Driving Anti-Patterns - Necro Edition



  • My current job has a drive-heavy commute, and I've started to notice some really irritating anti-patterns in the way people drive. Here's a few of them:

    1. People who make a left turn into the right lane (pretty sure that's illegal in my State), and them immediately change to the left lane. This might be related to the next item:

    2. Corner-cutting on left turns has always happened, but now people are cutting corners so much that not only is it impossible for them to line-up with the lane they're supposed to be ending up in, but they pass just inches from the poor car waiting to take a left in the protected left lane. This is despite the DMV literally having PAINTED CURVED LINES in the intersection to guide people making turns.

    3. People who follow the speed limit (the one law everybody agrees has some flex to it-- even cops) to the letter, but violate every single other driving law: drift outside their lane, don't use blinkers, etc.



  • Here are a few I'd never seen until moving into a city:

    1. People who use their left turn signal but turn right instead, or vice versa. I never knew this was a thing but now I see it all the time!
    2. Despite very light traffic (my drive to work is in the opposite direction from rush hour traffic), cars drive in the left two lanes, side-by-side, without passing each other, and go 25 mph under the 65 mph speed limit, forcing everyone else into the rightmost lane which then clogs up and goes 10 mph under the speed limit.
    3. Using a highway on-ramp that is about to end to pass someone on their right. This normally results in a near-accident.
    4. Using the left lane to pass someone who's in the in middle lane, only to immediately shoot over to the right lane and go slower than the car they just passed.


  • @blakeyrat said:

    People who follow the speed limit (the one law everybody agrees has some flex to it-- even cops) to the letter,

    Cruise control

    @blakeyrat said:

    but violate every single other driving law: drift outside their lane, don't use blinkers, etc

    Cell phone

    Same thing here. That's why I ride CalTrain (plus work pays for it). 101 is just freakin scarey.



  • @mott555 said:

    Using the left lane to pass someone who's in the in middle lane, only to immediately shoot over to the right lane and go slower than the car they just passed.

    I've seen that one quite a bit, and in the past on long car trips I've been passed by the same car, then passed it, about 4 times over the course of an hour.

    The punchline? My car was on cruise control the entire time.



  • @dcon said:

    Cruise control

    Are there cars that automatically adjust the cruise control speed to the speed limit? My car knows the speed limit pretty accurately from the navigation system, so I guess it's possible that exists...

    But yes, cellphones is the most likely reason. Then again, I've seen it from people who AFAICT through their windshield are not on phones.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    This is despite the DMV literally having PAINTED CURVED LINES in the intersection to guide people making turns.

    The DMV paints roads now? Or did you mean the DOT?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    This is despite the DMV literally having PAINTED CURVED LINES in the intersection to guide people making turns.

    My city has these too but they weren't designed with pickup trucks in mind. Most of them send my left rear wheel squarely over the center median.



  • I mean the one you already knew I meant you pedantic dickweed.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I mean the one you already knew I meant you pedantic dickweed.

    I'm still working on my caffeine, too.....



  • I think you just got nominated for a badge!


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    Nobody ever uses their goddamn blinkers here, it's nuts.

    I've also been honked at for not making a right turn on red. I was like, STFU, it's not fucking mandatory, I don't feel like I have enough time to turn so I won't risk it. Your judgement call is not a substitute for my own.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Are there cars that automatically adjust the cruise control speed to the speed limit?

    Not that I know of - but some of the new ones have systems that will brake if you get too close. I'm actually starting to wonder if those (and the anti-drift warning) will actually contribute to more accidents.

    Speaking of seriously stupid drivers, I was pulling at trailer once, coming down an onramp to 880. Multiple lanes that funneled to a single lane (with turned off metering light). I could see a big SUV just starting to overtake my trailer - but I was passing thru the light already. They have to brake. Then they flip me off when passing! My only thought was what did they seriously expect me to do??



  • I've seen a guy in the left turn lane cut across three lanes of traffic (from a stop) and turn right.



  • @Yamikuronue said:

    I've also been honked at for not making a right turn on red.

    More fun when you get honked at and there's at least 5 signs saying "No Right on Red"



  • @dcon said:

    Not that I know of - but some of the new ones have systems that will brake if you get too close. I'm actually starting to wonder if those (and the anti-drift warning) will actually contribute to more accidents.

    My car has that. Ford obviously didn't test it on Seattle freeways-- because once your car slows to 0 MPH, it'll click-off the cruise control. Very annoying.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    because once your car slows to 0 MPH, it'll click-off the cruise control.

    My Subaru auto turns off cruise when I get below (I think) 30.



  • Right; but the point is the selling point of the feature is that your car will automatically respond to the speed of traffic. But they apparently didn't consider that the speed of traffic on I405 and I5 is frequently zero.



  • Left turns from reversible lanes are a good one; I've seen that a few times, and it's always quite the WTF when it happens, especially when the road in question is peppered liberally with "No Left Turn" signs.

    Another common anti-pattern is the 'buses are part of the scenery' one. I've seen people make a right turn immediately in front of a city bus that was pulling away from a stop. I also want to see how many traffic tickets you could get out of sticking a cop on a school bus that makes stops on busy streets, simply because school bus stop arms seem to be the most-disobeyed traffic control device, from what I can tell. (If someone has better data on that, I'd love to see it!)



  • @dcon said:

    More fun when you get honked at and there's at least 5 signs saying "No Right on Red"

    More fun was the time I saw a car ignore the "No Right on Red" sign........right in front of a cop.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    Are there cars that automatically adjust the cruise control speed to the speed limit? My car knows the speed limit pretty accurately from the navigation system, so I guess it's possible that exists...

    I often wish I'd gotten adaptive cruise control for the idiots in front of me that can't stay steady, but I'm not sure it would do this. Sounds like a good idea, though.



  • There's enough traffic here in Socal that I just about never use cruise control.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    It's a common enough thing here, too, but I drive at some off hours.



  • @chubertdev said:

    There's enough traffic here in Socal that I just about never use cruise control.

    The only time I can use cruise control is when I'm heading off to a dog show at 5 in the morning on a weekend. Except it doesn't work very well getting over Sunol Grade and Altamont Pass.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    the speed of traffic on I405 and I5 is frequently zero.

    I went on vacation in Colorado a few months ago since I have a couple friends out there. I never knew 0 mph traffic on an interstate was real until I ended up on I think it was I-25 in Denver. My street-legal dirt bike, which is geared very low for off-road use, was not geared low enough for I-25 traffic and I had to choose between constantly slipping the clutch or walking the bike. On the interstate. WTF.



  • @tarunik said:

    Left turns from reversible lanes are a good one; I've seen that a few times, and it's always quite the WTF when it happens, especially when the road in question is peppered liberally with "No Left Turn" signs.

    I've only ever seen reversible lanes on freeways-- you have them on city streets with left turns? Yikes!



  • ITT: Americans.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    you have them on city streets

    Yes.

    @blakeyrat said:

    with left turns?

    *thwacks @blakeyrat upside the head with a R3-2 "Left Turn Prohibition" sign*
    Didn't I already say that the street was peppered with signs forbidding left turns? (Granted, we have a few jughandles at key intersections to help alleviate the issues with that.)


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    1. People who stop at lights too far behind the line to trip the sensors so the light will change. You have to sit there and hope that someone coming the other direction is not an idiot like them and triggers the sensor. Particularly annoying on low-traffic cross streets.

    2. People who move to the right lane as they come to a stoplight, blocking me from making a right turn.

    3. People who blow through lights well after they have changed.

    4. People who stop at lights while straddling the lane divider, taking up two lanes of traffic.

    5. People who park wildly askew of the lines in a parking lot. This frequently happens to me on the side that I have to put my son in to his car seat. The edge of my doors are very strong, and I will completely fuck up your doors as I squeeze in to buckle him in.

    6. People who do not stop when making right turns at stop signs, they barely even slow down.

    7. Bicyclists who blow through stop signs. Particularly disgruntling when they are all dressed like bananas and riding in a huge pack. I give leeway to people who are obviously commuting, but if you are out riding for exercise...taking off from a proper stop is great exercise.

    My daily commutes are absolute shit. I have to drive through a neighborhood of bad drivers to get to my son's daycare and then the rest of my day is usually driving downtown with shitty drivers.



  • Number 2, that's so annoying. It's like people have never driven with other people on the road before.

    Number 3, that's SOP here.

    Number 4, I've seen plenty of people get tickets for that, and I laugh every time.

    Number 5, I don't judge too harshly, a lot of times, it's the car next to them that has left that caused them to park like that. Then again, I saw a douchecanoe taking up four spots.......I wasn't mad, I was impressed.

    Number 6, I was almost hit by a guy the other night who didn't slow down to take a left turn after a stop sign.

    Number 7, California just passed a law that you have to give bicyclists 3 feet of space, which would work if they didn't go five feet into my lane. That law should work both ways.



  • @Intercourse said:

    People who blow through lights well after they have changed.

    This one drives me nuts. Sometimes when I'm headed home for work, I'll have to wait for three or four cars after my light has turned green. I'm sorry, but at that point, there's no way in hell you can claim you were already in the intersection when you light turned.

    Another one that pisses me off is when someone cuts me off in light freeway traffic. Excuse me, there's 200 yards of open freeway ahead of me, did you really need to change lanes so close to my car that I can't even see your bumper while moving 80 MPH?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @chubertdev said:

    California just passed a law that you have to give bicyclists 3 feet of space, which would work if they didn't go five feet into my lane. That law should work both ways.

    Bicycles should stay on the damned sidewalk with the rest of the foot powered traffic.



  • @abarker said:

    so close to my car that I can't even see your bumper while moving 80 MPH?

    I forgot about this one. People routinely get so close behind me that I cannot see their cars at all, only their radio antenna sticking up past my tailgate.



  • @mott555 said:

    Using the left lane to pass someone who's in the in middle lane, only to immediately shoot over to the right lane and go slower than the car they just passed.

    It's not unheard of to see me do that, but it almost invariably means that I was previously driving in the middle lane at about the speed limit, and either the other car or a car that got between them and me just passed me on the right when they had plenty of room to pass on the left instead. And I don't react that way nearly as much now as I did in my early 20s.

    Turning into the incorrect lane (especially followed by changing lanes shortly thereafter), running with brights on with no good reason, and passing someone on the right when you could have passed on the left instead are probably my biggest pet peeves.

    Slowing down for a turn enough that the car behind you also has to slow down before using a signal is also irritating.

    But considering the stories my brother-in-law has told me about driving in Connecticut and seeing people pull into the oncoming traffic lane in order to go around someone stopped in the left-turn lane and execute a left turn on red...I kinda feel like I get off easy around here.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @kilroo said:

    running with brights on with no good reason

    How did I forget that one?! In the past few years, it seems like more assholes have become blind to the color blue on their dashes. People are constantly driving with their brights on now. I quit flashing my brights at them, now I just flip on my brights until they turn theirs off. This has to be my #1 pet peeve while driving.

    I frequently joke with my wife that I am going to get a stack of bricks and set them on the passenger seat with "TURN YOUR FUCKING BRIGHTS OFF!" written on them and throw them at oncoming cars who never turn their brights off. I would never do it, but it is fucking cathartic to dream of it.

    Yes, I occasionally have anger issues.



  • I get the reverse end of that. Apparently my low-beams are really bright, and people will flash their brights at me to turn them off. I'm sure they feel sheepish when I flash my brights right back at them.



  • I have a little sympathy for that, because it's pretty easy for me to accidentally turn on my brights while using the blinker. The dash stalks on my Ford Fusion are not well-designed. (Just this morning, I couldn't figure out if the wipers were on Auto or Intermittent. Still not 100% sure.)


  • :belt_onion:

    Another one:

    1. The permanent 50mph driver. They drive 50mph in a 55mph zone, then when we approach a small town with a decreased speedlimit of 45mph, they keep going 50mph. Then after leaving the short 45mph zone back into the 55mph zone...... they keep going 50 mph

    Clearly a cruise control use failure. And it annoys the hell out of me.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @mott555 said:

    Apparently my low-beams are really bright

    Do you drive a Ford? Their dims are almost as bright as high beams on other cars.

    My wife also worries about me because one night a guy was following me with his brights on and I was ranting about it. She tells me to just let it go, because there is nothing reasonable I could do about it. I replied, very deadpan and serious, "I think it would be reasonable to follow him home and beat him half to death in his driveway...in front of his family."

    I thought it was a lot funnier than she did.



  • @Intercourse said:

    Do you drive a Ford?

    Chevy. My actual brights are like "light up the entire night sky" bright. I can see reflections off deer eyeballs for nearly a mile on flat ground.



  • You know, you can just pull over and let him past. Sure your trip is, what, 15 seconds longer, but it's worth it to save the aggravation.



  • @kilroo said:

    But considering the stories my brother-in-law has told me about driving in Connecticut and seeing people pull into the oncoming traffic lane in order to go around someone stopped in the left-turn lane and execute a left turn on red...I kinda feel like I get off easy around here.

    Only Hartford and west.......glad that I grew up in the eastern part of the state.



  • @abarker said:

    This one drives me nuts. Sometimes when I'm headed home for work, I'll have to wait for three or four cars after my light has turned green. I'm sorry, but at that point, there's no way in hell you can claim you were already in the intersection when you light turned.

    Another one that pisses me off is when someone cuts me off in light freeway traffic. Excuse me, there's 200 yards of open freeway ahead of me, did you really need to change lanes so close to my car that I can't even see your bumper while moving 80 MPH?

    The one that really gets me is when two cars are going 60 mph in the lane to the left of me, I'm going 80 mph, and the second car will pull out in front of me as I'm about to pass him, just so he can pass the front car at 65 mph. Usually gets an ear full of horn from me.


  • :belt_onion:

    @Intercourse said:

    Do you drive a Ford? Their dims are almost as bright as high beams on other cars.

    I drive a 10+ year old Ford Taurus, the dims are pretty dim on mine. My wife's Accord has exceptionally bright dim lights though.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @blakeyrat said:

    People who make a left turn into the right lane (pretty sure that's illegal in my State), and them immediately change to the left lane. This might be related to the next item:

    There might--might--possibly be a valid reason for this in some circumstances where there's two left-turn lanes and they're stuck in the right.



  • I drive a brand-new Ford Fusion, 2014. My lights are not what I'd consider bright. I was actually kind of disappointed because they're so well-focused, they put almost zero light out except right on the road ahead.

    Of course, you can buy those super-bright lights aftermarket, but those are usually "cops will pull you over" bright.


  • Grade A Premium Asshole

    @blakeyrat said:

    The dash stalks on my Ford Fusion are not well-designed. (Just this morning, I couldn't figure out if the wipers were on Auto or Intermittent. Still not 100% sure.)

    Another annoyance, but towards vehicle design and not drivers: I drive a Lexus GX470 and my wife drives a Jeep Grand Cherokee. On those two vehicles the wiper stalks are reversed to each other. On one (I cannot remember which) moving the stalk down turns the wipers on and on the other it turns them off. So, if I drive her vehicle and I get into a little mist or drizzle, I get turned around but eventually turn the wipers on intermittent. Now, when the drizzle stops, and I want to turn the wipers off, I instead turn them on high first. Just pick a direction and standardize. Don't fuck with my UI.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @mott555 said:

    cars drive in the left two lanes, side-by-side, without passing each other, and go 25 mph under the 65 mph speed limit, forcing everyone else into the rightmost lane which then clogs up and goes 10 mph under the speed limit.

    The cops (and possibly legislation) could solve this if they wanted to. Some highways have speed minimums and/or "slower traffic keep right" rules. Serious enforcement of same sounds warranted.


  • Java Dev

    US traffic laws always seemed like a nightmare to me...

    Not sure about over there, but at least here typically your headlights are adjustable. If you think they may be too bright, park facing a wall and turn the lights on. Adjust up or down as necessary.

    Passing other cars on the right is illegal here, and although there's occasional noise to change it, I think it's far superior to the alternative.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I drive a brand-new Ford Fusion, 2014. My lights are not what I'd consider bright. I was actually kind of disappointed because they're so well-focused, they put almost zero light out except right on the road ahead.

    Of course, you can buy those super-bright lights aftermarket, but those are usually "cops will pull you over" bright.

    I replaced the halogen lights on my car with HIDs, but I have projector lenses with cutoffs, so only the road is flooded with light.

    Kinda like this:


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @chubertdev said:

    The DMV paints roads now? Or did you mean the DOT?

    Dang, even I wouldn't have corrected that. You're _hardcore_.

    Hah, I found a hopefully new, albeit trivial, way to break Discourse.


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