Your bad driving encounters

JBuk said:
Bit weird tbh, driving slower is fine (within reason) but getting some sort of satisfaction from it because you think it annoys other drivers :confused:
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This thread can have seemingly contradictory “encounters” right next to each other. Sometimes even the same poster can post contradictory scenarios. Two examples.

“Why do people drive so slowly on B roads. I had to overtake a dawdler on a B road who was driving so slow it was dangerous.”

“I was doing 40 - 50 on a B road that had lots of blind bends and hidden dips yet some absolute clown started tailgating me and eventually overtook at a dangerous part of the road”.

So what constitutes “dawdling”? Is it 30 - 40 on a B road? Is 50 OK, or would you think NSL means 60 and that’s a target?

I find getting to 60 on the vast majority of these roads is dangerous and is very rare on the roads I drive, let alone being on a B road you don’t know at all. Never mind the people who think a B road is for having “fun” on. Yet I know people who think I must be a bad driver because I’m not aiming for 60 as often as possible on such roads. One friend can’t believe I don’t drive my lease I-Pace like I don’t own it. He thinks aiming for max 50 on NSL should be a crime.

Yet my wife will tell me to slow down a bit if I am doing 45 - 50 on an a B road we have never been on. Yet I’m sure the locals think I’m dawdling if I do 40?

So personally I am happy aim for max 45 - 50 on the twisty and hilly bits with lots of side roads and the odd spurt to the NSL limit on the longer straight bits. If some people think that’s dawdling, that’s not my problem. I don’t take joy from it, I just think that happens to be sensible. To be fair I rarely encounter the clowns who tailgate and think I’m dawdling doing this. So maybe most think like me.
 
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Those examples aren't necessarily equivalent, depends on the road and conditions. There are, even windy, B roads around me where 60 is fine, others anything over 30-40 is silly.
 
Rroff said:
Those examples aren't necessarily equivalent, depends on the road and conditions. There are, even windy, B roads around me where 60 is fine, others anything over 30-40 is silly.
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Yes agreed. That’s why I qualified it with the phrase “seemingly contradictory”. It’s going to depend on the road and the driver(s).

You have the sensible approach and then the two extremes of the dawdler and the tailgating boy racer. The problem is we (they) all assume they are right.

That also explains why a lot of the people posting “bad driving encounters”, are the ones actually doing the bad driving.
 
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Agreed that without context all you can do is take the poster at their word that they were in the right during an encounter like that.
Although the set yourself a limit of 10mph under the speed limit regardless of any other factors does strongly indicate poor driving standard.
 
Following someone on my way to work just now doing 50 in a wide open NSL, wouldn't have minded but now and again they'd wander down to 40 for no apparent reason, then the person behind us overtook both of us and they sped up for a bit to 60 in the middle of the other driver overtaking before returning to 50...... just leaves me shaking my head.
 
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Resident said:
The problem with public transport is that too many expect it to operate like a taxi.
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I don't think it's an expectation, more pointing out a valid reason why it doesn't work for many people.

It's adequate if you work 9-5, travelling between relatively busy areas.

If you do late/early shifts, then you're either not getting to work, or not getting home.

If you live somewhere rural, you're probably facing a longish walk to the nearest bus stop/station, potentially along twisty country roads with no pavement, followed by a journey with multiple changes.

It's certainly not literally impossible, but if you value your time/sanity, then there are many cases where public transport simply isn't a realistic option.
 
Our street on a Saturday morning gets incredibly busy due to us facing the local rugby club. It’s never a major issue but on occasion you get the odd inconsiderate idiot.

Yesterday I had a woman in a Q7 swerve into my lane around a car parked on her side of the road. She was on her mobile driving with one hand and did not remotely slow down. I could tell what she was going to do and managed to stop in time.

So many of these inconsiderate idiots don’t even realise an accident was avoided because other people compensated for their poor awareness.
 
Rroff said:
Following someone on my way to work just now doing 50 in a wide open NSL, wouldn't have minded but now and again they'd wander down to 40 for no apparent reason, then the person behind us overtook both of us and they sped up for a bit to 60 in the middle of the other driver overtaking before returning to 50...... just leaves me shaking my head.
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On a clear and mostly straight road seems to be where I see it the most. Probably the same people who sit at 60 in a middle lane on motorways.
 
A few weeks ago, going westbound on the M4, approaching the M32 junction, and a guy in a Q3 or 4 in lane 3, who must have been doing 70 or more, realises he wants to be turning onto the M32 and pulls across all 3 lanes (traffic was light to moderate) and over the chevrons, kicking up a bit of vegetation and dirt. The chevron part is a bit tilted so I’m surprised he didn’t roll it

The only upside to this was on trying to retrieve the footage from the dash cam, I realise that it only has an 8GB card and so can only store 35 mins and the cam doesn’t have a “save that” button. Now tooled up with a 64GB card. Still haven’t found out how to get footage off the camera via Wi-Fi and an app. It’s an Audi dash cam and looking at online forums, seems like I’m not the only one with that problem

To give you a laugh, on swapping the sd card, rather than the system continuing to say in an English voice, something like “Footage recorded while parked” on start up, it now adds in a German accent “Check rear camera”…which I don’t have!
 
Top Gears skit regarding Peugeot drivers turns out to be accurate.

Taken earlier at my local Waitrose:

IMG-20241013-142321312-HDR-3.jpg
 
Had two on M6 today.Both from pretend SUVs, one while going South and another while coming back North. And one VW Van on M5.

First was a lady in an ix35 dawdling in the middle lane. I began my overtake and then she kept increasing her speed right up to 75. Then moves to the first lane and I move back in middle. She decides to undercut me only a bit further ahead to be cut ahead of her by another car at the last moment.

Second a VW Van guy on M5. Again dawdling then increasing the speed while I tried to overtake. I could literally sense him take his eyes of the road and stare at me while I overtook. Regardless, got the overtake done a little bit ahem speeds and then back to normal. He went flying by later.

Third was the worst from a Qashqai driver on M6 North. Don't know why but he thought it was ok to get behind my car in the darkness up very close. Only for me to have his headlights filling my IRVM. Then cut in sharply on the third lane. This was not the surprise I was looking forward to after a long drive. It annoyed me a little so I just moved in the third lane behind him despite having no reason to do so. Didn't tailgate, don't get me wrong. I just gave 3 flashes to let him know that was wrong.he moved back in the middle lane and continued his journey without indicating and switching lanes as per his will.

Rant over.
 
There was Qashqai taxi driver yesterday I forgot about. Was dark past 7 pm and it started raining. Taxi dude doing 20 in a 30 and then 25 in a 40. Gave one flash as the queue of cars behind was getting longer. It was newish car, 22 plate. When I finally got along side this guy at the traffic lights I saw that the Headlights weren't ON. He was driving in the darkness in that weather with DRLs only... And that's why I presume he was snails pace.

They should stop making these DRLs that bright and please shut down internal lights when headlights aren't ON..
 
Here’s a “You’re the driver” scenario for you. It’s a real head scratcher.

Situation:

You’re approaching the high street of a small UK town and as you proceed you realise there’s a place you’d like to park. The parking spaces are visible to you via a side road to your left.

At the entrance to this side road there are large white letters spelling out the words “NO ENTRY”. On each side of the road there is a circular sign, predominantly red with a white horizontal bar across the centre. Dashed double white lines are also painted across the road.

Do you:

A) Find an alternative route. You’re not blind or an entitled ***** so realise this is a no entry situation. The downside is you might have to navigate some traffic lights and a roundabout.

B) Continue to take the left turn because you’re a **** **** driver in a ****** SUV.

Today’s annoyance was served with a side order of people not taking their priority at a roundabout.

P.S. If you’re that SUV driver, I hate you. :p
 
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The number of cars today without their headlights on in the dark and the rain.. arghh. And yet they have their fogs on. It's harder to turn on the fogs than the headlights... unless they are DRLs... but then can't you tell your headlights are off!?!

/vent
 
Helios1234 said:
The number of cars today without their headlights on in the dark and the rain.. arghh. And yet they have their fogs on. It's harder to turn on the fogs than the headlights... unless they are DRLs... but then can't you tell your headlights are off!?!

/vent
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Don't think it lets you turn the fog lights on in my newer cars unless the headlights are on, though not 100% on that without checking.
 
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