Why do drivers make things so difficult?

General Discussion
21

@mark9207-
Your story reminded me of an incident I had many years ago when I was much younger and far less tolerant. I was sitting in my car waiting for a friend that ran in to get some odds&ends when this car pulls in next to mine. I was watching out the corner of my eye when this obese older woman pushes her door open with both legs right into the side of my car! I’m not talking about some liitle bump, the whole car rocked from the impact. I’m like WTH!?! I could tell from her reaction she did not know anyone was in the car. She just waddled into the store not so much as a sorry or acknowledgement of what she had done. I can tell you that car door needed some serious body work after I got done employing my version of eye-for-an-eye justice upon it.

@eraser1998-
I’m with you on the white line but in a different way. A notorious intersection around work has a left turn lane with multiple arrows, signs etc warning you it’s coming and to get over if you want to go straight. Every day, a number of fools who think the rules do not apply to them come racing down along the line of cars going straight and try to muscle in well after the lane divider turns solid white. A co-worker had some guy merge into the side of his car. The cops come and ask the guy where he merged over and he clearly indicated it was halfway down the solid white line. The cop asks him if he knows what that line means. Nope. After an explanation, the guy says, well he wouldn’t let me in what was I supposed to do? The cop says the right thing of course- YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO TURN LEFT!

I see people do stupid things every day when they realize they are going to miss a turn. They act like they have to carry the car on their backs or something. GO AROUND THE BLOCK!

Lastly, center turn lanes. What possesses people to wait until the last second and then make a left turn across the center turn lane? Invariably, the tail end of their car is blocking the through lane creating all sorts of issues the center turn lane is designed to eliminate.

22

My worst dumb story was on a NH highway almost 7 years ago. Both lanes were doing 70+ mph, both bumper to bumper. I was in the right lane, A van in the left lane with Mass plates, full of migrant workers, realized they were missing their exit and suddenly slammed into my left side. Tried to drive right through me, they did.

We both pulled over, them on the side of the highway lane and me on the side of the exit ramp. I called the cops. Next thing I knoew, one of them walks toward me with an open cell phone, saying in broke engish “our boss wants to talk to you”. Yeah, like I’m gong to do that.

23

Here is an example of a not-too-bright driver: sometimes when I’m travelling in town, going to my bank to do business, there’ll be a car following not far behind; My bank is on a four-lane divided highway and has an inclined one-way entrance on the right, and it’s a sharp 90-degree turn from the highway; obviously I have to slow down to a slow crawl to negotiate this turn-in. I put my right turn signal on at least a couple hundred feet before I make the turn, plenty of advance warning for anyone; most drivers, if the lane is clear, will pull into the left lane to pass me as soon as they see my right blinker. There are some individuals who will just stay in the right lane behind me, regardless, when they have a whole 'nother lane to go to so they can pass; of course they have to slow way down when I slow way down for my turn, when they could have easily pulled left and gotten around me without having to slow down. These are the kind of people whose thought processes baffle me; I just don’t understand their behavior. And once in a while, when I’m making a 90-degree turn like that and going slow to negotiate it, some jerk will even blow their horn at me, with my usual response being a “one-finger salute”.

24

How can the creationists still doubt that we’re descended from primates…

25

My favorite accident, traveling a 4 lane highway, a guy turns left right in front of me at a stop and go light controlled intersection, of course the light was green 4 me, and a 40 mph basic head on collision totaled my car.
Officer, to the other driver as we were both in the back of the squad car at the time, are you sure the light was not yellow?
Oh no officer the light was green I turn and he hit me!
No license, no insurance from a foreign country driving his sisters car. He must have finally paid it off as 5 years later I got a check for the deductible.

26

“…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!”

That’s just to show you who really owns the road.

I don’t know about where you live, but courteous driving is hard to find at rush hour where I am. A line of 5 or more cars long at 80 MPH and one car length seperation is easy to find, as is the guy that breaks out of the conga line and weaves through traffic because those other clowns are driving too slow in the left lane.

27

As the years have rounded off my rough edges and on occasion beat me into submission I now realize that some people are just obviously more important than me. Apparently, in fact, more important than anyone else and they spend their every waking hour impressing the world with that knowledge. They must pass the riff-raff just to be ahead of them if only for a few hundred feet before turning. They deserve two parking spaces just feet from the store front. And the passing lane is theirs for the using. The rest of us must just accept our second class status and bow in reverence as they pass us… Life and the arrogant A-holes ares so much more easily tolerated when the only demand is an occasional emergency hair cut.

28

I agree with most of the comments here, but I don’t see what the big deal is about backing into parking slots. If one knows how to use side mirrors, it is actually easier to back into a parking slot. The only trouble with it is sometimes it doesn’t leave your trunk or rear hatch accessible as head-in parking does.

29

Why do so many drivers think that a marked handicap spots are really there to provide a place to park their grocery cart.

Are they too stupid or hateful to realize that an handicap driver may need that marked off space to get into his car.

     <b>Handicap spots are NOT there to park your cart.</b>
30

Guys, I hate to break it to you, but it’s not just drivers: People in general have a sadomasochistic tendency to make their lives difficult, and I have to admit that I’ve shot myself in the foot a number of times as well with my behavior.

One driving maneuver that stands out as irksome is when I’m driving on the highway, I usually move at a moderate 70-80 MPH, depending on traffic, etc. (I do have a penchant for speeding a bit.)
If I’m the lead man of the pack, I sometimes just drive in the left lane for a while, as I’m often passing slower traffic continually. I will get over if some speed demon comes up on my tail and looks like they want to pass. But frequently, I will be driving in the left lane, maybe going 80, and someone will decide that I’m the chosen one to lead them and get in the left lane right behind me. I’ll move over because they’re a little too close, and I think they want to pass, but then they apparently can’t handle the burden of leadership and chicken out, dropping in right behind me in the right lane. So I move back over and so do they. Typically at this point, I will move back to the right lane and slow down, forcing them to pass, as I don’t need a shadow on my bumper for the next 50 miles.

Another bad behavior is people that think that merging onto a highway entails slowing down to a near stop on the entry ramp, then slowly plodding into traffic, forcing everyone to get over to the left or slam on their brakes, so as not to drive over them.

I also don’t understand people that stop with 1-5 car lengths between themselves and the white line at a traffic light, or the next car in front of them. Can they see an invisible ghost car that I can’t perceive? Do they think the car ahead will bite them? I understand leaving a little space if you’re in a left turn lane so turning traffic won’t clip you, but c’mon…

And finally, you just gotta love people that have to have a 1,800-watt stereo in their car, a coffee-can muffler on a crappy-sounding 4-banger that’s even louder, and insist on parking and listening to the last 5 minutes of the “song” they’re on before shutting the car off, at 12AM. I guess if you put your life savings working at Burger King into a stereo, you want to get the most out of it before some other halfwit steals it.

31

Why is it that people have to swing out when making a turn? When they turn right, they swing out left at the last second before making the turn, or when turning left, they swing right. Passing a vehicle in the next lane that is doing this is startling, especially because you are never sure if the driver is aborting the turn.

32

I got behind someone doing the crawl up an on ramp on either I270 or I670. They musta thought that doing 40~50 onto the freeway was sufficient. Thankfully there was another on ramp/lane that was merging onto the freeway and I took off in that lane to go around the slower driver. I try to be at or over the speed limit when I hit traffic on the highway after the on ramp and adjust my speed as I see the traffic approaching

33

“Are they too stupid or hateful to realize that an handicap driver may need that marked off space to get into his car.”

But they are handicapped, Joseph. You just described it. Well, almost. They are also incredibly lazy and thoughtless.

34

@oblivion

Stop that. Your pushing all my buttons.

“…merging onto a highway entails slowing down to a near stop on the entry ramp, then slowly plodding into traffic, forcing everyone to get over to the left or slam on their brakes, so as not to drive over them.”

They really should not be on the highway. If they are that scared of it they should drive on an alternate road. As slow as they are, it would hardly add any time to their trip. And besides, they obviously have all day, don’t they?

“…stop with 1-5 car lengths between themselves and the white line at a traffic light, or the next car in front of them.”

That’s so they can get back to important matters like makeup, shaving, that engrossing book, texting, or picking their nose.

It’s all your fault. Look what you’ve done to me, oblivion…

35
Another bad behavior is people that think that merging onto a highway entails slowing down to a near stop on the entry ramp, then slowly plodding into traffic, forcing everyone to get over to the left or slam on their brakes, so as not to drive over them.

Grrr…I’m pulling my hair out in vicarious aggravation. I mean, traffic engineers desgined in a “runway” of sorts to get up to speed, the state DOT spends extra money paving and maintaining it…and then an overly-cautious driver defeats ALL of that by stopping at the end!

Why is it that people have to swing out when making a turn? When they turn right, they swing out left at the last second before making the turn, or when turning left, they swing right.

Maybe…

  1. Driving a truck, towing a trailer, etc
  2. Want to make a turn “at speed”
  3. Swinging right to make a u-turn to the left (with appropriate signal).

I don’t really have a problem with trucks, etc, doing this…or even passenger vehicles, so long as the latter maintain strict lane discipline. I figure, as long as a car occupies a lane, they’re entitled to ALL of it, to do as they please.

MY pet peeve…being (say) third-in-line behind a slow-moving vehicle…and being tailgated! I mean, tailgating has a certain unethical logic to it when tailgating the slow car directly–attempting to bully the slow car into speeding up/pulling over.

But what on earth are you accomplishing by tailing the fourth in line?

36

There are a great many drivers on the roads today who are overwhelmed by the speed and proximity of other cars and the need to anticipate, pre-position even when it requires some aggressive maneuvering and turn into blind exits. My father died in 1994 at the age of 80 and was driving most of his adult life but was never able to deal with freeway traffic. But I appreciate the fact that he had worked a team of mules to death plowing160 acres and lived in a home with no electricity until he was drafted in 1940. And I appreciated the drivers in this area who in his later years overlooked his slowing them down on occasion. I think of him when someone is nearly stopped at the end of a merging lane with a deer in the headlight look. They want to be able to turn perpendicular to the traffic and look both ways and have an unquestionable opening before they proceed. When that’s how you drive for 70 years it’s difficult to change. It was their taxes that built that freeway.

37

I always assume other drivers are just nuts, and nothing they do surprises me. If you assume the other driver is competent that can lead you into trouble.

38

Kick back and enjoy the show as they tailgate you, swerve across 3 lanes to get into a lane with less traffic, swerve back over into your lane a car length ahead of the person you’re behind, then swerve across more lanes to get back where they were when they passed you easlier. Then laugh as you pull up behind them as you’re getting off at the same exit and waiting for the light to turn green; fits of hysteria if they’re actually behind you.

39

Ain’t that the truth, bscar. Many years ago I drove a route similar to FedEx and my business grew until my route was #1 in the state and the other drivers thought I was paying off the cops because I was out hauling them and never got a ticket while they were getting many. It never occurred to them that I was long gone and many miles down the road when they got to work and I ate a sandwich when held up at warehouses waiting for an open dock. When that company closed my record for the most deliveries in one day was still unbroken. But I left at 5:30 that morning, skipped my first 2 towns and caught them on the way back.

40

At one point in time, I worked in Detroit. I think Detroit had the highest percentage of skilled drivers on the face of this earth. Yes, they drove fast, but they drove aware of the situation around them.

One day I was traveling south on the Southfield expressway towards Dearborn - yes, I was going to visit Ford. As usual, the traffic had sorted itself by lane - the fast guys in the left lane, the slow guys in the right lane, with the middle lane for the in betweeners - except for one guy.

He started in the middle lane, and every time he encountered a car going slower than him, he moved to the RIGHT lane - even though there was room in the left lane. Whenever I caught up to him, he would speed up. He did this 3 times, so I was sure he was reacting to me going faster. I guess he had to be in front.