Your bad driving

[bazzabear]

Everyone is loving dobbing in strangers in the other thread. How eager will people be to admit to daft mistakes they've made themselves?

I'll get you started with this one:

I was driving on this stretch of road last night for the first time:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

goo.gl

And, it being dark, saw those tram tracks as another carriageway. So merrily turned out on to the wrong side of the road to overtake someone before an oncoming car made me realise rather quickly that I was not on a dual carriageway.

No harm done thankfully, but felt a prat!

 

[bazzabear]

That's weird, isn't it?

Ironically, he was one of the few respondents who haven't warped the intention of this thread by immediately blaming someone else's driving for the thing that they did.

 

[bazzabear]

Oh well, if we're going historical - I once reversed my car up my parents driveway at speed, not knowing that the passenger door was ajar. It swung open and got ripped off by a tree.

 

[bazzabear]

I find the lightness / twitchiness of most cars at that sort of speed far too unnerving to make it remotely enjoyable!

I had an Alfa 156 GTA at 120 (on the sat nav - over 130 according to the speedo) and it felt solid as a rock. I know everyone says this, but that was genuinely on the autobahn. Was still pulling strongly too - but my wife shouted at me at that point.

 

[bazzabear]

middle lane If I'm driving at near 70mph, empty motorway, sitting in middle lane is passively safer from blow-out perspective and often avoiding debris/poor-surface - A10/A14 have dilapidated near side lanes, too.
if drivers like below are on the loose, I'm probably going to be bloody minded, and ignore them in my mirror

How is it an empty motorway if there's someone behind you coming past?

On a four lane motorway, which lane do you pick because you're incapable of keeping left like you're supposed to? Do you straddle the line between the centre two lanes to maximise that supposed blow out protection?

 

[bazzabear]

I have, once, in the very distant past, driven off with the oil cap sitting on top of the engine after an oil change - so could be worse!

(Thankfully I realised pretty quickly, didn't lose the cap, and just had to clean some splashes from the underside of the bonnet.)

 

[bazzabear]

I was driving along here the other day:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

And caught up to a cyclist on my side of the road. Stayed behind him around the corner (behind this view) and then continued to do so here because of the blind brow. Waited until I was absolutely certain that there wasn't enough hidden road space for there to be a car there (probably the next frame on from this view from the google car - but of course his camera is much higher than my view was), then started to overtake - at which point a car appeared and I had to abort.

No harm done, I was able to pull back in behind the cyclist. But it proved I had misjudged. And I guess I'd have only had to misjudge by an additional second or two for it to be far more serious - stuck on the wrong side of the road alongside the cycle.