Ask Lemmy

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

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.

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.

My wife will not turn off her wipers even when it's no longer raining. Drives me mad.

This is a weird one, but a personal pet peeve. Assuming no one is behind you and there are already some cars at a red light ahead of you, there is no reason to accelerate. Let off the gas. Coast. Sometimes the light turns green by the time your there. If you keep accelerating and stop that's just wasted gas.

Getting on a cell phone.

My former boss's wife used to steer very strangely when driving - The Jeep was likely out of alignment, but instead of staying centered and making continuous small corrections, she'd let it drift to one side till it was on the line then quickly correct back towards center and then continue drifting, endlessly until arriving at the destination.

My brother once drove 60mph down a winding narrow mountain road one-handed while sipping tea. Cool story to tell now that i say it like that, but i can assure you it was not cool to be in the passenger seat at the time

Dies

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.

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

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.

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

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).

Yelling at the other cars the whole trip...