Personally, I find it endlessly frustrating and even terrifying to be in the passenger seat with a driver who jumps in the car and immediately goes… Then worries about Seatbelts/Radio/AC/Mirrors/Plugging in Phone/etc etc while driving.
Not keeping proper distance to the vehicle in front or behind them
How does a driver choose how close someone follows them?
The nerve of that guy driving so close to the car behind them!
I was taught to adjust my speed until the distance is safe. Most people eventually either overtake, or get the hint and back off.
Don’t break check though! It can cause people to panic and swerve, causing an accident.
Brake checking the person behind them. But yeah, it’s a lot less common than tailing I guess
Ah, that makes sense
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.
Braking doesn’t even have to factor into it, I can’t stand the feeling of going on and off the throttle. Cruise control exists for a reason, people.
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.
Granted I’m a lifelong loner but…how do you deal with this? I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think I could ever have a partner who drives so egregiously dangerous. Not only is it dangerous, but it also indicates a severe lack of empathy for other human beings. I don’t know how I could reconcile a severe lack of empathy in a partner like that.
I guess it depends. Does he tailgate out of aggression or because he’s not paying attention? Not that one is necessarily better than others, but the intent is different. One just implies stupidity while the other implies lack of empathy.
I deal with it by being the one to drive more than 99% of the time. It would be a problem if he wanted to be the one driving, but fortunately he doesn’t.
I don’t know why he tailgates. He doesn’t recognize that what he’s doing is dangerous. So I guess stupidity…
The last time I was a passenger in my brother’s car, I remembered that he tends to drive in a way that makes me feel unsafe, like what OP described. Unreasonable acceleration, tailgating, swerving. He laughed when I was physically bracing myself and said his partner does the same thing. I told him I just won’t be in a car when he’s driving anymore. Of course, it’s easier to do because I don’t see him too often.
IMO when I’m driving, I not only have a responsibility to keep my passengers safe, but to make them feel safe. I might feel safe because I know I’ll brake in time, but my passengers don’t because they’re not controlling the vehicle.
Not the one you’re replying to but my SO was a terrible driver and still has issues. At first I brought it to them calmly but over the years it turned into nagging. That being said, their driving has improved significantly. Much safer than it was but they still get mad at other cars who were being oblivious. They also admitted they have problems seeing at night so I always drive at night now.
They’re aware I have a problem with their driving and it is a source of contention in our relationship but not enough to break up over.
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.
You write like you’ve driven the Garden State Parkway.
Sometimes I can’t believe I survived driving in NJ for a year
You’ve met my ex I see
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.
Add in hysterical, blood-vessel-throbbing shrieks at the person in front, and you’ve just described my mom’s driving. It’s terrifying to ride anywhere with her.
My ex gets distracted easily. She always hated that I would ghost brake, but I can’t help it when she’s not reacting to the stopped car in front of us
Omg, I had an ex that did this too and it gave me a heart attack every time. I totally did the same ghost brake thing too, I couldn’t help it.
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 husband got a ticket/points on his license doing that and that stopped him.
I wish they enforced that more in my area.
Being first at a red light is a big responsibility. That shit is not to be taken lightly.
No tolerance for that. Yank the phone from their hand and scold them like a child. That’s ridiculous.
Theres plenty of people who complain about drivers who get ticketed for using a mobile while at lights or stopped in traffic (think of the comments on a particular uk cycle cammer who films drivers using their mobiles then reports them) but it plays heavily with situational awareness & drivers ability to “check back in” to the activity of driving.
I’m all pro not touching a phone while driving, hell, I won’t even plug my phone to charge if driving.
There’s no excuse.
What I don’t understand is people having CarPlay/Android Auto and still doing this. I have CarPlay but honestly my Driving Focus declines notifications not from my wife; the rest of world can fuck off.
What makes those safer to use than the phone itself? Is it because they are considered part of the car so you are “allowed” to use them?
For me personally, I just tap the microphone and use voice assistant when I need to navigate somewhere or shoot off a text before I forget. Mine has the touchscreen that I don’t really use while driving. I’m also not a fan of taking calls in the car.
The point is that it’s very unnecessary to touch your phone at all — I don’t even take mine out of my pocket. So when people have all this tech and continue using their phone (physically) I’m like “wtf?”
Edit: I am however a fan of sharing my ETA via Apple Maps
Driving digitally. Gas and brake pedals are analog controllers, not buttons.
ffs people with lead feet need to read this
My wife’s family drives like this, not just with the pedals but with the wheel too. Instead of turning it to where it needs to be and holding it they turn it to far then over correct back twords center then back to the first spot they turned it to, then overcorrect, and repeat the entire turn. Thankfully I was able to get my wife to stop driving this way when we started dating and now she hates riding with any of her family driving as much as I do.
Convsersely, a passenger who takes off their seatbelt when I get close to their destination.
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.
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.
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.
Yelling at the other cars the whole trip…
With closed windows
I’ll one up ya:
With open windows. 😬
I’ve done that on one really stressful day ending with a rushed drive through vacationer traffic.
I and sure my comment about fuckwit Winnebago pilots was heard, as it was spoken at what my drill instructor would call “a clear voice”.
Getting on a cell phone.
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).
My goal while driving is to ensure that I don’t make any other drivers have to hit their brakes unnecessarily.
