What really gets your goat while driving?

[Archie_tect]

You would hate my Mother's driving then! She's the Queen of ditherers!

Frankly, it terrifies me. Whenever I have to get into the passenger seat with her driving, I go all giddy and prepare for death.

Sometimes I just shut my eyes and go as limp as possible - they say that's the best way to minimise injury in the event of an accident!

My Mother has written off four cars in ten years.

Her party-trick is to turn onto dual carriageways facing the wrong way ... at this point the blood drains from my entire body and I start repenting of my sins in readiness to meet my Maker ... Last time she did that, instead of keeping calm and doing a U-turn ASAP, she freaked out!

Perhaps it's time to have her licence taken away by a nice man in a black uniform XM... just like my dad, who I'm trying to persuade to stop because he's profoundly deaf and an accident waiting to happen ...on medical grounds [mental incapacity, anything really], just to get him off the road before he kills someone.

 

[XmisterIS]

Perhaps it's time to have her licence taken away by a nice man in a black uniform XM... just like my dad, who I'm trying to persuade to stop because he's profoundly deaf and an accident waiting to happen ...on medical grounds [mental incapacity, anything really], just to get him off the road before he kills someone.

The thing is, my mum is not actually that old, all things considered! She's only just turned 70. The other thing is that she has always driven like that! She passed her test when she was 52, that's the problem. In the 18 years that she's been driving I think she's had nine accidents, all her fault, and the four write-offs in the last 10 years!

 

[PaulB]

The thing is I leave far more space than most people & this is one of the many issues I almost never see. It's one of the reasons people who are driven to places by me if make comments always say that some how the drive is more relaxed, less eventful, surprisingly quick & feels safer compared to other people. So go ahead, call me unpleasant, a berk or a plank... hell call me all of them if you wish. I'll just keep on getting to my destination sooner, using less fuel, more relaxed & continue to be the one asked to drive by friends & family.

Since you grant me the permission, kind sir, then I re-iterate that you are deeply unpleasant, a plank and a berk and I should hate it if I were ever to be forced to spend more than 30 seconds in your company.

 

[Crankarm]

The thing is I leave far more space than most people & this is one of the many issues I almost never see. It's one of the reasons people who are driven to places by me if make comments always say that some how the drive is more relaxed, less eventful, surprisingly quick & feels safer compared to other people. So go ahead, call me unpleasant, a berk or a plank... hell call me all of them if you wish. I'll just keep on getting to my destination sooner, using less fuel, more relaxed & continue to be the one asked to drive by friends & family.

Since you grant me the permission, kind sir, then I re-iterate that you are deeply unpleasant, a plank and a berk and I should hate it if I were ever to be forced to spend more than 30 seconds in your company.

You two having a lovers' tiff ?

 

[Crankarm]

Perhaps it's time to have her licence taken away by a nice man in a black uniform XM... just like my dad, who I'm trying to persuade to stop because he's profoundly deaf and an accident waiting to happen ...on medical grounds [mental incapacity, anything really], just to get him off the road before he kills someone.

The thing is, my mum is not actually that old, all things considered! She's only just turned 70. The other thing is that she has always driven like that! She passed her test when she was 52, that's the problem. In the 18 years that she's been driving I think she's had nine accidents, all her fault, and the four write-offs in the last 10 years!

Coffin dodgers have lately given me a few scares. There should really be a mandatory re-test at 70 years maybe even 65 years old which should be free and a retest every two years again free.

On saturday I saw two old biddies who looked like sisters not a day under 90 years old in a scraped and scratched blue Pug 306 cruising around town. They were both immaculately dressed in what looked like 1930/40s clothing and had ghostly make up on with copious amounts of rouge. Yuck. Anway the younger one must have been driving pulled away from a T junction in 3rd gear revving the engine like mad. The smell of burning clutch warranted the fire brigade. She then speed off as she let the clutch out fully to immediately slam the brakes on to pull into the nearside nearly taking out a comparatively youthful guy on a mobility scooter and causing a pedestrian on the pavement on which the car now was to jump for their life. Watching them, they were oblivious to those and traffic around them. The passenger door was swung open nearly knocking some else over. The remaining driver then pulled away slowly with a lot of noise and no indication or check to see if it were clear. Cars around just stopped hoping the old biddy wouldn't hit them .

 

[Over The Hill]

Dawdlers who drive slower than me. Maniacs who drive faster than me.

But mostly twats in silly little petrol cars who overtake you but then start to slow down when you get to a hill and get annoyed when my Diesel car can get up the hill and overtake them without slowing down.

 

[bonj2]

I had someone do this on the M25 to me one night. I'd moved over with a few hundred yards to spare (in a lorry, you tend to do everything early) and he came up the inside at the last second and cut in front of me. When I flashed my lights, his response was to hit his brakes. So I thought "well, I've got my cruise control on, it's not my truck ... why should I slow down?". I must have got to within a couple of feet of his bumper before he realised what was going to happen and took off. Naughty, I know, but quite satisfying.

because by deliberately crashing you could have injured him or killed him.
alternatively, because he could have been kenneth noye mark 2 and got out, picked a fight, and killed YOU.

your arrogant, bullying attitude is not surprising at all going by the dangerous, selfish manner in which a lot of lorries are driven.

Why is it that the supposedly professional drivers are such BAD drivers?

The worst driving i have encountered recently has been not from cars but from lorries and buses.
(a) when cycling, a SCHOOL bus behind, which decided that the fact i was in primary position wasn't going to stop him overtaking and decided to barge his way past anyway, almost forcing me into the kerb, and certainly forcing me to slam my brakes on.
( in the car overtaking a sainsbury's lorry on the A1 which i was about level with the front of the trailer of, decided he wanted to overtake as well, because i hadn't got out of his way within 3 seconds of him putting his indicator on, decided he'd try to kill me by pulling out anyway, seemingly oblivious - but i doubt he was unaware of my presence, just didn't care. Again, had to slam my brakes on hard to avoid getting shunted into the central reservation.

it's scary to think that someone with your attitude is behind the wheel of something weighing that many tonnes, but it just confirms that the way they drive IS actually because they actually ARE that arrogant.

 

[bonj2]

No, the people who drive all the way to where the cones start tapering out the lane then try and force their way over are tossers and deserve not to be let in.

the signs say, USE BOTH LANES WHEN QUEUING
The purpose being to maximise the use of the road that is available.
Your attitude is typical of the driver that thinks he OWNS the road in front of him, and that other drivers must have your permission to be let into "YOUR" lane.

 

[bonj2]

When I had my old beetle I used to try that on motorways on the outer lane to prevent the arrogant ones pushing in at the last second up against the lane closure cones...but trying it in a car is much harder as the drivers of the BMW/Mercedes/Audi that you hold up always get right up behind and give you loads of abuse and squeeze past up the grass with a glare and a screech of rubber...pathetic. Mind you in a beetle they would never try the "I'm pushing in here whatever you do" trick as they'd be terrified that you'd scratch their big, shiny cars.

If they'd just learn to merge in turn when they get to the roadworks instead of forcing their way to the front just because they can.

[Edit: It's Plax.... naughty person]

I'm more easy going now and just think they're the ones who'll have a heart attack through stress when they're in their 40s... best chilling out!

getting into the 'correct' lane early is only necessary because most people DON'T know the meaning of 'merge in turn', or rather, refuse to implement it.

 

[bonj2]

Sod off. I am generally pretty co-operative when driving, but I cannot stand arrogant tossers who basically want to force their way to the front of a queue. Typically where the carriageway narrows down by a lane, because of roadworks or whatever it is, it is signed well in advance. Most drivers start to merge well in advance, which is what's needed, and everyone can be merged smoothly well in advance. There are a minority who scream up to the last possible point where their lane disappears into nothing and then try and force their way over. Why the feck should I co-operate with anyone who has deliberately left it to that point?

It is the sort of drivers that elect themselves as custodian of the road and take it upon themselves to police other drivers and teach them a lesson like you obviously do that form the majority of the bad driving on the road today.
Traffic jams are exacerbated by arrogant idiots like you that get all haughty and feel aggrieved that another driver has got one over on you, and then become obsessed with getting in front of him, blocking him, or inconveniencing him in some other way - and while you're concentrating on that, you're not concentrating on other hazards that there may be on the road, and you're sending your own blood pressure AND his blood pressure higher, leading to more stress and bad driving.

 

[bonj2]

So you're not actually a cooperative driver then. The thing is if you actually cooperate by leaving a proper gap this whole perceived problem never happens in the first place, it's odd that really isn't it. All filtering in early does is reduce the road capacity.

Exactly. Who decides on this magical distance that should be left - 10 yards? 100 yards? A mile? It's just a waste of road. It's tossers like domd that seek to compensate for the ignorance of the majority but somehow feel hard done by for their perceived need for 'defensiveness' soto make them feel better then decide to actually contribute to the ignorance which they feel the need to compenate for.

 

[domd1979]

Why is it that the supposedly professional drivers are such BAD drivers?

The worst driving i have encountered recently has been not from cars but from lorries and buses..

They're not. In general HGVs and PCVs are pretty well driven. The accident stats also suggest they are more safely driven.

 

[domd1979]

the signs say, USE BOTH LANES WHEN QUEUING

Which signs are they then?

 

[bonj2]

Which signs are they then?

the ones that were on the A1 south at the roadworks at blyth.

 

[amnesia]

Drivers who stop at roundabouts when there is nothing coming from the right.

Sorry ladies, but it is usually the fairer sex who do this in my experience.