Which actions – or non-actions – of other drivers annoy you the most? The list is long but let’s list some of the most annoying:
Failing to move forward to let someone behind you who is trying to get into the left turn lane make it into the turn lane (so they can make the turn before the light turn light turns red) –
No doubt this has happened to you, probably too many times to count. You are wanting to turn left and up ahead – at a signaled intersection – there is a dedicated left turn lane you have to be in to be able to make the left turn. The lane is open – and the light is green – but your way is blocked by the car just ahead of you that is not turning left but whose driver refuses to pull forward so that you can squeeze past and get to the left lane in time to make the light when it turns green.
Sometimes, this is deliberate but most often it is due to obliviousness – i.e., the driver of the car ahead isn’t looking in his rear or sideview mirror to see what’s going on around him and so doesn’t see you’re trying to squeeze by him. But obliviousness is also deliberate in the sense that when you’re driving, you have an obligation to yourself as well as others to be aware of what’s going on around you. But some drivers only care about what’s going on in front of them, which is the same as putting blinders on a horse. The horse can’t be faulted for not seeing what’s behind him or on either side of him because someone put the blinders on him.
A human driver can be.
Staying in the right lane on a two lane when the left lane is open and you see someone up ahead wanting to pull out into the right lane from a side road –
Few things say dick more than this move. After all, how much effort does it take to move over to the left lane so as to clear the right lane, so that the person trying to pull out from the side road can merge onto the road? About as much as it takes to think about it. But that’s how much effort – how much civility – some people are willing to show other drivers. It is something that cannot be attributed to obliviousness – as in the case of the driver who won’t pull forward to make room so that someone behind them can squeeze past them into the left turn lane. This is purposeful obnoxiousness, performed be a certain type of person who doesn’t give a damn about anyone else and views the road as his personal road, just for himself.
Not signaling your intent when it’s clear someone is waiting for you to do that so they can tell what you’re going to do –
There’s a stop sign near the entrance to the gym I go to that is also the entrance to a busy Mexican restaurant. When you are at the stop sign wanting to turn left – to leave the gym – there is often cross-traffic approaching, to enter the parking lot for the restaurant. Countless times, I’ve sat at that top sign because another car was approaching and because that car’s driver hadn’t indicated which direction he was intending to go, I had to assume he was going to continue straight ahead and into the restaurant parking lot rather than turn right into the gym parking lot – which would have allowed me to turn left onto the main road out of the gym.
As in the case above of the driver who won’t move into the left lane to open up the right lane so that a driver obviously wanting to merge onto the road can use the right lane to do just that, it is obvious to the inconsiderate – and so, obnoxious – driver that he’s being inconsiderate.
Which makes him a dick, doesn’t it?
Backing into a parking spot, if you can’t do it properly quickly –
Some people like to back into parking spots, which is fine in the sense that if that’s your preference, it’s no skin off anyone else’s nose if you do so. But if you have to make multiple adjustments to get your vehicle lined up straight and by dint of that, hold up other people who are stuck waiting for you to finish up your backing in (and out) to get it lined up, then it is skin off other people’s nose and thus something to be avoided, assuming you’re not trying to be a dick.
If you prefer to back into spots, how about practicing the art until you’re able to do it just as quickly as if you’d just pulled into the spot?
Turning on your hazard lights just because it’s raining –
The Safety Cult has many unfortunate etiolations and one of these is virtue-signaling just how obsessed with “safety” you are, as by slowing down to a crawl and turning on your car’s hazard lights because it’s raining or there’s some snow on the road. Hazard lights are for when you’re driving a crippled car and just trying to gimp it down the road to a safe place to pull off the road – or when you’re broken down on or beside the road, so as to warn oncoming motorists that there’s a hazard ahead. Or when there is a hazard in the road – such as fallen tree or other such debris.
People can see it’s raining.
They know there is snow on the road.
They do not need you to signal to them that you consider conditions “hazardous.” If you think they are – such that it merits turning on the lights and slowing to a crawl – then thing to do is get off the road or at least, move off to the shoulder and let the other drivers that are stacking up behind you get by you.
. . .
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Just the other morning on my daily commute to the office, I had a kid tailgating me. I never brake-check, so my tactic is to slow to a crawl, which I did. He did not get the hint and just stayed right up on my ass.
I was in my Hemi powered 300, and he was in a Fiat.
Came to a stop sign. I stopped there for a good 20 seconds, looked back at him thinking maybe he would get the message that I am perturbed with his actions. Nope.
Made a left, and he followed. He caught up and started in again with the tailgating. This time I was fuming, so I slowed to 10 mph on this straight 45mph road. This is when he made his feeble attempt to pass me. Now, normally, I don’t mind a guy passing me if he is in a hurry, but this guy pissed me off first thing on a Monday morning, so I couldn’t let his behavior go unchecked.
At his attempt to pass, I accelerated and easily prevented his passing. He had to follow me at 10 mph for a mile or so until we went our separate ways. He did not attempt another pass.
Petty and immature, maybe, but that damn kid had it coming. I HATE tailgaters.
Just thought of another one. I wish more people would violate “move over” laws. “Move over” is something invented by highway patrols to curb maybe 10-20 deaths a year of police officers at the side of the road. They could have been working a traffic stop or doing something else.
The problem is, move over introduces an unacceptable amount of flow conflict whenever an “emergency vehicle” is present on the highway. The highway capacity is reduced by up to 50 percent, traffic backs up, speed differentials increase.
All because “officer safety.” How about the system wide impacts on traffic flow which will result in increased driver fatigue, increased speed differentials which are known to cause accidents, and other factors?
The impact of “move over” needs to be reviewed by an unbiased study.
From what I know, the number of police officers killed by passing traffic remains at the same levels with or without “move over” laws.
This is the post 55 mph police state version of 55.
“Move over” laws explains some of the trepidation around emergency vehicles mentioned in another comment.
They belong in a landfill.
Here in Michigan, many police agencies (especially the Michigan State police) have a bad habit of not completely pulling off the freeway on a traffic stop.
Almost always, they leave the rear end of their vehicle angled, partly into a traffic lane, providing an invitation for an accident. If this is meant as encouragement to “move over” it is a a very poor tactic.
It is known that many (if not most) police officers do not have common sense and do what ever they want just because they can.
They leave it out with the tiny minded thought that their. Vehicle is a barrier to protect them from traffic. Unfortunately they don’t understand physics, if someone hits their parked car at highway speed it becomes a pool ball in a collision, and a 3800 lb projectile launched on a spinning 30mph path is a very deadly missile.
In the same vein is the dangerously, blindingly bright and distracting/hypnotic flashing LED lights. Their tiny thought process is,” they can’t claim they didn’t see me” and not “they’re going to hit me because they were blinded or discombobulated by these lights”.
Cops are stupid and dangerous. They are hired as attack dogs to terrorize the citizenry into submitting to illegitimate rulers.
Most annoying driving habit: using the on or off ramp as a passing lane. To make it even more annoying wait until the very end of the ramp to merge.
The person that drives 40 mph in a 55 mph zone, then speeds up to 60 mph in the only passing zone for 10 miles. My rule, if you are doing 40mph before the passing zone, you are getting passed.
Billy Big Rigger. He swings far to the right in his car to make a left turn, and he swings far to the left to make a right hand turn. Forgets that he is driving a car that can easily make the turn.
Aside from the peeves about oafish, selfish motorists, my pet one is with MOTORCYCLISTS…
Specifically, those asshats on two wheels that think “lane spitting”, which is LEGAL in Calipornia, means they can freely go in between cars, in motion or stopped at a light, no matter how tight the fit! Now, I’d not object if that questionable practice were confined to getting through a line of stopped cars, waiting for the light, SLOWLY. That was, one can grab his mirror and pull it in if the handlebars get close (mine have been tapped several times by these biker morons), as the motorcycle can be heard and seen in the driver’s side mirror.
But…NOOOOO! They gotta barrel through at 30 to 40 mph, because, hey, they’ve got a “Cafe Racer” or some bullshit Jap junk. Leaving no chance for a motorist to take appropriate measures. All because they believe themselves to be PRIVILEGED. Fuck ’em, I hope they all lose control and kiss the pavement!
Morning, Douglas!
Even if it were legal where I live, I would never lane split – because I am not suicidal. Nor am I interested in wrecking my bike or wrecking someone else’s car. Others may disagree – and that’s fine. But when you assume extra risks, you assume extra responsibilities.
Ditto for motorcycleing Sparkey.
With fuel prices in the US reaching stratospheric levels, I support lane splitting, when it can be done safely.
The greatest problem.we have is Obliviotic drivers, as in oblivious idiots, behind the wheel, everywhere.
The failure of both driver training and awareness is directly to blame for this issue.
Don’t be that guy….
I spent a couple of months working in California in a previous job. Driving back to the hotel, I had a guy on a cruiser lane split up to the front of the turn lane. I was first in line, so he stopped right beside me. I figured he was in a hurry so I was going to be courteous and let him go first when the light changed. It changed, he took off, and he got t-boned by someone who ran the light. The impact slammed him into the hood as the driver rode up onto his bike. Got the whole thing on my dash camera. Be careful out there folks.
When I lived in California, I did do lane splitting, but only in stop-and-go traffic. Think accident on the freeway. To me, boulevard lanes were just wide enough to do this too. Anything narrower than that, say a regular city street, I did not. And I had a Sportster 883, which is a very narrow bike.
I’ll still do it in totally stopped traffic here, even tho it’s highly illegal. A traffic ticket (with the exception of a reckless driving charge) is far cheaper than a rebuild on an air cooled engine. (ala Harley Big Twin.)
Was thinking about this story today on the way to Ashland in my ’82 VW Diesel Westphalia on I-5. Doing 61 mph in a 65 zone, right lane. Not being a dick, it’s floored and the thundering 48 HP 1.6 liter normally aspirated Wabbit engine was giving all it got! 🙂
Same Bill. I drive antiques, and while a flathead ford does fine in traffic at 60-65, a early 60s Mercedes 190d with its rampaging 48hp is not going to pass anything without a lot of forethought, planning, and cooperation.
I have a 1982 Mercedes 240 D with manual transmission (54 HP) and have no problem running circles around most traffic…300,000 miles plus without an engine tear down. Adjusting the valves every 15,000 miles keeps performance up.
Regards,
Yep, I’ve owned several of them, the 240 is a lot torquier than the old 190s. And I’ve always driven my slow cars fast and a manual helps a lot. Still, that 240 isnt going up the on-ramp anything like a Porsche 924 or almost any Chevy. Though once cranked up that 240 will run 80:all day long.
1) Leaving a large gap from the stop line or vehicle in front at a traffic light or stop sign which makes the queue block access to turn lanes.
2) Merge impairment. The inability to accelerate to the speed of traffic and merge properly.
As to moving over when someone is pulling out, I don’t. People around here pull out slowly and go to the far lane. If they are turning right on to the road and I moved over to the left lane they would pull out and cut me off and I would have to brake to 20mph and be stuck behind them. They do the opposite turning left on to a road. Do they ever turn into the near lane? Yes, sometimes. But by staying in the near lane to them I can take evasive action. It’s always best to see what they are going to do rather than try to be nice and be out of options when they do something stupid.
I find the dual lane Interstate entrance ramps are a real intelligence test that most drivers fail abysmally! Even when totally empty and it’s perfectly clear to get over into the left lane to make merging onto the Interstate easier, the vast majority of drivers will top out at 45 mph and cling to the right lane until the bitter end before finally slamming on their brakes when the lane runs out, hoping anyone behind them will stop and “let” them onto the Interstate. Drives me absolutely crazy!
In my experience, the way people drive says a lot about them. Aimless, oblivious and myopic, mostly. Many demonstrate hidebound, simpering obedience to the countless arbitrary rules, too. I drive assertively (NOT aggressively) and it’s worked out well enough for me.
Don’t even get me started on the now ubiquitous, fifth-Amendment-raping cash-grab cameras that cause more chaos than they prevent!
One time we were driving the back road in Grand Teton NP in my pickup northbound, same place Gabby Petito was murdered by Brian Laundrie. We had gotten out of the rough unpaved section in the middle and there was this guy in a Camry trying to pass us on this narrow winding road. He had been tailgating us for a while. We finally got to a straight stretch and he bolted past us. About a quarter mile down the road we saw him pulled over by park police haha.
Would you think it even funnier if he had crashed and died in the ensuing fire?
No, of course not. Don’t know what gave you that idea. I knew he was kicking himself in the butt though, hence the chuckle. Moral of the story is don’t speed in the national parks.
Yeah, the park geeks are real nazis. They do love their rules and demand boot licking.
Drivers who, while making right turns, fail to move over so they’re not blocking the traffic behind them.
Drivers who LOAF in the left lane and block other drivers from passing.
Drivers who insist on driving below the posted speed limit – in any lane.
Drivers who do not seem to understand what the onramp is for on a freeway (hint: It isn’t for slowly getting up to freeway speed).
Drivers (and this seems to have reached epidemic proportions in my area) who drive around everywhere with their high beams on.
If I am turning “Right” onto a side road, I will try and move over as much as I can, because yes, that is the courteous thing to do. What chaps many drivers, is the bus driver who-after picking up the students-refuses to pull off the road, so that the long line of drivers may pass. I remember Eric talked about said drivers, and the question of how many of them have been jabbed, and are affected by said “medicine”?
I agree, Eric, in that drivers today are distracted, and have zero situational awareness. I would say 90% of drivers are on their damned phones. However, I will politely disagree with you on the other point. It is NOT my job to “move over” and “let them in”, especially as most drivers in this neck of the woods have zero knowledge of speeding up to merge with the flow of traffic that is on the highway they are wanting to enter. Most treat the merge lane as a Sunday Stroll lane, and hold up everyone behind them who knows where the gas pedal is. Side roads? That stop sign (in these parts) is merely a suggestion. More than once I have had to slam on the brakes or swerve around said driver, because some dumb fool could not wait five seconds for me to pass them. This gets dangerous on icy, snowy roads. On highways, if I can “move over”, I will. Ultimately, however, if that driver does not know how to merge, they should get off the road until they figure out how to do so. And especially if I have a left lane lugger next to me that refuses to pass or get out of the way. Where am I going to “move over” to, to “let them in”? But the headlight issue? Definitely agree with you there. It is dark most of the Winter, and yet, I cannot tell you how many drive around with no lights on. Or, they have the daytime lights on, but no tail lights. Or, their headlights are on, but they have their “brights” on. You just cannot win some days.
I get what you’re saying. I disagree with the premise that it’s my job to excessively accommodate anyone else. The merge thing, I continue at my speed, neither slowing to increase nor accelerating to close the gap to the car in front of me. I leave space for them to fit, if the person coming on wants it they have to use the gas and take it otherwise they can just fall in behind me.
This how it was taught to me in drivers Ed, 1971. Freeway merging, the entering car has the duty to adjust and merge. If the existing traffic keeps a steady pace and isn’t tailgating plenty of room for the entering car.
I will move over if room, here in WA it is literally the traveling morons so you can bet on a merger pulling into or just in front not up to speed.
People who see the Right Lane Closed 5 Miles Ahead sign and wait till the very end, stop and cut off traffic.
The best drivers I have ever seen is in Vermont. They see the sign and start the merge, traffic keeps flowing without a hitch. Absolute worse is the Mid-Atlantic drivers. They will drive down a shoulder to cut someone off.
Zipper Merge is when you see the sign, not stop both lanes of traffic.
Correcto! See also Florida for zero zippering, thus it all grinds to a halt as no one will give an inch.
Problems happen when a car panics then tries to merge immediately. That unnecessarily leaves a useful length of pavement and forces cars in the open lane to come to a near stop instead of just slowing. It’s the same thing when someone races down the empty lane passing a bunch of slowing cars expecting to merge at the very last moment. That’s a jerk move.
It’s supposed to be alternating. If everyone works together and no one’s an asshole it works (yeah, impossible in 2026 America). Slow down, leave a gap and one car merges, everyone keeps moving. When the traffic management is done right the warning sign is positioned to give enough warning time and distance to everyone at roughly half the regular speed.
This might have been mentioned, besides the turning real slow that you nearly have to stop, giving no signal, putting on brakes and then turning. You can pretty much tell by the way the person is driving that at some point they are going to turn right and not give a signal, so I watch them carefully or go around them and sure enough, they turn. Brakes first, maybe a signal, then a very slow turn.
The other thing I don’t like is drivers that put their brake lights on because they have come to a small downhill slope. Just a very small hill that has been there since the road (four lane) was built. It didn’t just appear overnight, but you have to slow down because heaven help us, you might go two or three miles faster—horrors!
I love this one. Happened to me today actually People merging onto a highway and expecting me (whose already on the highway rolling at 75) to adjust my speed (brake) to accommodate their entrance. Dumb!
Braking and adjusting speed are part of driving. Why didn’t you get over for them? If you think it’s an imposition or an annoyance to let a merger in, perhaps you need to rethink?
There’s always someone faster, there’s always someone slower, and you and I are only partial owners of the public roads.
And yet another Karen or Ernie as it were that doesn’t understand how freeways work nor the actual laws that govern them.
It is called a merge because the driver that is entering the freeways is obligated to MERGE into the flow of traffic. The merging driver does not have the right of way.
It is not the obligation of drivers on the freeway traveling at speed to make way for merging drivers.
The law is very clear on this yet there is a significant portion of the population that is simply too dumb to understand.
No, you’re wrong and a dick if you drive that way. Your mindset is why so many timid drivers slam on the brakes at the end of an on-ramp because the situation is shaping up to not allow them into the flow and they don’t see an option.
To be clear, if I’m a little ahead of them, I do have right of way and they need to yield. I will be accelerating as hard as I can but the lane hog trying to block me out thinks they don’t need to respond to traffic. If they hit me from behind, they are at fault. Likewise if they are beside and hogging the lane with light traffic or no reason to not yield, they bear partial responsibility for any wreck.
Sorry bud, the entering car has the duty to adjust and merge. Your duty as existing freeway traveler is to maintain speed and distance. Slowing down to accommodate some moron that can’t drive/merge just f’s it up for everyone. A 5 mph slowdown in heavy traffic will cause a total stop several miles back. Mt Rainer HS Drivers Ed 1971.
Rainier. They taught me to drive spelling not so much.
See above. Your right that the merging driver has to adjust, but the other driver also has a legal duty to avoid causing a wreck or a hazard. If you have room, get over.
Also unofficially, if I’m driving a truck and loaded trailer with minimal acceleration ability, and I see some idiot not budging for no good reason, I am going to pull out and make him respond. It’s safer for everyone and if he hits me from the back, it’s on him.
Rules aren’t important, judgement and manners are.
I think it is the vehicle trying to merge has the legal duty and obligation to know how to merge, not expect everyone to be polite concerning said mergers lack of knowledge in how to do so. Does not matter if a vehicle in the right lane wants to be a dick: Said dick driver has the right-of-way, and the on-coming, trying-to-merge vehicle needs to learn to speed up org get out of the way. That idiot not budging for you? That is a good way to cause a wreck and get people killed because of your lack of merging skills.
As others have described you…… The reason the article was written and oblivious Good lord
The point I made stands. You owe your fellow drivers courtesy and consideration. If someone is merging and you’re in the lane and can get over, get the hell over. It costs you precisely nothing.
If they’re coming on ahead of you and you’re overtaking, either get over or slow down a little. The partially on merger ahead of you is no longer a merger and he has right of way.
If traffic is so heavy it doesn’t allow maneuvering, that’s different. But you still owe courtesy. If the merger is coming up next to or behind you, and faster, you have right of way and the merger has to adjust.
It never as simple as,” I own the road and I have right of way”. If you hurt or kill someone by being a dick, the system is going to own you. And it should.
Not only does slowing down save gas and money, it also destresses the driver, returns your vibe to the natural order. Nothing in nature is moving like we are, we are unnatural creations of the gods, enslaved on a hell planet, running as fast as we can to keep up with our debt payments.
We slaughter millions, if not billions, of animals of every size (and other humans) as we speed around in our cars with 200 horsepower. How many deer got run over by horse and carriage? Probably close to none. What about Model A’s. Low. We are moving to fast and out of tune. IMO we are an insane specie, and insane Trump is a perfect reflection of our insanity.
What other specie spends it’s time and energy to go to the other side of the planet to slaughter it’s own?
Why the hell do you need 200+ hp? Ego.
Yeah, 200 HP is enough in a 1500 lb vehicle.
Walk that’s what nature intended for you Jack.
The rest of us have places to go, limited time to get there, and don’t need your sanctimonious diktat’s about how much speed or horsepower is acceptable to you.
Driving 55 mph back in the day was a huge waste of time and didn’t save any gas at all.
The federal government estimated that it saved maybe 1%. Other estimates have it at less than 0.18%.
According to the Energy Information Agency which tracked US fleet gas mileage, fuel mileage fluctuated from 11.9 to 12.6 mpg between 1970 and 1976. Fleet fuel mileage was higher in 1970 than it was in 1976. That tells me that depite a 7 mph decrease in highway driving speeds between 1973 and 1974, the speed limit it self saved close to nothing.
55 mph was a huge waste of time, money and a collosal inconvenience to millions of people.
It needs to remain in a landfill
In fairness a lot of that mileage drop was our engines simultaneously becoming far less efficient with lower compression and smog cams and carbs. Also due to commie democratic government interference.
Other things being equal, lower speed means less air drag loss means higher mileage. But all things are not equal. And more importantly a free people doesn’t let a ruling class tell them how fast they can go and set out thugs to terrorize them for ignoring their edicts.
I don’t need a lot of horsepower. As long as I can break 100 mph on every trip, life is good.
About 170 hp in a mid size sedan is enough to run down teh freeway comfortably at 80 mph with an occasional burst to 100-110.
Highways are meant to be driven on.
THE worst is the damn school busses on rural 55mph highways stopping every 50 yards! If I’m stuck behind one, and three cars or less deep, I punch it after their stop is over. Double yellows be damned!
I can put up with about anything other than slow drivers, especially those who occupy the left lanes on a freeway. Even on a non freeway, speed the fuck up.
If you can’t drive on a multi lane highway at 65, you don’t belong on the freeway. Keep right except to pass.
I can put up with people cutting me off, not using their signals, or even tailgating me if I’m in the wrong. But that’s the worst.
Highways are meant for cruising 80.
Oh hell ya! I have this argument with The Commander regularly. “We’re not in a rush Sparkey”. My response “one, they don’t have my permission to waste my time and two, they are screwing up traffic flow for everyone on this road!” The few areas in town with timed lights, thanks. Your dwaddling at 20-22 ensures we all hit every red light for the two mile trip to the freeway.
The old 2 lane state highway from my town to the next one northwest of me – designed for 60MPH travel by cars with 1950s bias ply tires, drum brakes, wallowing suspension.
I concur – you can’t properly drive a modern car that accelerates, brakes, and out handles anything from that 50s era, get the hell off the highway! Nope, 50MPH around curves designed for 60 and maybe hit 55 in the straights on a good day.
Well, with a loaded truck and/or trailer, or a motor home, or an older diesel car, there may well be good reason to run 55-60. Courteously of course, staying right until forced to pass by a governed truck or idiot driving even slower. Then after that pass there is inevitably 2 or 3 impatient morons who want to cut in and pass on the right if you don’t immediately cut off the even slower passee, thus preventing you getting back to the right lane promptly.
Face it, it’s a dance, an art, a mutual interaction and the only important rule is good manners and courtesy.
Agreed. 60 mph is acceptable if you’re driving a trailer or a motor home. Anything else, step on the gas.
Inattentiveness is the major factor in every one of these scenarios. Giving 100% to the task of driving is the only way to resolve all of these issues. Of course, nothing can be done about psychotic drivers who think that they own the road. Common courtesy and common sense, which many people do not have are also contributing factors as well.
Good article. Thanks
Agreed, but the psychotic is not even close to the worst of it. It is the stupidity of the legally programmed rule followers that is most dangerous.
My personal pet peeve is the clown that stops and waits to make a left turn in heavy traffic instead of paying attention and turning a block earlier or later. This causes so many rear end wrecks and the guilty party is let off legally because they were either hit from behind or caused someone else to be.
– delayed moving at a green light cause they’re playing with their phone.
– driving the speed limit anywhere and doing the ‘suggested’ speed limit on curves (which can easily be doubled).
– obviously, staying in the left lane when no one is around.
I’ve never understood the fetish some drivers have for speeding into curves. Back in the ’80s there was a country music song with the lyrics, “Still taking chances, taking candy from strangers, speeding up on curves, ignoring the dangers.” The singer was correct: speeding up on curves is dangerous as it reduces tire traction and creates strong centrifugal forces that push a vehicle outward, significantly increasing the risk of losing control.
Truly the amazing the Karen’s that visit an auto enthusiast site and then proudly announce their driving ineptitude.
Yeah truth. The yellow signs in most places of the USA are advisory, meaning it’s up to you to consider a safe speed. It’s actually what the regular speed limit signs should be, a suggestion rather than a rule.
Agree with your viewpoint. It’s fun, even with the risks.
But I also come from a roadracing background, where we were going for 99% of the tires traction limits. I am probably a very small minority. But I also am very aware of the risks and potential results and never get remotely close to putting myself or others in any danger.
For a while now around here, I’ve noticed what I consider to be an overreaction to emergency vehicles. I see so many people nail the brakes and pull over on a two lane road if one is coming in the opposite direction. I fail to see how that helps and just messes up the flow of traffic.
Rule followers again. If it’s oncoming, slowing down and getting over towards or on the shoulder is adequate. Obviously if the fire truck or ambulance is running up your a$$, getting over immediately is the only move.
Following the rule isn’t important, using your brain and being courteous is.
Lets not forget the drivers who leave their signal lights on way past the point that it has become obvious to all that they have no intention of actually turning or how about people who do not signal when they are exiting a traffic circle?
Then there’s the people who drive in the slow lane who speed up when you try to pass them and if you get in proceed to tailgate you even though you are going faster than the speed limit and they were going 5 miles an hour below it when you passed them.
Who can forget the drivers who drive with burnt out brake, signal and headlights?
How about when you’re traveling down a 2 lane highway and the some A-hole pulls out from a side road in front of you. Then that same A-hole who was in such a hurry to get out on the main road almost causing a T- bone collision procedes to drive at way below the speed limit holding you up. That ticks me off to no end.
THAT pissed me off! If you’re going to pull out in front of me, then get on the gas and get moving.
I meant to say that pisses me off.
Yes. What a moron. The corrolary is the guy who tailgaits you to the point of the freeway entrance ramp and then he is disappearing in your rear view mirror as you are climbing to 70 or 80 mph
That’s my favorite dickhead as well, if they jump out in front of me and stomp on the gas to get up to speed that’s fine, but it’s rarely the case. My other nominee is the car in front of me making a right turn off the road so sloooolwy that I practically have to come to a stop on a busy road where there’s no room to just go around the stupid clover.
Those drivers are usually wearing battleship hats, right?
Eric,
Just because someone has their turn signal on doesn’t mean that they’re always going to turn; you have to see them turn before it’s safe for you to go. After all, if you pull out to make a left turn based on their signal, yet they don’t turn, any accident you have may very well be your fault. Just because someone has their turn signal on doesn’t mean that they’re going to turn. I’m just sayin’.
Secondly, WRT someone staying in the right lane when they can move to the left to let someone out, how do you know that they don’t have to turn soon? How do you know that they don’t have a turn near or after where someone is trying to pull out from the side street?
Finally, if you’re in line and there’s a left turn lane beside you, you can only pull up so far; you can’t get on the bumper of the vehicle ahead of you. Why? You need to leave some room in case you need to get out of there. If there’s a big enough space to fit another car in front, then yeah, pull up. However, one has to leave enough room to get out in case someone comes up to your car; you need to be able to get out of the way of an oblivious driver who’s going to ram you; and so on. Depending on the situation, there may not be enough room to pull up.
I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. That said, the behaviors you describe seem to be caused by the fact that a significant portion of drivers are sociopathic or psychopathic.
Sociopaths have no empathy or feeling for other people, but view them as objects to be used as well as barriers to their goals.
The sociopathic driver views the road as an obstacle course, and that every other vehicle is an obstacle standing in their way. Sociopaths need to get where they’re going, but fail to recognize that other people have places to go as well, and are just as intent on getting there. What’s more, they don’t see the other vehicles as having people in them—they’re just NPC objects standing in their way.
Even worse is the psychopathic driver: These folks are sadists who want to inflict pain on anyone who stands in their way. Not only do they see others as objects who stand in their way, but as objects over whom must exercise power and control with either overt aggression like brake-checking or passive aggressive behaviors like left lane hogging, because they must “win” at the driving game at all costs, even life and limb.
In other words, sociopaths want to get where they’re going a few seconds faster, and think nothing of risking their lives and those of others, including yours, to do it. Psychopaths seek to inflict pain on you to control you and to “teach you a lesson.” While the behavior of these types is distinct and different enough to be easily spotted, both are at the very least annoying and cause many traffic problems from fender benders to mass casualties.
Bingo. The degree to which sociopathic/psychopathic driving prevails on America’s highways begs the question as to how much those two traits prevail among the general population? Apologies for dragging politics into this, but it’s obvious we currently have a psychopathic president who is obsessed with “winning” (a definite trait of psychopaths, as you noted). In fact, the last few presidents we’ve had were likely also psychopaths. Given that government is at all times a reflection of the people, I can’t help but wonder how many Americans are either psychopaths or junior psychopaths (i.e. sociopaths).
Yesterday evening someone in an econobox was driving 45 mph on a 55 mph two-lane mountain highway with no passing zones, building up a conga line of a dozen cars behind them over a ten-mile stretch. It happens on maybe one-third of my trips into town, costing an extra 3 to 4 minutes. Not a big deal, objectively. So I grumble about their selfishness (or incompetent fear of curves and grades) and then forget about it.
My trip was to attend a town council meeting. During the open comment period, a guy took direct aim at the Flock cameras installed last year. He pointed out that as an indiscriminate dragnet, ALPRs constitute warrantless surveillance. They violate the US constitution and Arizona’s constitution.
The speaker cited shutdowns of Flock in the past year by town council votes in Flagstaff and Sedona (a unanimous vote, in Sedona’s case). He complained that Flock data is sold to unknown third parties and retained for an unknown period. He concluded by urging the council to eject Flock when its contract comes due for renewal this summer, at a cost in the $175,000 range. As he returned to his seat, he got a round of applause from the audience, including me.
It was refreshing to witness an articulate speaker, mounting a classical, well-referenced defense of civil liberties in a 3-minute nutshell. Flock out!