Entertainment For Lively Minds
You give me road rage...
Posted by poolhallrichard on 9 October 2010 - 7:14pm.
I'm usually a fairly relaxed driver, quite happy to fit in with other road users and get to my destination without too much grief or hurry. However, I can be transformed into a foul-mouthed gesticulating idiot by one of two things:
1. Those drivers in a long traffic jam who let the car in front get at least 100 yards ahead of them before bothering to move themselves.
2. Anyone who, when two lanes become one, won't "merge in turn" and edge ever more forward to stop you getting in and you end up on the other side of the road. Been known to stop the car and knock on the other driver's window about this one.
What really gets your goat when on the road?
- More from poolhallrichard.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Road rage
Anyone slower than me is an idiot. Anyone faster a maniac.
Mobile phone users
while driving, I'd have them shot, but not while they're driving obviously, that would be dangerous.
Why have them shot
when you could do it yourself? That's how they roll in some parts of town.
A poet writes
Lord Byron in a letter to Thomas Moore in 1817
It's thought that 'road rage' is an American corruption of "'roid rage" in reference to jocks going ballistic on steroids.
The writer Joe Moran in his book On Roads asks:
Hogging the middle or outer lane
drives me to distraction.
What if
said "hoggers" are travelling at or slightly above the legal limit? Why should they be bullied into moving over in order that aggressive drivers can break the law?
Hmm
I think he means those who remain in the middle or outer lanes when they're not overtaking anybody. Regardless of your speed, you've no business sitting in the middle lane when the inside lane is free.
No matter
how fast you're driving, there will always be an aggressive boy racer who wants to get past.
I was told that
if ever you get someone driving right at your tail, just let them past you: anyone who drives like that will have an accident sooner rather than later, and when they do you don't want to be there.
In any case, I don't really undertake, but my annoyance is that someone hogging the middle lane of a three lane motorway is in effect forcing everyone else to use one of two lanes. And so all the extra time, effort, expense, carbon footprint etc of creating that third lane is completely wasted.
And relax ...
I know what you mean,
but I find this a bit of a tricky one. Even though I'm someone who routinely breaks the speed limit on motorways, I can't help but agree with mojoworking's post. The speed limit for all lanes is 70mph. I think it's because we've become so accustomed to thinking of the outside lane as 'the fast lane' that we forget this simple fact. Now, it's true that volume of traffic today means that the inside lane is usually very full of 60mph-restricted vehicles like buses and HGVs, but that still leaves two lanes at which to travel at 70mph. I think the police muddy the waters on this with their overhead signs 'move to inside lane to allow overtaking' etc. It may be realism on their part, but it still encourages the idea that there are three different levels of speed you can travel at legitimately.
I must admit that due to the volume of 60-mph traffic I have often sat at 75-80mph in the middle lane to avoid constant lane-changing. My personality is such that I can't keep this up for long and so move over when the inevitable pressure to do so occurs, but as mojoworking points out, I am already breaking the limit and there exists a further lane to the right for people who wish to grind the limit into submission.
Thank you
That's exactly my point. When the motorway is busy with slow-moving trucks, caravans etc, you really shouldn't have to be bullied into constantly moving in and out of the left lane to allow the BMWs, Audis and Mercs to fly past at 10-20mph over the speed limit.
When traffic is light however, then of course everyone should drive on the left.
Well, there's this from The Highway Code
Lane discipline
You should always drive in the left-hand lane when the road ahead is clear. If you are overtaking a number of slower-moving vehicles, you should return to the left-hand lane as soon as you are safely past. *
Seems pretty clear to me.
* Paragraph 264 if you want to look it up.
The Highway Code also says
you should obey the legal speed limit.
The general consensus seems to be that while the speed limit is optional at best, woe betide anyone who fails to observe lane discipline.
Is that
Distraction, Leicestershire or Distraction, Powys?
Edit: didn't see Geacher's comment below :-)
4 lane motorway
I don't understand why, in those areas where we have motorways expanded to 4 lanes, the middle lane drivers find they now have to move over to lane three and stick to it. Lanes one and two can be clear as far as the eye can see, but they stick out there,. Grrr
Distraction?
Been driven there many times. Not a nice place. Think I would like to go to Jeopardy. Lotsa jobs there, if The Daily Mail is to be believed.
As a child, my mate Pete always insisted
that he wanted to move to Need, as Terry Wogan was always sending shedloads of cash to the kids there.
We can all live in Hope
Lovely part of Derbyshire
Trying to push in without indicating.
If you indicate, i'll probably let you in. Don't try to be sneaky.
Squaring a roundabout
Go round it not across it. The clue is in the name.
Driving..
No-one drives badly deliberately. We all do what we think is the right thing.
Lots of people, however, drive ignorantly.
Me?
I'm as bad as all the rest. I drive too fast. I've got good lane discipline (as almost all fast drivers do) and think that because I do, it excuses all the other faults I have behind the wheel.
Lane Discipline...
... two more from their second album, Queer for Gear, later... now, the new single from Einsturzende Neubauten...
[starts quietly]
I was complimented
on my lane discipline by the police officer who pulled me for undertaking several members of the Middle Lane Owners Club at 92mph. 'Your lane discipline is excellent Sir, but this kind of thing will get you, and probably someone else killed'. It softened the blow a little when I got to court : Driving without due care and attention : £300 fine and 8 points.
Are you for real?
8 points and £300 fine. Blimey, I better not do that anymore - already on 6.
Some idiot undertook me yesterday on a roundabout - he crossed over from my lane on road markings that suggested he had to stay in lane. As he went past he gave me the finger. When I flashed him he stopped on a dual carriageway and obviously wanted a fight. Moron.
For real.
The only reason I didn't get 9 points was that I turned up for the hearing and admitted that I'd been a bit rash. Technically, they could have done me for dangerous driving and that carries a much weightier slap.
Check your mirrors for hovering policemen next time you're forced to undertake an elderly gent in a maroon Rover doing 55 in the middle lane, would be my advice.
I trust
the outside lane was occupied?
I know its *technically* illegal,
but surely there is some discretion to be applied? Wouldn't it be FAR more dangerous to hover on his tail, tutting and maybe even flashing the headlights, waiting for him to wake up and pull over, than to overtake on the inside? After all, in the US it's the norm.
Two wrongs
and all that. Courteousness and forgiveness is just as useful in a car as elsewhere in life. So the person in front is an idiot? Overtake when you can in a legal way.
Solid
everyone looking over their left shoulder and tutting at Mr Daily Express in the maroon Rover.
I can tell...
...if I'm stressed or tired for other reasons, because that's the only time I get narky behind the wheel. I wouldn't say I get enraged, though. Maybe once or twice that I can remember.
I'm not a particularly fast driver, and I like to think I've got my wits about me. But who knows? I've probably been cursed up and down for a twat by more fellow road users than I realise.
"Oi! Idiot!"
"Ooh hello. You must be from The Massive!"
Drivers who ignore
forward stop lines for cycles at traffic lights. I will simply go to the area reserved for cycles and wait in front of them anyway.
And numpties who drive around with their fog lights on at all times. The clue is in the name...
You give me road rage
When you kiss me, road rage when you hold me close - ROAD RAGE!
Cyclists!
They disregard all traffic rules, they overtake you on the inside despite your indicating, they wear HEADPHONES, they're a pain in the arse.
But woe betide you if you chide them. The other day, while stationery at the traffic lights, a girl went into me. And apparently that was my fault for being too close to the car in front.
I realise she didn't mean to do it, so perhaps a cursory apologetic wave to me for scratching my car, rather than telling me to fuck off might have been in order. I would have been happy to overlook it. Whatever happened to manners?
There's way too many of them. They should limit cyclists. It's getting out of hand.
Cyclists
When a motorist does something objectionable, people criticise that motorist. When a cyclist does something objectionable, people criticise all cyclists and cycling itself.
Agreed
Also, when a cyclist does something stupid they'll most likely kill or injure themselves. When a motorist does something stupid they'll more likely take others with them.
Cyclists have to be alert and contantly aware of what's going on around them. Motorists are lured into a false sense of security by the warm metal cage around them and seem constantly distracted by mobile phones and sat nav screens.
Here we go with the generalisations
"They disregard all traffic rules." If that's what you really think there is simply no point in trying to engage you in debate.
"There's way too many of them." Words fail me.
Thumbs up
I think Macca would agree with you.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3182676/Paul-McCart...
Calm Down, Calm Down.
I have an easy little test that stops me getting road rage. If someone cuts me up or does something selfish, I ask myself, "am I prepared to kill the driver and all his/her family with an axe?" If the answer is "no" I just ignore them. If the answer is "yes" I ram my car into their car, take out my axe and get to work... works for me.
"The defence rests, m'lud"
.
Just this morning
Waiting at traffic light, indicating right. Motorcyclist overtakes me as the lights change to green and goes straight on. Saw him at the last minute otherwise, who knows?
I would love to use the inside lane on the M40 or M6 but they are full of HGVs or sodding caravans....
A few of mine...
The lorries on the 2 lane A1 who insist on overtaking other lorries which are going 1mph slower than they can go. Cue a 15 minute overtaking process and 1 mile tailback of traffic behind him (invariably him).
All cyclists who ride on the pavement (sorry Lucifer Sam but yes, ALL cyclists who ride on the pavement - if there's no cycle lane and the road is too dangerous get off and push).
The idiot who insists on overtaking you and pulling into the safe distance you've left between yourself and the car in front when it's obvious that's as far as he's going to get (again, invariably he).
Those who think that it costs £1 per flash of their indicators, or who think the rest of us are mind readers or who simply appear to have broken indicators.
It's not the lorry drivers' fault
It's the effing EU law that limits them to 56 mph. They are all limited to the same speed - but the hardware isn't perfect so one may go 1 mph faster than another. If they and the coaches could go at 70, our roads would be a lot less congested.
It's the mobile phones which bug me. The other day I was nearly wiped out by a sodding greater tractor coming round a corner on the wrong side of a country road. His wheels were bigger than my car. He was on the phone.
It ruddy well IS the lorry drivers' fault.
They are driving the sodding thing. Large vehicles are limited for very good reasons of safety and environmental impact.
What's wrong with just WAITING while the truck in front crests the hill at 1 m.p.h less than your rig is capable of (with that handy piece of 4x2 jammed under the dash to press pedal to metal)?
After all, plenty of truck drivers seem to think that the 3 minute overtake on one of the steep rises of the northbound A34 is the perfect opportunity to make a quick call.
It all depends.
When you say "Anyone who, when two lanes become one, won't "merge in turn" and edge ever more forward to stop you getting in and you end up on the other side of the road." are you one of those drivers who expect to be able to drive down the road in the rightmost lane yea even unto the last possible yard before 'getting in'?
Because if you are, I invite you to try remonstrating with me when you do it. I'll edge forward as far as I can to stop some ignorant oik from pushing in at the last second, thank you very much, and I'm prepared to go to fisticuffs to defend my right so to do.
If you don't drive like that sort of tosspot, then fair enough.
At the risk of flying fox fur...
...aren't you *supposed* to stay in the merging lane yea even unto the last possible yard? That way, more merging can happen - like a zip?
I was being facetious, but,
when there are signs showing that the right hand lane ends in 800 yards, then in 400 yards, then in 200 yards, then in 100 yards, and finally there are arrows on the tarmac before the narrowing, is it too much to expect people to start merging at say, 3-400 yards out, in order to avoid the inevitable braking and twitchy manoeuvering as idiot boys try, stiff necked, to barge in with yards to spare? I think not.
The A350 spur road from the M4 down into Chippenham is a perfect example; it's so bad there that many drivers of larger, slower vehicles using that route will routinely straddle the white line from around 300 yards out, preventing anyone from passing them, so fed up are they with the pond life who constantly expect to be afforded special measures with 3 yards to go.
The Oxford end of the Witney by-pass is another place I've seen the same tactic adopted. You can almost hear the well behaved drivers cheering from behind their steering wheels as some twat is embarrassed into waiting with two wheels virtually on the central reservation and indicators flashing pathetically, forced to wait for someone with better road manners to allow them to move left.
The key sign..
"Form Two Lanes Of Traffic And Merge Where Lanes Meet"
They had this on the Chichester bypass roadworks. It's designed to stop traffic clogging roundabouts. Everyone, however, was much too polite and stayed in the inside lane, causing tailbacks at the intervening roundabouts. I obeyed the signs formed a second lane, and a shouting match ensued with a bloke queuing on the left..
That's fair enough, for roadworks.
Obviously the argumentative bloke to your left was either unable to read English, or of the persuasion that rules and requests apply only to everyone else; God knows there's plenty like that on the road.
The two examples I quoted are where two lanes merge into one on a permanent basis. Neither location has a sign along those lines, and I'd argue that they don't need to have one, or anything like it, if everyone behaves with a little common sense and courtesy.
It's when too many behave without any common sense or courtesy that I find myself wishing for a more drastic solution than pointless gesticulation and swearing.
To whit; snipers.
Yes to zip merging
I find it completely baffling why "zip merging" isn't the standard. It make the best use of the road space whether it's due to road works or an accident on the motorway, it should completely eliminate aggressive pushing in and, above all is fair. I hate pushing in so I make sure I get in the open lane as soon as possible but if you reach the back of a queue a couple of miles before the incident, how do you know which lane to be in. The last thing I want to have to do, after sitting in a queue for and hour is to have to fight with a lorry driver (lorries are harder to merge with simply because they are so long) to get into the right lane.
People are afraid to merge.
As Ellis says, "People are afraid to merge on freeways..." Just for a few seconds, they might have to acknowledge that they share the highway with others. It's too much. It bothers them. It feels like it weakens them, so they'd rather confront another driver than themselves and their own failings.
It's a shame
You're supposed to use both lanes until such time as one of them ends, then merge in turn. But being British, people love to queue and therefore fill one lane. Anyone who does the right thing is considered to be 'pushing in' and treated aggressively.
That's true
I once saved at least 15 minutes by obeying the sign which said 'Merge in 800 yards' instead of doing what every other driver did by reading it as 'Merge Now' and causing half a mile of traffic jam, with an empty lane beside it. I would have saved even more time if the idiot in front hadn't insisted on trying to merge into a non-existent gap rather than use the available lane.
My pet hate (apart from cyclists) is women (almost invariably) who can't go through a gap which is less than four feet wider than their car.
By the same token, I get irritated by lorry drivers
who block both lanes during a merge to stop drivers driving up the 'closing' lane to the merge point
Would you really, honestly do that?
What if the other bloke got out of his car and he turned out to be a 20 stone rugby player with psychopathic tendencies?
I can see you frantically pressing down the buttons on your car doors even as we speak ;-)
I actually saw this happen in heavy traffic at Hanger Lane some years ago. Bloke #1 refused to let bloke #2 in, got lippy and flicked the Vs out the window.
Bloke #2 caught up at the lights and got out of his car. Turns out he was built like a brick shithouse.
Bloke #1 locked all his doors and had to sit there shaking while bloke #2 snapped off his aerial, smashed his wing mirrors and kicked in all his door panels.
The moral is: you never know who you're dealing with on the road.
Seemples.
"What if the other bloke got out of his car and he turned out to be a 20 stone rugby player with psychopathic tendencies?"
Run him over.
Rule number 1....
Treat everyone on the road as if they are idiots. This said, you will be very rarely suprised and caught off guard.
It's an ambulance with flashing blue lights in an emergency...
...not a good opportunity to sneak a few places forward while everyone else has pulled over to the side. Twice in the last week. Unbelievable.
As a non driver
none of the above made any sense to me and I think I made the right life choice.
You are all as bad as each other basically. You know it's you but you hate it when it's someone else.
That felt good.
Ha ha haaaa
You may be on to something...
(And yes, I drive)
Surely you jest
Based on the simple fact that I´ve never once made a single mistake in my entire life. I know it sounds crazy, but it´s true.
You too?
And there was me thinking I was the only one.
Your point only works
if you have never been in a car. Ever.
Houston
I lived in Houston, Texas for 5 years and encountered the worst drivers.
It is legal for drivers to use their phone when driving but its not legal to cross 4 lanes at 80mph in one go without indicating.
I used to arrive home with a tale of incompetent drivers nearly every day.
Did I ever express my anger directly to these idiots? Um no, its also legal to carry a gun in your car in Texas.
I had a good sense of perspective and some good choice of swear words in the confines of my car.
Maybe that's the answer for the UK?
A mandatory gun to be carried in every car. That would certainly stop people behaving like idiots over the rules of the road :-)
Modest proposal
How about a large spike protruding from the middle of every steering wheel, pointing straight at the driver's heart? Give them boy racers something to think about, eh? Especially if seatbelts were abolished...
Cars have a wonderful invention fitted to them.
They are called indicators. I wish people would use them...
Not quite so..
My mate Paul the traffic copper tells us that indicators are interesting things. If you see a car with an indicator light flashing, you can conclude only one thing with certainty. The bulb/LEDs in the indicator is/are working. And that's it.