Annoying drving habits

[Ruggerbugger]

It seems to be the fashion around my area to have one of the following variations of muppetry in charge of a car:

1. One headlight out, usually the left one for some reason (the other headlight may or may not get past the sidelight stage.

2. Fantastically bright headlights more befitting arc lamps, even when not on full beam (406, 206 owners, I'm looking at you)

3. One headlight stuck on full beam. It's like being followed by the Sun, goddammit!

4. Fog lights, when it's not remotely foggy, or even dark. You are not a rally driver, you're a **** in a Clio with too much plastic hanging off it.

5. A variant of 4 is those people who think it's clever to drive around with fog lights on, but either no headlights or dipped lights only. These people are downright dangerous.

Anyway, rant over. What do you think? Any other muppetry examples welcome.

[0iD]

People who've lost the power to indicate!

[smtkr]

1. I live in Oregon, where there is never more than 100m visibility (usually about half that) because of the amount of rain we get. Every morning, I notice that a large portion of drivers don't have any lights on at all. That's friggin dangerous.

2. Here's another annoying habit people around here have: When the light turns green, they are brushing their hair/putting on make-up/just not paying attention and you end up sitting through several lights unless you lay on your horn, shout out the window and wave your fist.

3. People who don't understand that some stop lights have sensors that trigger a green. They will not pull up far enough to the light to trip the sensor, so the light stays red. I honk, but these idiots think I'm just honking for no reason and don't budge.

Those are the ones I've encountered today. I'll probably catch a few more on the way home and then on my way back to work today.

EDIT:
4. People who don't use their turn signals...ever!
5. People who don't maintain a sure and clear distance from the person ahead of them. For example, it was a rainy morning yesterday and I was keeping about 5 car lengths between me and the train of cars in front of me on a 55 mph (maybe 90km/h) road. Anyhow, some knucklehead passed me and squeezed into my buffer distance for no reason just so he could tailgate the guy in front of me for the next ten miles (no chance to pass because there was a whole line of tailgaters driving slowly ahead). This happens all the time.

[Stoo]

Drifting across lanes on a roundabout.. WHEN YOU'RE ALONGSIDE THEM!!!

I've had so many idiots nearly drive straight into me on the way home, and on the same roundabout.. EVERY TIME!

[tiggerai]

Definitely people who are not educated about roundabouts and are downright dangerous with it.

People who do 35 miles an hour down MK grid roads, the single carriageway ones that I can't overake on. Grrr

[0iD]

OAP tweedy hat wearing drivers who do 35-40mp everybleedinwhere, regardless of the speed limit on the road.

[pak000]

1) people who turn left from the right hand lane on a round about
2) people who turn right from the left hand lane on a round about
3) people that slow down to 10mph below the speed limit at cameras
4) people that think they should always come off a roundabout in the left lane, despite a person being just to the left of them
5) people that have blue LED's on their car...I personally think these should be made illegal, they are far too easy to mistake for an emergency vehicle when you glance around
6) people with so much crap dangling from their mirror and window that it blocks their view and causes a distraction - windows are there to look through, not to put things on
7) 4x4 owners that only by the cars because they are "safer" and want to look down on people...there is no need for a range rover in a city, all it means is more injuries for the pedestrian that you will inevitably hit with your crap driving
8) People who use their fog lights when there is no fog
9) People who sit in the right hand lane with nothing to their left
10) an extension to 9 with people that drive below the speed limit
11) people (particularly in mk) who don't move to the right lane when they clearly see a car waiting to pull out of a junction

I'm sure i can think of some more, but my blood pressure is rising to unacceptable levels

edit:
12) one final one....idiots that drive the wrong way up carpark lanes, then have a fit when they almost hit you because they speed around a corner and you are in the middle of the lane...despite it being one way

13) People who block junctions in traffic jams
14) People who when sitting in a long jam refuse to let people pull out of a side road - let one person out, then move on
15) an extension to 14 with people that when you let one person out automatically assume you are going to let all cars from the side road out

ok, thats really enough for now

oh oh one last - i promise

16) people that use their mobile phones, especially when they vear accross lanes

[XA04]

People who've lost the power to indicate!

Oh yeah that's really annoying. I mean just been a pedestrian.. and if some ****ing **** just turns round and nearly hits you.. that's happened to me too many times.

And it's amazing how many people on roundabouts don't indicate, even my dad doesn't 80% of the time, I always have a go at him for not doing it, but I get chat back like "I've been driving for 25 odd years, don't start with me lad.." etc

[Dorza]

OAP tweedy hat wearing drivers who do 35-40mp everybleedinwhere, regardless of the speed limit on the road.

Yeah a lot of OAPs haven't got a clue how to drive. A 20mph OAP dilly-dallying is as dangerous as drunk drive imo. I never let OAPs out of a junction, they just get confused when I call or flash them to move out, they really haven’t got a clue what to do when in that situation, its safer to leave them wait for a proper gab. What really gets me though is after they don't move out after you waiting there for a good few seconds they suddenly decide to pull out as your moving off. As with others on the road you really have to watch them.

People on mobile phones that hits a nerve. On my 10 mile drive to uni everyday I see a good 15 + people on their mobiles. Its quite a problem in my area I think, the other week the police said their going to start a new operation to clamp down on people using their phones while driving. I also hate it when people drive around with 1 break/back light. I also dislike chavs riding around in their "love wagons ". God they’re so pathetic, the cars are just as bad. They think they can drive put their as intelligent as a walnut when their on the road i.e. no idea.

All in all I hate a lot of things I see on the road.

5) people that have blue LED's on their car...I personally think these should be made illegal, they are far too easy to mistake for an emergency vehicle when you glance around

They are illegal i think. Your not alot allowed to have any lights turned on while driveing appart from the manufactured fitted ones. Blue lights are illegal. My copper friend is always ranting at how many people he has to pull over with these blue lights twingleing on peoples bonnets and back windows.

[Howard]

People who don't maintain a decent distance from my car... Listen you spastic if I hit the brakes, you're not gonna stop in time, and you'll plough into the back of me, so how about you ease back a bit SImilar when people insist on stopping two inches from my bumper in traffic, at lights, etc. WHY?

People who indicate unnecessarily about 600 yards prior to their turn, and for every little direction change, like driving round an obstacle in the road (parked car etc).. Yeah no ****... There was me thinking you were gonna drive straight over it

unnecesary braking too... If people iddn't follow so closely and drive so fast they wouldn't have to keep breaking, just ease off the throttle


Oh and correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're going around a roundabout and the exit you want is the last one, say,at about the 5'o'clock position on the roundabout (should you be looking from an aerial view) you enter the roundabout on the right hand lane then move across when exiting, yes? Why do people enter on the left and follow me round the bleeding roundabout on the left lane, indicating past all the bloody exits on the way? I can't get off the roundabout then can I

even my dad doesn't 80% of the time, I always have a go at him for not doing it, but I get chat back like "I've been driving for 25 odd years, don't start with me lad.." etc

I hear ya on that one!

[shiato storm]

other people driving. 'nough said.

[shelley bda]

Don't get me started on Chavs using fog lamps when it's not foggy!!!! someone actually said to me on another forum "I think it looks cool" It's an offence i believe? but do police actually bother??? and roundabouts!!!!! don't get me started

I believe all drivers should have to take a theory test, not just new drivers and they should be updating it every few years, the way you have to when you do a first aid or health and safety course

[pak000]

Don't get me started on Chavs using fog lamps when it's not foggy!!!! someone actually said to me on another forum "I think it looks cool" It's an offence i believe? but do police actually bother???

Yes the police bother, but not when it counts, I was driving down a road the other week, traffic was a crawl because it was the centre of the city on a saturday night and the road with all the pubs and clubs. Police stand in the middle of the road. This one flags me down and says "oh sorry mate, thought you had your fog lights on" - which i blatently didn't. I think he was just trying to find an excuse to get me to open my window to see if i had alcohol on my breath

[Nox]

Yes the police bother, but not when it counts, I was driving down a road the other week, traffic was a crawl because it was the centre of the city on a saturday night and the road with all the pubs and clubs. Police stand in the middle of the road. This one flags me down and says "oh sorry mate, thought you had your fog lights on" - which i blatently didn't. I think he was just trying to find an excuse to get me to open my window to see if i had alcohol on my breath

Good on him, atleast someone checking. I would love to see more of this, don't care what the excuse is!

Nox

[Nick]

People not having the courtesy to wave a 'Thank You' when you wait for them, whether it's your right of way or not. Sure, the Highway Code is on their side and if there's a car parked on my side of the road I should stop and wait, but how much effort is giving me a wave to say 'Thank You'?

Just driving on as if I don't exist is just plain bloody rude... And that 'Finger Point Wave' that some drivers do is just as annoying... That one finger lifted lazily from the wheel and pointed in my general direction says to me that you wouldn't wave normally but you're doing so out of conformmity to a convention you neither agree with or really wish to heed but we briefly made eye contact and now you feel obliged to give me some sort of ackowledgement but you'll damn well make sure its about as condescending as possible...

I now make a point of waving madly at anyone who doesn't wave... it winds the buggers right up... This morning I did it and one guy even stopped and had a go at me... he stopped level with me, wound down his window and started mouthing off... it was so funny to see his brain catch up with his mouth... After question why the effing hell I was waving at him I said it was acknowledging his wave to me for waiting to let him through... His face was a picture when he said he hadn't effing waved so ...why...was..I... er... then I got load more expletives and he wheel spun off... and I carried on waving...

[Rave]

Didn't we do this thread previously?

SImilar when people insist on stopping two inches from my bumper in traffic, at lights, etc. WHY?

Because if there's someone further back up the road trying to pull out, the shorter the queue, the more likely they are to be able to. If you're a decent driver you're not going to roll back before you set off, so why does it matter if someone is sat stationary 2" from your back bumper?

Yes the police bother, but not when it counts, I was driving down a road the other week, traffic was a crawl because it was the centre of the city on a saturday night and the road with all the pubs and clubs. Police stand in the middle of the road. This one flags me down and says "oh sorry mate, thought you had your fog lights on" - which i blatently didn't. I think he was just trying to find an excuse to get me to open my window to see if i had alcohol on my breath

I sort of concur. When I had a moped aged 16 I was stopped three times; the first two times the cops tried to claim that I'd comitted some spurious traffic violation like having a silly riding position, or, the second time, claiming I'd been 1mph over the speed limit (when the cop car must have been doing 60mph to catch me up- I'm a regular mirror observer, one second they were nowhere to be seen, 15s later they were right up my arse with the lights going). The third time I didn't mind, because they just admitted straight off that they were just stopping me to check my bike over and make sure that it hadn't been nicked- I'd done nothing wrong. They then pointed out that my L-Plates weren't positioned properly (I checked afterwards, and they weren't), and asked me to fix them. The other two cops who'd stopped me for spurious reasons didn't even notice. Total idiots TBH.

My personal top car driving annoyances are:

1) people who ignore the rules at box junctions
2) people who drive up the outside of queues at turnoffs/slip roads and then try and push in
3) People who cut you up. One day I will armour my car and cause them to regret it.
4) (as with everyone else) people who don't understand the concept of lane discipline. MOVE OVER YOU ****ING ****S! This should be an instant 3 point + £60 fine offence IMO.
5) Dopey gits. People who don't notice that the lights have changed, there's a gap in the traffic, or that if they were to actually put their foot down they and three other cars could get through the lights before they change. ARRRGGH!.

Sadly, I apparently can't become a copper because I'm deaf in one ear. If I could, I'd be so damn tempted to be the avenging traffic cop from hell. The drivers round here wouldn't know what hit them.