Rant - mindless drivers

[Rob GTI]

Nothing to do with GTIs here. I was in the wife’s cars a Nissan X Trail  driving down an A road today, there was a 17year old Astra in front of me driving quite slowly. The road opens out into a long stretch you can see at least a mile ahead, nothing oncoming, so I mirror, indicate pull out to overtake. As i start to pull past the car it swerves onto the other side of the road causing me to hit the brakes hard The car then pulls back into it’s lane and I complete  the manoeuvre. A couple of miles later I'm waiting at a set of light, he pulls up behind. Furious at nearly being wiped out I get out and ask him to look where he's going only to get told not drive like a maniac and that he was serving to avoid a duck on the road and that I should have seen the duck in front of him. 

Maniac - i did everything in the highway code, I was even 5 mph under the speed limit (those X trails ain't quick)

Rant over - had to get it off my chest.

[Jack Rabbit]

you did everything right... except get out of your car to confront the other driver

[Rob GTI]

you did everything right... except get out of your car to confront the other driver

I know I shouldn't have got out but as he nearly forced me off the road I was pissed off. I only got out hoping he'd apologise instead he got shirty with me which made me even more annoyed. Obviously didn't work out to well.

On reflection though it could have gone a lot worse he could of got out of his motor with a big stick /knife / gun etc

[Hurdy]

I generally treat everyone else on the road as learner drivers.....which is why I rant quite a bit

[stealthwolf]

Yeah I've come across some silly drivers who do silly things for no apparent reason. My current bugbear is drivers who don't seem to know what the national speed limit sign means. There's a route to work that I sometimes take. It starts off as a 40mph road, turns into a NSL dual single carriage way and then turns into a 30mph road. There are a lot of drivers who drive at 40mph and then stay at that speed throughthe NSL section. They then seem to get pissed off when I legitimately overtake them. Worse still, these drivers remain at 40mph when the speed limit reduces to 30mph! 

[Saint Steve]

I would of told him to hit the dam duck, and could of been a cheap meal for him

[Edition30]

I was taught to run animals over


Sounds harsh but never put an animal before your life.

[mortygttdi]

I come across a complete idiot of a women today,

The road I was on goes from a 2 lane road down to a single road with traffic lights at either end I wait at my side for the light to go green there was nothing on the other said...So once the light went green I set off and this stupid div in a newish fiesta came flying through, she actually acknowledged me but kept coming through doing around 50 mph(road is a 30) I had to stop in the middle(the stretch of road is about 500yr) she wasn't going to reverse and I pointed up at the lights and mouthed that they was on green, she just shrugged her shoulders.

To cut a long story short I reversed I needed to get some where in a hurry so let her through but I was fuming

I'm sorry if this sounds sexist but I thing women drivers especially younger ones are very arrogant drivers and are getting faster.

Darren

[TANNER]

My pet hate is people going from single to dual carriage and getting straight into the right hand lane when the left is free! Reasly frustrates me, I was always taught to keep left where possible but some people must feel more European driving on the right! 

[stealthwolf]

I hate that too but what's worse is if you undertake them whilst doing the speed limit (because they're going too slowly for no reason in the right lane), they'll flash their lights at you!

[Jack Rabbit]

^^^ illegal no? More dangerous than the other car driving slower than you want to drive me thinks  

[stealthwolf]

^^^ illegal no? More dangerous than the other car driving slower than you want to drive me thinks 

So what would be better? Sit behind at 40mph on a single carriageway at the national speed limit (60mph)? Dry roads, good visibility, no obstructions - there was no good reason why that guy should be doing 40mph on a 60mph. Given I was next to him, I had the same view!

The highway code does talk about making good progress and not undily holding up other traffic. People have been pulled over by police for driving too slowly.

[Jack Rabbit]

Nothing personal, but I was merely stating you undertaking was illegal and dangerous

Someone in your example staying to the right agreed would be frustrating and discourteous but doesn't justify passing them on the left

There's no law to say you have to drive as fast as the speed limit, just not exceed it

[Comms]

Driving up to Manchester on the M6 Northbound middle lane around 1am last year and a transit bombs it straight past me around 100mph as I was doing 80.

The driver gains a good 100 yards on me and moves into the central lane then I hear a loud whack across my windscreen thinking he threw something out of his window.

Really pee'd me off and then sh*t myself as sparks starts flying out from his right rear wheel, skids to the left lane across to the right and then coming to halt on the hard shoulder.

Idiot almost flipped his van over. 

[stealthwolf]

Nothing personal, but I was merely stating you undertaking was illegal and dangerous

What would you have done? Stayed behind him for the entire time he was there? What if it was a 10-mile stretch of road? A 50-mile stretch of road?

Undertaking him in the specific circumstances I was in was not dangerous. It was a quick undertake and I resumed the journey without problems. For him to remain at 40mph needlessly is far more dangerous as it incites risky behaviour in other drivers.

I don't normally undertake because generally it's not normally needed. The only time I do it routinely is on the motorway, where the signs tell you to stay in your lane and the max speed limit is say 50mph. Given that everyone is doing similar speeds, undertaking can occur without much deliberation - all it takes is one car in another lane to slow a tad (even by 1mph) for other vehicles to undertake.