangerous (at least not by itself, naturally the longer you are on the road the greater the statistical probability of being involved in an accident). What makes a journey dangerous is if you try to travel too fast, or if you drive for too long without taking a break (5 hours isn't really long enough to start suffering fatigue unless you didn't sleep for 48hrs before hand or something stupid), or if you are driving on dangerous roads.
Since we seem to be sharing horror stories more than happy stories, I'll share mine:
Driving from Uni (Minnesota) back home (Illinois), just a few miles outside of town on the highway, a refridgerator box flips out of the truck one car in front of me. They swerve off to the left, so now I've got the 8-foot high box coming at me at 60mph. So I cut over to the right in front of another car who thankfully slowed down, and floor it past the truck.
Also a differnt time, I saw a car wedged under a semi sideways, like they tried to drive underneath, but didn't fit... As long as your bf doesn't do that, he'll be fine.
The interstates have a lot more traffic, yes, but they also have 4 or 6 lanes usually. Room to swerve if that truck drops its payload (come on, do you really think that's an imminent possibility?). Everybody's going the same direction at about the same speed. If someone's tailgating or otherwise being an asshat, you can change lanes. You don't have to get into oncoming traffic to pass. There are exits every few miles if you need to get gas or go to the bathroom or if you get tired and need to pull over for the night.
As for long trips, I've done the following and I've never even come close to an incident:
South FL to west NC, 12 hours, several times
Central FL to south FL, 4 hours, like a billion times
Central FL to Atlanta, 5 hours, 4 or 5 times
Central FL to St. Louis, 14 hours
Vancouver to Calgary, 11 hours
Heh, yeah, but she's not going anywhere. I doubt her doctor would give her a prescription just because someone else happens to be making a long trip.
If he does, though... can you give me his number?
I did Seattle to LA straight through once during the summer with a broken AC. That sucked. I've done Detroit to NYC a few times now, which is about ten hours.
I went to school in Central NY, and from the city to school was about 5 hours, so I've done that and back a hojillion times.
Don't worry, he'll be fine.
Luckily, he stayed true to his word, fixed us up and got us on our way. Except he didn't time it right, we were off just a touch, mostly noticeable going up hills. We were fine. It was a long drive but made it just fine, despite being hung over and very, very tired.
I used to drive 5 hours from my school to home, no biggie.
Also, driving around trucks isnt that bad. It sucks sometimes cause they slow down a lot but you can deal.
I drove from Ventura, California to Sacramento on monday. Just shy of seven hours.
Once I had to slam on the brakes and go from 80 to zero in about three or four seconds. Turns out there was an accident just ahead of me because there were two very fucked-up cars on either side of the road and my lane turned out to be full of broken glass and pieces of a tail light or two.
Then later on I had to swerve around some bigass truck's bumper... that happened to be sitting, by itself, in the middle of my lane. I actually nicked the side of it but my car and tire was fine, go Volvo.
It was my first long car drive ever, I just got my license like five weeks ago. Assuming he's a more experienced driver than I am and stuff like the above is the worst he has to put up with (i doubt he'll even have as much trouble as I did), he'll be fine.