NWR: Some pet hates as a driver.

[Muscat Mike]

I spend quite a lot of time on the road in Sydney and every six weeks I go up the coast as far as Coffs Harbour. There are some pretty crappy drivers out there.
On the Highway:
Driving along stuck behind a driver doing 80-90 in a 100 zone. Get a passing lane and ZOOOOOOOOM off he goes up to 100. This means to get past the Bas#*^d you have to exceed the limit. If you don't get past, it is back to the 80-90.

In Sydney.
The BUM SNIFFERS. They drive SOOOOOOO close to your rear end, mine and others, that I am sure they can smell a fart.
The MULTI TALENTED. They can use a phone,smoke a cigarette and supposedly drive. The EXTREMELY M/T's can also put on makeup.
The P plate drivers. Obviously learned from racing car drivers. The speed limit is whatever you can get to.
Those with speakers in the boot worth more than the car. Will need hearing aids in the not too distant future.
Just some of my pet hates, what are yours?
MM.

[Daryl Douglas]

I ride a large Jap sports motorcycle, so overtaking's no problem - very quickly pass them in 3rd, over the limit if need be, and back to legal speed in no time at all.

But drivers who can't make up their mind which lane they want to be in, half into another before veering back to the original they were in, without indicating at all - they p*** me off almost as much as those who change lanes THEN decide to indicate and those who start to turn into a corner where there's no turning lane THEN remember to indicate. Then there's that multitude of drivers who don't know that they're required to indicate when leaving a roundabout who are among those who have absolutely no idea of how a roundabout is supposed to be negotiated, in a manner that ensures everyone else is clear about their intentions.

Having used a hands-free mobile in a car in the past, I'll attest to the fact that you can't concentrate as well when driving and carrying on a conversation by phone, even hands-free. Yeah, I too worry about the jerks who drive(sorta) around with their mobile phones the glue between a hand(that should spend max. time steering) and an ear.

daz

[Alex]

Reminds me of one time as a pedestrian, I was waiting to cross Lygon Street. As the light turned red, two passenger cars pulled to a stop side by side. The lady in one car A was on the phone. Lady in car B starts honking at the car A, winds down the passenger window, and tells the lady to put down the phone. Lady in car A takes one look at her, and ignores her. The lady in car B honks again, this time flashing her police badge. Lady in car A quickly puts down the phone, and apologises profusely.

[Daryl Douglas]

Reminds me of one time as a pedestrian, I was waiting to cross Lygon Street. As the light turned red, two passenger cars pulled to a stop side by side. The lady in one car A was on the phone. Lady in car B starts honking at the car A, winds down the passenger window, and tells the lady to put down the phone. Lady in car A takes one look at her, and ignores her. The lady in car B honks again, this time flashing her police badge. Lady in car A quickly puts down the phone, and apologises profusely.

And I bet the lady in car A still has that mobile phone (well, maybe the latest model instead so she can look at the pics too) glued to her ear half the time she's driving(sorta)!! DVDs in the dash?? Brrrr, scary!!!

daz

[simm]

I don't want to be rude to any 4wdrivers out there but there are a very many in the city who just don't seem to know what a stop sign is, or a pedestrian crossing. 4 times on Oxford St. Paddington I have had to get out of the way of a 4WD whilst crossing at lights with a pram and child in hand, and twice down in Alexandria. What is this all about?

[Gavin Trott]

The P plate drivers. Obviously learned from racing car drivers. The speed limit is whatever you can get to.

MM.[/u]

Reminds me of a joke I heard.

I hate driving behind L plate drivers, so I do whatever it takes to pass them.

I hate driving behind P plate drivers too

But I can never catch 'em

[GraemeG]

One of the writers in the SMH motoring section today talks of his pet hate, which is people making their own mistakes and delaying everyone else while they compensate. They're in the wrong lane, and so they find a way to get to the right lane, causing heavy braking, and assorted other disasters behind them. You get in the wrong lane - too bad. Go around the corner, and find some other way to go where you wanted. Don't stuff up everyone else.

Mostly, it annoys me that people just drive without their brains turned on. Driving is a multi-skilled, complex activity. It requires full attention. You interrupt someone using Playstation and they tell you to shut up because they're concentrating. But while driving, an activity requiring far greater cognitive skills, they happily eat, talk, smoke, phone, read, play mind-pumelling doof-doof music - anything except actually focus on the life-endangering activity they're performing. Madness!

cheers,
Graeme

[Glen G]

If you are lucky enough to survive a major (or sometimes a minor) accident, this usually changes peoples driving behaviour very rapidly.

I shudder to think that there are teenagers out there driving like I used to!

My pet hate is seeing a car overtake you on a blind corner. The poor b$#$%d coming the other way has done nothing wrong and doesn't stand a chance

[bacchaebabe]

Pet Hates - Stand back:

Driving with fog lights on. Almost always on Hyundai Excels and getting more popular on 4WDs. Is there something with the layout of the lights that cause the owners of these cars to turn their fog light on when they put their normal lights on? Fog lights are for when it's foggy not when it's dark or rainy or even broad daylight.

Not staying to the left when not overtaking. This drives me to distraction. Drive where ever you want on a normal street but on expressways there are huge big signs up everywhere asking people to obey the law and stay left unless overtaking. People in Europe understand how this works. People in Australia have no clues. It's easy, everyone drives in the left lane until they come across someone going slower than them that they wish to overtake. They indicate, overtake and get BACK in the left lane. It is a not the 'fast' lane for people who THINK they are going fast.

Taxi drivers. Probably don't need to say much more but why do they accelerate as fast as possible to just on the speed limit and then progressively slow down. Oh, to try and get the next red light, that's right. And why do they think it's OK to stop in the middle of the road, usually without indicating, if they see a fare, even when there is plenty of room to pull over? No other vehicles just stop for no reason whenever they god damn feel like it.

People who need to swing out to the right to turn left or to the left to turn right. Just turn - you don't need to do it from the middle of two lanes. From the lane closest to where you're going is just fine.

Gawd, I could go on all day but I feel so much better already!

[Gavin Trott]

Pet Hates - Stand back:

People who need to swing out to the right to turn left or to the left to turn right. Just turn - you don't need to do it from the middle of two lanes. From the lane closest to where you're going is just fine.

Gawd, I could go on all day but I feel so much better already!

YESSSSS

And how about those turn off lanes, you know, you move off the main road so you can turn right! Some people amble slowly about half over blocking the lane they're trying to leave!

Driving in Adelaide full stop, slow in the fast lane!!! Slow to make decisions!

[scottv]

Then there's that multitude of drivers who don't know that they're required to indicate when leaving a roundabout
daz

Daz, I live near the roundabout on the highway outside the army barracks. My hates are people:

Turning right from the left lane, with a car in the right lane trying to go straight ahead.
Entering the roundabout with a car already on the roundabout trying to turn right.

Scott

[Sean]

deleted

[Muscat Mike]

Just been in the country for a week. I forgot one pet hate which occured again.
This is it:- one semi passing another because it can travel at one Km per year faster than the other.
Not happy Jan.
MM.

[Daryl Douglas]

You're all just a bunch of Sunday drivers.

Wine related No.1 - The narrow bitumen road that runs past St Huberts in the Yarra Valley. For cars to pass each other both need to slow down and pull off the road a bit. 4WDs that do this, but don't slow down leave a rolling cloud of dust and small stones. Result - a stone chip in the windscreen of the other car.

Wine related No.2 - Rutted dirt roads to CDs. The worst offender is Coldstream Hills. The bad driver in this case was me. I did the muffler.

Wine related No.3 - Slow-moving tractors with hay trailers that suddenly pull out in front of you down at the Mornington Peninsula in the summer.