The Worst Driving Habits of Reddit’s r/cars
The Worst Driving Habits of Reddit’s r/cars
Everyone has bad driving habits. Ironically, a situation in which one should be most alert is often when many people choose to be the most dissipated.
You’re hurtling down a concrete road at seventy miles per hour, and that’s when you choose to text, eat a burger, put on your makeup, switch pants and commence up a game of Jenga. Of course, if you have a self-driving car, none of this is a problem.
But for the majority of the population that doesn’t dive out of bed into a comically large pile of gold (which would cause so much ache, by the way), dispelled driving isn’t even a remotely good idea.
That being said, many Reddit users took to their keyboards to craft some responses to my question, “What’s your worst driving habit?” eight hundred eighty six people responded, actually. I’ve shifted through them and found some of the best, worst, and most amusing. Here we go:
“I mistakenly expect competence, or at least a basic understanding of the rules of the road, from my fellow drivers.”
This is just a way of telling “well, I sure don’t have any bad habits, but other drivers do so I’m blaming them for everything.” We get it dude, other drivers suck. But this response is like telling your largest weakness in a job interview is “I attempt to hard and foolishly expect others to do as good as work as me.” You’re not fooling anyone.
“I have a terrible habit of staring into the headlights of cars in oncoming traffic because I’m attempting to see if it’s a police vehicle or not. I’ve attempted to stop so many times but I just can’t.”
Texting and driving is bad enough, but commencing deeply into the eyes of some headlights can go from a bad habit to deadly habit pretty quick.
“I get truly sleepy while driving on freeways. I have to catch myself and pull off the freeway, it gets that bad sometimes.”
It’s understandable if you’re on a long road excursion and you become tired after a while, but you truly should be more aware of how tired you’re likely to get before you hit the road. Scientists have tested humanity’s capacity to drive while sleeping, and the results weren’t favorable.
“If someone is blocking the left lane, I intentionally cut them off as close as I can.”
Yeah, a good idea to get back at somebody is to almost cause an accident. Good call.
“I lightly brake check tailgaters and squirt washer fluid at them.”
Getting brake checked is a horrifying, albeit momentary, practice in and of itself. Nothing is more horrifying than feeling the scare that impulses your system as you prepare to smash your rolling, two-ton metal machine into someone else’s rolling, two-ton metal machine.
But to add insult to injury, this person is also sprinkling the victim with washer fluid. They’re stopping so abruptly that it flings washer fluid ten feet back.
The lesson here? Don’t tailgate.
“I get irrationally angry at drivers who drive well under the speed limit on a two-lane road who turn down to use turnouts. If I’m stuck behind someone for more than a mile or two and they pass flawlessly safe places to pull over, I will find a way around them and will make my dissatisfaction demonstrable, usually in the form of a rude forearm gesture.”
Many of you can surely relate to this feeling. On the road, everyone becomes hyper-aggressive and enormously bold. Very uncommonly will someone make a “rude forearm gesture” at a finish stranger while walking down the street. But cut someone off on the road, and you’re about to see some birds fly.
That being said, it’s super annoying when someone drives leisurely in the prompt lane, seemingly unaware of anything going on around them.
“My worst habit is making sure the radio volume is an even number. I have taken my eyes off the road at dangerous times for this. I cannot break this stupid f****** habit, and still do it to this day. It’s horrible.”
At Least They Have A Plan
“When people don’t get out of the quick lane:
- Put on left turn signal to make them aware of me, for 5-10 seconds
- Flash brights a duo times, wait 5-10 seconds
- Flash brights a few more times, wait 5-10 seconds
- Lay on horn while flashing brights
Drives my gf insane. Sorry. I hate dumb people. Stir over.”
This is slightly better than the people who just leap to the last step.
“Autopiloting to a destination. I routinely miss my street destination if my destination falls along a familiar route. Also: dissipated driving. Not because of phones/occupants, because I will get lost in my own mind while driving and not pay attention to my surroundings. I have run more than one stale crimson light utter on because my mind was elsewhere and the intersection was clear (just not my lane was going). It’s truly bad. I scare myself sometimes.”
It’s one thing to be slightly daydreaming, but that takes it to a fresh level.
“Anger. I get very angry, very often, and will sometimes go out of my way to piss off the driver who angered me. I know it’s a terrible habit, but F*** THAT Fellow!”
I think this one could have been a lot of people’s number one choice. Road rage is scary.
So there you have it. For a subreddit that will call out even the slightest thing somebody did wrong in a movie, they seem to all have their share of problems too.
Oh, and if you’re wondering… my bad habit is driving while using my knee to steer. For awhile I got indeed good at it, but I’ve pretty much stopped. Not the worst habit to have, but still not a good one.