Daily Moan About Driving Standards

[Bluebottle]

Originally Posted by Daimlerman

Its the rear fogs left on when there's no F in Fog that really gets me!
Can't they see that damn great orange light on the dashboard?

On mid-80's Escorts and Fiestas (possibly other Fords as well) the light is a small yellow light inset into a round button, usually the same as the rear window heater switch, also with a little yellow light. Hardy eye-catching! I've also driven a car (I think it was a GM product...) in which the fog light switch was hidden by the steering wheel!!
However, thats no excuse- if someone flashes their lights at me that's the first thing I look for!

[touringlegend]

My 98 Escort has the rear fog light down to the right of the steering wheel, is visible enough I think.

My main gripe too is people not dipping their lights!!!

[Bluebottle]

Originally Posted by touringlegend

My main gripe too is people not dipping their lights!!!

A few years back I lived within easy cycling distance of where I worked. It was a 7 mile each way ride along unlit lanes and I frequently got dazzled by full beam lights- I wore loads of reflective stuff so it wasn't as if I was invisible! Sadly it was before the days of high power cycle lights which can compete with halogen car lights

Re fog light switches...
I've never noticed before that the switch in my Granada is hidden by my left forearm when driving with my hands in the correct position on the wheel. And I've only been driving it for 8 years....

[ranoff]

Originally Posted by Bluebottle

fog light switches...

Fortunately since (as I recall) late 1998 vehicle production European Whole Vehicle Type Approval (EWVTA) has required an interlock with the main lighting system to cancel the Rear Fog Guard ((the official Vehicle Operating Standards Agency (VOSA) name)) each time the exterior lighting is extinguished. So as the old sheds disappear off the road there is less likelihood of the unaware leaving their rear fog guards on all year round!

Oh yes, and has anyone caught the nightly close convoy of Argos wagons on the A45 between Coventry & Rugby? Took me seven miles to pass 5 of the swines on Tuesday. All the way from the Festival Pub roundabout to the Bilton turn.

[KPC]

I live on the A24. I need to cross said road to walk my dogs. Speed limit outside my house is 40mph, with a 50 sign a few yards along. There is a wide ghost island in the middle of the road. IF, I was to wait until there was no traffic in either direction I would never cross because it just don't happen. Also like many busy roads you have to take a chance whenever a slight one presents itself. With dogs in tow I am a little more cautious than I would be if I were by myself.

So, yesterday there's a Volvo S40 pottling up the road a good few hundred yards away, we're talking a dozen houses or so distant. There is nothing on the other carriageway leaving me to cross the entire road, not even stop on the chevrons. As I step onto the chevrons I hear a long beep. So far away is this car and going so slow, ten under the limit job, that I actually have time to gauge that if I step back in front of this idiot, with dogs, he has loads of room to stop. So I did. Now, if you can do all of that, why the **** beep me? Old git. Self-righteous a'holes who deserve a lethal injection. I stood there for a long few seconds. The 4X4 behind the Volvo was even thinking of driving around. I stood a bit longer, gave a shake of my head and leisurely crossed the road. I wear my steel toe-capped hiking boots when walking my dogs. Had I not been outside my house there may have been some work for a panel beater somewhere. I love that uncertain look you get when they realise that their self-righteous pomposity has landed them in hot water. Yes, you have picked on a nutcase. Think about it in future because one day you WILL get a slap. And well deserved to I say.

Argh.

[topwelshman]

[QUOTE=garcon] As for the idiots who try blocking the second lane, if there's enough room (which there usually is if you don't mind using a bit of verge) I drive round 'em and when they start to gesticulate just smile ever so sweetly whilst raising the middle digit of my left hand.

Me too! It's normally the same people that stay in the outside lane at 70 and won't pull over as they're smug at sticking to the laws. If they won't move I go around them.

The other day I was approaching Bath going up the hill on the M4, it was reasonably busy but we were all doing about 85, some prat in a van who's doing 55 decided he was going to pull out, no indicatiing just straight out and he stayed out there for at least 2 mins and couldn't pull back in as he was going as slow as those inside him. When he pulled back in (still doing 55) he gave me the finger! it's w*****s like that that make me aggressive and want to overtake every other b****r on the road.

[Woolley]

I still can't work out the guy on the dual carriageway heading home the other night. I'm doing 43mph (speed camera!) so he's doing about 35. As were 400 yards from the island where I'm going to turn right, he pulls into the outside lane, just in front of me. No signals, and there's nothing in the inside lane to overtake, even if he were going fast enough. So I get caught up behind him, assuming he's done it because he's going to turn right at the next island. Silly me, he's going straight on... Can anyone think why he pulled into the right hand lane, because it beats me?

[Mike_Wooshy]

okay turning into my road where theirs a slip entry so I mirror mirror signal to move across to the middle, check my mirror again before I turn and past goes an idiot in a nova, I mean if I hadnt have checked before I pulled Id have hit him, what an idiot its times like these that make you wanna chase them down pull them out the car and hit them ya know.

[StephenRae]

Has anyone noticed how the attitude of drivers has changed. Any overtaking, is now dissaproved of. I accept those who want to stay legal but it seems more and more drive at 10 mph below the speed limit and as overtaking has become socially unacceptable they soon have a line of cars behind them.

[Mike_Wooshy]

well i dont mind overtakers ..... or undertakers either, if theres room and you can safely go through why not ??? but i do get annoyed by people who travel slow or have no care for any other driver on the road.

[KPC]

Unfortunately undertaking has become a necessity. I hate it because it is lowering standards, but what else can you do? A flash of the lights used to be enough to get past. No more. More often than not I overtake in the first lane while they are in the third, so as I see it I am in the correct lane and they're off with the fairies with a lane between us, so there's no worries.

As for overtaking being a no no these days.... **** that.

Anyway, moan time. Behind an Escort on the A24. Eventually it turns right through a gap in the central reservation after two flashes of it's indicator. Before this, however, I had to endure over two miles of him doing 55 mph (in a 70 limit) in the outside lane. There were a few places I could have undertaken but he had kids in the rear, it's only a dual carrigeway and there were the odd car on the inside lane. Could easily have been done but... you know. Eventually I finally flipped when he drew level with a car on the inside and spent over half a mile driving along side it. He's purposely peeing me off I think and so l'm getting ready to lose it. Anyway, suddenly he just brakes hard in the outside lane, then indicates, then turns right, not even using the filter lane. Well, I know where that road goes and it's the drive to his house. Watch out for me in future fella. Three miles of carriageway used as a filter. Bet my incident wasn't a one off, drivers must be queuing up. It'll end in tears.

These people make me drive badly. I hate it and I hate them, but patience can only go so far yer know.

[Mike_Wooshy]

Originally Posted by KPC

It'll end in tears.

These people make me drive badly. I hate it and I hate them, but patience can only go so far yer know.

well mate its true 100%. some reason people cant drive nower days, and i dont understand why.

[Spudgun]

What really gets my goat is heading on to Havant Road roundabout off the A27 which takes you on to Hayling Island. Its a double-laner which changes into one lane shortly after the roundabout.

What really p****** me off are people who come tearing up the outside and try and force their way in front of you. These days if anyone tries it I sit on the bumper of the car in front so they are forced to drop back or if there's nothing in front I just put my right foot to the bulkhead.

I remember one day someone tried it in some flash Merc and everyone in the left-hand lane had the same idea. All of us just stuck to our guns and the Merc had to physically stop and wait. It was beautiful.

They don't get where they are going any faster, just one car further up the train of cars.

[KPC]

Similar thing happed on Christmas Day on the M23 northbound just before Gatwick. There's a new Mini Cooper smashed to bits at the front end sitting on the central reservation with police, ambulance and fire engine all there. There's a blue Police Accident sign up about a third of a mile before this and nearer cones filtering traffic into one lane. I have a good old gap to the car in front but see a Merc tearing up the outside lane, so I put my foot down, just a tad but enough. I hate these road to nowhere overtakers who just steal your braking distance and then hold you up on bends and whatnot. Anyway, there's emergency service bods crossing the carriageway anyway and it is my duty to slow this bod down as I see it! Anyway, Merc is coming up fast on the cones with nowhere to go as the cars behind me are also having none of it. The really sad thing was before cutting in he put his hazards on.... ain't that the truth mate. Sometimes I don't think it's entire selfishness but stupidity and the fact that they look no further than the end of their bonnets.

[Mathias]

People who slow down to about 22mph so they can ask directions on their mobile phone and then as a result fail to go through the traffic lights and so hold me up. You know who you are, white van driver person.

[jase]

I am sooooo tempted to get a job as a driving instructor, would even take a drop in salary, just so I can tell the little **** that they should give up and take the bus.

Driving is a privilege, not a right. When people understand that life will be easier for all on the road.

[KPC]

You think our roads are bad, try dodging baggage handling carts on Gatwick airfield. Just been out there, as I very occasionally do, and have a bit of a headache truth be told. No wonder the car is insured for squillions of quids.

[Mathias]

Why is it that, at the moment, every time I am cut up by someone, or someone pulls out in front of me, or someone is driving ridiculously slowly and holding up a long queue of traffic, or someone is unable to park in a reasonable amount of time and holds up a long queue of traffic, or some other blitherlingly irritating thing happens, it is always a bleeming Citroen Xsara Picasso that appears to be to blame?

Have Citroen managed to monopolise the market we all thought was dominated by Volvo? What is it about a bean-shaped people-mover that attracts people who can't drive?

Or is it just me?

[Truckosaurus]

It's because they've got half a dozen screaming kids in the back distracting them

[Bluebottle]

Mathias, are you sure it's not the same one each time?
Trucko, that's not restricted to Citroens- it's far too easy to be distracted by kids, dogs, people, music, coffee, food, phones, wasps, voices in your head etc in any car
The mini mpv's probably attract the sort of people who, for whatever reason, need a proper mpv but don't like the idea of a big car so that would lead to them perhaps being bought by less confident drivers perhaps.

[Craig]

Cos it's a womans car?

[bella]

it's just you - i'm terrorised by polos.

[Craig]

Cos they are kiddies cars...

[Bluebottle]

I've merged this with the old 'driving standards' thread to save you the trouble of typing the same stuff again

[SpawnyWhippet]

I hate tail-gaters. In Australia, no-one leaves any stopping distance between cars regardless of speed. Every time it rains theres a pile of accidents. When I drive, I can almost never see the headlights of the car behind as its so close (and I don't drive slowly if thats what you're thinking!).
We also have enormous quantities of 'road to nowhere' overtakers who will stay in a lane that ends right up until the front bumpers are rubbing the merge cones, then force their way into the queue. I've even seen people pull INTO these lanes 100 metres before they end just to try and pass the car in front of them in the queue.