Motors Is it me or are there more idiots on the road?

Sounds like a great place to visit...


+rep for making me laugh.

 

If people are idiots on the road let them carry on they wont last long, if u had police on the roads constantly people wouldnt speed as much as they do, because they get away with it here in the UK.

Motorway speed limit is 70 mph in the UK where in fact most of the traffic goes 80/90+ with the few people going over 100 mph when the roads are not a car park.

 

One thing I don't get is people's obsession with being "one car in front".

So many people drive up your ass or dangerously, only to overtake you just to get one car ahead. Usually they then end up right behind you stuck at the traffic lights.

Also, people who "pretend" not to see you annoy me. The ones who look like they're making a concious effort not to look around, like they've got horse blinkers on.

 

In which case, if you'd had an accident, the insurance company probably would have done everything they could to avoid paying out and launch an insurance fraud investigation against you.

 

The old saying of "Expect all other drivers to be blind, deaf and stupid" very much applies when driving anywhere in the world

 

Something I have noticed since the advent of speed cameras in the UK is most people and I mean most, believe there are speed cameras everywhere or for some other reason, now drive at well under the speed limit which causes the roads to be slower. Something else I see more and more in the past few years is if someone comes off a roundabout to drive down a dual carriageway for even well over a mile and wants to turn right at the roundabout at the end of it, they will drive down the entire length of the dual carriage way in the right hand lane at 40mph (in a 50,60 or 70).

This makes people undertake them, thus risking associated accidents. WTF are these people doing ? Nobody used to do that, but now, it is the norm. It certainly does not say in the highway code, if you want to turn right in 10 miles, keep right as much as you can all the way to the road you want to turn into.

In general the speed people drive at, seems to have dropped, probably in the belief of speed cameras everywhere and general paranoia about being 'done' by the police. Maybe not a bad thing, but they don't seem to be driving slowly very skillfully. There seems to be a higher rate of accidents on straight roads with only one car involved. Back in the day you can understand why Dommo ran his XR2 off the road and barrel rolled it down the valley on an S bend. But to crash off a straight road in a new car in 40mph....WTF are these people doing ?

 

What I really hate in other drivers is when there is nothing in front of them, they can't seem to maintain a steady speed on the motor way.

I like to use cruise control, but don't want to use the inside lane as going over the speedlimit is bad for fuel economy. So I drive at 70 and on the left most unless overtaking. This leads to often encounter slow vehicles who seems to think they have te right to drive in the middle lane. And when I get behind them, say a car who is also driving at about 70, they seem to speed up or slow down at random times, even when nothing is infront of them.

Just get to the left lane and watch your speed!



Another thing I hate is when people who don't indicate righting turn in a roundabout. Especially in roundabouts that you can see where they joined. I try to brake as little as possible when driving to save fuel, and look as far as where a car joined in the roundabout, so if they don't indicate, I often had to brake pretty hard to giveway.

 

^^ Thank god for adaptive cruise control

 

the traffic(and driving) in thailand was crazy when i was there. never saw a single accident though. some of the drivers here in washington are pretty bad too... we just got a new roundabout and it seems like im the only person in the city/town of walla walla that understands the rules for the damn things.

 

grrr. just looked it up, it's only available on S60, not on my S40.

looks like a fantastic technology. it should be on all cars.

 

He was being a cock but you were also in the wrong. You should have slowed and pulled back and not endanger your own life by trying to out drag him. It's a great feeling when your older and can afford to insure a car with decent power and a minor blip on the throttle see's the chavs in their puddle jumpers disappear in your mirror.

 

The OP stated that the cars behind had moved up.

 

Happens alot tragicallty. Used to get it on my bike alot... people seem to take a seriously crap view of bikers. Had a BMW driver cut me up and nearly wipe me clean out because he was waffling away on his cell-phone (Curse my American friends...) didn't even know he'd done it, he went up the M1 and I decided to follow just to see where he'd pull over, luckily enough he went in the next services... pulled up next to him, yanged his phone out of his hands and launched it at the closest wall I could find. Leant into his window and uttered the words "Watch what you're f***ing doing next time pr*ck, you nearly knocked me off 4 miles ago... did you even know?" Guy at this point has shat bricks because theres a huge Biker learnt through his window decked out in Digital Camo... Rode off and never heard anything back legal wise.

Another situation where two car drivers decided to try and squeeze me in between them because I was going down the inside of a queue. Guy pulled into the lane as I was happily chundelling on at 20mph (bandit was nice and thin for this) and they both just decided about 20meters in front of me to pull into each other and block off... for no reason?! bikes do this all the time, what are car drivers issues with this seriously? Just took my helmet off and shouted at one of the guys until they backed down and pulled back a bit... quick kick out on the way through to cause a little damage here and there and off I pootled... and once again, BMW's...

I can't stand car drivers, they bug the crap out of me, no spacial awareness, happily driving in a bubble of metal thinking nothing can hurt them, and thats the goddamn issue, it'll hurt people like me on Motor and Quadbikes who'll end up with broken internet-based-organs (brain) because they can't be arsed to drive properly!

Swear when I've got my quad I'm just going to carry my airsoft pistol with metal BB's in >.<

Yes I'm aware I come across as one of those people DP was describing, But I hate being messed about on the road.

 

People just don't look in their mirrors at all, I always make an effort to check a mirror or two every few seconds or so because I realise just how invisible bikes can be if you don't check.

Both my parents ride bikes and I've been on the back of my dad's only a few times but without fail there's been an idiotic car driver pulling out at the wrong time or looking straight through you.

I've got my CBT on Wednesday, it's going to be awesome and it'll help me even more seeing the road from the far more vulnerable biker's perspective.

 

Brawl this cracked me up, I did the same to some dick but instead launched his car keys across a busy dual carrageway. I wasn't on a bike but in my car with my little'un in the back. The tw4t burst out of a side road with out looking, had to slam on the anchors otherwise I would of hit his POS Ford Escort, it wouldn't surprise me if he was wasn't insured at all.

I'm not a biker as such, I ride a big ass Downhill Kona so I take up most of the road where possible so people have to slow down to pass me, if they cut me up... they lose a wing mirror at the next set of traffic lights.

 

Mad isn't it... it's why I had such a loud bike, so you'd hear me a mile away >.<

All car drivers should have to pass a CBT on a 125cc just for the simple understanding as to how different riding a bike is compared to driving a car.

haha, good to know it isn't just me and my lot that do it mate. I don't ride anymore (came off about a year back and did some quite nasty damage to me and my bike and have decided to quadbike with a r1 engine seems much more... fun *evil grin*) but knowing that wing-mirrors are still decorating mantlepieces of bikers world-wide is a wonderful notion

 

It's not necessarily because of the speed cameras, but the anti-speed propaganda governments spread. People get told all the time that speed kills, so they drive 10 below the limit and believe that they are invincible. Problem is that because they are "invincible" they pay no attention to what they are doing and run someone over.

Speeders doesn't scare me as long as they keep their distance. People that drive slowly and have "ears the size of a satellite dish" i stay faaaar away from.

You better be careful with doing stuff like that. One day you could come across a person with road rage. You may be big, but that doesn't help if they run you over.

Also, always go for windows if you are going to do damage. (Proper loves helps)

 

Yes, and a majority of them drive Micras.

 

Oh I'm well aware of how intresting it could get buddy... but don't worry a) they've got to catch me first, b) if they do catch me and gob off... I'm wearing big metal knuckled gauntlets, armour and protection that can stop a bus nearly and then of course there's the size of me >.< plus I'm always up for a good case of "survive the incoming car game"

 

He said 'a car' had moved up so he could have dropped back behind it or put his indicator on the let the driver know he wanted to move back into the left lane. The nob who sped up was baiting him to race, he did not have to bite.