Driving pet peeves:
• People staring into their smart phones while driving. Trust me, there is NOTHING that can’t wait until you pull over or reach your destination!
• People who can’t be bothered to use their signals. Lazy and inconsiderate.
• People who can’t stay in their lane on corners, or turn into the wrong lane on divided turns. Is it really that hard to keep your vehicle in the correct lane or are you just that lazy/stupid?
• People who sit in the left lane. I don’t care how fast I/you are going, if someone comes up behind you, move the F over.
• People who would rather ride on your bumper than pass you.
• People who close the gap if you signal to merge. A little courtesy makes everyone’s lives easier. Likewise, if you’re trying to merge in front of someone, the brake is the wrong pedal.
• People who cut someone off then get pissed when they get honked at.
• People who pull out in front of you (generally when there’s NO ONE behind you for miles) to putz around at 40 mph, then take the next turn.
•People who haul ass through parking lots. People and kids everywhere, let’s haul ass and cut across empty spaces! Very surprised there’s not more crashes/deaths in parking lots.
• People who pass you in the 4 lanes only to slow down to under the speed limit in the 2 lanes.
• People playing on their phones at stoplights. Regardless of what you think, yes you do need to pay attention at stoplights too.
• People who get pissed when you pass them for going under the speed limit, so they tail you for the next 5 miles.
• People who pass you right before an exit, only to cut in front of you to take the exit. These people also have generally been behind you for miles and just decide they need to be in front within a mile or less of the exit.
• People who must be in front of you when you’re towing a 10k+ lb load behind you. They will cut you off, pull out directly in front of you, or merge over and slam on their brakes, all because they can’t be behind a truck and trailer.
412GTI I’ll add a specific one - Tesla drivers thinking they don’t have to drive because aUtOpIloT.
CarsofFortLangley I think eating while driving should be illegal.
VincentMalamute-Kim Driving while on drugs.
xsnowpig Don’t forget the people who drive below the speed limit when there is a double yellow, then speed up during a passing zone, then slow down again for the next double yellow.
token_liberal Bro-dozer drivers who don’t adjust their headlights to compensate for their compensation. The other morons who can’t be bothered to turn on the headlights in a fog bank.
ZHP Sparky, the 5th People who drive around in the dark with all their lights off
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever People who can’t make up their minds at a 4 way stop. I’m like you have the right of way go, and they just sit there, then I’m like okay you are going to let me go? —-and then they start to go and I’m like god damn sumbitch.
Any vehicle with modern ultra bright headlights that shine into my car and blind me. I literally can’t see a fucking thing....
Josh - The robots think I’m one of them People who don’t know how to use high beams properly. Sure, if you’re on a twisty road known for having natural fauna (e.g., deer, elk) haphazardly cross the road, it’s fine. But if you see someone coming in the opposite direction? Please, for the sake of the other person’s corneas, turn off your high beams. Special mention to those who insist on using their high beams on a well-illuminated 4+ lane highway.
slipperysallylikespenguins I’ll add driving with no lights on at night which is incredibly common in WA.
People who go slow while passing someone(especially while passing an 18 wheeler) and then speed up 5-10 mph after they complete the pass and the road is clear.
People who don’t properly secure loads.
People riding the brakes around every curve and refuse to use the slow vehicle pullouts.
Elefantenrennen(or Colorado Drag Racing), referring to two people driving side by side at the same speed and blocking all traffic. Elefantenrennen specifically refers to trucks.
Chariotoflove My addition is people who drive up the on ramp at 35 mph and merge before getting up to speed. It’s annoying and unsafe when the right lane is moving at 60.
Maxima Speed People who don’t turn off their high/beams when approaching oncoming traffic. Even worse are the bro-dozers who have modified their lights so they can run fog-lights and high beams at the same time and don’t turn them off with oncoming traffic.
winterlegacy, watching his wallet catch on fire Here’s another one. People at stop signs in bad weather who you think are going to pull out in front of you, so you slow down, they act like they’re going to let you pass only to gun it out in front of you.
functionoverfashion Bumper sticker people.
i86hotdogs Making a turn into a multi lane road and not staying in the inside lane. (left turn, left lane/right turn, right lane). That’s not how it works.
Nibby applying makeup while driving
You can tell a Finn but you can’t tell him much People who don’t bother to turn on their lights when it’s snowing sideways in the winter. They are inevitably driving a white or grey car and/or haven’t bothered to brush the snow off their car, so they are damn near perfectly camouflaged as a snowbank.
Also people who don’t bother to brush off their vehicles in the winter. There is a special place in hell for the ones who don’t even bother to clear the windshield or headlights and maybe have an index card sized hole to look through, but they can’t see since the car hasn’t had a chance to warm up yet and their defroster hasn’t been able to get the 1/4" of frost off the inside of the windshield.
TAE People who are aggressive to cyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians really upset me.
Textured Soy Protein People who drive around without their headlights at night because their DRLs and/or dash lighting have misled them into thinking they have their lights on. Extra points for the ones who don’t realize their lights are off even after you flash yours at them.
People who take their sweet-ass motherfucking time turning left at an intersection when they know goddamn well that it’s a short green arrow signal. Keep it moving so the cars behind you get a chance to make it on this light cycle goddammit!
People who stay in the right lane at an intersection without a right turn lane as the light is changing up ahead, even though you’re right behind them, you have your blinker on, and there’s an open lane to their left. So much for turning right on red when one of these gets in your way.
People who tailgate in a lane other than the left lane, even though the left lane is open. Especially egregious when they tailgate in the right lane on a highway, usually because they’re about to exit and insist on carrying the most possible speed all the way to their exit.
ranwhenparked People who don’t know how to use turning lanes. They’ll slow down almost to a complete stop in the drive lane, then make their turn when they get to it, as if there isn’t a whole separate lane on the right with plenty of space to slow down gradually instead of holding up traffic.
People who adjust their speed based not the car next to them, and so ride along in your blind spot in the left lane for miles and miles, preventing you from moving over to pass someone.
People who refuse to use their cruise control. You know what I mean - the people who are constantly speeding up and slowing down on the highway for no reason, instead of going at a nice steady speed.
People who overuse their brakes so you can’t tell if they’re actually stopping, or just slowing down slightly, because they don’t understand engine braking.
AestheticsInMotion Okay, as a FedEx driver here are some specific ones.
1. Delivery drivers will get in the way. It’s a fact of life, and completely unavoidable. Believe me... None of us WANT to be blocking a lane, a parking lot exit, sight lines, or what have you, but it is completely unavoidable. I repeat, completely unavoidable. Believe it or not, that town built 70 years ago with 3000 somewhat self-sufficient people MIGHT not have the proper infrastructure in place for the now 100,000 people who depend on same-day delivery to keep from starving. Honking, screaming, flashing the bird, and other acts of dumb rage will not help anyone, and in fact will generally make it worse for you as most of us drivers will slow our pace down to a snails crawl to bait out a bigger reaction that can then be videotaped, and shared among our driving cabal for bragging rights.
2. Parking in loading areas. If I have 300 80lb boxes to unload and my choices are -
A) put three on a handcart, wheel them through a massive store, and repeat one-hundred more times,
Or
B) back up to a receiving bay and slide ‘em off like an Olympic curler on steroids...
With God as my witness if you are blocking the single loading bay retribution will be both swift and brutal. “officer, I’d like to report a stolen car parked behind the local supermarket. I... I think I see a pistol tucked between the seats!”
3. General entitlement/confusion. Let me explain this one. If a 2000 Camry and a 40ft freightliner meet head-on in a parking lot and there’s no room for either to go around the other, what’s the best course of action?
My money is on the small, easily manueverable, perfect visibility, quick acceleration having Camry being the one who should move out of the way. Saves time for everyone, and is much safer. And yet... I’ve had someone stick their head out the window and scream “I’m busy! Back up!”
In that case I’ll just put the ol truck in park, turn the hazards on, and enjoy a nice 500ft walk to my client.
4. This one is something that bugs me about other delivery drivers.
Going the wrong way on narrow one way roads behind warehouses and other businesses. A lot of strip malls will have an alleyway in back with roll up doors at the rear of each business. These alleys generally have well-marked one-way signage. Now if two 40 foot trucks meet in the middle because one of them decides to go the wrong way to save 30 seconds of their day... Well. Now someone has to back up their bigly vehicle through exceedingly tight corridors, and they’re well and truly screwed if another truck comes up behind them.
G_Body_Man: ◎⦾ ∞ ⦾◎ x (¹₂³₄⁵₆) People who take off from a light so slowly that you have to clutch in again.
People who don’t shoulder check.
Pedestrians who walk on the fucking road when there’s a perfectly good sidewalk to use. They’re putting both themselves and motorists in danger for no good reason.
People who don’t use the merge lane to get up to the speed of traffic. If someone merges in front of me doing 80 km/h in a 100 km/h zone they’re getting an earful of VQ ruckus when I pass them at WOT in third.
Cunts on e-bikes who disrespect both drivers and pedestrians. 99% of the time they’re drunk or high and are on their way to commit some petty crime.
People who don’t give dogs extra space.
Jetta drivers (anyone in the GTA knows what I’m talking about).
All of Markham.
Urambo Tauro People who blindly follow the car in front of them, assuming that if there’s room for that vehicle to proceed, then there must be room for two vehicles to make it.
Case in point: Approaching a signal-controlled intersection during a green light (there is no green-arrow protected left turn phase), I am intending to go straight through. An oncoming left-turner sees enough of a gap to make his turn before I get there. He goes, but so does the car behind him, forcing me to slam on my brakes to avoid a collision. I swear, it makes me want to install a push bar on my truck...
ttyymmnn When you’re driving with your cruise on and come up to a car that is going slower. You pull around, and then they speed up.
Actually, anybody who can’t keep a constant speed shouldn’t be allowed to drive.
Pickup_man You’ve got most of them covered but I’ve got another.
People who turn left on to a divided road but turn into the center/turn lane until traffic opens up and they merge over. Even worse is when they continue to drive in the center lane at nearly the same rate as traffic until they can move over.
TheRealBicycleBuck People with their hazard lights on for no apparent reason.
People with their hazard lights on when it’s just raining.
People who rest their left foot on the brake, causing their brake lights to be on all the time.
smobgirl People who don’t realize that the bus in front of them is going to stop, and also, that it doesn’t mean they have a god-given right to just merge over a lane without looking when it does.
Grindintosecond Everyones going +5 over the limit...Cop ahead? They slow to -5 UNDER the limit.....everyone.
JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t People who have giant pickups or SUVs (looking at you, Yukon and Escalade drivers, those with fancy-ass GMC Denali pickups also) who slow down to ridiculously low speeds when going over bumps such as potholes, pavement transitions, or turning into driveways/lots with pavement lips or grade changes.
I’ll update the list adding your own personal driving pet peeves/stupidity as we go.
This is getting to be a damn good list, the sad part is the majority of this stuff can be seen every day in my normal commute.
Final Updates Have Been Added.
Thanks to all who added their inputs, we got a lot of bad behavior captured here.