# DRIVING Pet Peaves **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 16, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524 "2013-02-16T18:58:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![SweetiePotato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SweetiePotato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetiePotato)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/61 "2013-02-19T00:01:08Z")
OMG yes. Points of sheer frustration: 1. Not pulling into the intersection to make a left turn. Hell yes. Pull the f\*\*\* in. 2. People who brake, for no apparent reason, on the highway. Then you brake, and the person behind you brakes and it causes a chain reaction of slow-downs, especially if it’s crowded. If you’re paying attention, you should ALMOST NEVER need to SUDDENLY BRAKE on the highway. I get my car as far as possible away from people who do this. 3. Cruisin’ along in the lefthand lane, at your own speed. 4. Reluctance/too lazy to change lanes. Here in Seattle, passive driving capital of the world, half of the major roadblocks are due to everyone in ONE lane, no one in the OTHER lane, when both of those lanes are going to the SAME PLACE. God forbid you have to get back in your original lane a few miles down the road! 5. The terrible 5-way stop sign intersection. I want to scream every time I pass through, and I pass through every morning. Almost NO ONE can/does keep track of when they have a right to go, and it’s maddening. Count the cars. Until the 4 around you have moved, you don’t get to go! 6. People who refuse to make a turn, on a green light, when someone is in the crosswalk. I don’t mean to mow people over. But chances are, if you’re downtown, the crosswalk will NEVER be completely clear, and those who hesitate because they want to wait until everyone gets all the way to the other curb before making a turn make it only one car turning per light cycle. Which is ridiculous. 7. People who leave such large swaths of space between them and other cars when they parallel park that they eliminate whole potential spaces. 8. Yes, you have a right to meander along well under the speed limit. But if someone is behind you, and it’s a curvy, non-passable road, and they clearly want to go faster, just pull over and let them by. 9. Move over for that F_ **ING bicyclist, what the f** _ is wrong with you? I give cyclists plenty of space, and it amazes me how close other cars feel comfortable driving next to them. 10. When people sit in a parking lot, blocking everyone behind them, waiting for another car to pull out so they can take the space. Recently, in a crowded lot, a mercedes suv sat blocking a one-way lane for 5 MINUTES STRAIGHT (I’m not exaggerating) while maybe 8 cars (me included) piled up behind him. I started honking, everyone else started honking, and still the suv didn’t move. Then, finally, the person pulled out, and the mercedes took the spot. Holy cow, I wanted to mow that man down. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/62 "2013-02-19T00:28:51Z")
> [@echo7tango](#): > > The same is true for San Francisco. And the Bay Area in general. My peeve is when you pull into an intersection waiting for someone who was stopped on the other side to go through - when he puts on his turn signal halfway in and turns left. Idiot, turn signals are not to demonstrate you are turning in the middle of a turn, but to tell people what you intend to do. As for merging, if the merging car is a bit ahead of me I much prefer to slow slightly to let him in rather than change lanes.If he is a bit behind I’ll speed up slightly so there is room behind me. As for tailgating, I’m against it, but leaving less than four car lengths ahead of you when traffic is moving at 10 mph is not tailgating. And don’t slam on your brakes if someone enters the giant gap you left and is now only 50 feet in front of you. If your reflexes are so bad that you don’t trust yourself to stop at those speeds and distances, you shouldn’t be driving. Surprisingly, most of these clowns are not chatting on their cellphones. They are just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/63 "2013-02-19T00:30:58Z")
> [@IaMoDiNaRy](#): > > What about the motorcycle drivers in California? Lane splitting, I think it’s called. In Mississippi, they’re bound by all of the same rules as car drivers. In California, they can blast by you in between lanes of traffic scaring the crap out of you. That’s just wrong. There was a Mr. Roadshow column on this. They should be moving a bit faster than traffic, which most of the ones I see usually are. But I’m much happier with them splitting than to be behind one and worry about running up his ass. If I see them, I try to give them a bit of extra room, and a lot of car drivers do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfyre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfyre/32/9972_2.png) [@Shadowfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfyre)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/64 "2013-02-19T17:27:55Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > This happens with annoying regularity along this one highway near me. There’s a town that’s notorious for its traffic and is often backed up for a mile or more. Well, right before this town is a passing lane. About half a mile long I’d say. When traffic is backed up, people refuse to use the freaking lane. I haven’t encountered this situation too often myself, but this is what usually happens. The traffic is backed up almost to the beginning of the passing lane. But the passing lane itself is completely empty. So, of course, I or whoever else, will use the lane. Inevitably this piss someone off that we’re ‘cheating’ and they’ll pull their car into the second lane and just stop. Each time I’ve encountered it, it’s been some freakin redneck in his big ass truck. This specific instance seems counter-intuitive to me. Merge spots slow down traffic because cars need to slow down to make room between the car in front of them to let the merging car enter the lane. If traffic in the one lane is slow BEFORE the passing lane, going into the passing lane only slows everyone even more, because you’ve created a slow spot where one didn’t exist before. Very selfish and rude. This is similar to what I see on my commute. The highway will dedicate a lane to entering and exiting a particular side street and wall it off of the rest of the lanes on the highway. So if you are on the highway and want to exit onto that side street, you would get in the exit lane and take whichever ramp you wish, for instance, north or south. There is also traffic entering that lane from the side street to get onto the highway. There are two entrance ramps, one from the north and one from the south in this case. Then that lane merges back into the highway’s regular lanes. The idea is to make one exit and one merge on the actual highway rather than two of each. If traffic is slow, some bozos decide this is the perfect time to jump ahead. They exit the highway, never take any of the exits and re-merge at the other end. Sure, THEY get to take a couple minutes off of their commute, but that just slows the traffic down even more for the people behind them that have to slow down that many more times to let their idiot asses back into traffic. Using **AngelSoft’s** logic, might as well just drive along the shoulder because that is just wasted space. If there’s a breakdown on the shoulder up ahead, you can merge back in at that point. Imagine how much time you would have saved. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/65 "2013-02-19T17:55:01Z")
I’m not sure what’s going on with this passing lane, and exiting just to skip some traffic and jump back on is generally frowned upon, but there’s [lots of information](http://www.dot.state.mn.us/zippermerge/) [put out by various DOTs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZcPby71TNC0) about how to merge two lanes into one. In short, use both lanes right up to the merge point. Avoid the urge to merge early. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/66 "2013-02-19T20:04:37Z")
> [@Shadowfyre](#): > > This specific instance seems counter-intuitive to me. Merge spots slow down traffic because cars need to slow down to make room between the car in front of them to let the merging car enter the lane. > > If traffic in the one lane is slow BEFORE the passing lane, going into the passing lane only slows everyone even more, because you’ve created a slow spot where one didn’t exist before. Very selfish and rude In general, using the merge lane serves the purpose of allowing more traffic across an intersection, than would be allowed with a single lane. In that sense, **it’s more about volume control, as opposed to speed control** (regardless, you’re going to reduce speed any time you change lanes in your scenario, because you’re dealing with congestion, be it at the merge point or any earlier). However, the vanishing point of the merge lane is usually dictated by a zipper effect. You can control speed while merging to one point, the same as you do on a highway, by trying to match speeds. No real need to slow down significantly to create a gap, since the other car can/should match speeds in the other lane, leading up to the point. Of course, there are times when it _is_ overly congested, and thus bumper-to-bumper by nature, so my rule is that if you’re a half-car length ahead of the car beside you, then proceed, as it’s the smoothest and most decisive. To add to this, predictable driving is safer driving. Having people merge at the vanishing point of a merge lane is consistent, making it preferable to having people randomly cut gaps, then hold others back to preserve some idea of a “line”. The merge lane was engineered the way it was, for a reason. [Here is the perspective of the DOT/Federal Highway Administration](http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop12012/sec2.htm) > [@](#): > > If traffic is slow, some bozos decide this is the perfect time to jump ahead. They exit the highway, never take any of the exits and re-merge at the other end. So far as the law is concerned, this is illegal and simply takes advantage of the merge lane. Though it’s rarely enforced, that’s for the police to handle. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfyre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfyre/32/9972_2.png) [@Shadowfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfyre)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/67 "2013-02-19T20:37:41Z")
> [@Krouget](#): > > In general, using the merge lane serves the purpose of allowing more traffic across an intersection, than would be allowed with a single lane. In that sense, **it’s more about volume control, as opposed to speed control** (regardless, you’re going to reduce speed any time you change lanes in your scenario, because you’re dealing with congestion, be it at the merge point or any earlier). > > However, the vanishing point of the merge lane is usually dictated by a zipper effect. You can control speed while merging to one point, the same as you do on a highway, by trying to match speeds. No real need to slow down significantly to create a gap, since the other car can/should match speeds in the other lane, leading up to the point. Of course, there are times when it _is_ overly congested, and thus bumper-to-bumper by nature, so my rule is that if you’re a half-car length ahead of the car beside you, then proceed, as it’s the smoothest and most decisive. > > To add to this, predictable driving is safer driving. Having people merge at the vanishing point of a merge lane is consistent, making it preferable to having people randomly cut gaps, then hold others back to preserve some idea of a “line”. The merge lane was engineered the way it was, for a reason. > > [Here is the perspective of the DOT/Federal Highway Administration](http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop12012/sec2.htm) I agree. My point was really when traffic is moving bumper to bumper- usually below 10mph. But it is amazing how many people outright refuse to zipper at merge points. That is, cars already in traffic refusing to let the merging car zipper in. They pull up real close to the car in front of them and refuse to back off. Very selfish and rude, and if traffic moving at a pretty brisk pace, very dangerous. > [@Krouget](#): > > So far as the law is concerned, this is illegal and simply takes advantage of the merge lane. Though it’s rarely enforced, that’s for the police to handle. I did not know that. Ignorance fought. Another reason for me to hate the bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/68 "2013-02-19T21:04:31Z")
> [@Shadowfyre](#): > > I agree. My point was really when traffic is moving bumper to bumper- usually below 10mph. But it is amazing how many people outright refuse to zipper at merge points. That is, cars already in traffic refusing to let the merging car zipper in. They pull up real close to the car in front of them and refuse to back off. Very selfish and rude, and if traffic moving at a pretty brisk pace, very dangerous. I get what you’re saying, and if you look at the link, it’s sort of an odd problem where it’s usually handled based on user discretion. That somewhat explains why I use my method, above, which while imperfect, seems to get me along well enough. In all honesty, I really don’t have a problem with yielding, either. Unless I’m doubling my speed over the course of time, one car won’t throw off my journey. > [@](#): > > I did not know that. Ignorance fought. Another reason for me to hate the bastards. It’s actually interesting, because we have two specific roadways where what you’ve described has happened more often than it should. With credit to the police, they’ve actually started to enforce the area, forcing people to use the roadway properly (you’d have to see it to understand how they do this). It’s one of few traffic cases where they’re there when you need them (usually during rush hour).🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/69 "2013-02-19T21:08:52Z")
Bus stops are for buses. PERIOD. There is never any excuse whatsoever for a car to be standing or stopped at a bus stop. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524/70 "2013-02-19T21:12:10Z")
Regarding point #1… There shouldn’t be left turn arrows! Most of the time there’s only one or two cars turning left and 30 cars going straight. Why do the left’ers go first? And… if you are turning left but you don’t get there in the nick of time - you won’t get a green left arrow! You have wait another complete cycle. Get rid of the left arrow or at least keep it red and let the the straight drivers go first (imo). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-pet-peaves/650524.md?page=3)