Driving is dead :(

Caporegime
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I personally can't wait for our robot overlords to take over. I reckon we're past the point of salvation, the amount of sheer dumbassery I see on the roads every single day now is alarming. People leaving 20m gaps at lights, people daydreaming when lights go green, positioning in ways that don't allow anyone past when pulling out of junctions, sitting in the right hand lane no matter the road, driving 10mph under the speed limit at all times and then slowing to a walking pace when there's a speed trap ahead, middle lane hoggers, I can go on. It's really, really noticeable. Since I got my scooter for commuting it's driven the final nail in the coffin for me, being able to just zip past everyone is bliss, which makes it all the more infuriating when I'm driving and get stuck behind these zombies.

Someone said recently (think it was @Rroff ? can't remember) that we've got a combination of people who haven't driven in decades suddenly deciding to get in a car again to avoid the covid on public transport, with people who've largely been WFH over the last two years, to the usuals who probably shouldn't be allowed shoelaces.

There's also a noticeable increase in tension on the roads, this will be due to people like me who've driven all through the pandemic getting irritated at the above who are generally nothing but obstructions on the roads. As a London driver I probably get it a lot more than folks in more rural areas as we've got tons more cars on the roads which doesn't help.

The whole attitude towards driving seems to have changed. Whilst we've always had idiots on the road, the general consensus seemed to be that we're all trying to get somewhere and people would generally pay more attention to others, whereas now people just view their fellow road users as obstacles which they need to simply avoid, and as long as their 10deg cone of vision is fine, the rest of the world may as well not exist.

Phew, that feels better. Soz, needed a whinge :p
 
I love living in London though :(


I grew up in north London, couldn't wait to move out, early 20's I was gone, now I live in a tiny village in the Cambridgeshire fens never looked back.

I like visiting London to be fair, more so now than when I lived there.
 
I grew up in north London, couldn't wait to move out, early 20's I was gone, now I live in a tiny village in the Cambridgeshire fens never looked back.

I like visiting London to be fair, more so now than when I lived there.
I remember getting off of the bus from Kings X to Kentish Town and thinking "oh man this is actually really gross".

I live in a similar city to Cambridge now, and you're totally right, it makes visiting London much more special.
 
Have the exact same things every day and I live in the sticks. Mostly old people terrified of going over 35 and hesitating at every junction.
 
Leaving North London for Surrey was a great move when I was a teenager, drove into Islington twice during COVID and the driving standard considering it was nose to nose for most of the journey was abysmal.
 
I live near Epsom and whilst some may consider it less London than say kingston or Surbiton, I can’t stand the traffic.

I want nothing more than to get out of the M25 but the mrs is having none of it.

I would go west and never EVER look back.
 
Someone said recently (think it was @Rroff ? can't remember) that we've got a combination of people who haven't driven in decades suddenly deciding to get in a car again to avoid the covid on public transport, with people who've largely been WFH over the last two years, to the usuals who probably shouldn't be allowed shoelaces.

I don't remember specifically saying that - but I've made a few similar comments.

Something I've found mind boggling - a week ago I was on my way home to come around a corner and find a car upside down in the road - I've been checking the news since to see if there was any details on what happened and within this approx. geographical area no less than 5 people have managed to overturn their cars in single vehicle incidents since!?!?!, but no news on the one I saw.

EDIT: Whelp - Googling "car overturned" shows ~10 accidents, mostly single vehicle incidents, in the last ~2 days nationally...

I also find it concerning how not a day goes by without a serious incident on the major roads within this area - A30, A35, A37, A303 and a bit further out the M5, etc.

It didn't used to be like this.
 
Have the exact same things every day and I live in the sticks. Mostly old people terrified of going over 35 and hesitating at every junction.
Those old people were probably up for a ton on a Triumph Thunderbird, helmet less, footloose and fancy free, bird on the pillion, off to the coast on traffic and camera free A roads. Catch me as you can copper!

Now in their little boxes plagued by a million useless and contradictory road signs, road markings etc, all except for a speed limit reminder plates. Speed limits changing up and down for no obvious reason followed by the actual camera obscured in the hedgerow.

Adolf in the planning office smiling with glee.

We might as well potter along, ain't no hurry for the hospital, doctor, optician, supermarket.

:p
 
Some of us have like jobs to get to, so as to pay your pension! :p
Well the last bit was to raise your ire. My wife has to remind me still to get off the loud pedal.

However the bulk of my post is largely true. Roads are more hostile today and the oldies now were the speedsters of yesterday.
 
I'm more concerned about all the tools hammering about lane splitting and breaking hard when I'm pootling along in the middle lane with the ACC on minding my own business.
Oh and lol London. Seems pointless having a car there.
 
Well the last bit was to raise your ire. My wife has to remind me still to get off the loud pedal.

However the bulk of my post is largely true. Roads are more hostile today and the oldies now were the speedsters of yesterday.
This is very true.
 
Well the last bit was to raise your ire. My wife has to remind me still to get off the loud pedal.

However the bulk of my post is largely true. Roads are more hostile today and the oldies now were the speedsters of yesterday.

Certainly doesn't help - the town I learnt to drive in used to be a breeze to get from one end to the other - now they've changed simple junctions to incomprehensible roundabouts, simple 3-4 way roundabouts with a traditional layout to complex junctions and even just thrown a mix of both together for a laugh:

K73VxJg.jpg

I challenge anyone to drive the whole layout across town for the first time with no previous experience and make the correct decisions every single time.

To be fair that through-about mess does actually make sense... when you've driven it about half a dozen times...
 
Those old people were probably up for a ton on a Triumph Thunderbird, helmet less, footloose and fancy free, bird on the pillion, off to the coast on traffic and camera free A roads. Catch me as you can copper!

Now in their little boxes plagued by a million useless and contradictory road signs, road markings etc, all except for a speed limit reminder plates. Speed limits changing up and down for no obvious reason followed by the actual camera obscured in the hedgerow.

Adolf in the planning office smiling with glee.

We might as well potter along, ain't no hurry for the hospital, doctor, optician, supermarket.

:p

No random changes. All 60 nsl until you get to a village where they drop to 30.
If they, and you, find it too confusing then time to crack out that bus pass!
 
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