Your bad driving encounters/irritations
- Thread starter Stu999
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Soldato
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Had somebody go in the wrong lane on sat then cut me off, then to top it off stuck his finger up at me when we parted ways. I don't get some people, they just shouldn't be driving.
Old? I get this sort of thing off coffin dodgers all the time.
I was on dual lane road coming up to some red lights at a T junction leading on the a main road. Both the left and right lanes can go right and I was in the right lane. I noticed a learner bus was coming from the right on the main road and turning left into this junction, so I moved in to the empty left lane to give him room to turn and protect myself to be fair. Which was a good thing I did because the learner driver went well in to the right lane to get around the corner. I ended up straddling both lanes but there was nobody behind me at this point, so hardly super bad driving on my part.
Eventually a black Audi A1 came up behind me in the left lane and instead of waiting, tried to squeeze up the inside of me. Now for me this was a pointless move because the lights were red and there was literally zero benefit to this person being 5 metres further on.
I thought she was going to hit my car and right enough I heard the crunching and scraping of metal. Luckily for me it was her front left bumper and front left side alloy scraping against the very large kerb. She stopped her pointless manoeuvre and went the deepest crimson colour as the realisation of her utter stupidity set in.
It really boggles the mind that some people cannot understand the concept of risk vs reward, let alone have the spatial awareness to judge that even her small A1 was never getting in to the gap that was available. Hundreds of pounds worth of damage to her car for absolutely zero reason.
Eventually a black Audi A1 came up behind me in the left lane and instead of waiting, tried to squeeze up the inside of me. Now for me this was a pointless move because the lights were red and there was literally zero benefit to this person being 5 metres further on.
I thought she was going to hit my car and right enough I heard the crunching and scraping of metal. Luckily for me it was her front left bumper and front left side alloy scraping against the very large kerb. She stopped her pointless manoeuvre and went the deepest crimson colour as the realisation of her utter stupidity set in.
It really boggles the mind that some people cannot understand the concept of risk vs reward, let alone have the spatial awareness to judge that even her small A1 was never getting in to the gap that was available. Hundreds of pounds worth of damage to her car for absolutely zero reason.
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*insert any small car
I tend to see the opposite of this, usually women of a certain age, with small cars thinking they're driving a M1 Abrams, especially when they're driving passed parked cars etc and they go completely into the oncoming lane despite their lane being wide enough for them not to need to cross the line
Later this morning, I will have the pleasure of driving on the M20 between junction 9 and 8. For those not familiar, this is the section that has the lovely barrier system called Brook, that is quite literally rolled out to create a two lane contraflow on the London bound section.
While I have experienced this many times, in all honesty, the setup itself is not a problem. If you drive normally, at the 50mph speed limit, with enough space between you and the vehicle in front, you'll get through without any issues.
Unfortunately, even in this confined space, some idiots still think they can force themselves through traffic as if they are on a life or death mission. London bound HGV's (specifically the majority of foreign ones) give zero fecks to tailgating, and then coastbound, often exceed the 30mph limit on the coastbound segregated section.
Brook serves a purpose, but the silly "stunts" that insist on putting themselves first and everyone else at risk, make the whole thing a pain.
Genuine cases of breakdowns or emergency issues are unfortunate and leaves little for traffic in the contraflow sections to do.
Ah well, that's my 2p for this thread
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While I have experienced this many times, in all honesty, the setup itself is not a problem. If you drive normally, at the 50mph speed limit, with enough space between you and the vehicle in front, you'll get through without any issues.
Unfortunately, even in this confined space, some idiots still think they can force themselves through traffic as if they are on a life or death mission. London bound HGV's (specifically the majority of foreign ones) give zero fecks to tailgating, and then coastbound, often exceed the 30mph limit on the coastbound segregated section.
Brook serves a purpose, but the silly "stunts" that insist on putting themselves first and everyone else at risk, make the whole thing a pain.
Genuine cases of breakdowns or emergency issues are unfortunate and leaves little for traffic in the contraflow sections to do.
Ah well, that's my 2p for this thread
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Soldato
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Had a good one last night when picking up my daughter from guides. They were at their outdoor area, essentially a single track troad with a car park and some huts at the end. I was about 3/4s of the way down said track (which is mostly straight) and some genius parent decides to come towards me. As there are barriers on his side I had to drive up the very wet grass/embankment and also slide into his car, all because they couldn't wait 10 seconds for me to get off the road onto the mostly empty car park 
. Even my daughter who was watching asking"why didn't they just wait". It's amazing that kids seems to have a better concept of how to drive than some adulta 
.
. Even my daughter who was watching asking"why didn't they just wait". It's amazing that kids seems to have a better concept of how to drive than some adulta .
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Part of why I said seems to be a lot of miserable drivers yesterday above - twice encountered people on single track and/or where cars were parked on their side who were ignorant. The second one was all flashing their headlights and putting their hand up but it was so clearly about making them feel better than any consideration for anyone else (me) I just gave them a stare back.
Just had a nice bit of karma, I'm in a 55ft long articulated truck, trundling down an A-road near Halesowen, Birmingham.
Cars parked on my left, it's a dual carriageway.
I indicate and pull into the outside lane to clear the parked cars, some muppet decides to floor it up my nearside and promptly piles straight into one of the said parked cars!
I say karma as this happens regularly, people will try anything to get past a truck just not usually with this outcome...
Cars parked on my left, it's a dual carriageway.
I indicate and pull into the outside lane to clear the parked cars, some muppet decides to floor it up my nearside and promptly piles straight into one of the said parked cars!
I say karma as this happens regularly, people will try anything to get past a truck just not usually with this outcome...
Yesterday evening, driving home from work:
- Driving towards a pedestrian in all black/very dark clothing crossing a dual carriageway to get to the other side. There was a 60 MPH speed limit on this stretch. They must've waited for a quiet moment before crossing the other carriageway, as that road wasn't too busy at the time. I have no idea where they even came from. There's only forest/woodland on both sides of the carriageway.
- Driving in lane 1 on the A1. Approaching a junction slip road, a van driver overtaking me in lane 2 decided to change to lane 1 with only centimetres of distance from my front bumper. It's a miracle that we didn't collide. A very very late lane change to exit the A1.
Had to go to a supermarket. I hate supermarket carparks at the best of times but at this time of year they are absolute carnage and I feel lucky to have got away with it without having a car smack in to me. Literally nobody seems to be looking where they are going and have zero awareness of what's around them.
Didn't get the footage sadly, but a weird one on the M60 yesterday, a blue ford focus (newer model) was indicating on the wrong side when changing lanes, multiple times. They were in lane 4 and seemed to need to get to lane 1 for an exit in heavy traffic, and the issue wasn't with them leaving it until last minute, they started moving across with plenty of time and they did so normally. The weird thing was everytime they moved across to the left lane, they were indicating right.
So either they mixed up with their left from right or there was a fault with the car, was bizarre.
So either they mixed up with their left from right or there was a fault with the car, was bizarre.
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Soldato
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- Gloucestershire
So many cars with headlights that aren't working. (one of!) Still as DRLs are so bloody bright it can sometimes be hard to tell any difference.
Are newer cars much more fragile?!
Are newer cars much more fragile?!
One of the things which annoys me a lot - if a headlight goes on a newer vehicle instead of £20 on a bulb, which you can do at the roadside even, you are looking at £200-2000 on a replacement cluster or if unlucky they will only sell you the complete set, so an increasing number of people only sort it when forced to. Something which should never have been allowed to happen in my opinion.
Driving a lot at night I've noticed a fair increase lately of people having only 1 properly working headlight.
EDIT: Though they don't have the focus pattern of proper headlights the DRLs on my Qashqai are like 80% of the brightness of older halogens - probably better than some older cars with poor headlights, which is shocking.
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Lane 3, car in front, ACC set to 75 but car in front is doing 70. That's cool, you do you my friend. But oh no, *** head behind gets right up my chuff and starts flashing his lights. Like I can evaporate the car in front out of my way if I just will it so.
So I pull over, let him past, then pull behind and start flashing. Turns out the car in front doesn't magically evaporate. ******* idiots.
It's like there is an expectation to tailgate people to pressure them out of the way but I simply refuse to do it. I may choose to drive over the limit but others shouldn't feel compelled to.
So I pull over, let him past, then pull behind and start flashing. Turns out the car in front doesn't magically evaporate. ******* idiots.
It's like there is an expectation to tailgate people to pressure them out of the way but I simply refuse to do it. I may choose to drive over the limit but others shouldn't feel compelled to.
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Yeah - whatever the reason sitting on someone's arse trying to pressure them is just stupid and foreseeably can lead to an easily avoidable accident... but it seems common sense and risk assessment left the chat years ago.
Not to say I've not sometimes ended up closer behind people than is sensible but that is generally because of their unpredictable approach and slowing down for no apparent reason and/or then reacting to me getting close behind them, due to their own actions, by slowing down even more! so I can't easily build space...
Yeah sometimes it happens that you end up closer than you should be and I don't generally worry if someone ends up riding my bumper for a few seconds. Likewise I see the "Obstacle Close" warning of the dashboard enough to know that I'm not perfect but it's the systematic bumper riders that cheese me off.
I normally let it wash over me but this ding dong flashing and doing the two hands up in the air "What are you doing?!" action triggered me. Sitting behind someone driving slower than I want to go pal. Difference is I don't think I own the bloody M1.