Road Rage - not my fault... I think!

jase1

pacific4130 wrote: »

Perfect example is tailgaters.... When someone is really aggressive and nearly ramming me off the road on a dual-carriageway or motorway, funnily my speed suddenly matches that of the inside car - for several miles. Ha ha!

Only objection I'd have to that is if there were a queue of traffic behind the tailgater ... it's not their fault the driver behind you is an !!!! and there could even be an unmarked police car trying to get somewhere amongst the queue.

If he's on his own, go for your life... but watch out for the poor sod to your left approaching a truck.

CKhalvashi

pacific4130 wrote: »

I think I quite clearly implied that I slow down to match the inside car when some aggressive tw*t thinks they can force me to overtake even faster by hanging 6" off my bumper.

Don't let that get in the way of you being contrary though...

I love to sit in the fast lane with the sat-nav telling me I'm doing 69 (speedo says about 72?!) with something aggressive sitting up my backside! (I've got a sporty-looking MPV with 200bhp, so it don't hang about!)

They pretty quickly back off!

Oh had a lovely chap in Tescos car park the other week, who impatiently sat there while we loaded 20 boxes of Smirnoff, JD, Becks bottles and Martini and £800 of food into 2 cars (we own a bar/restaurant), then put his car so that he thought she couldn't get out, to the right of me, telling her that foreigners driving nice cars (She's got a Jag XF with a fancy playe) annoy him......She did, and first time!

CK

almillar

pacific - it was only an example (yes, that I made up) - if you read again my post does say 'if'. Thanks for spotting that little word Lum.
The point of my posting being that intentionally holding people up is generally a bad idea.

cyclonebri1

Lum wrote: »

I think the reason why things like that get posted is you find that if someone is complaining about a greater than average level of road rage incidents it can sometimes be the case that they may be doing something inconsiderate that is winding folk up.


.

Give that man a cigar, :T:T:T

That's the issue here, everyone has been a victim of some form of road rage, some times you know why, say you've made a mistake, left to small a gap etc etc etc, and sometimes you don't.
You have an idiot that is late, just got fired fell out with his girlfriend ad infinitum.
BUT if it happens often, you really have to ask yourself 2 qusetions.

Why do I attract these winkers??

Is it me???

;)

Fergie42

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Get a dashboard camera!!! £20-£30 on ebay, i have one front and rear. they are plugged into the front and rear car power sockets, turn on and start recording when you turn the ignition on, turn off when you turn the ignition off. Both have rechargeable batteries, You put an SD memory card in and they loop record in 15 minutes segments, then overwrite the oldest file, so you dont have to worry about the card getting full. They also have infrared light which come son automatically. Search ebay for "dashboard camera"

Absolutely brilliant devices!!

WOW......Please god don't ever make guns legal in the UK :eek:

cyclonebri1

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Get a dashboard camera!!! £20-£30 on ebay, i have one front and rear. they are plugged into the front and rear car power sockets, turn on and start recording when you turn the ignition on, turn off when you turn the ignition off. Both have rechargeable batteries, You put an SD memory card in and they loop record in 15 minutes segments, then overwrite the oldest file, so you dont have to worry about the card getting full. They also have infrared light which come son automatically. Search ebay for "dashboard camera"

Absolutely brilliant devices!!

It's sad if you feel the need to go to that trouble, you must attract trouble I can only assume.


The one thing that escapes you is what good is a beautifully focused image of you getting a knife in the guts going to do you?


I'm sorry, prevention if the answer, what good is a covert camera for that.??

Wongsky

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Give that man a cigar, :T:T:T

That's the issue here, everyone has been a victim of some form of road rage, some times you know why, say you've made a mistake, left to small a gap etc etc etc, and sometimes you don't.
You have an idiot that is late, just got fired fell out with his girlfriend ad infinitum.
BUT if it happens often, you really have to ask yourself 2 qusetions.

Why do I attract these winkers??

Is it me???

;)

Not that I don't get what you're saying - but all the same seems like much of the rhetoric, these days, that hand-waves away the innocent as a way of explaining away the intolerant or aggressive.

In recent times, I've driven lots of miles (just commuting, not as a profession) and seen all kinds of things, and all kinds of drivers. And at times, I've probably been that driver in a hurry, who's sometimes impatient.

So I can empathise, but no more. Sympathy ain't something I'm feeling - I've been there, been in that hurry, been that frustrated - but all the same, when you lose it because of those reasons, you do so with a total lack of self-realisation, and try to foist all your mistakes and issues on other people, who perhaps are being nothing more than a bit cautious or dopey.

Now true enough - that may be hugely irritating, but it's no crime.

There are some drivers out there that will always be impatient, will always be aggressive, even if they're not in a hurry, and even if the driver they encounter is doing nothing wrong. I've seen it, witnessed it many times, and commented to Mrs Wongsky, if she's been in the car - sometimes you can observe it and watch a car near you, be totally harangued for no good reason. And as I've always said to 'er indoors, when she's not been indoors, and actually been in the car with me. If you encounter a slower car you want to get past - then get past it decisively, or back the fsck off - 'cos typically these numpties who seem to be climbing all over the back of a car, pretending they'd like to get past and go faster, are just getting in the way of us drivers who can get past and will go faster (up to the speed limit of the road, of course, occifer...)

At the end of the day, there are a wide variety of drivers on the road, ranging from the incompetent, to over-cautious, to over-confident, and true enough, you can encounter those that bimble along, who are oblivious. And they can be a bit of a pain when you're in a hurry. So either get past, or chill the fsck out, 'cos you're doing nobody any favours, including those that are actually competent by hanging off their boot. It's truly rarer than a rare thing that I encounter somebody who's truly determined to get in your way and slow you down. Being good at driving isn't just about technique, it's about attitude as well.

Lum

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Give that woman a cigar, :T:T:T

FTFY

Wongsky wrote: »

Now true enough - that may be hugely irritating, but it's no crime.

Neither is farting in a lift, but people are still going to hate you for it.

I agree with the gist of your post though. The actions of these people are not excusable, but if you want to reduce how often it happens, the only thing you can change is your own driving. If you are driving a bit slow and never check your mirrors then fix this. If you like to sit in the middle lane, stop doing this.

These sorts of thing aren't (always) illegal but they are inconsiderate, and you will wind up fewer people, and thus get tailgated less often, if you fix them. I'd still happily see the tailgaters stopped and prosecuted for dangerous driving, but since that's unlikely to ever happen I'm happy to just not see so many of them on my back end because I'm making an effort not to p people off.

Also, if everyone drove with the thought of improving traffic flow and trying not to impede others. The overall speed and safety of the road network would improve for everyone, without the need to add so many extra lanes, which will probably be rendered unusable by the middle lane owners club all migrating to lane 3.

Wongsky

Lum wrote: »

FTFY

Neither is farting in a lift, but people are still going to hate you for it.

I agree with the gist of your post though. The actions of these people are not excusable, but if you want to reduce how often it happens, the only thing you can change is your own driving. If you are driving a bit slow and never check your mirrors then fix this. If you like to sit in the middle lane, stop doing this.

These sorts of thing aren't (always) illegal but they are inconsiderate, and you will wind up fewer people, and thus get tailgated less often, if you fix them. I'd still happily see the tailgaters stopped and prosecuted for dangerous driving, but since that's unlikely to ever happen I'm happy to just not see so many of them on my back end because I'm making an effort not to p people off.

Thing is, though, is that both factions are largely immovable forces.

You're always going to have the feckess, and you're always going to have the aggressive.

Whilst some, may always hate the feckess, that's not a position the rest of the society should engender.

And whilst the feckless may well be irritating, in my experience, they're not hugely dangerous. The most dangerous I see are the aggressive, because they either have an exaggerated sense of their own abilities, or lack of impulse control, or both.

jase1

I think there are a lot of people around for whom tailgating is just done out of ignorance and laziness rather than malice.

I find them similar to the ones who, when you are in the left lane and are approaching a lorry several hundred yards ahead, will somehow manage to plant themselves just behind you on the lane to your right, then proceed to overtake at about an inch an hour.

Really bloody annoying, and I end up resorting to accelerating in the left lane to shake them off. If I didn't do so I'd end up having to brake in order to file in behind them. Why can't people appreciate that 'overtaking' involves actually going at a higher speed than the car you're passing?