Community Chat

[chickenbutt]

Around here it was always just generic tourist drivers, not associated with any particular age group or experience level. I learned, long ago, to stay away from touristy areas. I never could understand getting in the car and trying to figure out where you were going. What's so wrong about figuring out where it is BEFORE you get in the car and on the road, taking the lives of others in your hands, while you make foolish driving decisions.

Of course, that doesn't probably apply to most places, where the problem drivers actually live there.

Don't even get me started on the whole phone/texting thing while driving that happens everywhere now. One must consider oneself very fortunate if they drive somewhere and then get home safely, without some mindless dunderhead crashing into you.

[kittymomNC]

One of my pet peeves is slow drivers - especially in what used to be referred to as the "passing lane" on a four-lane highway. You have a slow driver in the right lane, and then a driver in the left lane stays right beside that one, and no one behind can go anywhere. And of course, they're always driving below the posted speed limit. As another poster said, a pack of cars gets behind wanting to move on... this causes very dangerous conditions.

Also, when someone pulls out in front of me on a two lane road and then pokes along... with no one even in sight behind me, they could have waited until I passed by and then pulled out, and there would have been no one there to get P O'd.

And then there are people who don't seem to know that you can usually turn right on a red light... I hate it when someone is sitting first in line at the light with their right blinker on, no traffic coming, and they just will not go until the light turns green! A lot of people need a refresher course from the Driver's Handbook!

And I agree with Shorty2U about cell phones, in traffic and other places. Cell phones shouldn't be allowed in cars, period. And I like what little peace and quiet you can get in a store, bank, post office, Dr's office etc. without having to also listen to everyone's personal conversations!

[dooBdoo]

I used to drive on I-81 between Roanoke and Blacksburg, VA, quite a bit.

I'll never forget seeing a woman holding a book on her steering wheel and reading it while speeding along. I guess she was on her way to an exam and cramming for it at the last minute. People forget they have their life -- and the lives of those around them -- in their very hands when they're driving.

[chickenbutt]

Kittymom - We have a big problem with slow drivers on the freeway! Yeah, on the freeway. Getting on the freeway takes a lot of patience and finesse because you often find yourself stuck behind some bonehead who thinks it's appropriate to enter the freeway going 30MPH. Um, it's NOT! Yikes - how to get yourself killed in one easy lesson.

I have to say that back when I lived in Europe, at first, I was so surprised at how people zoomed around but one of the good things was that you learned to either get going or get out of the way.

[mysterylady]

In my area it has become common practice to make a left turn from a right lane. Not on a highway but in a parking lot or at a stop sign. They're in the right lane so you pull up and stop beside them in the middle lane. Then when it's clear, they make a left turn right in front of you.

AT the red light, when you can make a right on red, they don't stop and then proceed with caution. They drive right through as if they had a green light - and expect you to do the same.

They also don't yield to sirens and flashing lights of emergency vehicles.

We have one road with two lanes turning left and the right lane to make a right turn. At times during the day, the two left lanes are backed up and nobody wants to wait through several lights to turn left so there's always a car or two that will go the entire way in the right turn lane to the light, then turn left, cutting off those turning left to get through the light.

My township boasts about having 25 police cars but I have yet to see police objecting to these practices. All the cars seem to be parked behind the municipal building. Good use of my tax dollars.

[bikerbabe]

I have more issues with pedestrians who decide that they can walk anywhere they want without even looking around.

[mysterylady]

On 1/2/2015 bikerbabe said: I have more issues with pedestrians who decide that they can walk anywhere they want without even looking around.

We have that problem at our w-mart. AT busy times you can sit several minutes and nobody cares if cars are trying to pass. They don't even look. In other areas I've noticed this is less of a problem. Ours seems to be exceptionally bad.

[Black Cat Back]

I think the cellphones, texting and those distractions are worse than a lot of elderly drivers here in AZ. Yes, the older drivers can make mistakes, but mostly they just drive slow.

I worry about the younger kids I see on the phone, texting, smoking... and adults doing the same.

It amazes me how many mothers I see doing all that with kids in the car.

Texting should have been outlawed while driving in AZ, but the lawmakers here think it's okay. It amazes me. Sometimes I see people not even looking at the road ahead of them when they are driving.

No wonder my car insurance rates keep going up! I wanted to lower mine, but don't want to lower any coverage with the goofballs on the road these days.

[GCR18]

People that enter the highway and expect the traffic on the highway to stop and let them in drive me crazy. I don't think they understand that the yield sign is in their lane and they are the one who is supposed to yield.

[151949]

On 1/2/2015 chickenbutt said:

Kittymom - We have a big problem with slow drivers on the freeway! Yeah, on the freeway. Getting on the freeway takes a lot of patience and finesse because you often find yourself stuck behind some bonehead who thinks it's appropriate to enter the freeway going 30MPH. Um, it's NOT! Yikes - how to get yourself killed in one easy lesson.

I have to say that back when I lived in Europe, at first, I was so surprised at how people zoomed around but one of the good things was that you learned to either get going or get out of the way.

I don't know where you live but anywhere I have ever lived the person entering the highway DOES NOT have the right of way - the cars on the highway already do have the right of way and those entering are supposed to merge in and if needed , stop and wait til the lane is clear. In the Pittsburgh area there are entrances where it is impossible to see around the hillsides and curves to know if there is a car coming in the right lane, until you are way at the end of the entrance ramp. Often at those places there is a STOP sign on the entry ramp. You are to stop and wait until the lane is clear and then you enter. Is it polite for a car on the highway to move over and allow the cars to enter - absolutely - but there are times when you can't move over because there is traffic in the other lane. My absolute pet peeve is people who hit that entry ramp at 55 or more with no clue if the lane is clear for them to enter the highway safely.