What really gets your goat while driving?

[GrasB]

people who WILL NOT OVERTAKE a slower vehicle in front of them ... but who will not leave a gap either ... so you have to overtake them both at once. (Sometimes, especially on a Sunday, you can get four or five of these in a row - meaning you need about a half mile straight to pass them all).

An extension to that, people who don't understand the performance & vision gap between a 55bhp Ka on the back bumper of a car & 220bhp Exige a few cars lengths back is enough to make a questionable over take into a quick & safe one.

The things that irritate me are people who join the motorway at 35 to 40mph & people at, mostly motorway junction, roundabouts who will not join until there is no traffic on the section of the road they can see. Quickly followed by those who won't let anyone have any room to manoeuvre. eg. stopping 10m back from a drive to let a skip lorry line up in a drive only to have someone drive right up to the back of the skip lorry.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Quickly followed by those who won't let anyone have any room to manoeuvre. eg. stopping 10m back from a drive to let a skip lorry line up in a drive only to have someone drive right up to the back of the skip lorry.

That used to bother me when I first started driving lorries. Now I just continue my manoevre. If they can get out of the way of the trailer in time, fine. If not ... well, it's not my trailer.

 

[XmisterIS]

people who WILL NOT OVERTAKE a slower vehicle in front of them ... but who will not leave a gap either ... so you have to overtake them both at once. (Sometimes, especially on a Sunday, you can get four or five of these in a row - meaning you need about a half mile straight to pass them all).

It's even worse when I'm on my motorbike - I will hang back to see if the lead car overtakes - and you can absolutely guarantee that just as I drop a gear and crank the throttle open, someone in the queue decides they are going to overtake after all ... despite the fact that with the throttle wide open my bike is loud and very hard to ignore!

 

[Dazmeister]

Moving out to the left before making a right turn, in the UK it would be the other way around but it's very annoying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've witnessed a Micra doing this, yes a bloody Micra! I mean...come on, you are not driving 32 tonne lorry.

 

[Dazmeister]

... Oh and people who tailgate you at 70 on dual carriageways until you have finished overtaking and move over. Sometimes they are so close you cannot see the front of their car. If I were a weaker man, I might be tempted to move over more slowly than I otherwise would.

I take my sweet time pulling back in if people do this to me, so impatient!!If only they sat back while you finished your manoeuvre. And I don't hang around either whilst overtaking.

 

[Dazmeister]

People who stop at empty roundabouts.
Can they see something approaching way off in the distance that I can't?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

People who stop at empty roundabouts.
Can they see something approaching way off in the distance that I can't?

My other half does that. She drives up to the roundabout, stops, looks, then goes. With me driving we'd have been 200 yards past the roundabout by the time she's got going again.

 

[GrasB]

It's even worse when I'm on my motorbike - I will hang back to see if the lead car overtakes - and you can absolutely guarantee that just as I drop a gear and crank the throttle open, someone in the queue decides they are going to overtake after all ... despite the fact that with the throttle wide open my bike is loud and very hard to ignore!

I think it's the sound of someone opening up that does it. I hardly get this at all with the Alfa (quick but very quiet) but a lot with the lotus (as opposite to quiet as you can get away with on track days)

 

[simonali]

All of the above apart from the motorbike bit as I don't have one of those!

 

[slowmotion]

Bloody cyclists?

 

[vernon]

Oh and people who tailgate you at 70 on dual carriageways until you have finished overtaking and move over. Sometimes they are so close you cannot see the front of their car. If I were a weaker man, I might be tempted to move over more slowly than I otherwise would.

Swith your lights on and off. They usually interpret this as braking and drop back.

 

[vernon]

two simple but annoying ones.....

1. people who flick fags/litter out of their windows

B. people who's car is so filthy you can't read the number plates.

I'd only want to read the number plates after I've finished reading my texts

 

[vernon]

People not indicating at roundabouts. Drives me insane!

Not that you can trust the intentions of those who are indicating.....

 

[meenaghman]

For tailgaters use your windscreen washers.Usually forces them to have to clean their windscreen and thus slow down and is particularly effective if the tailgater is in a convertible !

I have to agree with Clarkson though.. Caravans shouldn't be allowed on the road. What is it about people who decide to want to tow their house and a sizeable proportion of their worldly possessions around behind them. Apart from the clogging of the roads, its also annoying when you follow them into services and their combined vehicle length means they take up the last unused pump. Now there's an idea for a green tax.. a Caravan tax..

 

[tyred]

Also like to add people who take so long to get moving at a green traffic light that it's turned amber again by the time anyone else can move.