Motons - sometimes that word is so apt...

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Went out for a walk today in the white peak area, 11 miles around Youlegreave and Robin Hoods Stride. Cracking day...on the drive home though...some sheep were stubbornly in the road and NOT moving. All cars came to a halt and...nobody did anything. So after 30 seconds when it became obvious no-one in front was going to do a thing, I got out, ran down the line of cars and shoo'ed the sheep back off the road. Not hard, sheep tend not to be vicious man eating beasties.|

So, all those at the front start to move off, and I jog back to my car. And the driver behind is beeping at my empty car for not moving off with the cars in front.

It was a while since I took my driving test but I'm sure moving cars by telekenesis still isn't on the list.....


So if anyone objects to the "moton" term...any other suggestions for what you call people (a) in front who just stayed glued to their seats or (b) the idiot behind who saw me get out to move the sheep but obviously would lose a memory game against a goldfish.....

 

[Matthew_T]

Some of the things people post on here really cracks me up.

 

[400bhp]

Some of the things people post on here really cracks me up.

Quoted for posterity.

 

[classic33]

Quoted for posterity.

But who's

 

[HLaB]

IMO, its like in a traffic jam, horns are beeping continuously and yet if drivers just looked up they see the car in front can't go anywhere because a red light or other traffic

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Moutons, surely! Motorised mutton.

 

[Slaav]

Quoted for posterity.

Can someone remind me how to spell irony again please?

(Felt that a simple 'like' wasn't sufficient)

 

[eddiemee]

Ha, the OP really does some up why a large proportion of the population are completely useless at looking at/thinking about the world around them. A few years ago I was approaching a T-junction and a lady pulling out of the minor road had the misfortune of having her engine die right in the middle of the junction, blocking most of both lanes. Did the first (or second, third or fourth.....) driver stop? Not a chance. They mostly mounted the pavement in order to drive around the obstruction, and a few sounded their horns. I saw this from about 100m away and by the time I arrived there was still nobody offering to help. So I put my bike on the pavement, helped the lady push her car out of the way, but in doing this we had to stop a few times because of idiots continuing to drive through the exact spot into which we were trying to push the car.

There really is no hope for humanity while people like this live among us.

 

[Hip Priest]

A big accident once happened right in front of me. A lorry went right into the back of a stationery car at unabated speed and flipped it onto the pavement.

I immediately stopped and got out to rush to the driver's aid, but had to wait whilst the cars behind me picked their way through the wreckage, preventing me from crossing the lane.

 

[400bhp]

A big accident once happened right in front of me. A lorry went right into the back of a stationery car at unabated speed and flipped it onto the pavement.

I immediately stopped and got out to rush to the driver's aid, but had to wait whilst the cars behind me picked their way through the wreckage, preventing me from crossing the lane.

 

[Amanda P]

I got out

You did what???!!!

That's where the problem is - no-one seems to think it's possible to actually get out.

 

[Hip Priest]

Oops.

Just habit, sorry.

 

[400bhp]

Oops.

Just habit, sorry.

No need to apologise squire.

 

[Globalti]

I once spent 20 minutes at a street junction in central Paris because drivers entered the junction from all four directions and all blocked each other. Many just sat on their horns and made gestures. Eventually the Gordian knot unravelled when an elderly lady began to panic and pushed the front of her car into the side of another car and began revving up and shoving - at which point the male driver of that car found a way to back out, thus unlocking the whole junction.

This is completely routine in Africa by the way, there people don't seem to have any ability to act in the interest of the greater public and will happily block you for no gain then sit staring ahead of them as if you don't exist.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Very annoying for other motorists when it happens, and entirely a funtion of one of the less fragrant elements of human nature. One does see it happen, although I'm not sure I see the merit of highlighting it on a cycling forum. We cyclists are the very group who are almost entirely unaffected by these gridlocks.

It amuses me how my attitude to these situations differs, depending on whether I'm in a car or on a bicycle. I wish it didn't, but it does. Mr Angry and Mr Smug in one body.

My overall impression is that there are (just) sufficient thoughtful drivers to make these barminesses a great rarity. However, when they do happen, they REALLY happen.

Cars being wider, heavier and less wieldy than bicycles, they can multiply their own effect on traffic flow in a way a bicycle cannot. That is a function of the size of the vehicle, not the intellect or public-spiritedness of the driver. One does see quite a few plug-stupid, selfish cyclists around (Cyclons?), but ther ability to snarl up traffic is limited.