Your bad driving encounters/irritations

[Rroff]

If only I had a rear view dashcam installed then at least I could try and decipher their morse code and semaphore at my leisure.

I've had people do that kind of thing before and often seems to boil down to 1 of 2 things:

-They magically think you can get out of their way and think you are the one holding everyone up and completely oblivious to all the traffic ahead of you.
-You've done something, or not done something, that has given them a bee in the bonnet so to speak.

On the last point I had someone do it awhile back because I didn't bother to indicate when pulling off a roundabout when they thought I should - they were following me as well so not like they'd have been inconvenienced by it anyhow. The roundabout is too small to indicate when going straight over without it potentially being more of a problem misleading other traffic than helpful so I don't indicate. The irony was after all their remonstrations about it they then were too busy on their phone to notice the lights changing at the next set of lights we stopped at...

 

[Haggisman]

-They magically think you can get out of their way and think you are the one holding everyone up and completely oblivious to all the traffic ahead of you.

90% of the time it seems to be this....

 

[Mysterae_]

On the last point I had someone do it awhile back because I didn't bother to indicate

It could be something like this - I wonder if I had left my indicator on and if they were at one of the many junctions it may have have confused them. A bit of an overreaction though!

 

[Kenai]

-They magically think you can get out of their way and think you are the one holding everyone up and completely oblivious to all the traffic ahead of you.

I've had someone tailgate me pretty much the entire distance from Southampton to Salisbury on the A36 when I was at the tail end of a queue of about 20 cars stuck behind three lorries doing 40mph, it's honestly staggering just how thick some people are

 

[theone8181]

It could be something like this - I wonder if I had left my indicator on and if they were at one of the many junctions it may have have confused them. A bit of an overreaction though!

Was just going to say it's likely option one, coupled with the I'm so close I'm practically on your backseat.

Edit sorry quoted wrong post, meant about the guy flashing.

 

[Rroff]

Was like everyone was on drugs on the way to work yesterday - leaving my village got behind someone who was going in fits and starts, probably on their phone but I couldn't see clearly, when they turned off caught up with another driver who was clearly on their phone - saw it several times and similarly erratic driving but ahead of them was a veterinarian van also driving erratically. Going through several junctions and villages with parked cars on the road to navigate, etc. and everyone was doing really dopey things.

Got to a place I moan about a lot where the road turns to multi-carriageway with a turning off to the left and a couple of cars waiting to turn off and the veterinarian van decides to go into lane 2 around them but then just sits there at 26MPH in a 40 wandering about their lane, as I moved over to the right a bit to try and give them a hint they go to move to lane 1 then hesitate, obviously hadn't checked their mirrors, then straddle the lanes a bit, wander around a bit more before finally moving to lane 1... as I pass them I see they've got a dog beside them and they are scratching its head with apparently little concern for the road - if it was a high dependency animal or something their driving choices were very questionable and unnecessarily putting everyone at risk.

 

[Nabinium]

Was like everyone was on drugs on the way to work yesterday - leaving my village got behind someone who was going in fits and starts, probably on their phone but I couldn't see clearly, when they turned off caught up with another driver who was clearly on their phone - saw it several times and similarly erratic driving but ahead of them was a veterinarian van also driving erratically. Going through several junctions and villages with parked cars on the road to navigate, etc. and everyone was doing really dopey things.

Got to a place I moan about a lot where the road turns to multi-carriageway with a turning off to the left and a couple of cars waiting to turn off and the veterinarian van decides to go into lane 2 around them but then just sits there at 26MPH in a 40 wandering about their lane, as I moved over to the right a bit to try and give them a hint they go to move to lane 1 then hesitate, obviously hadn't checked their mirrors, then straddle the lanes a bit, wander around a bit more before finally moving to lane 1... as I pass them I see they've got a dog beside them and they are scratching its head with apparently little concern for the road - if it was a high dependency animal or something their driving choices were very questionable and unnecessarily putting everyone at risk.

It was Friday after all, so they probably were on drugs as you say.

Surprised about the veterinarian van driving like that though.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Friday and Saturday nights are often like this for me. Sounds like you had a bad run though!

Yesterday was Day Of The Stuck Indicators. Following someone who left their indicator on after leaving a roundabout (it's actually lane controlled so no need to indicate, really). It was on for the entire stretch of maybe a quarter mile until the next roundabout where they left it on and went straight over. It auto cancelled as they took their exit.

Then going the other way home, I saw someone doing the same thing on the same stretch (oncoming). Indicator stuck on halfway down a road with no turnings!

 

[Nabinium]

Yesterday was Day Of The Stuck Indicators. Following someone who left their indicator on after leaving a roundabout (it's actually lane controlled so no need to indicate, really). It was on for the entire stretch of maybe a quarter mile until the next roundabout where they left it on and went straight over. It auto cancelled as they took their exit.

Then going the other way home, I saw someone doing the same thing on the same stretch (oncoming). Indicator stuck on halfway down a road with no turnings!

I've been seeing this a lot lately: stuck indicators. I'm wondering why I am seeing it a lot. How can people not tell there's an indicator on? Unless their radio is so loud they can't hear the indicator, or they're just oblivious to the indicator light on the dashboard.

 

[Mysterae_]

I've been seeing this a lot lately: stuck indicators. I'm wondering why I am seeing it a lot. How can people not tell there's an indicator on? Unless their radio is so loud they can't hear the indicator, or they're just oblivious to the indicator light on the dashboard.

I think I'm guilty of this (see a few posts back) and have been looking out for it and may have some possible reasons (excuses) for it.

The centre dashboard of my Seal is an LCD screen instead of the usual analogue dials and illuminated tell-tales. When an indicator icon is flashing on the screen the icon is so small and no more illuminated than the rest of screen so it doesn't get my attention anywhere near as much those using an LED of it's own. Additionally, I barely look at the dashboard display anymore because of the HUD. It would be good if the indicator tell-tales where shown on the HUD then I would always notice them. As for the sound of the indicator, it's no longer a physical relay clicking on and off so there's no haptics or even the perception of haptics. The sound of the indicator ticking is so synthesized that my brain effectively filters it out just like all the other bings and bongs of modern cars.

All this coupled with the facts that 100% of motorists are morons so you must treat them accordingly so as not to be surprised when they do something moronic, and that all the indicator indicates is that the bulb/LED works.

 

[TheVoice]

I've been seeing this a lot lately: stuck indicators. I'm wondering why I am seeing it a lot. How can people not tell there's an indicator on? Unless their radio is so loud they can't hear the indicator, or they're just oblivious to the indicator light on the dashboard.

For a lot of people indicating seems to just be muscle memory or something they do as they turn the wheel in that direction, rather than actually putting any thought into it. Not surprising they aren't aware it's still on.

 

[Rroff]

Had to laugh yesterday, had someone a few cars in front in a Jaguar XK with a douchy personalised plate that obviously felt like they were superior to everyone else and driving in that way seeming to delight in being a bit of a dick often going very slowly for no reason, at lights they were in lane 1 and a few of us went into lane 2 and though they put their foot down to try and foil people getting past another vehicle pulled out in front of them blocking them - they spent the next few miles desperately trying to overtake us again but every time an opportunity came up something would happen to shut them out like getting stuck behind a lorry, etc. after a bit they were clearly seething.

 

[VaderDSL]

Seeing a lot more people driving straight out into the middle lane from those 2 lane into 1 lan slip roads recently. Specifically a junction on my commute where you have a 2 lane motorway turn into 3 lanes. The slip road where the 2>3 change occurs has 2 lanes which merge into the new first lane. But people seem to think that they can just drive straight out into lane 2 for some reason.

 

[Rroff]

That setup tends to cause a lot of confusion in general, I've found a lot less traffic will try and accommodate people emerging lately as well.

 

[Rroff]

Been absolute pain driving to work last 3 days including today, I've never known it so bad in all my years of driving for people wandering around and doing stupid things, what on earth is going on.

 

[V_R]

Seeing a lot more people driving straight out into the middle lane from those 2 lane into 1 lan slip roads recently. Specifically a junction on my commute where you have a 2 lane motorway turn into 3 lanes. The slip road where the 2>3 change occurs has 2 lanes which merge into the new first lane. But people seem to think that they can just drive straight out into lane 2 for some reason.

Yep see that all the time on the M40 junction by me, I take great pleasure staying in lane one and sailing past them at 70mph..

 

[Nigel Kingdon]

Why is lane one always so empty? Are the MLOC afraid of it or something?

 

[Rroff]

Why is lane one always so empty? Are the MLOC afraid of it or something?

Depends on context. Some people subscribe to the school of thought that with high speed driving where possible it is better to sit where you've got plenty of road either side of you should an incident occur. In heavier traffic if you keep going in and out of lane 1 you'll end up shut out behind slower moving traffic (and it is generally better to minimise lane changes in heavier traffic as this is when most incidents occur). Some are just middle lane hoggers who don't give a ****.

 

[Itchytrigg]

Interesting one today. 2 lane round about, German left hand drive bmw in left lane and no indicator on, I’m on the bike indicating right in the right lane.

BMW just keeps left the whole way round to the right/3rd exit same as me…my spidy senses were tingling as we’d got to the roundabout anyway so no drama and I was able to get ahead before we came together but he just seemed oblivious to what he was doing

 

[Haggisman]

Some people subscribe to the school of thought that with high speed driving where possible it is better to sit where you've got plenty of road either side of you should an incident occur.

And those people are called "absolute ******** morons with less intelligence than a brick".

Yes you have more "road" either side of you, but that road is likely to contain other objects travelling at high speed.

Contrast that to driving in the left lane where 99% of the time the piece of road to your left* will not contain other objects travelling at high speed, and so if an incident occurs, there's an extremely high likelihood that you can safely swerve to the left without needing to check your mirrors/blind spots etc.

I do enjoy the stupid mental gymnastics that stupid people come out with in order to pretend that they're not stupid, when in fact all they're doing is reinforcing their stupidity by doubling-down on it.






* let's not get started on the shambles that is "smart" motorways.