Worst case of a bad driver you've seen?

Apis_Mellifera wrote: There is a very long straight section of highway between Marrieta, OH and Charleston, WV I drive once or twice a week. I routinely get one of them stuck on my bumper a car length or two away while cruising at 75. No one else for miles in front of or behind us. He's doing 65, I pass, he speeds up and tailgates me. I speed up to 85 or 90 and get a half mile buffer and resume 70. Thirty seconds later, Mr. Ohio has sped up and settled back in behind. I hit decelerate on the cruise control every few seconds until I'm down to 50. He slows. We're both going ridiculously slow and it's obvious and intentional . Eventually he passes and speeds up to 65. I speed up to 75 and pass. He speeds up, falls in, and it starts again.

When I get a tailgater like that and the road is clear I just keep gradually increasing my speed. Sooner or later they realize how fast they are going and back off. I did feel sorry for the lady who jammed on her brakes and spun off the road when she realized she was going 115 mph.

Okay, how to describe this...I was approaching a T intersection. Each road had one lane of traffic each way, and there's a stoplight at the intersection. I'm heading from the bottom of the T to the top.

There was traffic, so I was nearly stopped. I had to turn right, so I was about to pull into the turn lane that opened once you get close enough. I'm glad I didn't, because a huge Mercedes sedan flew past me in the bike lane/shoulder at least 50+ faster than the crawl I was going. The driver blew through the red light, and turned left from the right bike lane, across...well, every lane of traffic conceivable.

I've never seen anything else quite like that.

This guy!

Good job, dick.

The guy this morning who clearly needed that second cup of coffee before hitting the highway. It wasn't dangerous, just clearly kept drifting right. He'd catch himself and pull back over. Glad I wasn't in front of him.

When I was in high school, I was stuck in a line of traffic in the parking lot of a grocery store. Two women came out pushing a cart. They had to walk around my car, load their groceries into their car, walk back around my car to return the cart, and then around my car once more to get back their car. And then backed into me.

In California I saw a F150 try to merge into a lane occupied by a semi. He just kept going. The semi had these spiked covers over his wheel lug nuts and they just tore up the side of this guys car. Eventually the truck slowed the the guy scraped into his lane change and drove off.

In reply to Apis_Mellifera:

I am glad someone else understands, you should see what it's like in the state. 10 mile stretches of idiots 1 or 2 car lengths apart at 70.

The I could write a book with all the stupid stuff I have seen. SUV rollover, drunks on the front lawn, wrong way on the one ways particularly highways, idiots that don't understand THEY have to yield when their lane ends or entering the highway, two by twos in round abouts....I am sure I am leaving some stuff out... and that's just today!

Five lanes. Two left turn, two straight, one right turn. Stopped at a red light for all lanes, solid perpendicular traffic flow. Dude makes a right turn into traffic, through the red light, from the far left lane.

Max_Archer wrote: Five lanes. Two left turn, two straight, one right turn. Stopped at a red light for all lanes, solid perpendicular traffic flow. Dude makes a right turn into traffic, through the red light, from the far left lane.

I saw that EXACT SAME THING in Flint, Michigan. It was terrible and hilarious at the same time.

I Drive in the Boston area. There is not enough space here for me to list everything I have seen.

@ jere. Your avatar is ... . well. Yuck!

ebonyandivory wrote: ...so I kept the wheel straight and let the chips and body-side-molding fall where they may.

I nominate that one for Say What.

Craziest one I happened to have a camera when I saw was this guy talking on a cell phone while driving. With his feet. On a Goldwing.

MadScientistMatt wrote: Craziest one I happened to have a camera when I saw was this guy talking on a cell phone while driving. With his feet. On a Goldwing.

Clearly the American protege of this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE3XsZaL-zo

Apis_Mellifera wrote: There is a very long straight section of highway between Marrieta, OH and Charleston, WV I drive once or twice a week. I routinely get one of them stuck on my bumper a car length or two away while cruising at 75. No one else for miles in front of or behind us. He's doing 65, I pass, he speeds up and tailgates me. I speed up to 85 or 90 and get a half mile buffer and resume 70. Thirty seconds later, Mr. Ohio has sped up and settled back in behind. I hit decelerate on the cruise control every few seconds until I'm down to 50. He slows. We're both going ridiculously slow and it's obvious and intentional . Eventually he passes and speeds up to 65. I speed up to 75 and pass. He speeds up, falls in, and it starts again.

It sounds like Ohio is full of cheap bastards and you drive a car that is very good for drafting.

GameboyRMH wrote:

Apis_Mellifera wrote: There is a very long straight section of highway between Marrieta, OH and Charleston, WV I drive once or twice a week. I routinely get one of them stuck on my bumper a car length or two away while cruising at 75. No one else for miles in front of or behind us. He's doing 65, I pass, he speeds up and tailgates me. I speed up to 85 or 90 and get a half mile buffer and resume 70. Thirty seconds later, Mr. Ohio has sped up and settled back in behind. I hit decelerate on the cruise control every few seconds until I'm down to 50. He slows. We're both going ridiculously slow and it's obvious and intentional . Eventually he passes and speeds up to 65. I speed up to 75 and pass. He speeds up, falls in, and it starts again.

It sounds like Ohio is full of cheap bastards and you drive a car that is very good for drafting.

Or they have that auto distance cruse control.

I drive a Government issue 2008 Jeep Liberty. Though it does punch a nice square hole, empirical data says Ohio drivers are just idiots.

I works the other way too. Sometimes I pass and they speed up, pass me and then cut back over and immediately slow down again.

Apis_Mellifera wrote: I works the other way too. Sometimes I pass and they speed up, pass me and then cut back over and immediately slow down again.

This and the driver that cuts you off pulling out of a driveway or side road and then does 10 under the limit.

I get it if there are several cars behind me but when it is just me driving down the road.. .. . . .

I have to stop and go to my happy place now.

Apis_Mellifera wrote: ... to fixate on a car, adjust your speed, and either tailgate them or refuse to let them pass.

We've got those here too. More of the tailgating than refusing to be passed.

My theory on serial tailgating is this: its easier to check your text messages (and therefore it must be safer, right?) if you follow another car. Really, if you're following another car, you let them watch for deer, idiots merging, police, road debris, etc etc, you just have to keep your peripherals open for their brake lights. Makes driving a car a comparatively simple operation if all you have to do is maintain your desired following distance and watch for brake lights.

The if-you're-not-first-you're-last types are thinner here. I encounter them occasionally in the Beetle, as I'm loud and fast enough that they notice. Generally they bump up the speed about 10mph, move into the left lane in front of me, and drive off. Whatever. Glad you showed me how much faster your base-model Sentra with a fart can is than my Scooby-swapped Beetle. Have a nice day.

This morning's winner is the DB in the Tahoe, on his cell-phone, writing notes on a pad of paper on the steering wheel, while weaving in and out of traffic. He "only" ran 2 cars into the median/shoulder and almost side swiped 2 others.

I see the usual modern-day cellphone-induced crap all the time around here, especially since I live in a college town. Just like everybody else, I dodge it every day.

My own personal worst experience came from the pre-phone days, though. Driving along a 2-lane striped road, the lady in front of me slowed to a near crawl and moved at least half the car onto the right shoulder, with no signals... before slamming the door on me by cutting directly across to make a left turn that she probably could have taken without braking.

I was in the old Le Mans with 4-wheel drums and no power brakes. How I avoided hitting her, I'll never know. Locked up all 4, did a big smoking J around her and ended up in my lane facing the wrong way. She just putted away on her side street without even noticing.

Motorcycle mayhem? Maybe the crotch rocket that was weaving in and out of close spaced traffic this morning on my way to work? Traffic is doing 70ish and the motorbike was doing much more...

Or maybe yesterday with redneck pickup truck guy that had an old dishwasher blow off of his pile of junk in the back of his truck... I am glad I was not behind him when it came off...

JohnInKansas wrote:

Apis_Mellifera wrote: ... to fixate on a car, adjust your speed, and either tailgate them or refuse to let them pass.

We've got those here too. More of the tailgating than refusing to be passed. My theory on serial tailgating is this: its easier to check your text messages (and therefore it *must* be safer, right?) if you follow another car. Really, if you're following another car, you let them watch for deer, idiots merging, police, road debris, etc etc, you just have to keep your peripherals open for their brake lights. Makes driving a car a comparatively simple operation if all you have to do is maintain your desired following distance and watch for brake lights. The if-you're-not-first-you're-last types are thinner here. I encounter them occasionally in the Beetle, as I'm loud and fast enough that they notice. Generally they bump up the speed about 10mph, move into the left lane in front of me, and drive off. Whatever. Glad you showed me how much faster your base-model Sentra with a fart can is than my Scooby-swapped Beetle. Have a nice day.

One of my buddies at work is a "gotta be in front" person. He will jackrabbit start at a light to get in front of people and haul way over the speed limit to stay there. Recently he was out trailing riding with some friends are who are more hardcore and actually pretty good racers. He is a casual rider. He was in up to neck just trying to stay up with them, but his "gotta be in front" mentality took over... well, he is recuperating from a broken hip and the replacement that fixed it now from the accident that soon took place.

I've seen a lot of bad drivers in Ohio (heck, I'm from here), but the worst overall I experienced was the 11 excruciating months I lived in Tulsa, OK. I do not know how a city with such a wonderful and easy to understand layout of roads can have so many horrid drivers. It was commonplace to have people turning left form the right lane, and right from the left lane. It seemed like a left turn arrow at an intersection meant everyone in the lane makes it through, even after the left turn arrow goes red. The evening traffic accident reports might have been shorter if they told us which major intersections were clear. An estimated 50% of drivers did not have insurance. And the kicker, the governor of the state was on the radio, in PSAs, asking people to please stop at red lights...

How I got out of there without having an accident or a heart attack, I do not know.

This morning's worst on the 3.5 miles to work: Grey "Platinum" F-150 with two brake lights out (HTF does that happen?) ran the stop sign right in front of a loaded log truck (right turn, too, so he ended up in front of the log truck).

Two that readily come to mind 1) lady in left lane of 75 in Cincinnati doing 5-10 under the limit, cell tucked under left cheek, putting eyeliner on with right hand, with the rear view mirror turned to allow said eyeliner. When I passed her finally and got over (I gave her at least 3" of clearance) she gave ME the dirty look..

2) lady (again) in the left lane heading south on 75, same place, slowing more and more while yacking on her phone in a Jag', then suddenly whipping over 4 lanes of traffic to the right to stay on 75 across the OH river. If I still had the E36 M3ty Blazer, she may have bought me a new vehicle.

Can we include bikes? Like the shiny happy person that passed me on the single lane exit ramp from 275 to 75?