There’s no shortage of ways our fellow drivers send our blood pressure soaring. In our day-to-day lives, other motorists’ apparent inability to pilot a car or truck in a fashion befitting an organized and intelligent society never ceases to amaze.
Often, the thing that annoys us most is watching others fail at the thing we pride ourselves for doing well. It makes sense. Skilled chefs probably aren’t too keen on other peoples’ cooking. And when you’re behind the wheel, dear reader, there’s always something you know you’re capable of doing better. Maybe it’s a superior talent at backing a car into a parking space, instead of pulling in nose-forward.
Or maybe it’s your ability to, let’s see, accelerate to highway speeds on an on-ramp before merging. Going on personal experience, this is one of the hardest things a driver can do.
While the merging thing really grinds my gears (thanks for hitting 37 mph by the end of the lane, V6-powered crossover owner who then stomps on it), one maneuver stands above the rest. Call me nitpicky, but I so rarely see this simple act accomplished in a quick, efficient manner.
The three-point turn.
Blame my perpetual ownership of a stick-shift for my annoyance if you must, but it seems I’m forever stopped in the street, waiting, as the driver of a minivan or taxicab figures out the next step in this complex procedure. Going from “drive” to “reverse” and back to “drive” — passing through the time-consuming “neutral” each time — must flummox some drivers. How else to explain the bizarre delay between shifts?
Is it momentary disorientation? An overabundance of caution? Oddly situated gearshift lever? Undoubtedly, much of the delay lies in the need for a driver of an automatic-equipped vehicle to look down, before each shift, to ensure their vehicle is in the proper gear before proceeding. In a vehicle with a manual transmission, the driver knows where that shift lever’s going. No need to look down.
Despite the black eye sustained from rollaway accidents and general driver confusion, monostable shifters allow for easy, eyes-off three-point turns, making those automatic shifters superior for this task than a traditional unit (or, God forbid, a push-button affair).
That’s my hangup. Yours might differ. What driving maneuver — as performed by everyone but yourself — constantly gets under your skin?
I drive almost exclusively during Phoenix crush hour.
I hate it when people do not pace traffic and do not brake with traffic. It makes it that much harder to manage driving when you have no idea when the car in front of you is going to randomly stop while everybody else is going.
Made 1000x worse by drivers on their cell phones.
The one that gets me is the merge. It seems so simple to me to gauge the speed of the traffic with which I am attempting to merge. Then, for me at least, it’s the process of getting my vehicle up to the speed to be able to merge seamlessly. I’m sure many here have experienced the merging driver who, for whatever reason (I suspect timidity for some) cannot do this effectively. As you mention, Steph, the driver who hits the ramp at a less than appropriate speed only to apply the brakes at the end of the ramp and fail at the merge. I’ve had the experience from the other side of the equation also. Driving along, keeping an eye on a vehicle entering from the ramp, seeing their speed is good for a successful merge if they continue (or even increase their speed a bit more) and then to have them slow down at the moment they could have continued on had they held their speed. My reaction is I have to slow – or if I can move over a lane, to do so. I just don’t get it and most likely never will.
+1
This. Drives. Me. Nuts.
How does anyone feel that the safest way to merge onto a highway w/ 50 MPH+ speeds is slowly?
Perhaps it is an IQ thing, as some are below average. But either way the safest way to merge is to do it at the same speed as the traffic.
I hate when people stop at the end of the ramp and wait for an opening.
On many SoCal ramps they control access with stop lights. A real pain in the @ss because it forces long lines on the ramps and meters traffic flow to a crawl.
It’s either that or create an even worse mess at the point of merger while the ramp would still be backed up. Keeping that traffic moving on the freeway is paramount.
This does bring up another question: What is your best option when you’re (stuck) in the right lane and you see traffic on the upcoming ramp? Do you maintain a constant speed to allow the driver on the ramp a chance to evaluate the situation, or do you modulate your speed in an effort to facilitate the merge? I’m leaving out the option to speed up in order to prevent the merge.
Usually, I (begrudgingly, at one onramp one-half mile from my home exit, since there’s usually a conga-line of traffic, depending on timing of the light on the surface road, usually doing 50mph, though I’ve been forced to slow to ** 30mph ** in some cases, on a clear, dry day) will slow down and leave it up to the oncoming driver, unless there’s a good chance I can get ahead far enough.
Why is there all this disdain for push-button shifters? It has, perhaps, the easiest user interface possible and no extra interlock buttons to push and no need to look down at the console.
And, since the console isn’t cluttered up by a shifter, it can perform other functions such as having the cupholder in a convenient location. My MKZ even has a shelf below the console which is very convenient.
I’m with you with respect to the general inability to navigate an on-ramp. So many drivers create chaos by screwing up this maneuver.
People don’t like change. But I mean I’ve had my car long enough to be able to drive it while asleep. I don’t understand how some people can’t figure theirs out.
Well, in all fairness it is faster and easier to do a 3 point turn with a manual vs an automatic. One can actually feel which gear they are in while with an automatic visual confirmation is needed to make sure the vehicle is in reverse.
Regarding the merge: since I was a kid I found it was safer to accelerate and get slightly over the speed limit because I could decelerate into a space much more easily than try to accelerate into one. I also partly blame those stupid yellow speed limit signs that usually suggest 35 mph for on ramps.
Kevin
You are correct.
This is the way I merge too.
Visual confirmation is not needed with a properly designed automatic trans. shifter.
With either a column shifter or a properly designed console shifter, the pattern of detents is consistent and very easy to master.
With weird shifters that change stuff for the sake of changing it when there is absolutely no need to, all bets are off.
I’m not sure about these new-fangled “modern” Mercedes, but in the good old days (1950s through 1980s), the automatics had a gated arrangement that made it very easy to shift just by feel. If the shifter were column mounted, so much the better.
I use the technique of trying to go at least as fast as traffic when I’m trying to merge. The way I figure it, my car’s engine isn’t nearly as effective as my car’s breaks. Therefore, I’d like to err on the side of needing to slow down instead of needing to speed up.
But… the fundamental problems with both 3-point-turn and merging maneuvers, I feel, are a result of most drivers hating to drive and just not caring to become skillful. They aren’t willing to take any additional time to learn about proper driving and, seemingly, take great pride in NOT becoming proficient. These are the same people, who get into a never-driven-before rental car and don’t bother to try to locate the turn signals, horn, lights, emergency flashers, etc. Instead they just get in and drive and figure they’ll just inconvenience and endanger everyone else if some situation arises for which they don’t know the car’s basic controls.
And use the hazards liberally! Despite my propensity for full-on road rage (short of physically harming someone else, for heaven sakes), I will forgive a multitude of sins if you give an indication, through hazards, motioning me around you, whatever, that you’re lost, unsure of what is going on, whatever!
(Still, Lord knows I sometimes wish I had a push bar to PIT the most egregious left lane bandits!)
It’s even faster to just have cars with a tight enough turning circle to not need to do 3-pt turns to start with. Baffles me that no makers outside of Europe seem to put any emphasis on this. Some American cars practically need tugs to pull the bow around, and not even particularly large cars at that. Meanwhile, even the biggest of European cars practically pirouette.
My giant whale of a LX570 has a substantially smaller turning radius than my Euro-designed C-Max.
Try an Audi A1 some time, your may revise your opinion.
This was one of the things that drove me away from Volvos soon after they made all FWD cars. No, it wasn’t FWD, it was that they stopped bothering to build cars that could make a tight U turn.
Funny: I’m about to have a conversation with a newscaster this weekend about producing some ‘how to drive’ PSAs. ‘Slows to merge’ will definitely be a key topic, as will other signs of idiocy like ‘slows to pass’ or ‘stops nowhere near the vehicle detector’. Not sure how much it will help; I regard most of these as signs of brain death. But it’s worth a try.
Add in “decelerates while changing lanes.”
Double left turn lanes, driver in leftmost lane can’t keep it in their own lane. This bad habit comes from another bad habit: single lane left turns into the rightmost lane.
The last part. It s illegal in most states.
Should get you a ticket.
To your first point, I’ve been nearly clipped MANY times making double left turns, by a driver coming into my (center-most) lane.
This happens most frequently in 2 lane rotaries, or “round-a-bouts”. People sometimes are traveling too fast for their weak arms to hold their car in the proper lane.
They need the finger-light power steering of the Mercury Grand Marquis.
Here in California, right turns must go to the “rightmost appropriate lane” while left turn can go into any lane (assuming there aren’t 2 left turn lanes). So, given the asymmetry, you can assume that most drivers will break the law on right turns as well as double-left turns.
My biggest gripe with other drivers is their apparent waffling between abject terror and indecision.
Waiting behind someone turning left across cross traffic. No cars from the right. Car from the left has its right blinker on. Car ahead *waits* until after car from left begins its turn to start pulling out. If they’d just recognized the blinker and accelerated with authority they would have been out of the way even if it was an errant blinker.
That and the insistence that brain-dead drivers have of approaching the speed of traffic to the side of them even if they’re intentionally passing a car deviating from the appropriate speed.
Left Lane Bandits.
With special disdain for the ones that slow down on purpose just to gum up traffic. Perhaps it is an entitlement thing, I will never understand why getting out of the way is such a big deal.
^this X a million.
I think that a lot of left lane bandits feel that they are going fast enough, thank you and therefore are the self declared arbiters of left lane speed limits….and there ain’t no way that they are moving over, dammit!
These people bring out the worst in me, to the point that driving a hoopty would be dangerous as I would be seriously tempted to give them a Nascar bump and move them out of the way. The logical part of me obviously knows this is a really bad idea, but a guy can day dream sometimes….
I have a big lightbar on the front of my Raptor…..I’ve been sorely tempted a few times….
I sometimes think that some people purposely pull into the left lane just to pi$$ people off! I’m the only car in the same area code, maybe doing 5 or 7 over in a 65 in the left lane, and the fvcking goody two-shoes in the Prius in the center lane couldn’t wait two seconds for me to come by. And of course, I’m stuck behind the idiot the rest of the way home, with a wagon-train of pi$$ed people behind me!
Mergers?! Truly a lost art in Northwest Ohio! The most “fun” is when entering from downtown Toledo onto SB I-75, into the left lane, behind a line of cars doing all of ** 40mph!! ** (People look at me funny when I hit my hazards in that situation (or any time I am at the end of a line of cars going at under the posted limit), but a year or so into my county IT career, I was proceeding up the same onramp, except with TWO lanes, the rightmost of which merged directly into the center lane of I-75. Of course, behind a pair of knuckleheads doing 50mph! There’s a car on my left, and a car on the right, with a clear lane into which to merge, so no escape route! No sooner am I up onto the freeway, when I catch sight of an oncoming truck whose driver wasn’t paying attention until the last second! This was before ABS was mandatory on semis; all 18 were locked and smoking, and the trailer was starting to fishtail! Fortunately, I was finally able to accelerate to the posted limit, but that was a lot closer than I would have liked! I make sure I call as much attention to myself as possible, and I think it’s saved my butt a few more times over the years!)
My other thing which grinds my gears is when people unquestioningly will not go beyond the underposted numbers! In particular, 20mph feels like you’re not even in motion! I don’t care if it’s a school zone, if there’s NO kids visible (in an area with good sight lines), no other traffic, and especially NO LEO PRESENCE, all you’re doing is pi$$ing off those behind you! Just drive at the 25mph limit! If a sign was posted stating “Jump Off This Bridge,” are you going to do it? (Even worse are the holiest of the holy who will FLAT-SPOT THEIR TIRES to drop to 20 from, say, a posted 35, again with no kids or police present!)
Not sure this qualifies as a “maneuver”, but in keeping with the spirit of the question I’m going way down the list of things that bug me for something a bit out of the ordinary.
So, I’m sitting at a traffic light ready to make a left turn, and there’s someone on the other side of the intersection facing me and ready to make a right turn. We’re turning onto a road with 2 available lanes for us (ie., a 4 lane road). The light turns green for both of us (no arrows), and the person making the right thinks that their right of way extends to both lanes and that I have to yield both lanes to them. So when they make the right turn they immediately cross into the lane furthest away from them (the left lane that I intend to enter). And to be clear, I’m not talking about a truck or anything that needs room to make a wide turn.
I generally assume the right turn person is going to cross over and I yield a bit right off the bat to be safe, but inevitably when I decide to take my lane I get a horn or gesture or something. Which always reminds me that indignant and wrong is not a good combo.
I agree doublechili, the most annoying problem in daily driving on suburban streets is drivers randomly choosing to make a wide turn onto the cross street instead of turning into the closest lane. If everyone always turned right into the rightmost lane or left into the leftmost lane, two cars could turn onto the same street at the same time without risk of collision. Because many drivers make a wide turn, everyone has to hesitate a little to see what the other driver is going to do. A related problem is the drivers who slow down and make a wide right turn without signalling as I’m trying to turn left. When this happens at red light camera intersections, I frequently miss the light cycle. Better to waste two extra minutes sitting at the light than to pay a $75 fine for getting stuck in the intersection on red.
I got into a cussing match with a guy because I turned left and went into the far left (of 3) lanes when a guy turning right decided he wanted that lane too. The problem is that we may be in the wrong because we, as the ones crossing opposing traffic to make our left, are really supposed to be yielding the right of way to the guy turning right, that isn’t crossing any opposing traffic lanes. I may be wrong.
I think we’re right. Right turners have the ROW over left turners when there’s a single lane both are turning into. However, if there’s more than one lane the right turner is required to turn into the lane closest to them. They have no right to shoot across into the second available lane.
I’ve read that in my state they’re not only required to turn into the closest lane, but not supposed to make a lane change for 50 ft afterward. Never enforced, never followed, just some words in a state code.
My favorite on 55 mph two-lane rural county roads, no one ahead of you, a car waiting to turn into your lane from a side road about 1,500 feet ahead, he does nothing until you’re 250 feet away and then pulls out. This is why I don’t keep a firearm in my vehicle.
Me too.
And then invariably drives 35 on a 55mph road.
This the most popular sport here in Middle TN, just behind SEC football.
This is good one, sub600. I can only add another similar one, that infuriates me. You drive in a given lane when somebody passes you like they’re on hurry and then suddenly they start to brake for no reason. You end up driving slower than a moment ago.
But for the one you you mentioned, I can only say that when situation allows and someone jumps in front of me on a country road like that, I don’t even slow down. I just buzz by them, even if this is not passing zone. I delivered pizza in young years from the shop located in rural area. I’ve done this all.
@Sub-600, you left out the part where they panic and / or flip you off when instead of slowing you drive around them.
yup. happens to me all the time in those roads. i once had a guy merge from a left side-road way too late, after waiting! I was coming in hot (cruise at 69 on 55) but he only realized once he saw me on his rearview. Just as I was locking my brakes, he panic-crossed the road and came to a stop on the shoulder of the opposite lane. He performed all this at no more than 20 mph. messed up oncoming traffic too. i have to admit some responsibility here… there’s a reason i shouldn’t be going that fast on rural roads. but what a driving disaster that chevy cruze was.
Just go when the damn light turns Green. I can have the car in neutral, right foot on the brake, left on the dead pedal, and can still do the footwork to get the car into gear and press the accelerator, before the guy in front of me takes his foot off the brake. Then we find out that it seems a modern day auto trans allows a car to accelerate at an almost undetectable rate. If my car is still on fast-idle I might have to dip the clutch halfway across the intersection. I swear my 15 year old 1.8 liter 4 cylinder beater can accelerate 0-40 MPH faster than any car in my county.
The people who think that everyone should merge BEFORE a lane is ending, and angrily straddle both lanes to force the merge to be before the actual merge point as designed.
Legally you are correct, however from an ethical/courtesy standpoint (ie., if you’d rather not be a jerk) that one really depends on the specific situation and the volume of traffic. So it’s a judgment call. If you do it every time no matter what….
I’ll do that if the merge is, say, 100 feet away. Otherwise, you’re being a d-bag!
(I once drove in the grassy median (on the angle) on I-75 to get around some dip$hit in a Cadillac who was doing this a full QUARTER MILE before the merge, with ample room to enter the line closer to the arrow sign!)
The light has turned green.
Push.
The.
Accelerator.
Don’t d!ck with your phone.
Don’t rummage through your purse or your glovebox.
Don’t fiddle with your ridiculous vape-gadget.
Don’t whirl around and scold your rugrats.
All of these things can be done at the next red light.
But right now, the light has turned green.
GO.
Couple months ago the woman two cars ahead of me at the front of the line wasted an ENTIRE left green arrow because she was staring at her phone.
Car behind her was too shy to honk, SO I DID IT.
She was the only car to make it through the arrow, since she gunned it right as it was going yellow.
What’s worse are people who do 10 under the speed limit until they come to a green light turning yellow, then gun it to make the light. Once they are through, they resume to driving well under the limit. If we all work together, we can all make the light!
Oh yeah. Left arrow dawdling. The shortest kind of green light there is and some fool that can’t keep their mind on task. Should be justifiable homicide.
Someone once said that blowing your horn at someone who lingers at a green light is rude. My response was that not respecting other people’s time and wasting it without their consent is beyond rudeness and well into arrogance.
It’s rude to blow your horn within one second of a light change. Being a southerner I rarely see that, but I hear it’s more common in other, colder areas. After that first second (or a quick three count) you’re just telling the dawdler to get back to the primary task at hand.
Nope, not rude at all.
In my town, we have several left turn arrows and they can be ridiculously short, so even one second of dawdle can cause the third car in line to have to wait another light cycle.
I **always** keep a hand on the horn and pretty much give it a tap within a nano second. Past experience has proven the assumption should be the person in front of you is NOT paying attention and you need to remind them. If they were, and I honked, then I give them a polite wave and smile.
If I’m car #6 in a left turn lane which generally allows about 6 cars through per green arrow, I consider it rude of the driver of car #2 NOT to honk immediately at car #1.
Re: the North/South thing, where I grew up (NY) the shortest measurable interval of time was that interval between the light turning green and the first person laying on the horn.
The green left arrow is the most precious traffic commodity.
It must be respected and conserved.
Especially if the arrow is 20 seconds long, and the resulting wait for the light to cycle is two minutes, if not more!
It kills me that people take so long to get rolling on a left arrow; what’s more is when subsequent people leave huge gaps between themselves and the car in front of them during the time.
I have had people tap their brakes to tell me to back off because I’ll follow their slow ass through a left hand turn with only one car length (~13-15ft) between us.
I’m bemused by sort of the opposite, people who race to get to a red light. When I see a red light ahead I’ll often take my foot off of the gas and coast since there’s no prize for getting there early. But people will swerve around me in order to get one car length ahead while waiting for the light to turn green.
I used to work delivery route when young man. So, I am approaching intersection fast with one car right at it and light is green. But the car is barely moving. I slow down and car in front of me stops, light turns red, I am doing a route and need to hurry. I’ve got angry and pushed horn in my van hard. Horn in that cargo van was pretty impressive. The old lady in front of me got scared and drove right through on red. This is when I promised to myself never scare people like this again.
Simple – a lack of assertiveness. Guess what, pal? There are a lot of cars on the road trying to get somewhere. Just signal, drive assertively and confidently, know what your vehicle can and can’t do, problems solved. This is true of everything….on-ramp acceleration stupidity, the baffling and terrifying act of changing lanes (EHRMAGHERD! My blinker is on, the guy in the other lane slowed down and left me ten car lengths but I just CAN’T DO IT I don’t think, well maybe, let me try….AHHH! Rips wheel back), left turns against oncoming traffic, responding to light changes, deciding how slowly you should take a right turn….EVERYTHING.
Oh, and stop texting and staring at your phone on the freeway, you jerk, and concentrate. I have zero tolerance for that. Hit me while doing that and there’s a good chance you’re going to look like Beetle Bailey after the Sarge gets done with him.
I’ll throw this one out more as a question for opinions: A two lane road crosses a short one lane bridge (maybe 75 feet long). Stop signs control entry at either end. The layout of the bridge and road is such that cars cross it at maybe 15 mph. Clear view of opposing traffic. When traffic backs up, cars alternate one for one. I cross it every day, a couple of times. Here’s the “problem” scenario that happens every once in a while:
A car heading in the same direction as me and just in front of me reaches the stop sign and stops. I stop behind that car. He then proceeds across the bridge, and I roll forward and stop at the stop sign. I then also proceed across the bridge because there is no one stopped at the stop sign across the bridge. However, there is a car approaching the stop sign across the bridge and they reach the sign and stop before I fully cross and exit the bridge. It is really not a close call as to who reached the stop sign first (I would yield if it were).
I will go if I clearly reach the sign first and can get most of the way across the bridge before the opposing car stops. I get dirty looks/gestures sometimes for this, and one summer day when my window was down a guy in a convertible told me that I was supposed to wait for the car in front of me to fully clear the bridge before proceeding and therefore he (the convertible guy) should have been allowed to cross since he reached the stop sign by the time the other car cleared the bridge.
I didn’t have a discussion with him and just proceeded on my way. But I think I was right since the traffic control at the bridge is a stop sign and I clearly reached it first with a few “one-thousands” to spare.
Long as you’ve stopped and the opposing vehicle has not – you’re in the queue to cross the intersection first, and have completed your duty to the stop sign.
I think you’re correct.
Thanks. That’s what I’ve been thinking all along – that it’s arrival and stopping at the stop sign that determines the order, not some amorphous “did another car clear the bridge” rule.
BTW, at a second very short one-lane bridge on the same road, from one direction you approach the stop sign on a straight, but the other direction has a (wooded, ie., blind) curve approaching the stop sign. Very often when I approach the stop from the curve side I can tell that the driver coming in the other direction is kinda mad at me for going before them (even though I arrived and stopped at my sign first). I’m guessing they think they have the right of way because they SAW their stop sign first!
What amazes me most about situations like this is that convertible guy waited, what, 12 extra seconds for you to clear the bridge? What was he going to do with those 12 seconds that’s worth upsetting himself and mouthing off?
Yes, agreed. And it wasn’t even 12 seconds, so he held himself up more by talking than I did by driving. I think it was less about precious time than it was about a perceived slight.
That’s why I will damn near keep on rolling into the intersection at a four-way stop, just to make sure there’s no confusion. Otherwise, you have four people flashing their lights, motioning the others forward, etc! (Followed by the drivers starting to move at the same time!) Lather, rinse, repeat!
What really pi$$es me off is when I and one other car to my right get to the intersection simultaneously, despite my best efforts, and they (who have ROW in that case), simply refuse to proceed!
You guys would go crazy commuting in the Portland or Seattle.
I drove in and around Portland. Besides constant rain nothing really bothered me
I agree with the slow merges – you would think that having a nice stretch of open road ahead people would step on it, but often they putter down the ramp. By then I have caught up to them, and I have to worry about merging with traffic bearing down on me while they are thinking “oh, that was a good merge by me, traffic isn’t too bad”.
Another one is the almost stop to turn into a driveway, street, etc. I don’t mean when the road is snowy or slippery, just dry roads. Modern vehicles can turn at a decent speed that won’t cause you to crash – just turn! What happens is people start looking around and then it causes a backup as others want to make the same turn – gas stations are a good example. Get off the road, then decide where to go!
Slow traffic in the far left lane. But i don’t mind as normally I’m chilling and keeping up with the flow in the far right lane
+1000 to the comments so far!
Not actually sure if it is illegal in Kentucky to turn left into the far right lane or not. I just know that it may or may not be followed by those around you so you do have to be careful if you turn left as the opposing traffic turns right. We have one intersection where sometimes the people turning left need to then turn right in a space of about 100 ft, so you are sitting there wondering why they don’t go but you have to be patient because there really is a reason at this intersection. The other side of this is an intersection where there is rarely opposing traffic that goes straight, they turn right instead, so when you are the one going straight the people turning left don’t yield for you.
One that has not been mentioned yet is using turning medians. On busy streets people seems to be okay with them. You would never get to turn left otherwise. Yet, they just updated the main road by my house with them and no one seems to be able to use them. The road was a old country road that was updated to a wide city street with a turning median, right turn lane and bike lanes. It was so bad that I’ll admit to having driven around people and going ahead of them as there is no traffic from the left and the traffic from the right is well spaced but seemingly endless so you need to pull out then merge. Why they sit there I don’t know when I am quite sure they would pull out into the turning median on another road in town that is 3 lanes each way plus a turning median and this changes as this is a road that reconfigures the lanes for rush hour traffic so it can be hard to even determining which lane is the turning median at certain times of the day. Maybe it is just old habits die hard? They are use to the old 2 lane and don’t even thing to use the new features?
Here in the “Bold North,” I’m actually seeing more and more drivers on the interstate stop on the shoulder, then REVERSE(!), because they were about to miss their exit. And yes, many of them seem to have a GPS suction-cupped to the windshield in their line-of-sight.
One comment on 3 point turns. There are some cars that this really does take time to do. My 05 Acura TL was an example. When you shift from reverse to drive ( which can be accomplished with a quick flick of the wrist. I mention this because some people overthink the sifter in these and try grabbing tight onto the shifter which just ends up stopping in neutral as it is a gated shifter) you can do this very quickly but the transmission takes a good second plus to actual shift so you are waiting on it. I think this might have been to get around an issue were this transition was known to have a problem if you were not at a dead stop when shifting. So, there may be other cars that also have this issue. As mentioned this delay does not happen in a manual if you know how to use it.
I’ve noticed my Outback’s CVT is a bit slow on the directional changes.
Is general situational awareness considered a “driving maneuver”? Because most of irritating habits of my fellow motorists stem from an inability to execute this.
No one has mentioned this yet: If you are behind the crosswalk when the light goes yellow in a left turn yield situation, stay there. Even if it involves sitting through another light cycle. Waiting your turn is a driving maneuver.
The highway merging – I’ve had several near accidents from drivers merging too slowly. And due to traffic I can’t get over or have enough room to speed up so I’m forced to slow down to let them in… and they slow down even more, afraid to punch the gas and go.
Around here: Double left turn lanes. On my old commute I got to watch this in action every day: all the near misses as people in the inner lane cross over during the turn. Yikes.
Also the “incoming traffic does not stop” signs at malls or shopping centers. Drivers often ignore these signs and will stop to let outbound traffic go. Or the outbound driver pulls out right in front of me, thinking I have to stop.
I want minimum entry speed limit signs, and regular enforcement of highway entry minimum speed.
I have written the Ohio Highway Patrol about the onramp just before my exit on SB I-75 on the southern end of the Toledo metro area, a combined onramp for the Ohio Turnpike and another arterial. There’s a cut-through just past the bottom of the ramp, and since the only law steadfastly-followed is the underposted speed limit, they’re wasting their time; if they would enforce an entry speed remotely close to the traffic flow, it’d be easier than shooting fish in a barrel to meet any quota!
Re: Ohio Hwy Patrol – I was always irritated that when I was living in the state the leadership of the OHP gave an award to the post that wrote the most tickets.
They also gave an award to the post that HELPED the most stranded/endangered/in-an-emergency motorists. That I could fully support.
Didn’t know they awarded the most tickets.
And I deserved my last ticket in 2009: 80 in a 65, when I jumped on the gas to get ahead of a wagon-train coming down that onramp I mentioned, and wasn’t paying close enough attention to the final speed. OHP trooper was sitting in the cut-through I mentioned, dead to rights!
Adding insult to injury, I had left my wallet (with license) at home, and didn’t have a current insurance card on me, so I was sure I was going to get the Library of Congress thrown at me.
But I think I got things off on the right foot: car off, window down, hands visible, interior lights on (this was at 9:30pm on a Saturday). Stated right away that I didn’t have my wallet or insurance card, and the trooper said it wouldn’t be a problem; he could see I was apprehensive about it! He matter-of-factly stated that 15 over was a little too much to let go with a warning, then decided it’d be easier to take care of the details in his cruiser, and not in the middle of an offramp, so he did a quick pat-down, during which he asked about weapons, “IEDs, small nukes?”
Then back in the cruiser, he showed me the information they have on the computer, including insurance information. Even asked me what my vanity plate stood for, and related a couple of his favorites!
I actually wrote the OHP and complimented them on that trooper’s comportment! I received a nice “thank you” in return; the trooper stated that he’s not out to completely ruin people’s days — clearly if they “get it,” basically, rubbing it in accomplishes nothing!
So there are good ones out there, it’s just a few rotten apples that spoil the bunch!
And another – the getting into the left turn or center lane to turn left. Where people slow down 20-30mph before getting into the center turn lane, impeding the faster traffic behind them.
No need to brake right away… first take foot off of gas pedal, slide into center lane, then apply brakes. No need to apply brakes before getting into the center turn lane.
Ooh, yes, that, and the people who’ll use the centre turn lane without trying to pull in completely, so they’ll end up awkwardly stopped with the left rear quarter of their car sticking out and blocking traffic.
Especially if you’re coming up on such a driver, and don’t realize their back end is in your lane! Almost plowed into someone a couple months ago doing this!
Man, so many excellent points. Here’s mine:
1. Stop and go traffic on a highway, and there’s an on ramp. People on said highway use the merge lane to pass a few people. That’s not what it’s for!!!!
2. Single lane highway, splits into a two-lane (“slower vehicles in right lane” or whatever), and almost everyone stays in the left lane. And, whether right or left lane, the guy going 50 will sure as hell get up to 80 so you cannot pass him, and stomp on the break back to 50 when the lanes merge.
3. Highway merging. As many have pointed out, the slow merge is dangerous and stupid. But some people get exponentially stupid and jump to the middle or left lane, while still going 35 and barely accelerating, despite unoccupied merging and slow lanes.
4. If you’re driving so slowly(and below the speed limit) that there’s a long convoy of cars behind you, just pull over for a second and let people by.
#1 has almost pushed me to commit murder.
Also yes to #1
I agree to almost all of the comments floated here but what gets me the most are cheaters.
Like your #1 the ones who use the merge point (or the shoulder) to get a few cars ahead. Is it really that important?!
Or…
You are in the right lane in a long line to exit the freeway dutifully waiting your turn and someone careens to the front to cut in at the last possible moment. WAIT your turn!
Or…
The sign says “Right Lane MUST turn right ahead”. Instead of moving over to go straight they go to the front of the right-turn lane and again merge at the last possible moment. You just know this person does this every, single, day.
Or even worse…
They wait at the end of the right-turn only lane and jet straight forward when the light turns green.
Oh how I hate cheaters!
#5. NJ
As soon as they entering highway, they go into the left most lane and drive with whatever speed they desire. And all this, regardless of the situation in the right lanes
Hopefully some “cheating” in the case of the first point is permitted if you’re on a freeway with all lanes of traffic going at 2 under, and there’s a long enough onramp with a zip code of clearance beyond!
Not exactly a driving maneuver (although I’m completely on board with revoking the licenses of anyone who can’t get a modern car to highway speeds by the end of the ramp), but living in a city, there’s a ton of no parking/no stopping/no parking between x hours signs, and inevitably, if someone’s ignoring those signs, they’re doing it directly under the sign. It’s especially bad on roads with streetcars, where the right lane is your only hope to not get stuck behind one, just to come up on someone too stupid, selfish, or lazy to just pull around the corner onto a side street.
Also, the amount of people who can’t keep their vehicle between the lines (either driving or parking) pushes up my blood pressure every day, as do the slowpokes who pace buses/transport trucks/etc rather than just passing at a normal speed.
Pulling up behind someone in the left lane who is not indicating at a stop light. Then only to find they DO want to turn left and now you are trapped behind them when they finally turn on left turn signal – after the light turns green. Not dangerous just painful.
2 major peeves
1. speed up – slow down: We’re on the interstate, I have my cruise locked in. You pass me going 2-3 mph faster than I am. 2 miles later I catch up and pass you (not having changed my speed one bit) – this pi$$es you off so you speed up and pass me. Lather, rinse, repeat. SET YOUR CRUISE. I actually accelerated to roughly 100 mph for a mile or two on I-40 this past weekend to put distance between me and an idiot who was doing that.
2. My commute includes a merging of two highways that has been constructed as a series of overpasses to allow everything to merge smoothly – there isn’t even a speed recommendation sign on those ramps, indicating that you can take it at speed (55 mph would be the limit in that area). Without fail everyone but me touches their effin’ brakes and slows down to 45 mph-ish. DRIVES ME NUTS! I’ve taken it at 65 mph in a 50 year old Mustang, you can surely handle it in your Cruze/Impala/Sierra/Grand Caravan/RAV4 etc…
Cruze has good road holding, either that OR it’s never going fast enough to break traction.
Either way, floor it and carry on.
Re: #1, I went a long time before I finally had a car with cruise control, but I swear since then my general opinion of humanity has taken a hit precisely because of situations like the one you described so well. People think you’re racing THEM even though your speed is constant. It’s kind of funny and would be even funnier if it weren’t so annoying. BTW, I’ve done the same speed-up-to-lower-my-blood-pressure thing.
Oh dear this drives me bonkers as well.
I swear that some people have no spacial awareness. When they are behind you they speed up and when they get out in front, without something to pace, they literally let off the gas and back right up to you.
I was in WI last week for work in a rental Silverado and did exactly what you referenced. Just to get away from the moron who I had to keep passing on the highway I hammered it for about 4 minutes to put enough space between us.
Same with two lane country roads that are 65 MPH, we have a bunch out here, and when you come to a ‘bend’ in the road the gas pedal becomes the plague or something and the person in front of you slows down to 45 for some 1/4 mile lazy bend. Drives me crazy. Set your cruise control and be done.
@ PrincipalDan & 87 Morgan – Agreed, and coincidentally the worst example I ever experienced of this was in Wisconsin. The catch-up lag wasn’t the usual two miles PrincipalDan describes; it was more on the order of half a mile. The idiot kept slowing down almost immediately after passing me. I would’ve accelerated away–my cruise control was set about 5 mph above the speed limit–but I’d been warned that police in the area loved to target speeders from out of state. Lots of speed traps set up to catch the hated FIBs on their way to vacation homes in the Upper Peninsula, apparently.
I notice this highway race the most when I’m driving my wife’s screaming yellow with black stripe MINI. People of all races, creed, and colors just hate being passed by this little thing. So the car that’s going 65mph in a 70 zone slowly begins to speed up as I get closer. And eventually speed up to the point where I’m not passing them unless I step on the gas. And they’ll pace me for awhile unless I really start going “give me a ticket, officer!” speeds.
I drive a good number of long trips. I would note a “red car” I pass. Then 20 minutes later I see same car passes me and disappears. In next 20 minutes I am passing them again. Yea. My speed is 75. Theirs? – variant.
Dosnt annoy me but often when I’m doing a long drive I get passed by the same car three or four times.
I mean if you have to wee every two hours I guess you need to drive fast to make up for it. But isn’t it much easier to drink less coffee and have a nice relaxed drive rather than constantly be pushing.
“1. speed up – slow down: We’re on the interstate, I have my cruise locked in. You pass me going 2-3 mph faster than I am. 2 miles later I catch up and pass you (not having changed my speed one bit) – this pi$$es you off so you speed up and pass me. Lather, rinse, repeat. ”
This is the second most annoying thing that pisses me off more than anything about long distance highway driving (the first being the inability to get up to highway speed while merging).
When I lived in Delaware, frequent trips to my in-laws, who live in a NJ beach town, made me aware of this phenomenon. (NJ-55 in particular, but other highways as well). I tend to set my cruise 5-7 above the limit when loaded with kids and beach stuff and weekend bags for the how family, and generally use the middle lane (if there is one), moving right for faster traffic and moving left to pass as needed.
And yet, invariably, this exact situation arises. I’ll pass someone casually at 63 or 72 or whatever, and safely slide back over out of the passing lane. That person would pass me, and get far ahead. But eventually I’d gain…all while not once touching my cruise. I pass them again, or attempt to pass, and they shoot ahead. Is being passed such an affront? Are we racing? What is this driver thinking? And its ALWAYS either something ridiculous, like an overloaded mini-van, or some stanced, cambered 90’s edition Civic or Subaru.
Like you, PrincipalDan, I just use the full potential of my 350HP 4.2 V8 and cruise at 90-100 mph for good long while to just get away from them. The latter group (stancers) in particular, I think, often seemed surprised that I was both willing able to accelerate with such haste. The ticket would have been worth it. I luckily never got one.
A lot of these issues evolve around people not knowing their vehicles and not paying attention. A lot of basics get lost in the training shuffle because so much class time is devoted to DWI. Another thing is the ease of licensing, they give them out like candy in NYS. Catholic Charities brings people here who’ve never seen a car and helps them get certified weeks after arriving. Imagine someone from Africa or Central America who up until eight weeks ago had never driven or seen snow, now they’re driving in a Syracuse winter. What could go wrong? I saw a program on History about the licensing process in Germany, the costs and the time involved dwarf ours. Penalties and fines are quite stiff as well. States make too much dough from the DMV to do anything that’ll curtail the number of drivers though, that and the insurance lobby.
Lots of good points here. I think a lot of it all boils down to lack of awareness and/or lack of understanding of their vehicle or how cars work in general.
I haven’t seen this one suggested yet but I absolutely cannot stand when people drive 10-15 MPH below the posted speed limit. My town has two two-lane county routes that you absolutely have to take to get anywhere else in New York. These roads are 55 MPH zones that travel through mostly farmland and forests. And yet every day, without fail, I’ll get stuck behind a driver who refuses to do over 45 MPH. After a few decades of cursing and wishing I was home already, we’ll near my town, which is a 30 MPH zone, and… They continue to do 40. So they absolutely will not do 55 on smooth, straight country roads, but have no problem flying through a town chock full of kids walking home from school. Ok.
Oh, and if you run a stop sign on a cross street to turn into my lane and effectively cut me off, then then travel 10 mph below the speed limit, you’re a terrorist.
Driving competency testing at specified age intervals accompanying license renewal would be nice.
Horn. I use it a lot.
Another byproduct of inability to merge-
For F*cks sake, the triangle sign is a “yield;” it DOES NOT require one to come to a full and complete stop before pulling your head out and looking around.
There is this other sign, an octagonal red thing, called a “stop sign.” When approaching one of these, you should be cognizant of your surroundings BEFORE coming to a stop. Come to a stop and then move along.
A yield sign, on the other hand, allows one to be cognizant of your surroundings while continue to move your motor vehicle without coming to a stop.
This is why our road crews use different signs. Who would have guessed, huh?
unnecessarily stopping at a yield sign will get you points in a driving exam and likely cause you to fail the test. you are quite right.
On-ramp speed God yes on-ramp speed.
Maybe its because my first car was a Toyota Tercel with what felt like 5 hp but on-ramp speed is always my issue.
Nothing like following people with more than twice my horse power on an uphill ramp as they do 35 then punch it to merge and i’m left a dead duck trying not to be flattened by a semi.
Today everything made has plenty of power to get up to speed on any ramp and yet people all seem to trail off about 40.
There’s this glorious right-most lane when you merge from 490 south to 90 West south of Rochester. Merge convoy always proceeds unnecessarily slow at around 40 mph. But the right lane is almost a mile-long. I stay in low gear till everyone merges over one left, pushing trucks to the left or emergency slow-down. Then I accelerate. It’s uphill, but i’ll be into triple digits for a bit before I move over, leaving the entire melee half a mile behind. Works. Every. Time. Otherwise, as I enter my forties, i no longer mind. Every slow driver in front of me is an opportunity to wind up the engine when i do get the green light. And I never tire of hearing the scream of the inline 6.
Morning commute. Last week. Highway 407. Slight rain. I am on the 2nd land from the inside and the inside lane is ending forcing vehicles to merge into the 2nd lane. Notice a white SUV driving along the inside lane so I leave room in front of me for it to merge. The drive must not have notice that their lane was ending. Slammed on the brakes before they ran out of lane, came to a complete, full stop. Then had to try to merge.
The were driving a Bentley Bentayga.
About 1/3 of the population has an IQ below 93, which means they don’t have the cognitive capacity to make quick decisions regarding any slightly novel driving situation such as merging, 3 point turns, turning corners, etc., and hence they typically go slow and regularly make erratic maneuvers.
About 1/3 of the population is on the phone, and/or dealing with rug rats and pets, and/or applying makeup, and/or reading/watching a book/movie while driving so they slow way down in all types of driving to make sure they don’t crash.
About 1/3 of the population is impaired due to drug use, medical conditions, old age, etc. and they may not have the concentration or physical ability to maneuver their vehicle properly, so they slow way down to avoid crashing.
Some in all 3 groups believe they own the roads because they pay taxes, and they can do what the hell they please. Members of all three groups are also prone to forget where they are going at any given time, and hence need to stop suddenly to think or look at a map, and then move suddenly from the right most to left most lane as they eventually remember the purpose of their journey. Thus everyone but a few of us TTAC commenters are a menace to the road and should immediately turn in their license and buy a bus pass.
Ha, I frequently refer my friends to the stupidity of humans by saying that the average American has an IQ of 100-101, which means that half of Americans have an IQ below 100. Scary.
Even more scary than that is the average IQ in India is about 85, and the average IQ in sub-Saharan Africa is 70-75. Whatever problems we have with “bad” drivers in the US or Canada, we have nothing to complain about if you ever see or experience the level of driving in India, Africa, and other lower IQ places.
The IQ test has been thoroughly discredited as a reliable measure of human capability. Moreover, because it presents intelligence as inborn, instead of socially attained – which has proven to be the case time and again – the IQ test is racist in the true meaning of the word: by implying that social inequalities are in fact biological inequalities.
Sorry Nick – you are absolutely wrong in every way. IQ is the most tested, most valid, and most reliable measure in psychology. It better predicts life success than any other measure. The majority of IQ is genetic, and despite decades of trying we don’t know how to raise IQ besides making sure to have a good diet. Finally, IQ is not racist, but there are racial group differences in IQ.
http://thealternativehypothesis.org/index.php/2016/04/15/the-validity-of-iq/
I don’t like stop sign hesitators either, and those who don’t know who has the right of way.
So I use ONE SIMPLE TRICK.
Approaching a stop sign, I brake earlier or coast longer, so it’s very obvious to the idiot in the Prius that they were there first, so they go ahead on through.
Works every time, and saves me irritation.
Here is my trick – every time some driver waves me, “please go first”, I go no questions asked, independently if it was my turn or his/hers. Because next stop sign they will do same thing. I can mitigate it much faster
I’ve seen that courteousness cause collisions before. People need to drive defensively and worry about themselves.
Yes, when everyone decides to hit the gas at once!
Probably risk getting hit from behind if there’s someone behind you not paying attention! (As stated someplace else in here, I also will do everything to make sure that all the other drivers at the intersection will have ROW before I do.)
I’ve actually shown a touch of anger if someone JUST WILL NOT take the ROW: squealed away from the intersection, etc.!
(I wonder how many people know that, just as in aeronautical or nautical navigation, when two vehicles meet, the operator of the one on the left must yield to the one on the right??)
I think people know about the right side
I live in a prairie city so that means flat, straight roads in a grid. There’s one curving road that gets me into the valley and it drives me insane how few people can guide their car around a curve without drifting into my lane. And, it’s almost always a smaller car or CUV driver. Numerous times, I’ve nearly been hit by someone who came up from behind me, obviously knew I was there, yet blythley crowds me to the curb. In response, I use the horn now. Somehow, however, pickup truck drivers seem to be able to navigate their behemoths down this stretch of road perfectly centred throughout the turns.
All of the above are excellent points.
Left lane dawdlers.
Merging too slow on the highway.
Nobody driving with a sense or purpose of getting anywhere in a expeditious manner. Get out of the way!
Regarding the slow three point turns, some of that can be attributed to the slow reaction of some automatic transmissions going between Drive & Reverse. We had a rental Nissan Quest minivan last year on vacation & it was slow switching with it’s CVT. Also, buttons for a shifting require a glance – stalks & levers generally don’t.
What really bugs me is not using your turn signals, either for a real turn or changing lanes. And not turning on your headlights at night – I’ve seen people drive with just their DRL’s. No taillights! No dash lights on inside the car! How can they not know? Or not even DRL’s are on. How can they see? If I was a traffic cop, I’d be pulling people over all day, every day, for these two items.
These drive me nuts.
1. Person in front of me can’t seem to maintain a consistent speed. They go up 5 mph and down 5 mph with an occasional tap of the breaks for no reason, and no I don’t tailgate.
2. I want to turn left but have to yield to people going straight, and as i’m waiting for them to come through the intersection, they turn left with no turn signal. GRRRRRRRRRR
the one thing these problems have in common is a lack of decent driver training. You get a license in the U.S. for knowing the traffic laws, not how to actually drive. that never gets looked at.
When I was teaching my kids to drive, I covered all of these things. My personal favorite, passed to them: “If you don’t know where you’re going, stopping in the middle of the road to figure it out is a really bad idea.”
The worst is when I want to move out of my lane, say, get in a lane to the right, usually during heavier traffic. The car in the right lane behind me can see my indicator and they clearly have intent to get into the lane I’m currently in. What’s the logical maneuver?
The answer is to let me out, as I’m ahead, and then they can take my place as I take theirs. But on the SoCal freeways, the reality is they more often try to pull even or ahead of me and then get in. And I admit to returning the jerkish behavior by not allowing them into the distance ahead of me, thus forcing them to abandon it or get back to doing what they should have done in the first place.
This is one of many reasons why I will eagerly welcome self-driving cars.
1- idiots who brake first and then put on their turn signal. The turn signal should be put on first, warning me that you may be slowing or braking. When you just randomly brake, I question your sanity.
2 – in my neighbourhood there is an intersection with a dedicated/separated right turn lane. The street you turn into goes from 2 to 3 lanes at the intersection, meaning you have the new lane for yourself. There is no yield sign. EVERYONE slows down or stops for the non-existent merge, often just sitting there when they have an empty lane right in front of them. STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!
My former commute included several miles on a speedy (50 mph) suburban/rural 2-lane road that had sufficient traffic during rush hour to make it sometimes difficult for traffic to enter from side roads, requiring those drivers to cut it a little close as to the through traffic. I understood the problem and didn’t really mind having to slow down for cars turning onto the main road, but for god’s sake step on it once you’re in my lane; don’t ooze slowly up to 50 mph!
…exactly, showed him the courtesy of letting him in. Now show us some courtesy and get moving!
I don’t recall when the general problem of the inability to briskly accelerate started: maybe fifteen years or so ago?!
I thought it might have been because people thought that their fuel mileage would suffer. But I’ve found that it doesn’t make enough of a difference, and is at best, rude, and unsafe at worst.
I always enjoy the drivers who put on their turn signal a couple miles before they want to move over and who are usually driving slower than the rest of traffic. Coming up on them you’re never really sure if they are going to cut you off or they’ve just left their blinker on.
FFS just put on the blinker and move!! Your signaling is not a magic gesture that will part traffic and let you in!! This does not apply to slow traffic situations on a merge or move over due to an accident where the use of a prolonged turn signal interval is seen as merely courteous.
I deal with Houston traffic and I-45 heading North out of the city every day. My two biggest peeves:-
1- Turn signals seem to be an optional extra. Manufacturers, save some coin and delete them because they’re never used!
2- This one is tangentially related to #1. Cars weaving in and out of streams of traffic like it’s some sort of video game/wacky races episode. The stress of weaving in and out of traffic to perhaps save 15 seconds doesn’t seem worth it.
Oh, and there are never cops around when the above behavior occurs!
Everyone’s very focused on freeway and suburban driving, so I’ll name a few things that city drivers have trouble getting right.
1) Turn from the turn lane! Often city streets have curb parking until shortly before an intersection, when the space next to the curb becomes a turn lane. People turning refuse to move all the way into the turn lane, turning from the through lane. Then they realize they have to wait for pedestrians before turning, and they end up blocking through traffic until the pedestrians clear the intersection.
2) Stop at the stop line! It’s irritating and dangerous to have to walk into oncoming traffic because some jerk stopped square in the middle of the crosswalk. I don’t know why it’s so hard to stop for a red light before entering the crosswalk.
3) Scan for pedestrians before you turn left. Left turners often only scan for oncoming drivers, not pedestrians. Then they start their left turn and suddenly realize there are pedestrians in the crosswalk. They end up scaring the pedestrians and then blocking oncoming vehicle traffic until the pedestrians clear.
Another pet peeve – people in the right only turn lane – and they go straight. It’s a major idiot move – had a guy in a motorcycle do that and I almost clipped him because I was going straight and didn’t know he was in the non-existent lane until I just caught him in the corner of my eye.
The signaling comments are great. Most people don’t signal enough, but some people signal as they’re going around a curve in the road (that one always makes me laugh).
Some people signal long after I’ve already figured out that they’re turning or changing lanes. I always want to tell them, “you’re not technically “signaling” to me – you’re merely confirming what I already knew”.
When I signal to change lanes, I start early enough so that there are at least a couple of clicks if there’s not much traffic and at least a few clicks if there is more. And I turn my signal off before my last wheel enters the new lane.
I live in a cul-de-sac and I signal when I’m entering my driveway even though there is almost never anyone to signal to. The reason? Signaling is just automatic. I don’t deliberate whether I’m going to signal or not, I just do it all the time. Not patting myself on the back – it’s actually just easier that way (a habit that requires no thought).
I try to make a habit of signaling when there’s no one around because sometimes there is someone around, you just don’t see them. Pedestrians can be nearly invisible, and if you’re pulling into a driveway it’s nice to let them know you’re heading into their space.
Yup signaling is automatic. I’m sure 99% of the time when departing the neighborhood there is no one to witness my first two uses of turn signal but I do it anyway. Part of the automatic nervous system – I don’t even think about it.
Thank you. Drivers should never have faith that they have seen everybody. There’s always someone hiding, whether in another car, on a bike, or on foot. I signal every turn for this exact reason.
1. Blind spot campers. The people who live to hangout on your right rear quarter panel. I guess something magical happens in their brains when they know they can’t be seen.
2. Emotionally-unstable left-lane psychopaths. This seems to be a unique Texas phenomenon. During rush hour the left lane is totally unusable because it’s populated by psychologically-disturbed and emotionally-unstable people who are either late to work or who think they are more important than everyone else. They cause huge amounts of carnage and they tend to shut down the entire highway-interstate system with regularity every weekday.
3. White trash rally racers. There are no cops out here in the country! I’m going to drive 20mph above every posted speed limit in my clapped-out 2001 Chevy Cavalier that hasn’t seen a JiffyLube in over 10,000 miles. I’ll be vaping synthetic marijuana as I overtake you on a shoulder-less causeway at 8:50pm with only one functional headlight. Don’t get mad. PizzaHut closes in 10 minutes and I promised my ex-girlfriend I’d get dinner for our 3 illegitimate kids. *full throttle* *timing chain whine*
Also lollygaggers who then speed up as you are attempting to pass them.
Aside from some of the ones mentioned already, left lane bandits, poor merge skills,bad lane keeping, turning into the wrong lane (just happened to me when I was out in my van a few minutes ago), I have two peeves:
1. This is local to me but I have seen it in other areas. Intersection with lights. There is a right turn lane and the cross street is one lane becoming two lanes as the right turn lane becomes the right hand lane. There is no yield sign, yet number of people who come to a dead halt is mind boggling. Read the road people!
2. Bad use (or no use of turn signals). The number of people either never signal or have braked almost to a stop and then signal is amazing, I would say better than 50%. Turn signals are to signal your intention. Activating it should be the first thing you do. Same for lane changes. How many people never signal a lane change or are half way through the lane change when they signal
I take my sweet time during three-point turns. I give the transmission in my Odyssey plenty of time to switch between D and R because I don’t want to put unnecessary stress on it. While the tranny in my 06 Ody isn’t made of glass like the ’02 ones, I still don’t want to take any chances. Too bad if it keeps the other drivers waiting.
If I had a Honda I’d take my sweet time too.
I have a friend who LOVES Accords (has had one from 3 different generations at this point) and couldn’t understand why when I was riding with her I would cringe when she would go from R to D without coming to complete stop.
She did eventually find herself in a situation where the transmission was toast on her 7th generation Accord (couldn’t go forward, couldn’t go back.)
people in my development piss me off. One time I walk the dog across the street at the stop sign. I am at the half and about to step into second half. Indian(Asian) woman just keep rolling through stop sign nearly running over my dog. I didn’t find a rock otherwise she would have a nice dent in her car.
It got so bad that someone called the cops (not me). They had stop sign hunt recently. Ticketed about 10 drivers.
Few month back I ride my motorbike on a local road. I stopped behind the tree service truck actively at work, to let guys in opposite lane go. Now that road was clear, I was about to go. But I always check surroundings and what I see that a car that was coming from behinds simply never had intention to let me go first. She just disregarded my presence, my signal. So, I went behind her and she led me right into my development. she lives just to blocks away. On her way she didn’t stop at any stop signs and I think, she was drunk based on how she couldn’t control where she is going.
Small street woes:
Idiots who can’t be bothered to turn the wheel far enough to make a right turn without using the oncoming lane on entry and exit of the turn. (typically thru a stop sign)
Morons who have no idea where the right side of their car is, so they *need* to drive in the center if there are cars parked on both sides of an unpainted 2 way.
Buffoons who imagine their driveway has the right of way over thru traffic.
Psychopaths who never stop at a stop sign before turning right, no matter how close thru traffic without a stop sign is.
Murderers who seem to believe it’s their duty to kill people getting into or out of a parked car if the only alternative is to slow down.
Ah, the folks who “take their half out of the middle” – LOVE THEM.
My pet peeve is “creepers”. First one up to the red light stops 20 feet behind the line. Then creeps forward about 5 times until he is 5 feet over the line. Most of the sheeple behind follow suit. Me, I care about my clutch and wait until the light turns green and people in front actually start moving. When I drove a Prius once I was amazed that they had designed creeping into it.
What grinds my gears are people who can’t keep a consistent speed. My weekly airport commute is down I75 about 40 miles to Ft. Myers. About as open, flat, and boring a highway as one can imagine. And generally fairly lightly trafficked. I set the cruise on 80mph and go. But inevitably there will be that one car that I either catch up to and pass, but then they pace me, or they speed up and pass me or some variation of them altering there speed by a few mph. I usually just pick up the pace by 5mph to get rid of them – at least until the next one.
What I hate is when I’m merging onto the highway and someone in the center lane changes into the right lane at the exact moment I’m getting in that lane. They are not aware enough to realize there is an on ramp and maybe, just maybe, someone is getting on there and they should wait a couple hundred yards before getting in the right lane.
yep, good one!
I see this one a lot, not in my area but in NJ, for example. Someone driving in the left-most lane and right before the exit, they just cross all lanes and take an exit. This is not as infuriating as when you driving in the right lane behind some car. Then some moron shamelessly squeezes himself in between, just to exit a second later. You look back and see nobody behind. This moron has to go between you and the other car as if he exited from behind you, he would be late by an hour.
Slow mergers, numpties who can’t signal (or even check for cars) before making a lane change and stop light dawdlers really get under my skin. Also, the people who can’t determine that DRLs aren’t sufficient once the sun goes down bug me.
However, I’m supremely irritated at the people who can’t execute a 90° backing park. Instead what they do is block both lanes of travel in a parking lot, usually about 150°, so they can pull almost straight back. A coworker of mine effectively parks twice every morning. She pulls straight into a parking spot (nose first), then reverses to pull straight back into her chosen spot.