Too many idiots on the road!

Harry_Flashman

Too many idiots? Too many folk with no driving experience or qualifications who feel able to pontificate on driving!

anewman

mikey72 wrote: »

If there was nothing in the second lane, as he undertook you, why were you in the third?

Some w@nchors are more likely to take a short a gap as possible to do as such though than the average driver would consider safe/or not cause anyone in the second lane to brake.

Agree with the sentiment though and yes if you see these cars coming up behind you, do try and move into the lane to the left as soon as you've passed the vehicle beside you.

alastairq

I was taught to treat everyone on the road as idiots touch wood havent had a accident in 30 years driving

gosh..is that all?

Plenty of time then to create a potential accident situation?

I utterly resent the idea that so many of you lot would consider me an idiot when you come across me on the road.

I certainly don't consider any of you lot as idiots, when I interact with you out there.

Perhaps I should start?

Or perhaps not?

Because, the use of the term 'idiot' rather sets the emotional tone of our driving.

The ultimate expression of emotive driving is road rage.....!

Perhaps we all should pay more attention to assessing our own driving skills... especially when having had a close-quarters situation occur.

But the problem with that is, out of all the drivers/riders out on the roads, only an incredibly tiny minority actually possess the skills and abilities to conduct that self-assessment.

The rest of us blunder along in a mist of urban myth and misunderstanding.....somehow managing not to create carnage in our wakes.

On a driving test [which must represent the ultimate arbiter when reviewing a driving practice?].....no candidate will receive a serious fault because another road user makes a mistake.

But..that candidate will acquire a serious fault [or two] if they fail to cope with that mistake.!

And by coping, I mean , in a comfortable, drama-free manner....

Too many road users pass judgement upon the activities of others, when they themselves are least qualified to do so, and are not in possession of the facts, as seen by that other party.

A classic example can occur, when one is stuck, several cars back, behind a large , slower-moving vehicle.

How many times have we cursed the driver up front for not overtaking when, to us, it is ''obviously'' clear and safe to do so?

But.....do we ever consider what sort of view ahead the leading car has, around that large vehicle?

Or, how much skill or experience the driver has?

Or how that car will perform?

Or what that driver can actually see, which we cannot [because we are further back?]

Indeed, are they in fact employing far more driver skill than we would ever dream of possessing, and have seen a problem developing which we would never have detected in a month of Sundays, until it was smacking us in the headlights?

I suspect few of us would ever consider even one of those issues......and most would simply be branding that driver as an 'idiot'....like all the others?

For sure, there are many road users out there who do things which compromise us and our safe conduct...some out of ignorance, some out of inexperience, and some out of sheer nastiness or selfishness.

It is not what they do that matters.....how comfortably we cope with them is what is important.

Lum

alastairq wrote: »

A classic example can occur, when one is stuck, several cars back, behind a large , slower-moving vehicle.

How many times have we cursed the driver up front for not overtaking when, to us, it is ''obviously'' clear and safe to do so?

But.....do we ever consider what sort of view ahead the leading car has, around that large vehicle?

Most of the time when I encounter this sort of driver and curse them, it's because they are so close to the HGV that they wont be able to see a damn thing, even on a 5 mile straight.

Or, how much skill or experience the driver has?

All you can go off there is observations of how they were driving previously and how they are driving now. You do tend to develop a sort of sixth sense (my GF refers to it as "idiot sense") that lets you know with a surprising degree of accuracy when someone is about to do something stupid. Mine does have a number of false positives but I can live with that.

Or how that car will perform?

Most cars aren't modified so this one isn't too hard if you have an interest in cars. Even the modified ones there are often clues.


My real gripe with the queue of cars behind an HGV situation is when you have 3 or 4 people who clearly have no intention of overtaking, all tailgating each other and the HGV effectively extending the length of that HGV by removing the opportunity to leap frog. Just leave a gap if you don't want to overtake, I do it all the time when driving crap cars and/or carrying heavy loads, there is no pride to be lost in doing it.

Homersimpson

Sounds like you need to get some "Surface to !!!!!!" missiles fitted to your car!

Wkdwill wrote: »

DH wants me to do driving lessons, but im not so sure I want to anymore.

There are just so many idiots on the road, I dont know if its just us that attract them or if we are just unlucky, a few examples

Last year DH was driving home from work, entered a roundabout at the same time as a woman to the left of him, she took the first exit, must have realised it was the wrong one the swerved back into the round about, hitting DH, sending him spinning across the round about, then she drove off.

Last month, on the motorway in the fast lane doing the speed limit when this idiot in his fancy !!! car came steaming up behind us, flashing his headlights, beeping the horn at us, when DH wouldn't move into the next lane the idiot undertook us, opened his window and called DH a w*nker (with his hand) then drove off, within 15 seconds you couldn't see him ahead.

This weekend just gone, FIL was driving, a bridge round the corner from us has a single lane road running under it, going up the hill you have priority, we were going up the hill, with a car on the other side waiting to come through, the car infront of us passed the woman on the other side, then she set off, came speeding through taking out FILs wing mirror, she didnt stop.

Again this weekend, driving on a two lane road, the lane at the right of us stopped a bit further up due to road works, as we were nearing the part where the right lane stops this idiot in his chavved up car comes racing up the right hand lane, swerves straight in front of DH causing him to hit the brakes, then has the cheek to stick fingers up, then as we carried on driving down the road behind him, he kept hitting on the brakes, making DH brake, during all this (long busy road) I spotted he had a young child in the back.

There have been more than this but I cant possibly list them all, im just wondering, is it really worth learning to drive with so many idiots on the road or are we just really unlucky?

sdavi3680

I've no doubt the reason your hubby got given the finger by the chav cutting in front of you when 2 lanes turned to 1 is because he is one of those idiots that refuse to let others in. Speeding up, or trying to get so close to the car in front so there is no room to merge. Otherwise why would he have given you the finger, unless he was just responding to your car flashing and sounding the horn at him.