Perhaps I have spent too much time iRacing on my home driving simulator? Perhaps I have operated too much “by the book” (as in the driver’s handbook)? Or perhaps I have allowed my trigger-happy temper to control me? Whatever the source of my intolerance, the sheer number of people who cannot appropriately drive a car amazes me.

I have lived in several states and have noticed some unusual driver idiosyncrasies in each. When living in Oregon, for example, driving down the I-5 corridor from Portland to Eugene, it was not uncommon to see a car camped out in the left lane, driving two miles below the speed limit and no other cars around. Even before I could read it, I could almost always guess the license plate state…Washington. Why did (do?) Washingtonians drive in the “lane designated for passing” even when there are no cars to pass?

At first I thought their state law allowed it…until I moved to Washington and read that state’s driver’s guide (see “by the book” comment above). Nope, in Washington, as in other states, the left lane is for passing (the reading ability within the Evergreen state now comes into question).

In Florida, one always has to be on high alert, especially in the winter months when so many Snowbirds (primarily New Yorkers, but also Canadians and other Northeasterners) flock south to terrorize the roadways. Whether due to the loss of eye/hand/steering wheel coordination that often accompanies advancing age or the overreliance on mass transportation (New Yorkers) and the associated lack of driving practice, I have seen Snowbirds turn left from the right lane and right from the left lane (this surely can’t help lower the already-high mortality rate of the Sunshine state). I once saw a car patiently waiting in the left turn lane behind a big 2-ton truck. Unfortunately, the truck’s hazards were flashing and its hood cowling was down.

In Las Vegas, whether on freeways or city streets, people are always in a great hurry (fun trivia…these are usually Californians, most likely overly eager to donate their earnings to the casinos). One thing most drivers in Las Vegas cannot seem to do properly is drive a roundabout. When entering the roundabout side-by-side with another car, you must stay alert, especially when you are the inside car with the option of going straight or continuing around. In this case, the car to the outside MUST go straight in case the inside car also goes straight. More than once, however, I have been that inside car going straight when the outside car continued coming around to the left, nearly chopping off my nose in the process (thank you iRacing for those catlike driving reactions).

Driver quirks annoy me too, regardless of the state. There is the perpetual brake-rider, who taps them every few hundred feet even with no car in front of it (yep, they’re still there and they still work…cannot be too careful I guess). And the perpetual horn-honker, who honks if they even think you are going to cross over into them. Personally, I am amazed at the skill of these folks. When on collision course with another driver, I generally try to focus on my escape strategy with steering wheel, throttle and brake, but these incredibly talented drivers actually take the time away from driving the car to lay on the horn instead. That takes skill people. I just don’t have the guts to stop driving the car to honk the horn.

Distracted drivers are not only a pet peeve, but they are also dangerous. There are the cell phone talkers (men are the worst…women get the bad rap, likely because they seem to do it more often, but men, in general, are terrible at multi-tasking so trying to conduct a phone call while driving is a very risky proposition), the texters (just say NO), the lipstick applicators (OK, men you are off the hook on this one) (Note: I started this blog draft in Feb 2021, so given the rate of change in this world, men may no longer be off the hook), the Big Mac and fries gobblers, the nose-pickers (at least they get a better grip on the steering wheel), the Shih Tzu on the shoulder drivers, the smack-the-kids-in-the-backseat drivers, the single-finger communicators…and even worse, the single-finger-double-hand communicators.

Have I driven my point home?