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this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2026
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Since 2020. Covid broke a lot of brains. Once people started driving again, it’s like they forgot (or rejected) all the rules. Bad behavior that I rarely saw, like blatantly running red lights, aggressive driving, using turning lanes as passing lanes (even through intersections) went from rare to daily.
COVID demonstrated that the social contract is gone.
The red light situation is insane since then. People would always push it a bit here and there, but now i routinely see people with a red fly through an intersection after people with the green light have already entered the intersection. Social media has convinced simpletons that because they see "movies" of their own life on their devices that they have plot armor. And it will take a serious accident to make them learn otherwise. Its frightening as fuck to share the road with people like that.
Reminds me of an old joke:
My car was in the shop, so I asked for a ride to the grocery store from my neighbor. He agrees, no problem, and we're off. The first time we come to a red light, he floors it and we dart through the intersection. There's a cacophony of horns and squealing ties, but we're unscathed.
I whip around to him, wide-eyed, and yell, "What the hell are you doing?! That was a red light!"
He smiles and says, "Don't worry, I watch my brother do that all the time. No problem."
I try to argue, but he keeps doubling down: "Never seen my brother get hit. Everyone just stays out of the way. It's totally fine," as we fly through one intersection after another, ignoring seemingly every red light in town.
Finally, mercifully, I see us pulling up to a green light. I reassure myself that we're almost there, and I'll be home soon.
But as we roll up to the green light, my neighbor slams hard on his brakes. The car behind us lays on their horn and skids to a sharp stop right behind us. I'm white as a ghost as I turn to my neighbor and demand to know why the hell we stopped at a green light.
"My brother could've been coming from the other way."
Yup. I saw this twice this week, the first happened at a 4 way stop and everyone took their turns until one car just followed the car in front of them, knowing people will still be paused. The fucking gall of someone to not only skip the line, but blow a stop sign to do it. 4 way stops I've found to be the worst at seeing this kind of behavior.
The second was someone I work with, apparently. Not someone I know but they clearly work on my shift. Our building is right off the highway and I took the offramp to it and waited at the red light. Nobody was coming so I started to turn right on to the road toward work. Then I look left again and there's a black Dodge ram going easily 45 in a 30 just to slam on the brakes mid turn, halfway into the intersection when that light was red. I pull up behind him and the lights for the side street had just turned yellow, and this cum stain blows the red were stopped at early at full acceleration. Only to turn into the western parking lot of the place we work. The stupidest part of this story? We were 40 minutes early.
I seriously think this happened. I never used to see people signaling right and then turning left from a MIDDLE lane. People used to at least slow down at a red light before making a right turn. My dashcam went from an insurance policy to a highlight reel of absolute idiocy every time I drive.
I think it’s time everyone gets a road test every time they renew their drivers license.
SO many people are GLUED to their phones at all times now, too. Every red light the 1st place car sits at the green until someone honks because they just CANNOT STOP DOOMSCROLLING.
I am a technology evangelist and I have been since I was quite young. I’m addicted to my phone. I admit using it while driving on rare occasions to like change to the next song or something, or adjust Waze at a red light. But dude, come the fuck on what are people DOING??
The red light running is fucking wild. I feel like maybe ten times in my whole life I saw someone run a red light and now it's basically every day.
Using turning/bus lanes to cross intersections is something that I see that went from rarely to daily. It drives me crazy since they usually try to force their way back in to the lane once they cross.
I sometimes see people with their phone on their steering wheel while on the highway (in the US). People just don't give a fuck anymore and it's terrifying
It might be the age of most drivers around me but they all forgot how to use turn signals, how to merge onto a highway, what a yield sign means (hint: it’s not stop) and how to anticipate that they need to merge instead of waiting until the last minute and creeping into the other lane.
And just about every time it’s someone in a Subaru driving like they were beamed into a car and don’t know what they’re doing there.
Oh, and just about everyone comes to almost a complete stop to make any turn.
I'm generally fine with people stopping at yields. It slows things down, but it's still safe. There's actually one near my friend's house that has hedges blocking all view of the road to the west until you're right up on it, so I always stop at that one; can't see if there's anyone to yield to until you're almost inside the intersection.
Oh, totally. But if we can all see that there isn’t any traffic slamming to a stop at a yield is a recipe for an accident.
Maybe they’re trying to get me to rear end them.
You've an uptick in this type of behaviour coupled with a decline in enforcement.
You can go to countries where there are no traffic rules being enforced at all, but there's not the same wanton disregard for life that I see daily on US roads. Recently was in Houston and you couldn't pay me to live in that hellscape of entitled drivers.
Yeah. And people honking as soon as the light turns green. I got a dollar says the people that honk like that are the same people running reds making me not go when the light goes green.
Nah it's because people can't be off their phones for five fucking seconds and the light usually only lets four cars through so if you don't get on them quickly it will literally just be one asshole running the red.
There's a lot of people clearly using red lights as opportunities to check their phone. If I can see a phone in their hand when the light turns green, I'm honking immediately.
When I was younger and had a larger vehicle, if someone honked at me less than a second after the light changes, and especially if I had my foot going for the gas... Well I hope you like sitting still because I'm now hitting the brake instead, and we would sit for another light cycle.
While I probably wouldn't do that nowadays, I'd be sorely tempted to brake check.
Someone being slightly rude to you justifies you screwing up the flow of traffic for everyone?
Legit I've been saying this for years.
Covid broke driving.
Either people have brain fog that targets driving capabilities, or they have simply decided the rules don't matter to them.
I am a much more careful driver than I was 10 years ago, but I've been so close to getting into accidents because other people suck ass.
The red light running is almost enough to make me wish for the old traffic cameras ( we as a city decided to outlaw them in 2010 because the PD was abusing the few they had put up, but apparently flock BS is a-okay)
I just had a dude cut me off by barreling through three lanes of traffic with no blinker and then brake check me through the right turn in an intersection only to go ten miles per hour under the speed limit on the next street and hog the left turn lane.
Fuck cars. Fuck unsafe drivers.