Should I change my driving style for other road users?

motorguy

Robisere wrote: »

My own theory regarding the behaviour of the bad drivers today, splits them into two modes: they are either suffering from some inadequate feelings about themselves, which they think can be cured by trying to control other drivers. OR they have an overdeveloped idea of their own place in society, encouraged by the status of their car, which they believe represents their own status.

Thats the crux of it.

This is the Snowflake generation, where everyone is told they are special and unique and can do anything they wish. So we've bred a self absorbed society where people think they're the centre of the universe.

Children have suffered from that belief this past 20 years - installed into them by their parents, and now, sadly these people are now "adult" and have the same attitude.

warehouse

d123 wrote: »

You seem to describe yourself in that last sentence as well, why not just let the impatient driver go and remove yourself from any problem or conflict that your stubborn pride is trying to attract to you?

Great idea. Let the impatient driver overtake you as soon as he starts tailgating. If we all did this I wonder how driving standards for the less educated would evolve in a short period of time?

That's a no from me.

motorguy

warehouse wrote: »

Great idea. Let the impatient driver overtake you as soon as he starts tailgating.

Why wouldnt you? Or are you suggesting "teaching them a lesson" by perhaps braking or slowing down further? Because antagonising a nutter usually ends well....

warehouse wrote: »

If we all did this I wonder how driving standards for the less educated would evolve in a short period of time?

That's a no from me.

If some nutter wants to pass me, then i let them pass. I'd rather have them in front of me than behind me. They'll learn - sometimes the hard way - not up to me to try to teach them.

Cornucopia

motorguy wrote: »

Why wouldnt you? Or are you suggesting "teaching them a lesson" by perhaps braking or slowing down further? Because antagonising a nutter usually ends well....

If some nutter wants to pass me, then i let them pass. I'd rather have them in front of me than behind me. They'll learn - sometimes the hard way - not up to me to try to teach them.

There are places where it's bad idea to "teach" on the roads, and others where it's more feasible. The overtaking scenario is an example of a bad situation for teaching, because it can easily go wrong and result in an incident in which you may find yourself partly to blame (i.e. you brake and the other car runs into the back of yours).

One of my ideal situations for "teaching" is when someone approaches a roundabout so fast that you (with right of way on the roundabout) are unsure about whether they will stop or not. I tend to find that once I've had to reach for the brake, my foot just keeps on going as I crawl past their now stopped vehicle, typically several feet over the stop line. If they are delayed for a few more of their seconds that they obviously believe are more important than everyone else's, then hopefully they learn not to do it again. (There is a roundabout at the end of my road that is very poor for this kind of thing).

Nasqueron

motorguy wrote: »

Thats the crux of it.

This is the Snowflake generation, where everyone is told they are special and unique and can do anything they wish. So we've bred a self absorbed society where people think they're the centre of the universe.

Children have suffered from that belief this past 20 years - installed into them by their parents, and now, sadly these people are now "adult" and have the same attitude.

Donald Trump is 70, I think this issue is a lot longer than 20 years old

motorguy

Nasqueron wrote: »

Donald Trump is 70, I think this issue is a lot longer than 20 years old

I think with the money that man has made, the business empire he has built up, and becoming President of the United States, i would say he has every right to be arrogant and self absorbed. In fact, its probably being arrogant and self absorbed has helped get him where he is.

Someone in front of me in a Corsa, offended because i might dare to want to pass them, then not so much.....

AdrianC

motorguy wrote: »

I think with the money that man has made, the business empire he has built up...

Mmm. That's debatable. The exact figures are thoroughly obscure, but he certainly inherited a heck of a lot of money and influence from his father, who really WAS a self-made property man. The Donald (tm) himself has had a heck of a lot of very spectacular failures, and has only been rescued from them by that basic cushion. Even with that, he's been VERY near to the brink of bankruptcy, and on several occasions he has been rescued from that largely by others not wanting him to take them down.

There's a strong argument to say that if he'd taken that inheritance and simply invested it all in the main stock market index, he'd actually be wealthier now than he is.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/29/the-myth-and-the-reality-of-donald-trumps-business-empire/
(Of course, Trumplethinskin himself would just say that was "fake news")...

and becoming President of the United States, i would say he has every right to be arrogant and self absorbed.

Chicken? Egg?

motorguy

AdrianC wrote: »

Mmm. That's debatable. The exact figures are thoroughly obscure, but he certainly inherited a heck of a lot of money and influence from his father, who really WAS a self-made property man. The Donald (tm) himself has had a heck of a lot of very spectacular failures, and has only been rescued from them by that basic cushion. Even with that, he's been VERY near to the brink of bankruptcy, and on several occasions he has been rescued from that largely by others not wanting him to take them down.

There's a strong argument to say that if he'd taken that inheritance and simply invested it all in the main stock market index, he'd actually be wealthier now than he is.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/29/the-myth-and-the-reality-of-donald-trumps-business-empire/
(Of course, Trumplethinskin himself would just say that was "fake news")...
Chicken? Egg?

Maybe. Who really knows? Either way - hes rich. Maybe not multi billionaire rich, but rich.

Lets be honest, with Trump just like with Brexit, people are all for democracy until they dont like the outcome and then they try to undermine it.

I'll take a chance and swap bank balances with him anyways.

splishsplash

OP, you drove like a kn*b. You accelerated when someone behind you was clearly trying to overtake, and you almost caused an accident.

Another driver doesn't 'appear' behind you unless they are travelling faster than you. You don't need to be a brain scientist to figure that one out. It's simple physics.

So yes, you need to change your driving style.

TBagpuss

cjdavies wrote: »

Should have braked.

Serious note: think i would allow them to overtake can't be dealing with idiots, while hoping they have crash further up (only them) and drive past not stopping.

I actually saw this happen once. Driving through some twisty narrow Devon lanes, in bad weather, impatient numpty tailgating me very aggressively.

For reasons best known to himself he didn't overtake in the safe, legal spot (where I slowed down to let him pass) but instead chose to overtake on a blind bend shortly afterwards.

About couple of miles further on I saw his car, in a stream, in a field, having gone straight through a hedge and down a 6' bank.

No one else involved, he'd just misjudged the speed at which you can navigate that particular corner.

He wasn't injured, but his car was not looking good.
He was out of the car and looking extremely cross, and not dressed for tramping across a muddy field, when I saw him. Someone going the other way had already stopped, so I didn't.

Just occasionally you get to see karma in action.

On the main point, I'd have let the tailgater pass as I would far rather have that kind of driver ahead of me, where *I* get to chose how big the gap between us is, than behind me, where I can't control how much space they leave. I've been hit from behind more than once, I *hate* being tailgated.

(although when i was hit, it wasn't actually don to tail-gating. Once was an older driver who apparently failed to see either the red traffic light, or any of my brake lights, and didn't brake at all; the other time I was waiting to turn at a T Junction and the guy behind came round the corner too fast, slammed on the brakes and aquaplaned into the back of my car)