Motorists

Just as annoying as the ones who stay in an overtaking lane on the motorway when the nearside lane(s) are clear and the others that sit with their foot on the brake when sitting in a queue of traffic

Julian

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others that sit with their foot on the brake when sitting in a queue of traffic

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Errr! - it is just possible they're driving automatics

Thoroughly agree about the 'middle of the road mimsers' and self appointed speed monitors though!!

quite true - I don't even know where the handbake is on my motor 'cos I don't need it!

and whilst we're on about road users - what about cyclists? IMHO most cyclists I know seem to think they have a God-given right to drive on pavements,(well, I think they can now can't they?), run red lights and moan about motorists whilst not contributing any money at all to the road network themselves in the form of direct taxes.......

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Errr! - it is just possible they're driving automatics

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Autos also have neutral,park settings and a handbrake.

No room on the pavements? Too much "offroading" fucking 4x4s.

Don't get me started on the bloody school run traffic.

Another good way off winding me up is by blocking the roundabout, no way they can go any where but stops anyone else going off another exit, staggering selfishness.


Howard

O.K Tom, it's certainly true that some motorists and cyclists are "pavement abusers", so hands-up on that one - don't think motorcyclists appear to be quite as thoughtless though...
Perhaps we could observe some of the initiatives on inner-city planning such as Oxford where motorists are largely banned but the streets are open to cyclists and buses. Having said that, the last time I went there I was appalled by the sheer time it takes to go on one of the "Park n' Rides" and when I finally got there I could hardly move for all the bikes chained to lamposts outside the shops and pubs....

OK so lots of people drive like idiots, but why? - is it impatience?

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Originally posted by Tom Alves:
Can they? I thought the pavements were now used as car parks so there isn't much room for bikes, let alone pedestrians. orget "Reclaim the Streets" how about "Reclaim the Pavements"?

Tom
Actively enjoying it all

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Reclaim the streets my buttocks. I witnessed one of these gangs of gleeful soapdodgers in the West End a couple of years ago. "Reclaim the Streets! Reclaim the Streets!" When I told them that they might have some argument if the actually paid towards the roads but it is funded by motiorists, the twats had no idea what to say.

I was also in Sloane Square recently in a Big Green Land Rover when some bunch of slackers had a mass rollerblade around the streets. Forget whatever they where "protesting" about, it looked like a huge Gay rally.


Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

Oh that was you was it Mike? You probably didn't notice but you drove over my foot as I glided by....

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Originally posted by Tom Alves:
Or don't use passing places to allow overtaking on single track roads.

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After spending 2 weeks driving between Drumnadrochit and Inverness every day, I can vouch for that one!

I get hacked off by "dawdlers" when I'm in the queue at the petrol pumps and people who park using two spaces or at stupid angles,(usually at the train station or the M & S car park).
Can't abide motorists who don't acknowledge an act of kindness, such letting them into a lane in a long traffic queue and by the same token, the ones who deliberately don't let me in!!!
Maybe these particular motorists have been behind me when I've had my foot on the brake at the lights though so I probably ask for it...

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The ones that drive very close behind you - is this a reflection on people being in too much of a hurry?

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It may also bean indication that you are driving too slowly...

However, there is never an excuse to tailgate. If someone is driving too slowly in front of me, I give them a little wake-up call with either the horn or the main beams. I don't get too close.

If some boy racer is tailgating me I reduce my speed further to make the point by gently (and I mean gently) applying my brakes before resuming my chosen speed. When a safe opportunity comes along for him to overtake me I make it as easy as possible for him to do so by pulling in.



Regards,

Steve.

Don't want to go all sexisist here, but anyone noticed how you never get let out of a junction by a woman?

Hmmmm... after a speeding ticket scare (which fortunately amounted to nothing in the end) I recently started diligently following the 30mph-and-no-more-in-town approach. You'd be amazed how many people get incredibly agitated with me when I drive like this.

You just can't win. One thing's fersure, and that's if I increased my speed to 36 (say) to get away from someone tailgating 'cause of my previously doing 30, and I was caught my the boys in blue, you can guarantee they'd have no sympathy with my plight...

It's a real conundrum, innit.

Wow, went a bit Berlin Fritz there. Gotta keep taking those tablets...!

John

O.K - two true stories the first of which concerns my grandfather,(RIP) who was taking me to school one morning,(this is over 25 years ago). Part of the route involves negotiating a T junction at the bottom of a hill to turn right onto a very busy main road. Well, the woman in the car behind us at this junction was clearly furstrated with my grandpa who in his 1300 Hillman Avenger couldn't get out of the junction quickly enough for her liking.
She started to beep like hell. My grandpa's response was to pop the hood, get out of the car and pretend there was something wrong with the engine. The woman was furious but this seemed like justice to me at the time - what a hero!

The second story involves me on the M40 in 1992 in the outside lane with a Beemer up my arse.
Typical really - overtaking, admittedly doing about 80mph but a guy screams up behind me giving it the big one with his lights and horn, etc. I couldn't safely pull into the middle lane because the traffic was too close together so I chose to speed up to enable me to pull in at the earliest opportunity.
Unfortunately for me, plod was on the top of the bridge at the Beaconsfield exit and nabbed me doing 96.4mph. The traffic cop told me they couldn't stop the guy in the Beemer because he was so close to my bumper they couldn't get a reading off his number plate...
One thing I will say about tailgating and "agressive driving" in general is that as a nation I think,(IMHO) we're more "reactionary" to it than our colleagues elsewhere in the EU. Anybody who's driven in Holland or Iberia probably knows what I mean by this,(not that I'm condoning tailgating, etc). Undertaking is another source of irritation though but in the U.S it's lawful and seems to work fine.
Lastly - what about those prats who drive up the hard shoulder on motorways? I reckon they should jolly well wait like everyone else!!!

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You can always tell the locals, they know how to behave

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Tom
Not all of them!

What about the ancient farmers who drive spanking new Toyota landcruisers, complete with all available extras, paid for with their last subsidy cheque! I regulary find myself on one track roads stuck behind these hideously expensive vechiles, whilst they travel at 10mph with bales of hay hanging out the back and a couple of sheep dogs running along behind....They never pull over to let you pass, if they do stop, it's in the middle of the road and only to have a chat with Mr Jones, who is tying up his fence with baler twine.. the dogs then proceed to bite ya tyres, while you wait for the procession to move on... when you do manage to pass, the next obstacle is normaly Mr Jones' sheep! escaped from the fields cos his fences are nothing but bits of wire held up by baler twine!

oh yes, the joys of country living folks!

And another thing: why do they always choose the most inconvenient times to take these trips?

Same as those trucks which transport mobile homes, bits of tunnels and boats accompanied by a Police escort on the M25 at 6.00 on a Friday night........

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Don't want to go all sexisist here, but anyone noticed how you never get let out of a junction by a woman?

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It is rare but I'd not say never

I have often wondered why women rarely let you out at junctions when you are both turning right.

Possible answers are as follows:

1) Women usually drive By The Book, and nowhere in the Book does it say anything about letting you out at the T junction. She has Right of Way. End of Story.

2) She's scared that if she let you out your gratitude may take a form that is a bit too much for her to handle... Especially if she's pretty.

3) She's multi-tasking.



Regards,

Steve.

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as for cyclists - they deserve all they get.

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Including motorists who overtake on blind left hand bends, crossing into the path of oncoming traffic to so, then cutting in sharply and braking hard to avoid a head on, forcing cyclist to swerve off the road???

Another favorite beut is cars that overtake just before a row of parked cars on both sides of the road, leaving enough room for only one car down the middle........then realising that a car is already travelling towards them through this gap, thus braking v hard just after overtaking said cyclist, whilst pulling hard to the left. Result on cyclist...same as above!!!


Its at times like these that I wish I had Mick Parry with me

Laurie S

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Originally posted by Top Cat:
Hmmmm... after a speeding ticket scare (which fortunately amounted to nothing in the end) I recently started diligently following the 30mph-and-no-more-in-town approach. You'd be amazed how many people get _incredibly_ agitated with me when I drive like this.

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I've been observing 30mph speed limits for years now and I can't say I've had much of a problem. You do get the odd arsehole (usually taxi drivers who think by observing the speed limit you're driving too slow) who takes exception to it, however I've found that hauling them out of their vehicle and delivering a good kicking is an appropriate and measured response.

When I'm cycling (especially when commuting) I treat every motorist as a homicidal maniac and I've rarely been disappointed...

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And another thing: why do they always choose the most inconvenient times to take these trips?

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Oh that's easy..It's cos Mrs Thomas saw you leaving the house, phoned up Mr Davies, who was having a kip in his new Landcruiser, to say... that the one car that's going to travel this one track council road today, that runs through Mr Jones' farm, is heading his way...

Perhaps the government should re-launch the "think once, think twice" public information advert as "think once, think twice, think car".
I sometimes wonder who would be at fault should I accidentally knock a cyclist or motorcyclist off their mount should he or she be "negotiating" stationary or slow-moving traffic. It's an irritation to have to constantly check wing mirrors whilst on slow moving stretches of dual carriageway and motorways for these people....

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Originally posted by Steven Toy:
Possible answers are as follows:
1) Women usually drive By The Book, and nowhere in the Book does it say anything about letting you out at the T junction. She has Right of Way. End of Story.
2) She's scared that if she let you out your gratitude may take a form that is a bit too much for her to handle... Especially if she's pretty.
3) She's multi-tasking.

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I think that they lack confidence when driving are are so wrapped up in what they are doing themselves they haven't the capacity to be considerate. Our last 5'2" secretary was such an awful driver that her husband bought her a Volvo Estate so that she would be safe. She would sit on cusions and peer over the steering wheel, mounting the pavement, bashing into gateposts at the office car park. She did eventually take out a cyclist on her way home one day.

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Originally posted by jlfrs:
I sometimes wonder who would be at fault should I accidentally knock a cyclist or motorcyclist off their mount should he or she be "negotiating" stationary or slow-moving traffic. It's an irritation to have to constantly check wing mirrors whilst on slow moving stretches of dual carriageway and motorways for these people....

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Filtering is legal if done properly so if you knocked someone off under those circumstances you'd be at fault.

It's foolish and dangerous to change lanes without checking your mirrors, even if it is in slow moving traffic.

Why do all 2CV owners have Animal Rights stickers on the rear screen? What's the connection?

Steve B

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You do get the odd arsehole (usually taxi drivers who think by observing the speed limit you're driving too slow) who takes exception to it, however I've found that hauling them out of their vehicle and delivering a good kicking is an appropriate and measured response.

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If you've ever done that (and this isn't the first time you've boasted to that effect on this forum) then you should be locked away and the coppers should give you a bloody good kicking before they haul you into the cells.

In any case, when you get out of your car in your fit of road rage to go and haul the other guy out of his car, what do you do if he locks his doors and opens his window just enough that you'll have a go and rap your knuckles on the top of the glass?

Lemme guess you'd probably follow him until he eventually gets out of his car 200 miles away because you really are a psychopathic menace to society.



Regards,

Steve.