Stupid _ _ _ _ _ _ Drivers?

[Barnacle-Bill]

Going down the M6 on Thursday, I'd just got south of Keele Services, traffic was going along fine, doing about 70mph, the traffic then started to slow down, stupid me, I'd left a bloody gap, as stupid people like me do, when the this female in a Focus, for some stupid reason, she cut's right in front of me from the middle lane, which is still going faster than lane three, she just pulls right in front of me, and because lane three is now moving slower, she brakes hard, and I mean she braked hard, and I'm left with nowhere to go, I think I must have put my brake pedal through the floor, and I just managed to stop in time, and I mean JUST stopped in time, only thing, although I skidded, it was in a straight line, and with smoke belching from the tyres, and tyres screeching, the car slid to a halt, just missing this bloody stupid idiot in front, she looks in her mirror and has the bloody cheek to laugh, I get front flat spotted tyres, well I thought I had, since the skid, I've got a serious vibration going on from what I think is the steering, I switched the tyres from front to back, but it didn't cure the vibration, I've just got home, so I've not had the chance to have the car checked yet, but I just thought I'd let you know, not to leave gaps on motorways, especially if you see a silver Focus with a blonde, I was going to say driving it, but after her stupid stunt, lets just say, she was just sitting behind the steering wheel.

[gibbzy2k1]

There are plenty out there on the roads. I have been cut up several times on a particular roundabout by managers at work. I thin the next I will just keep driving into their pretty Mercedes or whatever! Both times they have changed to the left lane to go right by passing other cars cutting them off. One even waited to the 100 yard sign on the dual carrigeway, cut into a small gap at speed and slammed the brakes on to slow down enough to take the exit!

i am not saying I am always an angel on the road but some people are just downright dangerous and should be stoned!

[tesrover5]

I find i have more near accidents driving slow,as generally at least have 1 kid in car anyway.Me & car have less response time,keep at 70 on motorway nearly fall asleep,so boring.When used to drive fast i never had any accidents or near accidents.The amount of people i have to undertake,people love lane hogging.People generally to stressed with everything,always in rush.Less mannors etc.

[tesrover5]

Love driving on first day back on school run,had 4 near accidents in 1 & 1/2 mile.Cant see any targets on my car.If didnt have ABS would have had car hit me,playing chicken with my car overtaking vehicle just following the others without indicating or looking ahead obviously.Not sure why people think it safe just as 1 car has gone,doesnt meen safe for more then 1 car.We had few mm to spare though lol

[BennyVitesse]

A bloke decided the Highway Code didn't apply to him on Saturday and pulled out onto a main road in Birmingham straight into the side of my Fiat Coupe.....these people should be made unable to drive and I mean medically.

[Bert3]

Love driving on first day back on school run,had 4 near accidents in 1 & 1/2 mile.Cant see any targets on my car.If didnt have ABS would have had car hit me,playing chicken with my car overtaking vehicle just following the others without indicating or looking ahead obviously.Not sure why people think it safe just as 1 car has gone,doesnt meen safe for more then 1 car.We had few mm to spare though lol

Seems like Rover fitted the same 'optional extra' to your car as they did to mine .... a Romulon cloaking device ..... can't find the button to turn it off either!

[tesrover5]

I think it the old image of rover as grandad cars,so must be slow.If not the cloaking device then everyone should have an eye test if they cant see the 800 series.But then i have trouble from a distance when parked with the others towering above it,always leave my nose out a bit.But there will always be a nice considerate person with an mpv or 4x4 that has driven into space with tinted rear windows,so i cant see to get out a space.

[Barnacle-Bill]

The one thing I've always found, and I'm not saying just because of this site, but Rover 800 drivers seem to have a better standard of driving than most other drivers, I came across a couple of Rover 800's over the last week down south, and the manners shown by the 800 drivers was great, and nice to see.
Where I live, I don't go racing around, I drive to suit myself, I let buses out, allow kids waiting to cross a road, cross, cars waiting to join traffic from a side road, out, and in many many cases, I get drivers blasting their horns for being courteous, I live near a primary school, so I stick to the speed limit when the kids are going to school, or coming home, and I've also had so called drivers blasting their horns at me, for driving at 30mph, there appears to be NO standard of driving these days

[Richard Moss]

If you want to see "interesting" driving try living in the middle east for a while! Better than Africa - but only just.

[BlueRover]

I intend to get an onboard camera sometime in the near future. I used to have a compact camera on my dashboard when I was travelling to Liverpool and back on the M62 and it's surprising to see things on playback, even things you don't notice when you're concentrating on driving.

[metelmickey]

been in other peoples cars and have been amazed at the way they have to dodge other cars, i found that being in an old rusty 600 they tend to avoid me mainly because i don't backdown or give way to idiots trying to bully me with their newer, more expensive cars, when they cut corners they swerve back onto their side of the road as i tend to drive straight at them, we get 4x4 drivers on the wrong side of the road to avoid puddles, yes my car would come off worse in a crunch but mine costs 1/10 of theirs and they avoid me.

[RoastBeef]

I think peoples driving has gotten a lot worse, especially over the last 10 years.

I would say I have always been an 'Enthusiastic' driver, but, by that I mean I drive carefully but enjoy driving quickly safely, when allowed. I have found that these days when leaving a deliberate, good gap between me and the car in front on the mway, some idiot often decides to dive in front of me, usually without indicating, for no reason at all. I would add, that I have never had an accident, that was my fault or otherwise, but I wonder how long I can maintain that record when people do such un-predicatable things these days.

I have heard that the driving test is much harder now, than when I passed in the 1980's. But, it does not cover mway driving and does not seem to be effective, when drivers now seem to have no regard for other road users. May be it is just a lack of manners with many people now, and I am just and old g*t, but every day now I see really bad driving.

[Alucard7002]

I think it the old image of rover as grandad cars,so must be slow.

I enjoy driving the old barge around, being an 820 on gas the right pedal is near enough welded to the floor 90% of the time just to get the darn thing to keep up with modern traffic around Nottingham! (In an ideal world you'll only get 80% the power on LPG - combine that with an engine that's done 86k and tuned to ultra-lean-pikey-student-mode for fuel economy and I'd be lucky to break 100hp!)

Only a few days ago I was coming back from campus and had a black Volvo V70 crawling up my arse in the first 30 limit... road opens up and changes to national speed limit, two corners ater on my usual B-Road trip he was gone from my rearview mirror
Next 30 limit he catches up with me and once again he crawls up my arse, final stretch and I've had enough so in 2nd at 28mph in the 30 and as soon as the nose of the car passes the national speed limit sign its up to 75 and held for the entire trip - didn't see him again after that! (it's a fast b road that the car COULD cruise along at 60 all the way very happily if it wasn't for all the junctions/blind bends)

Needless to say he was not impressed that tailgaiting who he thought was an old git in a Rover got him nowhere faster and he couldn't catch up. (Plus I get that nice warm sunggly feeling knowing it cost me tuppence three farthing!)

I've noticed in the past few months that people have begun to recognise my Dad's 820 on the road to and from campus. There's a chap with a blue Focus RS in particular that I've had try to overtake me a fair few times and failed almost every time - he thinks I'm zapping along and must have something mental under the bonnet purely because I can hold a decent average speed along the b road - needless to say he is expecting me to shoot out of every corner at top speed where as I actually maintain the same speed in and out

I've noticed the M1 is a bad motorway for lack of manners and sensible driving, it seems everyone on the m1 adopts one of 3 "strategies"; sit behind the trucks doing 56mph all the way and risk getting cut up by people joining/leaving the motorway, sit in the middle lane and do whatever speed to middle lane is doing (anywhere between 50 and 95mph), and finally sit in the outside lane behind all the reps in repmobiles on mobiles doing 95+.

People get cut up - people cut others up, I've personally witnessed over 50 near misses in the 2 and half years of using junctions 23-28 on a nearly daily basis. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's rush hour or not, weekday or weekend. It's crazy out there.

My pet peeve is people on their phones... Yesterday I was in a supermarket car park of all things and a chap pulled out in front of me without even looking with a phone glued to his right ear (and doing about 20mph in a car park full of pedestrians, families too!) - cue chirp from my tyres as the brake pedal meets carpet. The worst thing? Even with a loud chirp/squeal from the tyres (<5mph) and a long blast from my horn he STILL doesn't look around or even seem to be paying attention. Part of me really wanted to get out, knock on his window, remove his phone from his person and destroy it!


Even though the other person is usually at fault when we have those sphincter tightening moments, a lot depends on our reactions.

My Dad has taught me a huge number of things but the one that's saved my bacon more often than I care to remember is this: Get in, Belt on, Brain in gear! Anticipated anticipate and anticipate. Don't think, will that car/truck do that thing, rather what will I do when they do that.

Stay safe out there folks

[BennyVitesse]

Just witnessed Road Rage today from a right midget thug driving of all cars, a 53 plate Rover 75. When he couldn't get his own way he threw his car across the path of oncoming vehicles.

Its a shame when good cars like this get so cheap that thugs can afford one.

[TheVDM]

Unfortunately there is too many of them about these days, there is a couple of roundabouts near us where people seem to think that the left approaching lane is for turning right or going all the way around, I can't even count the number of times that I've been cut up on them.

The other day driving through one of the villages on my way home I was about to turn left as a t**t in a transit, on his phone I hasten to add turns right up the same road in front of me without a care in the world, I jammed the brakes on and the horn, he looks around as if to say 'What?'. At the end of the road we turned down he was obviously still on his phone as he didn't stop or slow down and just pulled out into the oncoming traffic (50mph limit) where some guy had to slam the brakes and horn on otherwise he would have gone straight into the side of the van.

Needless to say I kept a good distance from that one who was probably under the influence of something.

I've always been a bit scared of doing things against the highway code, if there's anything else on the road and I'm in the wrong lane, I just go the wrong way until I can turn around.