Top 10 Driving Annoyances

I am an impatient driver. But I am also the best driver in the world. Of course, everyone thinks that about themselves, right? Well, as the best driver in the world, there are many things that drive me nuts while I am on the road. Here is my list of things that I annoy me the most. Fair warning...I did not proofread this before I posted. There may be quite a few gramatical errors.

Honorable Mention: Rotaries. I don't know what they are called out here in the midwest, but back in the New England we called them rotaries. Instead of an intersection, it's just a circle that you drive around and exit on the street you choose. I don't like them at all. For some reason they confuse me!

10. Long Lights. Traffic lights are essential in order to regulate traffic flow. I'll give you that. I love the ones that are intentionally timed properly so that on a long street, you only really have to wait for one light. Then the other turn green as you proceed down the road. But what drives me bonkers are the lights that obviously the traffic department did not think about when they were setting it up. I'm talking about the lights that take FOREVER to change. Where I live there is one, on a major road, at which you will sit for 1 minute and 6 seconds. What makes it worse is that there is a parking lot to a car dealership on one side and a road to an industrial area on the other. Simply no need for a red light to last that long in such a location.

9. Intersection Standoffs. You know what I'm talking about. When more than one car gets to an intersection at about the same time or when drivers can't figure out who has the right of way. You end up sitting there for a few seconds wondering who is going to go. Then you decide to go...just as someone else does too. Very awkward and very annoying. Pay attention to the order in which you arrive at an intersection people! Is it a tie? Then the person on the right goes. Drivers Ed 101.

8. Cell Phone Distracted Drivers. Put down the cell phone and pay attention dammit! If you are not awesome at multi-tasking like me, you should not be calling/receiving calls when you drive.

7. Drivers Who Don't Signal. That is why car makers put them on cars. Use them!

6. Drivers in the Left Lane Who Refuse to Get Over. When you drive, you are supposed to be alert. So when a faster driver comes up behind you and you are in the left hand lane (and nobody is next to you in the right hand lane), GET OVER. People who do this are either oblivious to the fact that there is someone behind them or are just plain stupide, ignorant of the rule. The right lane is for traveling. For slower drivers. The left lane is for passing. For faster drivers. If you are slower than me, fine. Just get the heck over.

5. Drivers who take forever to pass you. If you are going to pass me, fine, do it. Find the gas pedal and use it. It drives me crazy when someone decides to pass me and takes an hour to get past my vehicle. By the time he/she is almost past me, I myself have come up behind a slower driver and now need to slow down and wait before I can pass.

4. Want to Pass, But Can't! This occurs mostly with semi trucks on the highway. You are doing what you are supposed to do and are staying in the right lane until you are ready to pass. You come up behind a slow driver (again, usually a truck). You look in your mirror and see that you can't pass because there is a car (or cars) in the left lane, too close for you to safely change lanes. So you are forced to slow down. Then, to make matters worse, since you have slowed down several cars form a line behind you. Then they decide to pass you as soon as they can so you are stuck waiting for a whole bunch of people to pass you before you can speed up again.

3. Drivers Cut You Off...They Could Have Waited. Again, this occurs mostly with semi trucks it seems. You are driving along in the left lane about to pass a slow vehicle or line of slow vehicles. There is absolutely no one behind you and a driver in the right lane decides to pull into the left lane in front of you. The driver may be going faster than others in the right lane, but he/she is going slower than you want so you have to slow down anyway. It makes me mad because if they were paying attention, they would notice that you are moving at a high rate of speed and there is nobody behind you. They should just politely wait for you to go by, then make their pass.

2. Slow Drivers. Simply put, I'm a fast driver. Yes, I even admit to going a few miles over the speed limit every once in a while. :) In my opinion, there should not only be speed limits. There should be speed mandates. In a 55 mph zone, it should be a mandate that a driver goes 54 (or something like that). Actually, it's worse on residential roads. I was driving in a 35 mph zone the other day and the driver in front of me was going 22. TWENTY TWO. Granted it was an elderly driver. If you are going to drive that much lower than the speed limit, you shouldn't be on the road. Sure speeding is dangerous, but going so slow is also dangerous...and freakin' annoying.

1. Trucks Trying to Pass Other Trucks. I drive an hour on the Interstate every day for work. This happens all the time. Semi Truck A is going 60. Semi Truck B decides to pass Truck. The problem is that Truck B passes Truck A at a speed of 60.5. I am trying to get to work and want to go as fast I can. But I get stuck behind a truck in the left lane trying to pass a truck in the right lane. Sometimes, no exaggeration, it is several MILES before a truck completely passes another truck. If you are going to pass, PASS! See #5 above! Find the gas pedal!


So there you have it. My top 10 driving annoyances. So what did I forget? I'd love to hear about them!

-wj