Road rage!!!

Lum

That was my Middle Lane Owners Club site, it's meant to be satire and you certainly shouldn't be using the terminology from it as it's all wrong.
I added a small update to it last night actually. There's now an "indicator stress test" procedure: Indicators need a good stress test. Ideally you should find a long straight dual carriageway, drive in the right hand lane and turn your left indicator on. Keep going in a straight line for a minimum of 20 miles (30 minutes). Perform a U turn at a suitable turning point, then turn your right indicator on and return home.

Lirin wrote: »

Would be very easy to get outraged about other drivers....

Had a car last night who tried repeatedly to undertake, despite the fact there was no room in either lane- rush hour traffic, and a motorway 20 miles long- pretty much remains gridlocked for a bit.

Used to get stunts like than on the M4 in Wales all the time a few years back.

At rush hour, L1 would be nose to tail lorries at 55mph, L2 would be intermittent lorries at 56mph and the odd person who wanted to drive slowly and L3 would be commuters at 70-90 mph.

Occasionally someone in L3 would decide this wasn't fast enough and would try to undertake in L2 when there was a suitable gap between lorries, at which point everyone who saw this would bunch up and leave them stuck there. Used to make my day.

Not like that any more though, what with the perma-roadworks and the impendeng "Managed Motorways" system. I just take the single track lanes instead, they're quicker.

adouglasmhor

I was leaving the car park at my flats this morning and a car was stopped and empty in the exit with lights on and engine running - a private hire car was next to it also with lights on and facing the wall next to the exit.
A couple of minutes after I pulled up behind it along with another driver in her car behind me. A vision in a short kimono leapt out of the passenger seat of the taxi, unfortunatley for me it was a twink guy, I can only presume they were having a homosexual liason and got carried away.

juno

Lum wrote: »

That was my Middle Lane Owners Club site, it's meant to be satire and you certainly shouldn't be using the terminology from it as it's all wrong.

I know it's all wrong. I thought the rest of my post made that perfectly clear.

dizzybuff

People who do not do lifesavers ,why dont they teach car drivers to take that one last glance , instead of thinking they have diplomatic immunity because they are signalling.

Signalling is an indication of what you with to do , not a god dam given right.

Lum

On that note. The huge visibility problems in modern cars such as my works Mondeo. Massive A pillars, even bigger C pillars and stubbly little environmentally friendly mirrors with blind spot eliminators about the size of a 20p piece.

You really do have to work hard to do a full blind spot check and there are a couple of awkward junctions I have to use where the minor road is almost parallel to the major road that are basically impossible to enter safely in the Mondeo unless I do a van driver style straighten up and treat it as a 90 degree T junction.

It really doesn't surprise me that many Mondeo drivers just decide they can't see any cars so lets just plough in.

pulliptears

Jag drivers who can see you are about to come off a slip road onto a dual carriageway and then pull into the clear lane forcing you to slam your anchors on to avoid the idiot.

Strider590

Lum wrote: »

It really doesn't surprise me that many Mondeo drivers just decide they can't see any cars so lets just plough in.

Nah, they're just sales reps and victims of the recession.... They used to drive BMW 3 series fleet cars, but are now reduced to "Mondeo status" which rather than making them drive like less of a tw4t, actually makes them feel they have their reputation to uphold :rotfl:

crittertog

I'm sure I could write a book with my list of annoyances, but ...

Failing to indicate - not only can it contribute to/cause accidents, but indicating allows other road users to plan for your intended actions.

Tailgating - just plain dangerous. Especially silly when the vehicle being tailgated is travelling at the speed limit on "normal" roads (as opposed to dual carriageways or motorways) - just drop back to a safe distance so you can see past them, and pass when you think its safe if you're in that much of a hurry (I'm not advocating speeding here, just saying).

Failing to allow vehicles to enter from a slip-road. I often see cars travelling on slow dual-carriageways (30-40mph) deliberately reduce the gap with the car in front to less than a car's length to prevent traffic on the slip-road entering, leaving some poor devil stuck at the end of the slip-road trying to do 0-40mph in not very long.

People who seem to think it's a good idea to overtake on a blind bend or blind summit.

Motorcyclists who seem to think that it's fine to pass stationary traffic whilst being 2-3' onto the wrong side of the road in the face of oncoming traffic, and who refuse to pull in, effectively ending up playing "chicken".

People who fail to give way on congested/obstructed roads (i.e. cars parked solidly down both sides, reducing it to 1 car wide) when someone travelling in the opposite direction is already most of the way down the obstructed section.

Bullying learner drivers - everyone has to start somewhere, and harassing them is only likely to fluster them and make them make more mistakes.

People driving in fog/rain without any lights on at all (and typically driving black cars). Had some berk in a black Alfa do this and try to pass in very heavy rain ... the visibility was so bad, I could only see them because of the glinting of their grille (very dark sky, car blended in with the sodden carriageway, visibility down to way under 25m).

People getting into/out of parked cars despite there being on-coming traffic, causing said car to brake and/or swerve.

kittykarate wrote: »

As part of my walk to work, I have to cross the road half way up a slip road off the A34 (legitimate crossing, has dropped kerbs etc.). It's a tricky place to cross as people are hammering up it at 50mph. About 50% of these don't indicate, so I can start crossing thinking the slip road is clear, and someone pulls on and I have to rush to the other side of the road.

Had that done to me ... car in question was a police traffic patrol car (without the lights/siren on, and not hurrying either).

Strider590

crittertog wrote: »

People who seem to think it's a good idea to overtake on a blind bend or blind summit.

Unfortunately, some people see this as an alternative to the old "stealth overtake".

Stealth overtaking = not using indicator's and doing all your accelerating while behind the car so that by the time they realise your overtaking, its already to late to try to stop you.

I do this (stealth overtake) pretty much all of the time and especially if the driver in front appears to have an issue with being overtaken (I spot them a mile away).

Now....... Overtaking on blind bends is a different kettle of frogs.
Most people can drive fast in a straight line, but slow to a crawl for corners, so I think some fools out there see this as another overtaking opportunity where the car in front cannot (or will not) try to stop you overtaking them.

I might use corners to my advantage by accelerating up behind a car while he's in a corner/bend so that I can pull out and stealth overtake on the exit. BUT never would I consider overtaking through the apex of the bend! That's just plain stupid!

Lum

edit: ^^^^^ The fact that the stealth overtake is even necessary winds me up, as it is a little unfair on those drivers that are more sensible about being overtaken. Yes I do the stealth overtake too. Far too many idiots try to kill you once they realise they're being overtaken.

All that makes me think is what kind of moron puts a pedestrian crossing on a slip road? Slip roads are, by definition, supposed to be free flowing, otherwise they are worthless.

It also complicates the right of way issue, if it were a side road and you started to cross before the car turned then you have right of way as you were in that road before the car was, however a slip road is considered to be part of the main road and thus the cars turning off from the main road probably have right of way, meaning that you technically shouldn't cross if there is any chance than any car on the main road could turn off.

Obviously this doesn't apply if it's a zebra crossing, which is the absolute minimum standard that I would consider acceptable for a crossing on a slip road. If it's just a pair of dropped curbs and a dotted line then no driver is going to see it as no-one would expect to find a crossing in such a stupid place.

You should probably campaign for an upgrade or relocation of that crossing.


Note: I am assuming that the road in question is your typical bypass style dual carriageway and not a 30mph urban dual carriageway or something. A google maps link would be nice here.