New menace? Driving partly on the wrong side of the road

I've had this at 6:50am on my motorbike, beeping the whole time and they were still on my side when going past me. Again today similar thing, in the middle of the road looking down at phone.
 
I've mentioned this a few times previously and from what I've seen it seems to be mostly women who don't know how wide their car is.
 
Two roads here been resurfaced with no white lines, apparently this makes it more difficult to stay on your side of the road?

A fire engine on call did it too on a slight bend when his lane was clear..
 
Either texting with a phone held down on their lap or just completely unable to judge the near side clearance of their oversized panzer wagon. Either way they're unfit to drive.
 
I'm seeing this more and more lately. We are the end house on our street, and are regrettably opposite a primary school. The amount of cars coming around the (right angle) corner on the 'wrong side of the road' on our narrow back streets is shocking. :eek: Some are kind enough to at least only straddle 50/50, but many are fully offside. I have to brake hard at least two or three times a day around here just to allow these ***** time to finish their turn and return back to their side of the carriageway. It - along with red light jumping - is getting much more prevalent the last couple of years.

True off-siding (i.e. using the full width of the road for visibility around approaching bends or straightlining to maintain balance) is a great technique when used by drivers who are suitably trained. For 99% of the population who can barely look up from Facebook in time to avoid a head-on around town because they weren't looking at the road while they turned, though? No thanks...

I was driving home just this morning when one of the teachers of the aforementioned school came around the corner by our house completely off side. She was busy chatting to her passenger and as I was about half way down the road I just came to a stop and waited to see what happened (I'd obviously have beeped if she'd gotten close-ish). She got within a few car lengths still on 'my side', happened to glance up at the road and absolutely **** herself as the realisation she was heading for 1.5 tonnes of large stationary car hit home. She instinctively swerved back onto her own side of the road, and proceeded to give me evils all the way into the school gate. LOLWUT?!
 
Driving in general has deteriorated in this country, driving over the white line is just one of many issues i see on the roads. Others are, hogging middle and outside lanes on motorways, using mobile phones, not indicating until the last moment if at all, over shooting road junctions, kids/dogs not strapped in, smoking whilst driving, and my pet hate is women driving SUV's when they can barely see over the steering wheel.
 
Noticed this a lot recently, usually larger suv type vehicles, I had one twonk in a Range Rover Sport recently bring me to a halt as he was straddling the centre line, I asked him what was the problem and his reply was he was in a large wide vehicle.

I was in a vehicle so large and wide it would have easily carried his Range yet strangely I wasn't near the line at all.

I told him he was a moron who needed to learn to drive, eventually he moved back over and sure enough once I'd passed numpty proceeded down the road over the centre line again!

How such brain deads manage to aquire such nice cars never ceases to amaze me!
 
dacads said:
Two roads here been resurfaced with no white lines, apparently this makes it more difficult to stay on your side of the road?
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I don't know why but the council here has resurfaced two local roads and they've made them about 6-8 feet narrower which is absolutely bizarre. The other day I was driving down one of these roads for the first time and a bus coming the opposite direction literally had no choice but to encroach into my side of the road round a bend, I must have come within 5CM of the kerb and the corner of the bus. It's as if they totally forgot why those sections were wider before and that a bus or even worse a lorry would ever have to drive down this road :D.

They clearly haven't planned it properly, on the straight its not a problem and the bus and a car can fit fine, but as soon as the bend comes the lanes are so thin the bus has no choice but to encroach for about 2-3 feet otherwise he'd curb his rear nearside.

No idea what they're thinking, saving money by making our roads thinner. :rolleyes:


Another ridiculous tactic they use to cause a crash or two are those ridiculous speed pads, not the humps which go the entire width. It's the ones where you try to get right in the middle so it doesn't kill one side of your suspension, they've placed them so close together that 2 cars cant hit their pad in the middle without wiping out each other's wing mirrors, even though there's plenty of space on the respective near-sides.

It's a joke lmao.


Oh and another tactic is there's a road near my house and the ****ing centre line isn't even in the centre of the road :D. So the flow going east gets at least 1 foot of extra space and the flow going west is forced to drive literally inches away from parked car's wing mirrors. Since they did it about 6 years ago I've seen about 20-30 innocent people's wing mirrors being ripped right off by van drivers. It's just another hazard, the people with the extra room simply drive near the centre line even though they have a over a foot of extra space on their near side and then the oncoming car needs to squeeze dangerously between it and parked cars, it's madness.
 
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I think driving standards in general have dropped dramatically since i started driving 10 years ago. No doubt those of you who have been driving longer, will have seen more of a change...
 
Rexxar said:
I think driving standards in general have dropped dramatically since i started driving 10 years ago. No doubt those of you who have been driving longer, will have seen more of a change...
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Maybe standards in general have dropped? I think we've started looking at the bigger picture now :p
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
Clearly we've all had experiences of tailgating (nowadays mainly Audi drivers), drivers coming the other way who can't be bothered to dip their main headlights, BMW drivers who can't indicate.


I seem to be experiencing a new menace just recently that I don't remember having before, i.e. having cars coming the other way quite happy straddling the white line and with part of their car on my side of the road. Some are drivers who've overtaken parked cars and seem to wish to really take their time pulling back in again, even if it results in me having to slow down. Last night, I came across a guy waiting at a set of lights, 2 feet of his car on the "wrong side of the road" and with seemingly no genuine reason, as there was plenty of space to his left.

Anyone else see a lot of this more recently?
Anyone else as annoyed as me by it?
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so many cars around here cut bends even blind ones.

not even being boy racers taking a racing like just dont know theyre doing it.
 
As others have said, I often straddle on the country roads in the Pork, and move over when an oncoming car approaches. Town\city driving is a different matter all together.
 
There's a general attitude now that slowing down and hindering progress is against some sort of law, people seem very lazy drivers.

Slowing down for oncoming traffic, obstacles in the road, junctions, traffic lights, crossings etc.. is made out as though it's hard work, braking and changing down and then having to accelerate again and change up, it's like they just want to keep moving regardless of the road conditions. Driving is a chore they have to do between two destinations, it's actually something that takes a bit of skill and awareness and demands concentration, something which modern society is losing hand over fist.
 
Hate this. I find it's mostly when driving the lanes and people with their camper vans and such going to and from the beach /campsite.

The drive through the lanes and then hang over the line because they don't want their new van slightly touching some overhanging grass from the hedge. Thinking it's perfectly fine to carry on full speed forcing me to break, usually to an almost stop, and put my car into the grass. Bunch of *****. You're in the country now, get used to having brambles n such hitting your wingmirrors and scratching your vehicle.
 
I had to mount a curb before before a 4x4 was coming towards me half on my side of the road. I ended up on two wheels rolling along for a few yards, car's brakes were never the same again.

Round here there are many "Chelsea Tractors," which husbands have bought with their high wage packets which their wives aren't capable of driving properly.
 
I see it a lot on of country lanes, people hanging well over the middle of the road (understandable where sensible), and not using passing points properly.
The worst offenders of all, are generally the school run 4x4s that are immaculate, and really would rather not put their run-flats off the side of the road.
 
I used to swerve out into the middle of the road as well approaching these guys, see them panic and move over. Have grown up now though :D
 
Initially I thought this thread could have been renamed "The Drivers of Kent" but it seems to be widespread now.

I think one of the biggest issues is that most people don't "care" about driving. As driving needs some amount of attention, concentration or awareness for people to get from A to B, it feels like people think that, if it can happen with the least amount of those things, then all the better.

I mean, driving seems to be the least important thing to be concentrating on when people are in the car.
 
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