Aggressive driver encounters

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

One to vent about for me.

A few weekends ago, doing around 60 in a NSL I caught up with an Audi TT doing maybe 40-45. The road was clear, with a few hundred metres of straight, so I maintained my speed and pulled out to overtake. Having checked my mirrors before I was aware of a bike behind me, and he was now following me in overtaking. Now alongside her I quickly became aware that she was trying to outdrag me, yet I felt it risky to abort the manoeuvre having a bike right behind me!

I pulled in front of her with less room visible before a bend than ideal feeling pretty shaken. Still (presumably) with her nose out of joint she decided to play a game of 'let's see how few millimetres I can leave behind him'. About half a mile later a car in front needed to stop to turn right, meaning I also had to come to a stop, I looked in the rear view mirror to see the silly bint grinning like a Cheshire cat and nodding her head. I normally let idiots on the road go, but this was the last straw. I got out of my car and asked her what the f*** she thought she was playing at trying to outdrag an overtaking vehicle, yet she was suddenly lost for words. Funny that when I drove off she was suddenly keeping a safe braking distance from me.

I hope this doesn't break naming and shaming rules, but if any of you see a Mk1 black TT hard top with a plate starting TT52 in Notts give her a wide berth, she's a psycho!

Edited by Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah on Sunday 23 October 13:20

[Londontaximan]

way too many impatient drivers, our roads are overcrowded, if someone pulls out in front of me, so long as I don't have to really slam on then I'm not bothered. Even if they don't raise an apologetic hand life too short ffs. If I have to dab the brakes a tad is it really that bad.

[FiF]

Way I look at this is "You can't argue with stupidity." *

You and I may be reasonable people, but there is no way of knowing that the other driver isn't a total raving looney ready to stick something sharp into your ribs. Passengers in my cars sometimes comment about crazy things other drivers do, where I just adapt and get on with it calmly.

• * Re "you can't argue with stupidity" Perhaps I ought to try and remember this over in N.P.&E.

[silver1011]

Buy and fit a decent quality dash cam, a forward and rear facing one.

Set up a YouTube account and make it public.

Take an A4 piece of paper and with a black marker pen write on the paper in big letters:

"Search your reg no. on YouTube tonight".

Leave it on the passenger seat.

[Blakewater]

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

One to vent about for me.

A few weekends ago, doing around 60 in a NSL I caught up with an Audi TT doing maybe 40-45. The road was clear, with a few hundred metres of straight, so I maintained my speed and pulled out to overtake. Having checked my mirrors before I was aware of a bike behind me, and he was now following me in overtaking. Now alongside her I quickly became aware that she was trying to outdrag me, yet I felt it risky to abort the manoeuvre having a bike right behind me!

I pulled in front of her with less room visible before a bend than ideal feeling pretty shaken. Still (presumably) with her nose out of joint she decided to play a game of 'let's see how few millimetres I can leave behind him'. About half a mile later a car in front needed to stop to turn right, meaning I also had to come to a stop, I looked in the rear view mirror to see the silly bint grinning like a Cheshire cat and nodding her head. I normally let idiots on the road go, but this was the last straw. I got out of my car and asked her what the f*** she thought she was playing at trying to outdrag an overtaking vehicle, yet she was suddenly lost for words. Funny that when I drove off she was suddenly keeping a safe braking distance from her.

I hope this doesn't break naming and shaming rules, but if any of you see a Mk1 black TT hard top with a plate starting TT52 in Notts give her a wide berth, she's a psycho!

A lot of people will be all horn sounding and aggression until you pull up next to them at traffic lights. Then they'll maintain the dead ahead stare and pretend you're not there. It's the same with the passive aggressive types at merge points, they want the car to car fight but not the personal interaction of looking you in the eye.

People are often aggressive in scenarios where they feel safe from comeback. Threads and comments sections all over the Internet often descent into petty arguments and willy waving battles. Working in any kind of customer service role is an eye opener. When I worked in a store there were good Christian people I recognised from when my mum took me to church as a child who thought they could treat like st people who they knew couldn't answer back without getting sacked.

Call me an old fart, but I also blame the way the media shapes society. The tabloid press and shows like the X Factor pander to a culture of being vain and vacuous whilst trying to bring down others to make yourself feel big. People will make up whole scenarios regarding what you're doing and what you're thinking to justify trying to screw you over in some way.

[rayyan171]

I wouldn't say aggressive, but Audi A8's do not like to be overtaken by large SUV's (X5). Played cat and mouse on the M62 and then, joining the M60, attempt to overtake again but it doesn't take anything and pulls out at the last second. Tried to carry on behind it, only to end up doing very serious speed. Crazy!

[Drummond Baize]

dazwalsh said:

The horn is perceived as agressive and reactions are reflective of that. Its a switch that turns even the calmest of driver into an expletive filled lunatic

This is why all car horns should be changed to the "Awoooooogah" klaxon sound. For increased effect they should be mounted externally on the A pillar and activated by squeezing a black rubber bulb, like in a clown's car.

[SebastienClement]

I have recently changed jobs and now commute from Milton Keyes to Gerrards Cross every day. The amount of monumental tttery is absolutely insane! My car is quite capable of keeping up with traffic and does so quite nicely, but everyone still needs to be in front. Then they need to be in front of who's in front etc... The risks that are taken are utterly ridiculous.

I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather make these peoples' lives easier and aid them in getting past. They're going to one way or another and I want them out of my space asap - to somewhere where I can react to their driving - rather than them ploughing into the back of me because they were texting.

Life's too short to get wound up by it!

[caelite]

swerni said:

Dusty964 said:

caelite said:

Can confirm, own a big 4x4, drive it like a bellend. They are just so easy to aggressively tt about in, the suspension travel makes it amusing, the vantage point makes it feel so much safer as you can see over the snail you are about to barrel into the back of before braking at the last minute & the fact many of them are equiped with big torquey agricultural diesels that dont respond at all unless you give it welly makes for a car which is very rewarding to drive aggresively and not so much to drive in any other manner.

What an utter load of crap.

Edited by Dusty964 on Sunday 23 October 05:48

I think he''s taking the piss

Haha mostly, part of it was true though, big agricultural diesels (not the big V6s etc you see in SUVs but the ~2.5TDs in most pickups) in my experience have 2 throttle positions, OFF and ON, so you do need to kind of welly them to get about, and a high driving position does make it extremely easy to pull some outrageous maneuvers.