As car enthusiasts we have a fairly decent idea of how to handle our vehicles and how they function. Sadly, that isn’t the case for the majority of the car-owning public. Yet nearly everyone in America is allowed to captain a 4000-pound slab of steel with not much screening. Sharing the road with them can be absolutely terrifying, or at the very least rage-inducing. Whether it’s squatting in the left lane or having side mirrors aimed at the door handles, there are clues that you might be traveling with a less-than-stellar wheelman.
What’s a telltale sign of a bad driver?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “If you could travel to one moment in time, when would it be and what would you do?“.
Our time travelers can be put into one of three categories. The first, like Negishi no Keibajo or TheJWT, would go to a specific era just to absorb the vibes, whether it’s to immerse oneself in 1960s Japan or relive a particularly great summer in Okayama in 2022. The second, like Taylor C., would be to change a specific outcome, like an accident that damaged a beloved Z.
The third category is to witness a distinct moment in history. Coincidentally they happen to involve Mazda endurance races. K Hiraishi would go back to June 23, 1991 at 16:00 local time in France to see Mazda win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And daniel, the winner this week, would go back to 1968 to see Mazda prep the then-new rotary engine for the 84-hour Marathon de la Route at the Nürburgring.
1968 Mazda headquarters while preparing the Cosmo Sport 110S for the 84 Hours of Nürburgring endurance race.
Why? Just a year earlier, a “new” technology, a new type of engine, had been launched. How much more futuristic could there be? Add to that perhaps a lack of understanding of the circuit’s challenge, in addition to the race’s length… if we consider that just over 20 years earlier, Japan was a disaster during WWII… how could we not have faith in those engineers doing the impossible?
If there’s one thing I believe drives Mazda, it’s never giving up. If there’s one thing that interests Toyota in partnering with them, it’s that spirit. How could we not want to witness firsthand a high point in that genesis that guides them?
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
I mean…. not using your turn signals is a pretty big one, I’d think. There’s also the elephant in the room, the good ‘ol text-and-driver. Or just… any form of distracted driving, really. If you’re really so busy that you can’t focus on driving, kindly get off the road.
A Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta license plate.
Or a Quebec plate. Once saw when working as a traffic flagger a Quebec-plate Honda Minivan go the wrong way up a cloverleaf on the Perimeter Highway in Winnipeg.
New England, particularly Massachusetts has a nickname for bad drivers, “Massholes.” A lot of the drivers here are terrible, and I thought SF Bay Area folks were wild. I realize I take for granted when I drive my JNC out here, where any fender bender would be an extremely gut-wrenching ordeal.
As I grow older, I have been drinking more Hatorade and constantly calling out bad drivers and their habits. These include outright running reds, to going 55 on the fast lane, to not knowing who has the right-of-way at an intersection. This last example is my telltale sign of a supremely bad driver. I understand that we sometimes give another car the right-of-way to help ease any temporary traffic holdup, but in my town we have these moronic drivers, “M,” who think they’re some “hero” by stopping all traffic behind them so they could let some person, “P,” coming from a side street get onto the main drag. This behavior couldn’t be any worse because everyone on the main road is going 35+MPH, and Moron M unexpectedly slows down, starts flashing his / her high beams while trying to direct traffic for the Person P from the side street. Person P is hesitant because they’re expected to wait until traffic clears, but starts seeing Moron M doing his / her light show and dancing his / her hands to gesture the car onto the street. Moron M doesn’t account for the fact that there’s oncoming traffic that’s not telepathically wired to his / her thoughts, and so those drivers keep going, only to suddenly slam on the brakes when Person P starts coming out onto the street. Person P stops mid- turn, holds up traffic, and Moron M starts getting confused, everyone gets confused, and now we have stopped traffic flow.
There are times to be a Good Samaritan, but these are not them. These folks just create a lot of assumption for the rest of us, and I’ve been near victim of accidents when others start coming out of side streets with the assumed notion I’m giving them right-of-way. I’ve been flipped off, given dirty looks, and had to swerve when those side street folks realized I wasn’t giving them the right-of-way; it goes to show how influenced their driving styles have become.
“Bad driver” as in those folks don’t know who’s lawfully got the right-of-way, and “bad driver” as in the residual effects it creates on the rest of us. I genuinely think these are some terribly bad drivers
Classic behavior here in Seattle to which we say “be predictable not polite”
Nissan Altima.
Any and all Prius, Tesla, Rivian, Nissan Leaf, etc… electric vehicles
V8 Mustangs
Modern BMW sedans
Chrysler, Nissan, and older Honda Accord sedans.
Surburbanites in SUVs, Crossovers, or anything all wheel drive.
Jeeps with their dashboards covered by little rubber ducks.
Range Rovers
Lamborghinis
I’ll add lifted pavement princesses, Cadillacs, and Lincolns to your list.
And second the electric vehicles nomination.
Anyone without a JNC sticker on their car, of course
curb rash is usually a good marker or anyone who uses their phone while driving.
Blinking & driving… the entire time.
While it may be fun to some, I would say that cutting through traffic at high speed is a pretty good sign of a bad driver, or at least, an unsafe driver.
This. I hate guys who “cut up” in traffic. Such utter morons, and for what? There are people out on the road who are just trying to get home. They don’t need to end up with a wrecked car, or worse, just because you think you’re a good driver.
Don’t get me started. 🙂 My answer comes in the form of a question… Is the lack of using turn signals a symptom of not being taught in driving school, laziness, or just a sign of “I-Own-The-Road” entitlement?
Then there’s the 55-in-a-65 zone syndrome…. Oh, and….
I told you not to get me started. 😉
In one word, liftedtruck. Okay, two words.
They always seem to drive like they own the road, and I believe these trucks are owned by the most chicken people of all. It takes a courageous person to drive a manual 70hp B12 Sentra in a mountainous city during icy-winter rush-hour trafic in the horsepower war of the ’00s. Then there are normal cars for normal people. If one needs a big, almost-weaponized vehicle in order to feel safe driving on the same streets, well… And once those people feel the power of having other moving out of their way, it shows in their driving habits.
The beer bottle on the roof where the driver set it after leaving the bar while getting into their car. Followed closely by the empty Coors cans blowing out of a pickup truck bed on the freeway.
White freightliner with Ontario plates and only the unit/NSC number on the sides.
the one that brakes at the last second behind me at the traffic light. whenevs i see one i immediately change lanes when possible and get tf out of their way. it’s their funeral. and the absolute worst offender is usually the 2000’s ford falcon or holden commodore driver…
Sounds like a Dodge Charger driver here in the States.
Lack of smoothness.
A good driver sees things in the far distance and plans and adjusts, a poor driver simply reacts to everything.
Number one is if they don’t park parallel, and somewhat evenly, between the lines. There’s no bigger sign that they care less about driving in even the most basic and considerate of ways, than having no shame or pride in their ability to pilot a vehicle. If you can’t park properly, you shouldn’t be behind the wheel. A distant second would be people who leave 1 or more car lengths of space between them and the signal / car they are stopped behind.
if im behind a car and i can see the driver in their side view mirror
Temp tags. Especially when affixed to rental-grade Nissan, Hyundai/Kia, or Stellantos sedans.
Coming from an on-ramp onto a high speed road, trying to merge from a complete stop. You gotta keep rolling, even if just a few miles per hour. If you are trying to merge from a complete stop, the car that lets you in must be at a complete stop and guess what that means for every behind that car?
For me it’s when a person cuts you off/pulls out dangerously in front of you, then you see body damage, filler, or a mismatched panel in the exact spot you *would’ve* just hit. Clearly some people don’t even learn their lesson when it hits them at 40mph repeatedly.
Slamming on their breaks BEFORE they get to the highway off-ramp. Sure, let’s brake in front of the traffic doing 60+ mph before even moving over! Bothers me everytime.