Also Florida law (316.089): “A vehicle shall be driven as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane and shall not be moved from such lane until the driver has first ascertained that such movement can be made with safety.”
I didn’t do anything quite that illegal but one there was a car stopped at an intersection. Did I think, maybe there’s a reason? Nope! I changed lanes and hit the gas …
And barely missed the jaywalking pedestrian he had stopped for that his car blocked from my view.
Only time I’ve done that. Now I figure that even if I can’t see it, there’s a reason they’re stopped.
Somebody did this once and rear-ended me. I could see him about to hit me, but there was nowhere to go. The pedestrian was now in front of me in the lane the guy jumped into. Bang!
I’m seeing more and more of those armor-plated trailer hitches that extend two feet out in back of the F-150. The idea ( and intent ) is… if they stop short in front of you and the hook goes into your car, they can tear off your entire front end. Wonderful.
I’ve noticed this behavior 3 times in slightly over a week ( it may be a Bader-Meinhoff thing, but who knows )
Slowing enter left turn lane from busy road that is going straight. The lights are currently red for both lanes. At last second as we’re lining up in the left turn lane, vehicle in the main lane suddenly scoots/bullies itself into left turn lane. Lights turn green. The first few cars in line make the left, but then interloper just sits there indecisively as it gets to the front and then bullies its way BACK into the straight ahead lane it was coming from. Goes straight as light goes yellow, making myself and a half-dozen other cars who could have made it through the green wait for another green cycle.
I live in a mountain community with roads aligned to topography instead of grids, entrance ramps about five feet long, and tons of tourists. It leads to driving that’s…suboptimal. Years ago I proposed a national holiday, “Don’t Drive Like an Asshole Day,” and I still think it’d be a great idea.
Here we have toll/HOV lanes on some of the freeways which are only separated from the normal lanes by double white lines. Cars are only allowed to enter or exit at certain locations where the double white lines turned dashed. In the last year or so they’ve started using cameras to ticket drivers who cross the double white lines.
On TV the other day was a guy complaining that he got a ticket for crossing the white lines, but it wasn’t his fault, because he accidentally got in the wrong lane and he was going to miss his exit[1]. My initial thought was fuck him, if he was in the wrong lane, would he make an illegal left turn? After thinking about it, yeah, he probably would.
Which brings us to
Yep, people driving like they’re the only ones on the road. I was recently trapped several cars back in a straight lane that couldn’t move on a green because someone at the front decided they’d rather be in the left turn lane, but they couldn’t get over because the left turn lane had a red light. Myself and several other cars ended up missing the light. This was not just a situation of the left lane backing up too far, but someone deciding after the entrance that’s where they wanted to be.
Sometimes you miss your turn, or your exit, and just have to go around the block.
The second part of his argument was that the way the statute was written he could only be fined for skipping paying the toll (or qualifying for HOV), not for merely leaving the toll road. ↩︎
Nope. You need to understand, only I matter and must go the exact route I choose, when I choose. I do not care a single iota if you are massively delayed, or worse, in an accident, by my decisions. Only my convenience matters.
I think that COVID did this. After COVID got under control, people got out of their houses. They had ‘cabin fever’. The drove as fast as they could to anywhere they could go.
That’s sad. Not loving your home, and not wanting to be there.
I wasn’t in that group, I love my home, and just rather stay right here. Call me a hermit if you want, but I just prefer to not go out. Been that way for decades. I love my house, but I do need to leave to get food and other staples.
Anyone sees a driveway to an apartment/condo complex and thinks “I’ll use that driveway to make a u-turn on a four lane street” is an asshole.
They can’t turn properly— stopping forward motion, redirecting and then continuing forward motion— so they need that extra few inches to make a u-turn.
Don’t confuse “asshole” with “incompetent”.
Lotta incompetent drivers out there. Lotta assholes too. Some are even both. But labeling the incompetents as assholes gives them too much credit.
Last Saturday I was making a left turn (north) out of a hotel parking lot onto a fairly busy north-south street. The street has five lanes: two northbound, two southbound, and a middle lane for making turns into the various businesses that line the street.
I observed that there were no cars from my left, and one car from my right. That car was in the far right-hand lane, driving north. I proceeded to make my turn, crossing the southbound lanes and entering the middle (left-turn) lane, heading north. I then engaged my right-turn signal and began to ease over into the left-hand lane of the two northbound lanes.
Just as I did so, the single car also heading north decided to switch from the right-hand lane to the left-hand lane. I just caught a glimpse of him in my mirror and slammed on the brakes. Had I not done so, we surely would have sideswiped each other. And it would probably have been my fault, as I was the guy entering the street.
I’m not sure why he decided to make the lane switch right at that time, as he continued in that lane for at least another mile, through two stoplights, before I lost track of him.
Asshole.
That reminds me of Up in Smoke:
—Hey, how am I driving, man?
—Uh… I think we’re parked, man.
We get a lot of this in the UK. My road was built in the early 70’s. Each house had a garage and driveway so in theory each house could accomdate 2 cars. But building standards for garages haven’t been updated since the 50’s or earlier when British cars were much smaller. I have a BMW i3 which I could get in the garage but I’d struggle to get in and out. By now I’d say that half the houses on the road have converted the garage to an extra room so there is now lots of on-street parking on both sides.
Granted, there’s a lot more “oversized” vehicles (vans, trucks (SUVs)) today than 70 years ago, but the actual cars are smaller. No, I think the problem comes from there being MORE cars per household than in the past. Once upon a time, you had one car per household (my house has a 1-car garage), maybe 2. The family shared vehicles. Now, it seems like the trend is for everyone to have their own. Plus, the trend is for people moving out of their parents house later, so more cars per household.
A problem in our area - most residential streets were built with gravel shoulders, and overflow parking was on the side of the street, half (or more) on the shoulder. As they have been re-paving and improving neighborhood streets in my area, they have been putting in curbs. Now, the street isn’t any wider, and if you park on it, you’re entirely in the road. Makes it harder for people to get past, especially if people are parked on both sides across from each other.
Cars are also bigger, though, not smaller.
Our family’s first Toyota Corolla, bought back in the 80s had a wheelbase a full foot shorter and was about 6 inches narrower than ones on the lot today. And those aren’t considered especially “big” cars, either.
If we’re talking the USA, a 1953 Impala is huge compared to a 2025 Impala.
Folks who have narrow streets aren’t living in neighborhoods built in the 1970s when Corollas became popular. They’re living in neighborhoods built in the 1910s to 1950s.
An era when few people had cars, no household had two, but each car was a boat.
I had a 1977 Impala. The front seat was all one bench and I could lay across it like it was a bed. I’m not exaggerating; I looked up the width of one of those monsters and it’s 6’ 3.5".
The 2020 model (the last year it was made before being discontinued) is narrower but not by much; just by 2.5 inches. It sure doesn’t look that wide but it’s probably because it’s not as boxy.
My dad bought my my first car. A 1962 Olds 98. Take 6 of your friends any where. I could put a 10 speed in the trunk. I transported a 1976 Yamaha 250cc dirt bike in the trunk. I think I had to take off the handle bars and wheels.