I can’t say this is one of my pet peeves, because it doesn’t really bother me much. But I do wonder.
What I’m talking about are drivers who make complicated maneuvers when the same thing can be accomplished much more easily just a little futher down the road?
Like the other day someone was attempting to make a U-turn on a local neighborhood street right at a point where there were two cars parked opposite each other, one on each side of the street. The driver – for some reason he choose this spot to make a U-turn – was carefully backing up, and pulling forward, and backing up again, craning his neck to make sure he didn’t hit the parked cars. But all he had to do is drive 50 feet forward to the next intersection, and make the U-turn there, where there was plenty of room to do it with one easy turn and no parked cars to worry about.
Or just today, I noticed a driver was attempting to BACK his huge SUV into a parking spot between two closely-spaced shiny BMWs; meanwhile, just 6 parking places futher down the parking lot aisle, there was a unused row of parking spots measuring at least 20 continguous empty spaces! Now why would this driver attempt to back up and park between two BMWs, when all he had to do is pull down another 6 places?
Maybe it is just me. But what are these folks thinking?
I hear you, I was stuck just yesterday behind a dimwad that finally figured out at the last minute needed to be in the left turn lane, could not get fully into the turn lane so blocked in essence 2 lanes, ie my through lane!
Hey, how about this. When someone is pulling out from a gas station say, and you are stopped for a stoplight in the right hand lane, and they wave, they want you to let them in, and you do. Then instead of turning into the right lane in head of you, like you expect, they instead try to cross all three lanes and cross the whole street to get into the left hand turn lane, meanwhile blocking you and all three lanes as the light turns green!
I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the mindset is of some drivers.
A few years back while stopping at Wal Mart one evening a middle aged lady who appeared to be looking for a parking spot passed me and several open parking spots. My thought was jeez, how close does she want to get. There are a couple of open ones about 5 or 6 spots down from the end nearest the doors.
When I came out 10 minutes later she was still circling the lot and as I left I noted she finally had an opening with someone backing out. This put her about 2 spaces from the end. This meant that this parking lot orbit had been going on for who knows how long; all just to gain 3 or 4 spots on the lot.
What really grates on me around here is when some farmer parks in the middle of the highway and carries on business. I’ve seen pickups parked on the highway while some farmer stands against a fence and counts heads on the cattle herd, parked in the middle of the highway with both doors open while mending a fence, and several times parked in the middle of the road and leaning against the fenders while chatting it up. More than once I’ve had to actually drive on the shoulder to get around and proving Darwin right is the only thing I can come up with to explain it.
@GeorgeSanJose I see something very similar to your SUV parking scenario several times a week. The gym I go to has a member that drives a full size Ford F250 with huge tires and a lift kit. Everytime I see him he’s trying to squeeze into a tight spot with that monster, rather than having to walk from a slightly further away lot with much more room in it. (at a GYM no less!) You just have to shake your head…
I’m always surprised at people who sit forever trying to turn left onto a busy road, instead of just turning right and then making a U-turn a bit down the road.
There’s just no figuring out why some people do what they do. But there’s nothing in the thread so far that isn’t commonplace.
I’ll add a pet peeve of my own. People who park just inches from the car next to them, preventing the driver of the other vehicle from getting back in when he comes out of the store. I had some clown do this to me a while ago. He was sitting in his vehicle with his radio running and was so close to my door I could even slide in between the cars. I tried to get his attention verbally and he ignored me. So I banged on his rear fender. He then paid me notice with an unfriendly comment. I told him he had 30 seconds to move his car so I could get in mine or I’d call the cops. He moved.
Speaking of backing into spots in ridiculous places…
I occasionally get to drive our new Mazda6 to the office. When I do, I park at the far end of the lot to try to avoid getting door dings (a constant problem with people here).
The other day, I come out to see someone backing their F-250 into the spot right next to me, struggling to avoid hitting my car. This is at the very far end of the lot - there were AT LEAST 15 spots wide open between me and the next car.
In some parking lots there are lined-off areas between the handicap spaces to allow the disbled to unfold themselves from their vehicles and/or get their equipment in and out. I saw someone recently who had squeezed their small car in between two cars with handicapped permits, parking right on the yellow lines and blocking the doors of bothe handicapped vehicles. The lines were freshly painted, so there was no excuse. Had I seen the driver I would have spoken to him/her.
The handicap parking situation often annoys me. A great many people feel that if there are several vacant handicap spaces they are justified in using one if they are in a hurry. Then there are those whose handicap is obesity and would truly benefit from walking around the entire parking lot before shopping but park close and use the powered shopping cart/chair. It takes all kinds it seems. And FWIW I am medically qualified for a HC tag but I’m rarely in a hurry these days and need the exercise myself so I park out in left field and walk in to make myself feel grand. Of course I can choose the least busy and most pleasant time of the day to shop and most don’t have that luxury.
Here’s a funny video to check out: Woman driver crash compilation - Car Videos on StreetFire www.streetfire.net. No offense to all the ladies, but this video is just way too funny to pass up.
I see handicap violations all the time, very common. I’m talking about people who use the handicap spots that shouldn’t be. For some reason it is usually drivers of Mercedes I see doing it at banks. But maybe that is just me. I’m sensitive to the availability of handicap parking places because a friend of mine is blind and has a guide dog, and when I take them someplace for an errand, it is really helpful to find an open handicap spot, because when we’re all getting out of the car, and back in, I’m dealing with both the blind person and the guide dog at the same time, trying to keep them both safe from getting hit by passing cars. Having a little wider spot for dealing with all that makes it much safer for both the blind person and the guide dog.
Anyway, the worse handicap violation I ever saw occured at a supermarket called “Whole Foods”. This is a grocery store that caters to the better-off. Great food quality, and even greater cost. I go there for eggs. They have good eggs. And Eggs are the only thing I can afford there! Anyway, this place is really popular, and the parking lot is almost always full. One Saturday I was walking by the front of the Whole Foods on my daily neighborhood walk, and this black Mercedes pulls right up front, and parks in the handicap spots, and this 6’ 4" rugged-looking young man gets out of his car and waltzes into the store. No sign of him being handicapped, and no handicap sticker or plackard or license plate. What’s worse, when I got closer, I noticed he’s not using just one space; instead he parked purposely stradling TWO handicap spots, to avoid anyone parking in an adjacent handicap spot close enough to dent his Mercedes! ARRGGG!
That reminds me of sitting at a window of country buffet. We had a prime view of the handicap spots, it was raining, 4 cars pulled into the spots with a legitimate tag, each car had between 3 and 6 occupants, and they all ran to the door so as not to get wet. Abuse of HC goes on in my mind. Just cause I watch stuff a funny thing happened last weekend. The ambulance was called for a guy stuck in a wheelchair I have to guess, the ambulance left after a car with 2 people showed up to make sure he got home. the car followed him for a block, the wheelchair died, the people in the car did not get out, I was about to go offer to push the motorized wheelchair when the guy got out of the wheelchair, disengaged the drive and started pushing the wheelchair while the 2 in the van drove slowly to keep pace with him. go figure?
Mountainbike’s post about banging a door on another person’s car reminded me of a story a former coworker told me. He had a black Lincoln Town car at one time (paid $500 for it due to blown out air springs, which he filled with tire slime and drove for a couple years afterwards. Who’da thunk?), and came out of the grocery store to see someone park next to it and throw their door open into the side of it. He confronted the guy about it, but he responded by ignoring him and walking away. He then went to his car, firmly gripped the door with both hands, and threw it repeatedly into the side of this guy’s car. He then had to go home and straighten out the edge of the door with Vise Grips. He didn’t really care about the car, the issue he had was that the guy didn’t apologize or even acknowledge that he did something rude and inconsiderate. Not something I would do, but it made for an interesting story.
One thing that really grates on me around here is the following, and it’s really irritating because most of the highways around are very lightly traveled.
Someone will tailgate for miles, nail it to the floor while passing, and then swerve over in front of you so they can make a turn.
A couple of years ago on the way out of town a young lady in a Pontiac was on my tail. When hitting the 4 lane highway I set the cruise at 63 in a 65 and she hung there; about 2-3 car lengths back. Finally I backed off and set the cruise at 60. So what does she do? Slows to 60 also.
Four miles of this and I’m ticked. All of a sudden I look in the mirror and see her dart into the inside lane and go past me at an estimated 80-85 MPH. When she’s about 2 lengths in front of me she uses the right turn signal, darts in front, hits the brakes, and then makes a screeching right turn into a housing addition. I slammed on the brakes and veered to the left; missing the tail of her car by about 7 or 8 feet.
She had been behind me for 5 or 6 miles and then decides when she’s a few hundred yards away from her turn that she absolutely, positively had to be in front of me to make that turn.
This has happened a number of times but that’s the worst example and the irritating part is that there was not one other vehicle around us at the time. She had everything free and clear around and behind her.
That’s often the part of traffic accidents that is never revealed on the news; sheer stupidity.
There’s a highway interchange I go through on my way to the office. A convoluted scheme with a N/S interstate (I) and a 4 lane E/W state (S) limited access divided highway. The interchange has the following options: I-Northbound to S-Westbound and S-Eastbound. S-Eastbound to I-Northbound or I-Southbound. S-Westbound to I-Southbound. you can’t go from S-West to I-North or from I-South to anything on the State road. As you travel through this mess on the interstate going southbound, you get two merges - first the traffic from the state road heading west, then from the state road going east (a local street onramp also merges with the traffic from the state road prior to it merging with the interstate traffic. The approach of the on-ramp is long, slow, and steady, with a long stretch where the lanes are clearly marked with solid white lines and not yet merged, and separated by 10-20 feet with no obstacles between them, just clear pavement. For some reason, drivers think that the white lines mean nothing, and as soon as the physical obstacles to merging are gone, they act like its a free-for-all. Cars swerving left, right all over the place. Rather than a patient merge when legal, you have cars darting left and right, cutting each other off, making lane changes across multiple lanes PLUS solid white lines, right in front of semis moving at a higher speed, etc. As a result, ALL lanes of traffic tend to slow to a crawl during rush hour. If the 5% of the drivers who violate the law would simply obey it and merge carefully and calmly where they were supposed to, I’d swear traffic would move better for everyone involved.
