Just for Fun: Pet Peeves: Cars
In the last Ring & Post, we asked you about the rules of the road that you play by that others seemingly often ignore.
We wanted to know, from a cycling perspective, what are your biggest pet peeves on the streets of Toronto? What do drivers do to get on your nerves? What do pedestrians do to get under your skin? And how about other cyclists? The more minor the inconvenience, the better. After all, a ‘pet peeve’ is “a minor annoyance that an individual finds particularly irritating to a greater degree than the norm”.
Thank you to the hundreds of you who answered the call and took to our survey to vent. It took a little while to comb through all of the responses, but in doing so, it was easy to notice certain themes coming up again and again.
Before we begin, just a disclaimer: although this blog is written with a lighthearted tone, that doesn’t mean the behaviours we’re about to discuss aren’t often extremely dangerous for vulnerable road users. If you find yourself recognizing a lot of these as some of your own habits, try harder to prioritize safety over convenience.
But without further ado, here are your biggest driver and car pet peeves on the streets of Toronto at the moment.
Parking poorly
Not surprisingly, parking in the bike lane came up a lot. Is it minor enough to fit the traditional definition of a “pet peeve”? Maybe. Is it one of the most common ways drivers endanger the lives of cyclists? Definitely.
Another parking-related pet peeve was drivers parking in non-parking spots, for example, beside the curb on a busy street like Queen or Dundas. This can confuse the rhythm of the flow of traffic and be quite dangerous for those on bikes as well.
Lazy signallers
Many of you came to vent about drivers who signal right before their turn or not at all. This was especially exasperating with drivers turning right on streets with bike lanes turning on their signal juuuust as they’re about to turn.
The honk-happy
Another common pet peeve category was honking. We’ve all experienced being honked at seemingly just for being on a bike – that one came up a lot. Otherwise, many mentioned drivers honking at them for taking the lane or for turning left using the dedicated left-turn lane.
The curb huggers
Plenty of you brought up drivers who gravitate towards the curb. Whether they’re passing too close, queued up at the intersection hugging the curb, or merging into the cycle tracks to take a right turn, it evidently happens a lot out there.
Inconsiderate intersection behaviour
Lots of survey responses brought up irksome intersection activities. Some mentioned drivers slowly inching forward onto the crosswalk for no apparent reason. Many brought up drivers who will speed by cyclists to turn right, only to hold them up seconds later.
Here’s a potentially controversial one: at a four-way stop, when a driver cedes their right-of-way to wave you through. Maybe they’re just trying to be nice. But it can be pretty confusing. Closely related, and particularly frustrating at four-ways, are excessively tinted windows. Windows so dark that the driver would never be able to communicate anything with the outside world. That can’t be convenient, can it?
I’ll close with one, because no one ended up mentioning it. I often rely on a few of the west end contraflow lanes to head northbound. Shaw or Gladstone for example. Why do so many drivers drive over the yellow line while heading south? I feel like they wouldn’t straddle the yellow line on a street where the yellow line separates two car lanes. So why do it when the line is separating a bike and a shared car and bike lane? I love riding in contraflow lanes, but they create a whole category of driver bad behaviour that perhaps deserves its own Just for Fun.
Thanks again for sharing your pet peeves. In the next Ring & Post, we’ll be back with your biggest pet peeves regarding pedestrians, fellow cyclists, and other road users. Should be fun, see you then.
(A contraflow lane. Image: City of Toronto)
