Ask Lemmy

Motherfuckers who turn their head to talk to others in the car while they're driving. Keep your eyes on the road, dumbass.

Tailgating, weaving through lanes to pass other cars and get to our destination zero seconds faster, fucking around with their phone. General "bad driver" stuff.

My husband regularly continues accelerating toward the vehicle in front of us while said vehicle is braking. He also tailgates. It's terrifying and I rarely let him be the one to drive.

Not allowing enough flashes of the turn signal before turning or changing lanes. I aim for three blinks minimum, usually four. One or two blinks just doesn't seem like enough opportunity for other drivers' busy eyes to see the indication.

When we're first in line at a red light, and the driver starts doing shit like check their phone.

Wife does this and it drives me nuts - unless it just turned red, you fucking stare at that light so you can GTFO the second it turns green.

...then she gets annoyed when I say "light's green" when it turns while she's distracted. -_-

My father in law brakes incredibly late. Consequently, he brakes very hard. Drives me (heh) insane, and causes me to reach for the oh-shit bar and the ghost brake every time.

My ex would try to maintain an exact speed by slightly ecxelerating then let off the gas over and over, just tap tap tap on the gas. 100 miles of tiny lurches.

Driving digitally. Gas and brake pedals are analog controllers, not buttons.

Tailgating and driving fast in parking lots. Some people just do these out of habit, it drives me nuts.

Twice I had a Lyft driver (the same one both times) try to sell me a vacation timeshare. It's really awkward being trapped in a car having to hear a sales pitch.

Also, generally don't like when Uber/Lyft cars are heavily scented to cover up the smell of smoke. Makes my skin itch.

Entering an intersection before they are sure there will be enough space to clear it.

Convsersely, a passenger who takes off their seatbelt when I get close to their destination.

Not keeping proper distance to the vehicle in front or behind them

People who know damn well they have a right turn coming up in fewer than 30 seconds, but are perfectly comfortable riding that left lane until the last possible second before they violently swoop cut across all lanes of traffic at once to make their turn.

Bonus points if that turning lane is swamped with other cars, but their tunnel vision was so deep they don't notice until they attempt to merge, and they become frustrated that they either can't make it, or they have to aggressively steal the right-of-way to force themselves in.

When they try to get into the back of the car in front of us.

Drivers seem to forget that they always must maintain minimum emergency breaking distance from the car in front, which changes with weather conditions, speed limit, and the reaction times of the driver themselves.

Tailgating is frightening, especially when it's very clear that if something suddenly happened ahead the driver could not react without superpowers they don't have.

It's not hard to be a good driver. You can even drive fast. Just blink several seconds before you change lanes, keep a lot of space between you and the car in front, and just don't surprise other drivers in any way.

This includes not breaking hard unless you have to (only when you fail to have enough space in front of you to brake smoothly).

Accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake on repeat when on a wide open road.

Some drivers do this seemingly without being aware and once you notice it's impossible to ignore how irritating the feeling is.

Basically all of the things I see other drivers doing when I'm not in their car.

• Distracted driving (e.g. phone)
• Resigning right-of-way in situations that are unsafe, like on highway entrance ramps and inside traffic circles
• Doing unpredictable things (e.g. quickly weaving through traffic, merging/turning without signaling)
• Zero clue about safe stopping distance for their vehicle, weight, and speed
• Cutting off freight, especially at highway speeds
• Generally unaware of what others are doing around them, only to wind up upset with others, then driving angry/aggressive
• Driving fast enough to overwhelm the car's suspension and traction (wheels leave ground, springs bottom out)

The last one is particularly nauseating and terrifying if you're in the car.

Yelling at the other cars the whole trip...

From experience I can tell you that I really hate it when the driver is doing ten over the limit then announces unprompted that he's not afraid of dying in a car accident because he knows he's going to be with Jesus.

Sitting at 60 in the middle lane, and then getting angry because people are tailgating and both over and under taking. Have some fucking lane disaplin.

Tailgating, racing other drivers, quick jerk lane changes, speeding more than ten mph over the limit, last minute braking.

Looking at me when they're talking. I don't care for the politeness of it, just watch the road!

Speeding, texting while driving, calling while driving, overtaking cars when there is a solid line, overtaking when you can't fuckin see what's in front (e.g.: overtaking a semi in right curve), overtaking while going like 2 km/h faster, going fast (even if within limit) when there is a fog and road signs warn about animals frequently crossing the road, unnecessarily loud music, strongly-heated car.

I do about 98% of the driving. I've been driving an ambulance for almost 40 years. I cannot stand almost everything when someone else drives. It takes a lot for me to relinquish the driver's seat when we are doing more than a 4 hour drive.