Driving manners (!)

[RGuk]

I don't drive the big roads of this country that often these days, since retiring to the "green, green grass" of Shropshire. I tend to fly a bit still and if I do go to London or Edinburgh drive out of rush hours. What I did notice is that it's a jungle out there on the motorways!
Tailgating...(plenty)...abominable lane discipline...(everywhere) and just shocking driving manners overall. And every bugger is on a handheld mobile!! I'm sure this is no news to some of you.

I don't know what is the most annoying, I try to let it all drift over my consciousness, but even with the patience of a saint, it's fairly taxing!!! I mean....who in their right mind tailgates at 90 mph ? (Saab driver in a company car, got the phone number too.....shame I can memorise stuff easily!) Since when has it been the way to signal and then wait for a gap??? for the last "how long?" motorway drivers have signaled and go there and then....or have I forgotten?? If you indicate while the car you are intending to pull out AFTER has not got alongside you yet, you're going to scare the cr** out of him/her. And middle-lane drivers..

What is going on. Not to mention a 911 vs. a Cayenne at 120mph under a junction in rush hour. Big boys and their willy complex.....I don't get it.....

 

[medwayjon]

I know what you mean about tailgating Dave, it absolutely drives me mental. Once was a company van when I was driving my newborn, I reported him to his firm and they fired him.

The second time, I was in an apallingly vile mood as Olivia was in hospital ill, a boy-racer in a saxo was tailgating me so severly I could not even see his lights in my rear-view mirror. At the traffic lights we came to, I jumped out and planted my crook-lock through his windscreen and told him to get out of his ****ing car and show me what a big-man he really was. He cried, his mate riding shotgun laughed his head off and I drove away. I was very lucky to not get nicked for this extreme behaviour which was probably a little excessive.

Also, lane discipline, dont even get me started on that. I undertook a complete *** who was in lane 3 of the M2 at Rochester, he was doing 50ish, in the outside lane, and because I undertook him he gave me the W***er signs.

aaaaarrrrrggggghhhh!

 

[Basher]

Some really hard people in cars. They give you the w****r sign, flick the v's.

Get the majority out of their steel boxes and they are lambs.

 

[TonyN]

What is it with kids in saxo's? i had one behind me so i slammed on and he clapped his hands thinkin he was funny, slammed on again and parked across both lanes (road was dead) got out and ran back to his car, little f**ker reversed away up road so i just went back to my car and got my mag light out. he drove back up so i went back to him, little [****] turned around and had to go the long way! haha

 

[MVP]

Dont get me started......calm down.................the reasons behind missing 3footers start from behind the wheel!

Why do you think i don't use a buggy on course!

If your not stuck in a traffic jam you might as well be becasue your stuck behind the worlds biggest Flid driving a fiat Multipla

 

[Dave3498]

It doesn't bother me anymore. I just accept it as all part of life.

Most people are doing their best on the road, although their best doesn't come up to my standards, I do accept they are doing their best, and that's it. I agree with the tailgating annoyance, but my reaction to this is to get out of their way and let them do it to someone else.

I can't see the philosophy behind some driving moves. Sometimes I'm in a stream of traffic, all travelling at about 50, and someone will want to overtake for no purpose whatsoever. Since most vehicles are 2 seconds apart, someone overtaking needs to pass 30 vehicle to get 1 minute ahead. The average journey being 30 minutes, it means that to knock 10% off it you would have to overtake 90 vehicles. What's the point?

 

[HTL]

I know exactly what your all on about, I live in Surrey with all the stuck up yummy mummies in their tanks thinking they own the road, knob head business men in their penis enhancement tools and the joys of the M25 to deal with!!

I also hate the CHAVS in their saxos with exhausts I could fit my head up and little K & N`s thinking they are faster than Lewis Hammilton!

Gotta go lads + ladies, takeaway just arrived and opened bottle of wine.

 

[RGuk]

It doesn't bother me anymore. I just accept it as all part of life.

You're a philosophical chap, Dave (as we know)...you're doing well to not get bothered, I suspect you will live long and prosper!!

As to your comment.....the A5 is a terrible road for the "overtake-as-much-as-possible" guys, such a risk to everyone else on the road......When I go up that road, I sit on the cruise control and enjoy my music, getting to Chester 4 minutes early but with a frazzled head and raised heart-rate is a waste of time. The Police are pretty hot on that road now....I know someone who was pulled over, made excuses, got fined and then moaned about it at work. I told him, if I'd been the copper, I'd have had his car crushed for such lunacy!

 

[viscount17]

I have started (late I know) to chill a lot more when behind the wheel. I do the A1 run every day which has more than its fair share of tailgaiters, prats who don't understand 'maintaining the traffic flow' (a 100 yard gap is not a safe braking distance it's the reason the traffic is backed up), phone dollys, and boy (emphasis) racers of all ages and sexes.

My solution to tailgaiters is now to slow down. I dearly wish for a rear screen message 'I drive at <u>your</u> braking distance'

 

[GB72]

I am lucky in that all I do is a quick sprint up the A1 to Peterborough and back again. Not too many prats on that run. What still surprises me is the idiots who overtake on blind corners on narrow country roads to save a whole 5 minutes on their journey.

 

[medwayjon]

Boy racers, the biggest bunch of cocks ever to set foot on the earth. I have shaved with things more powerful than some of them drive.

They annoy the [****] out of me at work. Whenever I get something a bit tasty I always get the boy-racer come in trying to impress his underage bird. They usually reckon their corsa is worth £5k as they have put a bit of fibreglass on it a Fast (how ironic) Car sticker in the window and a noisy fartbox on the exhaust system.

We have a nightclub near us called Amadeus, on the under 18's nights all the boy racers are there trying to have sex with 13 year old girls. This is because they are complete sad little tossers and girls their own age think exactly the same as I do.

If they aren't at chavadeus they hang around in Mcdonalds drive-ins giving it charlie big-bollocks with their stereos booming.

But the biggest annoyance, they buy the Ford "Motorsport" stickers and then display them in anything but a Ford. I have to have a go at them when I see this as it is in my eyes an insult to performance ford owners.

 

[RGuk]

Say it as you see it MWJ!

I came up to the lights next to a Carlos Sainz GT4 when I was in my Celica GT. I wound down the window and said "shall we race?" in a joking way (meaning...."let's not race") In the 3rd lane a kid in a rover ZR (?) pulled up and revved the hell out of his 125ps K series. The lights went green and Mr GT4 let rip......even ZR boy didn't try!!!

 

[RGuk]

But the biggest annoyance, they buy the Ford "Motorsport" stickers and then display them in anything but a Ford. I have to have a go at them when I see this as it is in my eyes an insult to performance ford owners.

For some reason (can't think why) the lads in Zetec S Fiestas don't want to try any silly antics with me in the Puma.....I don't know if it's the extra bhp or the subtle "Pumabuild" stickers on the car!

http://www.pumabuild.co.uk/

Now these guys know a thing or two about real Ford tuning

 

[GB72]

When I was a couple of years younger I used to have great fun in my ST Mondeo which went like a rocket for a car of its size. Would love to still have it but it ate petrol

 

[medwayjon]

I had a Saxo try to race me in the S6 the other day. I pulled off slowly, let him get ahead, planted it in 2nd and on a wave of boost-fueled torque at him for breakfast.

I don't know why the little knobheads bother, I have had them try it in (to name a few) a V6 clio, 3000GT, SL600, BMW 850, RS500 and a E55 AMG.

 

[Spear]

Its not just boy racers that tailgate. Its the wanna be yuppies in their fast cars that drive 50 plus in a 30 zone! Really gets me. One sunday morning last summer at about 7 I had just picked up a mate and we were on our way to hach up a course when a new merc came tear arsing up the road behind me. As it was a 30mph zone I didnt accelerate any and drove across both lanes so he couldnt pass. Got to the traffic light and I was out in a flash at his window asking him if he has eyesight problems that he couldnt read 30 mph. My mate thinks its funny as I am prone to road rage - but only when people are unsafe. Why is it whenever you offer someone to pulll over they just drive off? Had a truck pull out nearly into me on wed - he indicated but didnt wait for a gap! Obviously if you indicate you can just go without waiting for a gap! With regards to undertaking - had a discussion with a drivin instructor and he reckons if someone is doing 50 in the outside lane and everyone else is doing 60/70 in the middle and inside lane then you not undertaking because you not breaking the limit. He said you cant expect all traffic to drive slower coz some prat is going 50 in the outside lane!

 

[RGuk]

Luckily, I've not been in an accident, but coming back from shopping one day with a 3 y.o. in the back, a van driver pulled out of a "give way" without even looking....I couldn't stop in time, so I braked a bit, up onto a grassy verge, braked a bit more, went towards a hedge, braked a bit more then parked nose first in the prickly stuff. The driver (who had almost stopped) then drove off. I followed him around the ring road, flashed him to pull over, then finally after 2 (?) minutes, he pulled into an industrial area. I asked him whether he knew what he'd done....he came clean, then if it had occurred to him to check we were OK?? He didn't really have an answer.....so I casually told him I thought he was bang out of order and took his number. Everyone makes mistakes.....surely an apology wouldn't hurt?

I never undertake, way too silly, and I drive at 30-31 mph (on the cruise) through the villages....it's amazing how many w****** overtake. Selfish, I guess, plain and simple.

 

[Dave3498]

My solution to tailgaiters is now to slow down.

I tend to do the same viscount17. After all, you have to protect yourself and your passengers. Let them get out of the way at the first opportunity. You don't want to be involved in their stupidity.

 

[Toad]

I used to drive on average 65k miles a year in the last job and would admit to all of the above sins at one point or another, but since my son came along and the change of job I no longer suffer from road rage.

I sit at 70 on M-ways with cruise control on and relax nothing bothers me anymore if they are tailgaiting I flick on my lights it looks like you are braking and they back off, or they slam on their brakes and look like the plonkers they are.

 

[medwayjon]

I hate people who drive like idiots in the 30 zones. A guy was done by a radar camera outside a school near me (at home-time) doing 57mph with kids all over the place. Prick.

And as for drink drivers, If a mate of mine was to drive pissed I would chin him, no doubt about it. Disgusting in my eyes how people will risk others lives because they are too lazy to walk, too tight to get a cab, or simply just dont give a [****].