By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

As much as I love driving my cars (yes, even the diesel), it can be a total jungle out there when it comes to getting from a to b. Everybody’s got a slightly different combination of traffic aggravators that can leave them at a standstill during their daily grind, and the holdups you encounter will obviously be determined by where you live. In the overpopulated and geographically constrained port-town of Seattle, my top three impediments to a hassle-free commute generally consist of the following: 1. Damn trains. I’ll never know why they wait until rush hour to do their interminable back-and-forth shunting dance on stretches of track that cross major urban throughfares, but the operators clearly get some kind of sadistic glee out of it.  2. The drawbridges: Seattle’s got a ton of waterways spanned by a lot of low bridges, and all boaters want to do all day is go in and out, presumably because it’s fun to make the bridge go up and down. 3. Idiots who decide to wreck themselves on the way to work. Come on, people, could you pick any other time? With only two major highways going north-to-south and not many other ways around, even the smallest smack-up will turn the road into a parking lot. Especially when accident participants are dumbasses and don’t move their perfectly operable vehicles to the shoulder.

So those are the hazards that tend to make it to the top of my roster of excuses for tardiness. What’re yours?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

If you’ve got a long haul ahead of you, it’s not a bad idea to bandage up your finish with painter’s tape. But before you put the hammer down, an inverse-lettered advisory to those dawdling along in the left lane might help smooth your progress as well. Of course, anyone doing the  speed limit in the passing lane is probably too oblivious to check their mirror very often. I wonder if this worked. Via Jalopnik.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Let’s all forget for a moment that we’re probably not nearly as good behind the wheel as we all think we are, and focus unashamed on other people’s failings. For my part, I’m constantly monitoring the cars around me on the road for what I call “lane selection fail”–the idea on the part of some drivers that those dotted white lines somehow don’t apply to them. It seems that the number of drivers who blitheringly attempt to merge into my ride on a daily basis has been compounded by the growing percentage of people who are twiddling on their cell phones while simultaneously attempting to drive. So I consider it a necessity to remain ultra-vigilant against lane-wanderers, though it still bugs me every time I see people who are apparently too distracted or too important to stay in their own lane and not cause a wreck. I mean, how difficult is it, really?

How about you? What’s your biggest traffic pet peeve, or the habit that bugs you most when you see it in other drivers?

By Stephanie Porteus

HotRodHoney

From the state which took the title back from New Jersey last year for America’s worst drivers, (everyone loves New York!), here’s a look at the most common traffic laws that I see people simply ignore everyday. Read on…

Continue reading "Driving School 101: New York Edition" »

By David Clarke

highspeedhijinks

In the course of everyday driving, you will encounter some pretty strange traffic devices, from those chaotic traffic circles (thanks, Europe!) to parking signs that involve a troll and a riddle to tell you when you can and can’t park. Here in my hometown they’re about to install a unique traffic device known as a single point intersection that’s intended to reduce traffic congestion and to and alleviate the burden of waiting 6 days and a year for your turn to go. The thing is, it’ll be the only intersection of its kind in all of upstate NY. No one is going to know how to use it, and confusion + bad drivers = accidents, which will lead to more traffic congestion. See where I’m going with this? I personally think though that over time, the single point intersection will become customary and serve its purpose.  In my opinion, the single worst traffic device of all time has to be the 4-way stop intersection. No one remembers what side they’re supposed to yield to, so instead of taking their turn they sit there at the line in an indecisive stupor–and the rest of the idiots blow them altogether, not realizing that stop sign applies to them.  My question to you now is, what do you think is the worst traffic device on the road today?

Continue reading "Worst Traffic Device Ever" »

By Chris Trout

Troutster52

Driving home from work, I was in the midst of an excellent day. My day at work was a pleasant hybrid of enough to do to keep busy, but not so much to be stressed. I didn’t get barked at on the phone by a customer and the day passed remarkably favorably. Commuting home from work in the outskirts of Cincinnati is about a 45 minute drive, and although I can almost completely avoid major highways and interstates, that time of day often produces some crawling stop-and-go traffic through town. I run into this often but am usually able to maintain good spirits.

Unfortunately, on this day, I spotted a series of traffic signs destined to ruin my day: Construction Ahead, Merge Left, Detour. Flashing arrows indicated which direction to merge and how to navigate this alternative route. I felt in the pit of my stomach and the core of my bones that all the nimrod drivers in the area were going converge on me at once.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Courtesy Wave" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

For me, it’s the fear of another driver senselessly jackrabbitting out of a side-street into my path. In the last two weeks, I’ve had to lock up the wheels and lean on the horn on multiple occasions to thwart some fool intent on getting T-boned when I had the right of way. I’m not sure why someone would so desperately want to put their fragile driver’s door in the path of an oncoming steel bumper–maybe they just figure they did their part by stopping at the stop sign, and what’s everyone so upset about? Whatever the reason, it seems this disturbing trend in bonehead driving is on the rise, and it’s made me pretty paranoid about intersections.

How about you? What bonehead drivers’ habits do you fear will one day be the death of your ride?