[Mark07]

From middle-lane drivers on the motorway, to drivers opening doors without checking for cyclists, to not indicating before pulling out.

What annoying habits do you see on the roads?

[Rolebama]

It's a toss-up now between people who change lanes on approach to roundabouts. You know,the ones, already standing on the brakes and just swerve into faster moving traffic. I think tailgaters are still at No 1 for me.

[Drivingforfun]

For me it’s unnecessary horn usage or just unnecessary anger in general

I find it fascinating seeing otherwise respectable people resort to primitive behaviour because of something that doesn’t matter

If someone does something wrong I just brake (or do whatever other response is appropriate). It’s a total non-event, like I literally don’t even pause what I’m saying if I’m having a conversation … How soul-destroying must someone’s life be that their excitement comes from driving round a roundabout?

I don’t say this as someone who gets “beeped” at myself, it’s happened to me about twice in 6 years, just I see it every day

[NMNeil]

Being on a main road and you can see another car coming along a side road towards the main road, and they wait to the very last second before slamming their brakes on, so all the time I'm wondering if they are going to ignore the stop sign and pull in front of me.

[Mdb51]

Hi Everyone

My 1st ever post on this forum unfortunately starts with me saying that 1 of my highest level things that really annoys me is drivers who have a go at someone for letting them through a narrow gap.

I say that because it happened to me only 30 minutes ago when I waved a drivee through a narrowish gap, next thing I knew she pulled up alongside me and started throwing all sorts of expletives at me.

If there's 1 lesson I learnt there is not to bother helping out other drivers because from my experience, unfortunately some don't appreciate it, I realise that's not the case with everyone on the roads but when it comes to those who don't appreciate help, I think they don't deserve to have the privilege of driving. We don't need bad tempers on the roads.

My apologies that my 1st post starts off on a rayher sour note and hopefully I can contribute to some discussions and with any luck make some friends aswell.

[Mark07]

Originally Posted by Mdb51

I say that because it happened to me only 30 minutes ago when I waved a drivee through a narrowish gap, next thing I knew she pulled up alongside me and started throwing all sorts of expletives at me.

Hi Mdb51,

Welcome to the Community!

I'm sorry to hear about this, I just don't understand why someone would act that way after you've been courteous to them.

When I let someone through, it does rankle if they don't raise their hand as a small gesture to recognise that I've let them through. Afterall, good manners cost nothing.

[Mdb51]

I have another to add if I may.

The latest is drivers who insist on driving at 20 mph after entering a 30 or 40 mph posted speed zone.

[Mark07]

Originally Posted by Mdb51

I have another to add if I may.

Absolutely, keep them coming 😀

[Mdb51]

I have 2 more to add for today.

My 1st is drivers who stop more than a full car length away from another car or the line at traffic lights.


My 2nd is drivers who take up far much more room than they actually need when turning left. By that I refer to drivers who drive cars as if they're driving buses or trucks and hog the corners so that the front of their car enters the road on the wrong side instead of moving towards the lines in the middle of the road then turning left into the road where they want to go in order to make sure the rear wheel doesn't run over the kerb.

[Mark07]

People who park like this...

[Rolebama]

Clowns who drive on motorways who can't tell the difference between Highways Agency and Police vehicles. Even though they are doing 70mph, they still have to stand on the brakes and pass at 1mph more than the vehicle doing 60-ish mph. (Just an example speedwise, but I am sure most of you get it.)

[TC1474]

I have so many, but the tope ones are -

Poor signalling. Many drivers are in the habit of signalling for everything and anything so it becomes a signal of achievement rather than a signal of intent. I still deal with a lot of crashes where drivers give the totally wrong signal for the hazard or location or in some cases don' signal at all, but wrong signal at the wrong time in the wrong place with the wrong meaning are just as dangerous as no signal, mainly because drivers are on automatic pilot and are lazy so don't think about what they are doing. I could write a book about poor signalling and drivers are often surprised when I fail them on advanced test for this very issue.

Lane hogging. I detest and despite all the warnings people still think as Motorway lanes as being slow, fast and overtaking when we have never had such designations, and now talk about the "New" offence of lane hogging when in fact we were booking drivers back in the early 80's for careless driving as we have always had the offence, but still drivers think that the centre lane on a Motorway is their cruising lane 🤬

Drivers who when turning right from a major carriageway into a minor road insist on cutting across the lane of the junction they are turning into running the risk of hitting traffic approaching the minor junction, and then become indignant when they hit another vehicle, especially when they end up with 6 points and a few hundred pounds worth of fines.

And lastly (for now) people who (despite all the adverts and warnings) still insist on using their hand held mobile phones whilst driving. If they cannot stay off their phone for a few minutes then why do they not invest in a Bluetooth earpiece f they don't have it fitted to their vehicle? And why do they insist on texting whilst driving. What makes it worse is that they want sympathy and go "Oh wo is me" when it goes belly up.

I have loads more but they are a few of the main ones. I guess that is what comes of 45 years of picking up dead bodies and dealing with mangled metal.

[NMNeil]

Drivers who park in disabled only bays "Just for a second" while they go into the store.
I was writing a ticked for someone who did just that, and she ran out from the store and asked "Can you give me a break?"
My reply of "I am, I'm not having your car towed" was not well received.
(Automatic $329 fine and points on her license)

[NMNeil]

Originally Posted by TC1474

I have loads more but they are a few of the main ones. I guess that is what comes of 45 years of picking up dead bodies and dealing with mangled metal.

And the worse part was waking up parents of teenagers to tell them we think their child is dead and we need them to go to the morgue to identify the body.
I always had to stand outside the house for a while to get past my mental block and summoning up the courage to give them such terrible news.

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by NMNeil

And the worse part was waking up parents of teenagers to tell them we think their child is dead and we need them to go to the morgue to identify the body.
I always had to stand outside the house for a while to get past my mental block and summoning up the courage to give them such terrible news.

And ain't that the truth. The one aspect of training that is never covered and the one job I always used to detest and never ever got used to.

I could/can deal with all the gore and guts and horrible sights that you can throw at me (and I have seen some sights) but ask me to go and notify next of kin? No thanks.

[NMNeil]

@TC1474 You do get hardened to some of the things you see, especially here, but sometimes it's so bad it stays in your memory forever and you can never forget it.

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by NMNeil

@TC1474 You do get hardened to some of the things you see, especially here, but sometimes it's so bad it stays in your memory forever and you can never forget it.

Absolutely in agreement with you on that...

I still remember Hungerford in 1987 as if it was yesterday (It was my buddy who was murdered by Ryan) and then 12 months later watching 26 people burn to death on the Motorway.

Things like that you never forget for sure.

[NMNeil]

@TC1474 And I thought that standing outside a mobile home (big semi permanent caravan) talking with the father of a teenager who was threatening to commit suicide. While talking about the reason for his threatened suicide we both heard a bang from inside the trailer and saw one of the roof shingles lift.
His son had put a .44 magnum revolver under his chin and pulled the trigger. I can't imagine the father's pain as he witnessed that.
But watching people burn, that's something I never saw and hopefully will never see.
Let's stop there shall we; please?

[Marc]

What peeves me off is not so much 'on the road' and more 'in the car' - it's that my car is constantly trying to tell me to change gears, to move either up or down. It never seems to like the gear I'm in 😂
Wish there was a way of disabling this "feature'...

[Rolebama]

@Marc Mine is capable of changing that, unfortunately the alternative is showing instantaneous fuel consumption. Makes my pocket hurt.

[Rolebama]

To add my latest, driving home through Langford and Hitchin Wednesday night I was stuck behind a car doing around 40 through the 30s, 50 through the 40s and when we hit NSLs and 50s I would catch up to him doing 30! Why!? Only reason I could think of was the lack of street lights and he appeared to be on main beams judging by the amount of his light output and oncoming traffic flashing him and dazzling me.

[Beelzebub]

Originally Posted by TC1474

I have loads more but they are a few of the main ones. I guess that is what comes of 45 years of picking up dead bodies and dealing with mangled metal.

I agree with all of the above!

I'd add two more, which I don't see much anymore due to changes in my lifestyle, but I'm sure are still prevalent.

When I lived in more rural areas, I would see cars in the RH lane of a 2 lane DC, doing less then the limit.. because they were going to turn right at least a mile further on. Mostly elderly drivers with hats.

Drivers on empty motorways in the early hours, in lane 2, often with rear foglights on. Again, usually elderly. In those days, often Rover 2xxs or Volvo 3xxs. I once saw a police car drive up behind one of those, and flash his headlights a couple of time s to no avail. Blues on, no difference. He eventually pulled in front and the driver at last noticed him.

BTW I'm not ageist, I'm now and old f*rt myself!

[Rolebama]

Most of my time in the AA was spent on motorways and some of the breakdowns I attended would be 'cut-out non-start' jobs. I never counted them, but I reckon possibly 20 or so were caused by under-bonnet fires. How can you sit in a burning car and not feel the heat or see the usually clouds of black smoke?
My most memorable incident was a 12-seater mini-bus. I could see the smoke as I pulled up behind, and phoned the Fire Brigade before I got out. I asked all on board to go sit up on the bank. They happily scrambled up the bank until they turned around and saw the smoke billowing out from underneath. Facial expressions, let alone pictures, can be worth a thousand words.

[Mark07]

Drivers who don't even attempt to dip their full beams.

Apart from being dazzled, my biggest issue is the general lack of consideration of others.

[onestitchloose]

Obviously the 40 mph drivers who go through 30s at 40 and 60s at 40. To make matters worse is when I'm towing the van, it's nigh impossible to overtake safely.

[Mdb51]

Here's my latest and it's 1 I have seen quite a lot lately.

Drivers at traffic lights in a lane specifically for right turns only, the lights change to green, vehicle goes straight ahead instead of turning right.

This is a frequent occurrence at lights where there are 2 lanes together and the arrows clearly show the right hand lane for turning right ( unless the lane specifically shows that you can go straight aswell as turning right although these are rare here in wirral merseyside ). The number of near misses I myself have witnessed because of this carry on straight instead of turning right behavior is ridiculous, the number of fingers and toes on 100 people standing in front of me wouldn't even come close.

The thing that boggles me is that these drivers know it is clearly dangerous but they still do it.

[olduser]

My list of irritants on the road is short;
Other drivers!

It's a joke, its a joke..

[olduser]

Seriously - tailgating is the one that gets me.
Followed by the fool who crawls past only to get in front then slow down or even brake, why?

[Rolebama]

Originally Posted by olduser

Seriously - tailgating is the one that gets me.
Followed by the fool who crawls past only to get in front then slow down or even brake, why?

Agree 100% about being overtaken the having to slow to below the speed I was originally cruising.