People driving and behaving like idiots around you
Discussion
I recently changed my daily to a 370Z which I drive each day into Manchester city centre each day in pretty heavy traffic.
Not exactly the most logical car for the daily grind but hey, the heart wants what it wants and totally worth it when out on the open road...
I am now nearly 2 months into ownership and I have come to the conclusion that this car makes people around me behave and drive in an incredibly hostile and moronic manner.
I have owned a wide variety of cars over the years and have never experienced anything quite like this before.
Almost every day I have to put up with a procession of people tailgating me. And we're not just talking spotty oiks in Puntos wanting to have a little race; van drivers, bargemeisters, yummys in 4x4s all like to do it. When I tire of this and give them a few flashes of my tail lights to get them to back off, they invariably get very angry and start gesturing wildly, despite the fact that this is usually in traffic so I cannot go any faster and they cannot go anywhere anyway.
Yesterday a taxi driver veered out of his lane and came within a whisker of hitting me until I beeped my horn and he woke up and pulled back into his lane. This morning in a merge situation with no particular priority the traffic was falling into line alternating in an orderly manner, one car from each lane at a time. A woman came up behind me and tried to cut me out by driving up the inside of me to the point where I literally had to swerve out of her way and just let her push her way through, as otherwise she would have rubbed her car down my rear quarter panel and passenger door as there was nowhere for her to go other than through me. I then arrive at work and cannot get into the underground car park as a van load of builders have parked right across the entrance and the guy just glares at me and stands there as if its my fault!
It has been like this since I have bought the car and all I can deduce is that the Nissan is somehow encouraging this sort of behavior from other people. Whilst an unusual sight on the road I wouldn't exactly consider the Big Zed a flash car, but maybe people just assume it is driven by some knob and that'll they will 'show me a thing or two' by driving aggressively around me.
This is really beginning to impact my stress levels on my daily commute.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
Not exactly the most logical car for the daily grind but hey, the heart wants what it wants and totally worth it when out on the open road...
I am now nearly 2 months into ownership and I have come to the conclusion that this car makes people around me behave and drive in an incredibly hostile and moronic manner.
I have owned a wide variety of cars over the years and have never experienced anything quite like this before.
Almost every day I have to put up with a procession of people tailgating me. And we're not just talking spotty oiks in Puntos wanting to have a little race; van drivers, bargemeisters, yummys in 4x4s all like to do it. When I tire of this and give them a few flashes of my tail lights to get them to back off, they invariably get very angry and start gesturing wildly, despite the fact that this is usually in traffic so I cannot go any faster and they cannot go anywhere anyway.
Yesterday a taxi driver veered out of his lane and came within a whisker of hitting me until I beeped my horn and he woke up and pulled back into his lane. This morning in a merge situation with no particular priority the traffic was falling into line alternating in an orderly manner, one car from each lane at a time. A woman came up behind me and tried to cut me out by driving up the inside of me to the point where I literally had to swerve out of her way and just let her push her way through, as otherwise she would have rubbed her car down my rear quarter panel and passenger door as there was nowhere for her to go other than through me. I then arrive at work and cannot get into the underground car park as a van load of builders have parked right across the entrance and the guy just glares at me and stands there as if its my fault!
It has been like this since I have bought the car and all I can deduce is that the Nissan is somehow encouraging this sort of behavior from other people. Whilst an unusual sight on the road I wouldn't exactly consider the Big Zed a flash car, but maybe people just assume it is driven by some knob and that'll they will 'show me a thing or two' by driving aggressively around me.
This is really beginning to impact my stress levels on my daily commute.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
Morning all,
Thanks for sharing your experiences and opinions, its reassuring to know its not just me.
Re the comments about the rear view mirror on the 370 I'll check this out, thanks for the tip.
For tailgaters I generally use the rule of thumb that if we're doing 30mph or more and I cannot see the number plate of the car behind they are too close, whilst if I cannot see their headlights they are being a real cock-end and ridiculously close.
On the matter of tailights I am not talking about slamming on or even braking, just touching the pedal a couple of times in when people are persistently driving dangerously close. I thought this was the universal language for 'you're too close, give me some more room please' and know many other city and motorway drivers who do this. Maybe it is wrong, but when someone is driving in a way that could potentially see them rear-end you I don't see any other way of communicating with them and why should you be bullied out of the way because of their aggressive driving when there is nowhere to go anyway.
I think regarding the comments about Manchester it does seem to have gotten worse lately in general, though I have noticed it much more since driving the 370Z. My GF and I both do a lot of driving and see loads of people driving dangerously, weaving between lanes and driving way to close to one another. So many people seem to have something to prove on the road and make everything a battle, just creating unnecessary stress for themselves and other drivers.
This morning on my way in to work I had a battered Pug 307 weave suddenly into the lane behind me on Mancunian Way without indicating then sit so close to me I couldn't see his headlights, again with traffic in front of me and nowhere to go. He then weaved back into the left lane cutting someone else up and proceeded to do his best to 'push' that lane of traffic up the road. He had a front bumper a different colour to the rest of his car so looked like he may well have rear-ended someone before. I also had some Chevrolet 4x4 behind me actually flashing his lights at me because I wasn't trying overtake an artic doing 'only' 20mph in the city centre when there was oncoming traffic coming the other way. FFS just be patient?!
Finally regarding the Micra comments I was talking about that last night funnily enough. The only other car I have driven where I noticed people adjusting their driving style around me was an old ex-girlfriends Micra. People would go to extreme lengths not to get stuck behind you in the expectation that you would drive slow and always try and bully you in a merge situation!
Thanks for sharing your experiences and opinions, its reassuring to know its not just me.
Re the comments about the rear view mirror on the 370 I'll check this out, thanks for the tip.
For tailgaters I generally use the rule of thumb that if we're doing 30mph or more and I cannot see the number plate of the car behind they are too close, whilst if I cannot see their headlights they are being a real cock-end and ridiculously close.
On the matter of tailights I am not talking about slamming on or even braking, just touching the pedal a couple of times in when people are persistently driving dangerously close. I thought this was the universal language for 'you're too close, give me some more room please' and know many other city and motorway drivers who do this. Maybe it is wrong, but when someone is driving in a way that could potentially see them rear-end you I don't see any other way of communicating with them and why should you be bullied out of the way because of their aggressive driving when there is nowhere to go anyway.
I think regarding the comments about Manchester it does seem to have gotten worse lately in general, though I have noticed it much more since driving the 370Z. My GF and I both do a lot of driving and see loads of people driving dangerously, weaving between lanes and driving way to close to one another. So many people seem to have something to prove on the road and make everything a battle, just creating unnecessary stress for themselves and other drivers.
This morning on my way in to work I had a battered Pug 307 weave suddenly into the lane behind me on Mancunian Way without indicating then sit so close to me I couldn't see his headlights, again with traffic in front of me and nowhere to go. He then weaved back into the left lane cutting someone else up and proceeded to do his best to 'push' that lane of traffic up the road. He had a front bumper a different colour to the rest of his car so looked like he may well have rear-ended someone before. I also had some Chevrolet 4x4 behind me actually flashing his lights at me because I wasn't trying overtake an artic doing 'only' 20mph in the city centre when there was oncoming traffic coming the other way. FFS just be patient?!
Finally regarding the Micra comments I was talking about that last night funnily enough. The only other car I have driven where I noticed people adjusting their driving style around me was an old ex-girlfriends Micra. People would go to extreme lengths not to get stuck behind you in the expectation that you would drive slow and always try and bully you in a merge situation!
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