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

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?

Lum

Wongsky wrote: »

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.

Agree so far

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.

Agree again. However you can't control either group, only your own driving. The aggressive types are unlikely to listen to reason.

All I am trying to say is that for those who you categorise as !!!!less some of them could well improve their driving if they put the effort in, and are more likely to listen to reason.

For those who choose to listen, they'll have less run-ins with the aggressive type and will also avoid winding up the non-aggressive drivers on the road too, making the roads a more pleasant place for everybody.

As for the aggressive types, eventually they'll start bullying some innocent old woman one day and there will be a copper behind them filming the whole thing.. well, maybe not but we can hope, right?

Wongsky

jase1 wrote: »

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?

I've encountered drivers like this, too.

Something else I've observed over many motorway miles - and this isn't a sexist rant - it's not - it's just that I've experienced a disproportionate number of women drivers that do it. So you're driving along, and it always seems to be middle-laners that do this - you move to lane 3 to pass, and as you're passing they speed up - sometimes by a fair bit. But as soon as you're clearly past, they back off, back to, I assume, their previous speed.

Sometimes after moving back to lane 1, they'll speed up a bit as if to pass you, but mostly, it seems to be they've got themselves in a lane, and they don't really want anything in their "bubble" of space they'e defined as theirs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that male drivers don't sometimes speed up when you try and pass them, some do, but this motorway scenario, and typically drivers in lane 2, who speed up as you approach to pass, seems largely women - is there some reason I'm not getting?

It doesn't seem to be an aggressive / competitive thing, like some men do, but I do see it quite a lot.

Wongsky

Lum wrote: »

Agree so far
Agree again. However you can't control either group, only your own driving. The aggressive types are unlikely to listen to reason.

All I am trying to say is that for those who you categorise as !!!!less some of them could well improve their driving if they put the effort in, and are more likely to listen to reason.

Not sure I buy it - I think they're just as oblivious and set in their ways as the aggressive.

Lum wrote: »

For those who choose to listen, they'll have less run-ins with the aggressive type and will also avoid winding up the non-aggressive drivers on the road too, making the roads a more pleasant place for everybody.

As for the aggressive types, eventually they'll start bullying some innocent old woman one day and there will be a copper behind them filming the whole thing.. well, maybe not but we can hope, right?

Here's the thing, though - the bimbling ditherers just get in the way a bit, true, it's irritating. But plod largely doesn't care. Now and again, there's matrix signs saying: move left when not overtaking - it probably gets ignored just as much as a hypothetical: stop tailgating you idiot! would.

The aggressive as I said, tend to be dangerous in several ways - often ways that at some point will maybe seem them caught out for.

The problem is, though, most of society always seems about educating the victims, rather than dealing with the intolerant and aggressive.

As I've mentioned, you can encounter intolerant and aggressive drivers on poor saps doing nothing wrong. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nobody hates dithering more than me. But the idiotic, over-confident, aggressive drivers are more likely to mow some poor, innocent pedestrian down when overtaking at a crossing, than some bimbling ditherer, who likes peas and gravy with their pork chops of an evening.

Bongles

Wongsky wrote: »

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.

Explaining it and justifying it are not the same thing. There isn't any justification for acting aggressively towards another driver. In general, if someone does act aggressively towards me, there will most likely be one of two explanations:

1) I was acting perfectly reasonably and correctly. They acted the way they did because deep down they simply haven't accepted that they have to share the road with other people.

2) I did someonething careless or inconsiderate at which they had every right to feel frustrated, albeit no right to respond the way they did.

It would be a mistake to think that the likelihood of 1) being the explanation correlates with the amount of aggression shown towards me.

Wongsky wrote: »

Being good at driving isn't just about technique, it's about attitude as well.

Indeed it is. And part of that is recognising that I get it wrong sometimes. Accepting that and reflecting on what I did to think about whether or not 2) was the explanation for a particular incident is not in any way about justifying the intolerance or aggresson of another driver. It's about identifying my own mistakes so hopefully I don't make them again. It's not always easy to do, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing.

Or I might conclude that 1) is the explanation. If so, there's not really anything I can do about that. I wish there weren't people like that on the road, but there are.

Wongsky

Bongles wrote: »

Explaining it and justifying it are not the same thing. There isn't any justification for acting aggressively towards another driver. In general, if someone does act aggressively towards me, there will most likely be one of two explanations:

1) I was acting perfectly reasonably and correctly. They acted the way they did because deep down they simply haven't accepted that they have to share the road with other people.

2) I did someonething careless or inconsiderate at which they had every right to feel frustrated, albeit no right to respond the way they did.

It would be a mistake to think that the likelihood of 1) being the explanation correlates with the amount of aggression shown towards me.



Indeed it is. And part of that is recognising that I get it wrong sometimes. Accepting that and reflecting on what I did to think about whether or not 2) was the explanation for a particular incident is not in any way about justifying the intolerance or aggresson of another driver. It's about identifying my own mistakes so hopefully I don't make them again. It's not always easy to do, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing.

Or I might conclude that 1) is the explanation. If so, there's not really anything I can do about that. I wish there weren't people like that on the road, but there are.

I get the gist of what you're saying - self-realisation, surely something we could all benefit more from.

And true enough - I agree. Whilst I accept I, on occasion, make mistakes, I try and ensure that they're not ones that result in accidents and / or harm, and that I learn from them.

All the same, it's folly to assume such principles in everybody.

Most of the talk about aggressive drivers, and road-rage, always seems to have a contingent saying "If only the ditherers, could, um, well, dither a bit less, then everything would go away..." but it's just simply not true - and if I'm honest, leaves me thinking most making that argument, sound as if they're somewhat intolerant of those not as capable as they assume they are.

The reality is, both groups appear to have precious little self-realisation, and are probably not going to significantly change in the make-up of the driving population, so let's just bin all this pointless rhetoric that subtly attempts to hand-wave away the intolerant, and see it for what it really is - deflection and misdirection.