image: imcdb.org
We all see it: clueless drivers. They come in all shapes, sizes and ages, and drive everything from genuine Curbside Classics to the latest silver, multi-airbagged blandmobile. For motorheads like you and me, they can turn a pleasant drive into an excruciating, teeth-grinding pain. They are a common species: the brainless motorist.
They can do any one of a hundred things to aggravate other drivers they unfortunately share the road with. People going 45 in the fast lane on the Interstate; ignoring stop signs; taking half a minute to respond to a green light…and on and on. But for me, the absolute most annoying drivers are slow-turners. You’ve all seen them, no doubt. As they approach to make a right turn, they have to slow to 15 mph for approximately a quarter mile, and finally, finally, FINALLY make the freaking turn, at approximately 2.5 mph.
They must live in constant fear that if they dare go any faster than 1.987 mph when turning, their car will tip over and roll approximately 45 times, shedding hood ornament, wheel covers and chrome trim everywhere, burst into flames, and set an entire block of homes on fire! It does not matter if the driver is piloting a Corolla, Chevy Suburban, Subaru Legacy, Geo Metro or ’74 Fleetwood Brougham: the reaction is the same.
Oh, I feel so much better for sharing that! It has been percolating in my mind for years. If you too would like to vent your frustration on CC, feel free to share. What bugs you most when you’re on the road?
Married…With Children clips are from Youtube–who else?
Hmmm, I’ll have to give two examples.
One is when someone sees me in my old VW and just HAS to pull out in front of me because of course “That old thing is slow.” despite the fact that I’m probably traveling at or above the normal traffic speed. To make matters worse, often this same person proceeds to just putt down the road much slower than I was previously going. The times when I’m able to pass them is rather rewarding though.
The other is these people who move up the freeway on ramp at a snail’s pace to merge into 70mph traffic at 40mph. The purpose of the on ramp is to get up to speed. If my 36hp ’59 Beetle can get up to 55-60, your modern car can too.
I drive quite a bit for my job and from the way people drive I’m really surprised there aren’t more wrecks every day than there are.
Yep, people dogging it in the fast lane. Not common out here in the Intermountain West, but a part-and-parcel of life back in ‘Ol Virginny (one of several hundred reasons I left).
Oh I don’t even know where to begin. All other drivers piss me off.
I wish they’d hurry up and invent Star Trek-like transporters already, so most people would take that instead, and leave the roads to people that like driving.
No doubt! Good driving manners have long gone from our streets. Courteous drivers are almost non existent and if you are one of those few left, you are considered as a freak. Nobody gets in accord with your ideas nor accept that most of the time, they are wrong. Young people against old people. The age-gap is more apparent when a senior drives and a lad wants to show the same experience. These people feels as if were the owners of the road just because they drive a late model vehicle. I’ve been witness of many situations as those expressed here, either in México or in the United States. We no longer have regard for others, we simply want to get or way. ¡Bola de maleducados!
Going on the freeway at the posted speed limit and suddenly everybody else reduce speed from 65 to 50 because they saw a police car. Why? You are not speeding!
A lot of car speedometers read hot…sometimes very much so.
Since I got my first GPS, it’s become my speedometer. I slow, as everyone else does, at the sight of a gumball…but I get it to the legal limit and set the cruise. Everyone else is going by their speedometers…which show me speeding and have them down to 53 or so.
Slow traffic in the left lane of the interstate. I don’t always feel like speeding, and when I don’t, I keep right.
Worse, are “polite” drivers who, even though they have the right of way, and even though you are stopped and waiting for them to proceed, sit there and waive at you to go first. It never seems to enter their minds that “oh, maybe I have the right of way here because other cars can’t see what’s coming behind me.”
Finally drivers come down the street as you wait to pull out of a parking lot. That car is the only thing that keeps you from pulling out, as all other traffic is clear. Then, with no warning, this car turns into the driveway that you are trying to get out of. Dude – this is why there are turn signals, to let others know what you are going to do. Grrrrr.
Gee Tom, now you are getting me started on a grumbling rant. Breathe, JP, breathe.
Disagree with the polite drivers because I for one do this sometimes…usually when I noticed other car jamming on the brakes at the last minute appearing to be in a hurry. Few things irritate me more than having people sitting on my rear bumper. I’d rather piss them off by being nice than end up being passed and/or cut-off on a double yellow zone a half mile beyond. Keep in mind I nearly always drive around 8mph over the limit.
On the flip side, I TOTALLY agree with you on your second point — nothing…NOTHING aggravates me more than the bastards too rude/lazy to use their turn signal in the scenario you describe.
It is very important that you take your appropriate turn at stop signs.
You leave the sign in the order at which you stop and if approaching the stop sign at the same time as someone else, you intentionally make minor adjustments to make sure that you do not stop at the same time as someone else and you take your appropriate turn.
I have noticed the past 2-3 years, that when this happens, it is 80 to 90 procent of the time a woman driver.
Or to put it another way, if your are ANYWHERE, waiting for a clear path, and there you stand, blinking and waiting, there might be ONE car, that you have to wait for, who seem totally oblivious to the fact that you are waiting for THEM! And then turn in where you are anyways. sigh
people who think that putting on their left blinker entitles them to get into the left lane regardless of how much room they have in front of you. Listen…I can understand having to dart across lanes to make an exit that came up sooner than you thought, but there is no reason for you to cut me off severly because you can’t wait for a space to safely move into the passing lane to get around the person in front of you….
I generally feel people don’t know how to properly gauge when it is ok to change lanes in front of someone else…it feels like I’m going to lose my front bumper everyday because someone misjudges or just feels entitled to get in front of me…ugg.
I feel better not…a little
Consider yourself lucky to even get a turn-signal. At least they’re polite enough to let you know you’re about to be cut off!
As a former bus driver the drivers who refuse to let you pull out from stops and the ones who park on stops especially when they prevent a wheel chair or pram from getting off.
OK, this is perhaps a Canada-only issue….
There is an epidemic of drivers out there, at dusk, in inclement weather, and late at night in total darkness…..driving around without any freakin’ taillights. I can blame this on two factors. One, in Canada, we have had daytime running lights as standard equipment since (I believe) 1990. And two, the recent emergence (let’s say the last 10 years or so) of cars being produced wherein the instrument panel lights come on automatically, as soon as the engine is started. So, when the average person (particularly the average, “non-car” person) starts their car in low- or no-light conditions, when they see the dash light up, and they see the dim glow of the DRLs out front…THEY THINK THEIR LIGHTS ARE ALL ON…when really, the DRLs are the ONLY exterior lights that are illuminated. This to me is a fundamental flaw, or an overlooked glitch, in the way the engineers have designed lighting systems on newer vehicles. Once upon a time, when the ambient light got low enough that one started to have difficulty seeing the speedometer, that was the implicit signal to turn on one’s headlights. Now, due to technology and government regulation, that linkage has been severed.
Since DRLs are not likely going away any time soon, I can offer the following urgent solutions to this problem (which, ironically enough, will likely require FURTHER regulation..)
1) Outlaw having the dash light up automatically. This is not likely to fly, given the advances in electronics in modern cars (electroluminescent displays, etc.)
2) Mandate automated lighting systems, that will come on by themselves in low-light conditions. Many cars now have an “Auto” setting for the lights, which would imply that they already now have light sensors. However, these systems don’t work unless one “chooses” that setting. Make it “Auto” only.
3) Install large, red flashing warning lights on the dash, whenever the car is being operated in the dark with no lights on. This would be infinitely more useful than the small green “lights on” symbol that I’ve seen on late-model Toyotas, for instance.
It’s a bit ironic that, here in Nova Scotia, the provincial government not too long ago passed a “mandatory daytime headlights” law. This bit of useless legislation exempted cars older than 25 years, and of course cars since 1990 have had the DRLs. So I guess if your car is from the late eighties, watch out….!!?! However, given this latest epidemic of “taillight bandits” roaming the Canadian highways and biways, surely it is more dangerous to have thousands of vehicles driving around in the dark with no rear lights, than it ever was to have all cars driving around in the daytime with no DRLs…
Also, when you pull up behind one of these folks in traffic and give them the warning flash of the headlights, 90% of them are either oblivious to their rearview mirrors or else they can’t seem to figure out what you’re trying to tell them.
My U.S. Honda Fit (without daytime running lights) illuminates the instruments all the time. More than once I have started driving without lights on because of it. Ford autolamp systems I have also found to be a bit balky before turning on lights in lower light conditions.
GM’s auto lighting works excellent. I never have to turn on my lights manually. One thing they do very well. It spoils me, especially when I drive our CR-V and have to rotate the stalk!
The auto light sensor on my beater Ciera worked great!
Interesting thing is that the sensor on most Fords equipped with the Autolamp system is adjustable as to how little light is needed to make it activate the lights. Of course the sensor must be accessed first which of course isn’t an easy job.
I did that accidentally when I borrowed my mother’s Acura TSX – the dash illuminates all the time and the DRLs are on so it is easy to think your lights are on. Poor usability design for the casual user. If I regularly drove the car I’d train myself to know but for one off type usages it is very prone to error.
I drive a TSX. I just keep the lights on “auto” all the time and have no problems. The sensors work great. Sometimes I drive through a heavily wooded street and they’ll come on in the day time then go off as soon as I’m in sunlight again.
Not just a Canadian problem it happens around here with the GM vehicles that they were too lazy or too cheap to make a non-DRL version of for the US.
I agree completely Marlin66…. and there’s no good way to indicate to these people to turn on their full headlights.
Totally agree on this one. It’s not just an annoyance, but it’s a real safety issue. For some reason I notice the vehicles doing it the most seem to be Nissans. I think a compromise should be that if a vehicle is equipped with an electroluminescent instrument cluster, and either isn’t equipped with auto headlamps or has auto headlamps that are not switched to “auto,” a light or dashboard message should display, indicating that lights are needed.
My mom’s ’94 Deville was equipped with auto lights (Twilight Sentinel — always thought that was such a fussy and “very GM” name for the feature). If they were not switched to “auto,” and it got dark out, a message would display in the DIC reading “Headlamps Suggested.” I thought this was a good feature.
Speaking of that, my mother once drove my ’99 Cougar for five miles at night in nearly pitch black conditions with the lights off because after decades of Cadillacs, she “didn’t realize” that not every car was equipped with auto lamps! She was driving the car alone, and had to pull over to the side of the road and spend 10 minutes trying to figure out how to turn them on. I never let her live that one down.
I’m guilty of this one. My Nissan has gauges set deep in the dash in a black recess, and they light up whenever the car is on. When the headlights are turned on, the gauges dim. In drizzly daylight, this creates the bizzare paradox of having the headlamps on for safety and state law compliance, while dimming the gauges to the point of almost being invisible. Compounding the problem is the lack of a “headlamp on” indicator.
1. Drivers who tailgate you on any road even though you are going the speed limit or even above. Admittedly I don’t push it too far, as I’m not eating a ticket for any idiot behind me.
2. Drivers who are always on the phone even when zig-zagging through traffic and obviously are not paying the attention they should.
3. Drivers texting.
Why can’t people put their gadgets down for awhile? Who in the world do you know or MUST communicate with to either text or talk to all the time?
Peace and quiet sometimes works wonders for the soul…
4. Drivers who don’t properly clear their windshields, back glass and side glass after a snowstorm and drive peeking through a hole!
Thank you, glad to see I’m not the only one. There is a road in my neighborhood that by all logic SHOULD be 35 or 40mph instead of 30, but because police like to set traps there and people in the area love to dress in all black and WALK ON THE STREET at night i tend to follow the posted speed. I’m apparently the only one, because if I’m driving on that road I’m guaranteed to have someone tailgating me. It happens on other roads too, but none are as common as that one. I may disagree with some speed limits, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to break them.
Another one that really angers me is drivers who insist that a one lane road should be a two lane road. There is another road in my neighborhood that has one lane in each direction, and if I’m waiting to turn left about a fifth of the time someone will try to squeeze next to me to turn right. And this is with me in a 1980s Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight and them in a Navigator or F-150 Platinum. The street may be wide enough to let a car through when cars are parked on both sides of the street, but it isnt wide enough for two cars to share a lane. I think I may have even heard scraping once or twice, but i never look back because if there was any contact it would be with my indestructable 1980s bumpers, so I’ll leave the other guy to clean up his own mess.
My current pet peeve are being behind those that will drive 5-10mph under the speed limit who, upon coming towards a green traffic light that’s turning orange will suddenly gun it and breeze through the light, leaving you stranded at the red light.
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the mindless driver yapping on a cell phone, or worse, texting, oblivious to all else around them. You can spot them a mile away, drifting, weaving, slowing, speeding up. Only hands-free devices are allowed in California, and even that is distracted driving. It’s a rampant disease, in my view.
Ferris Bueller’s Dad!!!
I am far from a speed demon on the highways. However, with as much information out there these days about proper usage of the roadways, I just cannot figure out for the life of me why so many people insist in getting in the fast lane on the Interstate and just poke along. They can clearly see that they are holding up traffic, yet they do nothing about it.
In regards to DRL’s…Personally, I hate them! I would be fine with them if they were done like GM did with the last Century and Regals, and made the parking lamps glow. It’s the ones that use the high beams, though on reduced power that drive me nuts!
Both my cars have an autolamp system, and I am fine with that. My Alero had the dreaded DRL’s. I promptly pulled the fuse for them, now I am happy! The lights come on at dusk like they are supposed to still.
They’re doing that so they can use the cruise and not be bothered with adjusting anything for miles.
I do that, but I stay in the right lane. I’m usually going 10 mph over the limit. It’s a good day when I can keep it on cruise, and leisurely pass everyone in my way. It’s a bad day when someone INSISTS on riding in the left lane for no reason. I understand that you’re going 8 mph over, but guess what, I’m going faster and the person in the right lane is going 8 over as well. So move over and let me cruise!!!
My HUGEST pet peeve are people who get in the left lane on a highway to make a left turn like 3 miles before their turn. I understand if the road’s busy and you need to find a space, but that’s rarely the case. I’ve NEVER had trouble reaching my turn lane within a half mile, unless the traffic is almost standing still or the lanes are just poorly designed… there’s a very popular mall that I go to that requires you to get in the rightmost lane to turn, but that lane is also an exit from the highway. Like the moment it becomes available, people are trying to get in the lane you’re trying to move from. And it’s like 300 ft long. Also, I hate when people don’t use their turn signals. For me, that’s step one of turning or changing lanes and I can’t do the maneuver without it!!
Slow left-turners in a left-turn-only/left-green-arrow lane. Left arrow turns green, one-potato tow-potato the first car accelerates leisurely and makes the turn, Then second car waits till first car has fully completed the turn and process starts again. In a typical suburban California 4 lane intersection, several cars can safely turn left with a small gap between them, and assuming the lanes ahead are clear there’s no risk of getting stuck in the intersection when the light turns red (the only reason for hanging back). Often, the slow starters are yakking on their phones and don’t hit the sensor in time, causing the turn arrow to turn red prematurely. Related to this, blocking the left-turn-only “bulbout” by leaving three car lengths between cars … not only does this hurt left-turners but often blocks people going straight. There is one major intersection in Palo Alto with 2 left turn lanes, and people will block the leftmost lane, leaving enough room for several cars in the 2nd turn lane to the right, so it is common practice for more assertive drivers to cut over ahead of the blockers and slip in to the rightmost turn lane.
If you’re in a hurry to pull out in front of someone, at least drive the speed limit.
Put down the phone and use your turn signal.
Once you pass the slower car, get out of the left lane.
Stop riding my ass, I’m not going any faster.
And for God’s sake, if it’s your turn to go at the stop sign then go… I know when it’s my turn don’t f**k it up.
One last thing- just because you took out a mortgage on your luxury liner doesn’t make you a better driver than anyone else!
“Stop riding my —, I’m not going any faster.”
I cruise lazily along out of necessity around 62-63 mph in the mornings in the slow lane. Why that speed? A few reasons I won’t go into here, but they’re valid.
If someone is riding my bumper when the left lane is wide-open, which is most of the time, I just touch the cruise control a click or two and slow down until the person gets the message and passes me like he should have three miles ago.
Someone was doing that to me the other day, I got the car slowed down to about 20mph in a 60 before they got the hint that maybe they shouldn’t be 3 feet from my back bumper. I couldn’t see their headlights in my mirror because the package shelf in the Chevelle was blocking it.
Go on and hit those big ole 5mph bumpers in your brand new Tahoe, it won’t hurt my car any.
People who whip down the freeway at 15-20 over the limit, then once they pull even with you, immediately match speeds and refuse to let go. Then,when you come up on a car going 10 under the limit, they latch on to them instead and make sure both lanes are blocked at 10 under. As soon as you can find a gap to pass (usually an exit ramp approach or a truck lane), the leech zips around the turtle to re-attach to you. Activate turbo, pray for no cops, it takes a blast to near triple digits to remove this cling-on.
+1 Decades ago, I was driving late at night in my VW Beetle, and the freeway was pretty much deserted. Once this guy glued himself to me, there was nothing I could do to get rid of him: I drove at 45; 75, erratically; didn’t matter….I guess he was lonely. Unfortunately, the triple digits option was not available to me in that car.
+2 LOL… “cling-on”
Every day I encounter this person in Houston, yet it’s a different person every day! I am apparently the nexus of human critical thinking failure.
I call them ‘magnets’, usually on a road trip on open Interstate. You catch up to them and pass on left, then they speed up and ride in your blind spot for a few miles. Then, have to go nearly 20 mph over speed limit get in front of them and finally out of the “magnetic field’!
I drive a 6400 lb truck that looks like it’s been through a demo derby. Invariably with the cc set to about 63mph, and always in the #3 of 4 lanes* unless even slower traffic bumps me to the left. If I’ve got some tool clinging to my right-rear quarter when the time comes that I need to move over to make my exit, I move over. So far, they’ve always managed to wake up enough to get out of the way.
*see comment above about people merging at 40moh to understand why the #3 rather than #4 lane…
LOL, yeah, I do have a much easier time all around with my pickup than I ever did with our old Civic. Easier merging, fewer cut-offs, etc, basically it just gets more respect. Some of that is it’s easier to see. Intimidation certainly plays a role though I’m sure.
A couple of years ago Jack Baruth did a piece over on TTAC about “highway buddies” who did just that. This brings it all back!
I once ended up in a ‘road train’ for 200 miles with a bunch of those super aerodynamic sedans from the 90’s. Everyone kept a reasonable distance, but I still ended up getting well over 30 MPG at 75 MPH out of the big old Ford I was driving at the time. Saved us time, too, as we totally skipped the planned gas stop.
Oh yes! I had that happen on I-45 one night coming back from Houston to Dallas. No matter what I did, I couldn’t shake this person. I finally just ramped up what speed I could muster in my elderly Explorer and wound up in a small race with this yahoo till they hit the speed limiter in their Suburban, and I kept my foot on the floor till I hit about a buck fifteen, and held it there for 10 minutes. Thankfully I-45 is nearly straight as an arrow as the 2nd gen Explorers don’t like going much over 70-75 without pucker-factor creeping in.
Drivers that cause crashes: Huge backups. Innocent lives lost. Time lost. Money lost. What a waste. And note that I didn’t call them “accidents”; since the overwhelming majority aren’t. “Negligences” would be a better word.
+1 on that! I hate the word “accident,” because it implies fate, bad luck, or “I couldn’t help it.” Yes, these are crashes!
Stupid blue winky-blinky-change-color HID headlights. Nighttime driving is hellish with these #$(^%7 high-end imports blinding me. I’m constantly distracted when a slight angle change gives me a flash of blue in my RV mirror…
Is that a troop… er no, just another effin maxima about to ride my tail. Argh.
And doesn’t it seem like so many new cars with stock headlights blind oncoming motorists? The current clear-lens fad seems to be the culprit; I don’t remember seeing it near as much when most cars had faceted glass headlamps.
newer GM pickups are the WORST.
Yes, lights are brighter (or maybe just poorly focused) and often come with additional “driving” lights that most people leave on at all times.
LED brake lights are getting bad too. Some are way too bright at night.
And the clear lenses so popular now can make it impossible to see some turn signals in sunlight.
Oh yes! People who use fog lights on clear days drive me right up the wall. I want to yell out, “They’re FOG lights, you nincompoop!”
Yes they are called “Fog lights” but they illuminate an area that the regular headlights don’t, ie directly in front of the vehicle. So you can count me (and my wife) in as one of those nincompoops. In fact since she drove a vehicle with factory fog lights for so long that is one of her complaints about her current car (along with the lack of heated seats).
Eric, I said “clear days.” I can see how they can add visibility on a clear night.
Yes you did say “days” and since the vehicle has autolamps it is the one deciding when the lights come on so unless it is particularly dark and rainy they aren’t on during the day.
Some people claim to use fogs all the time at night to let oncoming drivers know they don’t have their high-beams on (as factory setups don’t allow high-beams and fogs to be used simultaneously). A silly reason in my view!
I understand what you’re saying Eric, but the extra illumination is only to the immediate front of the car, so I don’t see the need in clear weather.
Actually they also do a better job of lighting the road to the side of the car too, at least on mine, so they sort of work like the long lost cornering lights which is needed where I live out in the country were there are no street lights. Makes it much easier turning on to a side road or drive way.
They complete the look of some cars, Pontiacs for instance. They don’t adversely affect the vision of oncoming drivers, so it’s really a non-issue.
I compare it to using your windshield wipers when it’s not raining. Why use them when they are not needed?
Because some might like the effect. Either way, it doesn’t affect oncoming traffic.
Some like chrome. Some like black steel wheels. Some like those new glitzy Hollywood-style DRLs. I like fog lights. They have a certain sex appeal.
They create more light and glare. That’s a fact. Which affects oncoming traffic in a negative way.
Some are worse than others.
Actually, fog lights are designed to avoid producing glare. High-breams produce glare.
One sees headlights before fog lights when driving on hilly roads. Fog lights do not affect oncoming drivers. The same way orange parking lights don’t affect oncoming drivers.
Frankly, it’s a minor nit to pick. I’m just overly pragmatic sometimes 🙂
I agree with you!! My Grand Prix just looks nakie without his fog lights on. It also helps that they don’t collect moisture like the stupid headlights do!!
In city driving, people who come to a complete stop to try to change lanes to make a turn. Just go to the next block for crying out loud. But some people are determined that the shortest route is the only route. These same people generally can’t merge to save their life in the first place, they seem to expect everybody to practically stop for them when their signal comes on.
Also people who keep creeping up at stoplights have always bugged me.
And last, people who swerve over to the left while making a right turn.
I too never understand people counter-steering, usually prior to a U-turn. Is this a behavioral remnant from riding a bike?
They’re afraid that their back tires will hit the curb if they cut the turn too tight.
My car would require severe counter-steering to make a U-turn on a city street. It honestly couldn’t handle it on anything but our big Texas boulevards with three lanes in each direction and a median, so i never bother for fear of getting in other people’s way.
Sloppy driving. Rolling through stop signs, sitting across two lanes at an intersection, and the big one for me, not turning into the closest lane on multi-lane roads.
“How many lanes does it take to turn a Buick? As many as there are.”
Here in SoCal it is the constant lane changers, on city streets and on freeways. Last week-end I watched one driver change lanes five times within nine blocks. These same drivers frequently end up two or three lanes over from their upcoming turn or off-ramp and then cut through those lanes at the last minute, causing brake lights to come on throughout traffic.
My DD is a fullsize pickup with a cap and before that a fullsize van, so effectively a “moving wall” when viewed from behind. I think some strange thing happens in some peoples’ heads when they’re in the proximity of large vehicles. On the highway, I usually drive 10mph over the limit and use the speed control if traffic and weather conditions allow. People will drive up and tailgate me, realize that they can’t see a thing, get annoyed and pass, then pull in front of me and slow down slower than I am driving! If they wanted to drive so slow, why were they tailgating in the first place?!
Here in Vancouver we seem to have the opposite problem you guys are complaining about. There are no, repeat NO freeways in Vancouver, the entire city is surface streets. This means traffic, ahem, moves, ahem, rather slowly as there is only another traffic light.
Vancouver is also the wealthiest city in Canuckistan (I know these things are relative, the richest city in Canuckistan being the equal of the poorest in America) and this means we have scads of nice, shiny, new, powerful, expensive cars on the road. Good luck tying to find anything more than five years old here. I drive Oak Street all the time and it is like a freaking Indy Derby: cars screaming off the lights at absurd speeds, only to be stopped a few blocks up, to repeat the process. The jockeying for lanes and position at every take off is hilarious.
And yes, over the years I have witnessed more than a few collisions due this kind of driving. All I can say is it is amazing the punishment a modern car can take and have the passengers walk away none the worse for wear.
When I was on vacation in BC, I was pleasantly surprised at how courteous drivers were. We were crossing the bridge into Vancouver and it was rush-hour. As I recall, there were two on-ramps, one after the other, just before the bridge. I thought, “Oh no, everyone is going to be pushing to get in and it will be chaos!”
Amazingly, everyone that was in the right-hand driving lane spaced-out to let one car from each on-ramp in, just like the sides of a big zipper coming together. The traffic kept moving, albeit slowly, and everyone got over the bridge with a minimum of drama.
I was hoping to see more old cars plying the streets, since the weather out there should be more conducive to cars not rusting away. As you say though, very few older cars to be seen on the road, at least in the city.
In 2010 my brother and I drove up to Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, where Paul Reed Smith was making an appearance (if you know guitars you’ll know who I’m talking about). Anyway, we took my wagon instead of Andy’s gas-guzzling 4×4 and I was surprised by how courteous drivers were! The roads were all well-maintained too.
Beer, cheese, pleasant motorists, nice roads–it’s paradise 🙂
You must be referring to our rickety and totally antiquated Lion’s Gate Bridge, where something like three hundred lanes of traffic merge into one. There isn’t a lot of point honking and giving each other the finger in these situations. You just have to grit your teeth a wait.
The climate here is conducive to the preservation of old cars but in oh so hip Vancouver, nobody would be caught dead driving an old me (myself excepted, of course). If you are really interested, go to Victoria to find old iron. There is a large senior population and being on an island, the cars don’t drive a lot. Just look at Victoria Craigslist.
Engaged in repeated 150-mile round trips to a new home, I’ve been keeping my speed to about 62 or 62 mph to help out my fuel economy. I’m sure that is in itself annoying to some, but I stay in the rightmost lane to keep out of anyone’s way. And there’s the problem: The people who more often than not, and in everything from Porsches on down, can’t seem to use even the longest of onramps to gain speed. They merge onto the freeway at between 50 and 55, slowing me down behind them, and only THEN do they stand on it, zooming off and moving over a lane or two quickly while meantime I waste time and fuel regaining speed.
The art of matching merging speed to traffic already on a highway seems not to be taught at all. Meantime, we’re told by the auto writers that any car is a slug if it doesn’t have a 0-60 under 7 seconds. As per Adam’s initial post, on most highways it’s actually perfect possible to merge with a 36 hp VW Beetle if you actually know how to drive!
What’s worse to me, and I see this all the time in Western Washington, is the nimrod who doesn’t match speeds while merging, doesn’t look, doesn’t signal, and proceeds to sideswipe me as I drive 60-65 in the right lane.
You are merging, I am not. I have no obligation to move over to the passing lane for your highness as you blithely blunder onto the highway.
Usually this gets me a stink eye and the finger.
Well, of course. How dare you not move for the King of the World 🙂
This happens to me all the time too. Another thing I can’s stand is when a car will be behind me on the interstate for miles, then suddenly pass me, cut me off, and take the upcoming exit. Why?!
People should know how to merge and I will not move over if it would cause anyone in the adjacent lane to let off the gas or slow down. Usually I’ll move over a lane well in advance of a rather busy entrance ramp to avoid any potential situation.
If you don’t move over when someone is attempting to merge when there’s nobody in the adjacent lane approaching, you’re not teaching anyone a lesson: you’re just being an asshole.
No. I am minding my own business driving legally and safely in the right lane on an interstate. The guy sideswiping me, not so much. Asshole.
Here in NZ if you’re travelling most likely a significant portion (if not all) of your trip is going to be on country roads with two lanes.
With NZ being a fairly hilly place for the most part the roads are fairly twisty. We don’t get all that many opportunities to pass, so it really hacks me off when I get stuck behind drivers that seem to think that all cars on the road handle like buses. The ones that go around corners at 10-20 km below the advisory speed (when EVERYONE knows you can go around them at least twice the speed posted!). Then of course on the straight they speed up, making passing difficult.
Then we get the other sort that wind me up, in NZ we also have plenty of passing lanes in designated places, where the road is widened up to three (or sometimes four) lanes to let people pass easily. Invariably you’ll be travelling along, and end up in a queue of traffic behind a truck, or car towing a boat etc. When you get to the passing lane the car that’s first to pass doesn’t seem to feel any urgency to make a timely overtake, and dawdles their way past the obstructing vehicle, leaving a huge line of cars behind that couldn’t get past. Of course when the next passing lane comes along (usually in 4-10km’s time) the process is repeated… ARRRGH!
Oh yes. If anyone’s EVER driven Route 2 in MD, you’d understand. The speed is 50, 60 is MORE THAN safe, it’s like the straightest, flattest road in the state. Yet everyone drives 40-50. There are two stoplights at which you can pass. If I’m behind anyone at that stoplight, I know it’s going to be a dramatic mess. I’ll be behind a Dodge Challenger, which I KNOW can pick up more than enough speed to pass the Prius next to him, but he accelerates leisurely enough to make sure that he’ll be the one passing the bunch, and I’ll be stuck behind further than I was before. If I’m first in the passing lane, you can bet that I’ll be gunning it out of courtesy for those also trying to pass, but they inexplicably won’t be able to. What gives? I don’t even drive a fast car. Why do people set themselves up for failure?
When people navigate by ‘feelings’. Slow way down or stop in traffic to try to find a destination.
A. I work at Vet Admin site and people stop and try to figure out how to get to main entrance, when there are sign/arrows!
B. In Downtown Chicago, tourists look for front door parking to an attraction, when there are no parking lanes!
Example, toruists stop in front of John Hancock building or Water Tower Place [shopping], blocking traffic looking for parking! DUH! It’s not a 7-11!
Regarding slow turning, some are in wobbly handling cars and the body lean scares them. So, they don’t want to tilt, at all! Worry that their 1995 Cutlass Ciera will fall to the side if turn more than 0.5 miles per hr! Even in a smaller biege Corolla, that can turn easy, some will stop traffic to turn into a wide open strip mall.
My biggest aggravation is the aggressive tailgater. I’m not talking about those who might not be paying full attention and creep up on me, but those who deliberately get as close as possible and stay there. It doesn’t matter if I’m going the speed limit or somewhat faster.
Then on 2-lane roads (one lane in each direction), there’s the aggressive (typically young) males who will pass when the passing zone is too short or there’s oncoming traffic. It seems women on the other hand, refuse to pass, but just stay glued to my bumper. I have to wave them around, and even then, some just won’t pass! (Mind you, I’m driving a car or a small pickup, and they’re often in higher riding SUVs.)
I’m wondering if the latter think I’m leading them into some kind of trap, as in the movie “Duel,” where the truck driver waves Dennis Weaver’s character around almost directly into the path of an oncoming car!
I have to agree also about the increasing number of people I see who drive in semi-darkness, thunderstorms, or fog without any lights on at all (or only their DRLs).
Next up are those who stay in the left lanes of freeways seemingly oblivious to the long line of vehicles behind them and the congestion it causes. These are the same types who do this on multilane roads (not freeways) MILES ahead of their intended left turn.
People who text and drive.
I work with a woman who hit and killed a motorcyclist a year and a half ago. The police knew, and I know, that it happened while she was screwing around on her cellphone. However, she was never charged because they couldn’t prove it. I don’t need proof to know it, because she cannot live more than a minute without pulling out her damn cellphone. I’ve gotten rides home from here and in spite of a ban on texting while driving in Pennsylvania she merrily tappity-tap-taps away.
She will inevitably kill someone else. It can only end in tears for all involved.
The point of the story? PUT THE DAMN PHONE DOWN! If you can’t make it through a shift at work without touching your cellphone or drive home without texting after you killed a guy doing it you cannot be saved. You have no redeeming value whatsoever.
I have standing orders to my family that they hire a lawyer and subpena the cellphone records of anyone who hits and injures/kills me and to then pursue criminal prosecution and civil litigation as needed.
In fatal accidents the police will check cell phones for time/dates to see if they were at fault or contributed to the accident. There have been so many texting accidents police check it right away. They have found cell phones in mid-text that the owner never lived to complete.
If you really think she did it, call the police! If she does it again it’s not an accident anymore. It could be considered murder. Certainly a blatant disregard to human life. This isn’t a “pet peeve” it’s criminal and illegal.
“Phone records indicated he sent a text message at 2:34 p.m. and received a response at 2:35 p.m. Police said the crash occurred at 2:36 p.m.
“The defendant sent and received 193 texts on Feb 20, 2011,” a prosecutor told the court. ”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/aaron-deveau-found-guilty-landmark-texting-driving-case/story?id=16508694
Another one that bugs me is the guy in the RAV4 who passes me on the freeway, gets in front of me, and then sets his cruise control half-a-mile-per-hour slower than me. Why is it always a RAV4? I don’t know, but it is. What’s even worse is when it turns into a freeway dance, where he is half-a-mile-per-hour slower than me when he’s ahead and half-a-mile-per-hour faster than me when I’m ahead, and we constantly try to pass each other.
I think they have some dim conception of it being a game, though who knows why.
“Tag, you’re it!”
A corollary to the constantly passing each other….how about passing a car and then passing it again 10-15 minutes later, while never seeing it pass you!
I call that “leap frogging” and it used to be Geo Metro drivers…
Here’s another one:
Truckers who try to pass another truck and going exactly 1/2 mph faster, which ties up the entire highway! A line of them doing the same thing is worse.
I used to work with a guy who drove trucks for a living. He said that when he was a truck driver, they’d do that because the people driving cars were inconsiderate a-holes and they hated them (us) anyways. I don’t know if that’s true for all truckers, but it makes a certain amount of sense.
I speed most every where I drive, but I always slow down for school/playground zones. I see lots of people that don’t and that always bugs me. There is one by my house I always drive by that nobody slows down for. If somebody aggressively tailgates me there I will slow down even more or brake check them. Just the other day somebody was doing this so I slowed down, and then just as the zone was ending he decided to throttle it and pass me on the left over a solid double yellow. Or try to, he didn’t anticipate my Neon being able to outrun him as I accelerated in order to prevent him from passing me. Not the nicest move I know but he irritated me driving like that.
I have to say those slow right hand turners. The ones that get double points are those who have to stop,come to a slow rolling dead stop, before they can complete the turn. My mother is one of those. Has been all her life. Another one are the people who come screaming at Mach 1 towards an intersection with a stop sign and come to a slamming stop. You’ve seen them. Nose down and tail high. You never know if they aren’t paying attention and are going to blow past the sign or signal. Than I read about them on some site about how their Acme Double Throw Down Douche-mobile was a crappy POS because it ate brake pads.
I never relized how bad of a driver I used to be until I became a certified Class A CDL holder driving the big rigs. You know people, trucks aint sport cars. Reguardless of how bad-ass Patrick Swayzee was in BlackDog big rigs cant do 100 let alone 65 in most cases. We may have 1,800 pound feet of torque but we only have 350-400 horses and a 1800RPM redline and don’t have syncronized transmissions so it can take a mile or more to get up to warp speed. Dead empty with a standard 53 foot dry van we weigh over 22,000 pounds.We can weigh up to 80,000 pounds when fully loaded which means going from 65 to screeching halt can take up to 3 football fields even though we have brakes on every axle. Here’s something to consider. CDL holders are regulated by the Federal government. Every move I made was recorded and is on file with DOT. Even tickets I got while off duty driving my “civilian car”. It pisses me off to see an ambulance chaser on TV with a commercial that starts off with”were you in a truck accident?”. Look, if I get into an accident,even if it wasn’t my fault I’m pretty much washed up as a driver. Which is why I dont drive anymore. There aint a company that wants my driving record on their record. And yes that means that every truck company out there is also regulated and recorded by the DOT. Your record follows you for the rest of your life. So please take it easy when your out there. Somebodies job and livelyhood depends on it.
But what truck driving really taught me was how to be an efficient driver. I learned how to drive in traffic. How to anticipate other drivers moves.(I already had been praticing this most of my life since I also ride motorcycles). Learned to time traffic lights. Not to be an agressive driver.Take care of your equipment by not abusing it and driving above its and your abilities. If I it was up to me I’d make everybody take the CDL test. Which means a minimum of 155 hours of instruction. I’d also make it manditory to attend and participate in PDE(PerformanceDrivingEvent) every time you licensed a car.
Disclaimer: I haven’t got a ticket in my “civilian car” or truck in the past 10 years. And the only accident….er wreck wasn’t my fault when a fellow truck driver jack-knifed beside me nearly killing me on some hillside highway in western PA. But with that one wreck on my record I cant get a job driving. PS I was delivering windshields to the Toyota factory in Evansville IN. Damn Highlanders!
A weird maneuver that I never noticed until a year or two ago, but has become commonplace now: the counter-steer. In this maneuver, a driver making a turn cranks the wheel away from the direction of their turn, and only after veering several feet into the adjoining lane and moving the car’s front end many degrees away from the direction of the turn do they finally turn the wheel the correct way. The only explanation that I can think of is that these drivers mistakenly think that they are giving themselves extra space to turn, not realizing that they are actually making their turn wider and are also endangering cars in the next lane in the process.
Very good thread! I think every single one of my personal pet peeves has been covered here. Most of the complaints here are about careless or inattentive drivers; people who have forgotten that when you are driving, you should be DRIVING. Cars have become little homes away from home. Driving is an ACTIVITY, not something that just kind of happens to you Heck, I don’t even listen to the radio most of the time when I’m behind the wheel. I’m listening to the engine, checking the mirrors, and doing all that driving kind of stuff.
For us, driving is something one does purposefully, not merely a bother requiring perfunctory attention.
Here’s another peeve: For efficiency, I use my cruise control as often as possible, or try to, but I’m often thwarted by drivers ahead of me who speed up & slow down at random even on uninterrupted stretches of road, driving models probably equipped with one. Do people actually use all the gadgets in their flashy cars?
Here’s something not concerned with driving per se, but maddening nonetheless in light of all the Green hype. I’ve seen people parked with their engines on for *minutes* at a time (as long as ½ an hour in one case) instead of simply switching off. I cannot for the life of me fathom why they don’t notice or care. Doing so at slow intersections has improved my mileage by 1 to 2 mpg. I think hybrids do this automatically.
Yeah, that idling bugs me too … and it usually seems to be drivers of less fuel-efficient cars who do that, not to mention Diesel pickups with open exhausts. Yes, I know you need to keep your turbo lubed, but do we all have to listen to that god-awful racket for 20 minutes?!!!
I’ll tell you why I do it, and that’s air conditioning. Even days that should theoretically be pleasant (75° or so) are so humid in Houston that AC is an absolute necessity, not a luxury. Saving a few gallons of gas a month isn’t worth getting heat stroke.
Fair point, which has occurred to me, but I also see it on mild days.
With the curved sloped glass in modern cars the solar gain means you can “need” the AC on very mild days. My Travelall with it’s stodgy upright flat glass, other than the windshield, keeps it much, much cooler on sunny days, than my modern cars with less glass area.
As far as using cruise control to increase MPG that is a fallacy unless you are on a pretty much totally flat road. The steep OD gears on modern cars means that in many cases the cruise will cause a down shift and a larger throttle opening. On the other hand speeding up before the hill and allowing the car to slow as it nears the top means you can climb the hill in OD with a lower throttle opening.
My 19 year old daughter refuses to drive our most fuel-efficient car (Prius) because she thinks our other cars (both with manual transmissions) are safer, since she is more involved when driving a stick. And in a way, I understand ….
Your daughter sounds awesome.
My biggest pet peeve lately is tailgaters, there is a heavily traveled 2 lane us highway between my small city and next city. The traffic is heavy, the crossroads are numerous and there are driveways everywhere. The speed limit is 55 and in most spots its not really safe to go more than 55mph, there have been 5 deaths on this stretch of road in the past 3 years.
So I am going down this road at 60-62mph and it almost never fails at some point during the 15 mile stretch of road someone will end up on my ass, there are not many spots to pass and with the heavy traffic the safe spots to pass are limited. Well usually they will pass me while I am going 60mph in the 55, cutting me off and almost causing a head on wreck just to end up a 1/4 mile down the road behind someone else. Rinse and Repeat.
It seems on any road people often will aggressively tailgate if you are going the speed limit to 7mph over. If you are going 7-12 over they will just tailgate. It seems to avoid tailgating drivers I must go 15-20mph over the limit which I will not do because I have a Class A cdl to protect and many times its just not safe.
Fwiw around here the worst offenders tend to drive full size pickup trucks, the 4wd Quad cab, platinum edition, 35k-50k price range type. They always seem to speed, tailgate, race from red light to red light, cut you off and blow thru red lights. They are always in a massive hurry. These tend to be the vehicles in the ditch around here when the snow flies.
In America I would absolutely join the ranks of those complaining about aggressive tailgaters. I was tailgated all the time, ALL THE EFFIN’ TIME back home, but here in Japan no one seems to do it. It might help that we’re all sitting in traffic going 2 or 3 mph all the time, but even then, I found that I was usually one of the most aggressive drivers on the road. My $1000 kick to the groin along with a day of work missed for a drivers’ safety class and a Saturday wasted on a drivers’ safety class cured me of a lot of that wickedness, though, and now I drive like an old man in a beige Toyota (same here as back home).
The drivers who piss me off here though? The other old people, in little white kei trucks. There are two kinds, and they’re both awful. The ignorant ones who pull out in to traffic and drive ridiculously slow speeds, cutting people off, ignoring pedestrians in a country where pedestrians have the right of way EVERYWHERE, holding up traffic, and parking anywhere they please. I dislike them greatly. The others are their mirror image: the old people who are all over the place in the silliest hurry you can imagine, cutting people off, parking anywhere they please, daring people to cross the streets even when they have a stop sign. I dislike them verily as well. This is especially dangerous in Japan where roads are unimaginably narrow, corners are blind as blind can be, and cops will bend you over with a smile for breaking driving laws.
Anyways, kei truck drivers come in two varieties, and they both suck.
1) + 1 for ‘cling-ons’ – happened to me again just yesterday.
2) Drivers who rest their left foot on the brake pedal for extended periods, triggering the brake lights – can’t tell if/when they are actually stopping.
3) Drivers in NA who leave their rear fog lights on all the time. Most are not aware that this feature even exists on their vehicle. Usually Volvo or Audi drivers. Rear fog lights are standard in Europe and are real life savers when used properly.
4) Idiots (can’t really call them drivers) who back up on freeways because they missed their exit.
5) And something I have twice witnessed in recent months: two of three cars closely following each other through a 4-way stop as a single unit, to prevent any cross-traffic from getting through. Unbelievably rude.
Another irrational thing tailgaters do: They’re on a 2-lane road with no cross-streets & no opposing traffic. So do they overtake the slow car in front of them? NO, they just keep tailgating.
BTW, re kei trucks, there is a niche business selling them secondhand in the USA; for example, at a gas station I spoke with a fellow shipping a Suzuki Carry pickup from CA to AZ, where they seem to be street-legal in this circumstance.
The one thing that used to really irritate me was drivers who were driving past the point at which their motor skills and vision have atrophied- i.e. an ’85 Crown Victoria driving down the highway at 3mph, bumping into parked cars like a bumper car in slow motion. Alternatively, Mr G. who ran his Renault Clio into my Volvo’s rear fender when he went from a stop to FULL power from a side road when I was in his path on the main street. He blamed me for driving such a large car. Once he hit me, his car stalled- he restarted it, floored it and proceeded to peel the entire side of his car off against my bumper before driving across two lawns. He then got out and screamed at me as though it was my fault. He deserves my respect for his services against the Axis powers, but this does not have a bearing on liability in a motor vehicle accident. (I really felt like a character in the Aussie Bloody Volvo Driver campaign).
I must admit that since the UK brought in free bus passes for seniors, the number of dangerous drivers who continue to drive beyond their comfort level is almost negligible. Where you find them, they will inevitably be in a 1990s Micra of Fiesta. They will put it in 5th at 20mph and just drive it like an automatic- lugging it and chugging and bouncing to 10mph on hills, and then picking up speed on the downhills, but never to within 10mph of the limit.
Equally annoying, in New Orleans and other urban areas where people have front porches rather than back decks, is the habit of people on single lane roads to stop- when someone from one of the houses then ambles down to the car to have a 5 minute conversation. The person will then become irate when you ask if they could move over so you could get by. It’s a road- not a dive bar! New Orleans is the worst place for this- due to the one lane roads that are main through streets, but when in uni I noticed people would do this in Detroit as well- only in Detroit, people would have these conversations with a car in the middle lane of a multi-lane road. It seems to have local acceptance, as I must be the only person to not accept this social convention in either location.
When I was in college in the late 70s-early 80s, my roommate and I developed an ironclad rule – never follow anyone wearing a hat. At that time, a lot of elderly men were still wearing fedoras. Every time we got stuck behind someone doing 25 in a 40, we would look and almost always triumphantly shout “he’s got a hat on!” We became quite good at making sure to steer clear of fedora-sporting drivers. I think that the modern version of this rule would apply to anyone driving a Buick.
Driving a Buick…wearing a hat. Wait, that’s the same thing, right?
But it depends on the hat. If it is the kind that would not look out of place with a “Press” card sticking out of it…watch out.
I will give Zackman a special dispensation, however.
Back in the fifties, when I was young, people said that you should be aware of old drivers using hats. Everybody rode with open windows, so a gush of air would blow the hat away and they would try to catch it, letting the car veer off. Never saw it happen but… AGB
“I will give Zackman a special dispensation, however.”
Thank you, Tom!
Yes, three of my fedoras ARE the ones you could stick a “press” card in. The others have “stingy” brims, but not like the ones kids wear.
Even though I have plenty of headroom to wear my hat while driving, it all depends on the weather. If I have my windows down, I take it off so I won’t be distracted if it blows off. Other times – well, it all depends on how I feel at the moment. The head restraints interfere with wider-brimmed hats. Narrower-brimed hats, not so much.
I have vision issues as it is, and the last thing I need is to be a potential danger to other drivers on the road.
I wear a fedora (a true Humphrey Bogart-style Stetson, not one of those costume trilbys that Justin Timberlake and the like have made so popular lately) and drive a 1980s Oldsmobile, which in many ways is even “worse” than a Buick, but I’m only 23. Of course, my strict adherence to traffic laws may bug other drivers just as much as an old person would (following the speed limit even when everyone is going 10 over, stopping at stop signs instead of slowing down, stopping when the light is still yellow, etc.). Then again, I’ve been driving since I was 16 and have NEVER gotten a ticket, not even been pulled over, so I’m not about to change my driving style.
Nope, here is SoCal its a Corolla/Yaris…on the way to a casino…..on a two lane twisty road…..that you can’t pass.
They are the Ramblers of the new Millennium.
“I think that the modern version of this rule would apply to anyone driving a Buick.”
I think it’s really odd that unless one drives an Enclave, my 2012 Impala LTZ is larger and more “Buick” than any Buick currently built!
Some stupid, hideous human being had their high beams on behind me this evening. Second time that’s happened in a month, and this time it was an SUV. And no, it definitely wasn’t HIDs or Xenons or whatever other high-lumen nonsense comes on new vehicles these days, just four round elements burned into my retinas via the rear view mirror.
I could understand if this was out in the country and pitch black, but this was in town and it hadn’t even started to get dark. The last time it happened, the guy was flipping them on and off; I think he was trying to mask a burnt out low-beam.
I can’t even put into words how angry this makes me. If you can’t even use your high beams right, you should never be allowed near a motor vehicle.
In my opinion, high beams shouldn’t be used unless you’re on a lonely country road with no other illumination. In town, they’re just stupid.
I am quite sure that I pissed a lot of people off back in the day due to the Autronic Eye system in my 63 Cadillac. The system would keep lights on bright, and dim them when it sensed oncoming lights. Problem was that cars going the other way on an interstate highway would not trip the sensor, so unless I remembered to disable the system, all interstate driving would be with high beams on. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Cadillac eventually abandoned this idea.
……”just four round elements” …….
Could have been a 05+ Mustang GT, only recent car with 4 round head lights that I know of. They are are not hi-beams, not fogs (the manual says fogs however), they are driving lights. There are brights also…..much brighter than the ‘fogs”.
A lot of cars run with them on all the time, but on Mustangs they are more obvious. Even among Mustang GT owners there isn’t a consensus. I used to have one.
http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/2011-mustang-talk/277633-do-you-drive-your-gt-fog-lamps.html
It was an SUV. An old Highlander, I think. Two light elements on in each housing. The SUV-ish height only further exaggerated the brightness.
I had a late-model Mustang GT. I drove with those driving lights on almost all the time, in true toolbag style. How else would people know I sprung for the V8? The only time I really turned them off was at night on the highway…because I didn’t want ticket-happy troopers knowing I had the V8.
No they are not driving lights they are fog lights. By federal lighting regulations they can’t wire Fog lights so that they are on with the headlights on high beam and you can’t wire driving lights to be on when the headlights are not on high beam.
Being tailgated and/or blinded by bright lights in your RV mirror is the perfect time to clean your windshield.
I make sure mine is SQUEAKY clean and sometimes I feel led to clean it every 20 seconds or so. It’s worth the extra washer fluid as it clears up both my front and rear view.
One other thing I just thought of: whenever my car stalls and I have to pull to the side of the road (always due to running out of fuel, even though I try to avoid it it happens once every couple years) people always pull up behind me and wait for MINUTES before they finally figure out that I’m not moving and pass me. I do everything to make it as obvious as possible, putting on the flashers, moving over to the passenger seat, and if its safe enough even opening the hood or trunk. Doesn’t help, they always pull right up behind me and wait for me to move. This has only ever happened on roads with two or three lanes in each direction, so it’s not like I’m actually blocking traffic.
My PP, driving a 99 Miata is people who just don’t LOOK! In my previous Miata I was nearly run off the road by a female Real Estate agent in her BMW SUV……while talking on her telephone. I was on the freeway shoulder kicking up dirt! I caught back up to her honking with finger extended…….she never got off the phone to look.
I’ve learned to be an extremely defensive driver. Always anticipate what they do, no matter how implausible.
Another PP is cockeyed and close parallel parking, people seem to love taking up part of MY PARKING SPACE as if I don’t need it. It’s low, it’s short but it’s fairly wide, I need more than 3″ to get in.
Ah, just about every driver in America is courteous, disciplined and a joy to share the road with, compared to the ones in Jakarta. You’d blew capillaries driving here, if you’re used to drive in the US. Everyone is selfish, ignorant and semi-suicidal!
In Vancouver there seem to be a lot of drivers (I won’t mention any identifying characteristics) who seem to think it’s fine to roll . v e r y . s l o w l y . through Stop signs without even looking to the left (maybe their necks no longer rotate?) in the apparent belief that if they do go . v e r y . v e r y . s l o w l y . other drivers will just shake their heads and not rip their freakin’ bumpers off.