What really gets your goat while driving?

[domd1979]

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.

Making rather a lot of assumptions there about my driving you know nothing about. If you can't see that people driving round trying to barge their way into traffic flow at the last possible second is bad driving, not to mention dangerous, then feck off.

 

[domd1979]

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

Fascinating.

 

[bonj2]

Making rather a lot of assumptions there about my driving you know nothing about. If you can't see that people driving round trying to barge their way into traffic flow at the last possible second is bad driving, not to mention dangerous, then feck off.

i'm not talking about 'barging' in, i'm talking about pulling in safely when there is a suitable gap or when being 'let' in. But tailgating the car in front when you're already in the continuing lane so as not to let someone who's done that in, is just childish. I'm inferring that that's what you do, as it is evidenced by the tone of your post which is of an attitude of disdain to those who leave it to the last minute, so don't try to deny it.
When i used to commute to bradford there was always this situation at the end of the M606 before they redid the junction, but it was even worse, the 'spare' lane was about half a mile long, so people (like you) were especially aggrieved and would make an extra special effort to make sure you didn't get in. I used to do the exact opposite of barging in, i just used to sit there patiently waiting with my indicator on. It was an average of about 10 cars that would pass before someone would actually positively let me in by flashing. Probably another fellow spare lane user who had pulled in slightly before. It was a fun guessing game, to see how many cars it would be today before i'd be let in.

 

[TheDoctor]

What annoys me when driving?
18 year-olds who passed their test a month ago and are now self appointed experts.
People who drive up the hard shoulder in order to get to the front of a traffic queue.
Anyone in a 1000cc Corsa/Saxo/106 with a tailpipe the size of the Blackwall Tunnel, and a stereo that's got a greater power output than the engine.

 

[bonj2]

As I said, he doesn't know what he is talking about. Bonj if some-one is dumb enough to brake test a 44 tonne artic then more fool them.

course it's dumb, but it doesn't mean the lorry driver has a mandate to appoint himself judge, jury and (possibly literally) executioner.

 

[Plax]

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!

Eh? Care to explain how I'm a naughty person in the context of your post?
I'm presuming it is in relation to my earlier post, the section of which I have copied below for your benefit.

I'm clearly not seeing the bit where I wrote "and I zoom up the outside lane and push my way in the front at the last minute". I merge in turn, allowing a decent enough gap in front of me for other vehicles to themselves merge in front of me.

What I hate are outside lane blockers who prevent other people from making decent progress (and by decent progress I mean utilising both lanes for as long as safely possible and merging in turn as outlined in the Highway Code - rule 134 I believe). They block the outside lane often well before the road works and themselves cause a disruption to the flow of traffic. If people want to sit in the inside lane of a tailback a few miles before the road works start then so be it, but who are they to deliberately block other drivers from making progress in the outside lane? If everyone used both lanes as they should then there wouldn't be a tailback miles long in the first place exacerbated by idiot outside lane blockers. If drivers feel affronted by having sat in a queue for hours, right up the bum of the car in front then boo hoo. If they had used both lanes and left a gap in front of them as illustrated by pretty pictures on the merge in turn signs usually found at said road works I'm pretty certain they'd get where they want quicker and the IAM seems to have come to the same conclusion: http://www.iam.org.uk/pressroom/newsarchive/News+relese+28+September+2007.htm

In the below example where I said "It made me laugh as I kind of didn't blame them (it seriously added about 15-20+ minutes extra to your journey time if you didn't manage to get to the road works before idiot lane blocker), but afterwards I felt bad as the 2 other car drivers were idiots too." was in the context of having not got to the road works before idiot lane blocker. If I left home circa 5 minutes later than normal for example, I usually got stuck in the tailback exacerbated by aforementioned idiot outside lane blocker. The flow of traffic was *always* much improved in his absence.

At roadworks on dual carriageways I also hate the idiots that will block the outside lane miles before the road merges into one lane. There was one idiot that used to do this every morning on my way to work. One morning I saw somebody get fed up and force him out of the way by partially overtaking him half on the outside lane and half on the outside lane verge. So idiot lane blocker was effectively stuck in the middle of the inside and outside lanes. Shortly afterwards another car, having seen this decided to do exactly the same. It made me laugh as I kind of didn't blame them (it seriously added about 15-20+ minutes extra to your journey time if you didn't manage to get to the roadworks before idiot lane blocker), but afterwards I felt bad as the 2 other car drivers were idiots too.

In a similar vein I also hate cars that deliberately close the gap between them and the car in front at roadworks. Signs say merge in turn. So if people used both lanes properly and actually did merge in turn then it would be a darned site quicker.

 

[bonj2]

but the idiot in the car has the god given right to brake test a truck.

no he doesn't lee. Brake testing is stupid.
But two wrongs don't make a right do they. As a professional driver you should know that, but it's depressingly unsurprising that you choose to ignore it.

 

[bonj2]

Ignore what? Where have I said that I would do that. Just trying to make you see that it's not all black & white on the highways.

well, you appeared to be condoning it by saying "more fool them", implying they deserve to be ploughed into.
it would have been better to just say you agree with me in the first place, like it's impossible not to, but it appears you're too glib to bother.

 

[XmisterIS]

What annoys me when driving?
18 year-olds who passed their test a month ago and are now self appointed experts.
People who drive up the hard shoulder in order to get to the front of a traffic queue.
Anyone in a 1000cc Corsa/Saxo/106 with a tailpipe the size of the Blackwall Tunnel, and a stereo that's got a greater power output than the engine.

Oh yes ... they're the ones who see me on my motorbike at the lights and think they'll have a go ... they seem oblivious to the phrase "power-to-weight ratio".

 

[Rhythm Thief]

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.

etc.

Thought that'd get you . He chose to slow down in front of me, leaving me very little room to manoevre. While I'm not the bullying type, it does annoy me when I get brake tested like that.

 

[Plax]

Thought that'd get you . He chose to slow down in front of me, leaving me very little room to manoevre. While I'm not the bullying type, it does annoy me when I get brake tested like that.

I saw some idiot cut straight in front of an artic lorry at road works a few weeks back. Driver had to brake hard as evidenced by the back end of his lorry very slightly fish tailing. I think the lorry driver was well pissed off as he then tailgated the car for the remainder of the road works.
Naturally Mr Plax and I thought he was a dim wit (the car driver that is) as the idiot could have caused a serious accident, and yet still probably carried on driving unscathed, and the cars behind the lorry - me for example - would have had to have dealt with the aftermath and possibly have been injured as a result.

 

[bonj2]

Thought that'd get you . He chose to slow down in front of me, leaving me very little room to manoevre. While I'm not the bullying type, it does annoy me when I get brake tested like that.

...so to punish the person who's annoyed you, you decide to bully them. But it's ok because you're "not the bullying type".

 

[Archie_tect]

It's crazy how irate people get just chatting about driving cars... sad isn't it?

Keep a Cadbury's Caramel in the side pocket of your door and relax... won't get there significantly quicker once you're in a tailback, unless you have a heart attack due to the stress and end up in an air ambulance.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

...so to punish the person who's annoyed you, you decide to bully them. But it's ok because you're "not the bullying type".

To be honest, I actually had very little time to do anything. It came to a split second choice between braking quite heavily with a lightly loaded trailer (an easy way to lose control on a damp motorway), or holding the thing in a straight line and possibly nudging the back bumper of the twat who'd brake tested me at perhaps a five or ten mph speed differential. I've seen the aftermath of a lorry driver braking and swerving to avoid a brake tester (M1, seven or eight years ago when a tank transporter hopped the central reservation) and it's a lot less pretty than a damaged back bumper on a chavved up Citroen Oxo.

 

[slowmotion]

It's crazy how irate people get just chatting about driving cars... QUOTE]

Some people seem to get fairly irate just chatting about riding their bikes...