Insight into the thinkings of the average motorist
Discussion
Can't really believe what's just happened, but feel it's worth a post.
Dropped a friend off at the station. The drop off area is near enough one lane if someone parks inconsiderately, but I'd pulled off to the side to allow a gap for people to come past. Friend takes about 30-40s getting out of the car and goes to the boot to get his bag out. As he does this, a women in her 60s driving a VW Up approaches behind and decides to come past. There's plenty of space.....or so I thought. She proceeds to cut it incredibly fine at a speed that looks like she's largely out of control, and as her wing mirror gets level with my passenger side B pillar it's pretty evident she's going to clout my mirror with hers. So I sound the horn as she clearly hasn't noticed. Instead of stopping, she looks across with the most monumental scowl and mouths something at me, hits my wing mirror and drives off!
Anyway.....fairly surprised by the whole situation, I pull up along side her as she's stopped to get out into the road. Her window's down, so I wind down mine and politely (genuinely politely as it's far more effective in such situations than being angry) say "Erm, excuse me, you've just hit my car and driven off". She responds sarcastically "Oh have I?! I'm so terrible sorry!". I laugh to myself at the absurdity of her response "Well, there's no need to be so sarcastic. There's nothing to be sarcastic about. You've just hit my car and driven off". Angry now she says "Oh go away! It's only a mirror. Go away!". "Excuse me?" I say "Well, there was no need to sound your horn like that. I nearly jumped through the roof. Go away!". At which point she winds her window up and drives off...
There's zero damage, and I know full well how the conversation would go with the police if I reported it (along the lines of: "And you say there's no damage?" etc etc). But it just beggars belief. So completely oblivious to the world around her that not only does she not see that she's about to hit something, but that her first reaction to a car horn when manoeuvring is not to think 'oh, better stop' but is 'who is that a-hole who dares to scare me with his loud horn'.
Anyway...nothing much to do other than to mull over just how idiotic people on the roads are....
Dropped a friend off at the station. The drop off area is near enough one lane if someone parks inconsiderately, but I'd pulled off to the side to allow a gap for people to come past. Friend takes about 30-40s getting out of the car and goes to the boot to get his bag out. As he does this, a women in her 60s driving a VW Up approaches behind and decides to come past. There's plenty of space.....or so I thought. She proceeds to cut it incredibly fine at a speed that looks like she's largely out of control, and as her wing mirror gets level with my passenger side B pillar it's pretty evident she's going to clout my mirror with hers. So I sound the horn as she clearly hasn't noticed. Instead of stopping, she looks across with the most monumental scowl and mouths something at me, hits my wing mirror and drives off!
Anyway.....fairly surprised by the whole situation, I pull up along side her as she's stopped to get out into the road. Her window's down, so I wind down mine and politely (genuinely politely as it's far more effective in such situations than being angry) say "Erm, excuse me, you've just hit my car and driven off". She responds sarcastically "Oh have I?! I'm so terrible sorry!". I laugh to myself at the absurdity of her response "Well, there's no need to be so sarcastic. There's nothing to be sarcastic about. You've just hit my car and driven off". Angry now she says "Oh go away! It's only a mirror. Go away!". "Excuse me?" I say "Well, there was no need to sound your horn like that. I nearly jumped through the roof. Go away!". At which point she winds her window up and drives off...
There's zero damage, and I know full well how the conversation would go with the police if I reported it (along the lines of: "And you say there's no damage?" etc etc). But it just beggars belief. So completely oblivious to the world around her that not only does she not see that she's about to hit something, but that her first reaction to a car horn when manoeuvring is not to think 'oh, better stop' but is 'who is that a-hole who dares to scare me with his loud horn'.
Anyway...nothing much to do other than to mull over just how idiotic people on the roads are....
johnxjsc1985 said:
Lane discipline is voluntary isn't it? Well it is near where live. On a down hill section of a quite wide road with a 30mph limit there is a slight kink in the road for about 50 yards and it seems to throw Cars across the white lines it drives me mad and I just don't understand why it happens as you cant even call it a bend its no more than a "kink".
I can't for the life of me remember the source, but I believe the 'average' driver's tolerance of longitudinal and lateral g-force is around 0.3g (about 10mph on a 50m radius corner which is approximately similar to a roundabout). Above this, most people seem to think the car is going to 'spin out' or roll over...Similarly, I believe that something like 70% of drivers don't ever press the brake pedal hard enough to achieve ABS in an emergency situation....
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