**** driving

[swee'pea99]

Don't know if it's the heat, but I've seen more goddawful driving in the last few days than since I don't know when.

Like the Porsche Cayenne that overtook me yesterday, passing me at about 40MPH within 9". If it had been because of a car coming the other way, I would have grumbled about 'would it really hurt you to hold back for a few seconds till there's space to pass safely?', but there wasn't even a car! There was absolutely nothing to prevent him moving out and giving me a clear metre - or three. Other than being a ****.

Another one was even worse. Sitting (in my car) at the front of a queue of cars waiting for the lights. Elderly couple start crossing the road in front of me. The old feller gets across ok, but his missus, leaning heavily on a stick, is slower, and she's only just reached the wing of my car when the lights go from red to flashing amber. I wait, of course, and glance in my mirror to check the bus lane on my left, and sure enough, some **** has decided to overtake all these losers by zooming up the bus lane, and now that the lights have changed, he's accelerating so's to get out ahead of me before the lights go green. Fortunately I had the sun roof open, and shot a hand up and shouted, to attract his attention and hopefully alert her. Fortunately also, it worked. He screeched to a halt and she managed to finish crossing without being, as she certainly would have been, killed.

These people need to have their toys taken away and trashed, and their licenses revoked not just for 12 months but for five years. Word would get around. It would make some of them think twice. ****s.

 

[DCLane]

it seems the heat has gone to people's heads; my commute home on Tuesday through Middleton (Leeds) left me thankful after 3 near-misses in a minute; driver came through one-way only at speed (I braked!), another came up behind as I approached parked cars with an oncoming car on the other side (I braked!) and the 3rd pulled out of a junction about 10 feet from me (big brake, lots of shouting!!).

OK, so I was shifting on the bike, but that's no reason for 3 drivers to endanger life.

My guess is that everyone's hot and bothered, so isn't thinking.

Just remember though ... in March, April, May & June the national public were complaining about the cold, wet days.

 

[Night Train]

I keep coming back to wanting all drivers to have regular retraining and retesting. People who drive as all or part of their job annually, and the rest of us 3-5 yearly.

 

[Brains]

I was driving a fully loaded 17 seater minibus of kids, with a large trailer on the back through Woodford in NE London on Sunday.

a complete cockwomble (white, male, wrong side of 50) in an open top porche overtook me in a space big enough for a motorbike requiring me to take evasive action, which in 4 tonnes of vehicle and passengers is not something you want to repeat.

He then blasted off and did the same thing again to the vehicle ahead.

when he went up a side road I seriously considered following him on the basis of 17 to one was good odds

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Yeah, the chav's seem to be out driving about, got abit of random verbal abuse yesterday when out cycling up near black stone edge. "self-gratification artist" "Arrrr" and a beep just for fun!

 

[Frood42]

I keep coming back to wanting all drivers to have regular retraining and retesting. People who drive as all or part of their job annually, and the rest of us 3-5 yearly.

I was thinking every 10 years, so you can get your photo replaced and re-take a test.

 

[morrisman]

a complete cockwomble (white, male, wrong side of 50)

45 then?

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Remember to vote me in as prime minister...I'll get these losers sorted.

 

[Arch]

Today I was left hooked by a silver BMW. The more unusual as I was driving the works electric truck at the time! No contact, but I had to brake hard.

Then this afternoon we're joining the back of a traffic light queue, and I leave a gap because of an entrance to a yard that has a car hire place, and a couple of other businesses, because there are often people trying to turn in or out. A blue Jag came alongside us in the outside lane, then turned in infront of us. I thought for a moment, she was using the gap I'd thoughtfully left to turn into the yard, but no, she was trying to overtake. Not enough room for her to actually fit into the queue though,so she sat there at an angle, blocking both lanes. My colleague hopped out and gave her an earful (it had been a very hot day, and he was losing his patience with idiots), and we made her edge back out a bit and let us through when traffic moved off.

I don't think it's the weather, I think a lot of driving is atrocious all the time. I'm with NT on retesting and retraining.

Like for the woman who decided on the motorway on Sunday, with about 200 yards to go and at 60-70 mph, where it divides into two lanes going left and two going right, that she didn't want to be in the right hand lane of the left fork, but the left hand lane of the right fork - which happened to be exactly the space we were occupying, with a lane full of traffic on our offside, so nowhere to go. Fortunately, NT's blast on the horn woke her up and she swerved back, to push in in front of the car behind us.

 

[Black Sheep]

I've had a couple of people go from the lane to the right of me, across to the lane to the left of me and back again (or the opposite) on a roundabout I use daily

You'd think that a 90's sports bike with twin exhausts painted in cadbury purple with it's lights on and running at about 6000rpm would be noticeable, but apparently not.

If I quit the motorbike for getting to work, I'm buying an old landy, some scrap steel and welding a nice bumper on the front.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I haven't seen much difference in the bad driving but people seem a lot less patient than normal at the moment.

 

[Night Train]

Heading out today I was driving down the motorway slip road, which becomes lane one on the motorway. A car that was in lane two from the main carriageway wants to be in lane one. Unfortunately lane one was doing around 50mph and this car was doing somewhat less and indicating.
Eventually the driver almost came to a stand still in lane two indicating to be let into lane one. The someone let him in, so he steers into lane one as if pulling into a parking space and then drives on at about 30mph with both lanes on and two going nuts trying to get around him.

That was the second of about 6 instances of dangerous, stupid, and ignorant uses of the car/van I saw on an 8 mile drive. The first was a RLJ van.

 

[I like Skol]

Heading out today I was driving down the motorway slip road, which becomes lane one on the motorway. A car that was in lane two from the main carriageway wants to be in lane one. Unfortunately lane one was doing around 50mph and this car was doing somewhat less and indicating.
Eventually the driver almost came to a stand still in lane two indicating to be let into lane one. The someone let him in, so he steers into lane one as if pulling into a parking space and then drives on at about 30mph with both lanes on and two going nuts trying to get around him.

That was the second of about 6 instances of dangerous, stupid, and ignorant uses of the car/van I saw on an 8 mile drive. The first was a RLJ van.

What I would like to now is who are giving these people their licences because they clearly have no aptitude to use and control the vehicle/weapon they are being let loose in!

One of my bug bears that used to disappoint me everytime when I was driving for a living was the number of people who had been stopped on the hard shoulder for whatever reason but who would pull out straight into the first lane at 10-20mph even though they had a clear hard shoulder to build up speed before moving into the traffic (and they would always stop with their right hand tyres almost touching the rumble strip rather than getting as far left and away from the passing traffic as possible!).

 

[Night Train]

What I would like to now is who are giving these people their licences because they clearly have no aptitude to use and control the vehicle/weapon they are being let loose in!

This is why I am so keen on regular retesting of all licence holders. Anyone who can't pass a driving test shouldn't be on the road.

 

[asterix]

It's yet another reason why robot cars make sense. A lot of driving is done under the influence of emotion rather than any kind of logic. After all why do people risk their lives ( and other people's) overtaking in order to save less than 30 seconds on their journey?

It's a kind of obsessive, if dangerous, entertainment for some that could be replaced by a computer game they could safely indulge in while they were driven equally safely by a robot.