Idiots driving cars

Sporky

Axe_meister said:

Also why was the directional siren never introduced!

We got a bit stuck on trying to persuade sound waves not to propagate according to the normal laws of physics.

Sporky

Rocker said:

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.

It's whatever speed I'm going, obviously - why would I drive at anything other than the correct speed?

I know you think you can judge these things, but you're not as good at it as me.

Cirrus

Axe_meister said:

Thing is people often panic when they hear a siren and end up doing stupid things.

Yeah,this bugs me. Quite often when driving through Birmingham on the A38 I'll be waiting at the lights in a two/three lane stretch in a queue of maybe 20 cars, and see an ambulance coming up behind. In that situation, quite often the best thing all the cars could do would be to just GO when the light turns green - the quickest way for everyone to get out of the way will be to clear the junction.

Instead, you see everyone start shuffling round, some people trying to get up on the kerb, reversing to make room for other cars to muddle around in the road, break lights everywhere and nobody actually going through the green light and open junction. Takes ten times as long for the ambulance to squeeze by everyone.

Fatfingers

A lot of the problem is down to social engineering. However well intentioned (and whether you think it is or not depends on what kind of conspiracy theory rattles your cage), it's led to people having to think for themselves much less than they used to. New cars have running lights on the front all the time. And since their introduction I've seen a massive increase of people driving around with no lights on in poor visibility conditions. They know their running lights are on but seem to forget they have no rear lights on at all. 20 years ago if you drove around in heavy rain or mist with no lights on, other drivers would flash their lights at you. These days everyone does it.

Raining? Don't worry, your car will switch the wipers on for you. Dark? It'll switch the lights on. 

Most people are inherently lazy. Remove the need to think about lots off things, and they'll stop thinking about most anything.

Throw in the complete lack of personal responsibility that people now have and it's a recipe for disaster.

Axe_meister

Fatfingers said:

A lot of the problem is down to social engineering. However well intentioned (and whether you think it is or not depends on what kind of conspiracy theory rattles your cage), it's led to people having to think for themselves much less than they used to. New cars have running lights on the front all the time. And since their introduction I've seen a massive increase of people driving around with no lights on in poor visibility conditions. They know their running lights are on but seem to forget they have no rear lights on at all. 20 years ago if you drove around in heavy rain or mist with no lights on, other drivers would flash their lights at you. These days everyone does it.

Raining? Don't worry, your car will switch the wipers on for you. Dark? It'll switch the lights on. 

Most people are inherently lazy. Remove the need to think about lots off things, and they'll stop thinking about most anything.

Throw in the complete lack of personal responsibility that people now have and it's a recipe for disaster.

Actually that is what bugs me about new cars. The dash lights are always on, and if in the dark the driving lights give enough illumination to fool you into thinking your headlights are on. Add that to having lights that go on automatically (but the other half managed to switch that off), and due to the bloody placement of the highlight LED (i.e. just behind the steering wheel), the likely hood of headlights not being switched on increases.

Best way to reduce accidents and decrease speed. Have a big metal spike coming out of the steering wheel.

Fatfingers

I also think it links in to the lack of responsibility thing though. My Dad punctuated my childhood with 'the word doesn't owe you a living,' and other pearls. The sense of entitlement that many people have today is frightening. Don't get me wrong - I'm no rabid right-winger. I think people are entitled to a decent education, decent healthcare etc. But I also think they need to take responsibility for their actions. 

The litigious culture where the immediate reaction of pope after something goes wrong is to look for someone else to blame, doesn't help.

KKJale

Here's my favourite car-driving idiot of the week.

twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/­740270776545202176

mgaw

sometimes i like to drive into the local village with me eyes shut

stickyfiddle

KKJale said:

Here's my favourite car-driving idiot of the week.

twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/­740270776545202176

As the pavement stayed level while the road descends there, I do actually have a little sympathy for that chap - presumably didn't know how steeply down the road goes there. Still a numpty thing to do, but not a complete moron.

ICBM

slacker said:

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?

Middle lane driving is entirely normal in Glasgow, and overtaking on the inside doesn't bother the locals. I think it may be partly because some of the junctions in the city centre are a bit odd with lanes joining and separating from the outside lane rather than the inside, so driving consistently in one lane can make more sense that trying to get over to the left and back. Although they still do it where there are no outside-lane junctions for miles.

Just one of the little regional quirks. And different from around Edinburgh of course .

stimpsonslostson

After nearly getting totalled by a guy texting as he drove last week I've been conducting a wee experiment: I've been counting the number of phone users I see on my way to and from work this week.

I've done 5miles each way, around 8 and then back at 5 each day. I merely counted the number of times I saw someone in the drivers seat with a phone in their hand (regardless of whether they were in stationary traffic or moving). 

On average I see 5-6 each time I go out. Over the week this even included 3 busses 2 HGVs and several taxis- for some reason I apparently feel that professional drivers should behave better (don't know why- I've been hit by a car and it hurt just the same as being hit by a taxi).

I'm not saying I behave perfectly on the roads, but it's such an obviously dangerous thing.

Troy

30 motorists were caught in three hours in Norwich recently:

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/crime/30_motorists_caught_using_mobile_phones_in_norwich_in_just_three_hours_1_4548561

Sporky

KKJale said:

Here's my favourite car-driving idiot of the week.

twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/­740270776545202176

I think he might have flooded the engine.

Mkjackary

On my motorcycle I can't hear anything over 40mph due to wind noise, so I put my in ear headphones in, they act as ear plugs to stop the wind noise and I also play a bit of music along with having Google maps tell me directions "in a quater of a mile at the round about take the 2nd exit".

I driving certain roads is quite boring, listening to music stops my boredom and in turn means I am less likley to do stupid shit like speed, or overtake/filter when I don't need to.

DanR

KKJale;1104754" said:

Here's my favourite car-driving idiot of the week.

twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/­740270776545202176

Seeing as it was a Zafira maybe the dash had set on fire and it was quick thinking.

fields5069

Sporky said:

Rocker said:

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.

It's whatever speed I'm going, obviously - why would I drive at anything other than the correct speed?

I know you think you can judge these things, but you're not as good at it as me.

It's funny because it's true. Plus it's not the road layout / car stability / temperature which dictate "appropriate" speed, it's everything you're not expecting. It's every random granny-in-a-500, loose dog, reckless child, etc.

Sporky

Exactly. A lot of people think they're great at driving. Confirmation bias tells me I am.

Moominpapa

Is it just me being an out of tough old fart or are drivers becoming increasingly incapable of doing the right and sensible thing when emergency vehicles are approaching? When I learned to drive (1970s) the rule was that if you heard a siren behind or in front of you you signalled that you were pulling over to the kerb, and you slowed down and pulled over to the kerb thus clearing the lanes for the emergency vehicle. Obviously if you were in traffic lights, you moved through when safe and then pulled over.And everybody did it - as soon as people heard the siren or saw flashing lights they pulled over.

But these days I see people barely slowing down, let alone moving out of the way. They may grudgingly pullover when the emergency vehicle is right behind them, horns and siren blasting, but it's clear they don't think it's their responsibility to make space for them. The other day, when everyone was stopped at a t-junction with traffic lights because an ambulance was screaming down the hill with everything going, I saw a woman decide to make a right turn slowly  through the lights TO GO IN FRONT OF THE AMBULANCE! I couldn't believe it. I was calling her every name under the sun just to relieve my stress at the stupidity i had just witnessed, Fortunately the ambulance driver, obviously knowing what to expect from today's drivers, coped with it well, but what kind of driving instruction are people getting these days that they don't know to give emergency vehicles all the space possible?

Sambostar

It's the fact that modern cars are well insulated and they don't use their mirrors and because there is always so much traffic many are opportunistic wankers.  Even in my Transit with the Di roaring I am aware of emergency services, but then I have good ears and check my mirrors all the time.  I indicate and pull over and fucking idiots start overtaking me, probably because they think I have broken down or am stopping on the kerb, thus completely blocking the two or three lanes at the junction of a roundabout queue with traffic lights.  People are so stupid, unaware and ignorant on the roads it's just unfunny.  That isn't even accounting for the vast numbers of sociopaths who think their time is worth more than someone's life.

Sambostar

And yesterday some wanker overtook me at 40 whilst I was waiting for an oncoming car whilst signalling right to turn right to the timber yard in a 30 zone.  I can only imagine it's because they have no control over their lives in real life, so driving is their only last bastion to express themselves as the idiots that they are.

There were that many people doing 45 in the 30 zone yesterday, that many people in single file traffic queues shouting wanker and beeping their horns, that many people flashing their lights.  The thing that really fucks me off is people tailgating and overtaking when you are doing 33 in a 30 zone, or 44 in a 40 zone.  That is like a red flag to a bull.

I must admit though, I do quite enjoy doing 55 on an A road, it's my speed limit anyway and the Transit can't go any faster, I enjoy it because no one tailgates me because of all the green waste shite flying off the back of the tipper tray.  Ha Ha.