On driving, and warning signs that another driver is going to try to kill you.

[theweaselking]

Other people on the road are *dangerous*. So everyone develops early warning signs - filters they use to guess which of the other people on the road is going to do something stupid, and who they must pay extra attention to.

So, I want to know what *your* filters are for figuring out which other drivers are about to do something incredibly stupid. Note that behaviours like tailgating, swerving, racing up a lane that will end and trying to force your way in at the front, turning without signalling, etc are not on this list, because those are all behaviours that *show* dangerous stupidity, right now, not behaviours that warn you of future dangerous stupidity.

[Poll #1471612]

Comments

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

There's a small trick in the question. Quebec drivers are notoriously bad, but Montreal drivers are incredibly unsafe even compared to other Quebecers. Thing is, it's hard to tell a Montreal driver from a normal Quebecer, except in one way: the island of Montreal is the only place in the country where right-turn-on-red is illegal - so if you see a Quebec plate stopped at a red light, waiting to turn right, and they don't go racing through it? MONTREALER. Watch out, they're going to fucking kill you.

[reyl.livejournal.com]

I would rather drive in Montreal than here. Because in Montreal you *know* they are going to cut in front of you. Here it is some wild guessing game because people don't *show* you where they are going. They are too tentative. They play this stupid "I'm more polite than you" game, look like they are going slow or letting you in, then randomly speed up and cut you off. In Montreal an aggressive driver is aggressive period. Here, they can change at any moment.

Also you forgot the biggest fucking one, YAKKING ON CELLPHONE. Second to that, Eating Burger.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

You missed one of mine, probably because of the country--the #1 sign down here in the Southeast is if they've got a confederate flag anywhere on their car. Beyond that, my sense of danger signs increase in proportion to amount of patriotic signage, although since the only thing that's ever actually slammed into me is a deer, this is only based on emotion and swerving.

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

oh! oh yes, a confederate flag or a pro-life bumper sticker, those are on my list. That and a Kentucky license plate, those people drive like they are in a hurry to get to their own funerals.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

It was tough to choose between diplomats and taxis for most reliable idiot, because they drive like they stole it, but diplomatic plates win because they don't have to worry about the little things like being prosecuted for doing something stupid and killing you.

[orzelc.livejournal.com]

This. I spent six years in the DC area, and "diplomat in car wreck" stories were a staple of the local news.

[winterlime.livejournal.com]

If there was a "You're in China" option, I would've picked that in a heartbeat.

I've been to NYC more times than I count. I go to school just outside Boston. The worst drivers I've seen before look like absolute angels compared to the average driver in Chinese cities. I was terrified of having an accident literally nearly every moment I spent in a vehicle there.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

See also: Bangkok, Thailand and all of Greece.

(Cambodia too, with the qualification that while people drive more slowly, you will have to deal with bus-sized potholes, motorcycles bearing families of four or five, rampaging chickens, and pickup trucks full of people, the latter being the regional transit system. Also the roads outside of town aren't paved. Also, you don't speak the language and there is no signage to speak of.)

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

And now, for something completely different. I thought this might make an excellent Ohio vs. Florida post:

Lottery hoax causes riot at Ohio coat store

[dolston.livejournal.com]

Lane positioning. Most drivers will tell you what they are planning to do even though they are too stupid to signal. Kind of like someone touching their nose when they are bluffing. It is a tell but one that has proven to be quite reliable.

Another warning sign is the person leaving too much space when stopped at a stop light. Means they are scared. Scared drivers tend to act like scared animals when surprised.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

You are, by the way, just about the only person I've ever known to drive with a Jesus Fish without being dangerously aggressive behind the wheel.

For the record.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

For me: old man wearing a hat driving a car with a handicap plate. Those guys have no concept of lanes.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

We don't have handicap plates up here. If you're legal to park in the handicapped spots, you have a sign for your dashboard.

But Old Man In A Hat is dangerous. Old man with no hat, fine. Old woman in a hat, fine. Young anyone in a hat, fine. Old Man In A Hat is dangerous.

[graethorne.livejournal.com]

Being in Florida. The elite of the terrifying drivers go there to age...

Also: you forgot Blue Hair...

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

Blue Hair is TERRIFYING behind the wheel! She's pretty much the female equivalent of Old Man in a Hat. But worse.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I wound up checking SUVs, after some thought. It's the Cheap, Easy answer, but after considering it, I realized that I instinctively avoid them/exhibit extreme caution around them because they are, by their very presence, hazardous. They're difficult to see around, which makes it difficult to ascertain what EVERYONE ELSE ON THE ROAD is doing. Moreover, if they get in an accident with a NON-SUV, that greatly increases the chances of injury for the driver and passengers of the other vehicle.

And driving a vehicle that is an inherently hazardous to EVERYONE ELSE AROUND YOU? THAT'S dangerously inconsiderate.

It's more egregious down here in Silicon Valley than it is up in places that actually get, you know, WEATHER. In the middle of Wisconsin, there's a REASON for a 4WD vehicle.

(Oh, and you left out "Coyote in the driver's seat" -- see icon.)

[ikkarus01.livejournal.com]

My original choice for "most reliable" was Taxi, but then I gave it a bit more thought. Here in NYC, taxi drivers are legitimately deranged and scary as hell, but it's surprisingly rare to see them actually get in an accident. They're more like fighter pilots in one long, harrowing dogfight.

So it's the SUV that wins "most reliable" dangerous idiot for me. Special consideration goes to any SUV driven on the Long Island Expressway. They make up a unique breed of stupid that isn't found elsewhere.

[zastrazzi.livejournal.com]

Anyone driving without their lights on, unless it's full daylight, is a roadtard. Overcast? Lights on. Snowing/raining/fog/enough road spray to require windshield wipers? Lights. Fucking. On. Even in broad daylight, having your lights on (actual full lights, not the parking lights which don't turn on the *back* lights) reduces your chance of being in an accident by 30%. 30.

Another give away for me is someone driving 10km/h or more under the posted limit when driving conditions are safe. A scared/tentative/over-cautious driver is one of the most dangerous things you can find on a road. I'd rather deal with a lead footed jerk than a scared driver. He's predictable, the fearmonkey not so much.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

WTF are parking lights even for? No one has ever adequately explained that to me.

[negumi.livejournal.com]

Living in DC Diplomats are the second most dangerous thing after asian women, which was not on the list. But I hit diplomats anyways because they are quite insane.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

these are all bad reasons to suspect someone.

I saw cell phone here, and that's pretty good. I've seen people texting too, that's really bad.

Jerks in SUVs are worse than other jerks, but most SUV drivers are careful.

The taxi drivers around here will drive fast, and get there first, but they are also professionals, hyper aware, and with fast reflexes. And you can play chicken with them, and they will back down, because they're professionals. I'd bet that, per mile, they're safer than you or I.

Old men drive slow. They can be clueless about stop signs and/or right of way, and I've even been hit by an old man going 15 miles per hour through a red light, but otherwise, slow and steady gets it done.

I watch for tailgaters, people who drive fast in the right lane (and especially those who don't let people in!)

In the morning, about 2/3 of the professional trucks (not semis, but like electrician's vans, landscapers trucks, plumbing, masonry people) drive as fast as possible, because time is money to them, and often they're fairly young men.

Young men are bad. Young black people of both genders are worse, on average, but not as a rule.

But it's generally the adrenaline junky drivers that are the worst.

[dgg.livejournal.com]

None of my filters are on the list, so I'll add a few of mine.

If forced to chose, I go with taxi because they are notorious here for not signaling.


My filters include:
Driver who insists on staying in my blind spot.
Dump trucks.
Driver talking on a cell phone
Driver in front of me who taps the brakes for no apparent reason
Driver that seems to inch too closely to one side of his lane
Driver blocking the intersection causing grid lock (Gods how I wish the cops would give out tickets for that).

Mind you I have driven here in Montreal long enough to see all kinds of crazy things. Like the dude who pumped two of those "sex dolls" and fastened them in his car so he could drive in the car pool lane.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

See, all of those except "dump truck" and "taps brakes" are inherently dangerous behaviour being engaged in right now, not warning of future danger.

("Taps brakes" *can* be dangerous right now, or it can be a warning of something you didn't see, like a cop, a road obstacle, or the fact that the driver ahead of you is uncomfortable with how close you're following. I wouldn't call it *inherently* dangerous)

I left off one of my personal filters, too: "My aunt Dawn not safely at home."
Dawn is.... special. She's a doctor (bad sign), a native Montrealler (bad sign) and *the other Montreallers think she's dangerous* (OH GOD).

She's driven the wrong way up an offramp, making an illegal turn and cutting off three people to do it. And she complained about all the other drivers honking at her while she did it.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

The "something else" for me is, sadly, usually apparent only in highway driving, but you can see it in long-enough stretches of what they call "surface roads" around here as well: Weaving between lanes to gain a whopping six meters of distance or half a second of time. Close-second: Does not know of this thing called a "turn signal," either when turning or when lane changing.

Most dangerous encounter I had while on a bike was when I was still new in the US and thought that people approaching an intersection with the intent to turn right would be signaling. I still count myself lucky that my bike's brakes were very recently changed.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Reading over the thread, I guess both of my signs are as-they-happen dangerous, not telltale in the sense you meant. In which case I have to say "hangs too close to the rear of a car, either mine or someone else ahead of me." That's usually a sign that rapid unsignaled lane changing is imminent, if something worse doesn't happen first courtesy of a sudden stop and conservation of momentum.

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

US state license plates I watch out for:

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Virginia

For some reason, those states seem to turn out the worst drivers. Maybe I'm counting the hits and ignoring the misses, but some of the scariest driving I've seen has been perpetrated by cars bearing those plates.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Drivers who are natively from the VA suburbs of DC (aka NoVA) are fucking insane (although MD drivers are worse), but those of us from the rest of the state actually learn how to do things like merge, yield, use turn signals, drive carefully but predictably when the weather is anything less than perfect, etc.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

Other: Woman on cell phone

[kadath.livejournal.com]

We only get Quebeckers on the highway around here, so it's hard to judge their behavior on surface streets from that. My mom was born in Quebec and is a bad driver, so maybe it's in the water.

[dgg.livejournal.com]

No, it's the poutine.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

As others have noted, the answers are based on locale as much as anything else. I'm in rural Texas; we don't get much in the way of diplomatic plates here, but the rednecks in Corvettes are terrifying.

[dianavilliers.livejournal.com]

Vehicle is bigger than mine (see icon), and moving.

[evilbitchqueen.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen driving in Arizona, it's people with shiny trucks (not SUVs) that are the most dangerous on the road. The kind of people that own trucks without ever actually having need of a truck, just as a statement of penis size (I've seen mostly men driving trucks)

The other ones are that I've noticed down here is (I hate to say it, but) young women. Some don't pay attention and can get into serious shit.

[rgovrebo.livejournal.com]

The only warning sign I look out for here in Norway is the numberplates. Any foreigner who isn't from Sweden, Finland or the UK should be treated with caution. Swedes and Finns are used to the kind of road conditions we've got; people from the UK are generally highly competent drivers and will be on the wrong side of the road for them, thus more careful.

Any other foreigner - eastern European, Danish, German or Dutch, watch out...

[sanityimpaired.livejournal.com]

I'd think Canadians should be on the list, and possibly Russians.

[misanthrope-mom.livejournal.com]

As a lifelong pedestrian:

Pulls into the crosswalk at an intersection. Nearly flipped off a cop for that just a couple weeks ago & some friends have been known to spit on cars for it. And back when I was pushing an infant in a stroller, I kicked one or two.

Waits to turn right at a corner and NEVER TURNS THEIR HEAD TO THE LEFT so they absolutely will kill you because they are gonna turn as soon as it's clear, and never even know you were there to take your legal street-crossing right-of-way.

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

I have been hit by these assholes.

[dscotton.livejournal.com]

My two biggest warning signs are racing stripes (especially on a truck or a POS "sportscar" like a Camaro), and anything with "rice racer" style mods like a giant spoiler on a front wheel drive car.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_gethsemane_/]

In Australia it's definitely 4 wheel drivers (SUVs), they are usually driven by harassed mums with screaming children in the back. They cannot drive their massive vehicles, they cannot park and they don't have a clue as to how freaking huge their car is, but goddamn it, they're going to give it a red hot go, all whilst turning around to reprimand her bratty kids.

In car parks here, they are *the* worst.

4 wheel drives also roll really easily... It's frightening.

I'm of the opinion of unless you do go out bush, camping, have a farm etc why the hell do you need an off road vehicle??

There has been a whole lot of press about those who wish to drive such vehicles having to get further licensing to be able to legally operate them. I am 100% for this.