a small rant about "nice guy" drivers

[Shut Up Legs]

They say their name is Jack, and that they prefer to be referred to using non gendered pronouns.

What? She/he/whatever has a multiple personality disorder?

(English really badly needs a gender-neutral third person singular pronoun. Why is English so damn broken?)

 

[mjr]

(English really badly needs a gender-neutral third person singular pronoun. Why is English so damn broken?)

(Mi ne scias...)

 

[winjim]

What? She/he/whatever has a multiple personality disorder?

(English really badly needs a gender-neutral third person singular pronoun. Why is English so damn broken?)

It does. It's they.

 

[DaveReading]

I don't know whether to be annoyed or amused at cars that slow and stop to let you turn in front of them, when there's absolutely nothing behind them, thereby simply delaying both parties due to their lack of situational awareness.

I'll still wave a cheery thank-you, though.

 

[mjr]

I'll still wave a cheery thank-you, though.

With one finger or two?

 

[rugby bloke]

I was almost on the wrong end of one of these "helpful drivers". Riding along the road one evening a motor-bike and side car over takes me, interesting I thought, don't often see one of those nowadays. About 100 yards up the road it turns into a field gate so that it can turn around. At this point I note that the rider (driver ?) has not looked my way, he is either looking left or talking to his passenger. I keep my eye on him as I am fairly sure he might pull out in front of me. When I'm within 10 yards away and closing quickly a car coming the other way slows down, flashes its lights and waves the motorcycle out ... Luckily at some stage the rider must have looked my wave as he does not take up the kind invitation, otherwise it would have been very messy for me. And yes, there were no cars following the helpful driver so there was no need for them to act like they did any way ...
So either, the driver did not see me, saw me and thought "stuff it, its only a cyclist" or saw me and completely misjudged my speed and distance.

 

[cd365]

Sorry, but this is not true. In at least the south east, drivers in slow moving traffic flash their headlights all the time to indicate a person waiting to turn right across them should proceed or the driver waiting behind a stop line should join the traffic.

This happens all of the time everywhere I've driven, in city roads to let a driver out, on motorways to signal that you have seen them and that it is safe for them to move into your lane. Generally used in my experience to say "yes I've seen you, yes you can complete your maneuver"

 

[Shut Up Legs]

It does. It's they.

No, that's still being debated, and it isn't universally accepted as a singular pronoun.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

OK. It is very kind of you to slow down (but not stop) in order to let me out into traffic. However, given that you don't actually fully stop, I have no way of knowing what on earth you're up to. You could be letting me in; you could be staring open-mouthed at a pretty bird in a tree; perhaps your child has dropped your iPhone behind your seat and you are slowing down as you frantically scrabble around on the floor back there, searching for it among a mound of old sandwich boxes and Ella's baby food packets, before the wailing in the back seat reaches its crescendo.

My point is that I have no idea why you are slowing down, much less when you might speed back up again. I wish to survive at least into my forties and so I am cautious when pulling out into busy roads in front of cars that are not, technically, stopped.

Here's where the "niceness" comes in. When you see that I am not taking the hint, gratefully cycling out in front of you and bowing as I go, you wave your arms in frustration. Here you have done this wonderfully charitable thing, you've taken time out of your busy schedule of whatever-it-is-people-who-can-afford-cars-in-London-do-all-day, and I have refused you! I have been Ungrateful. And so you flail about in the driver's seat, make sarcastic faces, sometimes honk at me. And then you pull forward, depriving me of the generosity you just offered, cruising past in contempt.

It's much easier if you just flash your lights at me, the way cars do when they are signalling to each other. I know what the lights thing means. I don't know what "slowing way down but not stopping and then lurching forward bit by bit" means. It could mean anything.

That's all. Thank you for having me, and good night!

EDIT: I am now reliably informed that a single flash of the headlights does not mean "go ahead, other road user" in the UK. Many thanks for the correction, it will probably end up saving my bacon some day...

Related to this, another "nice driver" thing that annoys me - stopping your car so I can cross the road.

Thanks, but I really don't want to push my toddler's buggy in front of your car. I'd rather wait until you've passed and go behind you. Oh, and as long as you're waving your hand I'll keep shaking my head and smiling.

Smile and wave, smile and wave, and if it gets verbal reply in Welsh saying "My mother told me never to speak to strangers"

works every time*

*except in places where they speak Welsh.

 

[mjr]

I must have missed the 'South East' edition of the Highway Code......

No worries. It's basically the Toddler Highway Code.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I've had a car in the process of overtaking me flash out a car from a side road on the left.
I'd rather they just didn't do it. The flasher (ooh err) is making themselves responsible for everything that happens thereafter, and creating an unpredictable situation.

Plus, if you're a cynic like me - A car may flash you out, and another may object to it and mow you down.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

No, that's still being debated, and it isn't universally accepted as a singular pronoun.

One may chose one's own pronouns nowadays.

A new team member did it at work the other day, in a scene straight out of Billionaires "Hi. My name is Jo. My pronoun is they. nice to meet you all". And yes I had to explain to colleagues what Jo meant by this.

The use of they as singular pronoun has been in common English usage since well before the second world war.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

She says her name is Jack.

View attachment 362083

You just never know these days.

My late uncle Jack always said his name was Jack but actually his given name was John. He was born in the 1900's. So less of the these days. People may choose their names, and names are only regarded as being gender-specific by tradition. And tradition is fluid.

I once met a French woman who rejoiced in being called Gregoire. When I asked why she said "Because I am named for St Gregory the Great."

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I've had a car in the process of overtaking me flash out a car from a side road on the left.
I'd rather they just didn't do it. The flasher (ooh err) is making themselves responsible for everything that happens thereafter, and creating an unpredictable situation.

Plus, if you're a cynic like me - A car may flash you out, and another may object to it and mow you down.

Back when I first took up motorcycling a car slowed and flashed me out of a junction. and then drove straight into me. The driver was flashing the car at the next junction close by and hadn't even registered my presence. One lives thank God, and learns.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

One may chose one's own pronouns nowadays.

A new team member did it at work the other day, in a scene straight out of Billionaires "Hi. My name is Jo. My pronoun is they. nice to meet you all". And yes I had to explain to colleagues what Jo meant by this.

The use of they as singular pronoun has been in common English usage since well before the second world war.

Yet its use is still being disputed, so clearly not everyone agrees it's valid. Anyway, I don't want to start an argument, or take the thread off topic, so no further comment from me.