OT - Talking Cars Tuesday - Your Pet Peeves of Other Drivers
Mates,
With a nod to our friend Jeepin' Ben, I thought this might be a topic that would be almost as good as an old fashioned neg bang. The summer driving season is almost upon us and in Michigan that can only mean one thing: Construction wherever you drive.
It's time to take the kids to grandma's, or to endless travel baseball/lax/tennis/soccer games across our glorious state. If you live in a tourist town your angst is usually directed at obvious out of town visitors. If you live in blue-hair land, well, blue hair might be a trigger for you.
Anyway, the question is a simple one: List your notable pet peeves of other drivers.
(and don't drive angry)
XM
i remember how southern californians handled rain while driving....a cross between panic and apoplectic shock. don't miss socal and traffic is definitely one of the reasons. good luck.
I ride the left lane as often as possible but if I see someone is going faster than I am in my mirror, I will move. That doesn't happen often, though, because I am usually that guy speeding.
Well, the way I see it, there are multiple lanes for a reason. If everyone rode in the right and middle lane on a three lane highway, there would be traffic backups and people constantly moving to pass. Having more than two lanes spreads the traffic and making it easier to drive.
Certainly, if the traffic density is such that it's unsafe to change to the right lane (or middle in a 3-lane situation) after passing, then by all means stay in the left lane. I'm speaking more from a point that, anything that makes other drivers more of a danger (e.g., making the impatient leadfooted ones pass people on the right) doesn't help anyone. You shouldn't cruise in the left lane if you can just as easily cruise at the same speed in the right.
Those speed demons (usually me anyway) are rare. It doesn't hurt anyone to cruise the left lane if there is no one behind you tailgating.
If you would be ticketed for doing it on the autobahn, you shouldn't be doing it.
FYI: You would be ticketed for doing it on the autobahn.
This exact behavior is probably my biggest "pet peeve" - if I'm to answer the OP's exact question.
It's fascinating to hear someone actually speak on their reasoning for continuously driving in the left lane despite a clear opening in the right lane. I do love how this thread brought out some of the drivers that most of us can't stand! Funny how that works.
Doubled up.
Well, riding in the left lane when not passing, at least on highways, is illegal in many states, like Michigan and Illinois.
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/traffic/move-over-left-lane-drivers-michigan…
who stare at you as they pass. I see it coming, then jerk my head sharply to the left and dead-eye them, and watch them jerk their head away and look forwards. It's kinda funny
YOU ARE DRIVING A CAR!
I'm with you on that; however, I don't always use my signal. If there is no one behind or in front of my who needs to know I am turning, I don't use it. There is simply no need.
I get that, but am in the habit of looking to see if anyone needs to know I am turning. If there is no one there, I won't turn it on.
code and could get you pulled over some day/night, particularly if the cops are out poaching and you didn't see them tucked away somewhere as you made your turn.
Conversely, my pet peeve is that people think that using their turn signal .5 seconds before a lane change justifies cutting someone off in that lane.
The person in that car is forced to hit their brakes, which ripples to 10-20 cars behind them causing an unsafe slowdown that didn't need to happen.
The first car in line at a green arrow light that lasts 7 seconds not getting on their horse and going when the light turns green. Yes, you waited in this long line, you know it sucks, so try to maximize the amount of cars getting through when you're first.
Thought this was just me. Happily I am wrong. Me: "Go, motherfuckers! Go!"
I'm so happy this has 32 upvotes. I thought I was much more unique in being pissed off about that.
Not turning left when you have a ridiculously safe amount of space and time to do so.
I'd say it's people who can't / won't maintain a consistent speed (assuming normal traffic conditions). You know the ones who are doing 5 below the speed limit so you go to pass them and then they speed up to 75, leaving you as the guy not passing in the left lane. So you slow down to get back behind them assuming they've decided to speed up and then they slow back down to 68 or something. Damn near every vehicle has cruise control today, use it.
And texting / using their phones while driving.
Left Lane Bandits are (some of) the worst.
Easy one for me. Tailgating me in traffic. I can't go any faster cause there are 807 cars ahead of me, dipshit - get off my bumper.
The only hope is that, if everyone does it, the A-hole in the lead will get the hint and stop going 72 in the fast lane.
There's an unfortunate fine line between tailgating and leaving a small enough space to signal to every jackass in the other lane that just because your car technically fits there doesn't mean you should try and wedge it in. I try not to tailgate, but I also try not to be that person who lets the whole freeway in front of me; I think it's rude to the drivers behind. The more cars in front, the longer it takes to get through the traffic.
lane road (one each way), double yellow, 10 cars in front of me, and the biggest idiot in the world is literally 5 feet from my bumper.
This makes me just this side of homicidal. Anything happens, they hit me.
The fact that this has actually happened to me twice makes it even worse. Both times, somebody in front of me braked hard, and I had 3 car lengths, so I had time to brake, and the guy behind me just ran right into me because, you know, the human nervous system only works so fast.
I hate to say, despite me usually being a pretty fast driver, my answer to this situation (remember, only one lane each way) is to slow down and keep slowing down until the jerk either gets off me or just passes on the double yellow.
I can't stand when people do this.
Rob
People that pull out in front of you and then go slow. I have no problem with you pulling out in front of me as long as you accelerate up to the speed limit and don't force me to brake for you.
And in 50 feet make a left hand turn. Man I yell at my wife for her driving. I won't pull out in front of someone unless I can make sure it won't effect them. Driving (Like everything else now a days) just makes me angry. There are way too many mannerless people out there that everywhere I go is a battle. DIfferent topic, but yesterday I was at the grocery store, which itself could be another topic all together. This lady was on her phone for 3 aisles and she was oblivious to everyone else. Standing in the middle of the aisle, blocking everyone trying to pass. After 3 aisles of her blocking me and then giving me attitude for moving her cart I had enough. I said "Hang up the phone and shop" and she again gave me a dirty look. That was until 3 people in our aisle all started clapping. I hate selfish / classless / non-mannered people.... But that's pretty much all there is left anymore!!
You had a good, believable grocery shopping story until you added the part about people clapping.
Did I forget to mention I have 3 kids??? :-)
Corollary to the grocery story. The worst, THE ABSOLUTE WORST sin is the when the woman ahead of you in the checkout line (sorry, ladies, it's almost always a woman of at least middle age), who waits until she hears the total before she starts fishing for her fucking checkbook! Dumbshit, have you noticed that everybody else is swiping a debit card? Or that it takes upwards of five minutes for you to write your check, record it in your ledger, find your driver's license, and then have the cashier run it through a 19th century protocol to verify? I always give these people the dirtiest looks and it never seems to register.
the one with an index card file they bring with them to the super market. i have no problem whatsoever with folks being frugal, clipping coupons, etc. however, when you have people waiting behind you in line you better have your stuff organzied to the nth degree, don't try to use the expired coupons, and don't try to barter with the check-out person.
and have to agree with all of them. Another is a person in the left lane on a highway going below the speed limit and won't move over, even after 100 cars have gone around them. It's like they don't even notice what is happening around them.
In your scenario they just don't care, but it bugs me more when they didn't notice for miles they were holding up traffic and only did when someone passed them.
Nah. I think in that case, they finally came to their senses. Better late than never. What really pisses me off is when they pass a 60-mph truck at 62, then speed way up.
I have a move that may end up on this list, but it is actually a counter move to something far worse, so it is justified. We've all be in a merge situation where everyone tries to get over reasonably soon before the lane runs out, but some assholes always drive all the way to last possible spot before they have to merge, thereby passing dozens of people who played by the rules. My move is the squeeze block! If I see that jerk coming in my sideview I will pull out and block them, maintaining the slower speed of my brothers in the merge lane. Of course this pisses them off, but it is great fun and I haven't been shot yet.
Yep, you're doing it wrong. Using both lanes, with some people driving to the obstruction and then merging is the most efficient, fastest way to deal with with the merge for everyone on the road.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2014/07/the-beauty-of-zipper-merging-or-wh…
The exception is the late exit ramp merge, where there's a long backup exacerbated by folks cutting in right at the highway exit.
Except it doesn't work that way, or at least that efficiently.
As evidence, I've seen this in action countless times. One time I was driving on I-96 on the way back to Grand Rapids from Ann Arbor. Around the Lowell area, due to construction, the traffic merged from two lanes down to one. It took 45 minutes to travel a few mles to the merge point, because of drivers in the closing down lane moving over at the last possible point, instead of merging over miles earlier when the signs were posted. As soon as I got to point where there was only one lane, my speed when from 2 MPH to 50 MPT. It was incredible, the crawling speeds only being caused by the late mergers.
Yep, the zipper method. I might agree with others though that in reality it truly doesn't work out because ya know...humans.