10. Driving with dog on lap: Really! How dumb is this? Most often an older woman, the little yappy dog between her and the steering wheel. The dog usually has its head out the open window in summer and hot dog breath steaming up the driver’s side window in winter.
9. Tailgating: There’s nothing more calming than looking in your rear view mirror at the hood ornament or the grill of the vehicle behind you. Even more calming when the tailgater is a cop. On the other end of your vehicle, remember the old days when you could leave at least three car lengths between you and the vehicle in front for safety reasons. If you had to stop in a hurry you could. If you needed to quickly manoeuvre around a problem, you had enough time. Now a car length is an invitation for some idiot to squeeze in. Oh, and then the idiot puts on the brakes.
8. Merging without looking: Accelerator to the floor, not even a shoulder glance, forcing the traffic with the right of way to slam on the brakes as they butt into the lane. Then there’s the guy in the pick-up truck who drives across two lanes as quickly as possible.
7. No turn signal: How often do you see this? All of a sudden they just turn, down a street or into the lane right in front of you.
6. Semi truck drivers on the highway: Aggressive, speeding, passing other semis going up hill on a four lane or even a six lane, tailgating, cutting people off. Time is money I guess, but what about fuel economy and road safety? Illinois got it right, mandating trucks to the outside lane at 10 MPH slower than all other traffic.
5. Driving with ear buds or headphones listening to something, likely loud: Not only illegal but so dangerous. How do they hear the traffic or the emergency vehicles?
4. Talking on a cell phone, checking email or texting: Even though now illegal in many provinces and states, so many drivers don’t seem to care. It’s more important to chat with a friend than it is to concentrate on what they are doing behind the wheel.
3. California stops or no stopping at all: Don’t you love drivers who race up to an intersection, stop a half a car length or more past the stop sign or don’t stop at all? Since when does a stop sign mean slow down? And what is that white line for that crosses the lane next to the stop sign?
2. Failure to yield: Seems it’s no longer a sign that the vehicle on your right has the right of way. Today it means hurry up and get into the intersection or the round-about first so you don’t have to slow down. Safety and courtesy be damned!
1. Speeding: The speed limit is now just a guideline? The worst offenders, in no particular order:
- Pickup trucks, most often the Ford 150 4x4
- Young women talking on their cell phones·
- Soccer Mom’s in mini vans or SUV’s, kids in the back, racing to get somewhere·
- Business vehicles, delivery vans, logo’d pickups with tool boxes, pickups pulling trailers of all kinds, anything with signage, semis, dump trucks, they all seem to think the faster they drive the sooner they’ll get to the next stop or appointment
