Road Rage. Biggest Idiot met today!

[wuvvum]

At any junction when you are emerging and an oncoming car is indicating left you're supposed to wait and make sure he does.

Sorry, but that rule is fucking stupid.  It basically means that when you arrive at a roundabout you have to sit there like a twat until there's no traffic coming from any direction, just in case somebody is using their indicator incorrectly.  It's completely unworkable.  Milton Keynes would be at a complete standstill pretty much 24/7.

[pandamonium]

Wouldn't it be amazing if there were a thread designed to talk about the things that make us old men grumpy?

 

I agree with Wuvvum, there needs to be a 'flow' to junctions and roundabouts, where signals are used and observed. However, as many drivers don't know their indicators from their hands-free kits, it doesn't always work out well. My main gripe is the very opposite, when I come to a halt at a junction / roundabout then the person approaching makes a left turn without indicating.

 

I'm learning as I get older that you can't win against certain types of motorist, that they'll never learn and that the only person who loses out is you. So I just try to smile and laugh to myself, and let them get on with it.

 

The worrying thing is though, that the next person affected by their ineptitude/ incompetence may be a little child crossing the road, and if I've just had an 'incident' with them, they may still be pissed off and 'within the red mist' to notice little Johnny stepping off the pavement 200 yards ahead and BANG. My fault.

[Ian Nexus]

I remember getting annoyed with some old lady turning into the road where I live while I was waiting to pull out, until I noticed that she did not actually have an indicator on the front of the car at all. You've got to love the Mississippi state inspection standards    

[Lacquer Peel]

From the thread title preview on the main page.

 

[reanimation-films]

I'm on a gradual path of learning not to react, amazing how hard wired the reaction mechanism is by the time we are grown up. Years ago I learned to chill and just be more vigilant and defensive in the car, same as what you learn as a motorcyclist. It's hard to ignore dangerous or rude twunts, most of the time best policy is to shake it off and keep it cool, of course sometime you react anyway and realise that you didnt change. Next thing I learnt was I was still having bouts of cycle rage in challenging areas of Manchester while pushing a hard fast gear After work. I've shaken that off a little. If you start chilled and happy it helps, which is half the challenge. Also going slower, and cruising along helps. It's not a race so let the dangerous knobs hit another dangerous knob. peace.

[garethj]

What I learnt riding a motorbike in London is that if you're still angry and swearing about what happened in the last 200 yards, that's when you're not concentrating on the next 200 yards and someone else will cut you up.  Possibly with a more serious outcome.

[ProgRocker]

Just had to check it wasn't me being the idiot subject on this thread as I spent a good few hours on the road on Thursday driving back from Luton airport. I must confess to not being a perfect driver but try to be as considerate as I can.

 

I once worked as an employed courier. I had 2 fairly easy routes to do and declined the 'performance related pay' element. The pressure to drive hard everywhere was not on. For the other drivers with 60 to 100 drops a day, plus collections it is no wonder why most drive like idiots. The adrenilyn does kick in doing a job like this, hence the attitude of the Sprinter driver. No excuse for his actions.

 

Not sure how the complaint to the parcel delivery company will go as I suspect the driver is self employed and how he conducts himself on the road is his business. There may be some leverage to give him a dressing down on letting the company name down, however.

[M'coli]

 I used the Horn to make him aware and stop him hitting my car

 

Fair, but people usually react badly to this.  Honestly they do.  Some instructors say they never hit the horn, if there's time to do that then there's time to hit the brakes and steer instead, and a horn just makes things worse.

I can see what you're saying, but the horn warning is there to let other road users know of your presence, and I think it's bollocks that "if there's time to do that then there's time to hit the brakes and steer instead" it's usually in addition to having to brake and steer. 

 

It pisses me off no end that I'm always the one who seems to have to make allowances for other people's lack of skill, arrogance or incompetence.

[Cavcraft]

Defo something in that, Prog. Having done sort of multi-drop work myself for 8 years, the pressure can be enormous to reach your daily target. I was probably the most despised driver on the A5/A483 for quite a while, as I'd happily overtake 5 or 6 trucks in one go in a 7.5 tonner.

 

Mark: I've been lucky so far on the cycles. Only had one issue really where a nervous young driver was behind me and she in turn was being tailgated by some twat in a van who then overtook her as she overtook me, and he and his passenger shouted abuse at her. He was probably some tiny cocked builder who hadn't ripped enough pensioners off that day or something.

[Jikovron]

I commute to work 70 miles a day and try to maintain the minimum amount of stress by leaving gaps in front and trying to anticipate peoples next move which on the m1 can be somewhat difficult when a veritable sausage of traffic coming off the main feeder routes are converging and you have a mixture of the economy drivers wafting down giving themselves time to join and the bmw/audi diesels bee lining for the fast lane back to back queue mostly whipping across the hatched area through a gap and maybe closing eyes for a second untill they have reached their natural habitat

 

in the last 2 years and maybe 36000 miles ive only had the w4nk3r gesture once and maybe 3 headlight flashs which i consider to be probably getting off lightly for each badly misjudged limp engined manouver i'd made

 

imho its like most people are hard wired to easily get tribalisticaly pissed off when in the car and no physical contact person to person is possible,,but then when both parties are in the fuel station kiosk after said event, its all back to normality holding door open for each other, silent queueing, no eye contact like i noted once a year back

 

main problem i find is multi lane roundabouts with traffic lighted pizza sliced sections where the inside lane by rights splits into choice of all the 3 lanes for 3rd and 4th exit and the middle and outer lane go straight ahead or first exit,,the amount of times i have to check to see that no one is using the middle middle to go for the 3rd exit ,,,when techically its straight ahead only from their lane , this was a daily problem when utilising the newcastle coast road in the unipart combo van to the point where i had a patheticly nit picky little roundabout diagram to pop up when someone inevitably had words ...

 

either way its always worth getting there as safely as feasible and by and large enjoying the drive for what it is

[cms206]

Road rage? I drive a multicoloured Volvo estate with accident damage.

 

I've only had once proper road rage incident (about a fortnight ago) when some bellend in a 13 plate Micra switched lanes about 20ft in front of me after they had flashed the bus that was in front of me into a bus stop. I hit the horn, they stood on the brakes in front of me.

 

I handled this by jumping out the sunroof, sitting on the roof and shouting "THINK YOU'RE A CLEVER CUNT, EH?! SEE THESE DENTS? THINK I GIVE A FUCK?!".

 

 

They drove off sharpish. Spoilsports.

[Spiny Norman]

 "SEE THESE DENTS? THINK I GIVE A FUCK?!".

My mate's girlfriend used these exact words quite regularly when WVM tried cutting her up in her battered old Yaris. She was rather an 'ample' lady, and would have got stuck in the meagre opening that was the Yaris sunroof....

 

Maybe it's just me, but I get the impression road rage isn't as much an issue up here as it is in some other places in the UK. You get the occasional blast of the horn and 'thou art an onanist' hand signals, but it's a brave man (or woman) who gets out their car to initiate a stushie with a total stranger round here. There's a very real chance you'd end up with a knife sticking out you if you pick the wrong person.

[RedSparrow]

These things happen to all of us, but as frustrating as it is it's better and safer just to do nothing and move on.

That said I've actually found an ironic big smile and thumbs up will piss off already enraged drivers much more than a middle finger.

[daveb47]

I remember many moons ago when i had an austin j4 van which had a top speed of about 60 mph.

I wa travalling along the Arlesford to Colchester backroad at about 45 mph,its a very windey road and this twat in a farted up mini was 2 foot from my bumper flashing lights and hooting.he eventually overtook when i eased into side of road to let him.

I was pleasantly suprised to find said mini on its side in a ditch about 3 bends further down road.

Not that i hooted and laughed,not me not at all....

Anyway a few weeks later i was going across the Harwich road roundabout in Colchester when same mini seriously cut me up intentionally,2 lads and 3 girls in it,I swore at him and flahed and hooted.

He turned round in his seat and gave a v sign and promptly ran into back of a stationary police car,didnt laugh at all honist.

Later found that not only did he not have any documents but was also banned from driving.

[chaseracer]

Karma... 

[Spiny Norman]

Best bit of road rage karma I ever saw was years ago in Glasgow where a guy had stopped and got out his car to remonstrate with the driver of another car, foolishly leaving the engine running.

The passenger of the car he was heading for jumped out, ran over to his car, got in and did a 6000rpm burnout before driving off in it as his mate also floored it up the road after him, leaving Mr angry standing in the middle of the road.

[warren t claim]

I'm afraid Evil Warren is partial to a bit of road rage, not something I'm proud of.

[ProgRocker]

Best bit of road rage karma I ever saw was years ago in Glasgow where a guy had stopped and got out his car to remonstrate with the driver of another car, foolishly leaving the engine running.

The passenger of the car he was heading for jumped out, ran over to his car, got in and did a 6000rpm burnout before driving off in it as his mate also floored it up the road after him, leaving Mr angry standing in the middle of the road.

I bet that was an interesting insurance claim!

[Spiny Norman]

I don't know if they actually 'stole' it as such, I think they just hoofed off in it and took it up the road a bit. I was going the other direction so I didn't see what happened after that.

LOL'd quite a lot though....

[Lord Sterling]

Sorry to hear about your confrontation Burnside. I think sometimes, as others have said, its best to not let it get to you, but I doknow from much experience that its something much more difficult to practice.

 

Our roads are becoming ever more congested with absolute twats and mindless knob jockeys who think they are something special. Even worse, you get treated often by what car you drive, funny how that doesnt happen when you walk past these arseholes in the street.

 

Almost everytime I go out in the Micra I am on the end of other drivers abuse/bullying. Only today whilst simply taking the Micra for a wash 'n' hoover, I had some middle aged twat in Black Mercedes reversing out of a drive onto a main road, he obviously wasnt sure to proceed so stopped and started, then upon seeing me bumbling along in the Micra, he thought he'd force his way into the road, I reluctantly slowed to a stop and waved him on, as he reversed out he looked at me and shouted 'WHAT' I confronted him with the same question in more 'menacing' way, he just looked and drove off.

 

There was no need for it, a simple small wave would have sufficed, there was no need for trying to pick on me, seems people these days are simply too stupid to realise, a car doesnt represent who someone is.

 

I now know of course where this twat lives/visits....

[Burnside]

Just read through all the comments and stories. Thanks everyone. Wasn't expecting this post to reach 3 pages so quick. Just goes to show how easily and often road rage happens these days. I understand people may be for or against what I said an done but as the saying goes the power of hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

I have previously worked as a Van driver myself and understand the guy was under pressure as they can deliver between 60 -80 drops sometimes more. It doesn't justify to me though the abuse that he gave me. When I caught up with him and said my piece I felt a lot better but if Im honest I didn't sleep too good last night for thinking about it.

 

Now Im thinking what if this guy turns up at my house in the middle of the night. Or if he turns up with a parcel how do I react? Well that's for another day.

 

As someone said judging by the state of his van he is a self employed driver for the two tone postal service that he working for. I doubt it will stop him working for them but the guy I spoke to at there head office did seam genuinely shocked by what he said to me.

 

Hopefully it's the end of the matter and as a lot of people have said the best thing is to let this type of thing go over your head and don't let it spoil your day.

 

An as chaseracer said about daveb47 story. Karma does happen!

[purplebargeken]

There is a particular Astra estate, white with a silvered rear window, 51 plate IIRC. It usually heads along the A10 towards Cheshunt. There have been a couple of times now where this arse void has barrelled along the A10 and has forced me out of the way where 3 lanes go into 2, despite me being in the correct position on the road. If I hadn't swerved out of the way he would have ripped the side of my car off.  I spotted the car the other day, I now know where he works.

 

If I responded to all of the wankplanks around the N9 area I would be hours late for work each day. Each journey is a potential nightmare to be honest.

[warren t claim]

There is a particular Astra estate, white with a silvered rear window, 51 plate IIRC. It usually heads along the A10 towards Cheshunt. There have been a couple of times now where this arse void has barrelled along the A10 and has forced me out of the way where 3 lanes go into 2, despite me being in the correct position on the road. If I hadn't swerved out of the way he would have ripped the side of my car off.  I spotted the car the other day, I now know where he works.

Spread a rumour that he's been spotted exposing himself to kids and daub PAEDO on the Astra. Job Done.

[Junkman]

I'm actually very tolerant towards other motorists, except when they do 38 side by side on a dual carriageway, so I guess I'm more a bully than at the receiving end of one.

 

But whatever they do, they don't do what they do because they intend to deliberately piss you off. They do it because they don't know it any better, don't know what they are doing, have a temporary lapse, well, ask Sigmund Fraud why they do it, but they are basically good people.

So I always try to be a forgiving Christian.

 

However, should any of you not have noticed by now, how you are treated very much depends on the vehicle you drive.

 

When I still was in the yank car restoration business, I naturally visited the States often and brought back with me many a chod.

Enter a black 63 Imperial LeBaron that had a tangle with a Union Pacific Railroad locomotive. The entire nearside was smashed to bits, but the doors still opened/closed and the windows were still going up and down.

Cruising this severly damaged Land-QE-II along European highways gave me a lot of room to breathe, since every road user concluded from a distance that I must be a total lunatic and steered well clear.

Driving my beaten up heap of a brown Rover in Britain unfortunatley does not yield this effect.

[ChinaTom]

Some idiots carry their "travel rage" with them after they parked up. I had a bit of fun in an airport a few days ago with a self important twat (not taking your tie off for a 4 hour plane journey?) who despite having masses of space to stand and wait at the baggage carousel a little further round, decided to barge into the crowd and claim his carbon fibre effect Samsonite at the expense of knocking over some kids and a fairly frail old lady (to the floor!). Quick thinking allowed me to stick my foot out as he tried to reverse back out and he tripped over my foot just as he was totally off balance anyway and crashed to the floor. Further quick thinking as his boarding pass landed a few feet away from him. I decided to help him collect his papers and managed to rip off the baggage claim ticket, which as anyone who has ever been through a Chinese airport will know, is ESSENTIAL if you propose to take the luggage out of the reclaim area and with you to your hotel. Literally everyone who witnessed the incident had a damn good chuckle as he went through his pockets looking for the ticket in front of a Chinese airport security guard who wasn't giving him any grace whatsoever. This was last Friday - I bet he is still in the same pants today.

[dieselnutjob]

1. I caused some road rage yesterday and I thought it was quite funny.

The road outside my house was only one lane wide due to the removal van on the other side and parked cars on my side.

As I was approaching the house there was a car coming the other way, however I calculated that I could easily get to the parking space outside my house before the car coming the other way, so proceeded with my left indicator on making it clear that I was going to park in that space and so the car coming the other way would not have a problem.

The problem is that the silly person following behind me just assumed that nothing was coming the other way and just followed my into the narrow stretch.

So I just parked and got out leaving two cars nose to nose with nowhere to go.

The woman coming the other way was pretty pissed off and did not feel inclined to reverse.

The woman who had been behind me appeared more able to mouth off than reverse.

 

2. I have been warned by a friend who lives in Wembley that if one is driving down Wembley high street and that if the guy in front decides to stop in the middle of the road to chat to one of his mates, thereby blocking the entire road, that, it is probably best to just sit there and not beep or flash or anything, unless one wishes to be stabbed.  Apparently to object to such behaviour in front of ones gangster mates is a lack of "respect" which can only be corrected by a stabbing.  I guess that this will also be true in other areas of London.  I found this warning quite thought provoking.

[chaseracer]

...if the guy in front decides to stop in the middle of the road to chat to one of his mates, thereby blocking the entire road, that, it is probably best to just sit there and not beep or flash or anything, unless one wishes to be stabbed.  Apparently to object to such behaviour in front of ones gangster mates is a lack of "respect" which can only be corrected by a stabbing...

 

RESTEPC: clearly, it only works one way... 

 

[Junkman]

2. I have been warned by a friend who lives in Wembley that if one is driving down Wembley high street and that if the guy in front decides to stop in the middle of the road to chat to one of his mates, thereby blocking the entire road, that, it is probably best to just sit there and not beep or flash or anything, unless one wishes to be stabbed.  Apparently to object to such behaviour in front of ones gangster mates is a lack of "respect" which can only be corrected by a stabbing.  I guess that this will also be true in other areas of London.  I found this warning quite thought provoking.

 

That pretty much depends on the heft of you car and the size of its front bumper, no? Why am I thinking of my 63 Imperial now...

[Jim Bell]

Cyclists.

[chaseracer]

Oh gawd, Barry - you had to throw the C-bomb...!