What are your biggest driving pet peeves?

[DrivingCrazy]

inspired by the fact I encountered one of mine this morning! What are your biggest pet peeves on the road?

not necessarily something that is breaking the Highway Code etc, but just something irritating! Or something you’d change about the current system!

here’s a few of mine:

Lorries overtaking on a duel carriageway that is uphill, resulting in a huge queue that feels like it lasts ages!

Cyclists on back roads who don’t duck into the passing places to let cars go past

People who drive at 10mph under the speed limit in a 50, but carry on at that speed in a 30!

People who wander aimlessly around a car park with no sense of danger and don’t look for cars moving around

Dogs on long leads right next to the pavement - gives me anxiety that it will run right out into the road

Slightly different tangent but another one is that over 70s should have to sit a very basic driving test each year (not like the one a new driver sits, a much more simple ‘are you safe on main roads’ type test) and it should not be based on a self assessment

Looking forward to hearing what other people hate on the road! Just a bit of fun on a miserable Monday morning :)

Mine is cyclists who don’t cycle close to the kerb. Often very hard to overtake them so results in a massive queue of traffic, all waiting for them to move or turn off. I hate them.

POTHOLES.
And yes I know it’s rude to shout but this one was justified.

Cyclists who seem to relish causing huge tailbacks while feeling superior that they personally didn't drive so the resulting pollutants are "off set" or something ridiculous.

People who can't indicate in the correct direction. Worse if the person dithers and you have no idea they are going to still continue going contrary to where they are indicating. We need a signal to show these people they are telling people they are turning off/staying on and will cause accidents!

As ever, drivers who tailgate. Motorways this always happens, sometimes they then overtake and go back to 70mph, so the tailgating and pushing you to go over seems to be for no reason whatsoever.

Lorries flashing lights. WHY? It blinds everyone on your side of the road and the opposite with the equivalent of a football pitch illumination and no one knows if you are cross/thankful or who at and is hugely distracting.

Mine is inspired by a road near where we live- it is a normal 2 lane road that reaches a t-junction and widens so there is enough room for 2 cars side by side. It's very difficult to pull out of as it's onto a busy A road and it's infuriating when I'm trying to turn right and cars keep pulling up on my left and blocking my view.

I think technically it's not against the highway code but it's inconsiderate, especially if I've been waiting ahead of them in the queue for longer and they wizz past and block the view. Means it takes so much longer to turn right than left!

• people who don't indicate
• those who don't stop/give way at junctions or roundabouts
• ridiculously bright headlights at night
• people who hog the overtaking lanes on dual/multi carriage roads when there's nothing in the inside lane
• people who dawdle along, particularly frustrating are those who drive at, say, 23 in a 30mph zone
• bad parking or people parking tank sized vehicles that make adjacent bays almost unusable
• people who walk in front of or behind your car when you're already half way out of a space in a car park
• traffic!

I could never have an occupation that included a lot of driving as everything irritates me (as you can tell 😂)

People who don’t understand the concept of ‘merge in turn’, particularly trucks who straddle the lanes before the merge to prevent people using both lanes 😠

People who don’t give way to traffic coming up a hill

People who stop at roundabouts

Pedestrians wearing headphones and wandering blindly across the road without looking 🙄

People who straddle the line between 2 parking spaces

People who pull up to park next to a pavement and leave a gap not quite big enough for a car (frequent occurrence outside my house, resulting in the loss of 3-4 extra spaces along the whole street!)

In Cornwall there's quite a few. But the most common one is a certain group of drivers not being able to reverse into a passing place that's right behind them. Instead, expecting a whole queue of cars to reverse down long windy roads sometimes into a busy road.

I shan't be naming the group of these drivers as I don't want to upset anyone

Edited to add - not 4x4 drivers or tourists 💐 didn't want people to assume!

Lorries often can only overtake on the uphill section. As they're subject to speed limiters, a fully loaded and an empty lorry can both do the same (maximum) speed on a flat road but the loaded truck cannot sustain it going uphill, so that's when the empty one has to seize its advantage. That's why they do it.

Ive got to agree on this one! I live near the Lake District and the amount of times I have to reverse for what feels like miles because someone doesn’t want to go back 10 metres!

Not indicating, especially on roundabouts

People 'parking' at the side of the road leaving enough gap between road and pavement to almost drive another car through

HGVs driving nose to tail on the motorway which makes it impossible for cars to pull over to access an exit slip road

People who seem to think that as long as you have your hazards on you are exempt from yellow line/zig zags/schools parking restrictions

Not indicating on roundabouts. I am not telepathic.

Drivers who let cars out of side roads in front of them without having looked behind themselves first. 99 times out of 100 they delay the one or two vehicles behind them completely unnecessarily.

Road cyclists who don't move over. Cyclists on pavements. Delivery cyclists who fail to obey road signs - frequently in city centres they cycle the wrong way down one way streets or cycles in areas meant for buses or trams only.

Dangerous idiots who jump single lane temporary traffic lights from back in the queue after they've turned red because they are too important to wait and think it makes no difference because they put their foot down. This has happened on my journey home from work lots of times. I wish I had a dash cam as I'd report them.

General lack of indicating.
People springing out of side roads in front of me when they could see there's nothing behind me.
Cyclists.

I know it's not technically driving because they are stationary but:

People parking with their car hanging over my bloody drive !!! When there's 2 signs asking them not to and white paint on the left and right dropped kerb stones.

We live near a primary school and the worst culprits for this are the staff. There's an actual school car park but they can't be bloody arsed to walk up the hill from it 😡

Where I live you can park both sides and the road is too narrow for two cars to pass, so one has to pull into a space. So I pull over, and then the other car then pulls over. Why?! I’ve already pulled over!
Or, conversely, a car turns into the road I’m already driving down, and etiquette would suggest that they should pause until I pass, but some decide oh no I’ll just drive down and they’ll (me) pull in.
Pedestrians walking behind my car as I’m reversing into a space - yes it’s for me to see them (and I haven’t run anyone over yet) but this is them running across the street at a random spot, and when reversing you need to be looking all around not just directly behind. They should take heed too.
Finally, and this is nothing to do with other drivers or pedestrians or cyclists (my bugbear with them is not obeying the Highway Code) but the seemingly arbitrary turning of roads into restricted areas, and not signposting BEFORE you turn in. There are some areas where I just don’t see how they could have any visitors as all the roads now seem restricted. And I’ve had penalty notices escalate as I never received the actual ticket - post is appalling in my area. Cost me £240 last time.

Tailgating.

People not dipping their full beams as they approach you in the lanes.

People that approach the main road from side roads and don't look as though they are going to stop. It happens almost every time on a road near where I live. Surely the assumption should be that you are going to have to stop when you approach from the side road, not the other way round. It is a busy main road.

Oooo I can feel my annoyance building 😂

People who do 30mph in the 60mph, then continue at 30mph when we’re in the 20mph 😤

People who use a disabled badge to park in horrifically dangerous places (one near us is a repeat offender, parking on zig zags on a hill by a zebra crossing is a personal favourite).

People who can’t just drive with a bit of patience! Yes occasionally someone might pull out at wrong point on a roundabout, yes occasionally someone might make a mistake with lanes etc - it’s the people straight on the horn with anger that annoy me! Obviously not saying people should be driving dangerously (just accept you’re in the wrong lane and correct when safe or turn round when you can!) but the over the top honking / shouting / gesturing from some people is crazy.

Bus drivers 😂

When people drive slowly and I'm unsure whether to cross or just wait

When people stop to let me cross and try to rush me across the road

Oh - I forgot my main one!

Complete twats who use their mobile phones on the motorway! Obviously they shouldn't be using them anywhere, but bombing along at 70, and weaving all over the place because they are trying to text or watch a tiktok or something - should be an instant lengthy ban!!

Oh same as pp - pedestrians materialising in the middle of the space you're reversing into.
In Tesco. Every.bloody.time

Use the flipping pavement walkway between the rows of cars!

It's amazing - as soon as i stick it in reverse someone appears RIGHT behind my car like magic and another one wanders slooooowly through the space i'm aiming at like a zombie 🤪

I have my 60+ Freedom Pass which gives me free travel on all London public transport so I no longer drive. Yay. I bloody hated driving! However, when I did drive my pet peeve was self righteous wankers who constantly nitpicked at other people's driving habits whilst assuming that their own driving was faultless.

Apart from the sodding potholes, people driving TOO CLOSE!

Lane hoggers on the motorway. Overtake then return to the lane you came from rather than remaining in the lane you overtook in with nothing else to overtake as if it's your own private road.

Lorries with lots of unnecessary multicoloured lights and neon signs used as decoration. Hugely irritating at night. A recent one I've noticed is drivers indicating right at a roundabout for the third exit , then changing to indicate left to exit at the second exit. Lots of near misses.

all those who sit in the middle lane. They should get points.

And to defend the cyclists that pp mentioned who don’t ride close to the kerb. Near the kerb is where the potholes and debris live which are a danger to cyclists. And you should (Highway Code) give them at least 1.5m which means you need to go over the centre line on a regular two lane road. Therefore you can’t pass them if someone is coming towards you regardless of where in the lane the bike is.

So yes, another peeve is cars, vans, and worst busses who pass me on my bike close enough for me to touch them