Driving Etiquette

[taralee]

I live in Southern California, and there's much that I love about living here, but the one thing I don't love is the bad drivers. I've lived all over the country, and I really do think that SoCal drivers rank among the worst. I see the following driving etiquette violations on a daily basis:

1) Tailgating. Drivers here have it perfected to a fine science. Personally, I don't know how they do it -- I work hard to keep an exact, safe distance between myself and the car in front of me (a looong distance in front of me). People who ride up other car's butts (especially my own) scare the heck out of me.

2) Related to the above is tailgating at night, by SUVs. This really, really annoys the heck out of me. If you're an SUV, please don't ride my butt at night, and flood the interior of my car with your headlights. It's blinding!!! I confess to slowing down, just to annoy them so they'll go around me.

3) Lack of turn signal usage. 'Nuff said. Nobody uses them out here. Well, except for me.

4) People who drive on the shoulder in traffic jams. This makes me so angry. What makes you so special that you get to a) break the law, and b) pass the rest of us law-abiding citizens by driving on the shoulder? This happens in every traffic jam on the freeway, all those self-entitled jerks, zipping along on the shoulder...

Anyone got any others that drive you insane?

[Rei-chan]

A few years ago, I lived in a "tourist town" in the North Carolina mountains.  The big thing up there was the leaf change in the fall, and here were problems.....

-  People driving 30 mph in a 55 zone to look at the leaves.
-  People stopping dead in the 55 zone to videotape the leaves.  (You'd think they had never seen leaves change color before)
-  People driving like morons to get around those doing the above 2.  This entails veering into traffic in the other lane (whether it was the left or the right lane, they did both) tailgating, screaming obscenities at the person doing the above 2, etc.
-  People cutting into traffic in jams (which happened frequently due to the high volume of leaf watchers) and causing accidents, leading to a further traffic jam.

and the list goes on and on, but you get the point right?   

[Pixie]

I get very frustrated with drivers who just HAVE to cut right in front of me, then immediately make a right (or worse) left turn.   Why endanger my health and safety when they could have cut in behind me and made their turn?

The no turn signal thing bothers me.... Yes, I'm a Mom, I DO have eyes in the back of my head, but my mind-reading abilities only work on my own kids, and sometimes my husband!

But  the one thing I really hate?   Children not in child seats or not wearing seat-belts.  This will drive me up a tree. 

Oh, and I hate tailgaters, they scare me.

[Suze]

how about the driver who will not go around you no matter what?  Dumb guy behind me with lights on bright riding my bumper at night. 

I feel like I should get a bull horn out and yell at them that I can't go any faster because you are blinding me.  So I slow down to let them pass and they keep slowing down with me.  I was down to 20 once before I got rid of them (it was on a secondary road with noone else around or I wouldn't have slowed down that much)

and why do they have to pull out from a stop sign - in front of you - when there is not a soul other than you on the road?  Can't they wait the 2 min that would have taken for me to pass the corner?

[cocacola35]

4) People who drive on the shoulder in traffic jams. This makes me so angry. What makes you so special that you get to a) break the law, and b) pass the rest of us law-abiding citizens by driving on the shoulder? This happens in every traffic jam on the freeway, all those self-entitled jerks, zipping along on the shoulder...

I also get angry at the morons that let these jerks cut back into traffic at the front of the line!  That only encourages these self-entitled jerks to do this in the first place.

-People that see your turn signal and then speed up on purpose so you can't go into their lane.  What is this pre-school??  Did I somehow sign up for some drag race with you by putting my signal on?  Grow the #$%* up and just let me over!!!

-People that crawl in the fast lanes.  This can cause accidents and road rage- why oh why can't these people move over into the lanes that are meant for slow moving motorists??  Apparently some of them must have slow minds as well.....

-For pete's sake, turn off your high beams if you are driving on a main street!  I don't like being blinded because it may be hazardous to me and you.

[Joannie81]

Oh I hate tailgaters!  Then they honk at me at the light because I want to turn left and am waiting for several cars to go straight before I can safely make the turn.  (Do they want to pay my insurance hike and bills if I get into an accident?)
I also hate it when they come up behind me so fast and close that I am forced to go through the yellow light that I could have stopped at if they hadn't been coming so fast. 
And why do some people wait until I pull up behind them to put on their blinkers?  If I had known they were going to turn, I would have changed lanes.
And the last idiot who really gets me.  This one guy that got himself at the front of the line of traffic and then swerved from lane to lane to prevent anyone from passing him.  Then at the next red light, he made a right turn, a U-turn and turned right just before the light turned green and started doing the same thing again. 

[merkay]

I spend most of my commute in bumper to bumper traffic on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.  The cars that drive me crazy are the ones that leave a 2 or 3 car length distance between them and the car in front of them when we aren't even moving.  All this ensures is that all the cars in the lanes on either side of us will merge in front of them, meaning we will remain stopped for even longer.  I understand the point of a safe following distance when you are actually moving, but when you are stopped, it serves no purpose except ensuring that every single car in the other lanes will merge into our lane and we will never, ever move. 

[HushHush]

"4) People who drive on the shoulder in traffic jams. This makes me so angry. What makes you so special that you get to a) break the law, and b) pass the rest of us law-abiding citizens by driving on the shoulder? This happens in every traffic jam on the freeway, all those self-entitled jerks, zipping along on the shoulder..."

I HATE this as well.  To the point that if we're stopped in a traffic jam and I see cars doing that, I'll drive halfway in the shoulder and half in my lane to prevent them.  More then once the traffic has moved just far enough to hit an overpass and they've had to stop and wait to get back into a lane or be driven off the road.  Rude?  Yes.  Not Safe?  Yes.  But we can ALL wait for the cars to start moving again.

Charlotte

[MineralDiva]

Since when did turn signals become optional equipment, and crystal balls standard?  I also hate it when merging into freeway traffic from an entrance ramp, and there is absolutely nowhere to go...or people who nearly cause an accident while doing same, when they won't merge into traffic safely.

My boss's wife drives a semi and last week, a car merging into traffic, got stuck under the back of her truck and dragged for a while, because he insisted on going THROUGH her, to get onto the 10.  Luckily no one was hurt or killed!

[fklwmn]

"4) People who drive on the shoulder in traffic jams. This makes me so angry. What makes you so special that you get to a) break the law, and b) pass the rest of us law-abiding citizens by driving on the shoulder? This happens in every traffic jam on the freeway, all those self-entitled jerks, zipping along on the shoulder..."

I HATE this as well.  To the point that if we're stopped in a traffic jam and I see cars doing that, I'll drive halfway in the shoulder and half in my lane to prevent them.  More then once the traffic has moved just far enough to hit an overpass and they've had to stop and wait to get back into a lane or be driven off the road.  Rude?  Yes.  Not Safe?  Yes.  But we can ALL wait for the cars to start moving again.

Charlotte

I do this too. And I love the guys who come up behind me while I'm sitting there blocking their way and HONK at me to get out of the way.

Then there was the traffic jam on i-95 going through Richmond one morning @ Rush hour. A pickup truck decided he was in a hurry and sped past on the shoulder. not 10 seconds later, here comes the cop after him. 5 minutes later I passed him when traffic started moving again - he was stuck on that same shoulder getting a ticket while I was once again on my way. Ha!

[behindbj]

My "shoulder idiot" story.  It's been told on one of the prior iterations, so if it sounds familiar - it is...

I was stuck on 495 (Capital Beltway aound Washington, DC) once very dark and cery rainy evening.  Traffic was at a standstill - someone exited too fast and caused a serious accident at a major off-ramp.  So - everyone who needed that offramp had to continue on down the road until the next couple.  So - no one was really going anywhere.

I was in the right-hand lane awaiting my exit (a few miles up the road) when a car goes flying by on the shoulder on my right.  It was dark, slippery and raining, and this idiot flies by fast enough to rock my car.  I think "Moron" (more colorfully, of course) and continue to grind down the road towards the pretty flashing lights like everyone else.

As we came up to the scene of the ramp accident (around a slight curve - can you see where this is going?), there was the moron, PLOWED into the back of a police car.  It caused a chain reaction with other response vehilces (luckily, I didn't see the ambulance that had gone by earlier than Moron in the chain).  There were some angry cops a little distance away from the crash - and ONE VERY ANGRY COP DEALING WITH MORON.

Really - was that worth it?

At the risk of boring long-time readers, I will not post the "Was it worth it?" incident that completely removed any possible traces of road rage that may have festered within my soul.  But it was a doozy.  I am just not in that much of a hurry.  If I am, then I get the police or ambulance involved.  Otherwise - I'm just gonna be late.

behindbj

behindbj

[ccnumber4]

There is a VERY long light at the intersection I use to exit my subdivision.  It is long when it is working, and sometimes it is not working and the light never turns green at all.  Across the street is another residential area, so most people at this light are turning onto a main road, rather than going straight.  (hence the long light.)  There is a left hand turn lane, and a very roomy straight / right turn lane.  Roomy enough that as long as the car going straight keeps a reasonable distance from the left turn lane, a car can pull next to it and turn right instead of waiting for the darn light.  I hate the obliviots who park their teeny tiny cars right in the middle of that lane, so there is no possible way for anyone behind them to turn right while we are waiting to find out if the light is working or not.  I realize most of these people aren't trying to be jerks, but really, how hard is it to Pay Attention??

[Suze]

Really - was that worth it?

At the risk of boring long-time readers, I will not post the "Was it worth it?" incident that completely removed any possible traces of road rage that may have festered within my soul.  But it was a doozy.  I am just not in that much of a hurry.  If I am, then I get the police or ambulance involved.  Otherwise - I'm just gonna be late.

behindbj

behindbj

how about a condensed version for us newbies? 

You can't just give us a hint and not tell a story -- Pretty please with sugar on top

[Betsy]

I spend most of my commute in bumper to bumper traffic on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.  The cars that drive me crazy are the ones that leave a 2 or 3 car length distance between them and the car in front of them when we aren't even moving.  All this ensures is that all the cars in the lanes on either side of us will merge in front of them, meaning we will remain stopped for even longer.  I understand the point of a safe following distance when you are actually moving, but when you are stopped, it serves no purpose except ensuring that every single car in the other lanes will merge into our lane and we will never, ever move. 

I know it might be annoying in Chicago traffic (which I hear is notoriously bad all the time) but down here our roads get majorily backed up only when one or more lane of traffic is blocked b/c of an accident. Leaving 2 or 3 car lengths between cars is a way to ensure that everyone gets where they are going quicker than if everyone who happened to be in the "right" lane to get by the accident zipped along forcing the people who need to merge with no space to do so. It is a safety thing even in standstill traffic.

[fklwmn]

I spend most of my commute in bumper to bumper traffic on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.  The cars that drive me crazy are the ones that leave a 2 or 3 car length distance between them and the car in front of them when we aren't even moving.  All this ensures is that all the cars in the lanes on either side of us will merge in front of them, meaning we will remain stopped for even longer.  I understand the point of a safe following distance when you are actually moving, but when you are stopped, it serves no purpose except ensuring that every single car in the other lanes will merge into our lane and we will never, ever move. 

I know it might be annoying in Chicago traffic (which I hear is notoriously bad all the time) but down here our roads get majorily backed up only when one or more lane of traffic is blocked b/c of an accident. Leaving 2 or 3 car lengths between cars is a way to ensure that everyone gets where they are going quicker than if everyone who happened to be in the "right" lane to get by the accident zipped along forcing the people who need to merge with no space to do so. It is a safety thing even in standstill traffic.

actually, the thing to do in a situation like this is NOT to leave 2 or 3 car lengths so that every driver in the 'wrong' lane and his brother cuts in front of you, but to follow at a reasonable distance for the speed you are going, and for the traffic in the open lane to yield every-other-car to the traffic in the blocked lane. It's pretty basic driving ettiquette, but too many people forget it.

It's a viscious cycle b/c a lot of the people who are moving don't want to yeild in fear of a bunch of card forcing their way in front of them, and the people who are in the blocked lane want to force their way in front of the people who DO yeild b/c the 10 cars in front of that car didn't bother to yeild.

Thanks to a LOT of experience in concert driving (what I call the adventure of getting out of a parking lot after a concert or other large event that lets out all at once) I'm pretty good at yeilding just enough for one car. On the same note, if I saw you driving like an idiot 10 miles back, I just might decide that your idiocy trumps my etiquette and not let you merge.