Question of the Day: What's Your Biggest Driving Pet Peeve?
We really get steamed when we see someone using their rear view mirror to fix their hair, check their make-up, or just generally peep themselves while driving. Others really don’t like watching someone drive while having a cellular conversation. What’s your number one driving pet peeve?
Comments
JN
The left lane is for passing only. Why is that so hard to understand?
Anonymous
I agree with JN, but what I hate is when you (not specifically) drive by the speed limit in the left lane behind another car, the traffic is congested, a car comes behind you and flashes it's lights, expecting you to move and probably expecting the road to magically clean itself from cars. It's just crazy... If people didn't drive on the left lane in traffic jams.... Traffic would be a nightmare. When the road is open stay on the right unless you're overtaking, when it isn't, left lane rule doesn't really apply anymore.
Anonymous
What? These rules aren't optional. If traffic is congested, and you're forced to drive in the left hand lane to overtake slower traffic, that's fine, and it's in fact what we all expect. The problem is that many drivers get lazy, and since they don't like to change lanes, they stay in the left lane, instead of regularly moving back into the Right Hand Lane when they are not actually overtaking someone. I realize that this will force some drivers to move outside of their comfort zone, and regularly change lanes, but if they can't do that comfortably, then it seems to me that they do not meet one of the prerequisites of being able to drive on the road.
Cat Quick
I drive country roads. By far my biggest peave are the drivers who think they can cross the double yellow as an aid to entering a sharp right curve. The view is almost always obstructed to some degree and my MINI is on them coming the opposite way while their ass is still hanging out. I just make it a habit to take any fast left handers to the outside of the lane.
Luke
Two words - lane courtesy. The (driving) world would be a much better place if people would just show a little simple lane courtesy - drive on the right, pass on the left.
ScottEOD
This should be one of a number of revenue producing schemes that cities use. Ticket these people. Tow them. Or just wait for them to return and shot them dead for being a danger to the public due to extreme stupidity, ignorance or blatent rudeness.
dancote
Driver's who leave their foglights on all the time. Some are just blinding.
They're Fog Lights people.
Woofydog
Fog lights do not project light up toward oncoming cars. Fog lights project their beam over a low horizontal line and out to each side. Aside from working well in fog, rain, and snow conditions, they can help better illuminate winding roadways without the use of high beams, and without projecting their light anywhere neary the eyes of drivers in oncoming vehicles. So unless your vehicle is the height of a go-Kart, you are not being bothered by the fog lights.
SPWilliams
Hogwash. If the man says he is bothered, he is bothered by the d*** lights. Fact is that the pupil opens and closes in reaction to the light projected onto it and four lights are more than two, no matter how they are aimed, designed, meant to work or any other rationale. More light, more blinding effect. Period. It is how our eyes work. Cut them off for oncoming traffic or you'll get mine back at you, or if I'm in a bad mood maybe my high beams. In addition you are overlooking the fact that 2/3 of American vehicles sold for the last ten years are trucks, and the "fog" lights on trucks are at eye level for my BMW, Honda or Mercedes.
Paul Crutcher
I have a litany of complaints here, but I'll offer one at the top: people who drive, mile-after-agonizingly-straight-mile, with a turn signal running. Pull up behind this driver, and you have to ponder what exactly is keeping him/her from noticing the pulsating light on the instrument cluster. If s/he doesn't notice the signal indicator, typically just off the speedo, what other somewhat important information is s/he missing? I'm convinced that checking the instruments frequently over the course of a drive is as important as checking mirrors and generally paying attention to keeping aware of what the car is telling you (hopefully at least partly through a two-handed grip in the steering wheel) and what is going on beyond the bumpers.
Although, I suppose that could all be trumped by the drivers careless enough to let their signal (and brake!) lights go out altogether....
MenaA
When I was younger I would get in front of them with my turn signal on too. Most of the time, they would turn theirs off.
Jeff
Ignoring limit lines at stoplights, not using turn signals, and talking on a cell phone. Also, too often I'll see a driver with a cigarette in one hand and a cell phone in the other, as if the act of driving is a mere afterthought.
JohnD
Drivers who conduct cellphone conversations while attempting to drive, and in the process are not paying attention to the double yellow lines, traffic lights, stop signs, the speed limit, or other drivers around them.
DR Bush
I think just about ALL of my pet peeves have to do with driving or cars, but I'll list a few in order of annoyance:
1) Riding the rear bumper (especially when there's no heavy traffic).
2) Parking too close(pictured above) Especially when I go to great lengths to find an edge spot and as close to the curb as possible, then some idiot parks like that next to me.
3) Signal indicators left on.
4) Accelerating all the way to the stoplight, then hammering on the brakes.
5) When the driver is doing anything besides driving when on the road.
6) Left lane hoggers.
7) Driving around with thumping music blaring for everyone to hear.
8) Drivers who lay their seat all the way back so they can barely see out the windshield
9) People with nice cars that know nothing about them and don't take care of them.
10) People who pulsate or pump the brakes instead of gradually applying them.
I'll stop there or I could be here all day. I may sound old by some of the things listed above, but I'm only 26. Common sense and good driving habits can go a long ways,...something so many people lack.
-Dustin
"If at first you don't succeed, Failure may be your style."
kumail891@aim.com
i like your quote, and your list
Jonathan Fung
People who honk and have no right to. Now you see, I live in Hawaii. It's different from NYC or LA, or any of those other congested cities where honking and road rage is the norm. We are happy drivers here. Honking is very rare. So it is really quite irritating when people honk at you and you have done nothing wrong. But maybe this is just fresh in my mind, since some lady in a BMW honked at me the other day because she didn't see me change lanes well in front of her...so I looked in my rearview and she's on the phone (left hand) and eating food in her lap with chopsticks (right hand.) It makes me wonder what she used to honk at me with...forehead?
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Cheers! Jonathan Fung
Trinks
One of the things that really grinds my gears is when people tailgate me needlessly, like when I'm already going well in excess of the posted speed limit (as long as we're being honest) or when there's a passing lane on my left. I will often slow way down or even turn just to get these types off my tail.
Lear
I'm completely with you on tailgating. The model seems to be "I should be able to go any speed I want regardless of traffic and you are in my way. Putting your life and your car in danger is ok: It's all about me."
michaelf
In Massachusetts each time you re register your car, the registry sends you a little sticker that you put in the top right on your license plate on top of the previous, expired, sticker. For some reason people have been decorating their plates with these stickers and it drives me crazy.
Also when oncoming traffic has a green arrow and several cars try to stack through the intersection after the arrow is gone.
Saxman19
Cars taking up two lanes or two parking spots, slow cars in the passing lane, high beams from the other direction, you name it.
But the one that really takes the cake is people who don't signal. That just speaks ignorance and inconsideration louder than any honking can ever sound.
Everything else like driving the speed limit or blaring music is just personal preference.
oollyoumn
I don't know if people are becoming progressively worse drivers are vehicles have just grown too large for most people's driving skills, but I have noticed an increasing trend for vehicles to be on or over the center line while going by my relatively small car. I assume they are thinking my car is so small I don't need the whole lane. I hope the current trend to smaller cars will reduce this annoyance.
c.j.lingo
It is probably NOT vehicles growing too large. In the article on the Ford Flex the author noted that the wheelbase is a huge 118 inches. Well that was the wheelbase on my 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Crown Victoria, (hardtop convertible). The little Ford, the Custom 300, had a short wheelbase of only 116 inches.
bjorn
I agree with all those above, but would like to add some:
When riding along with other people, there are some who like to sit at a red light and let the car slide ahead a little at a time, even if the light has not changed. Cab drivers do this all the time. At the end, they are sniffing at the bumper on the car ahead of them.
Another thing that freaks me out (specially from the backseat), are people who drive fast all the way up and a little into the road they are getting on, before stopping and looking. I'm just waiting for that time when there is a car coming from the left at that exact moment and clipping the front end.
Last one, merge lanes. This one I hate with a passion. If I am merging onto a highway and traffic is pretty much at a stand still, I try to be curtious and merge somewhere BEFORE my lane ends. But then there are those who think this is a huge time saver, so they drive around me, and drive all the way up until way passed where the lane ends and try to merge. They have indeed moved 5 spots ahead in traffic, but really haven't saved much time overall, but pissed off everybody behind them.
wes
On a 2-lane highway and both cars are going the same speed. argh.
Anonymous
I totally agree, Wes. I call it a "Rolling Road Block"!
oneway
We call that "flying in formation" around here. It is punishable by death. Truckers are the worst. Sometimes I believe they do it on purpose.
DanD
Five things can be blamed for just about all of the crappy driving we have to endure on a daily basis today:
1) The spread of the Massachusetts driving mentality of the 60's, where it was (apparently) legal to pass on the right on multi-lane highways. This resulted in a decades-long infection of the rest of the US that once upon a time lived by "keep right except to pass."
2) The rise in popularity of NASCAR whereby most of America now believes it is clever to pass on the right, especially when coming up on slower cars hogging your "line" (see also #1), and safe to tailgate (or, more accurately, "draft") the car ahead. Those Jersey barriers are nearly as good as SAFER barriers aren't they? Besides, haven't we all got airbags now?
3) The decline in driver education generally, even as traffic congestion and highway design complexity have increased dramatically over the years.
4) The trend towards greater self-centeredness of our society. Parking between the lines is now optional.
5) The recent rise in the use of personal electronics in cars, most notably by the supposed "driver." That category includes everything from subwoofers that can resonate your car's windows while completely obliterating the offending driver's awareness of his surroundings, to the ubiquitous cellphone. I don't know which is worse, a driver preoccupied by reading a nav screen or one who is busy texting some other distracted driver in another time zone.
Drive defensively out there!
buzzrdly1
Bravo, Dan! People have come to see operating a vehicle as a right rather than a privelege.
I'd like to see all drivers held to the same standards as commercial drivers; i.e. mandatory regular drug testing, lower limit for blood alcohol content, regular physical examinations, etc. etc. Although, since I hold a CDL, this opinion may be tinged with a flavor of sour grapes.
oneway
Apparently the drivers in Massachusetts were on to something. If you see someone approaching behind you and they are able to pass on the right, this means you didn't practice lane discipline (drive right, pass left). YOU need to move over. This solves both driver's problems. If you're not going to drive with lane discipline you can bet there's one driver out there who isn't going to stare at your bumper as you merrily travel down the highway in the fast lane. I'll pass you on the left any day of the week. Use your mirrors and proper lane discipline. Problem solved.
SPWilliams
Correct. Get the h*** out of the left lane. This problem actually is the product of ex-president and Hamas sympathizer Jimmy Carter. His 55 mph national speed limit created a nation of law breakers out of normal people driving rational speeds on roads (the Interstate highway system) engineered to be safe for speeds well over 70 for even '50's and '60's era cars. Slow moving drivers observing the limit immediately made those of us who chose not to follow Jimmuh's law into criminals and necessitated passing on the right to get by the road blockers. Now, a generation later, we have an entire populace who never learned proper road etiquette from their clueless parents and perhaps even driver's ed. instructors.
Anonymous
The 55 MPH speed limit was from the Nixon/Ford era. Jimmy Carter has nothing to do with it.
Redcarfan
When riding in the right lane and a car is slightly ahead of me in the left lane, someone will come up and tailgate the car in the left lane, then swerve over in front of me when he barely has enough room to fit his vehicle in.
People that drive with their fog lights on constantly.
Seeing a vehicle accelerate away from a stop light or stop sign and the brake lights are still on.
Gianni
People who speed up to your speed when you start to pass them on the interstate. Drives me crazy when I catch a car, signal and pass on the left only have them speed up to my speed so I can't complete my pass and move right.
alegria122
Definitely tailgating. Ironically, I'm mad because it's dangerous, but my instinctual reaction is to slam on my brakes to "teach them a lesson". So much for human rationality.
Gordon
Idiots who buy vehicles they are unable to drive (see pic)
Kairos4
For several year I lived in Michigan and worked in Detroit before moving to Maryland in 2007. Detroiters were notorious for hit and runs. But it wasn't until I moved to Maryland that someone creamed my S4 in the parking lot at my office. And wouldn't you know it, they did even leave their information. And our landlord is too cheap to install cameras!
glockyman
When you guys say "fog lights", do you mean high beams? Because I don't think I've ever seen a stock car that actually had fog lights strong enough to be a pain.
For me, two things make me more mad than anything on the road:
Riding in the left lane with cars stacking up behind you and a clear road ahead,
and people (typically the elderly and soccer moms) who don't understand basic road rules and are so excessively cautious that they drive 5-10 mph under everywhere they go, wave people on at stops and then start to go anyways, and don't know how right-of-way works.
Anonymous
Most trucks and large SUVs seem to have fog/driving lights that are much brighter than the low beams.
J. J.
I have several: the people driving in the left lane/middle lane blocking traffic. The people that like to wash their windshield with cars behind them (usually after you just washed your car). People that pull right out in front of you when they could've waited a second because no one's behind you and then they drive 10 mph under the speed limit. And of course in Florida if it rains it's mandatory to drive 40 mph in the fast lane with your flashers on!!!!
webejammin
.
Anonymous
i hate when u go to pass some one and they speed up to be an ass
people who almost come to a complete stop to turn
people who forget to check their blindspot before changing lanes
rednecks who take off their exhaust because they r too cheap to
buy an actual exhaust that sounds good
and people who floor it just to stop in another 100ft
Arvid
When traffic is slow and there's an extra lane for a block or two, SOME jerk, usually in some yuppiemobile, figures they have the right to get over there, zoom ahead fifty places, and get back over when the extra lane ends. If it were up to me, they'd spend the rest of their lives over there, but somebody's always lily-livered enough to let them back in!
jp4wd
There's only a few things that other drivers can do to aggrevate me:
- People who camp on the left (passing) lane.
- Those who doesnt know how to use the merge lanes in the freeway.
- Not using the indicators when turning or changing lanes
- Tailgaters when theres plenty of room to pass and lastly,
- the a$$ h$%es who cuts in front of every one else when coming to a busy freeway exit.
Some things i can understand:
Talking on the phone - acceptable only when youre on the slow lane and not impeding traffic.
Passing on the right - only when in a freeway w/ 3 or more lanes
Anonymous
My #1 complaint, which overshadows every other issue in my mind, is when someone chooses to drive substantially below the speed limit on a dry, sunny day. On a driving test, if you drive even 5km/h below the limit, you get points taken off. In the real world (NOT on a driving test), it is often thought to be inappropriate to drive less than 10km/h over the limit, and officers leave you alone as long as you keep it under 30km/h over.
Mr. Scott
Anyone doing anything other then driving! This is a car not a phone booth, lunch room, or a beauty salon. And keep the dogs off the drivers lap, unless they are driving the car keep them out of the drivers seat!
Gruff
Had to laugh at this one! I'm with you on this one. I've seen too many dogs sitting in the driver's lap. I'm not even mad... just astounded that anyone can see around the dog's head!
Anonymous
My pet peeve is people entering the freeway @ sub speed limit speeds. Everybody behind them is now traveling slow and will have to speed up at first opportunity if they're going to have any chance to merge smoothly. I hate getting behind these slow movers on an on ramp and most certainly hate it when they enter the freeway right in front of me and I cannot change lanes to get around them so myself and everybody behind me has to slow down while waiting for this dunce to figure out what the speed limit is.
rickwrite@earth...
how about a driver with an open lane ahead matching speed with the driver to the right?
bugs me, how 'bout you!
Qikbbstang
The inconsiderate Fuel Wasting Drivers that will ride in the left lane usually driving the same speed as the right lane (therefore blocking a row of following drivers from passing capturing as many hapless drivers in their "Stop Light Web" as possible).I'll add I've noticed said inconsiderate drivers will often even slow down when approaching "green light" intersections, of course this further increases the possibility of getting even more of the trailing cars stuck at a Red Light. All of the cars that unnessacarliy get the Red Light because of one inconsiderate driver must go through the entire braking, waiting at the light 1-3 minutes and finaly re-accelerating this action simply eats a pile of fuel. I've noticed that on the same road if I can acelerate briskly and rock and roll at the speed limit I can likely make the entire road with no or at most one red light stop, however get behind a lane blocking slow driver and I can be assured of getting at least three, four or even five red light lights.
Realisticly this wastes gas, $ and even adds to the carbon footprint!
Notice: Fuel Mileage sucks when not moving and accelerating.
You will also note the same inconsiderate driver will fail to maintain their speed and as a result you will note numerous not-so-with-it drivers braking repeatedly as they follow
Teeny
Wow Qikbbstang must have a special car that gets good mileage while accelerating? I get my best mileage when I keep my speed (actually engine vacuum) as constant as possibly and accelerating as little as possible. When I see a light turn red 2 blocks ahead I take my foot off the gas and slow down some. If I time it correctly the light turns green when I arrive and I merrily pass all the idiots who accelerated while the light was red and then slammed on their brakes and had to stop at the light. My gas and brake saving strategy is often stymied by blind idiots from behind who shift lanes to pass me, accelerate up to the red light, then shift lanes back in front of me and slam on their brakes and stop spoiling my plan to coast through without stopping. If these idiots could see past their front bumper they would realize that the light just turned red and will remain red no matter how fast they get there. I'm giving them too much credit. Let's see, the light just turned red and always stays red for at least 30 seconds, but maybe this time it will be different if I accelerate fast enough! I'm sure that if they choose they can see the light around me since I am driving a Saab 9.3 Viggen convertible that by the way just got 31.1 miles per gallon actual (not computer) on my last road trip. Full tank, drive, fill tank again, compute mileage.
My other peeve is idiots who can't stay in their own lane when making a turn. I am stopped at red light at an intersection in the right lane wanting to turn right on red. A herd of idiots from the opposite direction can't stay in the closest turn lane and swing wide into my lane so I have to wait. Just because they have a green arrow that doesn't give them the option to choose any lane they want. You are always supposed to turn into the closest lane. Then the right turn on red people would have the right lane to themselves and the idiots could stay in the left lane.
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