Here are my top ten traffic pet peeves. Some are fairly ordinary, some are probably sort of unique to me. Feel free to add your own in comments!
- If you're going to make a turn, put on your blinker. Don't worry about whether anyone is around. Just do it.
- Also: if you're turning right, move over to the right so other cars can pass. You don't have to make a tractor turn from the middle of the street.
- If you want to drive at the speed limit on highways, that's fine. Just don't do it in the fast lane(s).
- In parking lots, drive on the right.
- Make a full stop at stop signs. But once you've done that you don't need to wait five seconds or three seconds or even one second. If the intersection is clear, just go.
- In school zones, go 25 mph if children are present. But if children aren't present then drive at the ordinary speed limit.
- At a stop light, don't leave ten feet between you and the car ahead of you. A couple of feet is plenty, and tighter spacing makes it less likely you'll block the left turn lane when traffic is heavy.
- If you're in the right lane on a freeway, don't react to merging traffic unless you're forced to. This one sounds a little weird, but if I'm merging it's up to me to do it safely. This is a lot easier if you just keep doing whatever you're doing instead of slowing down or speeding up.
- If you have the right of way, take it.
- When turning into traffic, wait until traffic is clear. Being annoyed because you've already waited a long time is not a sufficient reason.
NOTE: Items #5 and #6 might vary depending on the laws in your state.
When you come to a fork in the road - take it!
#8 is just wrong. If the highway is crowded, the right lane might be very congested. If someone is accelerating to highway speed, as they should, I will slow a bit to allow them to merge. What's infuriating are the drivers that don't accelerate when merging. I slow to let them merge but they slow as well. Then I have to accelerate to get past them. Also, lots of on ramps are poorly designed and either aren't long enough or transition to being off ramps very quickly (like a clover leaf).
I was once coming home on southbound I-5 when I observed a driver stop in the entrance lane because they were unable to merge. What the driver didn’t realize was that I-5 added another lane there and they had over 5 miles to merge.
Yep, I've had people darn near clobber me when driving in the right lane because they want to try to race ahead when there isn't enough space left. Having an accident be the other driver's fault is a distance second to not having an accident at all when it is easily avoidable by just giving people space to merge.
There are some very short on ramps with almost no visibility on a freeway by my house - it's almost impossible for people merging onto the freeway to time their entrance properly. They simply can't see oncoming traffic in time. I always move into the left lane long before those ramps appear, so other cars can easily merge in without hitting anyone.
"In school zones, go 25 mph if children are present. But if children aren't present then drive at the ordinary speed limit."
At its worst, this can easily get you to kill a kid you didn't see present, but in less extreme circumstances this will get you a ticket in most cities since the school zone (usually also present around playgrounds) speed limit is in force by the time of the day, not whether or not a driver can properly identify if a kid is present or not. The difficulty in correctly seeing if a kid is present is the whole point of the school zone speed limit.
A personal one is
When turning right, look in both directions including the sidewalk. Far too many drivers just look at incoming traffic from the left without realizing a pedestrian is crossing the street either right in front of them, or across the street they are trying to merge into), with in both scenarios the pedestrian having the right of way.
I much prefer the newer signs that say “25 mph when flashing”.
Have you met a flasher who can sustain 25 MPH?
Those are stupid. They don't flash when kids are getting out sports, half days, late night events, events on Saturdays, keep up with daylight savings time changes, or school inservice days.
So you know, all of the times when you really need them.
Kevin is thinking of school zones in California, which are typically marked “SCHOOL. SPEED LIMIT 25. WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT”. As seen in this article: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/what-does-when-children-are-present-mean-on-speed-limit-signs/
This is literally the law in California. 'When Children are present'. No other times.
THIS. Maintain your speed so the merging driver can properly calculate where you will be when.
That said, when the traffic is really heavy and slow, don’t preclude them zippering in.
Except many merging drivers miscalculate that. If everybody made perfect calculations all the time, there wouldn't be any accidents, but they don't.
I share all of these peeves except for #6. Is it really legal in California to exceed the school zone speed limit if you don't see children? #1 in particular drives me crazy. Why do people treat signalling their intention to turn or change lanes like a state secret?
When I lived in Chicago people in the next lane would see a turn signal and tighten up to prevent you from changing lanes. I stopped using my turn signals to say “hey, I would like to change lanes please” and instead used them to say “here I come sucka!”
I can understand it with lane-changing--although I disagree with it--but it is incredibly common to omit turn signals when making turns in city driving. When my father was teaching me to drive, he actually scolded me for signalling a turn when no one else appeared to be around. I thought that was so absurd I didn't even bother asking him why. Maybe I should have.
In the Boston area, they credit Paul Revere for this. When they spread the alarm "The British are coming!", Revere foolishly signaled a turn and got caught by the British. They released him, but no one has signaled a turn in the Boston area since.
In the time before cell phone nav I was trying to get back to my hotel in Boston one night. Momentarily confused I paused at a round about. A car a quarter mile behind me started honking. A good Bostonian giving me peremptory honks to make sure I knew to get out of his way before he got there.
Driving in the NY metro taught me that same lesson. I check the mirrors and blind spots, and put the signal on at the same time my wheels cross the lane line.
That's incredibly dangerous to cyclists.
Hey, they still do this! On Lake Shore Drive, if you signal to change lane and someone is half a mile behind you, he will accelerate to make sure that he stays ahead of you, and honk aggressively if you change lane in front of him.
I have lived in Boston, New York, Montreal, Paris, Zurich, Vancouver, and there are all sorts of suboptimal drives in all those places, but this lane changing issue is something that I have witnessed only in Chicago. Crazy.
Within three weeks of moving to East Providence RI, my 66 yo law-abiding good girl wife got her first two traffic tickets ever in a 20 mph school zone with cameras, even though no children were present.
Local ordinances vary widely; one has to know the applicable restrictions.
In my town they just changed the rules on school zones to be 24/7. And the school speed limit is 15.
Joel
Former resident of Warren RI here (now in NC). Hows the bridge project looking these days? My daughter moved back to SE MASS and she has been telling me about the huge mess the closure has been in E Providence
The school zone limit is not a 24-hour thing (In California at least). It is either a 'when school in session' or 'when children present' sort of thing.
In every place I've lived, the school zone limit only applies at certain hours of the day on school days. Maybe that's what Kevin meant, but you rarely see actual children about during those posted times.
I've seen some treat having their signal on as a reservation. An indication that they are entitled to change lanes no matter how late they've left it. Perhaps not far off from J. Frank Parnell's "in Chicago" sentiment.
If I signal, I mean to change lanes.
If you don't let me inm it'll be your fault for hitting me,
Your sense of turn-signal-as-entitlement notwithstanding, it is up to the driver wishing to change lanes to ensure it is safe to do so. Other drivers certainly shouldn’t take away room to do so upon seeing your signal, but neither are they obligated to make room.
If you are at an intersection with a stop sign but there is a police officer there directing traffic and is waving you through, don’t stop.
How do you feel about filling up both lanes when there's a merge (far) ahead, then zippering at the last minute. That's the most traffic-efficient way to do it*, but flying past people who've merged too soon will get you dirty looks or worse. This is a continual disagreement between my wife (merging soon = polite) and me (merging late = efficient). Care to weigh in?
* As I understand. Maybe those studies are flawed or not real-world enough?
In recent years, I've seen signs ahead of a temporary lane reduction telling drivers not to merge until they reach the point where another sign tells them to merge. And what's amazing is that drivers actually obeyed the signs and it worked!
If you are moving-up in the merging lane at more-or-less the speed of the lane into which you are going to merge, great. If you treat it as a drag strip to try and get ahead of as many other cars in the lane into which you are going to merge, no.
And treating it as a passing lane (move into it and then back again) is right out.
If no one is using the lane, someone should use the lane. Not using it reduces the capacity of the road.
Yes! I do that. Just because I know I can zipper.
OK. Here's mine. I'm a little surprised you didn't have this one.
If you are attempting to make a left turn in an intersection, *move into the intersection* while you wait for a gap in oncoming traffic. Cars behind you might be trapped if the light turns red who could have proceeded if you had moved forward earlier. It's just common courtesy. There's nothing to be afraid of.
I'm from New York State and currently living in Ohio (enjoy it very much, thank you). For some reason the practice in Ohio is that cars tend not to move into the intersection when attempting the left turn in an intersection and it drives me insane about once a week.
In the California suburbs such as Kevin haunts, most if not virtually all of the left turns are light-controlled. So the "move into the intersection so you can make the turn on the yellow" we who were raised in locales where controlled turns were rare were taught isn't much of a thing here.
Cars going straight have the right-of-way on yellow. Once you are in the intersection you can complete the turn after the light turns red. (Don't just sit there if you can't complete on yellow).
True. I could have been more complete in my description. On the yellow should, of course, be if there isn't still oncoming traffic.
Kevin's list is uncontroversial to me, except for the school zone. But this one might need some discussion. I'd say if one left turner creeps out to wait for a gap, that's okay. If I'm behind that person, though, I'm content to wait behind the line and see if the light stays green long enough for them to get their gap. I know the oncoming traffic likes to just keep coming even after the light's gone red. Then there might be one left turner out there holding up cross traffic while he completes his turn, but I blame the oncoming cars for that. Still, I don't want to be left turner number two out there with the light gone red.
Yeah, this. If you're the second car to an intersection, and someone is trapped out there or in the next crosswalk don't enter the intersection.
I cam here looking for this suggestion. Extremely frustrating to be behind a car barely into the intersection until an opening or the last stage of yellow. If I'm at the front I get to the middle and, depending on the situation, even a little more so that an additional vehicle (e.g. for a total of 4) can make the turn.
Re: #9 -- I once saw someone who had the right of way to go straight in the left lane stop and wave in a person coming the opposite way trying to turn left. The turning car promptly got t-boned by a car in lane to the right of the person who stopped to wave in the turning car.
Corollary: Someone waving at you isn't the right of way.
My mother always taught me never to wave someone to go. Directing traffic is not MY job.
#3 is high on my list. Here in CA it seems there are a lot of people who think you have to be in the left lane. And good grief I5 between SF and LA is a nightmare in this regard.
I5 between Tracy and Grapevine needs another lane in each direction. Trucks passing slower trucks is frustrating and dangerous. (I5 is a major freeway and heavily trafficked but has only 2 lanes in each direction with plenty of room to build an additional lane in each direction. Original plans for HSR would have placed the tracks in the center divider but politics got in the way of good sense.)
I traverse I-5 regularly. Until its recent repaving, the fast lane was the only way to travel, as the slow lane was so lumpy and bumpy as to be unsafe or only for trucks.
And now, it is not the people so much as the trucks. The number of trucks is astonishing. Thank you Mr Bezos, Mr Walton and General Dollar General.
Need three lanes in each direction. Trailing one truck trying to pass another going up hill at 60 mph for miles, with miles of vehicles behind is no fun. And not safe.
That is my biggest pet peeve. A truck governed at 63 trying to pass a truck governed at 62 going up a hill where the speed limit is 80. I hate that.
Tracks on a freeway are dumb, unless the train leaves the freeway to go to the station.
Zombies.
9! People in front of me NOT taking the right of way has been driving me nuts, especially since it seems like 1/3rd of people yield to everyone and another third yield to no one.
Also around here (Providence), it seems to have become a given that an unoccupied parking space is also a right turn lane, and it is ok to pass in the left turn lane if you are going to be turning. It just feels like at any point someone might be coming around me from behind on either side.
Yeah, we moved to the Providence area (Rumford) a year and a half ago and I still find the drivers here eccentric. I'm surprised there aren't way more traffic accidents.
#11 -- leave your damn' ego at home.
#12 -- watch some dashcam videos on YouTube, and learn from them. Really just 6 or 8 situations account for 90% of the accidents.
Most of this stuff involves very minor delays that won't affect when you reach you destination by more than a few minutes, if that. For example, if someone is driving the speed limit in the "fast lane", so what? The fast lane doesn't mean you are allowed to exceed the speed limit in it - it is intended to let you pass people who are going SLOWER than the speed limit! You don't get to speed just because it is called the fast lane.
And as for school zones, how are you supposed to know whether "children are present" Fact is, you don't. Just drive 25 except at night. It will have minimal effect on your route time.
Keep right except to pass...
But if they are driving the speed limit, you could only pass by exceeding the speed limit.
I don't know if many American cars have the dynamic cruise control that is now quite common in Europe. I've used it a few times with rental cars over there and once you get used to it, it does make motorway driving a lot easier.
You just set your speed at the maximum limit (avoiding the risk of getting caught by one of the many speed cameras over there) and the radar keeps you at a safe distance from the car ahead (you can adjust to the following distance you feel comfortable with). You can pretty much set it and forget it. If traffic slows down, you will slow down too - if it speeds up you speed up with it.
Fine, I'll be more complete.
Keep right except to pass...
... the vehicle coming-up behind you may be an emergency vehicle. And they shouldn't have to slow down to wait for you to be able to move right simply because you decided to self-appoint as a member of the Junior Highway Patrol.
I refer to those folks as "The Anit-Destination League".
If you are driving on a multiple lane limited access highway the cops won't even look at you until you are going faster than 10 over. If you want to drive the limit, do it in the right hand lane.
What the cops do or don't do isn't the point - it is still illegal to drive over the speed limit and you don't have any right to do so.
Don't play cop. I don't want to be the one who mr roadrage pops off at.
It is also illegal to impede traffic in the fast lane.
Emergency vehicles have sirens, and when you hear one you are supposed to go to the right or stop on the right. Not relevant.
The sirens and lights won’t always be on full-time, but used to get people out of the way. And someone camped-out in the left lane at the speed limit is going to have traffic passing them on the right.
Even more fundamentally: driving slower than the flow of traffic in the left lane(s) will cause faster cars to pass you on the right, making both exits and merges (generally done on the right) much more hazardous.
This is why, in the US at least, slower traffic is often explicitly signaled to "keep right"--and through traffic signaled to "keep left"--in the vicinity of cities & built-up suburbs, without regard to posted speed limits.
Speed limits and left/right traffic flow rules on highways are different regulations that exist for different, and independently justified, reasons.If you find yourself being passed on the right, you should move over, regardless of your speed relative to the limit.
In FL, and in OH when I lived there, it's illegal to be in the left lane if you are obstructing the flow of traffic, irregardless of speed or limit. In both states the language is a bit unclear, what can you expect from the FL or OH legislature? But the FL lege has just passed (last I checked DeUseless has not signed) a bill allowing you to be ticketed for remaining in the left lane if not passing. If you drive Interstates in FL the need for this is obvious.
I read the Germans are considering more explicit regulation, a 20 second rule. If you remain in the left lane, while clear to change to the right, for more than 20 seconds, you can be ticketed and fined. Of course Germany has a culture of expecting you to DRIVE the thing, not just sit in it.
On the highway, don’t pass on the right!
I recently saw someone say in print that it's illegal to pass on the right here in FL. I checked the official state driver's handbook. It's illegal ON TWO LANE ROADS. It's explicitly legal if there are two or more lanes going in the same direction, city street (surface road to Kevin) or Interstate highway. Polite to pass left where people expect it, but legal either side.
If somebody is going slow in the left lane, that's the only option.
Maybe don't go slower on the left.
Related to #8:
If you are merging from an on-ramp, do not tailgate the person in front of you even if (especially if) they are not speeding up to prevailing speed as fast as you would. Wide spacing on the on-ramp is critical for smooth zippering, and every driver needs the latitude to speed up or slow down as appropriate.
It's not fine to drive the speed limit on highways, which is OK because nobody does that.
My top traffic pet peeve.
- Other people driving.
I was thinking if we had self-driving cars we wouldn't have these problems.
Then I thought but what would the AI complain about?
We'll know it's achieved self-awareness when it starts complaining. But how will we know it's really complaining and not just mimicking our complaining to make conversation?
When it gets mad enough to stop talking and leaves the room, and then it drives off in a terrible state? How do the other AI's react when it starts complaining to them?
There was a great NPR April Fool's story a few years back about a ride in a self driving car that complained about other drivers. It was pretty damn funny.
Here it is:
https://www.npr.org/2015/04/01/396757462/acautionarytaleaboutselfdrivingcars
Heh. [grin]
It's the shape of things to come.
I'm sorry, but how is this not "a lot of people want to break the law and drive unsafely, and if you make it harder for them to do that YOU are wrong, not THEM."
It's true that a lot of people want to break the law (count me as one of them) for a variety of reasons. It's also true that the CHP or other law enforcement agencies don't enforce the laws. So we're left with a common sense good neighbor set of rules of the road. That's the world we live in.
"I'm sorry, but how is this not "a lot of people want to break the law and drive unsafely, and if you make it harder for them to do that YOU are wrong, not THEM.""
If the flow of traffic in the left lane is 10 miles over the limit and you insist on driving at the limit in the left lane (when you could easily drive at the limit in the right lane) then you are being a jerk and creating a hazard.
If you're riding too slow in the left lane, you're breaking the law, not others.
If you're impeding traffic by not taking your right of way, you're breaking the law, not others.
There is a special place in hell for anyone riding the right lane on the freeway for more than a couple exits. They are who make merging difficult. You just shouldn't be in that lane at all unless you're planning to exit right away or need to drive slower for whatever reason. And joining this group in the fiery pits should be anyone sitting in the middle of an intersection and blocking traffic simply because they didn't want to wait another light series. This is illegal anyway, but obviously never enforced in Los Angeles.
What? No. That's where trucks and slow traffic goes, not your special merging and passing lane.
My pet peeve is that we don't make people retake the driving test every 10 years and it's seems way too easy given how terribly people drive.
I took driver's ed in high school lo these many years ago. Do they still teach driver's ed? Watching people drive, I'd guess not.
In other news, old man yells at cloud.
DON'T FUCKING TAILGATE.
This one!
My latest strategy for dealing with tailgaters it to very slowly reduce my speed about as much as I safely can. This will let them pass me and will also really annoy them.
That’s a lot of peeves. Maybe drive less?
I drove a sate government car for 20 years and had to "learn" defensive driving from a NC state trooper to keep our insurance rates down. He looked at my graying hair when he got in the car and all he said was "oh boy".........
He went through the process of adjusting my side mirrors to eliminate blind spots and I took the road test then he said don't worry about the mirrors you're too old to get used to them..........
I saw red - I was so damned mad I FORCED myself to keep the mirrors adjusted the way he had them
Here's how this works. You see a car coming up behind you in your REAR view mirror. When that car "leaves the field of vision" for THAT mirror it should appear in the side mirror and when it leaves that field of vision is should appear in your peripheral vision. You should NEVER have to turn your head to check your side mirrors (This is how troopers do it). So that car is always "visible" until it passes you - eliminating the blind spot. It works for either side and you really have to push those mirrors out instead of the old way of being able to see the tail end of your car
My wife understood the concept and tried it that way but had to switch back to the way she learned in HS Drivers Ed. She just could not get used to it.............
Fun, smart, professional. Take a look at this one: https://youtu.be/I0ULmFdDyEI
That's... not how blind spots work. At all. That guy was nuts.
My pet peeve, as I get older, is simply lack of courtesy. Which I was also guilty of when I was younger and urban. But if one stops thinking of a car as a bubble from where to cuss at people one knows nothing about, driving becomes more pleasant and safer for everyone around including oneself. Things like using blinkers are also a courtesy to others.
Courtesy is good and necessary. But it's more important to be predictable. Maintain a steady speed, signal your turns and lane changes, and follow the published right of way rules. And it makes me crazy when the last guy in a line of traffic stops to let me in. We'd both get there faster if he'd just keep going.
If he's already stopped, thanks. If I waited on him to make a stop and gesture, yeah, that was more.
Three of mine:
1 - When you have completed your turn, it's OK to turn off your directional signal. Please don't leave it on for the next several miles.
2 - When you have a green arrow to turn left, turn left. Don't sit there waiting to make sure that the cars in the facing lane won't keep coming - if you have the green arrow, that means that they have a red light. I've seen many green arrows wasted this way.
3 - When exiting a freeway, please get into the exit lane more than eight feet before the exit.
Living in South Dakota, I won't even get into the farmers who sit at stop signs for more than 30 seconds, sometimes even a minute. It's fairly common on the rural roads, less so in the city.
My favorite thing about driving (alone) - I love to sing loudly along with my favorite songs. I wouldn't torture anyone else with my voice.
Predictable is preventable is safe.
Also, only go as fast as you want to hit something.
#9 -- So much #9. It makes me nuts when someone tries to do me a "favor" by yielding to me when they shouldn't. Especially in those many cases where I'd actually get through faster if they just obeyed the rules and kept driving. There's one left turn I do a lot that cuts across two lanes of oncoming traffic, and many times I've had folks in the nearest oncoming lane come to a complete stop and start waiving me on, while I vigorously shake my head "No", with cars in the other oncoming lane driving around the stopped person. Stop trying to wave me on into incoming traffic! Yeah, you've stopped, no one else knows what the hell you're up to, and if you had just kept going, I would have gone through that easy gap in traffic that you just f#$%ed up!
Rule #9A -- If you're a cop directing traffic in some sort of construction zone or the like, yeah, I get it, you're there for the overtime, but try actually doing your damn job properly. Pay attention to what you are doing. Don't wave me on into that oncoming truck that you didn't even notice; don't yell at me because I got trapped in the intersection by the guy in front of me who came to a random stop that you didn't notice, because you were chatting with a driver off to the side instead of actually, you know, directing traffic; wildly gesticulating like you're break dancing isn't really a good form of communication is to actually pointing toward the valid direction you need me to go. This is why in most places I've seen in Europe, they wheel in a temporary, wireless communication traffic light, rather than a human being. I cringe when I see a live person in these situations.
Oh, gosh, yes! I've been sent into oncoming traffic while on my motorcycle *twice* at night.