Today Old People are Really Getting on my Wick

[Vapin' Joe]

Young people are w@nkers.

 

[User269]

What is a cyclist doing in a car?

Good point.............especially as cyclists don't even pay road tax!

 

[FishFright]

• Teens = Highest Risk Group: For every mile driven, teens between the ages of 16 and 19 are four times as likely to be involved in a car crash
• Teenage Car Fatalities: 5,000 teens in the 16 to 20 age group die each year as a result of a car crash
• Teenage Car Injuries: 400,000 teens in the same age group are injured each year in car accidents
• Disproportionate Population / Fatality Ratio: Teens make up 10% of the population but represent 12% of car crash fatalities
• Cost: 30% or $26 billion per year in costs are accounted for by drivers under the age of 24
• Driving Habits: Teenagers are more likely to speed, tailgate and only 10% report wearing seatbelts
• Teen Male Drivers: Of male drivers ages 15 to 20 killed in car crashes, 38% were speeding and 24% were under the influence of alcohol
• High Risk Age Groups: People between the ages of 15 and 24 and over 75 are the groups most likely affected by car accidents
• Senior Drivers: Drivers over the age of 65 are second most likely to die in a car crash
• Safety Disparity: Despite the fact that older drivers are on average slower, safer drivers, they are more likely to die in a car accident than younger drivers

Teens = a freaking nightmare unless you are one

 

[FishFright]

Young people are w@nkers.

If anyone wants to dispute this fact first ask who ever washes their bed linen

 

[Pale Rider]

Whatever the OP is, it is not ageist.

Too often, the hard of thinking bellow some 'ist' or 'ism' at somebody just because they don't like what that person is saying.

There is no discrimination here, merely an observation of driving and a report of a conversation.

The comment about some elderly drivers hanging on to their licences for too long is a live debating point, no more.

It's a remark I've heard from a couple of friends as their parents get older, and the difficulty of suggesting to mum or dad it might be time to pack in driving.

 

[Tin Pot]

The really annoying thing about old people is the constant reminder they are that life does not, in fact, keep getting better. Nor do we gradually attain wisdom and grace merely by virtue of age.

And yet we still yearn to respect our elders.

 

[Threevok]

I've had several encounters with the bad driving of older people

Trouble is; because I am too young to remember them when they were young; I have no way of comparing their driving skills now to then.

For all I know, they could have been crap drivers all their lives.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

We all get old, or die trying. Cut 'em some slack.

 

[Dave7]

.....and while we are at it, why don't other cyclists wave back at me when they pass?

Because you werent wearing a helmet

 

[Milzy]

• Teens = Highest Risk Group: For every mile driven, teens between the ages of 16 and 19 are four times as likely to be involved in a car crash
• Teenage Car Fatalities: 5,000 teens in the 16 to 20 age group die each year as a result of a car crash
• Teenage Car Injuries: 400,000 teens in the same age group are injured each year in car accidents
• Disproportionate Population / Fatality Ratio: Teens make up 10% of the population but represent 12% of car crash fatalities
• Cost: 30% or $26 billion per year in costs are accounted for by drivers under the age of 24
• Driving Habits: Teenagers are more likely to speed, tailgate and only 10% report wearing seatbelts
• Teen Male Drivers: Of male drivers ages 15 to 20 killed in car crashes, 38% were speeding and 24% were under the influence of alcohol
• High Risk Age Groups: People between the ages of 15 and 24 and over 75 are the groups most likely affected by car accidents
• Senior Drivers: Drivers over the age of 65 are second most likely to die in a car crash
• Safety Disparity: Despite the fact that older drivers are on average slower, safer drivers, they are more likely to die in a car accident than younger drivers

Well start driving lessons at 20 then, but ban 65+

 

[User10119]

Perhaps she was already finding the situation a bit stressful, and you just caught her badly at a bad moment.

Of course, that could kinda go both ways... maybe the OP was just having a bit of a pants day and got tetchy and needed a nice cathartic RANT.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I can see why this has struck a chord and caused some offence. My usual posts are humourous, as this was genuinely intended to be. However this time my creative writing wasn’t spot on and I have delivered this one a little close to the bone. I’m holding my hands up here and accept the criticism.

I don’t dislike old people and at 43, I’m not exactly young either. I have a handful of mentors who are old now too. Some of the oldies on here I am fond of too. Trust me, I do not discriminate and I would have had the same conversation with anyone who was rude or didn’t thank me for making their life easier. As for bad drivers that’s a given. Ask my neighbour’s teenage boy. I tend to be more direct than is the cultural norm in the U.K. which over the years has illicited some interesting reactions. But I have my boundaries and I can look after myself. Very un British I know.

The serious slant on today’s encounter was that there is no way in Nellie this old boy would pass a driving test or even make the mark of being an average driver. If he can’t even get out of a simple parking space, how the devil is he going to react to an incident on our ever-worsening roads? He couldn’t. I sure hope that by the time I reach his situation, I have the gumption to hang up my keys. For the sake of myself and other road users. Particularly vulnerable peds, cyclists and motor cycles. The issue of his wife having no common manners is by the by.

 

[Milzy]

Well a few days ago I witnessed a women in her 80’s Park up in the middle of the road. She thought she was next to the curb. It’s alright though because she passed a test 60 years ago. The test where you drove around the block and parked back up, less than 5 mins.

 

[User10119]

It was utterly terrifying the last couple of years before my dad finally hung up the car keys. He continued to drive, I believe, from a sense of entitlement that overrode his (diminishing) sense of responsibility. I had avoided travelling in a vehicle with him, or allowing my children to do so, for a few years before he hung up the keys. My mum got rid of her car, a year or so ago which given her very (very!) limited mobility means she is now effectively housebound. I suspect that her last 'big' journey in it was taking my sister to go wedding dress shopping and I was perfectly happy to accompany her - she stopped at the point where she found the experience too anxiety-inducing while still being a pretty reasonable driver.

I decided at around 30 not to try driving again, after my second ever driving lesson - the first was when I was 17. I simply don't have the skills and don't want the responsibility for manoeuvring a tonne of metal box around in public places. My spatial awareness, peripheral vision, proproception and visual processing are all a bit pants and I realised that the cognitive load of working out what on earth I was looking at in a blinking rear view mirror meant I had no concentration left for anything else. I am informed by many that it all gets easier and I probably could have learned how to drive, eventually, and probably even pass a test. But I decided that something that I found THAT difficult, and where the consequences of not getting it right were so significant, was probably not meant to be.

 

[sight-pin]

I wouldn't tar everyone with the same brush, theirs good and bad with young and old drivers IMO. Insurance premiums are much higher with younger drivers than older for some reason or other.