Topic: I have a new #1 Driving Pet Peeve

[Mike]

I hate and used to rant all the time about people doing 100KM/H in the left lane and won't move over when driving on the highway.

That however has been replaced.  I travel a lot for work and have been on highways in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Montreal during rush hour. 

I have noticed in the GTA (and Montreal to a lesser degree) we have a special kind of driver.  The 'Merge Lane Jumper' as I call them.  You know the type, while 100's of cars are crawling along one of the 400 series highways doing 10KM/H they lurk in the right hand lane.  Every time they come up to a merging lane they turn into it, hammer the gas and gain a whole 10 places in line before dive bombing back into line at the end of the merge.  Next merge lane, they repeat this. Everyone behind these drivers end up having to slam their brakes as they cut off a car at then end of the merge lane.  This in turns slows down rush hour even more.

Every year I notice more and more people doing this to the point where it is almost common practice now.  And if you happen to not let one of these drivers back into the lane they just left 20 seconds ago, expect some horns and fingers directed your way.

I have noticed the police cracking down on these drivers a few times, but not very often.  Not only is it an inconvience for the drivers around them, but it is dangerous for vehicles merging onto the highway as I have witnessed many cars having to slam on the brakes after a car dives into the merge lane in front of them.



Thoughts?




My next rant......people who do not accelerate up to the speed lmit before merging onto the highway!

 

[rrocket]

Could care less.  If they want to jump around like tards, WTF do I care.

Another (in a long list) of reasons to stay away from TO....

[Guy]

I hate and used to rant all the time about people doing 100KM/H in the left lane and won't move over when driving on the highway.

That however has been replaced.  I travel a lot for work and have been on highways in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Montreal during rush hour. 

I have noticed in the GTA (and Montreal to a lesser degree) we have a special kind of driver.  The 'Merge Lane Jumper' as I call them.  You know the type, while 100's of cars are crawling along one of the 400 series highways doing 10KM/H they lurk in the right hand lane.  Every time they come up to a merging lane they turn into it, hammer the gas and gain a whole 10 places in line before dive bombing back into line at the end of the merge.  Next merge lane, they repeat this. Everyone behind these drivers end up having to slam their brakes as they cut off a car at then end of the merge lane.  This in turns slows down rush hour even more.

Every year I notice more and more people doing this to the point where it is almost common practice now.  And if you happen to not let one of these drivers back into the lane they just left 20 seconds ago, expect some horns and fingers directed your way.

I have noticed the police cracking down on these drivers a few times, but not very often.  Not only is it an inconvience for the drivers around them, but it is dangerous for vehicles merging onto the highway as I have witnessed many cars having to slam on the brakes after a car dives into the merge lane in front of them.



Thoughts?




My next rant......people who do not accelerate up to the speed lmit before merging onto the highway!

 

I agree with you. I see that more and more too. People show no respect for others anymore.

[EV Dan]

Yes, it's disgusting. I see it everywhere around the GTA now. Monkey see monkey do, so young drivers begin to see it as a norm. I've witnessed police catch them and truck drivers blocking half the lane to teach a lesson.
IMO if police had tickets other than the speeding, for things like cell phones, rolling stops, not signaling and so on and charges could not be easily dropped by just bringing a lawyer to court we'd eventually grow some resemblance of a driving culture.

My latest peeve is when there are two lanes marked for a right turn form the highway ramp into the city traffic, it is only from the "rightest" one you can turn on the red light while the other lane should wait for the green; and yet you have both lanes turning all the time and regardless the traffic lights. I think there is such exit from 404 NB to HW7 East.  

[Mike]

Yes, it's disgusting. I see it everywhere around the GTA now. Monkey see monkey do, so young drivers begin to see it as a norm. I've witnessed police catch them and truck drivers blocking half the lane to teach a lesson.
IMO if police had tickets other than the speeding, for things like cell phones, rolling stops, not signaling and so on and charges could not be easily dropped by just bringing a lawyer to court we'd eventually grow some resemblance of a driving culture.

My latest peeve is when there are two lanes marked for a right turn form the highway ramp into the city traffic, it is only from the "rightest" one you can turn on the red light while the other lane should wait for the green; and yet you have both lanes turning all the time and regardless the traffic lights. I think there is such exit from 404 NB to HW7 East.  

Yes there is, and yes it happens there all the time.  Dangerous intersection too

[5 Wheel Drive]

It was a regular occurance here too.  Where the 416 merged with the 417 w/b going into Kanata.  People on the 417 would jump into the merging lane, hammer it all the way down, then stuff themselves back in when the lane ended.  That's a big reason why traffic slowed to a crawl by Bayshore.  Everyone would have to slow down to let these people in.  Drove me nuts!!! This part of the 416/417 has since been reworked and widened, so it doesn't happen there anymore. 

There were times when I would see someone coming up that lane in my mirror, I would glue myself to the back bumper of whatever was in front of me (at rush hour, lucky if you were doing the pace of a brisk walk, never never did that at speed) and refuse to let them in.  There were times when I would do that, the person behind me would do the same thing.  I obviously wasn't the only person bothered by this. 

You don't walk into a bank or a restaurant and just walk past everyone right to the front of the line.  What makes these people think that it's ok in a car?  It's called common courtesy, and there's far to little of it on our roads!

[johngenx]

The real problem isn't whether someone is "queue jumping" or not.  When they reenter the flow of traffic, they actually slow the entire line of traffic.  They think they're making better time, but in reality, they're just making everyone slower.

[stodge]

The real problem isn't whether someone is "queue jumping" or not.  When they reenter the flow of traffic, they actually slow the entire line of traffic.  They think they're making better time, but in reality, they're just making everyone slower.

They're making better time for themselves, and that's all they care about.

[Mike]

The real problem isn't whether someone is "queue jumping" or not.  When they reenter the flow of traffic, they actually slow the entire line of traffic.  They think they're making better time, but in reality, they're just making everyone slower.

Yup, and it spirals too.  People in the right lane get fed up and move into the center lane slowing that lane down.....so then people move into the left and slow that lane down.

[overtakeyouintheleftlane]

Mike do I ever agree with you. Know how I deal with them when they try to pull that with me? I NEVER LET THEM IN and let them get stuck.

As for your other rant "My next rant......people who do not accelerate up to the speed lmit before merging onto the highway!" - That's been a major peeve of mine for years. If you can't/too scared to merge at highway speeds, TAKE THE LOCAL ROADS THEN.

[tpl]

Yes, it's disgusting. I see it everywhere around the GTA now. Monkey see monkey do, so young drivers begin to see it as a norm. I've witnessed police catch them and truck drivers blocking half the lane to teach a lesson.
IMO if police had tickets other than the speeding, for things like cell phones, rolling stops, not signaling and so on and charges could not be easily dropped by just bringing a lawyer to court we'd eventually grow some resemblance of a driving culture.

My latest peeve is when there are two lanes marked for a right turn form the highway ramp into the city traffic, it is only from the "rightest" one you can turn on the red light while the other lane should wait for the green; and yet you have both lanes turning all the time and regardless the traffic lights. I think there is such exit from 404 NB to HW7 East.  

I used that intersection often.   One had to do a right from that centre lane to be in the correct lane for the left onto Allstate parkway and doing it on red seemed to work just fine.  There is another from 404 NB to 16th ave westbound. Again, doing the turn on red from the centre lane got one into the correct lane for Mural St  AND you had a better sight line from the centre lane.
In the highway 7 case there were gaps in the eastbound traffic while the 404 exit lights were red as the other set of lights that allowed traffic off 404 SB onto 7 were not well synchronized so one could often turn into an empty lane.

[Stojko]

There's always going to be some idiot that puts themselves over everyone else and does stuff like this. Someday perhaps they won't be able to get back into the through-lane and will be the result of an at-fault accident.

[saint_satan]

I'm forced on occasion to venture into the city and merge jumpers drive me insane.  I do my best not to let them in.  It's right up there as a top pet peeve for me as well - along with idiots driving/reving Harley's through residential neighbourhoods

[aaronk]

I'm forced on occasion to venture into the city and merge jumpers drive me insane.  I do my best not to let them in.  It's right up there as a top pet peeve for me as well - along with idiots driving/reving Harley's through residential neighbourhoods

I'm with you 100% on the lane jumpers, but trying to force them out only makes things worse and potentially creates an aggressive road-rage situation, or worse gets you in the bumper of the guy in front getting you at the wrong end of an at-fault accident. As much as it pisses me off I just back off and let them be stupid if they want - it will eventually catch up with them. It's also frustrating being on the other side of the road when you're in a lane that legitimately closes and you're not trying to race, but for some reason nobody lets you into 'their lane'. I think the solution overall is to be a considerate motorist and just generally have a sense of respect for other drivers - seems to be working for me so far. I work with a guy who's an admitted lane jumper, he's a twit, and he has written off 2 cars in 3 years.

[Angry Chicken]

I'm forced on occasion to venture into the city and merge jumpers drive me insane.  I do my best not to let them in.  It's right up there as a top pet peeve for me as well - along with idiots driving/reving Harley's through residential neighbourhoods

The 417 / Queensway is the main east-west artery that runs through Ottawa.  People that use the merge lanes to get around traffic drive me crazy, too.  To perform this selfish stunt you have to break the law by driving over a painted median to start the line-butting maneuver .   I've seen the OPP several times position themselves at these junctures and wave people over to the shoulder to ticket them.  My favourite place is the westbound Queensway at St. Laurent.  When the OPP runs these "blitzes" it's not unusual to see 7 or 8 cars in line, drivers' heads buried in their hands, while waiting for the cop to come up to them and present a ticket with a very healthy $$ value associated with it.  I've often wondered how the conversation with the miscreant motorists goes? 

[Mike]

I'm forced on occasion to venture into the city and merge jumpers drive me insane.  I do my best not to let them in.  It's right up there as a top pet peeve for me as well - along with idiots driving/reving Harley's through residential neighbourhoods

The 417 / Queensway is the main east-west artery that runs through Ottawa.  People that use the merge lanes to get around traffic drive me crazy, too.  To perform this selfish stunt you have to break the law by driving over a painted median to start the line-butting maneuver .   I've seen the OPP several times position themselves at these junctures and wave people over to the shoulder to ticket them.  My favourite place is the westbound Queensway at St. Laurent.  When the OPP runs these "blitzes" it's not unusual to see 7 or 8 cars in line, drivers' heads buried in their hands, while waiting for the cop to come up to them and present a ticket with a very healthy $$ value associated with it.  I've often wondered how the conversation with the miscreant motorists goes? 

It goes "What?  You mean jumping in a lane illegally while cutting off several other motorists is illegal?!?!"

[Murano2005]

I agree with you, especially when they fail to signal that they are changing lanes and everyone has to brake because of them.

[CatsEye68]

That was one of the big advantages of driving an old Detroit iron fullsize beater like I did a few years back. I would just placidly trundle along in such situations and never let the line-jumpers back in. When they would pull alongside and see that I could not care less about their little foreign tin box of a car, and that my boat was equipped with what Earnhardt used to call the chrome horn on both ends, they would back off and meekly take their place behind me. The fact that my car was worth about 1/20th of what they paid for theirs, clearly didn't mind a few dents, and outweighed it by about 1500lbs, tended to give them a quick attitude adjustment.

[rrocket]

That was one of the big advantages of driving an old Detroit iron fullsize beater like I did a few years back. I would just placidly trundle along in such situations and never let the line-jumpers back in. When they would pull alongside and see that I could not care less about their little foreign tin box of a car, and that my boat was equipped with what Earnhardt used to call the chrome horn on both ends, they would back off and meekly take their place behind me. The fact that my car was worth about 1/20th of what they paid for theirs, clearly didn't mind a few dents, and outweighed it by about 1500lbs, tended to give them a quick attitude adjustment.

So it was only people in foreign cars line jumping?  Interesting....

[johngenx]

That was one of the big advantages of driving an old Detroit iron fullsize beater like I did a few years back. I would just placidly trundle along in such situations and never let the line-jumpers back in. When they would pull alongside and see that I could not care less about their little foreign tin box of a car, and that my boat was equipped with what Earnhardt used to call the chrome horn on both ends, they would back off and meekly take their place behind me. The fact that my car was worth about 1/20th of what they paid for theirs, clearly didn't mind a few dents, and outweighed it by about 1500lbs, tended to give them a quick attitude adjustment.

What an swerver.