The most common driver mistake that you see where you live?

[corco]

Missoula is really hard not to speed in- the lack of any sort of proper bypass through town builds up traffic, which builds up frustration, which builds up speeding. I'm not much of a speeder, usually 5 over. If I'm on, say, Brooks on my way back to Idaho though I find it very difficult not to speed up to make the next light- those lights aren't really timed, so you can save a lot of time by going 5-7 over. It's not even so much a rush as it is human nature to just sort of push things. If I know I can make that next light by going 2 MPH faster, it's really hard not to do that.

If there's little traffic, 45 becomes a really underposted speed on the southwest side of town, and it's tough not to go faster. 

Maybe that's my own problem, but there it is anyway.

[kphoger]

Oh, boy. Where to start. First off ... I hate ... with a passion! ... God, I hate... I get forced to... a major gripe ... Now, me ... I hate it ... Man that pisses me off so much ... some dumbass ... I flip the guy the bird. Shit ... piss me off ... Another thing is ... people tend to not like the fact that I'm ... have to rush me and force me ... Why is it that you have to be ... Next ... God, I hate

Ummm.....

[allniter89]

Drivers don't adjust their speed and following distance for weather/traffic conditions. For most the norm is run the speed limit + 10 no matter what conditions are, heavy rain, dense fog, winter precip. I LOVE it when one passes me then spins out, bwhaaha serves you right sucker!!   bi-bi

[corco]

I LOVE it when one passes me then spins out, bwhaaha serves you right sucker!! 

I really enjoy this too.

[J N Winkler]

I'll respectfully disagree.  If you do not have the right-of-way to turn, you wait for the other person to complete his turn.  Again, if you do not have a protected left, you wait for the person turning right.  If you have the protected left, the person turning right must stop and wait.  It's as simple as that and does not need a silly law restricting movement.

But if you have that law in place and enforce it, then right turning traffic has the right of way to the outside lane and left turning traffic has right of way to the inside lane, allowing for a lot more throughput.

I think the impact on throughput is in fact quite modest, largely because in the absence of channelization (including provision of dedicated turn lanes), the opportunity to turn is restricted to vehicles that are at the head of the queue and actually want to make the turn.

A four lane road may not be the best way to look at it, because sometimes those are too tight for two vehicles to be turning at the same time. But what about a six lane road? Is it really necessary to deny a right turner the ability to make any movement just to accommodate a left turner that just has to get to the right lane as quickly as possible?

I don't think we in fact deny the right-turner that opportunity, at least in UVC direct adopter states.  We just don't favor that kind of maneuver in our rules for assigning fault or liability, which come into play when things go pear-shaped.  It is not consistent with defensive driving unless the roadscape has been structured in such a way that vehicles turning into the same road from different directions in effect have to merge.

It's a different way of framing right of way. I'm pretty sure that in most situations where a left turner turns into the outside lane and hits somebody turning right into the outside lane, it would be a no-fault accident or the fault of the person turning left, not the fault of the person turning right in states where this is the law.

Actually, I think both drivers could be cited on the basis that they both made maneuvers which they were legally required not to perform without first ascertaining that they could be completed safely.

[DaBigE]

• Driving white (or shades of light gray/silver) vehicles without their lights on in a snowstorm
• People changing lanes without attempting to check their blind spot. And the flip-side, those who insist on remaining in someone else's blind spot.
• Drivers not knowing the capabilities of their own vehicle, whether it's over-driving their 4x4 in a blizzard or thinking their vehicle needs as much space as an 18-wheeler when making a right turn. A closely related one would be those who insist on cutting a left turn as short as possible.

[djsinco]

The previous post brought to mind another peeve:

A car or pickup veering left suddenly just prior to make a right turn, although it is not needed, and is dangerous to through traffic to boot.

[1995hoo]

The previous post brought to mind another peeve:

A car or pickup veering left suddenly just prior to make a right turn, although it is not needed, and is dangerous to through traffic to boot.

My father calls that a "Mississippi turn" in (dis)honor of the way the river of that name curves all over the place. It may be fine in a car park or pulling into a driveway for a one-car garage, but I've never understood why people do that out on the road.

[Molandfreak]

Missoula is really hard not to speed in- the lack of any sort of proper bypass through town builds up traffic, which builds up frustration, which builds up speeding. I'm not much of a speeder, usually 5 over. If I'm on, say, Brooks on my way back to Idaho though I find it very difficult not to speed up to make the next light- those lights aren't really timed, so you can save a lot of time by going 5-7 over. It's not even so much a rush as it is human nature to just sort of push things. If I know I can make that next light by going 2 MPH faster, it's really hard not to do that.

If there's little traffic, 45 becomes a really underposted speed on the southwest side of town, and it's tough not to go faster. 

Maybe that's my own problem, but there it is anyway.

I-90 and U.S. 93 don't bypass Missoula?

[corco]

I-90 obviously helps east-west traffic, but no, 93 isn't much of a bypass for north south traffic. It's a stoplight infested hellhole.

Obviously we're speaking relatively here- for Montana it's a fuckton of traffic, but it's not Tucson or something.

[DaBigE]

Another one...Drivers who make an illegal left turn shortcut through a median which was only designed for left turns from the main roadway, not left turns into it. I take great pleasure when I am the one making the proper left turn and subsequently thwarting someone's plans of pulling a lazy maneuver.
Examples:
http://goo.gl/maps/ijghf
http://goo.gl/maps/bDXZn <- This one will only exist for about another 6 months, as McCoy Rd is being realigned and this intersection closed.

[realjd]

I was just obnoxiously reminded of another today: people who don't use cruise control but also do a very poor job of modulating their speed. If my cruise is set to 80 and your speed drifts between 75 and 85, don't get mad that we keep playing hopscotch passing each other repeatedly.

[Alps]

I was just obnoxiously reminded of another today: people who don't use cruise control but also do a very poor job of modulating their speed. If my cruise is set to 80 and your speed drifts between 75 and 85, don't get mad that we keep playing hopscotch passing each other repeatedly.

Well, there's that - drivers who get mad when they get passed. That's not a mistake, but I don't get it at all. If I'm going faster, let me pass and you'll never see me again. Even if I'm not passing a way you like, just ignore me. I don't care when cars pass me unless they're doing as you say such that I catch up to them again. After 2 times, I just keep them behind me when they want to go faster, and pull away when they want to go slower.

[TXtoNJ]

Taking a right turn from a driveway into the leftmost lane. On a 3+ lane street. Good lord, Florida drivers make me want to rage.

[realjd]

Taking a right turn from a driveway into the leftmost lane. On a 3+ lane street. Good lord, Florida drivers make me want to rage.

The right and center lane have traffic but the left lane doesn't? You bet I'm turning into the left lane the second I have a hole big enough to get to it. You'd rather I turn into the busy lanes in front of another driver? Or what if I need to make an immediate left turn?

[jeffandnicole]

Taking a right turn from a driveway into the leftmost lane. On a 3+ lane street. Good lord, Florida drivers make me want to rage.

The right and center lane have traffic but the left lane doesn't? You bet I'm turning into the left lane the second I have a hole big enough to get to it. You'd rather I turn into the busy lanes in front of another driver? Or what if I need to make an immediate left turn?

Actually, I'd rather you wait until traffic is clear.  If traffic is heavy, this is what causes accidents.  And if you have to go further and make a u-turn to accomplish that movement safely, then that's what needs to be done. 

[1995hoo]

....  And if you have to go further and make a u-turn to accomplish that movement safely, then that's what needs to be done. 

Frankly, this is one of the things that I think has disappeared most in recent years. When I learned to drive it was emphasized that if you find yourself in the wrong lane (doesn't matter what sort of lane–left-turn-only lane and you want to go straight, exit-only lane on the Interstate and you don't want to exit, thru lane on the Interstate and you DID want to exit, etc.), you go where that lane takes you and either make a U-turn, go around the block, get off at the next exit and work back, whatever, but you do not just stop or slow to a crawl and insist on getting over, and you definitely do not ignore the lane restrictions and go straight out of a turn lane or drive on the shoulder after the "exit-only" lane ends. ("Ramp-running" at a cloverleaf interchange with a separated C/D lane is a different matter, of course, and I see nothing wrong with that; indeed I sometimes do it on purpose when traffic is particularly heavy so as to give myself the option of exiting if I want.)

Nowadays, it seems like people think getting into the wrong lane allows you to stop and hold up everyone else until you correct it. Saw a guy slow to a crawl in a left-turn lane this morning because he wanted to go straight, and then when the people behind him started honking, he just floored it and went straight out of the turn lane.

[kphoger]

Drivers don't adjust their speed and following distance for weather/traffic conditions. For most the norm is run the speed limit + 10 no matter what conditions are, heavy rain, dense fog, winter precip. I LOVE it when one passes me then spins out, bwhaaha serves you right sucker!!   bi-bi

The opposite also annoys me:  people who think they have to go 10 mph on the Interstate after a half inch of snow.  I wouldn't consider that a "mistake", though, just extra caution.  Yours of driving too fast for conditions is certainly a mistake.

[texaskdog]

Drivers don't adjust their speed and following distance for weather/traffic conditions. For most the norm is run the speed limit + 10 no matter what conditions are, heavy rain, dense fog, winter precip. I LOVE it when one passes me then spins out, bwhaaha serves you right sucker!!   bi-bi

The opposite also annoys me:  people who think they have to go 10 mph on the Interstate after a half inch of snow.  I wouldn't consider that a "mistake", though, just extra caution.  Yours of driving too fast for conditions is certainly a mistake.

In Austin they do this in the rain, even if it's sprinkling

[NE2]

Drivers who don't stop for pedestrians.
Drivers who stop for pedestrians.
Pedestrians who expect drivers to stop for them.
Pedestrians who don't expect drivers to stop for them.

[Brandon]

Drivers don't adjust their speed and following distance for weather/traffic conditions. For most the norm is run the speed limit + 10 no matter what conditions are, heavy rain, dense fog, winter precip. I LOVE it when one passes me then spins out, bwhaaha serves you right sucker!!   bi-bi

The opposite also annoys me:  people who think they have to go 10 mph on the Interstate after a half inch of snow.  I wouldn't consider that a "mistake", though, just extra caution.  Yours of driving too fast for conditions is certainly a mistake.

10 mph on a freeway is most certainly a mistake.  If you are going that slow, it's time to get off the freeway and either, a) take a surface street, or b) wait for conditions to improve.  Otherwise, you are then a road hazard to those of us who know how to drive in inclement conditions.

[roadman]

Drivers who don't stop for pedestrians.
Drivers who stop for pedestrians.
Pedestrians who expect drivers to stop for them.
Pedestrians who don't expect drivers to stop for them.

All those issues are a function of outdated right of way laws that wrongly presume a driver in a multi-ton vehicle can maneuver and react more quickly than a pedestrian on foot can.  Not to mention a grossly unbalanced penalty system whereby a driver who violates a pedestrian's "rights", even if the pedestrian is breaking the law, gets hit with a not so-insignificant fine and insurance surcharges, whereas the pedestrian usually gets only a $25 ticket, if they're ticketed at all.

In most states, there are established "standards of fault" to cover various crash situations.  I would like to see such standards established for situations like jaywalking, crossing on a "Don't Walk" light, and the like.

[NE2]

what

[Alps]

what

Most common driver mistake: pedestrians trying to get hit.

[Brandon]

what

Most common driver mistake: pedestrians trying to get hit.

I've actually seen that.  Usually they're teenagers with nothing better to do than lay down, with their buddies watching, in the middle the flipping street.