Bad Drivers

unholyangel

I was driving home the other night and was followed for about 5 miles by a car with their full beams on. They finally noticed they had them on about 300ft before turning right.

The number of people who drive along with full beams on around this area is unreal. Heck my mum drove around for approx. 20 years thinking blue light on dash meant your headlights were on (and not that it was full beams).

Anyone else have days they think their car is invisible? I get days where several people will pull out right in front of me in quick succession - always makes me think I've hit the "gogo-invisi-car" button.

Azari

Sometimes drivers can be utterly pig headed about their inconsiderate road use.

Two occasions spring to mind.

I was travelling on a virtually empty motorway early in the morning (~1:00am) in torrential rain. I was in the inside lane, closing on the only other driver visible who was in the middle lane. Naturally he continued in the middle lane. I pulled out behind him and then into the outside lane and overtook. I then pulled back in front of him, at a safe distance, but still one that meant my spray was flooding his windscreen. Just out of interest I matched my speed to his to see how long it would take him to get fed up with the backwash and move into the inside lane. The answer was, apparently, forever, as he was still stuck behind me several minutes later.

On another occasion I was travelling behind a car on a perfectly clear night. This idiot had his rear fog lights on which is surprisingly painful for following traffic if there is no fog - even if you hang back a fair way. I put on my main beam, partly to alert him to his own odd lighting setting and partly to alleviate the pain by causing my own pupils to contract. Did this get him to turn his fogs off? Guess!

apesxx

Ilona wrote: »

2. The national speed limit on single carriageways is 60mph. Not 50mph, and definitely NOT 40mph. If you can't drive at somewhere near the speed limit in good driving conditions, you should re-think the whole driving thing. Just because the speed limit is 60mph doesn't always mean it is safe to drive at those speeds, it is a limit, not an aim! Also NSL on single carriageways is 50mph for a goods vehicle and 40mph for anything above 7.5 tonnes.
.
What do you class as a goods vehicle? Van, pickup? I class a lorry as a goods vehicle, and that is 40mph.
Ilona

I drive a 3.5 ton can so I know the 50 rule definitely applies to me in my work vehicle. I'm pretty sure it applies to any goods vehicles so transit van types too. I think car derived vans like the fiesta van types with the back windows blacked out are exempt but not totally sure. Its amazing how many van drivers don't know of this rule until they get done for it!

https://www.gov.uk/speed-limits link to the speed limits

hgotsparkle

Azari wrote: »

Sometimes drivers can be utterly pig headed about their inconsiderate road use.



On another occasion I was travelling behind a car on a perfectly clear night. This idiot had his rear fog lights on which is surprisingly painful for following traffic if there is no fog - even if you hang back a fair way. I put on my main beam, partly to alert him to his own odd lighting setting and partly to alleviate the pain by causing my own pupils to contract. Did this get him to turn his fogs off? Guess!

Last week I was driving home from work at around 8:15pm, so almost pitch black for this time of year, and in the country too when the person behind me constantly had their full beam on, yet when a car went past in the oncoming lane, the full beam was switched off, then back on once the car had passed, all the while his full beam burning a hole in my retinas, even when I flicked the rear view mirror down as it was still in my wing mirrors. No matter how much I put my rear fogs on or slowed down just so they would pass, they wouldn't pass me or switch them off. Either arrogant or ignorant but either way, cannot drive.


Another thing happened when I came of a dual carriageway last week, an elderly man and his wife in a new shiny merc which was way too big for him to manouvre properly. He was in front of me on the exit and where the exit meets the oncoming slip, he decided to brake and look for cars! No cars will come off there as that is the entrance to the dual carriageway!! The sign he stopped at was no a give way sign as he must of thought, but a no right turn sign!!

Cycrow

DKLS wrote: »

Anyone who uses the phase "its a speed limit not a target" needs their driving licence taken from them. Or more preferably shot in the face.

That should be the other way round.
anyone who thinks the speed limits are targets should not have a licence

safety before convenience

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I think the one the 40 mphers forget is:

Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass.

The people who do 40 and have a half mile long tail of traffic behind them rarely pull over, same with those who drive down single track lanes at 20mph.

Recently there was a women in a big powerful 4by4, the double decker bus in front eventually disappeared over the horizon and the rest us sat behind her for 8 miles at 35/40, she then got in the wrong lane leading to the roundabout, stopped blocking the traffic and sat there until someone let her in.


Had a scary moment last weekend when a car left the slip road, entered lane 1 of the M25 and carried straight on into lane 2, to the exact same bit of road we were on, if something were in lane 3 or I hadn't of noticed he would have driven straight into us (I was overtaking a lorry not sitting in the middle lane like an idiot). The 10 miles before this I sat in lane 1 at 65 whilst lanes 2 & 3 also did 65 leaving only lane 4 for overtaking, no wonder there's so much congestion on these busy motor ways.

Fog lights are the other thing that really annoy me, OK younger people think they look cool so at least they've got a reason (not an excuse mind) but when you see middle aged and elderly people it's clear they just don't have a cue.

aileth

People who put their high beams on for no reason and then attach themselves to your bumper, so the only thing you can see in all your mirrors is overwhelming glare.

People who drift down the whole sliproad joining a motorway regardless of if there's a space for them to slot into earlier because they MUST traverse the whole sliproad, then they find when they get to the end the slot has gone and they need to take evasive manoeuvres.

People who don't understand that a stop junction means you have to stop.

People who think 30mph means 40mph and will ram themselves right up your backsides and look really put up, hand gestures and all, that you're holding them up when you're doing the speed limit.

People who come out of a junction and then sit in the middle of the carriageway wanting to get into the traffic queue at the other side because they have no patience to wait for a gap, and would prefer to stop the flow of traffic.

People who come out of junctions and desperately try to pull in front of you, irregardless if there is no car for two miles behind you and they could easily slot behind you.

People going onto roundabouts when the exit isn't clear forcing the whole thing to effectively come to a stop because they have blocked the roundabout off with their !!!!.

People who, when you're sat patiently waiting to exit a junction onto the road, on purpose put their foot down to stop you coming out and then block you, completely avoiding eye contact as they know how rude it was.

People on the motorway who are tootling along at 60mph in the middle lane.

People on the motorway who are tootling along at 50-60mph in the middle lane, so you overtake them and they take your manoeuvre as a personal slight and all of a sudden they're in the right hand land up your backside, so you pull in and then they career off at 90mph, only for you to catch up to them a mile later in the middle lane doing 50-60 again, leapfrogging until one of you pulls off.

People on the motorway when there are works going on and it's a 50 limit who seem to think still doing 60-70 is totally okay and that everyone else is holding them up.

People who go in the wrong lane to where they want to go simply to get 1-2 cars in front.

People who are so obviously being jerks, cutting everyone up, for really little gain.

And finally, people who have fully tinted, blacked out windows, with a black car, with black plastic put over their lights so you can't see they're braking to fit their 'colour scheme'.

PHEW!

Azari

aileth wrote: »

People who don't understand that a stop junction means you have to stop.

I hate stop lines that are in the wrong place. Either somewhere where they are not needed - where there is an adequate clear view of the road you will be joining from several feet before the line or, worse, where if you stop where you are supposed to, you then have to move forward a foot or so and stop again so you can see if it's safe to emerge.

Even though the second type are probably more dangerous as they may lead inexperienced drivers into problems I particularly dislike the first type because they encourage people to ignore stop signs in general. If the get use to seeing stop signs put there by traffic engineers 'because they can' they start ignoring them and eventually treat all stop signs as optional.

aliasojo

I drove North up the A9 the other day. At the Aviemore junction the lorry in front indicated right and pulled into the arrowed filter lane where he had to wait for the oncoming traffic to pass before he could turn right, heading into Aviemore.

There was a line of traffic which had built up behind him, speed was approx 50 mph and increasing since he'd moved over.

There was an old chap in an car sitting at the junction waiting to turn right onto the A9 (so heading in the same direction as the line of traffic). When he saw the lorry pull into the filter lane, he pulled out onto the road, across the Southbound oncoming traffic and directly in front of the line of traffic heading North. I had to slam my brakes on and swerve to avoid going into the back of him. He then drove at 30mph and put his left indicator on at regular intervals trying to get us to overtake. Problem was there was no safe opportunity to overtake, either because of oncoming traffic or a bend in the road which obviously reduced visability. By the time a safe opportunity arose the line of traffic was huge.

He could easily have caused a very serious accident that day. His judgement was seriously impaired.

I've given my lot strict instruction that if the day comes when I am an unsafe driver and I don't recognise that fact, they MUST tell me and stop me driving.

aliasojo

aileth wrote: »

People going onto roundabouts when the exit isn't clear forcing the whole thing to effectively come to a stop because they have blocked the roundabout off with their !!!!.

I hate planners who put traffic lights on small roundabouts both at the start of the roundabout and all the way round it.

There is a roundabout at Inverness now that has new lights and it causes more problems now than there ever were before. You can easily pull onto the roundabout and get immediately stopped by the next set of lights.

Apparently the planners have been asked to look at the situation again as there have been so many complaints and the traffic build up when the local footy is on is extreme.