Why do drivers speed up and close the gap when you try and change lanes?!!

Mr_Thrifty

also, i wanna see more tough talk from the armchair warriors

hehe

Lum

almillar wrote: »

Sorry Rick. When you say:

Starting the sentence with Pull out.. gave me the impression it was you.
That sounds like really poor driving on that roundabout.
My point being that I don't like other people wasting my petrol, and causing me to slow down and accelerate again, rather than the constant speed I'd have kept if they hadn't pulled out. I do leave my braking late for these type of people (NOT speed up) so they see me right behind them, to TRY to let them know that they've inconvenienced another road user, hoping that they'll be more careful next time. Sometimes I get lovely hand gestures etc, like I'm the bad driver. Ah well...

You'd waste less petrol if you began braking sooner and more gently as instead of having to drop from, say, 60 to 20, you could drop to 40 earlier on and by that point the muppet who pulled out in front of you might have speeded up.

You then only need to increase your speed by 20mph, not 40, which uses less petrol.

Teaching them a lesson, by leaving it until the last minute and driving up their backside before slamming on is dangerous. Two wrongs don't make a right and all that. If you need to alert another driver to your presence this is what the lights and horn are for.

Wongsky

almillar wrote: »

Sorry Rick. When you say:

Starting the sentence with Pull out.. gave me the impression it was you.
That sounds like really poor driving on that roundabout.
My point being that I don't like other people wasting my petrol, and causing me to slow down and accelerate again, rather than the constant speed I'd have kept if they hadn't pulled out. I do leave my braking late for these type of people (NOT speed up) so they see me right behind them, to TRY to let them know that they've inconvenienced another road user, hoping that they'll be more careful next time. Sometimes I get lovely hand gestures etc, like I'm the bad driver. Ah well...

Unless it's a very big roundabout (and even then, really...) most people have to slow down - in fact should slow down a bit, because of the roundabout.

Seemingly, many people, approaching a roundabout, knowing priority is on their side, barrel through it, as if it should be taken at higher speed, when the reality is, that the roundabout is there for a purpose, and traffic giving way to traffic approaching from the right, doesn't not mean that traffic approaching from the right, but way off, driving too fast, shouldn't have to slow down a bit to negotiate a hazard.

I sometimes boggle at the churlishness and stupidity in some drivers, where they'll deliberately do something different (normally you can easily observe this - sometimes it might be actually speeding up quite a bit, sometimes not braking, sometimes braking at the list minute) to try and make some point, when if they'd been less bombastic and merely eased off the throttle a bit, there would be nothing to moan about. In a fair number of times I see this, there would actually be nothing to have a go about, if the approaching driver didn't actually speed up, or straight-line / cut a roundabout, or deliberately not slow down for a hazard and take it much faster than is reasonable / normal.

Sometimes people do take risks, they either accidentally (probably more prevalent) or deliberately pull out when maybe the shouldn't, ideally. They're normally reasonably easily seen, and usually don't require much in the way of avoiding. The people who decide to overreact on principle are much more irritating - in most examples they seem to try and create a problem to react to - sometimes purely on principle, sometimes they've not had to react in any way, and are just offended on principle, sometimes they've actually done something to make things look worse.

I think it's fair to say that in most situations where you have to react suddenly, better observation and planning would have seen something not become an issue, or anythinglike as much of an issue as some are determined to make things. There's always a small amount of exceptions to that, but in my experience, in general, it holds true - both for driving on motorways, and for more urban scenarios.

stevemcol

Trouble is with threads like this is we all think we're the most competent drivers on the road and everyone else is a menace.
Truth is, the best drivers around are those who are completely tolerant of other road users mistakes. Taking obstructive action just makes things worse. I must admit to having taken out my own frustrations from time to time, so I'm just as bad.

On the receiving end a couple of weeks ago, approaching roadworks I had to merge with lane one. I signalled at the very earliest, as soon as the signs were in view and the situation was apparent. Literally nobody would let me in. I had 2 options, i to stop dead signal and wait, ii to keep going towards the front of the queue and merge as soon as someone would let me. I chose option ii so all the obstructive drivers achieved was to ensure I filtered in about 200 metres further ahead of them than if they'd let me in. Same with all the cars following me.

When I see someone trying to merge (or who should be trying to merge) I deliberately allow them loads of space to do so. I can then have a quiet rant to myself if they don't take the space, preferring to push on forward to the front of the queue

90% of us are stupid on the roads and the other 10% are just having a good day.

Mr_Thrifty

stevemcol wrote: »

Trouble is with threads like this is we all think we're the most competent drivers on the road and everyone else is a menace.

even nigel mansell got a speeding ticket once so nobody is above the law on the UK's highways

and he is one of the safest drivers u could ever possibly imagine being in the car with because of his driving skills

Wongsky

Mr_Thrifty wrote: »

even nigel mansell got a speeding ticket once so nobody is above the law on the UK's highways

and he is one of the safest drivers u could ever possibly imagine being in the car with because of his driving skills

I think that's a non sequitur.

Just because racing drivers have lots of uber-skill in getting a car around a track, does not necessarily mean they are safe at driving a car on the road. One doesn't equate to the other - people don't tend to have accidents, on the road, because they actually run out of skill to get the car around a corner or something like that (admittedly some do, but it's vanishingly insignificant). People tend to have accidents on the road because they're not paying attention, or they're distracted, or there observation is abysmal, or they take too many chances.

Contrary to this, racing drivers often do well on track, because they do take chances, and sometimes because they kind of ignore other cars (ie make other drivers avoid them, rather than them avoiding the other drivers).

Just because somebody has uber-skill at getting a very fast car around a track, um, very fastly, means very little as to their safety on road.

timbotambo

LOL I didn't expect this many replies!

To clarify -

1) The road was pretty well free flowing in all lanes at roughly the same speed, pretty quiet actually.
2) I had a different lane to be in than where I normally go to hence being in the wrong lane accidentally, true should have changed lanes earlier but that's not the point
3) Anyone who know's Spaghetti Junction knows you don't just carry on and turn later - it can be many miles until you get that chance!!!!!

The gap was perfectly fine, no danger to move into it, it was as soon as I indicated and started to move that the guy behind accelerated and would have had to brake anyway to avoid the car in front as his speed was far far inexcess of the speed of the other traffic and the limit.

Oh and I drive a BMW lol!! But always let people in unless they are driving like a nob and undertaking or anything (which I wasn't)

Lum

Thing is everyone has a different perception of what a safe gap is, especially those who drive older cars with poorer brakes.

So from the other person's perspective, they were driving along maintaining a safe stopping distance and some nob* in a BMW changed lanes at the last minute putting them at risk, so they responded by being an even bigger nob and trying to teach you a lesson.

Note: Not excusing or defending, just explaining.

* In the perspective of certain people you are automatically a nob, just because you own a BMW, you don't have to actually do anything wrong, people will just assume and then treat you accordingly.

stevemcol

Lum wrote: »

, so they responded by being an even bigger nob and trying to teach you a lesson.

Note: Not excusing or defending, just explaining.

Perfect summary. Much better than my ramblings.

Mr_Thrifty

Wongsky wrote: »

I think that's a non sequitur.

Just because racing drivers have lots of uber-skill in getting a car around a track, does not necessarily mean they are safe at driving a car on the road. One doesn't equate to the other - people don't tend to have accidents, on the road, because they actually run out of skill to get the car around a corner or something like that (admittedly some do, but it's vanishingly insignificant). People tend to have accidents on the road because they're not paying attention, or they're distracted, or there observation is abysmal, or they take too many chances.

Contrary to this, racing drivers often do well on track, because they do take chances, and sometimes because they kind of ignore other cars (ie make other drivers avoid them, rather than them avoiding the other drivers).

Just because somebody has uber-skill at getting a very fast car around a track, um, very fastly, means very little as to their safety on road.

hehe come on, i bet nigel mansell is a brilliant driver on the roads. he has been the face of many safety campaigns. and even though he could go at 200mph i bet he drives at exactly 30mph in 30 zones and i bet he is very courteous and his attention is perfect. if every driver was like nigel mansell i bet there would hardly be any accidents on the road