Drivers/Driving....things that cheese me off...

[Wood_workur]

#17: If you are changing lanes, and somebody starts honking, stay in your lane, don't make them test the ABS system.

#18: The highway isn't an indy track. Change lanes slowly (spin outs), don't drive at 80 mph to save ten seconds, and use your brain.

[Russianwolf]

living in and around DC for 10 years

#1 right hand turn from the left hand lane. (yep, happens all the time and right in front of cops, they don't care)

#2 when I'm doing 80 in the left lane and you doing 70 in the right decide that it's the perfect time to pass that car that you have been the same distance behind for the last mile (or at least as far as I've been able to see you).

#3 cutting in front of people with less than a car length between you and them then immediately slowing due to traffic. (if you are going to miss your exit, make the next one then come back).

#4 when merging you wait for the car in front of you to merge, then pass everyone to get as far ahead as possible before merging. What, you think you're special?

#5 passing in a merge lane. I mean, you you are in the traffic lane, enter the merge lane and pass people just to reenter the traffic lane. (Myself and a red dodge stopped this from happening one morning. He was right in front of me, went into the merge lane and I passed behind him in the traffic lane. He reentered the traffic lane in front of me and we both gave each other a big tumbs up.)

#6 I love driving big trucks. They don't stop on a dime. People driving civics don't realize that it seems. If you pull in front of me and stop short, you will likely not survive. I WON'T feel bad.

[alpha]

Is it a double whammy to put lipstick on while talking on cell phone?

How about reading a newspaper while driving?

Bob

[9johnny5]

whoa we think alike..

My GF and I came up with a great idea. You need a little device that you can point at a car and press a button. It logs an "idiot" response to that driver. With a certain number of idiot responses from a certain number of unique people, they need to attend traffic school. So now, instead of getting frustrated, we make a little TV remote using action directed at those cars. It makes you feel better thinking that is it possible.

Man, I've had that same idea. Something along the lines of whenever some dumba$$ pulls something stupid, you're mandated by law to pull out your paint ball gun and shoot one ball at him. The more hits, the more stupid things he/she has done, hence, the more dangerous driver he/she is, and a total of 10 paint splatters revokes a license for 3 months, doubles your insurance, and mandates Saturday traffic safety class. THINK of where we could get. but then my wife says "how are you going to make sure you don't get hit by 20 of them by teenagers just out messing around?" Simple I say - coding the paintballs with specific licensing.

just have to work the bugs out...like go get a paintball gun to start with.

johnny

[Tundra_Man]

Thats why I have a big, huge, heavy, gas hog of an SUV! That way when they do something stupid in thier Honda or other similar vechicle, my family and I have a chance.Thank God for the big old Dodges and Ford Crown Vics.

Hate to burst your serenity bubble, but as for children they've determined that overall SUVs aren't any safer than cars. They just get injured in different ways than they would in a smaller vehicle: http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/01/03/...ver/index.html

[ErikS]

Thanks guys, some of these are soooooo funny. What I find funny/annoying is that most of these are so simple - how hard is it to make it better for everyone?

#15 - Your car has a neat little device in the form of a lever on the left side of the steering column. Use it.

#15a - Exception to #15, VA residents beware that a turn signal is regarded to mean "close that gap NOW" to other drivers.

[Stick]

#19: Speed limit signs say MAXIMUM SPEED for a reason! This means MAXIMUM speed under ideal conditions. When the weather is bad, slow the heck down! And NO ONE has the "right" to exceed said MAXIMUM speed, who doesn't have flashing lights, sirens, and is driving an emergency vehicle. EVER! No matter what the reason.

#20: High beam headlights were not invented solely to blind oncoming drivers. Dim them when someone is coming toward you, or when you are coming up behind someone.

#21: Earschplittenloudenboomer stereos - If I can feel the vibration and hear it in my vehicle 30 feet away, it's TOO freakin' LOUD!

#22: Cigarette butts - vehicles have ash trays. Use them. Motorcyclists do not take kindly to lit butts in the face or down their jackets. Nor do they like gobs of chewing tobacco spit very much!

#23: That handy little stick thing that sticks out the left side of the steering column also has an "OFF" position. If you leave your turn signal on for 78 miles, how does anyone know just when you intend to turn?

#24: Brakes are controlled by a pedal that is capable of being applied more than a nanosecond before a stop sign/light etc.

#25: Just because you are on a bicycle does not give you the right to ignore all traffic laws and signals.

#26: When your trailer is swaying the width of the tow vehicle, perhaps it might just be time to slow down just a tad.

[Russianwolf]

Hate to burst your serenity bubble, but as for children they've determined that overall SUVs aren't any safer than cars. They just get injured in different ways than they would in a smaller vehicle: http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/01/03/...ver/index.html

I will also note that size doesn't make a vehicle safer (more survivable). Mass has a lot to do with it. A largevihicle made with thinner/lighter material has the same mass as a smaller vehicle made of thicker/heavier material.

BUT

I can say that when I got t-boned by a Grand Marquis in my Ram1500. The truck didn't budge and was completely drivable. The Marquis (de sade) was towed away.

[stewchi]

I can sum up most of the things that drive me crazy: ANTICIPATE. If your in the turn lane, or 4 way stop, anticipate when the car in front of you will go so can go immediately after with out missing the window or wasting time.

I am going to have to disagree with Stick’s #19, after years of careful self examination I find myself considering anyone driving slower than me is an idiot, (less the 9mph over the speed limit typically) I find myself thinking anybody driving faster than me is crazy and dangerous, that because I selfishly believe I drive exactly the right way (if I didn’t I would change, right!) of course this is not realy true just because I feel this way, I try to tell myself not everyone’s car has the same response as mine, not everyone has the same eye sight or reflex and not everyone understands how friction or gravity works.
That’s said I am an engineer and a project manager and spend most of my waking life trying to optimize things to be the most efficient and cost effective. Which is why I get so frustrated with drivers that make stupid decision that when compounded create deadlock or drastically slow down traffic. Car technology is good enough that we can all maintain a speed within +-5mph, speed limits should not be limits but posted speed to go, Yes I am saying that is you drive more than 5mph UNDER posted or traffic flow you should get a ticket unless conditions dictate the extra precaution (Rain, fog, snow etc) fatigue or old age doesn’t count. Chattanooga has the strangest drivers of anywhere I have lived and you often get old pickups driving 25MPH in a 40, That is very dangerous.

How about an express performance lane for people with a certified vehicle and extra driving test so we can drive faster. The technology is there to drive safely on a interstate at speeds over 100mph. But we all have to go 65 because that is the maximum that any idiot with any suspect clunker can go. That’s one thing I miss about Germany, driving my VW Golf to work everyday at 120MPH and occasionally being passed.

And how does this make sense: the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reports that 25% of fatalities are speed related but speeding tickets are the overwhelming largest percentage of tickets. Why do we ticket people that are not jeopardizing safety.
Why aren’t all intersection switched to yields during off peak (because I hate sitting at a red light at 1:00am with no one around anywhere, not that I am up that late anymore but still.

[430752]

NJ rules

regarding some prior posts: I dunno what a merge ramp is, we don't have them. We have jug handles. if you tell me what a merge ramp is, I'll tell you what a jug handle is!

My pet peeves:

A) doing less than 20 over in the left hand lane. Its passing lane. Just cuz you're doing 85 in a 65 doesn't mean people don't want to pass you. There's a reason the turnpike is basically stright and flat. You're not the judge nro the enforcer, we've all got pba/fop cards so we can get outta any ticket less than 30 over, get the freak outta the left lane.

B) People who should be be in the right lane but are in the middle two lanes, you know, the people doin' the limit. Look, on the parkway people do enter and exit, and this may be a pain to let them in or out, but that doesn't justify you doing 55 in the middle two lanes. suffer in the right lane before we beat you within an inch of your life.

C) people who leave spaces between cars in bumper to bumper traffic. Yes, people behind you do mind that you're letting everyone in front of you. If you want to be polite, move to the midwest. the reason they're stuck is cuz they didn't listen to 880/1010 am and didn't realize there's an accident in the right or left lane. let them suffer, squeeze them out so we can get on our way. plus, they're all waiting until the last minute to adopt the clear lane anyway, send a message by boxing 'em out and giving the bird in the process.

okay, I know, its a harsh list, but its a godforsaken state.

curt j.

[rbfunk]

Curt you forgot to tell them the correct way in NJ to make a right turn on a residential street.
First, drift to the left. If you don't cross the center of the street, no one will know that you want to turn. Next, slam on the brakes at the intersection. Don't slow down or apply the brakes before hand or no one will know that you are going to turn. Make sure that you come to a complete stop to maximize the backup behind you unlessthe is a pedestrian in the crosswalk off the street you are trying to turn into. In which case you are required to keep moving so that the person must jog out of the way. (we've got the fastest people with walkers around here.)
Finally, as you are half waythrough your turn, you may at your discretion, use your turn signal to indicate that you have made a turn.

And Curt, don't try to explain jug handles to them. It will just make their heads hurt. After all two wrongs don't make a right but three rights make a left.

Bob

[Stick]

I am going to have to disagree with Stick’s #19, after years of careful self examination I find myself considering anyone driving slower than me is an idiot, (less the 9mph over the speed limit typically) I find myself thinking anybody driving faster than me is crazy and dangerous, that because I selfishly believe I drive exactly the right way (if I didn’t I would change, right!) of course this is not realy true just because I feel this way, I try to tell myself not everyone’s car has the same response as mine, not everyone has the same eye sight or reflex and not everyone understands how friction or gravity works.

Not at all a question of ability, capability or intelligence. Simply a question of law. I'm not allowed to split my ex-wife's head open with a splitting maul (BREAKING THE LAW!), as much as I would love to, am physically able to and would be capable of it, why does everyone think they should be allowed to speed (BREAKING THE LAW!), because they are capable of it? No intelligent person condones drunk driving, even though everyone is capable of it. Why not? It's just another law to be broken. The large percentage of tickets issued for speeding simply reflects the large percentage of drivers that are speeding.

And the worse the weather gets, the faster they want to go. Blowing snow, snow covered roads, near zero visibility, and they feel they have to go a minimum of 20MPH over the posted speed limit. Then they wonder why there are so many accidents. We just had one here the other night. Snowing like crazy after freezing rain. VERY slippery! Double S-curve very clearly marked 90kph, idiot woman went through it at 130kph. Killed herself when she hit the ditch and rolled. That corner is hairy even in summer when roads are perfect. So why was she going that fast? Stupidity? Or thought she was superior to everyone else and didn't need to use common sense? Thankfully, she was alone on the road and didn't take out another driver with her stupidity.

[Stick]

Yes I am saying that is you drive more than 5mph UNDER posted or traffic flow you should get a ticket unless conditions dictate the extra precaution (Rain, fog, snow etc)

Perhaps in some parts of the world, the local law enforcement is not so lenient toward speeding as where you live. here it is very severely frowned on, to the point where 10km/h (6mph) over limit gets you a $255 fine and 2 demerits. At 6 demerits in 2 years, you lose your license for a year. 40km/h (24mph) over is considered reckless driving. Instant loss of license and $1000 minimum fine. 2 reckless charges in 5 years and you are banned from driving for life. It's just not worth it here to speed, not if one values one's driving priviledges (sp).

[jziegler]

Curt,

You need to take a drive to south Jersey sometime (meaning south of Burlington/Ocean counties), and not at the shore. Things are much better in terms of driving down here (I should know, I've lived in Essex, Monmouth, Mercer, Glouscester, and now Salem counties). But we still have some jughandles. Seemed so weird when I moved from PA....

Also, down here, doing about 10 over in the left is OK, as long as you are willing to get over when someone comes up behind you. And 5-10 over is about right for the center, where it exists. But, we still get the 10 under in the center crowd.

Now, driving the Delaware turnpike to/from work each day, you see some real idiots. Mostly from New York.

-Jim

[charliex]

No 9. I'm waiting for just right shade of green.
Why is everyone in so much of a hurry? Driving 75 instead of 65 for one full hour saves less than 10 minutes. I like to take back roads and I even pull off to the side to let speeders pass.