Gets Your Goat! worst driving traits

[Tyre Tread]

Rostfritt said:

Tyre Tread said:

I understand your pessimism but here's why I believe it to be the case.



Before about 1980 you rarely saw a car mount the pavement except where absolutely unavoidable.

Since the widespread introductiojn of alloy weheels it has become commonplace.

Cars are a lot wider now. If you ever see a car from the 70s or earlier on the road it looks tiny. If I parallel park mine level to the right hand side of a modern car it looks like I have abandoned it.

I own and drive a 1970 Rover P5B and a 2010 Skoda Superb so I am well aware of the increasing width of cars perceived as large in their day.

Take for example a MK III Cortina and current Modeo. The difference in width 6.9 inches (and the Modeo is one wide MoFo). Hardly enough to mean the difference between needing to mount and not needing to mount the kerb.

In any case it still in most cases would not mean the difference between 2 cars being able to pass the parked vehcile or not. All it may do is encourage two smaller cars to try, with possible unfotunate circumstances.

Its lazyness and lack of cara & judgement brought on by the legacy of "oh, mind the alloys" IMHO.

Edited by Tyre Tread on Monday 1st December 10:07

[hwajones]

People stopping in the road before turning off into a turn lane...

[beanbag]

Buff Mchugelarge said:

Tailgaters.
Stupid, dangerous and utterly pointless.

+1

And worse still when they do it in the wet. 90% of the time it tends to be women with children in the car.

Another one is people who sit behind you flashing their lights and indicating they want to pass but you are already going at the speed of the traffic in front.

[Tyre Tread]

hwajones said:

People stopping in the road before turning off into a turn lane...

Do you mean stopping or almost stopping.

It is good practice not to try and enter a side turning until you can see its clear to do so.

[Hasbeen]

The one that gets me is what I call the second car syndrome.

I went to town today, all up about 55 Kilometres on a nice 100 Km/H limit road. I caught 6 slow cars. A couple of 4X4s towing a horse float & a caravan at about 80 Km/H, & a granny hunched over the wheel also at about 80. That's OK, if that is what they feel safe at.

Worse were the 3 average cars, wandering from about 75 to 105 for no apparent reason. If they can happily travel at 100, why not sustain that speed?

Those 6 were a bit annoying, but not a patch on the other 6, each of whom were glued to the back of one of these slow cars. Reasonable long straights, or even overtaking lanes could not entice these tailgaters to overtake, but they stayed too close for any vehicle to overtake them, without including the car they were following.

Now I have a couple of quick cars, but I also own one of the slowest cars known to man, an auto Oz Ford Capri 2+2 convertible. This is an early 90s Mazda 323 in drag, & it's acceleration is best timed with an alarm clock, rather than a stop watch.

To overtake 2 cars is a not to be undertaken lightly, particularly if they chose to accelerate while you are thus committed.

Why can't these tail end charlies just drop back a bit to make overtaking easier & safer?

Edited by Hasbeen on Tuesday 2nd December 11:51

[budgie smuggler]

Tyre Tread said:

hwajones said:

People stopping in the road before turning off into a turn lane...

Do you mean stopping or almost stopping.

It is good practice not to try and enter a side turning until you can see its clear to do so.

I guess he means where there is one of those small filter lanes e.g. for turning right on a wide road. People sometimes come to almost a complete stop in the normal carriage way rather than in the (ample length) filter lane, which forces all the other traffic to slow down even if they are not turning right.

A related pet hate of mine, is when people leave their cars sticking halfway out of the filter lane, needlessly blocking the main lane.

[Tyre Tread]

budgie smuggler said:

Tyre Tread said:

hwajones said:

People stopping in the road before turning off into a turn lane...

Do you mean stopping or almost stopping.

It is good practice not to try and enter a side turning until you can see its clear to do so.

I guess he means where there is one of those small filter lanes e.g. for turning right on a wide road. People sometimes come to almost a complete stop in the normal carriage way rather than in the (ample length) filter lane, which forces all the other traffic to slow down even if they are not turning right.

A related pet hate of mine, is when people leave their cars sticking halfway out of the filter lane, needlessly blocking the main lane.

Oh, I see, Sorry, my mistake. In that case +1

[Blue62]

I had some brain surgeon accelerate while I was overtaking him on an A road today, he was crawling along at 35mph then suddenly floored it as I pulled out, I backed off and left him to it.

[neil1jnr]

Paul Holywood said:

Tonight was foggy, my rear fog lights on, then why the f#%c did two separate drivers overtake me and pull in front flashing there fog lamps
I was paranoid and pulled over just to find my lights are on, coz its foggy..!

Because you were being an idiot.

[shakotan]

budgie smuggler said:

Tyre Tread said:

hwajones said:

People stopping in the road before turning off into a turn lane...

Do you mean stopping or almost stopping.

It is good practice not to try and enter a side turning until you can see its clear to do so.

I guess he means where there is one of those small filter lanes e.g. for turning right on a wide road. People sometimes come to almost a complete stop in the normal carriage way rather than in the (ample length) filter lane, which forces all the other traffic to slow down even if they are not turning right.

A related pet hate of mine, is when people leave their cars sticking halfway out of the filter lane, needlessly blocking the main lane.

Precisely this, perfectly good filter lane, some retard sticks their car diagonally across it, blocking the main carriageway as well. They get a blast of horn whilst approaching and and flash of main beams if they've still not moved.

[jd1311]

1) People who drive at 40mph everywhere no matter what.
2) Drivers who brake when their speed nor the road or conditions justify it, it only causes unecessary braking by everyone behind!
3) People who overtake you in a 30 zone when you're doing the speed limit
4) People who drive into your car in a carpark, crack the bumper and don't leave a note...
5) There are some exceptions to this but bloody BMW drivers who tend to think they own the road and they have priority over smaller cars!!!

:-@

[toon10]

jd1311 said:

1) People who drive at 40mph everywhere no matter what.
2) Drivers who brake when their speed nor the road or conditions justify it, it only causes unecessary braking by everyone behind!
3) People who overtake you in a 30 zone when you're doing the speed limit
4) People who drive into your car in a carpark, crack the bumper and don't leave a note...
5) There are some exceptions to this but bloody BMW drivers who tend to think they own the road and they have priority over smaller cars!!!

:-@

I agree with most of that. Point 5 is AUDI drivers who think they own the road though. I think you'll find BMW owners actually DO own the road

[Howard-]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but when I'm following people who stop short of the other cars, or indeed the actual junction in traffic / at traffic lights, and then slowly creep forward on the clutch. This annoys me greatly and means should I wish not to participate in your sillyness, there'll end up being a huge gap between my car and yours.

[swisstoni]

People who don't show a bit of ambition when faced with a green light that's been on for a while.
Instead of pressing on with a bit of hope they falter in case it might change.
Puiys!

[Paul Holywood]

neil1jnr said:

Because you were being an idiot.

No I was just driving with my fog lamps on.
Try to come across a little less hateful, and you may make freinds one day ..

[ab955i]

People who come up behind you when you're overtaking in the outside lane of any motorway, already doing (ahem) 'around' 70mph and fully intending to pull over once you've overtaken. You know the sort, they come up pretty quick and start to flash their headlights to get you to move over, without looking to see if that would be at all possible for you.

The offending driver is usually behind the wheel of an Audi, but I won't over-stereotype. As far as I'm concerned, this is very dangerous behavior as they often keep flashing, which can be very distracting - certainly at night.

Strangely, this happens fairly frequently when I'm driving my "work van" (Vauxhall Vectra Estate) but never when I'm in anything that said tailgater would deem 'in the same league' as their car.

[swisstoni]

ab955i said:

People who come up behind you when you're overtaking in the outside lane of any motorway, already doing (ahem) 'around' 70mph and fully intending to pull over once you've overtaken. You know the sort, they come up pretty quick and start to flash their headlights to get you to move over, without looking to see if that would be at all possible for you.

The offending driver is usually behind the wheel of an Audi, but I won't over-stereotype. As far as I'm concerned, this is very dangerous behavior as they often keep flashing, which can be very distracting - certainly at night.

Strangely, this happens fairly frequently when I'm driving my "work van" (Vauxhall Vectra Estate) but never when I'm in anything that said tailgater would deem 'in the same league' as their car.

Sometimes overtaking people is all they can do to get 'one over' in their wretched lives.

[nonsense]

other drivers... can't stand them!

[GregK2]

Paul Holywood said:

neil1jnr said:

Because you were being an idiot.

No I was just driving with my fog lamps on.
Try to come across a little less hateful, and you may make freinds one day ..

Did you turn them off when traffic behind was close enough for you to not need them? I expect not since you were overtaken and had 2 people display their displeasure..

[Paul Holywood]

V

GregK2 said:

Did you turn them off when traffic behind was close enough for you to not need them? I expect not since you were overtaken and had 2 people display their displeasure..

To be honest the only thing I've seen that is different, is my new van has very bright fog lights compared to my old van, and such I may have to turn them off, as you say when traffic builds up.
Live and learn..