Road-related pet peeves

[hbelkins]

I hate when people use the term "exchange" when they mean "interchange"

[roadman65]

I hate when they manufacture new road signs that are for soon to be removed like FDOT did when they updated all the signs on I-4 in Downtown Orlando.  They created brand new signs for South Street and a few weeks after they were in place, permanently closed that exit for good.

As you all know guide signs do not come cheap and especially when they are overhead signs like all the previous Exit 83 signs were.

[Thunderbyrd316]

   Another pet peeve I forgot to mention in my previous post that I find extremely annoying is the practice used on most newer directional banners to have the first capital letter of a direction be taller than the others. To me this looks unnecessarily asymmetrical. The older banners look so much neater and tidier to me. Is there any chance of getting the MUTCD to dump this (in my opinion) unnecessary and annoying practice? 

[rarnold]

-The State of Oklahoma's aversion to mile markers, at least in the panhandle.
-New Mexico's seemingly non-standard BGS signage.
-US56/412 and its 60 MPH speed limit between Clayton, NM and Springer, NM. It is a very sparsely traveled road.
-Arrow per lane signage
-neutered Interstate highway shields.
-no open-road tolling on the Kansas Turnpike. I know I don't have to stop, but it would be nice to stay at 75 MPH

[ModernDayWarrior]

My biggest road-related pet peeve is when US and state routes aren't co-signed when they are concurrent with Interstates. It's not that big of a hassle or an expense, at least comparatively speaking, and it can be easy to make wrong turns when you happen to be following one of the "lesser" roads. I think all or nearly all concurrencies should be signed with all of the routes.

Also, yeah, neutered Interstate shields. The state-named ones look so much better.

[allniter89]

Right- or left-turn-only lanes posted well beyond a typical traffic backup point, stranding drivers in the wrong lane before they know it's the wrong lane.

Another one I hate is people who don't use turn signals. I mean come on, all it takes is half of a second to flick your wrist!

I think some people just forget. I know my dad does when he drives sometimes. It seems like something automatic though, almost like closing a car door after leaving the car (although I have forgotten to do that myself).

Someone I'm not supposed to criticize tells me she has been driving long enough to "know when it is and isn't necessary" to signal when changing lanes.  Drives me nuts.

My peeve is drivers who don't turn their turn signal off. My brother turned in front of a vehicle with its left signal on & crashed, bro got the ticket, failure to yield.
I had a couple of close calls in same situation years ago, now i wait until I'm sure they are actually going to turn.
My simple rule for turn signal use is if my movement wont affect any other vehicles I don't bother tho I usually hit the signal without realizing when I'm turning, even at 3am with no vehicle within 4 miles of me.

[roadman65]

Oh yes and they travel for miles with it on passing so many places they could have made the turn.

Also when i used to work for Prudential Insurance in Iselin, NJ it used to irk me when people turning into the driveway used to have their signal on for a good 100 yards before they turn into Pru.  The problem was Siemens also had a driveway 50 feet away from Prudential and that to me is false signaling.   The reason why I considered it to be false was the fact I used to come to work that way before I moved to another location, and when I arrived from that direction I would wait till after the Siemens driveway to signal for fear of false signalling to other by myself.

[sdmichael]

It is a minor one, but at the DMV I hear and even say "Do you have your I-20 and/or I-94" not referring to an Interstate.

[TravelingBethelite]

Post author chiming in here, as the supermoon rises. One of things that peeve me are signs like this: (   )

Image courtesy of CrossCountry Roads

I.E. when the arrows are pointing into the woods/land along the Interstate and not toward the exit ramp or are positioned too far from the actual exit to be correct.

[KG909]

CLEARVIEW

HTC Desire 510

[OCGuy81]

Another that came to mind is drivers who cruise in the fast lanes either at or below the speed limit.  If I pass you on the right, who is in the wrong lane?  Move on over!

I get a lot of that where I live, as Orange County has a lot of tourists driving rental cars about, especially close to the theme parks.  There is many a time I come up on a minivan in the far left lane doing 50. 

[roadman]

   Another pet peeve I forgot to mention in my previous post that I find extremely annoying is the practice used on most newer directional banners to have the first capital letter of a direction be taller than the others. To me this looks unnecessarily asymmetrical. The older banners look so much neater and tidier to me. Is there any chance of getting the MUTCD to dump this (in my opinion) unnecessary and annoying practice? 

I don't mind the elongation of the initial letter when used in cardinal directions.  Bothered me when it was first introducted in the early 1990s, but I've gotten used to it.  However, one of my pet peeves is states that elongate the 'T' in "TO" (yes, I'm looking at you New Hampshire).  Anoter of my pet peeves is when the corner of a sign border is not squared off where it meets the exit tab.

[jp the roadgeek]

Post author chiming in here, as the supermoon rises. One of things that peeve me are signs like this: (   )


I.E. when the arrows are pointing into the woods/land along the Interstate and not toward the exit ramp or are positioned too far from the actual exit to be correct.

Or arrows that point up for straight ahead.  My car can't defy gravity

[Brandon]

My peeve is drivers who don't turn their turn signal off. My brother turned in front of a vehicle with its left signal on & crashed, bro got the ticket, failure to yield.

That's why you never go unless you actually see their wheels turn and they've committed to the turn.

[noelbotevera]

My peeve is drivers who don't turn their turn signal off. My brother turned in front of a vehicle with its left signal on & crashed, bro got the ticket, failure to yield.

That's why you never go unless you actually see their wheels turn and they've committed to the turn.

You know, what I could do to be jerkish to drivers is drive the Chicago way and never use signals. They'll have to guess. Yay.

[Mergingtraffic]

"This Lane Ends" or "Lane Ends 500 Feet" with no down arrow if it's overhead over a lane. If we're going to split hairs and add 3-dashes on a road narrows sign then why not do that?
Mileage based exit numbers on short sections of freeway. If the whole freeway is 3 miles long what is the purpose?

[silverback1065]

street signs that omit the suffix of the street, look at Detroit for an example of this.

[Ga293]

Routes that don't connect at another route of their class at their end when there's no major geographical features preventing it.

The most glaring examples are I-27 and I-44 in Texas. I mean, maybe the traffic counts don't justify them connecting to another interstate, but it just looks wrong somehow to have a major component in the network just begin/end like that.

[OCGuy81]

Routes that don't connect at another route of their class at their end when there's no major geographical features preventing it.

The most glaring examples are I-27 and I-44 in Texas. I mean, maybe the traffic counts don't justify them connecting to another interstate, but it just looks wrong somehow to have a major component in the network just begin/end like that.

You must love I-39 in northern Wisconsin in that case! 

[Buffaboy]

The BGS on this expressway leading to a strip mall that was formerly a shopping mall:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1222216,-75.2302313,3a,41.6y,40.95h,96.14t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sA2BhTi3CdhwjRTknki9E5g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

But probably biggest for me would be stubs and "unnatural" highway alignments.

And maybe the last couple would be drivers that can't merge in Cloverleaf intersections and can't yield, and having to put lights on when it's sprinkling outside.

[vtk]

and having to put lights on when it's sprinkling outside.

I have a serious pet peeve about people who fail to turn on their headlights in the rain or snow.  Especially if I'm waiting for a gap in traffic so I can turn onto a road, and the road is wet so there's spray, I might think there's a gap only to realize, no, the next car just doesn't have his lights on.

Seriously, there's no reason not to turn on your headlights when driving, any time of day, in any weather.  Make it a habit: start the engine, turn on the headlights; turn off the engine, turn off the headlights.

[hbelkins]

Seriously, there's no reason not to turn on your headlights when driving, any time of day, in any weather.  Make it a habit: start the engine, turn on the headlights; turn off the engine, turn off the headlights.

You must not have been around for some of the MTR discussions on how the use of DRLs would negatively impact gas mileage. (seriously, that was a hot topic back in the day...)

[empirestate]

Seriously, there's no reason not to turn on your headlights when driving, any time of day, in any weather.  Make it a habit: start the engine, turn on the headlights; turn off the engine, turn off the headlights.

You must not have been around for some of the MTR discussions on how the use of DRLs would negatively impact gas mileage. (seriously, that was a hot topic back in the day...)

The other being its negative effect on drivers' free will and, thus, engagement with the act of driving. I think most of us would agree this appears to have worsened lately, for various reasons.


iPhone

[DaBigE]

Seriously, there's no reason not to turn on your headlights when driving, any time of day, in any weather.  Make it a habit: start the engine, turn on the headlights; turn off the engine, turn off the headlights.

Sorry, not going to happen. The more I use them, the faster they're going to burn out. If my headlights weren't such a PITA to change, I'd have no problem agreeing with you. Until I change cars or the law changes, I'm only going to use my headlights when necessary (dusk/night or inclement weather); I'm not going to run my headlights when it's bright and sunny out.

[vdeane]

The National Motorists Association likes to talk about how DRLs make the roads less safe, by making it harder to see motorcyclists.