I Hate Stupid Drivers!

I decided to start this thread in an attempt to help members of RIU become better, MORE COMPETENT automobile operators. Every time I get behind I feel I am risking my life due to the complete incompetence of those driving around and next to me.

I am never quite sure who is responsible for creating bad drivers...whether it is shitty drivers ed instructors, parents who are shitty drivers and teach their kids shitty driving techniques, or people who are just too dumb to think about the situation they are involved in and drive accordingly. Nevertheless, I want to share my observations and frustrations with the community in hopes of correcting some of these nerve-racking mistakes I encounter on a daily basis.

Let's get started then...

1) Turning Left at an Intersection (with taffic signals): When you are the first car in line to turn left at a green light, but you are yielding to oncoming taffic, MOVE YOUR CAR INTO THE INTERSECTION, DON'T WAIT BEHIND THE WHITE LINE!! If oncoming taffic is heavy, you may have to wait in the intersection until the light turns yellow or red before traffic stops and you can clear the intersection. If you wait behind the white line and the light turns yellow or red, you have to wait until the next light cycle, delaying you and EVERYONE ELSE BEHIND YOU. This can be a serious problem for the busiest of intersections.

In traffic school I was taught to move into 1/4 of the intersection at a green light...that leaves 1/4 of the intersection for drivers turning left opposite you, and leaves 1/2 of the intersection for you to not hit those drivers opposite you. NO COP WILL GIVE YOU A TICKET FOR RUNNING A RED LIGHT IF THE LIGHT CHANGES WHILE YOU ARE IN THE INTERSECTION WAITING TO TURN LEFT. ONCOMING TRAFFIC WILL EVENTUALLY STOP.

2) MERGING ON THE HIGHWAY: When entering a divided highway with a speed limit of 55 or 60 mph, YOU CANNOT MERGE GOING 35! Entrance ramps are typically long enough for you to depress that gas peddle of yours until your vehicle comes close to the speed of traffic. If you try and merge going 35 when traffic is moving at 65, you will cause an accident. It makes merging easier for you and it is easier for traffic to let you in if you are going CLOSE to the speed limit when you try to get on the highway.

3) CHANGING LANES WITHOUT LOOKING: When attempting to switch from one lane to another, YOU MUST TURN YOUR HEAD TO CHECK YOUR BLIND SPOTS. Mirrors are useful, but only to a degree. It takes less than one second to peek over your shoulder and see if there is a car in that lane you are about to pull into.

4) CRUISING IN THE FAST LANE: When driving down the highway, allow faster traffic approaching behind you to pass in the FAR LEFT LANE. DO NOT DRIVE IN THIS LANE IF YOU ARE ONLY DRIVING THE SPEED LIMIT. Legal or not, people will drive faster than the speed limit. If you stay out of the FAR LEFT LANE they will be able to safely pass without any incident. I cannot stand when blue haired grandma and her 4 cats are driving 45 in the fast lane next to a beat up pickup hauling freshly cut tobacco who is going the same speed. IF YOU CAN, AVOID CRUISING IN THE FAR LEFT LANE!!

5) YOU DON'T ALWAYS NEED TO HIT YOUR BRAKES! Try watching the traffic ahead of the car in front of you and react accordingly. You can easily remove your foot from the gas peddle and the car will begin to slow down. CONSTANT BRAKE TAPPING CAUSES MAJOR UNNECESSARY TRAFFIC DELAYS.

More to come later...

Not using indicators really gets to me. I ride a motorbike so it's dangerous when I have to brake hard because a car driver didn't indicate and braked at the last minute.

Anonononymous said:

Not using indicators really gets to me. I ride a motorbike so it's dangerous when I have to brake hard because a car driver didn't indicate and braked at the last minute.

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That's a good one for sure.

Most these problems are caused by "defensive drivers", it's being tough all over the country. There is no common sense involved, just the idea that you should drive defensively.

I had a near wreck last week when one of these defensive drivers slammed on his breaks at as the light turned yellow. We both had plenty of time to make safely though the intersection, but NO!!! the roads were wet and I ended up having to stomp the anti-lock breaking system - just like the old days - and swerve into the left turn lane, in order to avoid an accident. And if that wasn't bad enough I ended up having to make the left hand turn when the light changed.

You can't teach common sense

used to be in transport.good driver.got in my first accident ever ,yesterday.turn my head to clear traffic on highway merge look up woman whos been in front of me is stopped dead.now im at fault cause i hit her from behind.shes stopped on merge onto highway!!!!!!!!!my truck, lil scratch on bumper.her mazda looked like it got droppped off the side of a ten story building!couldn t have hit her more than 5-10mph.SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no offense man, but bad drivers keep me in business, you do the math

as long as people text and drive there will be now "low" of automotive repairs

hey its good.im at fault,no question.im a big boy,my point is ,she was stopped where she should have been going 35-40 and accelarating.not stopped.i feel bad for her it was a nice lil car.PEACE
luv ur av. one of my faves!!!

Jerry Garcia said:

1) Turning Left at an Intersection (with taffic signals): When you are the first car in line to turn left at a green light, but you are yielding to oncoming taffic, MOVE YOUR CAR INTO THE INTERSECTION, DON'T WAIT BEHIND THE WHITE LINE!! If oncoming taffic is heavy, you may have to wait in the intersection until the light turns yellow or red before traffic stops and you can clear the intersection. If you wait behind the white line and the light turns yellow or red, you have to wait until the next light cycle, delaying you and EVERYONE ELSE BEHIND YOU. This can be a serious problem for the busiest of intersections.

In traffic school I was taught to move into 1/4 of the intersection at a green light...that leaves 1/4 of the intersection for drivers turning left opposite you, and leaves 1/2 of the intersection for you to not hit those drivers opposite you. NO COP WILL GIVE YOU A TICKET FOR RUNNING A RED LIGHT IF THE LIGHT CHANGES WHILE YOU ARE IN THE INTERSECTION WAITING TO TURN LEFT. ONCOMING TRAFFIC WILL EVENTUALLY STOP.

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this is the safe way to drive..... but due to technicalities and the ever picky/pissed off officers, this is against the law for me and yes I have been ticketed, running a red light, failure to stop at designated point (behind the line).... I'm just defending myself because I am this person. and I apologize.

The people blocking the left lane going 50 piss me off the most. Mostly female/elderly drivers

MexicanWarlord420 said:

The people blocking the left lane going 50 piss me off the most. Mostly female/elderly drivers

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Elderly drivers fuck ya-- they should have to take a mandatory test after a certain age to make sure they CAN still drive.... and yeah people piss me off-- One thing I really hate is when you're at a busy intersection, coming home from work, you're trying to turn left, waiting in the lane.... then it happens! -- Avanced green turning light.... but the MORON at the front of th line is not paying attention, and have the light is wasted on their incompetence!!! GGRR... That seriously burns my toast....

Also hate it when someone turns out infront of you and is gowin half your speed :S ....ooohh the frustrations ...

Also when there are cyclists, and you have to go around them so to speak, so you do, and you're relieved when you pass them without clipping them--- you come to light, and those fuckers come up beside everyone else-- and you have too pass the AGAIN... bah! very very annoying....

Golden rule of the road:
" Always remember to REMOVE your head from rectum BEFORE driving...."

that is all....

don't fucking smoke and drive. It's fuckin stupid, sure you think you can drive cause you're not swerving but when you think your speeding on the interstate and you look down to see that you're going 35 MPH, guess what, this is a sign that your fuckng MOTOR SKILLS are fucked.

leeny said:

this is the safe way to drive..... but due to technicalities and the ever picky/pissed off officers, this is against the law for me and yes I have been ticketed, running a red light, failure to stop at designated point (behind the line).... I'm just defending myself because I am this person. and I apologize.

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If you enter the intersection while the light is green you cannot be ticketed for running a red light. Period. You were where you were supposed to be, and you had to wait for "clearance of the intersection" or what is supposed to happen during a yellow light. If you entered the intersection while the light was turning yellow or red, that is a different story and you were at fault.

... better safe than ticketed and in hand cuffs then taken to jail for POM.... IMO

Kingb420 said:

no offense man, but bad drivers keep me in business, you do the math

as long as people text and drive there will be now "low" of automotive repairs

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Ha ha, I never really thought about it like that. Cars still need maintenance though, so if you're a mechanic you'd be good. With so many people on the road they are bound to run into each other...

Texting and driving was going to be a category along with reading the newspaper, and playing with the radio/ipod/gps/whatever.

leeny said:

... better safe than ticketed and in hand cuffs then taken to jail for POM.... IMO

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I hear you...but in most circumstances people just don't do it out of ignorance.

It may be a southern thing...being a damn yankee I've seen some bad driving in the north and the south, but down here they just don't seem to know to enter the intersection when the light is green. Kills me.

Louis541 said:

don't fucking smoke and drive. It's fuckin stupid, sure you think you can drive cause you're not swerving but when you think your speeding on the interstate and you look down to see that you're going 35 MPH, guess what, this is a sign that your fuckng MOTOR SKILLS are fucked.

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I pretty much ONLY smoke and drive...but I've been doing it for 10 years now. Some people's motor skills do suffer more than others, and they should think twice about driving high. But I want to smoke every time I get behind the wheel, especially on long road trips.

Oh, and I like the haiku in your sig Louis

Let's continue the list of poor driving habits...

6) TURN DOWN THAT SHITTY MUSIC YOU'RE LISTENING TO. I hate pulling up to an intersection and listening to someone's trunk rattle because their woofers are vibrating everything loose. Don't get me wrong, I like loud music, but if it's so loud I can't hear my music over your rattling it is OBNOXIOUS. I've been in plenty of cars where my friends blasted their 3 15" subs...and it is not a pleasurable experience. You can't hear the music (because all you hear is bass), your ears feel like they are going to bleed (because all you hear is bass) and the vibrations make your chest feel like it is affecting your heartbeat (because all you hear is bass).

As I said, I'm all for playing your music loud, but does it really need to be so loud the old guy next to you can't hear his music with his windows up over your trunk rattling (because all you hear is bass)? Oh, AND YOU'LL GO DEAF...which might not be so bad (because you can still feel the bass)

7) DON'T CUT SOMEONE OFF WHO IS GOING FASTER THAN YOU. This one really gets me...when someone changes lanes to get in front of you, but proceeds to go 10 mph under the speed limit. IF YOU USE YOUR MIRRORS, YOU CAN SEE IF SOMEONE IS COMING UP BEHIND YOU and let them pass before getting over yourself.

This one especially sucks because if you rear end the person who just cut you off it's YOUR FAULT! WTF?

8 ) DON'T STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD TO LET SOMEONE OUT OF THE CAR, TALK TO PEOPLE, OR WAIT FOR SOMEONE. Just pull over. Or call them...I'm sure you both have cell phones, right? There have been times I almost got out of the car and verbally (or more likely physically) accosted some jackass who is parked in the middle of the road. If there is no one behind you, fine. But you can always just drive around the block instead of impeding the travels of other people. I've seen people stop in the middle of their lane on a 35 mph road with heavy traffic to let someone out of the car...unacceptable.

9) NEVER LEAVE YOUR PET OR CHILD IN THE CAR WITH THE WINDOWS UP. Everyone knows not to do this, and still I see dogs locked in the back of some van with the windows up and it's 90 degrees outside. Stupid. Just stupid.

10) DON'T RIDE IN OTHER PEOPLE'S BLIND SPOT. Man, this one gets me too. There is a portion of the road between your rear view mirror and your side view mirror that the driver CANNOT SEE WITHOUT TURNING THEIR HEAD. Every car has one. You must always, always, always TURN YOUR HEAD AND LOOK IN YOUR BLIND SPOT BEFORE CHANGING LANES (as mentioned in the first post) because some jackass invariably thinks it is a good place to match speed with you.

11) DON'T DRIVE THE SAME SPEED NEXT TO OTHER PEOPLE ON THE HIGHWAY, ESPECIALLY TRUCKS. This could have been lumped in with 10, but it deserves a few words all its own. If you are driving down the highway and traffic is not overly congested, don't drive the same speed as the person next to you.

There are a number of reasons for this:
A) The person next to you could swerve out of their lane and into yours. If you are riding right next to them, they will swerve into your car.

B) There could be cars behind you trying to go pass, but cannot because you are going the same speed as the person next to you.

C) If you go the same speed as a truck and happen to be riding in his blind spot, he could change lanes and hit you because he didn't know you were there.

D) YOU could swerve into another lane to avoid something in the road and hit a car next to you driving the same speed.

It's very easy to either slow down and let someone pass, or speed up and get away from them. But cruising next to someone on the highway is a recipe for disaster

12) DON'T TAILGATE (unless it is for a football game ). It makes people uncomfortable, and when they are uncomfortable they do stupid things, like slam on their brakes...plus if you hit them IT IS YOUR FAULT. Which segues nicely into #13....

13) JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE SPEEDING DOES NOT ENTITLE YOU TO THE ROAD. Sometimes I speed...many people do...but the problem with speeding is encountering other people who are obeying the law and driving the speed limit. JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO PASS SOMEONE WHILE YOU ARE SPEEDING DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TAILGATE AND MAKE MENACING GESTURES AT THE PERSON IN FRONT OF YOU. If you aren't speeding and someone is going under the speed limit, that is a different story. But if you are going 80 in a 65 YOU WILL HAVE TO SLOW DOWN FOR OTHER TRAFFIC. If someone is passing a truck in the left lane while going the speed limit, don't tailgate them and flash your lights and honk your horn and flip them off. They aren't doing anything wrong...YOU ARE. Wait until they clear the vehicle they are passing--if they don't get over immediately (which they should) then feel free to pass them in the RIGHT lane.

14) DON'T STOP AT YIELD SIGNS UNLESS THERE IS ONCOMING TRAFFIC. In my opinion, most stop signs should be yield signs...I mean, do you REALLY need to COMPLETELY stop at a small residential intersection where you are clearly the only car on the road? The answer is NO, because you can clearly see there is no one else on the road. Obviously some intersections need stop signs, but there should be WAY more yield signs.

That's enough for now I think...I'll come up with some more later...

Green Cross said:

You can't teach common sense

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That's exactly what I'm trying to do with this thread GC...

Or maybe I just need to vent some frustrations...