Sunday Seven #404

Last Updated on February 13, 2022

Which common moving violations made by other drivers do you encounter the most, and more importantly, which ones tick you off the most? That’s the topic of this week’s Sunday Seven!

I don’t know of a state whose residents would be particularly shocked if a study showed drivers from their state were the worst. Bad driving, in fact, is so commonplace these days that good driving seems almost a memory.

I intentioanlly live close to work. I’m within five minutes from the office, which works for me because if there’s an emergency, I can get there quickly, and I almost never have a major traffic snarl.

Despite this, the relatively small number of motorists I encounter are full of talent when it comes to moving violations.

Here’s a list of the 20 common moving violations. For this week’s random list, I scanned this list of common mistakes and chose the ones that I not only see happening most often, but also that happen to set off my pet peeve alarm the fastest.

7 Most Annoying Moving Violations I Encounter Most Often

1. Failure to Signal

Apparently these people who decide, without any warning, to slam on brakes to make a turn seem to believe the drivers behind them should be clairvoyant. Unfortunately, my fortune-telling ability isn’t as good as they believe. Turn signals matter.

2. Driving on the Shoulder

I encounter people making left turns on two-lane roads. Once in a while, a motorist right behind them will drive onto the shoulder of the road to go around the person making a left turn. This is illegal.

If you’re in such a hurry that you can’t wait long enough for a person to make a turn, that’s your fault. You shouldn’t go off the road and around another driver just because you didn’t leave yourself enough time for the minor delay that will invariably happen every single day.

3. Speeding

If I’m on a stretch of interstate, I set my cruise control to go four miles over the posted limit. Not five. Not six. Not fifteen. People pass me like I’m not moving. Where’s a speed trap when you need one?

4. Running a Red Light

Some are more blatant than others. I’ve seen a few accidents happen right in front of me because a driver just felt he couldn’t wait through one more cycle of the light.

The problem is, the average traffic light cycle takes about 80 seconds to make it around to you again: this means that, on average, you shouldn’t have to wait longer than about a minute and twenty seconds for the next green light. Take a breath. Relax for those 80 seconds.

It could save your life.

5. Failure to Yield Right of Way

At one particular intersection, there are a handful of people who seem to think that as soon as the light turns green, they can pull out and make a left turn in front of oncoming traffic.

If you’re in a marked company vehicle or a vehicle, trust me: you do not want to do this in front of me. I will call your supervisor and report your behavior. And the next time I see it, I’ll call the highway patrol and let them know.

6. Driving too Slow for Conditions

Along the same street where my office is located are several medical offices. I often wind up behind a driver doing 15 miles per hour — sometimes less than that — looking for the address for their appointment. If I had an important appointment, I’d at least make the effort the night before to figure out where I was going so that I wouldn’t have to slow down the rest of the world because of my lack of preparedness. Beyond that, when I saw that I had cars lined up behind me and I knew I was driving at less than half the speed limit, I’d be courteous enough to pull over and let everyone else pass me and then resume my search when I wasn’t being an imposition on other drivers.

Very often, common courtesy seems to be a thing of the past these days.

7. Passing in a No Passing Zone

When I encounter, say, people like those mentioned in item 6 who won’t drive the speed limit because they’re searching for an address, I at least say behind them because the road in question is a two-lane road with double solid yellow lines, a signal that it is not legal to pass. This isn’t surprising because the road sits on a long curve. Not everyone is patient enough (or is able to pretend to be patient enough) to do the same. Along another road I travel once a week or so, there’s a stretch where a four-lane road becomes a two-lane road. Despite signs that say, “Do Not Pass,” people still do if they think you’re not moving fast enough.

Fortunately, immediately following this area is a strip of homes at which the speed limit drops 15 miles per hour. And yes, I have seen cars get pulled when police are lying in wait.

Something like that makes it worth being illegally passed.

Which moving violations get on your nerves the most? Either post your answers in a comment below or post them on your blog and leave a comment here with a link to that post!

Drive safely!