I dealt with this one the other day, at the mini-intersection leading to my old apt. in point of fact. Some genius thot putting it 30 yards from a major lighted intersection (even better, the other side is the entrance to a busy grocery store lot), where I have seen uncountable rear-enders and tee-bones, was a boffo idea. Many former neighbors would come to a dead stop in the middle of the road to turn left into the thing (no dedicated turn lane, you see) risking rear-enders and backing traffic up back into the main lighted intersection. I typically would do u-turns to avoid using it unless the traffic was completely dead, but many will kamikazie the thing despite the usual heavy traffic.
So I now live at the main entrance 150 yards up the hill, which has a dedicated left turn lane. Was passing my old place, saw this guy inching forward; if someone does that I have no idea if they see me, or not, so I WILL retard my acceleration. Plus as indicated this isn’t a place where I’ll be taking any chances. The main intersection left turn arrow had just flipped green, so there was a big pack at my back. [I am the only FL driver who comes to full stops on a right turn on red, which I had just done]
Anyway, he keeps inching forward, so I keep slowing down to be sure I can stop if he suddenly kamikazies. Instead he kami’ed right behind me, 5 feet in front of the first car in the pack. And THEN has the temerity to HONK at me! Where if he had just stayed put I’d have accelerated normally and he’d have had plenty of room.
They’re the ones that think they’re bigshots because they have a big truck. They ram around and speed when there’s snow and ice on the roads because they think they’re invincible in their truck. They put loud pipes on the truck and speed around making a lot of unnecessary noise.
I have nothing against owning a truck. We’ve had a few ourselves.
California’s at least as bad, I’m sure, and my husband thinks they’re worse here in Sacramento than in the Los Angeles area. I’ve talked to professional drivers (bus, truck, etc.) who agree.
I call those “Sacramento Drivers”. They’re actively, aggressively hostile to other drivers. Signal for a lane change, they WILL cut you off, no matter how close they have to get to hitting you. I’ve missed exits, nearly been run off the road, etc.
Echo, shadow, conjoined twin…I never created a name for the driver next to you, going in the same direction, who mimics your speed exactly. I discovered this driving delight when I had a 6 AM start time at work. Those early morning hours, nobody is truly awake. But this particular idiot is comatose.
Speed up, he’ll match you MPH for MPH. Take your foot off the gas, he does the same thing. It’s impossible to accelerate enough to get in front of the guy, or slow down enough to get behind.
I figure his brain is still back in bed, snuggled down deep in the pillow, and the only setting on his auto-pilot is “echo.”
This is someone who is squinting or leaned up towards the windshield. They’re driving bad because they can’t see for shit. Hopefully they’re on their way to an optometrist.
Grandpa/Grandma Buick.
Ever notice how many Buicks are driven by super old folks? 12mph in the left lane yet.
I had the misplaced pleasure once of taking a cross country road trip with a sibling who wouldn’t relinquish the wheel once on the way down. Their new car so I get it but she never passed other vehicles and only stayed behind big rigs because of reasons (stupid). Agonizing! She was not timid or a novice driver her spouse is a ld trucker so she thinks she knows best.
In addition she worshiped the gps and would insist adamantly to go in the opposite direction of where we exited for gas because the gps is always right and common sense is for the birds.
But look she’s say it’s telling us to turn here and look id say there’s the MF’ing highway ramp right the fuck there what’s wrong with you and let me drive!
Breathe in breathe out. Finally on return trip I did drive and shaved like 2 hours off the trip.
My terms used to be much, much more colorful. Now with a five-year-old, it’s been reduced to “bozo,” at least when he’s in the car. He loves repeating it, too.
One of these driving a school bus resulted in my car being out of commission for almost 2 months. The damage wasn’t that bad, but the body shop was waaaaaay backed up. It was a school bus on a country road. I was driving along, minding my own business, when I noticed the bus creeping slowly out of a side road. Silly me - I assumed she saw me and would turn after I passed.
Nope. Accelerated and pulled right in front of me. So to avoid hitting the bus, I swerved into the adjacent ditch, taking out a mailbox with my right headlight. Total was less than $3K damage, but because of supply chain and a lot of other banged up cars - accident was Mar 29, I got my car back May 26.
Good thing the school year is over - I get really nervous when I see a school bus now.
Nobody believes me, but in my experience, LA drivers are generally more courteous and certainly more skilled than drivers in other parts of the West Coast.
I know San Diego was especially bad back in the 80s. You had that large military & college presence bringing young and inexperienced drivers in from all over the country. This aggravated things as different parts of the country do have different driving habits.
Then a lot of Mexican added more chaos.
Finally a lot of Southern Californians thought it normal to get on Highway 5 and zip right over to the fast lane across 5 lanes of traffic.
Left-Lane Bandit - a slow driver who steals the left lane from those who want to driver faster or use the lane properly to pass a slower car on the right before returning to the right lane themselves.
Run Rabbit - Some speeding drivers are very happy to have another, faster car get by. The theory is that the faster car is “running rabbit” like in a dog race. The cops will go after the super-fast car like greyhounds, while the other speeding drivers are not caught. I’m always happy to let someone run rabbit for me.
Sunday Driver - A slow car, usually containing family, on the way to or from church. If a lone occupant, it is a farmer checking the neighbor’s crops.
Do Gooder - This is the driver who moves over into the left lane and forces you to slow down because you shouldn’t be breaking the law. They can drive you effing nuts. But there’s a plus to this. Truckers often do it, and I don’t usually rant when they do, because they usually know that there is a traffic backup or a cop with a radar gun up ahead.
Oh, yeah, I forgot one. Uncomfortably close tail-gaters. Even if you’re going well over the speed limit, they feel the need to follow so close to your bumper that you’d think they’re trying to smell your exhaust pipe, like a dog trying to smell another dog’s butt.
First snowfall always is National Drive Like an Idiot Day.
And have you ever noticed how many of them are Invisible Drivers - where from behind, you can’t see them over the driver’s headreast, and they’re usually looking at the road in that little itty-bitty space between the top of the steering wheel and the dashboard.
I got in trouble with my wife, when I was ranting about someone in a jacked-up doulie, and my 10-year-old asked why someone would buy one of those and I answered “Penile Enhancement.”