Tailgating
For you pedestrians, tailgating is when a car drives way too close to yours - usually in an aggressive attempt to get you to go faster, or because they’re too impatient to be somewhere. It’s dangerous; if you need to break suddenly, they’ll be eating your trunk.
Not Using Turn Signals
Turn signals are the basic language of the road, and one of the few ways to tell other drivers where you’re going. If you’re not using them - or pointlessly using them halfway through a turn - you’re basically telling everyone else your time is more important than their safety.
Cutting People off
Squeezing into a lane at the last minute and causing another driver to take evasive action is the height of bad road etiquette; expect others to go nuclear at your thoughtlessness. Traffic flow nosedives, tensions rise and it’s a dangerous move (plus, it always feels personal).
Driving Too Slowly in the Fast Lane
The left lane in multi-lane roads is the fast one, meant for overtaking. That doesn’t mean it’s a drag strip - no one expects burnt rubber - but moving at a snail’s pace is like deliberately standing in a grocery line and paying with pennies out of spite.
Using the Phone While Driving
The saying “eyes on the road” doesn’t apply to the racing game you’re playing on your smartphone during your morning commute. We get that life is busy, but there’s a time and a place for texting and phone media - risking fender benders (and lives) to send a meme while driving isn’t it.
Not Letting Others Merge
Turning a merge into the Hunger Games by speeding up to block it is often viewed as a petty power play - especially if the offender slows down afterwards! Everyone’s in a rush, but not enraging other drivers is a low bar.
Weaving Through Traffic
Drivers who act like they’re in a spy thriller and swerve between cars thinking they’re shaving tons of time off their journey are sadly mistaken. It’s a car’s worth of progress at best at the cost of other people’s patience and safety. Save it for the Grand Theft Auto video game.
Leaving High Beams on
High beams are for driving alone on dark roads, not burning the retinas of surrounding motorists in busy traffic. It blinds other drivers and renders rearview mirrors unusable in a situation where visibility is paramount. It’s even worse if the offender’s left their fog lights on as well!
Braking Suddenly for No Reason
Phantom braking is a thing, but we’re talking about the motorist who taps their brakes now and then just to see what happens. Spoiler alert: the vehicle stops suddenly! No one wants jump scares on their daily commute, and you’re asking for a rear end collision.
Taking up Two Parking Spaces
Whether it’s leaving a car diagonally across parking spaces or stopping in between the space dividers, there’s a special circle of hell reserved for the people who use up two spaces for their vehicle. If it’s a compact and/or in a busy parking lot, that’s instant damnation.
Not Moving Over for Emergency Vehicles
When a siren blares down the blacktop, it’s not because they’re late for work - it’s because someone’s life is in danger. The driver who refuses to move because they don’t want to lose their spot or because they think it doesn’t concern them is abandoning human decency.
Honking Excessively
The difference between using a horn to gently communicate something and laying on it like you’re headlining a death metal band is the same as asking someone a question and screaming incoherently at them. It adds stress to tense situations and things will only escalate from there.
Speeding Through Residential Areas
A place where kids go to school and senior citizens cross the road slowly is no place to engage “The Fast & the Furious” response. Putting people in danger just to reach a stoplight 50 yards down the road is inviting a speedbump incident.
Blocking Intersections
We’ve all seen it - the driver who thinks they can make it past the intersection until the light turns red and they’re thwarted by bad decisions. Not only are they forced to sit in regret, everyone’s stink-eyeing them for pushing their luck and paralyzing traffic.
Not Yielding at Roundabouts
Roundabouts are supposed to help traffic flow until you get a driver who doesn’t care how they work and wants to create a demolition derby. They plow in, ignoring the yielding etiquette and making people question the offender’s driving credentials.
Parking Too Close to Other Cars
Parking lots are designed for cars to sit next to each other with plenty of space for both drivers. When someone squeezes in like a sardine and leaves you with no room to enter or exit your vehicle without dignity and paintwork damage, it’s a personal offense.
Blasting Music at Stoplights
Yes, music is great, and no, no one wants to hear your personal playlist blasted out of your windows at a volume that makes birds drop from the sky. It’s even worse in quiet neighborhoods or at night, when it’s clearly done just for attention.
Accelerating When Someone Tries to Pass
Some drivers take it badly when you try to pass them, and speed up to block you as if you’ve just insulted their mother. It creates tension, stress and is needlessly aggressive - especially if they slow down again afterwards. Cool those engines, it’s not a race!
Rubbernecking at Accidents
None of us are beyond morbid curiosity, but when a driver slows down to gawp at an accident - or even worse, to film it - they don’t just create traffic congestion, they risk becoming part of the next collision.
Driving With Hazards on in Normal Traffic
Simply put, it’s all in the name: if there’s no hazard, you don’t need hazard lights! Flashing them around in the middle of traffic complicates communication; are you stopping? Turning? Trying to send a message? It’s the bat-signal of bad decisions.
