Idiots driving cars

jonnyburgo

octatonic said:

jonnyburgo said:

My bro n laws mate got killed on his bike on tuesday, by all accounts a driver on the other side of the road overtook, hit him head on. Wife and 3 kids left with nothing.

Sorry to hear it, Jonny.

That is terrible.

Bicycle actually Oct, I didnt know him myself but bro in law was out on a ride with him on Sunday morning, he was a fellow teacher mate of his, awful mess and totally pointless, just so someone can get one car in front.

rhinofeet

I live in Shanghai, it is normal to buses and trucks go through red lights because the driver is watching tv on their phone and hasn't noticed. It is a terrifying place to be a pedestrian, especially at night when all the electric bikes go flying down both sides of road and pavement with no headlights.

PC_Dave

jonnyburgo;1104410" said:

octatonic said:



jonnyburgo said:

My bro n laws mate got killed on his bike on tuesday, by all accounts a driver on the other side of the road overtook, hit him head on. Wife and 3 kids left with nothing.





Sorry to hear it, Jonny.That is terrible.





Bicycle actually Oct, I didnt know him myself but bro in law was out on a ride with him on Sunday morning, he was a fellow teacher mate of his, awful mess and totally pointless, just so someone can get one car in front.

That's just it, isn't it - people are impatient and think they deserve to be one car in front. I got overtaken in a 30 zone by a guy who was driving like a right twat, but there was so much traffic he just ended up sat in front of me! Did it really help his journey?! Thing is, you're in a residential area, speeding, and driving on the wrong side of the road.....

Sporky

Like everyone else I am the greatest driver in this thread, and remember every third party's transgression while forgetting my own mistakes.

octatonic

Sporky said:

Like everyone else I am the greatest driver in this thread, and remember every third party's transgression while forgetting my own mistakes.

Get out of my way.

MrBump

fretmeister said:

Everyone of them thinks it won't happen to them.

They are often wrong.

Absolutely this.  For all we moan about other drivers (and I do) we're all prone to thinking that we're slightly better/more in control than the rest.  It pays to be critical of ourselves also.  I'm always tutting to myself about other drivers (and there are some shit drivers in Essex..). and how youngsters today don't have any concept of stopping distances or how to overtake a bicycle, but I'm also aware that I have an arrogant streak that stops me looking at how shit I can be too.

spark240

Most of the people I see seem to be in very new cars....irony is they probably all have hands free built in? 

MatthewShreddery

Idiots everywhere. I swear that if everyone on the road started driving with more consideration for the bigger picture, ie not simply trying to get yourself to your destination the quickest, then the roads would be a lot safer, a lot smoother (traffic wise) and a lot less stressful.

Sporky

octatonic said:

Sporky said:

Like everyone else I am the greatest driver in this thread, and remember every third party's transgression while forgetting my own mistakes.

Get out of my way.

If you think I'm in your way you're clearly driving too fast, because I am driving at the correct speed.

If you are in my way you are clearly driving too slow, because I am driving at the correct speed.

This shouldn't be hard to grasp - it's what everyone thinks, it's just that only I have the correct frame of reference. Me.

fields5069

Adam_MD said:

I almost hit a police car head on this afternoon coming home. They were overtaking a van while going round a bend which put them in my lane and directly in front of me as I came round the same bend from the other direction.

They had their lights on but no siren. I appreciate they were responding to something but there's no point ending up in hospital or dead on their way to a call.

I saw a police car, one of the BMW X-series, come storming up our road, must have been doing 50 or 60 in a 30. Lights on, siren blaring, but with cars irregularly parked either side of the road, how in the heel could he be sure he wouldn't hit someone? I don't care how many courses he'd been on, he couldn't have reacted if someone had stepped out from behind a parked car.

slacker

That's a valid point, it's everyone else. There's two type of idiotic driver, oblivious and impatient. If Im honest I'm the latter. However as someone who does a lot of motorway driving I get to observe drivers over a long distance. 

It's the 'me' factor that causes problems. I was driving down south on the M25 on the four lane section near the M4. The traffic was flowing nicely (I know, it was evening) and then suddenly slowed right down. The cause was a guy in the 3rd lane (other two were free) doing 50 eating a sandwich. He was in his own little world where everything was great, unaware of a half a mile congestion behind him. 

I was driving from Glasgow. The motorway was empty. Im in the inside lane doing 80 no it was 70 and there's this guy in a range rover in the middle lane doing about 60. There's no one on the road, who are you overtaking?

crunchman

When I was cycling to work this morning I got overtaken (by someone in a German car) who cut right in and forced an artic lorry coming the other way to brake.

The stupid thing with drivers like that is that in London I'll just catch them up and overtake them again at the roundabout at the end of that road.

A couple of hundred metres up the road someone pulled out of a junction in front of oncoming traffic.

In some ways anyone can make a mistake and not see someone but when someone does something systematically stupid that winds me up.  One of the worst ones I've seen was a woman who let her son out of the car in the middle of the road.  To get out he opened the door straight into a cycle lane on the inside.

PC_Dave

fields5069;1104550" said:

Adam_MD said:

I almost hit a police car head on this afternoon coming home. They were overtaking a van while going round a bend which put them in my lane and directly in front of me as I came round the same bend from the other direction.



They had their lights on but no siren. I appreciate they were responding to something but there's no point ending up in hospital or dead on their way to a call.





I saw a police car, one of the BMW X-series, come storming up our road, must have been doing 50 or 60 in a 30. Lights on, siren blaring, but with cars irregularly parked either side of the road, how in the heel could he be sure he wouldn't hit someone? I don't care how many courses he'd been on, he couldn't have reacted if someone had stepped out from behind a parked car.

It's a calculated risk, and one they don't take lightly. It all depends on the type of shout they are responding to as well. If it's blues and two's and they are driving like that then it's a sure fire shit situation they will be attending.

mellowsun

fretmeister;1104222" said:

Everyone of them thinks it won't happen to them.

They are often wrong.

Most don't care because they know that they are likely only to kill someone else - a cyclist, pedestrian or motorcyclist - rather than themselves.

And the penalties are a joke, maybe a 2 year driving ban and a suspended sentence for causing death by dangerous driving (normally downgraded to a charge of driving without due care and attention)

MatthewShreddery

Don't know about you, but when I hear an emergency vehicle siren there is no way I'm stepping out into the road until I'm absolutely sure it's safe to do so

slacker

I cant tell where the moder sirens are or the directions. With the old nee nahs you could tell location and direction from the Doppler effect. 

I was in the outside lane of the motorway overtaking a line of cars when I heard the siren. I thought it was in front but no he was right up my arse lights, and sirens (oh the embarresment)  I had nowhere to go so I floored it and tried to get in the middle lane. Twat in a BMW wouldnt let me in (really?). So I dropped in behind me and the police car started to accelerate. Twatty used this opportunity to go into the outside lane cutting up the jam sandwich. I think the only reason he wasnt arrested was that the police had somewhere else to be. 

Axe_meister

Thing is people often panic when they hear a siren and end up doing stupid things.
Also why was the directional siren never introduced!

Troy

They have a choice of different sirens nowadays so if more then one police car is going to the call they all use different ones so people know that its not just one police car and to look out for the other one/s.

Axe_meister

If I remember correctly it was a standard siren interspersed with white noise making it more directional

Rocker

What is the correct speed to drive @Sporky? The speed limit? Or I am in the way if I use my judgement of driving speed.