Wonderful Courteous Maine Drivers

[Newdaawn]

Pet peave here for me is constantly seeing people run red lights. If you are first in line at an intersection with a light - just a word of caution, when your light turns green, always check to see if someone is going to run the light. It happens about 50% of the time, and I have NEVER seen a cop pick someone up for that.

[IHeartMaine]

My pet peeves on Maine drivers:

1. Please for the love of God........turn quicker when you are turning right!!! Why do some people almost come to a complete stop when they make a right hand turn??? (and I'm not talking about right on red)

2. Stop tailgating me! This seems to be a rather recent phenomena. I usually go the speed limit to slightly over the speed limit so it's not because I am driving too slow. It REALLY irritates me on I-95 since there is NO REASON to be doing that when they can easily pass. Also, when I try to identify the people doing this........seems to be younger and female more often than not.

That being said........I still feel that Maine drivers are some of the best in the country overall........and like others have said, mostly courteous, safe and mindful of traffic laws and limits.

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by Newdaawn

Pet peave here for me is constantly seeing people run red lights. If you are first in line at an intersection with a light - just a word of caution, when your light turns green, always check to see if someone is going to run the light. It happens about 50% of the time, and I have NEVER seen a cop pick someone up for that.

I wouldn't go as high as 50% of the time, but you're right, it happens on a disturbingly frequent basis in the Bangor/Brewer area. I've seen them go through lights that were dead red without even slowing down, no lame 'it was yellow when I started through', dead red.

Be careful out there.

[Maine Writer]

I've been in Bangor and Augusta a lot lately and see a lot of red lights being ignored. Augusta seems worse to me than Bangor.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Last year at this time I had to use a rental as my car was being fixed for an issue that happened from a tour bus backing in to my car in 2010, (ie: free, the insurance company picked up the tab since it was an ongoing issue that was never resolved).

I made it out of the parking lot to the intersection right next to the garage/rental car place.

The light turned green, the car in front of me started to go but stopped as some lady plowed right through the intersection, completely ignoring the red light. Had I been first, I probably would have been plowed in to because I don't take 30 seconds to get going.

So I get going and head towards home. Reach another light, yet again, someone flew through their VERY red light. WTH people!

On the route I come to yet another and final red light. Guess what happened?!?!

Two of the three times, I almost got smashed in to and the first time I was "saved" because the driver in front of me was one of those who takes an hour to get going. (This does not change how I feel about those who make a career out of turning their cars or have problems finding the gas pedal when the light turns green.)

Here's a great one that just happened Sunday night when I was driving home. I'm going along, again, minding my own business. I come up to a car that is going 40 in a 55, (I swear to GOD this is driving me insane! I also have an automatic, it does NOT go in to OD at that speed...and these are not old cars that are doing this. I wish to remind of a first thought when I entered Maine for the first time: That so many had newer cars. These are newer cars that are just dawdling along.)

Anyway, I was patiently waiting for my time to pass and since it was night, I knew it wouldn't take long. Get to that point, no cars coming, time to pass. They were going 15 under the speed limit, I didn't have to get UP to the speed limit to pass them. I did so in a safe manner and THOUGHT that was the end of it.

Nope, these people got all uppity and tailgated me the entire rest of the way home. We are talking another 30-45 minutes of driving all because someone had the nerve to pass THEM! Whatever.

If someone wants to go slow, that's fine. Do that behind me. Don't pull out in front of me after waiting until the last possible second, (and I have not a soul behind me forever), and then drive massively slow. Don't get all mad when I pass and blare your high beams at me. You're not even going the speed limit, what on earth do you care that I wish to go that speed?

And, how many cars does it take for people who do drive slow to decide it's time to pull over and let that long string of hold up pass around them? Is it 5 cars? How about 8 and a semi? A mile's worth? (No, that's not an exaggeration...that actually happened one night. The area in front of the first driver was clear. I was about 1/4 of the way from the front in this long line. Look in the rearview mirror, all you could see were headlights stretching on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.....literally a mile.)

I don't drive at unsafe speeds. At most, I go within 5mph of the speed limit. There's just way too many cops along my route to go any faster. Plus, deer. I understand that excessive speeding is not being cooperative to everyone else around you...well, the same for those who travel well under the speed limit and hold people up for miles and miles. It's supposed to be about co-operation and some people do not uphold their responsibility on the roads.

(FYI, I'm not talking about freeways...or interstate, what ever you want to call them, I'm talking about highways...route roads...like 1 or 3 or something. On the freeway, many zoom past me because I'm not going to go 80 in a 65.)

[Radio Flyer]

Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow

If someone wants to go slow, that's fine. Do that behind me. Don't pull out in front of me after waiting until the last possible second, (and I have not a soul behind me forever), and then drive massively slow. Don't get all mad when I pass and blare your high beams at me. You're not even going the speed limit, what on earth do you care that I wish to go that speed?

And, how many cars does it take for people who do drive slow to decide it's time to pull over and let that long string of hold up pass around them? Is it 5 cars? How about 8 and a semi? A mile's worth? (No, that's not an exaggeration...that actually happened one night. The area in front of the first driver was clear. I was about 1/4 of the way from the front in this long line. Look in the rearview mirror, all you could see were headlights stretching on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.....literally a mile.)

Preach it, sista!

[CoastalMaineiac]

While we're on the topic of annoying drivers:

The other day, I was heading down 95 in Bangor. I was in the slow lane, cruising along at 55 miles per hour, and a bunch of people were passing me on the left. This woman in an SUV comes up on one of the on-ramps, and proceeds to drive right up beside me, as if she expects me to crash into the cars beside me to make room for her! There was loads of room behind me to get in, all she would have had to do was ease up on the gas a bit and slip right in behind.

She apparently didn't want anything to do with all that space behind me, so she just kept on driving down the break-down lane until she had no choice but to get in behind. I guess she either didn't see the white triangle with the red border and the word "YIELD" painted in the middle of it; either that or she skipped the day they covered that in drivers' ed.

That one was more comical than dangerous. But this next one scared the **** right out of me.

I was going around the Memorial Circle rotary in Augusta and was in the inside lane, as you're supposed to be for where I was going. There was a tractor-trailer waiting to enter the outside lane of the circle, and since it was clear beside me, he starts to pull out. If he had stayed in the right lane, all would have been well, but he goes from the right lane of the rotary's entrance directly to the left lane of the circle! If I hadn't braked quickly and swerved for the center island, the wheels of his trailer would have gone right up over the front of my car. Apparently he missed the lesson on YIELD as well.

Most Maine drivers do, in fact, know what to do when shown that triangular traffic sign with the red border; it's one of the things that makes driving here enjoyable. But there are always a few bad apples out there that just make you want to go .