We’ve all been there. We’re nice and chilled out and in a good mood, casually driving along. All of a sudden, another driver does something so incredibly infuriating and now your whole drive has been ruined. If, like me, you regularly find yourself hurling abuse at drivers who obviously can’t hear you, you’ll agree that these are the most annoying things about driving.
Not indicating
There are plenty of different scenarios where a lack of indication winds me up but none are more frustrating than when it happens at a roundabout.
You pull up at the roundabout, the car to your right isn’t indicating so you wait for him to go straight on. Next thing you know, they’ve turned left and you’ve wasted your precious time.
40 in a 60, 40 in a 30
This one really winds me up. More often than not, it’s a little old lady in her Peugeot crossover. You’re stuck behind them on a main road doing 40mph in a 60mph speed limit. You slow down for the 30mph speed limit through the village and all of a sudden, they’re disappearing into the distance. Hatred.
Supermarket car parks
Hell on earth. There are multiple inconveniences you encounter when navigating a supermarket car park. Bad parking is the obvious one. Some people just seem to find a space, close their eyes and hope for the best. Small cars are a problem, too. Busy car park, been looking for a spot for ages, you think you see one but no – there’s a bloody Smart car parked in it.
The other issue is pedestrians. I don’t know what it is about car parks but people appear to lose all sense of spacial awareness. They just step out without looking or wander around with their trollies completely oblivious to the fact that they’re in your way.
Leaving full beam on
A combination of annoying and dangerous. It’s happened to all of us at some point. Driving along an unlit road, you go round the corner and an oncoming driver decides they’re not going to turn off their main beams. Next thing you know, you’re driving blind. Not ideal at all.
Mistaking my bright headlights for main beams
This one ties in directly with my previous point. My car (unfortunately, not the one pictured) has xenon headlights which are much brighter than standard bulbs. I’ve only had it for a few months but I’ve already lost count of the amount of times people have held their main beams on thinking mine are on, too. Again, I’m blind. Thank you very much.
Slowing down every time a car comes the other way
Again, we’re stuck behind Grandma in her Peugeot. It’s dark but it’s a wide enough road that everyone should be comfortable driving on it. That’s not the case, though, is it? No. Grandma, for some reason, feels the need to brake every time a car comes past in the opposite direction. Why?!
People not knowing how wide their car is
This is one I encounter on a regular basis. The road narrows for some reason, normally a car, or a whole line of them, parked at the side of the road. The driver in front of you stops to let traffic come the other way.
Now, I understand that sometimes there is genuinely only enough space for one car to get through. Often, though, there’s more than enough space for both cars to go and you’ll always find yourself shouting the same thing… “You’d get a bloody bus through there!”.
Easily one of the most annoying things about driving.
Pointless/dangerous overtaking
Since I’ve bought a car I actually trust to get round someone when I want it to, I’ve found myself overtaking people more and more frequently. I’m not against overtaking. Having said that, there is a time and a place for it.
So often, you see near misses where some lunatic tries to overtake four cars in one go, someone comes round the corner or over a hill and the idiot has to swerve back in at the last second to avoid a (probably fatal) head-on collision.
The other annoying thing about overtaking is when someone overtakes you only to be stuck behind the other 12 cars in front of you. It’s pointless and I hate it.
Ignoring right of way
This one kind of links up with my earlier point about indication as it normally happens on a roundabout. You’re indicating to turn right at a roundabout and the driver at the opposite junction decides he wants to pull out meaning you need to slam on your brakes.
That’s not the most annoying thing about it though. No. The most annoying thing about it is that they’re always completely oblivious to what they’ve done. They don’t even look at you! They just get on with their day while you sit there seething. It’s infuriating.
Lane hogging
You see it all the time. You’re driving on the motorway and there’s someone just cruising along at 65mph in the middle lane. It’s even worse when you’re on a dual-carriageway as you’re left with no choice but to undertake them.
How do people not know how overtaking lanes work?
Using a phone whilst driving
This is the most annoying thing about driving by a long, long way and it’s normally blatantly obvious.
Worryingly often, you’ll be driving down the A1, for example, you’ll notice the car in front of you is all over the place and you’ll think to yourself, “What the bloody hell are you doing?”. When you pull out to overtake them, you look across and see that they’re not concentrating on the road ahead because they’ve got a text to reply to.
It’s a text – how important can it possibly be? If it was really that important, they would have called you. Most cars come with hands-free capabilities these days so use that to call them. If not, just pull over – it’s not hard.
Too many people die on our roads because drivers are more concerned about their phones than their surroundings. Police are clamping down on it, punishments are getting harsher and rightly so. It’s not worth the risk.
So there you have it – the most annoying things about driving. Is there anything I haven’t mentioned that gets on your nerves about driving? Let me know in the comments section below or via our Facebook and Twitter pages.
There’s one big annoyance that is probably more annoying for me than most in your list – and that’s tailgating.
Aside from the fact the person 2 inches off my rear bumper is putting my life at risk because they don’t understand that human reactions aren’t fast enough to react in time (ever seen NASCAR for proof?), it also happens a lot more if you’re in a smaller, slower car at the speed limit, and the person behind is in something larger (often an SUV), presumably because they assume they’ll be OK whatever happens, and it’s only my family that might end up killed…
Often encountered if you’re in the outside lane of a motorway, overtaking someone or in constant traffic making it hard to pull back into the inside lane – but also meaning that they’ll only be 1 place ahead in the queue anyway.
Or often followed by them rushing past only to cut across to turn off at the next junction…
It’s why I considered adding a spike on the rear of the smaller hatchbacks I’ve driven – aimed at roughly SUV driver head height.
Meanwhile, when I’m trying to leave a sensible gap to the car in front to allow me to react safely if something happens, it’s guaranteed on a busy road some wally will then pull into it….
It’s why it’s almost impossible to argue for higher motorway speed limits, despite the fact our cars can easily cope with them. Sadly the complete lack of awareness of how to leave enough space for other road users and drive fast without causing disruption is confined to a tiny amount of people. Often anyone that’s done advanced driver training….
It’s a great point. Doesn’t matter how capable the cars are, there will still be human error to take into account. Like you say, our reactions simply aren’t quick enough and by driving that close to people. you’re just making a crash inevitable rather than possible as it would be if you maintained the proper distance.