Ask Lemmy

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.

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.

The proper way to drive is one wheel in the bike lane and one on the sidewalk.

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.

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.

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.

Gonna say I wouldn't notice a 51/49 drift, and if I did, it's likely to the right because the shoulder is more appetizing than running into a dumptruck in the oncoming lane.

If I do notice a drift, though, the first step is making sure my tires are aligned properly.

My goal is to be center in the lane.

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

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.

What? No!
All traffic should get close to the side of the road, away from the incoming vehicles and move towards the centre only when necessary.

To hug the centre line is moronic and asking for a head-on collision.

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.

It's mostly because of the side grade on the road (so water drains off), and that most cars pull a bit in one direction.

I’ve noticed that I tend to stay closer to the line on the driver side. I noticed this because the lane assist in my car always wants to nudge me away from that line and closer to the center. I’ve also noticed that the car’s computer uses the line on the passenger side for reference when centering in the lane.

Depends on conditions and traffic. On a sunny day on a clear road I aim for roughly centered and keep it consistent.

Bad weather changes this up. If there are puddles on the side of the road and no oncoming traffic I will hug that center line. Same in snowy conditions. When there is oncoming traffic I move over to leave more of a gap. Narrow roads are treated like bad weather.

Basically leave space for things that could cause accidents and stay centered if the road is clear.

I usually keep more to my right (away from the other lane). I'd rather be close to the guardrail than oncoming traffic, especially considering some drivers can't stay in their lane, especially around bends.

I think it makes sense, but perhaps it just comes from driving often on narrow roads

I stay away from the center line, to give a bit more space for the occasional car that drifts over the line while not paying attention.

I'm surprised people stay nearer the center line, I suppose those are the ones I'm trying to avoid.

As far as oil and debris goes, I don't see that problem, seems more like a worry than a reality.

Where I am, it's taught you're actually supposed to favor your driver side alignment. There's a couple of reasons:

1. 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.

2. 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!

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.

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.

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

In general, centered, but will adjust left/right as needed if there's something near the shoulder or center line.

My car has a hood ornament. If I keep it exactly on the outside lane marking from my point of view, the car is driving in the center on most roads. But tbh it's not something I pay much attention to. I drive within my lane and some minor sway to the left or right is perfectly acceptable.

If the car and driving conditions are good, yeah I can keep it near perfect. The wear and tear on the vehicle can have it pull a bit to one side or the other and a slight variance is normal. You also need to account for bouncing and stuff from the road being uneven (just uneven in general, or from pot holes, speed bumps, etc).

But if you're paying attention and have both hands on the wheel, it's not hard to maintain your position in the lane (in a normal vehicle; 18-wheelers and busses and stuff get a little difficult in more situations).

I rode motorcycles for a long time. U got used to hugging the outter part of the lane. People suck and that wasy safety bet so to speak. I do the same with my other vehicles now. Too many idiots looking at their phone and not the road.

I tend to have 'lazy lean' when driving, where I have my vehicle slightly lean towards the boundaries of the lane itself. Though I do try to keep it fairly center.

Assuming there's nothing on the road to dodge, like other road users, pot holes, etc, I'll just keep the car between the 2 lanes and do corrective manoeuvre if the car starts drifting near either of the sides

Constantly micro adjusting to stay exactly on the middle is just useless extra effort

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

I try to keep it centered. I do all right in my car, but when I have to drive my husband's wide-as-the-lane truck I admit I have some difficulty sometimes. I hate driving that thing.

Keeping the wheels where everyone drives, the middle between them is oily and has much less grip

I tend to use my drivers side mirror to check my distance from the centre line, that's all I need to maintain on most roads. If it's getting narrow I'll use the passenger side mirror to ensure I'm fitting in the lane.

No real need to be dead centre in the lane, just need enough clearance on either side.