Derogatory names for types of bad drivers

People that obviously keep their feet on the gas and the brake at the same time are dubbed “Mammie Two Shoes”. Please not this has NOTHING to do with the ethnicity of the driver, and the “mammie” part notwithstanding, is not intended as a racial slur. The character’s name just popped into my head one day as I was driving behind one such driver.

Depends on what exit. My wife lived 8 miles from exit 1 (Salem) and there was never much traffic there.

You may not have much experience with this in the USA and I guess that Hawaiians will raise an eyebrow, but I have noticed that the smaller the island they live in, the worse people drive. By this account Greeks are the worst drivers in Europe. But Sicily, despite being the biggest island in Europe, is intriguing from an anthropological perspective to traffic. They must have rules, but apart from “my car is so crappy anyway that it doesn’t matter what happens to it” I did not find them.
But after my first experience in Brussels 30 years ago I still call every bad driver Belgian! Though they have improved a lot since then, the name stuck.

Not much traffic down there and a rare Jersey town with a declining population. Salem is kind of sad these days.

I live in NY state between Albany and NYC. I drove down to Baltimore last weekend. It must be five-six years since I last set tire on the New Jersey Turnpike. Oh my lord. It wasn’t all NJ drivers–there were people from NY, PA, and MD as well as the everpresent Floridians, along with an occasional Masshole or three–but whoever is responsible it sure seems to have gotten worse since the last time (and it wasn’t any picnic driving that road the last time either).

How bad was it? I came back via I-83, I-81, and I-84 so I could avoid the entire state of NJ. Took longer but I sure felt safer!

North Jersey is getting like LA, traffic is really terrible and there is almost nothing they can do to fix it.

Consider this: They may have adaptive cruise control engaged. It will automatically slow down to match the speed of the car in front. Occasionally I will find myself in the slow lane doing 55 behind some RV for a few miles before I realize how slow I’m going. I always keep mine set on “far gap”, but the “near gap” setting could seem tailgatey at highway speeds.

One of my early experiences with Boston Massholes was driving out of Logan airport in a rental car. There is some point, either before or after the Callahan tunnel, where you have to merge right with other traffic. Where I live – and bumper-to-bumper traffic is very common here – you signal your intent to merge, then merge into the gap that forms. In Boston, I sat there for what seemed like forever. Absolutely no one would yield an inch to let me in. When some kind soul finally did, I’m pretty sure it was another traveler from out of state.

Even when it’s not actual tailgating, it’s annoyingly obtrusive when it goes on for miles.

As I indicated earlier, it’s bizarre when these drivers are content to roll on behind me for long periods, even when I slow down to encourage them to pass - then when the impulse seizes them, they’ll roar on by and soon disappear into the distance, even after I return to my original speed.

Would alla yalls please come get your asshat drivers please? My new job involves a lot more driving than my old job and I get tired of driving around all day frustrated at all the people using their buttcheeks for earflaps while driving.

Related – asshole on a loud motorcycle. I’ve been rfiding for decades and for 200,000 miles and my bikes have always been quiet. I also taught MSF classes and ‘loud pipes save lives’ is not true. If you ride and your rely on your bike being loud to announce your presence, you are much less safe than a rider who is always alert and continuously, non-stop, scanning for hazards.

Loud bikes are a nuisance. They’re a nuisance to drivers, a nuisance to pedestrians, and a nuisance to residents. What’s more, they can hurt your ears and it can be painful.

So yeah, they are ALMs - assholes on loud motorcycles.

Preach! I have several motorcycles and they all have stock exhaust. I hate loud motorcycles. Plus, I can rip around the twisties and not announce what I am doing to every cop around.

At one point I did own a Harley and I was a rarity since it still had stock exhaust. My current Buell has nearly the same engine (both 1200) and it also has stock exhaust. I currently have four motos, all stock exhaust (my old CB is going to need mufflers at some point). Four motos, 6 cylinders :slight_smile:

Jacking up the noise is a statement for many motorcyclists - a way to show contempt for others. Not singling out Harley riders, as this applies to those who ride other makes as well.

"…the more likely reason Harley riders all opt for loud pipes is that it’s part of the rebellious thrill of being an “outlaw” on the road. As the website “The Aging Rebel” notes, those modified pipes are an act of righteous opposition to the “noise nuts” and the dastardly government bean counters whose “noise and pollution abatement goals… are mandated by a self-righteous and distant bureaucracy.”

I pulled over quite a few when I was on the highway as a Deputy. Going too slow is RS for OWI. I don’t recall ever writing one up for just going too slow. A lot of warnings, though.

El Pasoans used to complain about the yellow plates and fronchis, referring to drivers of cars with NM and Frontera Chihuahua* plates, respectively.

*For reasons I forget, vehicles registered within 20 miles or so of the border got different plates, in this case labeled FRONT CHIH

I don’t have a name for it, but there is a phenomenon that combines two of the common peeves mentioned here - the creepy crawlers and the no-turn-signallers. There isn’t a lot of leeway for people to turn into my current apartment complex if there is another car waiting to go out. So if I’m turning right to go out, taking up their space, and they’re turning right, into the complex, if I’m still there, they have to slow way down to enter the complex. And I’m not going to pull out in front of them if their turn signal is not on, because then if they’re actually going straight, even if it won’t positively cause an accident, I don’t want to make them slam on their brakes unnecessarily.

And I certainly won’t make the turn once they’ve started to slow down to make their right, even if they then put on their turn signal. Do you know how many people I’ve seen who look like they are slowing down to turn at that intersection, only to keep going straight? One. But that one is enough to make me never turn in front of slow moving vehicles, so people who turn right into my complex are just going to have to make an unnecessarily slow and tight turn if they don’t put their turn signal on ahead of time.

How about the Fake-Out Artist, who fakes left, then turns right? They make a move like they’re turning left, then they turn right! No signal, of course.

I call these “Clingers”, as they cling to the car next to them. Been driving through 8 states (so far) in our RV trip this summer, and they’re everywhere. Getting our 60 foot rig around a slower* driver is a problem already, and becomes infuriating when the passee decides to match speeds with me.

Bang-Bang drivers. The ones who drive as though gas and brake pedals have only two positions, ON and OFF. They’re typically the drivers who roar away when the light turns green, passing anyone ahead of them, only to jam on the brakes because they’ve reached the next intersection while that light is still red. (Repeat, repeat, repeat…)

(Bang-Bang is a real term used in control theory, for any system which is either full on or full off.)

A subset of Unconscious drivers - the ones who never learned to anticipate what is on the road ahead, or where they’re going. If these folks were airline pilots, they would begin their descent when OVER the runway.

(Now for a confession. There’s an infamous speed trap on a certain stretch of road near me. I’ve seen a lot of people ticketed for being SLIGHTLY over the speed limit, or for other traffic infractions that police would normally let go. So when I approach that stretch of road, I’m always certain to be under the speed limit by a comfortable amount.)

My stepfather’s ultimate insult was to yell “FARMER!” He grew up on a ranch, so that was apparently the worst thing you could say to a rancher.