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The guy who won't pass anybody in the passing lane.

11 (12.1%)

The tailgater.

10 (11%)

Speeders.

2 (2.2%)

Old people who think the speed limit is half what's posted.

8 (8.8%)

Gigantic White Pickup Truck Driver

8 (8.8%)

The Geo Metro.

1 (1.1%)

9.3 years of construction THAT NEVER GETS WORKED ON.

14 (15.4%)

Stop signs.

0 (0%)

People who ignore stop signs.

8 (8.8%)

THE FUZZ

5 (5.5%)

Phone/food/makeup users.

13 (14.3%)

Road-ragers.

7 (7.7%)

Anybody who passes me.

4 (4.4%)

Total Members Voted: 48

[TA]

If using a hands-free cellphone headset isn't illegal, and is in fact encouraged, I can't imagine that headphones for an mp3 player are.

[Rosencrantz]

If using a hands-free cellphone headset isn't illegal, and is in fact encouraged, I can't imagine that headphones for an mp3 player are.

Perhaps if you only have the headphones in one ear. I've never seen a cellphone headset that covered both ears.

It's my understanding that wearing headphones while driving is pretty illegal, like having fuzzy dice.

It's true. It's illegal to have ANYTHING hanging from your rearview mirror, including dice, air fresheners, and so on. (This might vary from state-to-state, but it's definitely illegal in California.)

[Alex]

If using a hands-free cellphone headset isn't illegal, and is in fact encouraged, I can't imagine that headphones for an mp3 player are.

The lesser of two evils doesn't make it right.  The idea is that headphones/sets and such are still major distraction factors.

Personally, I'm happy with it being illegal, there's enough shitty drivers without people being stupid and putting others at risk with the help of a cellphone conversation or headphones.  I kept an FM transmitter in the car for when I didn't have cables to hook my mp3 player up to it rather than resort to retardation.

Why yes, this is a hot button.

It's true. It's illegal to have ANYTHING hanging from your rearview mirror, including dice, air fresheners, and so on. (This might vary from state-to-state, but it's definitely illegal in California.)

I just buy those air fresheners that you clip in front of the vents. 

The only place I know of that is okay with headphones and shit while driving is Texas, but that's Natural Selection or Darwin-ism doing its job.

[Classic]

Headphones are probably not specifically illegal, but have even odds of being caught under another regulation. Something that inhibits your ability to hear road sounds, sirens esp., is probably going to land you in some quantity of shit.

[Lady Duke]

I got stopped for wearing headphones and was told by the police man it's illegal.  He said it's because I won't be able to hear things going on on the road, which I'd agree with I suppose, except I'm A) not fucking deaf, and B) don't listen to my ipod loudly enough that it would drown out my car sounds or the road for that matter. 
So that's a fuck you to anyone who said "DERP DERP MP3 PLAYER?!"  Well maybe not fuck you, I guess that's a tad harsh :3

[Rico]

Handsfree cellphone kits are also near-universally one ear, not both.

Volume of music does not matter all that much up to a certain point, but earbuds in both ears can mess with your directional hearing even with nothing playing depending on what the sound is.

[Mongrel]

Even if it was totally legal, you couldn't pay me any amount of money to wear headphones while, biking, motorbike riding, driving or anything at all involving traffic and or heavy machinery.

Seen enough folks get run over WITHOUT distractions that greatly reduce your ability to hear, thanks.

[Rosencrantz]

You DIDN'T see videos of that when you did driver's training? I had to watch Red Asphalt 3, which I had already heard about prior to my training because it was infamous at my school. It had scenes of some dude whose head was cracked open on the asphalt with his brains leaked out, among other things.

[Royal☭]

Yeah, half of my driver's ed course was a bunch of sidewalk splatter from wrecks.  Some students nearly vomited from it.

[Brentai]

I never took driver's ed.  I had to watch shit like that for a course I did to waver an underage drinking charge, though, which was a bit odd since I didn't even own a car at the time.

Guy running the course eventually told us a story about his high-school crush getting pancaked.  That explained it.

[Alex]

My driver's ed courses were me sleeping through most of them and passing my exam anyway. 

But in all fairness, it's not super hard to learn to drive.  It's just super hard to drive WISELY (for most people).

[McDohl]

Sometime this week, I'm going to purchase a bicycle and start riding to work every day.  The only thing that's going to be rough is getting all the way back to the hangar where I work.  I'll definitely have to do a test run, plus gauge the actual mileage tomorrow.

[Detonator]

I stand corrected. The local course required that we find newspaper articles about wrecks. Reading that Party A smashed into Party B and that the Jaws of Life were used, with a black-and-white photo of a broken windshield, doesn't have the same impact as seeing blood fountains laying next to streaks of brainpaste.

Which would probably only scare people who would be responsible drivers anyway.  Teenagers who like the Saw movies would probably think "awesome!", and continue to drive like morons anyway.

[Thad]

...So I'm heading home, south on Hayden.  I pass McKellips and some motherfucker in a giant vehicle starts riding my ass with his brights on.  He tries to get around me and I speed up -- I don't usually drive aggressively but this guy was being a colossal prick.  (I was only going 5 over the speed limit at that point, so not like I was endangering anybody.)

The light at the 202 goes red; we stop side-by-side.  I don't look in his direction.

And then -- and I have never fucking seen anything like this -- from a full stop, he RUNS THE RED LIGHT.  The guy who has the arrow almost hits him.

I was hoping, at that point, that he'd speed through the Rio Salado intersection since it has cameras, but no such luck; I wound up right behind him by the time we got to University.  (So obviously he saved himself a lot of time by RUNNING THAT FUCKING RED LIGHT.)  Texas plates -- shock.

He turned right on Apache -- I almost decided to go straight so I wouldn't stay behind him, but after Broadway being blocked off last time I decided to take my chances with Apache.  He screeched ahead, sped a few blocks, then flipped a U-turn and pulled into a hotel.

I take solace in the fact that if this bastard keeps driving like that he IS going to get caught.

[Arc]

No blue turtle shells on hand?

[Royal☭]

Texas plates -- shock.

I see you've met what we refer to as a "polite driver".

[Cannon]

Speaking of which, an old friend who lives in Texas says the cops enforce speed limits pretty firmly. Confirm/deny? Because now I'm confused if you're not somehow exaggerating. It may just be around Austin, I dunno'.

I have two ways that I can get to work, and the one I regularly take leads to a light at a four way intersection. For me to get to work, I have to go left. There are two lanes that can go left, and one that only goes to the right. You see, this light is right in front of a shopping center. The only road that goes into it is the middle one... Legally. There is a broken line that leans into the left. There is a sign next to the light that says you can only. Go. That. Way. Nevertheless, I can only assume some people, wrapt with utter panic at having to drive a quarter of a mile before they can turn around, choose to ignore the possibility that the car right next to them is going left, and cut right across. This is rare.

Rarer still is when I'm going left with someone adjacently, they cut into my lane as I'm turning. Because there's space on the side for cars that enter into my lane as they're leaving the strip mall (OR IS IT HIS LANE GRAR SPORTS CAR SMASH TINY WHITE LEMON), if there had been someone waiting to merge, I would've had a t-bone, because I was literally left with no option but to cut to that side to avoid him. There is ample time to shift lanes before that light up ahead, and I've never much understood why people have to rush up to a red light when everything is mostly clear, anyway.

I don't honk as a matter of principle, but this was really the lowest point of one of my worst days on the job, and perhaps indirectly lead to me doing something fairly stupid that got a cop involved (though working overtime and being tired and without food was probably a factor, too, not that I think it would've mattered to the officer if I had cited those). Erm. Okay, maybe the thing with the police was worse?

But just in general, the annoyances come as quantity rather than quality as a result of me being a reasonably careful driver. I know how to use turn signals, and I'm pretty good with my speed (or at least I know when gunning it is going to make a difference). It's just a matter of choosing between what's safe to do and what's quicker and dirtier to do after I miss a turn or something. The curvy mountain roads with a narrow range of vision don't help with residential deliveries, certainly. Is this post over yet?

[Thad]

SPORTS CAR SMASH TINY WHITE LEMON

Something my dad taught me: you can safely assume somebody driving a sports car will not risk a collision with someone who looks like he doesn't have much money.

[Cannon]

He had a very queer notion of "risk," then.

[Arc]

Speaking of which, an old friend who lives in Texas says the cops enforce speed limits pretty firmly.

From my experience, Texas has banished speed limits. They are merely a conceptual theory in that country.