Any bad drivers here?

You know, if you do a survey of a random sample of people then pretty consistently you'll get somewhere between 80 and 85% rating themselves as above average or very above average drivers.

Clearly this can't be true. Most people over-estimate their own competence on lots of things, but driving seems particularly prone to it.

I'm sure I do this on lots of things, but driving isn't one of them. I am not a confident driver. I've never had a crash, but I always feel like I'm about to have one! Perhaps this is why I've never had one, I don't know.

I hate joining the motorway from the slip road, I hate multi-lane approaches to junctions and islands because I can never decide where I should be, I hate turning right onto the insanely busy high street near our house. And my wife is much better at parallel parking than I am.

Sometimes I feel like a failure as a man. So... sorry for letting the side down, guys :o
 
i hate driving around the town centre of a 'new' place, as in somewhere I've never been before

especially if we're looking for something but don't know where exactly it is
 
strumpusplunket said:
You know, if you do a survey of a random sample of people then pretty consistently you'll get somewhere between 80 and 85% rating themselves as above average or very above average drivers.

Clearly this can't be true. Most people over-estimate their own competence on lots of things, but driving seems particularly prone to it.

I'm sure I do this on lots of things, but driving isn't one of them. I am not a confident driver. I've never had a crash, but I always feel like I'm about to have one! Perhaps this is why I've never had one, I don't know.

I hate joining the motorway from the slip road, I hate multi-lane approaches to junctions and islands because I can never decide where I should be, I hate turning right onto the insanely busy high street near our house. And my wife is much better at parallel parking than I am.

Sometimes I feel like a failure as a man. So... sorry for letting the side down, guys :o
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Are you indecisive as a person by any chance?
 
I think a ***** motorcyclist thought I was driving badly today here – basically I was in the bottom exit entering the roundabout to take my 2nd exit, I was in left lane. Biker was approaching on the roundabout in the inside lane and I joined roundabout in first lane staying in first lane.

I was in 2nd gear and floored it to 40mph and shifted to 3rd gear passing the biker (this exit is slightly uphill) (also in the 2nd lane still joining the 2nd exit so both of us are in in 2nd exit now in our own lanes).

For some reason he beeps his ****** little sounding motorbike horn at me twice, i do not know why, didn’t cut him up, didn’t merge in front of his lane or anything, I merely accelerated up to 40mph in 2nd going ahead of him!

As he passed me on the right lane he lifted his middle finger up, beeped and went passed all the while I’m thinking “lolwut?”

Do bikers not like cars passing them in other lanes or something?

Meh, *some* bikers are lose.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Are you indecisive as a person by any chance?
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Yes.

No. Um... I think so. Maybe.

(I'm also predictable :D)

Seriously: not really, no. No more than most people, I'd say. Not much of a planner, and I procrastinate making decisions along with everything else, but I usually know what I want.

I think it might actually be because I didn't pass my test until I was 30, so I never had that phase of youthful confidence and risk-taking to get used to driving. Since I started driving I've had a very strong sense of the dangers of the road, so I guess that's affected how I feel about driving as a whole.
 
strumpusplunket said:
Yes.

No. Um... I think so. Maybe.

(I'm also predictable :D)

Seriously: not really, no. No more than most people, I'd say. Not much of a planner, and I procrastinate making decisions along with everything else, but I usually know what I want.

I think it might actually be because I didn't pass my test until I was 30, so I never had that phase of youthful confidence and risk-taking to get used to driving. Since I started driving I've had a very strong sense of the dangers of the road, so I guess that's affected how I feel about driving as a whole.
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Yeah you probably quite right there.

I think theres a few main different groups of people out there.

People who know what their doing and are confident, I.e you could have put them in a car before they had driven one, and they would have figured out how to do it and be fine. These are the ones who will speed but probably in a more controlled way as they have a greater feeling for the car.

People who didn't have a clue how to drive before they started, got taught, now think they are the don have silly amounts of confidence, and speed everywhere thinking they are invincible doing silly speeds and manouvres

People who've been taught but have the right mix of the two above. sensible on the road, and know what they are doing.

Then there are the people who need a lot more guidance, but once passed are very wary of the road and other road users, often too much so.

obviously there are people in between those.

don't know just thinking out loud. lal
 
I'd say I'm Mr. Average when it comes to driving. No accidents so far but that doesn't mean much.
I'm fine on the roads pretty much all the time, there are the odd "you idiot" moments though.
Stopping at give way junctions when it's not necessary is something I've noticed myself doing too much. Not going to kill anyone, but adds delay to the folks behind me...

I'm a bit dim in the ice (imo), noticed a few times where I've started to lose traction or the car hasn't turned as much as I'd hoped... Slow down you fool!

I'll rarely speed, if there's an empty stretch of road at night then I'll give it some revs but for normal daytime/rush hour traffic... Why bother?

I usually question people who think they are way above average. Over confidence is not something to be proud of.
 
Most drivers on the roads are very good (considering how busy the roads are we'd all be dead if they weren't) and most people are right to rate themselves as above average, but only because their impression of 'average' is unfairly pulled down by the natural reaction to bad driving.

I've had enough blonde moments behind the wheel to be pretty magnanimous when somebody cuts me up or tries to share my lane but I'll get my hair off from time to time in spite of myself.
 
SlyReaper said:
It seems to me, everyone I know has stories about how some idiot cut them up at a junction, or how someone nearly crashed into them. But nobody I have spoken to would ever admit to being a bad driver themselves. In fact, they all consider themselves to be good drivers. This seems odd.

So here's a thread to post all your stories about stuff that YOU cocked up while driving. A confessional thread, if you will.

--------------------------------

As is only fair, I'll get the ball rolling. I got my first car a week ago. I passed my test years ago, but have only rarely driven since and am out of practice. And now I finally own a car. In that week, I have accidentally cut up no fewer than three people at junctions (that I know of), I've been in the wrong lane for certain turnings, gotten lost in the centre of Gloucester (don't ask), and have generally faffed around in the middle of junctions because I'm often not sure what I'm doing.

I also nearly crashed into a learner because he was coming round a mini roundabout (you know, those fake roundabouts that are just painted dots on the road). I didn't realise that because of this roundabout, he had priority, whereas I would have had priority if it hadn't been there. I braked in time and looked suitably embarrassed as they went past. That one was actually years ago, on one of the few occasions I have driven before now.

Oh and, as ashamed as this makes me as a man, I cannot park straight to save my life. I don't know why, I can just never get the angle right.
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Getting lost in Gloucester is nothing to be ashamed of - it's an evil place to get from one place to another sometimes.

The worst thing I have ever done was when I first passed my test I borrowed the car from work - driving home enjoying myself and came to roadworks on the dual carriageway and a 40MPH speed limit in the outside lane - never saw the sign proclaiming it back to 70MPH and got overtaken on the inside lane - and a few people behind weren't happy.

Oh well.



M.
 
Yeah, but I wasn't supposed to be anywhere NEAR Gloucester. I was trying to get from Ross-on-Wye to Bristol, got close to Gloucester and couldn't find any signs to Bristol. So I decided to navigate by the sun and head south on what looked like a main-ish road. Big mistake.
 
mrk said:
I think a ***** motorcyclist thought I was driving badly today here – basically I was in the bottom exit entering the roundabout to take my 2nd exit, I was in left lane. Biker was approaching on the roundabout in the inside lane and I joined roundabout in first lane staying in first lane.

I was in 2nd gear and floored it to 40mph and shifted to 3rd gear passing the biker (this exit is slightly uphill) (also in the 2nd lane still joining the 2nd exit so both of us are in in 2nd exit now in our own lanes).

For some reason he beeps his ****** little sounding motorbike horn at me twice, i do not know why, didn’t cut him up, didn’t merge in front of his lane or anything, I merely accelerated up to 40mph in 2nd going ahead of him!

As he passed me on the right lane he lifted his middle finger up, beeped and went passed all the while I’m thinking “lolwut?”

Do bikers not like cars passing them in other lanes or something?

Meh, *some* bikers are lose.
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who knows, that fact that you 'dont know why' prolly points to you cutting him up somehow...or maybe he was having a bad day or hated your car ? lol

no biker is gonna care you 'overtook', his bike was prolly a lot faster than your car anyhow

meh *some* car drivers are lose :confused:

edit: dont mean to come across a git here, but one persons side of story is never gonna give the whole picture...generally bikers have a hard time being seen by people. most the time car drivers dont even know they've cut you up
 
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