Driving Pet Peeves

[Tripper11]

Ok..merge is a verb!!! Don't stop halfway up the merge lane...get the damn car up to speed with the rest of the highway and get your butt in there. And for those in the right hand lane as the merge lane approaches, either move over to the left lane to let the merger in, or, slow down....being one car ahead doesn't get you there any faster.

[Kolesar]

1. I think some old folks are helpless at freeway speed

...or helpless at any speed! It is like a chariot race out there.

[INTELBYTES]

2. people who don't know that I own the road.

anywho... B-)

[put out]

29. I own the road, you usurper, you!

Anyone in front of me driving too slow! Idiot.

Anyone in back of me driving too fast! Maniac.

Credit to George Carlin.

[Intelsucks]

3. Yeah, stopping on the ramp is always a good idea.

<major sarcasm>:eyes:

[tedoll78]

4. Do turn signals come standard on cars sold in the U.S?

Because most retards on the road don't use them.

Aargh. One of my all-time big pet peeves.

[kaitykaity]

5. "The Enforcer"

or "The Hall Monitor"

These folks get in front of a line of cars in the
hammer lane, and then insist on doing the 'speed
limit'. They see it as their personal mission to make
sure that I 'obey the law'.

:grr:

[Tripper11]

6. Or as an added bonus to this...

the guy in the hammer lane going the same speed as the guy he's supposed to be passing.

[Intelsucks]

7. Then 50 cars bunge up behind them and neither one has a clue.

n/t

[camero]

30. Ah, playin vigilante

that is my pet peeve. In a backup, it doesn't unblock traffic. It only holds it up more. My peeve.

[beawr]

15. I want to kill them

I want to kill them and their offspring until I make sure their seed has been wiped off the earth.

[heidler]

18. In many states it's legal to cruise at the speed limit in the left lane.

One of the main causes of road rage is expecting other people to obey your laws rather that the traffic laws. Of course this goes hand and hand with people not knowing what the law really is.

[flamingyouth]

8. Not speeding up when you need to merge

on the freeways.

I almost killed someone the other day who just stopped while she was merging.

Also, put on your turn signal when you're making a left turn! Sheesh louise, how hard is that? Well, I live in Seattle - this might be a hard thing to master...

[INTELBYTES]

9. People that get in fender benders but won't move their vehicles.

They sit blocking traffic exchanging info or waiting for the cops when the shoulder is 2 feet away from them. Traffic piles up behind them because they are too stupid to move off the road. grrrr!!!

[davsand]

10. WHY do we need so durn many handicapped spaces?

I dunno why--but it seems to me that there are WAY more handicapped spaces to park than there even ARE people who are disabled. Can we maybe check on the usage of those spaces once in a while and cut down if they never get used?

I am waiting for the flames to hit, but I swear to gawd I drove around for twenty minutes the other day while at least fifteen spaces sat empty with nobody in them.

Laura

[deek]

23. funny

They're always full when I'm trying to find one! Then I have to park on the other side of the parking lot to find 2 adjacent spaces to unfold my ramp and hope no one parks in the space next to me!

[hlthe2b]

28. I have noticed that proportionately, they sometimes seem excessive...

especially in limited parking settings....Sort of strange, really. The one time I qualified (on crutches for six weeks), I never went to areas that had such limited parking overall, figuring I'd never find an open handicapped space (and usually the shops are not too handicapped friendly anyway).

I'm all for having handicapped spots and have to contain myself when I see obviously young and able-bodied adults using them, but there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how they are allocated.

[corporatewhore]

11. Driving in Austin

[tedoll78]

42. Austin is awful.

If I were a traffic cop, I'd nail more people for failing to use turn signals than I would for speeding.

[heidler]

12. Merging traffic

I'd agree with you except for my wife and I'm sure lots of other people have depth perception problems and poor animal dexterity so they can't do it smoothly. To me the problem is that driving laws are not made for the poorest legal driver and this causes accidents. The laws are made to make the above average driver happy with the flow, but they're still not happy. The fact that cars today are a necessary thing and not just a joy ride entertainment item comes into this also.

[kaitykaity]

13. Welcome to DU, heidler!!

:hi:

[Kolesar]

14. My buddy lost his left eye

How is he supposed to roar out there like a jet-jockey when he has that disability?

[Tripper11]

16. A new distraction I have noticed recently as well....

besides the cell phones, fax machines, eating machines, stereo's and all the other stuff that comes on vehicles. DVD Players..not for the people who have them, but for the drivers around them.
I have been caught behind some monster SUV's with DVD systems with a movie on, and I have caught myself trying to figure out what they are watching. It's still weird to see "tv" in a moving vehicle.

[Kolesar]

17. I hate people who speed when they don't have to.

Why does someone have to drive at 13 mph over the speed limit when they are just going shopping? It makes it dangerous for all of us, not to mention it wastes gasoline. It makes it hard to merge!

[Faygo Kid]

19. Young girls in Grand Ams who tailgate

Almost always Grand Ams, almost always while they're on a cell phone, with a safe 4 inch stopping distance between your back bumper and their car at 70 miles per hour.

[northofdenali]

20. Tailgaters! They should be hung from the nearest

overpass! Shot! Beaten! Fed to the (if we have any left after Murkowski's aerial kill efforts) wolves!

Seriously, is there ANY reason to tailgate? Particularly on icy/snowy roads with other options available?

No, I can't see excuses as pacifying my disgust at tailgaters. Feed 'em to the polar bears.

[Tripper11]

21. Not cleaning ALL the snow off the car.

We just had a few dyas of snow here in the Seattle area and I have seen more then a few people who have cleared a space to see out of their windshield, but the back window is covered.

Also..the rearview mirror is not for straightening your hair, adding lipstick or other vanity projects.

[INTELBYTES]

22. What's snow??

[RC]

40. Snow is that cold white stuff that is used to

keep the riff raff out of your state.

[Baclava]

24. More snow woes......

Did someone accidentially dump about a zillion gallons of "liquid stupid" in the river.

Here's a scenario - It's snowing quite heavily on your way into work this morning, temp is 32, and snow is starting to stick. You're going about 55-60 and these dips are passing you like you're standing still. Hello...it is SNOWING....

[Intelsucks]

25. Welcome to DU Baclava.

:toast:

[northofdenali]

27. Yeah, Tripper11!!!! You'd think, living here in Fairbanks,

people would TURN ON THEIR HEADLIGHTS when it's snowing and foggy. Nah. The snow on the windshield/rear window thing is also very dangerous. These people are usually also too lazy to have warmed up the car, so the windows are fogged - and stay that way a long time at 30 below!

[Baclava]

31. I lived in Alaska for 3 years....

What is up with those folks who stop their cars in...the middle of the road...to watch the sheepies on the cliffs over the highway...Get Outta My Way !....I'm trying to go FISHING here.....

[northofdenali]

43. Welcome to DU, Baclava!

I really, really like the tourists in the 68 foot motorhomes who stop ON THE BRIDGE in the middle of the road at Hurricane Gulch, too.

We know when spring is coming. The tourists are coming up the Alaska Highway in "V" formation, just like the geese to Creamers Field......

[Tripper11]

26. Cops who pull people over in the HOV Lane

during rush hour, making the traffic 10X worse then it ever could have been!

[Tripper11]

32. Lane changers in rush hour...

I remember reading a study that was done regarding changing lanes back and forth in heavy traffic and it turned out that those that made constant changes didn't get where they were going any faster then if you stayed in one lane.

[VelmaD]

33. What I refer to as "the slalom"

People who weave between multiple lanes of traffic trying to find the one that's moving faster. Newsflash morons - it's rush hour and none of the lanes is moving. They try to pull into holes between cars that aren't nearly big enough so the person coming up behind has to slam on their brakes, which slows down everyone behind them. They cause accidents. They make me want to slam into them, drag them out of their car, and beat them to death with my tire iron.

[teach1st]

34. Lane changers without a signal...Sheesh!!

Gosh, if you're cruising at 75 and you change lanes and you somehow miss a car in the blind spot, a signal really does warn that car in the blind spot so that they can slow, honk, or throw a beer can at you.

Signals are your friend. Use them when you turn and when you change lanes.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

35. People who zoom up from behind

on the highway, clearly going much faster than you, but then hang behind you instead of passing.

[Tripper11]

36. People who speed up....

when you turn your signal light on to make a lane change. There is no way in hell they want to let you in front of them for some strange reason.

[teach1st]

37. People passing with cruise control..

Cars passing with their cruise control on and going about .3 mph faster than the car they're passing.

[Flaxbee]

38. People who FLOOR IT from one stoplight (red) to the next...

...like they're trying to launch into orbit just getting one block. VVRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM, then SCREEEEEEEECH as the brakes are slammed on b/c the light didn't go from red to green in time for the hot-rodder to fly through. I always feel sorry for passengers in those cars, they must have terrible cases of whiplash..

Also, when people turn left through an intersection and don't stay in their respective lane, but swing waaayyy out into say, the farthest right lane (imagine turning from a 2-lane road onto a 3-laner) instead of their own, appropriate left-most lane, thereby making it impossible for someone on the other side of the intersection to turn right, because the right lane is full of bastards who just turned LEFT into the lane I needed to use to turn right! I HATE IT! STAY IN YOUR GODDAMN LANE!

[Tripper11]

39. AMEN! n/t

[phaseolus]

41. Cutting in front -- people who won't wait their turn like everyone else

Like the time I drove 2 hrs. away to Chicago with the kids and dutifully waited in the right-turn-only lane for a few minutes as the cars crawled into the parking structure one at a time...and some Illinois doofii who thought they were too important to wait drive in the left-turn-only lane, and expect me to let them cut in my lane as they make illegal right turns.

Happens at home, too, with our homegrown Wisconsin jerks -- when I used to drive North on the freeway just past the airport during morning rush hour, the two lanes leading toward downtown were generally packed but the two lanes that take you West on the bypass generally moved freely. Invariably there were a LOT of people who expected to merge at the last minute, often driving on the shoulder.

Or people who treat the shoulder as a traffic lane when things are at a standstill.

Nuh-uh. Ain't gonna let any of them in, ever.

Funny thing is, even though I do a LOT of highway driving, even through Chicago and into Michigan where average speeds are around 80 mph, I don't see many people driving slowly in the left lane. Maybe I just don't let those guys bother me, eventually passing them on the right, and not giving them much thought afterwards. (I know what you're thinking -- no, I don't hog the left lane, and I typically pass more people than pass me.)