challenged driver of the day

[wrcsixeight]

There were 2 lanes, I was in the right lane.
A light turned red in front of me as they like to do, and I scooted over to the far left of my lane, so that those who want to make a right on red could easily do so.

I hear a horn honking, and in my passenger side mirror, I see a woman in a Suburban stopped well behind me, right turn signal on. There would have been a foot between her tires and the curb, and over a foot between our mirrors, but she could not fathom that she had more than enough room.

Apparently she expected me to drive into the pedestrian cross walk to give enough room for her highness to pass.

I turned up the stereo and pondered the overwhelming incompetence of a large percentage of drivers.

Then, later, there was the traffic circle. Apparently people do not understand the difference between 'Stop' and 'Yield'. One driver in the circle decided to stop for every car entering the circle. Caused a traffic jam.

What moronic act did you witness of a fellow road sharer today?

 

[CharlieJ]

 

[Spyder7]

Nothing today. Most moronic act ever witnessed was teen driver in left lane ahead in new (likely daddy owned) Civic Si who thought he could u-turn in traffic and show off to his buddy in the passenger seat while doing so. Nearly ran my car up the sidewalk while avoiding being clipped during his Darwinian fail.

Moronic driving habit I see almost daily, or it seems that way: driver's who don't understand that a merge sign is not a yield sign, and that they are supposed to speed up to match traffic and merge into it, and not slow down and bring about a stop on the highway ramp with the merge.

Runner up to the above, if only because its related and happens way too often, are the idiots on the highway who fail to yield the right lane (by moving into the left) to merging traffic at ramps, thereby forcing a death race with the acceleration pedal vs the remaining amount of space in the merge you have to use in overtaking them (since if you slow inside then you risk being rear-ended by the tailgater behind who is one of the few who knows what the merge means, but nothing about maintaining a safe distance).

-Spyder

 

[The motor guy]

Spyder in my state the people already on the freeway have right away. If you enter the freeway at the same speed or faster than everone else then it's not really a problem. But like mentioned above that doesn't always happen.

 

[The_Eric]

YES!!! Stupid mouth breathing idiots, who wander onto the highway like some cud chewing livestock animal! I hate getting stuck behind them!!!!!!!!!!

My driver's ed teacher made it very clear that you need to be up to speed and ready to merge (while yielding to highway traffic). He always said "Catch a car or beat a car"

 

[Nick R]

So much idiocy up here, especially on Alt. Rt. 7 into Cohoes, and then I-787 into Troy, Albany... I want to throttle most people.

Interesting factoid, this is my commute.

Interstate 87, Exit 7 to
Alt. Rt 7.
Rt 7 to I-787.
I-787- Exit 7E to Rt 378E.

My head hurts.

 

[Spazdog]

Drivers in Ft Worth cannot negotiate a double left turn lane. They cannot.

It happens everyday.

The worst offender was a driver in a silver Saturn L-series sedan. He was on my right at the light. I was in the far left lane. I went from far left to far left lane when the light turned green. He decided that he needed to go from left center to far left.

I don't know where he thought I should have gone. He ran into my lane, wailed on his horn, rolled down his window, yelled and made obscene gestures.
I couldn't make a U-turn. We were on a one-way service road If I had turned any further left I would have been nose to nose with the line of cars waiting to go the opposite direction.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
There were 2 lanes, I was in the right lane.
A light turned red in front of me as they like to do, and I scooted over to the far left of my lane, so that those who want to make a right on red could easily do so.

I hear a horn honking, and in my passenger side mirror, I see a woman in a Suburban stopped well behind me, right turn signal on. There would have been a foot between her tires and the curb, and over a foot between our mirrors, but she could not fathom that she had more than enough room.

Apparently she expected me to drive into the pedestrian cross walk to give enough room for her highness to pass.

I turned up the stereo and pondered the overwhelming incompetence of a large percentage of drivers.

Then, later, there was the traffic circle. Apparently people do not understand the difference between 'Stop' and 'Yield'. One driver in the circle decided to stop for every car entering the circle. Caused a traffic jam.

What moronic act did you witness of a fellow road sharer today?

I always do that, stop at the far left of the right lane so that other drivers can easily make a right turn on red, you are one of the few drivers who actually think about other drivers. Thank you.

 

[sciphi]

There was the classic "weaver" today while on a day trip to Buffalo. This person was driving like it was NASCAR, weaving in and out of traffic without signaling. I continued leisurely and blew by this guy at all the lights. He'd get caught a few cars back and have to do it all over again.

I got honked at by obeying a "Yield" sign merging onto the 198 in downtown Buffalo. There was a line of oncoming cars long enough to not let me in before the end of the impossibly short ramp, so I yielded as directed by the sign. The yahoo behind me missed the sign and got mad that I had slowed in accordance with signage ant traffic conditions.

Up here in NY it's a law that one has to move over/slow down for merging traffic and emergency/police vehicles.

 

[Spazdog]

And then there are the people waiting to turn left while I'm approaching an intersection. Apparently, if I have my right turn signal on, they think I forfeit my right of way through the intersection.

How do they know I'm not turning into the gas station on the other side of the intersection.

A new Mercedes Benz CLS turned left in front of me as I was approaching an intersection today. I had to come to almost a complete stop before turning right.

I should have T-boned him.

Nahh....I like my car more than that.

 

[HTSS_TR]

The worst offender on the double left turn lane was the driver on the right lane decided to make a U-turn, while the sign clearly marked that the left lane can either make a left or U-turn and the right lane can only make a left turn. That driver cut off every other drivers and almost caused a pile up.

Many drivers (mostly students) in my area near University of California at Irvine made a right turn on red without stop and cut off the traffic on green. Whenever I drive through UCI, I always pay attention to the right corner of every intersection where a car can suddenly appear from nowhere and in your lane right on your front fender.

 

[wrcsixeight]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
And then there are the people waiting to turn left while I'm approaching an intersection. Apparently, if I have my right turn signal on, they think I forfeit my right of way through the intersection.


In this instance, If I were going into the gas station on the far side of the intersection, I will not use my turn signal until I am in the intersection, because I've already checked my mirrors and rarely brake late and hard anyway.

HTSS_TR, you're welcome.

And I would like to say thank you to all drivers who begin moving at the exact same time as the car in front of them begins to accelerate when the light goes green.

This 2 car length before moving stuff is grounds for justifiable homicide, IMO.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
And then there are the people waiting to turn left while I'm approaching an intersection. Apparently, if I have my right turn signal on, they think I forfeit my right of way through the intersection.


In this instance, If I were going into the gas station on the far side of the intersection, I will not use my turn signal until I am in the intersection, because I've already checked my mirrors and rarely brake late and hard anyway.
.

How do they know I'm not just some lunatic driving around with my right turn signal on as if I'm circumnavigating the globe to the right?
He still has to yield even if my turn signal is on. It would have been different if didn't have to slow to a crawl and wait for him.

 

[Tempest]

Yesterday, I was nearly sideswiped by a lady on a cell phone in a BMW 500 something. The "sports sedans" seem to be the biggest problems around here.

 

[Spyder7]

Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
And then there are the people waiting to turn left while I'm approaching an intersection. Apparently, if I have my right turn signal on, they think I forfeit my right of way through the intersection.


In this instance, If I were going into the gas station on the far side of the intersection, I will not use my turn signal until I am in the intersection, because I've already checked my mirrors and rarely brake late and hard anyway.


Same here, I won't use my signal before an intersection unless I'm turning at the intersection itself. If I'm planning to make a turn after the intersection, then I wait til I'm passing through it to signal. That way there is no confusion among other drivers, any one of which could on a given day interpret that your intention is to turn and you wind up getting t-boned or t-boning the other driver. Not worth it.

Similar to this, there are too many people who have no idea how right of way at 2, 3, and 4 way stops works. Example: I recently approached an intersection where the myself and the opposite driver had to stop at the sign for traffic passing through. There were already two cars stopped and waiting (same single lane), the lead car signaling a right turn, and I was turning left. He had right of way when the break in traffic came, but just sat there waiting for me to turn left.

I waived him on, and he went (as had I taken the opportunity and he changed his mind, I would have been at fault if he hit), which was fine, but then the car behind him decides this is is his opportunity to try and proceed straight on through the intersection, and there was nearly an accident at that point as I began my left turn while he attempted to go through at the same time.

I had thought that about as simple and clear a case of the rules of the road as there were: having reached the intersection before he did, I had the right of way no matter which I was turning, the same as the first car had it while he sat like an idiot at the stop waiting for me to turn.

After a few of those types of incidents, I always make it common practice now to assume at every intersection that the other driver's either don't know the rules of the road regarding intersections, or are so indifferent and impatient they would sooner take their chances if they think they have one, then follow them - and anticipate accordingly.

Head on collisions get the most attention because of the much higher fatality rate, but of the accidents I've personally witnessed, most of the ones off the highway were at intersections where one of the driver's failed to follow the rules of the road, or it was inattention, and turned into traffic or rear ended a car stopped at a yield or stop sign.

-Spyder

 

[Colt45ws]

Today? Just your typical mouth breather that enters the highway at 2/3 the speed limit. Run across one of them at least once per day.


I dont believe turn signals most of the time. They are on when they dont need to be and off when they should be on. I always wait and see if the vehicle actually goes that way; otherwise it means nothing and I will continue to assume a blocking path.

 

[opus1]

2 things my Dad drummed into my head when he was teaching me to drive:

1) Never trust anyone's turn signals
2) Never trust your mirrors and check your blind spots.

Thanks to those, I've avoided more accidents than I can count.

My moron-of-the-day sighting, this morning at the train station. A guy cuts over from the other row to get in front of me, then stops to back into the same space he just shot through to cut me off. Sometimes you just have to wonder about stupid people, but usually I just thank my lucky stars that I'm not one of them.....

 

[Bladecutter]

My favorite stupid person I still see on a regular basis on my commute home from work.

She drives a silver Jeep Compass.
She likes to tailgate people on a two lane highway.

Back on February 11th, I was 3 cars behind her on this 2 lane highway, right next to the Foothills here in Colorado. It was a nasty winter day, and the roads were less than stellar, because it had been snowing earlier.

Anyway, the road conditions went from bad to worse, real quick, and I noticed this, so I increased the following distance between myself and the car in front of me. Most everyone else did, too, except Blondie, who was also talking on her cellphone at the time.

She was tailgating a large white box van, so obviously couldn't see around it, or the fact that the road conditions had changed.

Anyway, traffic in front of the van changed speeds, causing the van to apply its brakes quickly to not hit them.

She whipped her Compass to the right to avoid rear ending it, and promptly buried herself in a snowbank in a ditch on the shoulder of the road, with her vehicle listing to the right, and not having any traction, as I saw her tires spinning furiously as she tried to unstick her truck from the snow banks cold icy grip.

She hasn't learned anything about her tailgating habit, as every other week, I find her on the road, still tailgating people, sometimes that person being me.

I've been very tempted to have a conversation with her about her tailgating habit, and let her know I saw her plow into the snowbank on the highway back in February. Not my place, but I really want to.

BC.

 

[brianl703]

In the DC area, it needs to be the "mentally challenged driver of the minute". There's too many of them to limit it to once per day.

 

[opus1]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
In the DC area, it needs to be the "mentally challenged driver of the minute". There's too many of them to limit it to once per day.
You mean there are members of the House and Senate that *don't* have a driver and do it themselves????