POLL: What are your driving pet peeves?
Driving requires skill, concentration, and consideration for other road users. Yet we occasionally see behaviour that suggests courtesy might not be a high priority for some drivers.
In the box at the bottom of the page, click on the driving habit you find the most annoying.
1. Failing to indicate
While driving up the South-Eastern Freeway, you move into the right lane and accelerate to overtake slower vehicles in the left lane. Suddenly, one of the drivers in the left lane pulls out in front of you without indicating.
You brake, losing momentum and dropping back behind the vehicles you’re trying to overtake. Australian Crawl’s ‘Reckless’ plays on the radio.
2. Tailgating
You’re driving home from work and notice the car behind is too close. The road is busy so you have to brake regularly, and each time you’re wondering if you’ll be rear-ended.
The workday was stressful enough – who needs this?
3. Failing to keep left unless overtaking
You’re driving on a 110km/h section of the dual-lane Port Wakefield Road. A semi-trailer carrying heavy equipment is in the left lane travelling at a cautious 90km/h. Kudos to the truck driver for taking road safety seriously.
You’d like to overtake but there seems to be a car beside the truck, also doing 90km/h and blocking the right lane. Hmm, only another 60km to Port Wakefield.
4. Not using slow vehicle turnouts
It’s a lovely day, so you’re taking the family up North East Road to visit the Big Rocking Horse, and maybe enjoy a spot of lunch in the café. Just out of Inglewood, you find yourself behind a queue of cars following a slower vehicle.
Luckily, there’s a slow vehicle turnout just ahead where the lead vehicle can pull over. But no, they continue on and the queue grows behind you.
Maybe a spot of dinner instead.
5. Failing to merge properly
You’re in the far left lane of three lanes, heading north on South Road past the Brickworks shopping centre. The ‘Form 2 lanes’ sign appears and the lane line ends. You’re ahead of the car in the right lane so you indicate to move over, as per the zip lane rule.
The other driver fails to let you in so you’re forced to stop, and unintentionally become the lead car in a mini traffic jam.
6. Using a mobile phone
You’re enjoying a day in the Adelaide Hills when you notice the driver in front is having trouble staying in their lane. Perhaps it’s a mechanical problem, or it could be a medical issue. Nope, they’re using their mobile phone and are completely distracted. Grr!
7. Queueing across intersections
You’ve stopped at a red light on Anzac Highway at the Marion Road intersection while driving to Glenelg. Cars heading southbound on Marion Road have the green light, but the tram crossing is operating, and traffic is beginning to build up towards Anzac Highway. Cars travelling south keep on crossing the intersection until Anzac Highway is blocked.
Your light turns green, then red again – you’re still waiting to cross Marion Road.
8. Speeding up in overtaking lane zones
On the way to Melbourne to catch the Spirit of Tasmania, you approach a car doing about 90km/h on a 110km section of the Dukes Highway. Fair enough, it’s a speed limit not a speed requirement. Anyway, there’s an overtaking lane just a few kilometres ahead.
But when you reach it, the other driver speeds up to 105km/h, which means you won’t have time to overtake without breaking the speed limit. When the lane ends, they settle back to 90km/h.
Tassie never seemed so far away.
9. Leaving too much space when stopping at an intersection
As you’re slowing down at an intersection to turn left, you notice the driver in front has pulled up well behind the car ahead of them, blocking the slip lane. Your indicator’s on, so your intention is clear. If the driver moves forward just a tad, you could get through and complete the turn. You try to make eye contact in their rear-view mirror but, alas, they’re not budging.
10. Failing to turn off high beam
It’s night and you’re driving back to Adelaide from Victor Harbor after a family gathering. Coming around a bend, you’re hit with the full blast of someone’s headlights on high beam. As the other driver approaches, you think, ‘They’ll dip their lights now… or maybe now… or maybe not at all,’ as they whizz past.
You pull over and wait for your singed retinas to heal.
While these pet peeves are clearly annoying to other road users, they can also be dangerous and increase the likelihood of crashes, resulting in serious injuries.
Pet peeves
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