Assume left handed driving, right handed drivers please reverse the direction lol.
What i meant was that are you able to leave perfect spaces on the left and on the right? Or you tend to drift little more to one side e.g. 51/49 drift toward the left instead of 50/50 exactly?
I notice that experienced drivers drift to the side too. So i am curious and i have my theories for this:
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Drivers are more likely to drift just a bit toward their driver side. E.g. for left hander driving that means drifting toward the left. This is because the wing mirror is the closest to the driver, so it is easier for the eyes to follow and track.
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I’ve been to places where we have to share roads with bikes and motocycles. So a lane road is literally 2 lane: cars need to hug the left lane to create spaces on the right. So drivers from those countries are keen to drift to the left; even when they are on the highway without any motocycles.
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For left handed driving, you usually dont drift to to the right UNLESS you are on the phone or using the giant touchscreen while driving.
I drive a rather small and light car, with gokart-like steering, so I struggle to stay centred, especially if it’s windy. I also have no depth perception so I sometimes have to move my head side to side to get a parallax estimate of distance to the next car, which doesn’t help
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I adjust my lane position to try to see past the cars in front of me so that I can see what is happening before the cars in front of me react.
Muh beer koozie makes it hard ta see the far lane so I mostly just guess. As long as I don’t hear any crunching sounds I figgur a’m okay. Most people jus get out the way anyways so ah figgur I don’t have ta worry too much.
The proper way to drive is one wheel in the bike lane and one on the sidewalk.
Lot of idiots waiting in traffic, when they could use this one simple trick!
It’s not “drifting”, at least for me it’s not.
Yes, I can maintain spacing in the center of the lane, without drifting.
Thst doesn’t mean I always maintain position in the center of a lane, however.
In a road with one lane, and on coming traffic, generally stay “high”, that is closer to the on coming lane. Especially for narrow roads. This keeps your tires out of the gutter where debris accumulation can lead to picking up a flat- of an on comical car comes along I’ll fade “low” to give them as much space as possible.
On residential roads that have no markings at all, I’m in the center of the road- to give myself space to come away from any given hazard.
Similarly, if there’s a cyclist or pedestrian, I’ll fade as high as I can go to give them more space.
On highways and multi lane roads I’m centered in the lane- again to give myself spacing.
If you find yourself drifting, that is, moving away from where you intend your car to be, that’s a problem you should figure out. It’s not particularly safe (what happens if you drift into the shoulder? Another car?) and bluntly, cops might decide your driving drunk.
Right side is further from driver in lh drive. So it’s harder to judge clearance.
Rarely in the center. If turning(with road or changing), on that side. If traffic, away from center (allow bikes/emergency vehicles through)
Long empty highway stretch? Probably singing/screaming and swerving all over
People forget that roads are crowned to facilitate rain runoff. Ideally the alignment will account for this, but no two roads are exactly the same so some drifting is inevitable.
Crowned and also they have grooves, and usually those grooves are shaped mostly by heavier vehicles, vans, trucks and such. Normal passenger car doesnt really fit into those so it sort of wobbles from one to another.
Also, the shape of your tires, your wheel alignment, suspension bushings and other stuff affects it as well.
If you tend to drift, get your alignment checked.
Nothing is ever perfectly even, straight or center. So constant drifting and correction is just a given. I aim for the center of my lane but depending a lot on the situation and location.
If there are bicycles I leave them room, if there is a jam I let motorcycles pass. In some (eg mediterranean) countries it’s custom to drive extremely on your own side to maximize the amount of cars that can fit (nevermind how many lanes in theory) so I do that when I’m there.
I maintain centre under normal circumstances, but I am able to maintain a full left or full right position in the lane as needed.
I often hug the outside edge of the road on two lane straightaways to make sure overtaking traffic has the sightlines to pass safely.
I pay close attention to the lane positioning of other drivers. It tells you a lot about about their temperament and skill level. I leave a wide birth both for those who struggle to maintain lane position.
This is going to be a tough question to answer for one simple reason: The worst drivers on the road are ALWAYS everyone else.
I suspect most everyone who thinks they can drive a perfect 50/50 is wrong. It’s not like there’s anyway to check this, it’s just vibes. You do what feels right, and whatever you think is 50/50 is most likely not that exact.
I try to stay centered, but if I feel like there might be a possible obstacle coming from one side, I’ll try to favor the other. Like in a construction zone, or if a lot of cars parked on the street where a kid might pop out from between them, or someone in a parked car may try opening their door.
It’s not like there’s anyway to check this, it’s just vibes.
I’d say the quality of your parking is a good test of your positional awareness in your vehicle. That is to say, if you can consistently pull forward into a parking spot straight and centered, then I think you have the skills you need to know whether you’re centered in your lane at speed.
I think you’re overthinking this.
Most cars just drive in the middle. So you get pressure points there, the ground is lowered, if it’s wet, water will collect, so people that know how to drive will put the wheels “off center” to drive where water doesn’t collect as much.
And some make a habit out of it and just drives that way most of the time.
That is of course just one reason. You will also get people that just do it because they’re bored.
Where I am, it’s taught you’re actually supposed to favor your driver side alignment. There’s a couple of reasons:
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It’s safer for parked cars and the odds of someone hopping into the lane (via car door or from around it) make pedestrian danger real. Same for bike lanes. Those on the passenger side are always more vulnerable on city streets.
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You inherently have more control over the driver’s side than the passenger side; same reason you’re also supposed to pass slower vehicles on that side (trucks can see you better on their drivers side, although I feel like they mostly drive with mirrors for that).
Unofficially there’s also: 3. Some intersections have an unspoken rule that you can allow right turners a lane if everyone favors the driver side line. It’s typically a parking lane that ends, so it’s not always as wide as you’d like. I’m not 100% on its legality, though.
Plus, let’s be honest, nobody can be pure center. Luckily it mostly doesn’t matter unless the roads gets really narrow; most highways in the US at least are wide enough where it barely matters where the fuck you are in your lane… although some pickups eat up that whole lane anyway nowadays so who knows, lol.
Edit: oh and the next generation might be screwed. My little sister who’s ten years younger just lets her car’s lane detection steer her wheel. Her car just fucking bounces from left to right to left like a game of pong. Absolutely maddening!
There’s an adage I’ve hard a couple times across developing countries where the edges of the road have pedestrians, random animals darting out, and are usually crumbing anyway, “keep your heiney on the liney.” Basically, keep far enough from the edge you get extra time to react, and still far enough over that you just move back for curves, hills, and cars passing the other direction or overtaking you. Driver fully over the center line.
Honestly, it feels much safer once you start to get used to it. Not for every day use, just highways.
I may need to remember that, heiney on the liney… haha. US counts as a developing county, I’m sure.
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I was taught to look far, far ahead down my current lane and use that visual context to stay within my lane. I care a lot more about staying consistent within the lines than I do staying perfectly centered.
I’d rather see another driver consistently drive closer to one side or another and not be perfectly centered, than see them making lots of small adjustments to try to stay evenly placed between the lines.
That said, I do prefer even spacing on either side, and I find the side mirrors help me judge that pretty well as a supplement to keeping my eyes mostly up and forward
When I started driving, I found it very difficult to stay perfectly centered.
With time and experience, it stopped being an issue. Part of it is learning to stop worrying about being exactly in the middle. You get a feel for when you’re actually too far off to either side. The other parts are, like, forming unconcious habits of softly correcting the car, learning how it controls, etc.
