Worst Driver(s) You Have Experienced

[bliebblob]

Keeping it as short as possible:

At a red light I rode my bike up to the front of the line of waiting cars, passing them all on their right. This is a legal move if there is one of those bike squares at the front, which there was. One of the cars' drivers slams his horn, nearly giving me a heartattack. Pissed, I signal for him to pull over and he does. I ask him what the deal is.

Him: you can't just pass the waiting cars like that.
Me: yes I can, there's one of those bike squares at the front.
Him (very condesending): doesn't matter, bikes overtaking cars must always do so from the left, just like a car.

Though it struck me as very counter-intuitive (not to mention dangerous) I wasn't 100% sure he was wrong so I begrudginly had to leave it at that.

Discussing the whole thing later with friends who do have a drivers license (I don't yet), it turned out I was 100% in the right the whole time.

And that my friends, is one of the many reasons I remain convinced that being an idiot is one heck of an advantage in arguments. Because how did I "lose" that argument with that driver? By being so polite as to at least entertain the possibility of being wrong, while he never did.

Yet the great irony of it all is that cyclists around here are generally just beyond redemption, especially at that very same intersection: jumping from road to sidewalk to bike lane and back again. Wrong side of the road, ignoring traffic lights... You know the type. So when faced with this veritable buffet of targets, you chose to take your mid-life crisis out on the dude doing nothing wrong?! Really?!

Road rage just seems to be a nasty trend in this city though. I mean, within one year I've been yelled at by pedestrians twice for "startling them". Yeah that tends to happen if you're not only walking in the freaking bike lane, but on the wrong side of the road to boot...

 

[Denny Crane]

In Brisbane, Australia. Taxi drivers and people who own expensive or "luxury" cars, it's like they think they have a right to drive like a moron and not indicate....and entre lanes without looking.....

 

[Weaver]

I fucking swear there is something about my current city where people just don't think the lines on the road mean anything. I basically only drive to the grocery store 5 - 10 minutes away and I don't think I've seen a time where a car/truck/van hasn't just drifted into oncoming traffic or into another lane randomly.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I just got home from 3 weeks in Bahrain. I don't think I can ever criticise the domestic drivers after seeing the batshit antics Bahraini drivers pull.

- Their new-built freeway, which goes north-south through the country, has the entrances just before the exits. The net result is you have cars trying to merge onto the motorway trying to come left while those trying to leave it cross them to the right.

- They don't get in the correct lane for an exit. They can literally be in the "fastest" lane until the exit, travelling at 80-100+ km/h then veer across three lanes of freeway to the exit, without warning or indicating.

- You can be on the exit, moving at a normal speed, and other cars will overtake you in even the few scant meters and turn in to the exit.

- They make their own lanes in-between existing ones when it suits them.

- They tailgate worse than any drivers I've encountered previously.

- They drive on the hard shoulder/breakdown lane when it suits them like it's a normal lane.

- The police who are stationed at maybe 1km intervals along the freeway do absolutely nothing about traffic. Drivers can drive passed police at 200km/h without fear.

- The shi'aa are still protesting almost daily against the government. They burn tires and block roads. If you try to drive past a blockage, they might stone or petrol-bomb your car.

 

[Victim of Progress]

Does yourself count? Because I'm the shittiest driver possible. So shitty, in fact, that I never managed to get my license. Perhaps it's better for everyone on the road.

 

[maveric112]

The worst one I have had was one morning when I was going to work. It was quite normal then this other car starts to pull into my lane, in the exact spot I was in, traffic was really quite bad so I couldn't speed up or slow down. I hit my horn trying to get their attention. I look into the car that is about to ram into mine and it was this woman leaning over to look in her rear view mirror, applying mascara and "steering" with her elbow that she was resting on the steering wheel. Finally hitting my horn gets her attention and she has the cheek to flip me off for stopping her hitting me at 70 mph.

I may not be the best driver, hell I do make plenty of mistakes but when I drive I keep my eyes focused on the actual driving.

 

[tangoprime]

Catalyst drivers, without a doubt, such a res- oh, vehicle drivers, like people, driving vehicles. Oh. People who drive big ass pickup trucks who have no need to drive big ass pickup trucks. Especially diesel. They tend to make a complete ass of their selves and make it clear that they're driving a big 4x4 penis extension. I get so much pleasure out of seeing stuff like this:

Or, as I see down here in Houston a lot, sudden flash flooding due to heavy rain = dumbshits with F250s or larger thinking they can cross standing water on an underpass, and ending up sinking their truck, and it kind of bobs around in the water banging into things like a toy.

 

[Username Redacted]

Well statistically the Maryland/DC/Virginia area has some of the worst drivers in the United States. The funny thing being that in this area there aren't the built in excuses that most of the other areas have for shit drivers. The road design is crap but not nearly as bad Los Angeles or Boston. There are a lot of people living here but the D.C. area is only around the 11th most densely populated metropolitan area in the country. Yet, despite these natural "advantages" you will consistently see 2-4 cities from this region represented on any "Cities With the Worst Drivers" list; i.e. regardless of what metric the publication is using to define "worst" said metric is still going to flag this area as sucking at driving. In short the drivers in this area just plain suck at driving.

My favorite areas are the "spurs". These are areas where one highway becomes two. It is not uncommon to see someone swerve across multiple lanes to go from one highway to the other because they weren't paying to attention to where they where going and/or don't know where they're going. I'm so glad that you getting to your destination is more valuable than my life and the lives of the other driver who actually know how this shit works.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Few days ago I was building up hours for my learners, I'd only just started. I missed an opening onto a busy mainroad and saw the guy behind me in my mirror with a pissed off and looking to the road and me to and fro. As I went to turn out, he tried to go past on the inside, offroad. Apparently that's bad but no one was hurt. He also looked like a bikie so I found it hilarious for some reason.

 

[Alistair_Darkheart]

I think the worst experience I've had with other drive's was waiting at a set of red lights. I'm unsure what the guy was doing as his reverse lights kept coming on and off as if he wasn't sure if he should put his car in park, drive, reverse or what. . . anyway the light changed to green and somebody honked at him, he happened to at the time be sitting in reverse and I had a guy right behind me. I was just lucky he realised he was in reverse when his ute started going back instead of forward.

Moral of any driving story is. . . never. . . ever . . . trust. . . other drivers on the road . . . Ever.

 

[Yuno Gasai]

Here are a few of my "favourites":

1. Drivers who can see that you're driving behind a slow moving lorry/coach, and yet insist on tailgating. Getting right up my ass won't make me drive any faster.

2. Drivers who rush to overtake you... then drive slowly in front of you. Why did you rush to overtake me if you were planning to drive below the speed limit? What is your deal?

3. Drivers who flash their lights while driving behind you. I have literally no idea what you want from me. What's the point?

4. Drivers who drive 10-20mph below the speed limit, even when the roads are empty. I have no idea why you're so afraid of driving at the speed limit, but I'd appreciate it if you abided by it rather than cowered from it.

5. Drivers who tailgate when traffic is slowed almost to a halt because of an accident or roadworks. Much like #1, you won't accomplish much by driving up my ass. It certainly won't make me drive any faster, or get you to your destination any quicker.

6. Drivers who suck at braking (or brake too much). I get that reactive driving is a thing, and I do it myself, but I'd rather you used your brakes to slow down gradually rather than slamming them down with no prior warning causing me to have to mimic your behaviour to prevent a collision.

7. Drivers who drift to overtake you, rather than indicating. Please indicate. Please. It negates the likelihood of me accidentally driving up your ass because you had given me no indication as to your intention to join me in my lane.

8. Drivers (often in "rich man" or sports cars) who tailgate you in the "fast" lane on the motorway, despite the fact they can clearly see a lorry overtaking another lorry in the other two lanes. I refuse to drive at 40/50 on the motorway behind a slow as shit lorry if I can avoid it. I'm also driving at a reasonable speed (usually around 70/80?) and will switch to the middle or "slow" lane as soon as I've passed the lorry, so why do you feel the need to be a dick about it?

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

Myself.

My fist driving lesson was me, driving through a straight, empty country road at 60km/h. I was clutching the steering with both my hands, terrified, visibly trembling. My driving instructor had o swap out with me when we drove into a town.

Several months later, at the test, I was freaking out. The car died on me several times, the examining officer had to guide me and give me hints when I was parking, I was a nervous wreck. I passed. Barely. The guy only gave me my license on condition I would never sit behind a steering wheel again. It's been 4 years. I have kept my promise.

 

[Nexxis]

Almost every immediate member on my dad's side is a horrible driver. Running red lights, stopping in the middle of intersections for a red light with no cars in front of them, speeding on any street or non-street, weaving, zipping across a 4 lane highway to get to the exit, stopping on the shoulder and going in reverse to get to the exit, using cell phones while driving, using ANYTHING while driving, taking hands off the steering wheel to do something else while in motion, driving while intoxicated, etc. I always hated getting in a car with one of them behind the wheel. I'd always have on my seat belt (even in the back seat) with a death grip on the chair. I can barely remember a time when at least one of the didn't have a license revoked or suspended for a while. Probably the most recent story that I have for them was from a holiday a few years back. I went to visit them and one of my cousins took us to the mall to hang out. Her driving was the typical crazy. Later one, I was dropped off at the house while my cousin a few other people went out to get some drinks. Later on, we get a call that they're at the police station. Not only did she get pulled over for reckless driving, she didn't have a license AND she gave them the name of her friend instead of her own name when they asked her who she was. So glad I wasn't in the car for that trip, or the trip to get her. I guess typical crazy road shennanigans for them. For me, they'll always be the worst drivers I've ever had the misfortune to be a passenger of.

 

[frobalt]

Myself.

My fist driving lesson was me, driving through a straight, empty country road at 60km/h. I was clutching the steering with both my hands, terrified, visibly trembling. My driving instructor had o swap out with me when we drove into a town.

Several months later, at the test, I was freaking out. The car died on me several times, the examining officer had to guide me and give me hints when I was parking, I was a nervous wreck. I passed. Barely. The guy only gave me my license on condition I would never sit behind a steering wheel again. It's been 4 years. I have kept my promise.

How does that make sense?

"Here's your licence to drive, but promise me you won't drive."

Surely you should have just been failed?

 

[The White Hunter]

I can tell you about bad drivers I experience EVERY DAY.

1. You are making a left hand turn, but you wait until you are in the intersection to signal, freezing traffic behind you because no one knew WTF you were doing and they are now trapped.

2. You are making a left hand turn, and choose to do it on the precise street you want, despite the fact there are generous left hand turn lanes immediately before and after it which would cause no traffic flow problems.

3. You think you are hot shit and/or are a male aged 18-24, and you are weaving in and out of traffic like Batman chasing The Riddler to save 25 seconds on your commute. Your erratic driving is putting everyone else at risk because no one can reasonably predict what you will do next.

4. Despite the fact the guy in front of you is going 10-20 over the speed limit already, you are riding his ass because it's just not fast enough!

5. You don't believe in leaving two cars length or more of space, despite the fact you are traveling at highway speeds. You believe your mutant reflexes will allow you to stop on a dime, so you cram yourself into every space available.

6. You just follow cars into intersections, regardless of what the light is doing or what traffic looks like ahead. When you inevitably end up parked in the intersection, blocking traffic, you throw your arms in the air at the ensuing honks, to indicate there was nothing you could possibly have done to avoid this sad state of affairs.

7. You're on your phone at every possible moment, because PHONE > staying alive and not killing people.

8. You wiggle back and forth in your lane, occasionally straddling the center line, because the lines on the road are just loose guidelines. Odds are you are a bus driver.

9. You are slow as shit and driving exactly parallel to another car that is also slow as shit. It occurs to neither of you to share a lane.

10. You are slow as shit, but turn into Mario Andretti every time a passing lane appears.

All that said, Drivers > Pedestrians > Cyclists.

You son of a ***** you stole most of mine!! D:

I shall add thusly:

1) You treat a roundabout like a junction and drive across it, indicating incorrectly, cutting me up and making me want to fucking destroy you.

2) You barge through into my fucking lane to get past parked vehicles when YOU should wait.

3) Mounting the pavement in a housing estate because I am parallel parking and nearly murdering children because you are top ***** and simply can't waste 10 seconds waiting for me to finish my manouver.

4) Stop sitting with your foot on the brake in queues you fucker it hurts my eyes and burns out your lights, put your damn handbrake on.

5) Indicate before your turn

6) Indicate before your turn

7) Slow down for your turn after indicating so that I can reasonably anticipate that you will be slowing and take the necessary action of easing off and slowing down.

8) Bus drivers fucking suck.

9) Taxi drivers fucking suck.

10) Caravans fucking suck.

 

[RoonMian]

Oh! When coming up to lane closures due to road construction, someone jumps out of the lane that everyone is waiting in, drives up to the barricades, and expects to be let back in to traffic.

That is actually what everyone is supposed to do. Use both lanes for as long as possible and merge the two lanes directly in front of the construction using the zipper method (one car from one lane, one car from the other and so on).

Because wasting a perfectly good lane because there is a construction half a mile ahead makes the traffic jam even worse.

Edit: I just thought that maybe I should include some stories of my own. I don't have a car, I am a biker and it's been that way for 13 years now (I started at 16). So pretty much every time I partake in motorised traffic chances are someone's trying to kill me. The most annoying thing is though when on a highway or country road the driver before me thinks that cleaning his windshield while behind him there's a biker with an open visor was somehow a good idea.

But I was a bad driver a few times, too. Especially in the army. As I said, I do bikes, not cars. So I'm not as practiced and not as comfortable on 4 wheels as I am on 2. Cue my conscription when I was 19. Because I was the only guy around with more than two brain cells to rub against each other (most of those usually go the conscientious objector route and do civil service instead) I was the lucky one chosen to drive the fox.

Spoiler: This is a fox:

Yeah. Imagine reverse parking that ************.

Damn, how awesome it would have been if they still had had despatch riders when I was there... *sigh*

Edit edit: That is actually not the kind of fox I was driving, I just chose it as a nice picture. That is an ABC fox, I was driving an ordinary fox because I was in the protection troop of an electronic warfare battalion and we had to keep up with the bumblebees.

- Their new-built freeway, which goes north-south through the country, has the entrances just before the exits. The net result is you have cars trying to merge onto the motorway trying to come left while those trying to leave it cross them to the right.

Isn't that normal? All the ramps here work that way. All of them... o_0

 

[Heronblade]

I once rode with an idiot that seemed to think he had the right of way in all conceivable scenarios. In the space of a fifteen minute drive, we were involved in no less than three near collisions, all of which would have been entirely his fault, and were only avoided because the other driver was paying attention. The first two would have been relatively minor fender benders, but the third of these had a very good chance of killing or maiming me. The corner of the other vehicle would have hit dead on my door.

Possibly the worst part was that not only did he claim that his driving style was normal, but that male drivers (who all apparently drive like him in his mind) were vastly more capable than female drivers (like the other passenger he was talking to at the time) This claim was made in response to our multiple requests to start f**king paying attention to the rules of the road.

we walked back, and to this day, I am surprised every single time he arrives at work safely. Bastard must have bribed the grim reaper or something.

 

[Barbas]

(Snip).

Holy damn. The one about mounting the pavement made me raise an eyebrow. I had a taxi driver cut me off while I was exiting a spiral roundabout once. Whattapenis. Taxi drivers are the worst I've met, but bus drivers are usually a lot more easy-going. Almost the best, really, because they're so careful here. Lorries can get close to kamikaze on a bad day, but BMW, Audi and Mercedes drivers are the absolute worst. Incredible, because they shouldn't be, but they still are. In every country I've been in, most of the sweeping and cavalier maneouvres I've seen were done by them.

Caravan drivers slow me down a little every now and then, but it's been an accepted fact in this place for so long that I usually leave earlier so they don't make much of an impact. Out of all the people who cause a delay, they seem the least objectionable. No idea how fast I'd dare to go if I were towing a caravan full of stuff behind me. Plus, they generally move over every now and then to let people past. More than most.

Honestly, the roads around here are pretty good. Driver-wise, I mean. Then again, if drivers buggered up here, they'd probably end up tumbling down the side of a mountain and exploding like a disposable goon in a Bond chase.