The poor standards of driving on our roads these days!

[AlexR]

Rantage!

Does anyone else get really wound up by the shocking/totally inconsiderate driving of other road users on a daily basis?

I do a lot of miles, mostly on A and B roads which are all single carriageways more or less. This means that i get stuck behind a LOT of slow drivers, not just the odd one, but at least 10 or so on every single journey i take.

One might say that they are driving cautiously but they're not, they drive through built up areas over the speed limits, slam their brakes on for rabbits, birds, squirrels etc, drive straight through zebra crossings with people waiting at them, they take the wrong lanes at roundabouts and junctions, they slam on their brakes without indicating to turn off, stop on main roads with no indications, they drive down the middle of the road on narrow roads and give you no space if you're coming the other way, they overtake cyclists on corners etc etc etc

So you say, why can't i be patient? If i drive the main road to work late at night i can do an average of 60mph meaning i could get to work in 20-25 mins, it takes me between 40-60mins on average during the day depending on how many idiots there are about causing traffic. Then i sit in a traffic jam behind some old codger who clearly has no idea what the hell's going on behind him, doesn't look in the mirror once and is about to keel over and have a heart attack, there will be often 5-10 cars behind one of these fools, every single one of these people is being inconvenienced by the person at the fronts incompetence. This causes congestion and congestion causes crashes.

Think about it right, you can take every corner on this 12 mile long road(which has plenty of straights with good visibility) at 50-60mph in the wet in a base model saxo on budget tyres, averaging 50mph would take 15mins approx to take on this bit of road, with cars being 2 seconds behind each other(inc length of car) that means that 100 cars will take 17.8mins to travel this route. Travelling at 35mph ave(i have followed people going as slow as 20mph round the corners and 30-35 on straights) that means it takes over 20 mins so 24 mins for the same 100 cars to pass the route. that's over 6 mins extra but then you consider you could have got an extra 180 cars through the route in the same amount of time, those 180 people would make it to their destination sooner which would mean that there was less congestion. then my journey contains town driving and light urban driving too. Now if there weren't slow bastards who pull away from the lights slower than a child on a bike, many more cars would get through traffic lights in the same amount of time, more throughput = less traffic.

What gets me the most though is that there are quite a few place on my route where i can safely despatch one or two cars however i can't because everyone sits so close together, hogging their space but they don't overtake, they just sit in an orderly queue like robots, that means that should i actually want to get past the fucktard at the front i am going to have to overtake everyone including them in one go, which is a mean feat. I overtook 6 cars in a row this morning on what i'd describe as a short straight because there wasn't a space a car wide between any of the cars in front of me, which i am used to, i always leave space. In fact on a daily basis i find myself having to overtake large groups of cars because they don't leave sufficient space. if you're not going to overtake then why sit dangerously close to the car in front so that nobody else can slot in. Then even funnier is people who do 40mph on a nice open A road, then when overtaking they decide that they require you to do 90mph to overtake because they don't like feeling that they aren't superior so they speed up when you start closing in on them.

That's only the start, we all know about tailgaters, lane hoggers etc.

My new biggest hate is hogging road space by tailgating in queues.

[smiith]

il say yes, because i cba to read it all

[-Jason-]

Yes I do agree with some of the drivers on the road these days however I am usually in a rush so probably get to impatient.

But I agree with the overtaking thing most of all just try to do 1 more car each time

[Yates]

i do love the old people who go in the wrong lane then end up nearly going into you at the round about and think they are in the right

brake friendly people are the best, outside lane on motorway nothing about, yet have foot on brake

[pjm300]

[gsavill90]

i agree totally one hundred percent. I've gotten used to driving the road to work at 25-35 mph. In the wet i could maintain 70mph all the way (not that i do) and i'm in a 1.1 saxo on the cheapest tyres i could get
My favourite so far was a guy in a 206 going 40mph (it's a 60) on a really open bit at about half 9 in the evening. The road was totally empty.. and i overtook him.. he flashed and honked.. amazing.
Towards the end of my road home from work there is a longish straight. I was sat about 10 cars behind an old woman going at 35. The straight was open and there were no cars in sight. I accelerated to exactly 60 and cruised past all the cars. I pass the woman at the front.. honked and flashed.
However, at half 1 in the morning after work.. i have the road to myself, and when i take the scenic route home.. i'm in driving heaven.
Which reminds me.. i used to take a route to school along about 7 miles of amazing country roads. I would often end up stuck behind a guy that never went over 35. I could do pretty much 50-60 the whole way. He was in a porsche boxter.. Makes me so angry..

I always stick to 30 in town.. and only stray to about 25 in the 20 zones... I'm very conscious that there are often speed traps, and also that speeding in town isn't really very enjoyable.. and it really dangerous. Anyway, i like to stick to 30 exactly through my local village. I often get people tailgating me all the way through. Then when the road opens up to a 60mph straight i drop it down to second and get to 60 as fast as i can. It's really satisfying when the renault scenic behind me just indicates to overtake at this point..

I hope i don't come across as a careless driver.. i used to be.. for the first few weeks i was really stupid, but after getting pulled by the police i pretty much always stick to speed limits. And i haven't done a burnout in a layby at the side of a main road since!

Anyway, i agree with you on every point! Hope i didn't come across as a bad driver myself

[gsavill90]

Originally Posted by Yates

i do love the old people who go in the wrong lane then end up nearly going into you at the round about and think they are in the right

brake friendly people are the best, outside lane on motorway nothing about, yet have foot on brake

Oh the roundabouts are amazing... i'm tempted to just not react one day.. smash into them, claim on their insurance and buy a VTR

[AlexR]

pauline

i'd like to shoot mj's kid

with my spunkcannon

[Mrk1]

Yeh i'll agree with this, some drivers need to seriously consider re-taking their tests! I mainly drive on A & B roads and some of the other motorists are ridiculous swapping lanes, roundabout rage, the tailgaters (don't get me started)
The other week I was following an older chap in a merc estate (think it was a C63, not too hot on my mercs) doing 25-30 in a 60! I know 60 is the limit not the target but it had AMG badges ffs!

[Tim_W]

Originally Posted by AlexR

I overtook 6 cars in a row this morning on what i'd describe as a short straight because there wasn't a space a car wide between any of the cars in front of me, which i am used to, i always leave space. In fact on a daily basis i find myself having to overtake large groups of cars because they don't leave sufficient space.

I agree with everything you have said but feel that the statement above makes it totally irrelevant. Overtaking 6 cars on a short straight is bordering on dangerous/wreckless driving. What would you have done if someone came at you the other way doing the speed limit (whatever it was)? Was there a bend at the end of this short straight or did it go off a cliff? i am thinking there was a bend. How fast did you actually go past the 6 cars to pass them before the end of the short straight? I know from overtaking cars doing 50 in a 70 (dual carriageway) that i have to pass them doing at least 60/65mph to get by sufficiently.
Wouldnt it have been better just to sit there and bite your tongue than hammer it past 6 cars and become one of the careless drivers you are ranting about. I know for a fact who would piss me off more if i was the 5th car along in that que you went past and it would not be the old git at the front

Tim

[lemon191]

me and my dad were on our way to peterborough and a women driving a x trail iirc pulled out infront of us from a side road to go left but instead she went on the wrong side of the road (wasnt a forign (sp?) car and the turn wasnt even tight she had more than enough space to turn without going anywhere near other side of the road lol) she then had to swerve infront of us to get back onto the right side before she ran into anyone, she was heading the same way as us and we got stuck beind her for 5 or 10 mins and at every oportunity she proceeded to do her hair and make up which was probably why she ended up on teh wrong side of the road. i mean seriously are people really that stupid lol

[smiith]

Originally Posted by Yates

i do love the old people who go in the wrong lane then end up nearly going into you at the round about and think they are in the right

brake friendly people are the best, outside lane on motorway nothing about, yet have foot on brake

they are keeping the pads warm

my grandad used to do it before he passed away, took his car for a MOT for him "these pads are down to the metal, what has he been doing?"

when he went to pick it up, they asked "well i like to make sure the pads are warm, dont want em going cold and going to waste"

good man he was

[VtsTom]

Latley with the rain, it seems that 70% of drivers have never experianced rain before because they feel the need to sit at 40mph.

What royaly fucks me of the most is the utter CUNTS that cant keep a constant fucking speed. Its not hard, just dont move your right foot up and down you donkey raping shit eater. 50mph-55mph-60mph....55mph....60mph argggghh pack the fuck up or just fuck off!

Or... people that slam on their brakes when they see an ambulance heading towards them, even though there is shit loads of room for them to go by.

People even brake when they see one come behind them, usualy in a place were the ambulance cant actualy pass so it in efect slows them down defeating the point completley.

I hate driving before 8am. I get too wound up. Cunts

[Dasher_VTR]

that really gets me when they got a sports car or something capable of some real speed and they are crawling along at 15-20 in 40mph limit.

[Yates]

doing motorway miles i do notice that il stick at 80 or so, all the way, yet i will get cars that i go past, then further down the road realise that im going past them again, they speed up then slow down speed up and slow down, its annoying when it happens for two hours

[JBVTR]

..... yeh i agree

[AlexR]

Originally Posted by Tim_W

I agree with everything you have said but feel that the statement above makes it totally irrelevant. Overtaking 6 cars on a short straight is bordering on dangerous/wreckless driving. What would you have done if someone came at you the other way doing the speed limit (whatever it was)? Was there a bend at the end of this short straight or did it go off a cliff? i am thinking there was a bend. How fast did you actually go past the 6 cars to pass them before the end of the short straight? I know from overtaking cars doing 50 in a 70 (dual carriageway) that i have to pass them doing at least 60/65mph to get by sufficiently.
Wouldnt it have been better just to sit there and bite your tongue than hammer it past 6 cars and become one of the careless drivers you are ranting about. I know for a fact who would piss me off more if i was the 5th car along in that que you went past and it would be the old git at the front

Tim

Don't worry, i've been driving the same road almost every day for 7 years, i know when i can and can't overtake safely, someone did come round the slight corner after the straight doing 60+ but i had already pulled in front of said metro(driven by a grey haired fool with matching passenger) and if need be i could have aborted the manoeuver and squeezed myself in to one of the barely car long gaps. My point is that if people left the gaps specified in the highway code i could overtake one/two car(s) at a time making the overtaking less dangerous. I analyse my own driving, and sometimes i do drive pretty fast but i've been driving various hot hatches for 5 years doing 15-20k a year, no accidents, no points...

[quick106]

this is one of my pet hates aswell, especially on a single track road and you get stuck behind someone goin well below the speed limit when it is perfectly safe to be goin faster

[Tim_W]

Originally Posted by AlexR

Don't worry, i've been driving the same road almost every day for 7 years, i know when i can and can't overtake safely, someone did come round the slight corner after the straight doing 60+ but i had already pulled in front of said metro(driven by a grey haired fool with matching passenger) and if need be i could have aborted the manoeuver and squeezed myself in to one of the barely car long gaps. My point is that if people left the gaps specified in the highway code i could overtake one/two car(s) at a time making the overtaking less dangerous. I analyse my own driving, and sometimes i do drive pretty fast but i've been driving various hot hatches for 5 years doing 15-20k a year, no accidents, no points...

I still beleive that its totally irrelevant. Your justifying your own actions and see them as quite acceptable. You have been driving for 5 years, various hot hatches, i drive pretty fast, 15-20k a year and so on and so forth. It still doesnt make you any better for overtaking 6 cars than the rest of the idiots you have written about.

Tim

[Penn]

I've only been driving for about 2 months and I'm with you on this one. I don't even drive a lot, but every single time i go out the standards appall me.

My biggest annoyance is people who don't indicate on roundabouts, leaves you sitting there like a fucking lemon.