Road Rage

[Buff Mchugelarge]

I last used my horn on Monday.


A dark coloured Yaris undertook the car in front of me and then seemingly for no reason, did an emergency stop right in front of him.. On the M40!?

I was a good distance back and I had to brake bloody hard, how the insignia managed to avoid him I don't know.
The only reason there wasn't a nasty pile was the fact it was 5:45am.
I considered calling the police but didn't manage to get any details. There're out there.

[TurboHatchback]

bennyboysvuk said:

Since a lot of the driving public seem to find being beeped quite offensive, should car horns have two separate tones? One main horn which is the loud, aggressive one as fitted to most big, fast German cars and one smaller, chirpier sounding horn to warn people of your presence without ramming it down their throat?

Point in case, yesterday the guy at the front of the lights merrily sat there after the lights had turned green and the guy in the Seat Mii behind beeped him. The horn sound of the Mii was chirpy, almost comedic and completely inoffensive.

My old Mercedes 560 SEC had a switchable two tone horn, loud and LOUD!

[TooMany2cvs]

Buff Mchugelarge said:

I last used my horn on Monday.

A dark coloured Yaris undertook the car in front of me and then seemingly for no reason, did an emergency stop right in front of him.. On the M40!?

I was a good distance back and I had to brake bloody hard, how the insignia managed to avoid him I don't know.

What was the point of using the horn? Did the Yaris driver even hear it?

[DonkeyApple]

Hoofy said:

As someone who commutes/drives regularly in London and sees crap driving all the time, I'm not actually sure my horn works. I mean, I know it works because the car passed the MOT but I have yet to use it. 99.99999% of the time, you can see the action about to take place and can take a defensive stance meaning that the horn would only be used as a means of demonstrating annoyance ie if I touched the horn, I'd be the dhead in the situation.

I once came close to using the horn as someone pulled out on me at a mini roundabout. I say close - I said to my passenger, "Honk! Honk! That's what I'm supposed to do when that happens, right?"

Having grown up in London and still living there it is very unusual for an act of road fkwittery to occur without you having known it was coming. Little clues like the car being a Mercedes, sporting one of those new circular fluorescent green disabled stickers in the back window, dressed in the garbage of a religion which promotes the concept of today being a good day to die, looking like they arrived last week on the underside of a Eurotunnel train, the important businessman in the suspiciously synthetic suit, the secretly gay builder, angry with the manly world he lives in or being a female in an SUV on the phone etc. Combine offensive, unacceptable and disgraceful yet blatantly accurate stereotyping with the special awareness to monitor their road attitude as they approach and you know exactly what they are going to be doing long before they do.

Driving in London is almost easier than driving in the rest of England because it is so darn easy to predict what is almost certainly about to occur around you that you have plenty of time to adjust and cater for it.

[DavidJG]

M40 / M42 / M5 / M6 / M54 yesterday, driving home.

I stopped counting after 30 incidents of moronic driving (nothing that actually effected me, as I was doing what I usually do in busy traffic - about 65 - 70 in lanes 1 & 2).

The aggression / tailgating / cutting up etc in L3 was really quite impressive. I'm not sure what some of these guys were on, but I do know it didn't really achieve anything for them. One particularly memorable tt joined the A40 behind me, drove like an utter cock-end before exiting M40 J3 - 200 yards further up the queue. Was all the stress / anger / pissing off of others etc worth it for him?

[TurboHatchback]

DonkeyApple said:

Having grown up in London and still living there it is very unusual for an act of road fkwittery to occur without you having known it was coming. Little clues like the car being a Mercedes, sporting one of those new circular fluorescent green disabled stickers in the back window, dressed in the garbage of a religion which promotes the concept of today being a good day to die, looking like they arrived last week on the underside of a Eurotunnel train, the important businessman in the suspiciously synthetic suit, the secretly gay builder, angry with the manly world he lives in or being a female in an SUV on the phone etc. Combine offensive, unacceptable and disgraceful yet blatantly accurate stereotyping with the special awareness to monitor their road attitude as they approach and you know exactly what they are going to be doing long before they do.

Driving in London is almost easier than driving in the rest of England because it is so darn easy to predict what is almost certainly about to occur around you that you have plenty of time to adjust and cater for it.

So true but it's valid for the whole country (and several others) not just London.

[Martin_Hx]

Think i've only used my horn when people have drifted across lanes either on a motorway or while going around a roundabout (cutting across into the inside lane where i am! straightening the roundabout)

[Martin_Hx]

TurboHatchback said:

My old Mercedes 560 SEC had a switchable two tone horn, loud and LOUD!

Do you know if this is the same as on a 560 SEL, as my old man has had one of these for years but ive never heard of it!

[Hoofy]

DonkeyApple said:

Hoofy said:

As someone who commutes/drives regularly in London and sees crap driving all the time, I'm not actually sure my horn works. I mean, I know it works because the car passed the MOT but I have yet to use it. 99.99999% of the time, you can see the action about to take place and can take a defensive stance meaning that the horn would only be used as a means of demonstrating annoyance ie if I touched the horn, I'd be the dhead in the situation.

I once came close to using the horn as someone pulled out on me at a mini roundabout. I say close - I said to my passenger, "Honk! Honk! That's what I'm supposed to do when that happens, right?"

Having grown up in London and still living there it is very unusual for an act of road fkwittery to occur without you having known it was coming. Little clues like the car being a Mercedes, sporting one of those new circular fluorescent green disabled stickers in the back window, dressed in the garbage of a religion which promotes the concept of today being a good day to die, looking like they arrived last week on the underside of a Eurotunnel train, the important businessman in the suspiciously synthetic suit, the secretly gay builder, angry with the manly world he lives in or being a female in an SUV on the phone etc. Combine offensive, unacceptable and disgraceful yet blatantly accurate stereotyping with the special awareness to monitor their road attitude as they approach and you know exactly what they are going to be doing long before they do.

Driving in London is almost easier than driving in the rest of England because it is so darn easy to predict what is almost certainly about to occur around you that you have plenty of time to adjust and cater for it.

Yeah, plus you can see by the way they are moving their body or the way the wheels are turning so you get a few seconds' warning.

[P2DJX]

I can count on one hand the amount of times I have beeped my horn in 28 years of driving.
If there is an idiot doing something crazy I just sigh. is beeping the horn , gesticulating or letting them know Im displeased going to change anything ? NO, will it matter to me in 10 minutes time ? NO, sigh , move on , forget it.

Edited by P2DJX on Friday 9th October 10:49

Edited by P2DJX on Friday 9th October 10:49

[DrTre]

I've got that Catatonia song in my head now.

I tend to rage when there is someone else in the car with me. By myself I just kinda ignore it.

[BorkFactor]

Do you guys really experience Road rage like this on such a regular basis? I find I hardly ever have to brake or swerve for someone, and most of the time it's an honest, if dim witted, mistake.

Can't say I have ever had anyone shout or swear at me, worst I usually see is a manic overtake or similar.

[Dog Star]

100% with the OP on the horn beeping; I simply don't bother any more. It's not worth the grief and hassle.

Similarly flashing people with fog lights on or - as seems to be the case in the mornings these days at 6am - no lights at all. All just seems to invite some screaming nutter to go mental. I just leave them to it - go have a crash.

[Inverted]

Ive been living/working/driving in Africa almost daily for the last 3 years. A 10 min drive through a busy city is pretty much all about avoiding the next accident. People have no idea whats going on around them, no respect for other drivers, pull out in front of you, drive the wrong way down motorways (in the dark, with no lights) wrong way around roundabouts, don't stop for red lights... etc etc. A colleague even had someone go into the back of him at traffic lights while he was stopped....he had to pay to repair the guy motorbike because the police said he was at fault for being in the way.

No point getting angry because they will either have a gun, a machete or be a policeman/from the military so you cant win that one.

It really makes you appreciate how good the standard of traffic flow and driving is in the UK. Bad driving used to wind me up, doesn't seem much point anymore. Just laugh it off an get on with my day.

[Reardy Mister]

What about the guy who actually crept forward and pinned my leg between my motorbike and his BMW because he didn't like that I had filtered to his front right corner and then waited for some pedestrians?

I couldn't move because I physically couldn't get my leg to the gear shift to get any drive, because it was pinned to my fairing. He couldn't move because I couldn't move. Aside from blatant intimidation, that's very dangerous and very fking annoying.

What zen techniques of forgiveness would you recommend in that case?

[Ghost91]

I beeped at some knob for not giving way to the right on a roundabout the other day. He went round the roundabout and came steaming up behind me as quick as he could, so I indicated right at the next roundabout, and I was going to pull over and confront this nutter (stupid really), but the idiot overtook me on the roundabout and went right before I did, so I went straight on and left him probably absolutely fuming. I was gone and there was nothing he could do to catch me now, and I got a nice warm feeling inside that I'd made this bloke so angry.

But

Since then I've stopped beeping at idiots like this, unless they really do need to be made aware of my presence to stop anyone being crashed in to. It's really not worth it. Imagine if I'd stopped and got out, he did the same but had a knife or something.

It's so frustrating and annoying that someone (in the wrong!!) can get so mad at you for beeping. How dare they be angry at you when they put your life In danger with their st driving (demonstrated perfectly by a video that's gone viral of a stupid van driver overtaking a huge heavily laden HGV who struggled to slow down behind the van) but let's be honest, what good does it really do trying to put these idiots to rights when they could harm you or your passengers?

[Dog Star]

Reardy Mister said:

What about the guy who actually crept forward and pinned my leg between my motorbike and his BMW because he didn't like that I had filtered to his front right corner and then waited for some pedestrians?

I couldn't move because I physically couldn't get my leg to the gear shift to get any drive, because it was pinned to my fairing. He couldn't move because I couldn't move. Aside from blatant intimidation, that's very dangerous and very fking annoying.

What zen techniques of forgiveness would you recommend in that case?

Hahaaaaa! This all goes wrong for the intimidating driver at the traffic lights when they can't actually see that they've got their bumper up against your exhaust. Your hot exhaust. Their plastic bumper. A cheery wave and let them past.

[rohrl]

When I was younger I used to get really pissed off with idiot drivers. I had a few road rage confrontations but one day I realised that any of these incidents could have ended very badly, either with me or the other driver sustaining serious injury and/or a prison sentence. When you get out of the car to remonstrate with another driver you just don't know how it will end.

Nowadays I'm a lot more chilled out and let it all wash over me. I'm not sure when I last used my horn. I don't escalate situations because I don't want to be hurt, I don't want to hurt anyone else and I definitely don't want to go to prison over a bit of bad driving.

[Freddy88FM]

BorkFactor said:

Do you guys really experience Road rage like this on such a regular basis? I find I hardly ever have to brake or swerve for someone, and most of the time it's an honest, if dim witted, mistake.

Can't say I have ever had anyone shout or swear at me, worst I usually see is a manic overtake or similar.

I'd think this probably suggest you rarely drive in busy cities. Countryside, A-Road and M-Way tend to be much less unfriendly. You cant drive a mile in London without being cut up, undertaken, over taken or similar.

[Freddy88FM]

Reardy Mister said:

What zen techniques of forgiveness would you recommend in that case?

Oosh, good question. I think I would probably end up gesticulating and having to 'reset my counter'. I suppose the best thing to do is clutch in, scoot forward and free your leg.