lol … I’m pretty understanding of other driver’s unusual driving and just ignore it for the most part, but less understanding when I’m honked at from behind, simply b/c my car happens to be between the honker and where they want to go.
I’m ashamed to say that I’m a bit prone to some manner or road rage. I’m not saying I do weird things like chase people around or get threatening in any way. It’s just that my temper is most likely to flare on the road when people are being stupid.
I’m 78 years old. Over the years I’ve learned that there’s just no limit to stupid, so I just mumble and get on with trying to wade through the swap.
Delectation. There’s a word you rarely hear. Even less often than the words carburetor, distributor, or crankshaft rope seal.
I hope you were delectated.
Watch your language, this is a family forum. 
After my period of delectation had passed, I thought about what driving behavior irritates me the most often. I live in an older city with narrow streets, lots of driveways and businesses along those streets, and some complex intersections. What gets me mumbling and talking to myself is the people who seem to lose the will to keep driving and just slooooow down to make any sort of move. It’s as if someone is afraid that any quick inputs will make the wheels fall off. That and the people who roll slowly through a stop sign from a side street to the street I’m on, cutting me off, and then seem to be unsure whether they should press the gas pedal or maybe just stop and reconsider whether they should buy bread today. Right in the middle of the intersection. You don’t know if they are going to start moving forward or reverse back into the side street.
End of rant.
+1 to wentwest’s comments.
I live in a mostly rural area, and I also encounter those Nervous Nellies/Unconscious Drivers who really shouldn’t be behind the wheel.
There is an intersection (fairly near my home) that has poor sightlines when it comes to viewing oncoming traffic. Clearly, one has to be very cautious when pulling away from the stop sign on that road, in view of the traffic traveling at 45-50 mph on the perpendicular road.
On a fairly regular basis, I will encounter people who pull out of that intersecting road directly in front of traffic, and then they proceed to drive like a snail. So, after they endanger themselves and other drivers by entering the intersecting road when they shouldn’t, they proceed to totally screw-up the flow of traffic, and to enrage other drivers.
And then, we have people who brake–hard–before climbing a hill. Apparently, they don’t know that simply lifting one’s foot from the gas pedal will cause the car to slow down, but they also don’t seem to understand that slowing down before an upgrade makes no sense whatsoever.
When I see behaviors like these, I have to believe that self-driving cars would be less dangerous than some of the drivers who are currently behind the wheel.
The most annoying sort of road-behavior I observe in this area is often due to cyclists and joggers, who feel they should not be required to even slow down at red lights, stop signs, etc. Confuses drivers & disrupts smooth traffic flow. There are other vehicle-related annoying behaviors of course, unnecessary horn honking is a common one, neighborhood parking facing the wrong direction, blocking driveways, not yielding to pedestrians at a crosswalk.
For me, it’s the ones who stay in the left-most lane on a superhighway (like I-35 around San Antonio) going 55 mph.
No, they’re not all old people. They come in all colors and genders. They drive me crazy.
Second most irritating: those who also do 55 mph right next to them. Now the whole dang highway is backed up for miles.
Sometimes I’m lucky to be ahead of them and looking back in my rear mirror, the highway is completely empty except for a cluster of cars way behind me.
I’ve never once seen them pulled over and ticketed, either. Then again, how could a state trooper get close to them. He sure can’t use the passing lane.
It doesn’t happen often enough in NJ, but sometimes a NJ State Trooper will take action, as in this video. And, of course, the brain-dead driver who he pulled over remained partially in the travel lane after he stopped.
There was another video of a NJ Trooper “escorting” someone from the left lane to the right lane–and then zooming off–but I can’t seem to find that video.
In NJ, almost all of the cars traveling below the speed limit in the left lane have NY plates, but I’m sure that this phenomenon exists with drivers from other states also.
One that infuriates me almost more are the left lane campers who slow down to pass and then resume speed.
Just this past Saturday, I had one - a 60 mph road w 2 lanes each direction. There was an SUV ahead of me and we were mostly keeping pace at a little over 65. (I use cruise control). The SUV came upon a pickup doing about 55. It then proceeded to slow down to … about 55. And ride next to the pickup. Meanwhile, I maintained speed and, you know, probably got a bit too close on their tail largely as a manner of communication. (My bad, sure… but flashy headlights don’t seem to help either).
Finally, the SUV c r a w l s by the pickup, moves to the right (ok, good on them), and then proceeds to immediately vroom to 70. (I know b/c I ended up pacing them up to that point hoping to just put them in my rear view.)
I just slowed back down. About 5 miles later? Same darned thing all over again!! WTH is wrong with people?
I am dying to have the cops pay attention to these things. But in VA they don’t. It’s all about sitting around with the radar/laser or whatever and handing out speeding tickets. Following too closely? Don’t care. Erratic driving? Don’t care. Impeding the flow of traffic by, e.g., left lane camping? Don’t care.
I haven’t been pulled over for speeding in a very long time as I try hard to keep it in bounds. But next time, all I’m going to say is “you folks are pulling over the wrong people…”