Destroy: Driving Habits. (And OK, search too, if you must.)

And: Taking up more than one parking space because your car is so bitchin' cool and shiny.

- the very general speeding and darting in and out of traffic assholes

- going into a left turn lane and then speeding ahead, going straight

- not letting someone merge onto the freeway, even speeding up to prevent them getting on, even if such a maneuver is often insanely dangerous

- tailgaters in general. if you tailgate me, I'm tapping my brakes. if you hit me, your problem!

- when you switch lanes and another driver is waaaay back but going very fucking fast, and then they speed up onto your tail and flash their brights as if you cut them off

- also, people who make excessive hand gestures if they're incorrectly pissed off about another driver driving slower than they are

I would like to "search" anyone who lets people in ahead of them into a lane

S: subways!

dude, if someone revved their engine at me in that situation I'd kick in one of their headlights

- Those asshats who HAVE TO BE THE FOURTH CAR THROUGH THE GODDAMN LIGHT. Two is okay, three is pushing it, FOUR IS TOO MANY. I HATE YOU.

- Tailgaters, yes.

- People who speed up to not let you change lanes.

- Those morons on the side of the road who open their doors into traffic without looking - if you think I'm not sorely tempted to take that bitch off, pally, you're wrong-o.

- People who pull out of driveways without looking.

- People who don't pull over or stop for ambulances.

If I'm in the third lane of a four-lane highway, and already doing 10 over, you don't need to ride my bumper.

I have!

And a guy in a Volvo station wagon cut me off ONTO THE SIDEWALK to turn the wrong way down a one way street, damaging my tire and rim.

Ever since then I've hated all Volvo drivers. Well, not really, but I still have this irrational dislike of Volvos.

I have a similarly somewhat-irrational predisposition towards not riding my bicycle during the daytime due to having been hit by four vehicles in six months time, all within the hours of 10 am - 4 pm.

also, put your fucking makeup on before you leave the house, you Audi-driving clown.

I have this elaborate theory that the reason people purchase Volvos is because they know they are an awful driver and therefore have a higher chance of being in an accident and therefore need to purchase the safest car available.

• Every day, I turn left at a stoplight, and every other day, there's someone across from me who's also turning left without signaling to do so. What happens is that when the light turns green, I inch into the intersection waiting for them to go by. They see my hesitation and then turn on their signal. Grrrrrrrrrr. Thanks a lot.


• Drivers who feel that it's their civic duty to drive the speed limit in the inside lane, policing any other drivers behind them who may want to break the law by going 60 or 65.

  I live in Arkansas. Here, the slower drivers ride in the left lane and the passing lane is on the right for the most part. The reason? The right lane is usually in worse shape than the left because that's where the big eighteen-wheelers cruise. It takes a little getting-used-to, but one adapts after awhile. I neither support nor condone it, but I try not to let it get to me too much.



• SUV's and Hummers veering into my lane because they're too fucking big to fit in their's. I'd be a whole lot angrier about $1.75 gas were it not for these street tanks.


• Cell phones, natch


• Drivers who speed past a long line of cars just to cut in near the front. People don't do this in real life, so why is that when we're in our cars, real life rules no longer count?



S: States that number their interstate exits by milage.
D: States that number their interstate exits by order in which they appear.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 11 March 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

SUVs in general.

People who drive slow in the fast lane.

People who deliberately get beside you into a lane that's about to end, accelerate and pass you, then slow down, but by God at least they're in front of you now.

It's actually more like $1.65, though I've seen it for $1.58 in the hood.

People who don't indicate

people who drive around with foglights on

people who don't dip their beams when coming up behind or towards you.

tailgaters

right hand lane slow drivers and poor lane discipline in general, keep left dammit.

people who speed up behind you

taxi drivers

D+: People coming from the other direction and turning right into the left lane of a four lane road.

um, most people have already gotten the good ones.

S: people with obvous fuzzbusters that you can caravan behind
D: creepy truck drivers that pass you, then slow down so you can pass them, repeat ad infinitum until I catch on that you're just trying to see down my shirt and I punch the gas and leave you in the dust. (sub-destroy: trucks with W.O.W. stickers)

And a big ol' S to getting behind those fuzzbusters. One of my fondest memories was ripping across West Virginia behind a cute girl from PA and a yellow porsche out front. I was able to keep it around 90 MPH for almost sixty miles because of that guy clearing out the cobwebs.

I saw that cute girl from PA again about five hours later somewhere outside Lexington, but it wasn't the same anymore. At least I didn't pass her and slow down, etc.

regards,

REB

D: People who camp out in the far-left lane staying even with another car, thus holding up traffic for everyone else. Destroy them again if it's a highway down to three lanes because of construction. Wasn't everyone taught in drivers' ed that the left lane is for passing?

D: People who slam on their brakes, then hit their turn signal, then move into the turn lane. Why does that turn lane exist if you're just going to brake and turn from the flow of traffic, you godforsaken idiots?

D: People who are scared to drive at highway speeds or in the rain. If you're scared, you're dangerous - just stay off the road or call a friend to drive you if it's necessary.

S: People who signal when changing lanes on the highway.

Yes! People who indicate as they turn, not before, also see people who don't fucking indicate at all

People who ride my bumper when i'm doing the speed limit. I'm not going to fucking get a speeding ticket for some arsehole tailgating me, especially on the freaking highway when there are three other lanes to choose from. Grrrrrr

People who drive well under the speed limit on the highway (or anywhere else for that matter) If you can't fucking merge at the posted speed limit find another way to get where you're going please.

Jerks in hotted up cars who purposefully drive slowly through the intersection only to speed up when they know they've already made you miss the light. This makes me want to carry a sawn-off shotgun around.

Volvo drivers! I ran up the back of the fucking volvo driver who was chatting on her phone and driving erratically because of it. She went to merge, there was no traffic in sight, then changed her mind at the last minute (possibly because of whatever was being said on her phone) and smack bang, I run into her. Her stupidity cost me $450.

Stupid fuckheads who blast their stereo crazy-loud with terrible trance or really crap top 40 hip-hop.

Hmmmm....thats probably the worst of it.

AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN AMEN!!

ORRR... the "special" breed of individuals on Friday afternoons who don't even bother to wait for the people in the actual LANE DESIGNATED FOR THOSE PEOPLE WHO WISH TO TURN LEFT to actually rightfully TURN, but rather TURN FROM THEIR NON-TURNING LANE RIGHT WHEN THAT LIGHT TURNS GREEN. Argh. They are perfect arguments for retroactive abortion and I *so* wish I could kick their asses into submission.

A: Yours truly, and he's unhurt and his car is unhurt (except for some cosmetic damage to the bumper) but the smoking, chatting, horchata-drinking Honda-driver destroyed his hood.

D: Men who drive underpowered cars on Alpine Autobahns and dream of being Michael Schumacher -- yes, great, I see that you are willing to do 190 km/h in your overloaded Toyota Picnic when we're headed downhill with a tailwind, but given the fact that the next uphill bit is coming along any second now and, as we both learned on the last uphill bit, you are about to slow down to a mere crawl, you should please GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY.

D: Volkswagen Passat Kombi (estate, station wagon) drivers. They are bitter middle aged men who are angry that their wives wouldn't let them purchase Audis, and their every driving decision is a futile attempt to reclaim their lost masculinity. Bad news.

There is a new growing threat on the European roads that may one day match the menace of the VW Passat Kombi driver: the Porsche Cayenne driver. There aren't yet enough of these on the road to be sure, but initial encounters have so far confirmed what I have feared: you combine the arrogance of the Porsche driver with the idiocy of the sort of person who thinks you need a big ass SUV in a European city, and you are asking for trouble.

eat shit.

Maybe they're people from outside town who don't know which lane is for which route. I know I do this when I'm driving in areas I don't know very well. In my local area, a lot of the junctions (on normal roads, even) have signs well in advance to show which lane to use; but they're not common elsewhere.

you guys are my brothers-in-arms! :D

man, bloomington, indiana is the worst for this that I've ever seen, a ludicrous number of one-way streets (some are 4-6 lanes, why? why?) and lanes that become turn-only lanes seemingly randomly...you'll be traveling in the left-hand lane and then suddenly have to turn left.

But still, I think if there are cars behind them waiting to go through the light then the polite thing to do would be to just go through and make a U-turn and come back and get in the proper lane, rather than make everyone else wait because of their mistake.

I know you're telling the truth--but if you think about it, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Who the hell brings their car with them while touristing another, overseas country? Almost no one, so I'd have to personally assume either A) the car was purchased in Europe by an American and the plates haven't been switched yet--very hoity toity B) there is a very good reason as to why you'd bring your foreign car with you on vacation, and you are probably an excellent driver.

Quite frankly seeing German plates in the DC area would be a blessing; I think half of the population here is a worse driver than I am and I don't have a license.

Also if I saw German plates I would assume they wouldn't be going the speed limit in the far left lane of the highway. Yes, everyone on the thread, there are three (or like, seven, if you're in Jersey) lanes to choose from. Don't choose the one furthest to the left if you're doing the speed limit. Idiots.

If they *can* do a U-turn - there are an awful lots of busy traffic-light junctions round here where U-turns are banned.

They can pull onto a side street or into a parking lot and then go the other way. It's hard to miss turn lanes, though, isn't it? Center of the road, usually marked with a big yellow line on either side.

S: People who pull over to the side on two-lane roads to let faster cars through
S: Basic decency and consideration for your fellow motorists
D: Doing things that cause other drivers to be dicks.
D: Cops.

Also people who stop in the middle of a small residential street to talk to a friend on the sidewalk or someone in another car. Pull over, motherfuckers!

haha. we dream.

UGH. This happens all the time. The worst is getting stuck behind all the cars and moms waiting either for or with their kids at the bus stop. Let the fat little bastards walk home, it's not a long walk.

Not really. It's hard to miss them if they're filter lanes; but there are many junctions where the nearside lane becomes left-only, or the offside lane becomes right-only. Or, at busy intersections, ones where the offside lane *and* the one next to it become right-only. There's no standardisation, so if you don't drive the area regularly you're screwed.

(for example, there's one junction I pass every day on my way to and from work. In both directions, there are two lanes leading up to it. Going into work, the nearside lane is left-only and the offside ahead-plus-right. Coming home again, it's the opposite: the offside lane is right-only and the nearside ahead-plus-left. If you think about it, this makes a twisted kind of sense: there's a separate lane for the busiest turning route. However, it's easy to see how a driver can get confused by it.)

Milo's posts make me think that while I would join his political party in a second, I'd rather die than join his car pool.

Has anyone upthread said people who step on the breakes for no reason on the highway. There's no one in front of them, yet you see brake lights. I can only guess that they're driving with both feet and don't realize they're stepping on the brake. smack.

but you'd just be screwing all the pedestrians by pumping out extra toxic gas by going via an extra long round route wasting gas when, if people can just wait that extra 5 seconds or so the world is that much of a greener place.

tailgating
cellphone use whilst driving
foglights on at night when it isn't foggy

Also, people who do the school run.

Or drivers who brake while going UPHILL.

Milo's posts make me think that while I would join his political party in a second, I'd rather die than join his car pool.
I'm overly frustrated by rudeness (unless it's to someone doing any of the Ds up there - by all means honk and flip them off, their fault to start with). I kind of get annoyed when people ordering fast food don't say 'please' and 'thank you' or just bark their orders like the cashier isn't a person.

I've developed a bad penchant for speeding and weaving on the highway, I really need to kick the habit but it's sort of addictive. This morning I pushed in in front of some guy in a porsche with no particular intention of doing anything other than getting to my exit and he got really pissy with me and started revving his engine, trying to race me and follow me and stuff, and against my better judgment I went along with it. I have good reflexes and was able to stay ahead of his dumbass porsche in my regular old 4-cylinder honda. I wasn't even enraged, and the whole time there was a voice going "just let it go" but I couldn't. Ended anticlimactically as we wound up taking the same route off the highway just coincidentally, I was behind him for a while with no particular intent to menace the guy but amused at the thought he might think I was, then finally we split ways when our routes diverged.

I probably should just go to a go-kart track and get it out of my system so I don't wind up in an accident. It's a new thing for me too, would speed some in the past but was never an aggressive driver.

I'm not going to cite any particular habits to Search or Destroy, but only want to point out that humans are exceptionally habit-controlled, as a means of cutting down on the work of thinking and streamlining the whole thought process, and that a large part of our driving skills are made up of acquired habits that form a kind of automatic pilot that we switch on when we take the wheel.

The upshot is that a bad habit can flourish and its capacity to cause a collision remain latent for years, but one fine day your mind will be engaged with some deep thought, your habits will be driving the car, and they'll fail you. You'll roll through a Stop sign into a pedestrian, or cut the corner on a turn just as another car arrives to occupy the space you wanted to cut through. And you'll swear you never saw the pedestrian or the other car until it was too late. Because you didn't. You weren't looking and your bad habits were in charge of the car.

destroy driving

curious what parking lights are though, OP

on the freeway last year i saw a U-Haul truck try to aggressively merge basically into a car, and the car wouldn't let the driver over so he swerved towards the car. anyway the passenger in the car rolled down his window and started flashing a switchblade and leaning his head out, making a throat slash motion. they continued on the freeway, the car behind the U-Haul, as I exited.

i would say drive chill.

Good post, Aimless. It's easy to relatively "master" basic everyday driving and I think it messes with our ability to assess risk