Road-related pet peeves

[RM42]

People who ignore red lights, stop signs, and other road safety infrastructure. It puts everyone at serious risk. Driving is a privilege, not a right. 

[Quillz]

People who honk at me when I'm at a "no right turn on red" intersection. No, I'm not going to break the law just because I probably won't get caught.

[vdeane]

People who honk at me when I'm at a "no right turn on red" intersection. No, I'm not going to break the law just because I probably won't get caught.

Generalizing, getting honked at for refusing to break the law period.  I seem to recall someone upthread mentioning honking at someone for not using the shoulder to make a right on red, despite driving on the shoulder like that being illegal.

[Quillz]

There are some intersections near my work where the signs were recently installed, so I can at least give people benefit of the doubt they may not see the signs. But there are plenty of intersections where it's just people being impatient.

I've been seeing the same thing since I've been using adaptive cruise control. Some people go around me because I'm accelerating too slow, but in reality they are just tailgaters who had to hit their brakes. Good riddance, if I'm pissing off tailgaters, good. Maybe it's the "new car honeymoon" phase, but I've been making a better effort in general to just be less stressed when driving. I now drive a little slower than I used to, and clearly people don't like that (I'll go five above the limit instead of ten). I drive in the rightmost or middle lane, and people still go around me (and this isn't a flow of traffic issue, I'm talking about rush hour traffic). That's what I've noticed, lots of people just want to ride on your tailgate and get upset when they suddenly have to brake hard.

[webny99]

People who honk at me when I'm at a "no right turn on red" intersection. No, I'm not going to break the law just because I probably won't get caught.

Generalizing, getting honked at for refusing to break the law period.  I seem to recall someone upthread mentioning honking at someone for not using the shoulder to make a right on red, despite driving on the shoulder like that being illegal.

Yeah, that was me. Technically going 56 mph on a 55 mph freeway is illegal too, doesn't mean no one does it or even that it's necessarily always the wrong thing to do in context with other laws. And yeah, I will admit that there are some locations where, if someone refuses to use the shoulder to turn right on red when it was literally expanded by the DOT (or county, town, or whatever) for that purpose, then I will just go around them if it's safe to do so. For all I know, there's a 50/50 chance it was their hazards on instead of their blinker anyways.

[vdeane]

People who honk at me when I'm at a "no right turn on red" intersection. No, I'm not going to break the law just because I probably won't get caught.

Generalizing, getting honked at for refusing to break the law period.  I seem to recall someone upthread mentioning honking at someone for not using the shoulder to make a right on red, despite driving on the shoulder like that being illegal.

Yeah, that was me. Technically going 56 mph on a 55 mph freeway is illegal too, doesn't mean no one does it or even that it's necessarily always the wrong thing to do in context with other laws. And yeah, I will admit that there are some locations where, if someone refuses to use the shoulder to turn right on red when it was literally expanded by the DOT (or county, town, or whatever) for that purpose, then I will just go around them if it's safe to do so. For all I know, there's a 50/50 chance it was their hazards on instead of their blinker anyways.

You assume that the shoulder is wide for that purpose.  Given that shoulder travel is illegal in NY, more likely it's to help facilitate the travel of emergency vehicles when necessary, or something else entirely.

[Rothman]

There are some intersections near my work where the signs were recently installed, so I can at least give people benefit of the doubt they may not see the signs. But there are plenty of intersections where it's just people being impatient.

I've been seeing the same thing since I've been using adaptive cruise control. Some people go around me because I'm accelerating too slow, but in reality they are just tailgaters who had to hit their brakes. Good riddance, if I'm pissing off tailgaters, good. Maybe it's the "new car honeymoon" phase, but I've been making a better effort in general to just be less stressed when driving. I now drive a little slower than I used to, and clearly people don't like that (I'll go five above the limit instead of ten). I drive in the rightmost or middle lane, and people still go around me (and this isn't a flow of traffic issue, I'm talking about rush hour traffic). That's what I've noticed, lots of people just want to ride on your tailgate and get upset when they suddenly have to brake hard.

Well, of course they're going around you.  You're going slowly and they're going faster, so they pass you.

[fillup420]

People who don't use cruise control on freeways.

To be fair, I don't quite know how to work mine.

Same goes for my work van. 2021 Dodge Promaster. The cruise control is idiotic. If i set it to 72, the speed at any given moment can vary between 68 and 78. I find myself constantly adjusting the CC to accommodate other traffic. I also yell at the CC to speed up or slow down if its not doing what it should be doing.

[webny99]

People who honk at me when I'm at a "no right turn on red" intersection. No, I'm not going to break the law just because I probably won't get caught.

Generalizing, getting honked at for refusing to break the law period.  I seem to recall someone upthread mentioning honking at someone for not using the shoulder to make a right on red, despite driving on the shoulder like that being illegal.

Yeah, that was me. Technically going 56 mph on a 55 mph freeway is illegal too, doesn't mean no one does it or even that it's necessarily always the wrong thing to do in context with other laws. And yeah, I will admit that there are some locations where, if someone refuses to use the shoulder to turn right on red when it was literally expanded by the DOT (or county, town, or whatever) for that purpose, then I will just go around them if it's safe to do so. For all I know, there's a 50/50 chance it was their hazards on instead of their blinker anyways.

You assume that the shoulder is wide for that purpose.  Given that shoulder travel is illegal in NY, more likely it's to help facilitate the travel of emergency vehicles when necessary, or something else entirely.

I hadn't thought about emergency vehicles, but I still feel it's an acceptable assumption. There's just no way it wasn't considered and understood that the shoulder would be used for right turns when it was built/reconstructed. All of this fits with my opinion (and it is just that, unfortunately) that single solid lines should be considered guidelines only while double solid lines should be enforceable.

Also worth noting that just because there's someone ahead of you doesn't mean you have to use the shoulder to turn right on red. In many cases, it can be done 100% legally within the existing lane. Here is one such example; though there are many, this just happened to be the first one I found with a car in good position to illustrate.

[Scott5114]

There's just no way it wasn't considered and understood that the shoulder would be used for right turns when it was built/reconstructed.

Why would an engineer intentionally increase the materials usage, and thus cost, of a project, to facilitate a movement that isn't even legal under the laws of the state it's being constructed in?

[Quillz]

There are some intersections near my work where the signs were recently installed, so I can at least give people benefit of the doubt they may not see the signs. But there are plenty of intersections where it's just people being impatient.

I've been seeing the same thing since I've been using adaptive cruise control. Some people go around me because I'm accelerating too slow, but in reality they are just tailgaters who had to hit their brakes. Good riddance, if I'm pissing off tailgaters, good. Maybe it's the "new car honeymoon" phase, but I've been making a better effort in general to just be less stressed when driving. I now drive a little slower than I used to, and clearly people don't like that (I'll go five above the limit instead of ten). I drive in the rightmost or middle lane, and people still go around me (and this isn't a flow of traffic issue, I'm talking about rush hour traffic). That's what I've noticed, lots of people just want to ride on your tailgate and get upset when they suddenly have to brake hard.

Well, of course they're going around you.  You're going slowly and they're going faster, so they pass you.

Fine with me. They are tailgaters already going well above the speed limit (I go 5-10 above it unless the flow of traffic warrants otherwise). If I'm annoying them, great. Let them tailgate someone else.

[Rothman]

There are some intersections near my work where the signs were recently installed, so I can at least give people benefit of the doubt they may not see the signs. But there are plenty of intersections where it's just people being impatient.

I've been seeing the same thing since I've been using adaptive cruise control. Some people go around me because I'm accelerating too slow, but in reality they are just tailgaters who had to hit their brakes. Good riddance, if I'm pissing off tailgaters, good. Maybe it's the "new car honeymoon" phase, but I've been making a better effort in general to just be less stressed when driving. I now drive a little slower than I used to, and clearly people don't like that (I'll go five above the limit instead of ten). I drive in the rightmost or middle lane, and people still go around me (and this isn't a flow of traffic issue, I'm talking about rush hour traffic). That's what I've noticed, lots of people just want to ride on your tailgate and get upset when they suddenly have to brake hard.

Well, of course they're going around you.  You're going slowly and they're going faster, so they pass you.

Fine with me. They are tailgaters already going well above the speed limit (I go 5-10 above it unless the flow of traffic warrants otherwise). If I'm annoying them, great. Let them tailgate someone else.

Just because someone passes you doesn't mean that they're annoyed with you, especially on a multi-lane highway.

[webny99]

There's just no way it wasn't considered and understood that the shoulder would be used for right turns when it was built/reconstructed.

Why would an engineer intentionally increase the materials usage, and thus cost, of a project, to facilitate a movement that isn't even legal under the laws of the state it's being constructed in?

Without getting into specific examples I can't think of any reason why the cost would be more than trivially higher, depending on if the space was already there for a wide paved shoulder or if the entire road was widened during reconstruction. vdeane has a point about emergency vehicles, but I suspect it is sometimes done as a cheaper alternative to a full right turn lane.

[wanderer2575]

Then there's the opposite: being stuck behind a slow driver, only for them to sail through a yellow while you get stuck at a red.  It would be very satisfying to pass them and then sail through the green or yellow only for them to get stuck at the red, but that never seems to happen.

That doesn't bother me so much since then they are no longer a problem.

Unless you catch up to them again.  Plus I can't help but imagine their smug feeling of vindication whenever it happens.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel a smug feeling of vindication any time someone drives like a maniac to pass me and then I end up right behind them at the next light.

Even better is when you know the timing of the lights and adjust your speed so the light turns green as you reach it, and you thus fly past the maniac who passed you and was stopped at that light.  Bonus points if the lane ends and you're now in front of that person on a single-lane.

[zachary_amaryllis]

1.  "Pulling that number" is one of the explicitly stated purposes of a TWLTL in some states.

2.  Why would you rather a vehicle enter the travel lane at 2 mph instead of the at roughly the flow of traffic?

I interpreted it as people who turn into TWLTL's and use them as an acceleration lane, when it can be unsafe (and illegal) to travel more then a short distance in them.

Two of my peeves are:

• Signs getting replaced with inferior ones - we have some new ones that got taken out in wrecks, and the replacements are always smaller and sometimes missing information.
• People who only go a few mph faster to pass on three-lane rural highways - it may be allowed, but it sure is annoying when only a handful of people can pass in the entire 1-2 mile zone.

2a: On three-lanes, on the downhill side, it's legit to pass in some places. By god GO!, or let me go.

[Quillz]

There are some intersections near my work where the signs were recently installed, so I can at least give people benefit of the doubt they may not see the signs. But there are plenty of intersections where it's just people being impatient.

I've been seeing the same thing since I've been using adaptive cruise control. Some people go around me because I'm accelerating too slow, but in reality they are just tailgaters who had to hit their brakes. Good riddance, if I'm pissing off tailgaters, good. Maybe it's the "new car honeymoon" phase, but I've been making a better effort in general to just be less stressed when driving. I now drive a little slower than I used to, and clearly people don't like that (I'll go five above the limit instead of ten). I drive in the rightmost or middle lane, and people still go around me (and this isn't a flow of traffic issue, I'm talking about rush hour traffic). That's what I've noticed, lots of people just want to ride on your tailgate and get upset when they suddenly have to brake hard.

Well, of course they're going around you.  You're going slowly and they're going faster, so they pass you.

Fine with me. They are tailgaters already going well above the speed limit (I go 5-10 above it unless the flow of traffic warrants otherwise). If I'm annoying them, great. Let them tailgate someone else.

Just because someone passes you doesn't mean that they're annoyed with you, especially on a multi-lane highway.

In the context I'm referring to, they are. I can tell who is tailgating and who is not.

[vdeane]

Then there's the opposite: being stuck behind a slow driver, only for them to sail through a yellow while you get stuck at a red.  It would be very satisfying to pass them and then sail through the green or yellow only for them to get stuck at the red, but that never seems to happen.

That doesn't bother me so much since then they are no longer a problem.

Unless you catch up to them again.  Plus I can't help but imagine their smug feeling of vindication whenever it happens.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel a smug feeling of vindication any time someone drives like a maniac to pass me and then I end up right behind them at the next light.

Even better is when you know the timing of the lights and adjust your speed so the light turns green as you reach it, and you thus fly past the maniac who passed you and was stopped at that light.  Bonus points if the lane ends and you're now in front of that person on a single-lane.

That's just mean, especially given that each driver's definition of "maniac" seems to be "everyone who wishes to go faster than me".

[Big John]

That's just mean, especially given that each driver's definition of "maniac" seems to be "everyone who wishes to go faster than me".

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" ― George Carlin

[Rothman]

There are some intersections near my work where the signs were recently installed, so I can at least give people benefit of the doubt they may not see the signs. But there are plenty of intersections where it's just people being impatient.

I've been seeing the same thing since I've been using adaptive cruise control. Some people go around me because I'm accelerating too slow, but in reality they are just tailgaters who had to hit their brakes. Good riddance, if I'm pissing off tailgaters, good. Maybe it's the "new car honeymoon" phase, but I've been making a better effort in general to just be less stressed when driving. I now drive a little slower than I used to, and clearly people don't like that (I'll go five above the limit instead of ten). I drive in the rightmost or middle lane, and people still go around me (and this isn't a flow of traffic issue, I'm talking about rush hour traffic). That's what I've noticed, lots of people just want to ride on your tailgate and get upset when they suddenly have to brake hard.

Well, of course they're going around you.  You're going slowly and they're going faster, so they pass you.

Fine with me. They are tailgaters already going well above the speed limit (I go 5-10 above it unless the flow of traffic warrants otherwise). If I'm annoying them, great. Let them tailgate someone else.

Just because someone passes you doesn't mean that they're annoyed with you, especially on a multi-lane highway.

In the context I'm referring to, they are. I can tell who is tailgating and who is not.

Even when you're in the middle lane of a three-lane carriageway...

[texaskdog]

Bad intersections that can easily be fixed yet take years.

[Quillz]

There are some intersections near my work where the signs were recently installed, so I can at least give people benefit of the doubt they may not see the signs. But there are plenty of intersections where it's just people being impatient.

I've been seeing the same thing since I've been using adaptive cruise control. Some people go around me because I'm accelerating too slow, but in reality they are just tailgaters who had to hit their brakes. Good riddance, if I'm pissing off tailgaters, good. Maybe it's the "new car honeymoon" phase, but I've been making a better effort in general to just be less stressed when driving. I now drive a little slower than I used to, and clearly people don't like that (I'll go five above the limit instead of ten). I drive in the rightmost or middle lane, and people still go around me (and this isn't a flow of traffic issue, I'm talking about rush hour traffic). That's what I've noticed, lots of people just want to ride on your tailgate and get upset when they suddenly have to brake hard.

Well, of course they're going around you.  You're going slowly and they're going faster, so they pass you.

Fine with me. They are tailgaters already going well above the speed limit (I go 5-10 above it unless the flow of traffic warrants otherwise). If I'm annoying them, great. Let them tailgate someone else.

Just because someone passes you doesn't mean that they're annoyed with you, especially on a multi-lane highway.

In the context I'm referring to, they are. I can tell who is tailgating and who is not.

Even when you're in the middle lane of a three-lane carriageway...

I am describing a very specific context: I'm in the rightmost or middle lane. So people can always go around me. I'm talking very specifically about tailgaters, people who come up directly behind me. You've probably encountered them. I've seen recently this seems to be happening less since I'm in general driving a little slower. I'm accelereating a little bit slower than I normally would so this seems to annoy them enough they now go around me. This is good, I hate tailgaters and it's dangerous. Let them bother someone else.

I'm not talking about general scenarios where the flow of traffic is a good 10-15 mph what is posted. People go around me all the time and they're not tailgating. I'm talking about rush hour traffic scenarios, people still do it. Now they're doing it less. That's good.

Oh, and another pet peeve of mine: people who have stuck turn signals. People who will drive for miles without turning it off. Of course, the second they turn it off, then they make their turn.

[1995hoo]

Maybe it was just that the one car I drove with it was too aggressive (even on the lowest setting), but I found I would much rather just take over speed control myself at the times that the adaptive cruise would start adjusting the speed. By the time I would realize that it was engaging, I would get trapped behind a slow car because everyone was dogpiling the left lane to avoid both of us. With normal cruise, I notice that I'm getting closer and closer to the car ahead of me and can normally make the lane change without any hassle.

The Priuses NYSDOT uses for fleet cars all have adaptive cruise control and it's annoying for exactly this reason.  The power meter does start to move a couple seconds before the car noticeably slows down most of the time, but using that is dependent on the adjacent lane being clear when it does so I can move over.  Once it slows down, it takes a long time to get back up to speed.  And the default following distance is large enough to fit a truck in (not a pickup truck either, a full tractor trailer).

Using adaptive cruise control does take a little bit of effort and attention to what's ahead and behind (as with any driving situation). Honda ACC has a display that shows when a vehicle is within range of the radar. When that pops up, or just based on watching the road, it is easy enough to move left to pass the slower vehicle before being trapped by approaching traffic. Honda also allows you to set the spacing between you and the vehicle in front, with increasing space for heavier traffic. The shortest following distance is a safety factor that does leave a bit of room ahead of you, but it is easy enough to accelerate to close the space when conditions warrant (such as the ahole who doesn't want to sit in the long line behind the micro-passer and roars up to cut in at the last minute).

I very much like the adaptive cruise control in my wife's Acura, and I use it in local driving to keep my speed down, especially in school zones. I agree with VPIGoose that one key is to understand how it works and to anticipate what it might do. For example, using adaptive cruise control when someone is tailgating you can be somewhat risky because of the possibility of your car slowing suddenly. Last week on our trip to Florida I was driving a Tesla Model 3 we rented from Hertz. The cruise control on that car is prone to braking very aggressively and suddenly, even for things to which my wife's car would not react—for example, the Tesla braked hard when someone coming the other way made a left turn across our side of the road up ahead even though we weren't really all that close. South Florida is plagued by a lot of extreme tailgaters, people who follow so closely you can't even see the reflection of their headlights at night. In that situation, adaptive cruise control can present a hazard that standard cruise control does not. But none of this makes it difficult to use or a hassle—it just means that, as with any other driving, someone with even a modicum of responsibility will learn how his car works and operate it accordingly.

(Regardless of adaptive cruise control versus traditional cruise control, one thing Acura has that I wish more automakers provided is a "cancel" button so you can de-activate the cruise control without stepping on the brake or the clutch. Tesla's system lets you cancel it by pushing up on the right-hand stalk, which doubles as the gearshift; I find that a little weird, though you get used to it very quickly.)

[Dirt Roads]

I am describing a very specific context: I'm in the rightmost or middle lane. So people can always go around me. I'm talking very specifically about tailgaters, people who come up directly behind me. You've probably encountered them. I've seen recently this seems to be happening less since I'm in general driving a little slower. I'm accelereating a little bit slower than I normally would so this seems to annoy them enough they now go around me. This is good, I hate tailgaters and it's dangerous. Let them bother someone else.

I'll have to admit, it is unnerving to be travelling slightly over the speed limit in the rightmost lane when someone comes flying up behind you at 30MPH over the speed limit and tailgates in the hopes that you will change to the middle lanes.  It's becoming very difficult to merge onto wide freeway sections (3 or lanes wide) for the same reason.  Worse, in many cases they appear to be using adaptive speed control set for over 100MPH.

[tmoore952]

That's just mean, especially given that each driver's definition of "maniac" seems to be "everyone who wishes to go faster than me".

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" ― George Carlin

This quote captures my feeling about many things I read in this thread. I'd say it is a reasonable assumption that most (but not all) other drivers have their attention on their own things to worry about ---  rather than specifically annoying you.

[webny99]

That's just mean, especially given that each driver's definition of "maniac" seems to be "everyone who wishes to go faster than me".

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" ― George Carlin

This quote captures my feeling about many things I read in this thread. I'd say it is a reasonable assumption that most (but not all) other drivers have their attention on their own things to worry about ---  rather than specifically annoying you.

It is an interesting juxtaposition. To me the highest priority aside from getting to my destination safely is the overall efficiency of the network, so I tend to promote any behavior that improves that and be bothered by any behavior that interferes with that. My mindset is, how do I best minimize my potential interference with others on the road? I actually enjoy not being fastest one on the road and am always willing to do what I can, even in small details, to help the network operate more efficiently for others.