Motorists' pet hates - Yahoo! Autos

http://ca.autos.yahoo.com/p/1467/motorists-pet-hates

Motorists' pet hates - Yahoo! Autos


Driving should be a great escape from the stresses of modern life, but there are certain things that conspire to make our journeys as frustrating as possible.

Motoring - the open road, the freedom to explore, the thrill of the countryside on a spring's day. That's the dream. The reality is counting roadwork traffic cones on a bank holiday en route to a furniture superstore. To help ease your frustration, we've compiled a list of the top five things that make motorists go 'Grrrrrrr!', and how to avoid them.

http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/ca_autos...YkZXBDfR8Dfh1X


1) Traffic
Why does everybody want to get to the same place at the same time? Traffic jams are a fact of life but you can use new technology (and a little common sense) to help avoid them.

'We must get smarter by using traffic information and in-car technology to avoid the worst congestion,' says Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation. Even if you have a GPS device, it's worth having a road atlas in the car. A GPS gadget is only going to take you to your programmed destination. With a map you can easily consider other options - like going somewhere completely different.

In-car navigation devices, particularly ones that link to real-time traffic information, can help you avoid traffic jams as you approach them. But the best advice is to avoid traffic black spots, particularly on public holidays.

2) Middle lane hogs
Few things enrage careful motorists more than middle lane hogs (MLHs), those careless motorists who stay in the centre of a three-lane highway, regardless of traffic.

The sensible motorist knows you keep to the inside lane unless overtaking. It is illegal to pass vehicles on the inside ('undertaking'). So, in effect, the MLH creates a rolling roadblock, using up two lanes and increasing congestion.

What can you do to avoid MLHs? Many MLHs aren't deliberately causing a nuisance. You're most likely to encounter MLHs after long tailbacks, when near-stationary traffic has been instructed to 'stay in lane' and drivers have got in a habit.

Legally you can't flash an MLH or honk your horn. To avoid them, wait for a clear road ahead. From the inside lane, move into the middle lane, behind the MHG, then overtake it and glide over two lanes to the inside lane. If they don't get the message, they are either careless, or ignorant. In either case, you'll be glad to be past them.

3) Caravans ("Trailers" in North America)
There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a home from home. But put a miniature house on the back of an underpowered car and you have an unstable union that moves like a snail and is prone to jackknifing.

The surest way to avoid caravans is to stay on motorways and dual carriageways.

Caravans need somewhere to park. Set a destination on your sat-nav and ask it to show local caravan sites. If it's in a remote area, and there's a high concentration of sites, it might be best to avoid.

4) Boy racers' bass bins
You're stuck in traffic and a heavily-modified hatchback pulls beside you. The ground starts to shake and a standing wave of noise rattles your windows.

It is a scientific fact that the quality of music played in a car is inversely proportional to the volume at which it is played. So the chances are, if music from a car in the next lane is so loud you can feel it through your brake pedal, it's going to be a moronic barrage of whistles, clicks and low frequency excretions.

What can you do about it? Absolutely nothing. The boy racer thrives on disapproval. Wind up your window theatrically and he (and it will inevitably be a 'he') will open his windows wider and set his bass to 'destroy'. All you can do is sit back, wait for the traffic to pass and gloat at how much he must be spending on insurance, and that the resale value of his car will be a fraction of what he spent on in-car entertainment.

5) Tailgaters
You're in the second overtaking lane and there's an aggressive sports saloon looming mere inches away. You feel forced into driving beyond permitted speeds and there's no space in the middle lane to pull into.

Tailgating can feel very uncomfortable when you're in the car being tailgated. The best tip is to stay calm and pull over when you can. Most road rage incidents are as a result of drivers misinterpreting other people's bad driving as a personal slight against them. It's not personal, you're just in front of a bad driver. Let them pass.