Insight into the thinkings of the average motorist
Discussion
Can't really believe what's just happened, but feel it's worth a post.
Dropped a friend off at the station. The drop off area is near enough one lane if someone parks inconsiderately, but I'd pulled off to the side to allow a gap for people to come past. Friend takes about 30-40s getting out of the car and goes to the boot to get his bag out. As he does this, a women in her 60s driving a VW Up approaches behind and decides to come past. There's plenty of space.....or so I thought. She proceeds to cut it incredibly fine at a speed that looks like she's largely out of control, and as her wing mirror gets level with my passenger side B pillar it's pretty evident she's going to clout my mirror with hers. So I sound the horn as she clearly hasn't noticed. Instead of stopping, she looks across with the most monumental scowl and mouths something at me, hits my wing mirror and drives off!
Anyway.....fairly surprised by the whole situation, I pull up along side her as she's stopped to get out into the road. Her window's down, so I wind down mine and politely (genuinely politely as it's far more effective in such situations than being angry) say "Erm, excuse me, you've just hit my car and driven off". She responds sarcastically "Oh have I?! I'm so terrible sorry!". I laugh to myself at the absurdity of her response "Well, there's no need to be so sarcastic. There's nothing to be sarcastic about. You've just hit my car and driven off". Angry now she says "Oh go away! It's only a mirror. Go away!". "Excuse me?" I say "Well, there was no need to sound your horn like that. I nearly jumped through the roof. Go away!". At which point she winds her window up and drives off...
There's zero damage, and I know full well how the conversation would go with the police if I reported it (along the lines of: "And you say there's no damage?" etc etc). But it just beggars belief. So completely oblivious to the world around her that not only does she not see that she's about to hit something, but that her first reaction to a car horn when manoeuvring is not to think 'oh, better stop' but is 'who is that a-hole who dares to scare me with his loud horn'.
Anyway...nothing much to do other than to mull over just how idiotic people on the roads are....
Dropped a friend off at the station. The drop off area is near enough one lane if someone parks inconsiderately, but I'd pulled off to the side to allow a gap for people to come past. Friend takes about 30-40s getting out of the car and goes to the boot to get his bag out. As he does this, a women in her 60s driving a VW Up approaches behind and decides to come past. There's plenty of space.....or so I thought. She proceeds to cut it incredibly fine at a speed that looks like she's largely out of control, and as her wing mirror gets level with my passenger side B pillar it's pretty evident she's going to clout my mirror with hers. So I sound the horn as she clearly hasn't noticed. Instead of stopping, she looks across with the most monumental scowl and mouths something at me, hits my wing mirror and drives off!
Anyway.....fairly surprised by the whole situation, I pull up along side her as she's stopped to get out into the road. Her window's down, so I wind down mine and politely (genuinely politely as it's far more effective in such situations than being angry) say "Erm, excuse me, you've just hit my car and driven off". She responds sarcastically "Oh have I?! I'm so terrible sorry!". I laugh to myself at the absurdity of her response "Well, there's no need to be so sarcastic. There's nothing to be sarcastic about. You've just hit my car and driven off". Angry now she says "Oh go away! It's only a mirror. Go away!". "Excuse me?" I say "Well, there was no need to sound your horn like that. I nearly jumped through the roof. Go away!". At which point she winds her window up and drives off...
There's zero damage, and I know full well how the conversation would go with the police if I reported it (along the lines of: "And you say there's no damage?" etc etc). But it just beggars belief. So completely oblivious to the world around her that not only does she not see that she's about to hit something, but that her first reaction to a car horn when manoeuvring is not to think 'oh, better stop' but is 'who is that a-hole who dares to scare me with his loud horn'.
Anyway...nothing much to do other than to mull over just how idiotic people on the roads are....
RacerMike said:
Well quite. I'm sure the ability of the average driver is getting worse. The concept of rights of way, lane discipline and appropriate use of speed are completely lost on the majority.
Lane discipline is voluntary isn't it? Well it is near where live. On a down hill section of a quite wide road with a 30mph limit there is a slight kink in the road for about 50 yards and it seems to throw Cars across the white lines it drives me mad and I just don't understand why it happens as you cant even call it a bend its no more than a "kink".johnxjsc1985 said:
Lane discipline is voluntary isn't it? Well it is near where live. On a down hill section of a quite wide road with a 30mph limit there is a slight kink in the road for about 50 yards and it seems to throw Cars across the white lines it drives me mad and I just don't understand why it happens as you cant even call it a bend its no more than a "kink".
I can't for the life of me remember the source, but I believe the 'average' driver's tolerance of longitudinal and lateral g-force is around 0.3g (about 10mph on a 50m radius corner which is approximately similar to a roundabout). Above this, most people seem to think the car is going to 'spin out' or roll over...Similarly, I believe that something like 70% of drivers don't ever press the brake pedal hard enough to achieve ABS in an emergency situation....
I think the numerous and repetitive anti-cycling threads on this site really gives just the perfect insight into the thinkings of the average motorist. I'd say exactly the same about the anti-hgv threads. They are far fewer nowadays, but when they do come along I think they are perfect in giving us an insight into the thinkings of the average motorist.
What is really depressing is that these threads reveal that the average motorist is in the ascendancy here.
What is really depressing is that these threads reveal that the average motorist is in the ascendancy here.
johnxjsc1985 said:
RacerMike said:
Well quite. I'm sure the ability of the average driver is getting worse. The concept of rights of way, lane discipline and appropriate use of speed are completely lost on the majority.
Lane discipline is voluntary isn't it? Well it is near where live. On a down hill section of a quite wide road with a 30mph limit there is a slight kink in the road for about 50 yards and it seems to throw Cars across the white lines it drives me mad and I just don't understand why it happens as you cant even call it a bend its no more than a "kink".That’s a walk in the park compared to the indiscipline you see on the roundabouts round Southampton though. It’s as though Stevie Wonder is driving a wide load and trying to clip every apex he can on the course. Zero lane discipline and bugger all indication.
I didn’t see as much crap driving when I lived in Swindon (and I’d wager the same for residents of Milton Keynes too) given the amount of roundabouts one has to negotiate to get anywhere in the town. Lane discipline is required there as you won’t stay on the road too long if you can’t take a roundabout right way.
No, even MK is now a mainly numpty driver zone. People stopping at roundabouts despite nothing coming (generally to then lurch into the r/about when someone IS coming!), complete in-ability to follow any lane markings (>>> there's my exit, i'm going STRAIGHT for it.), making sure they are in the right hand land, doing 12mph, on the dual carriageways because they are going to turn right at the next roundabout, despite it being 2 miles away still.
Indicators, mirrors, or any more than the absolute minimum cursory glance at the road, er nope, none of those either. And if you have the temerity to overtake (or more likely undertake) one of these egits, wow, it's like Blackpool illuminations coming on behind you.......
;-)
Indicators, mirrors, or any more than the absolute minimum cursory glance at the road, er nope, none of those either. And if you have the temerity to overtake (or more likely undertake) one of these egits, wow, it's like Blackpool illuminations coming on behind you.......
;-)
Not quite the same, but a while back I had some low life limpet smack wing mirrors with me. I was driving past some parked cars - on their side, but despite that they came on through. That in itself wasn't an issue - I pulled to the left and gave enough room to drive a routemaster through. Well, they were well over and not pulling in - as it became clear they were on a collision course I gave a toot, but they just kept on coming. Then they just drove on as if nothing happened!
After I'd done a 3 pointer, they were nowhere in sight. I wish I knew how to do this:
After I'd done a 3 pointer, they were nowhere in sight. I wish I knew how to do this:
Max_Torque said:
No, even MK is now a mainly numpty driver zone. People stopping at roundabouts despite nothing coming (generally to then lurch into the r/about when someone IS coming!), complete in-ability to follow any lane markings (>>> there's my exit, i'm going STRAIGHT for it.), making sure they are in the right hand land, doing 12mph, on the dual carriageways because they are going to turn right at the next roundabout, despite it being 2 miles away still.
Indicators, mirrors, or any more than the absolute minimum cursory glance at the road, er nope, none of those either. And if you have the temerity to overtake (or more likely undertake) one of these egits, wow, it's like Blackpool illuminations coming on behind you.......
;-)
Cripes, cheers for the heads up. I’ll steer clear!Indicators, mirrors, or any more than the absolute minimum cursory glance at the road, er nope, none of those either. And if you have the temerity to overtake (or more likely undertake) one of these egits, wow, it's like Blackpool illuminations coming on behind you.......
;-)
TR4man said:
AER said:
Hanrahan predicted these turns of events more than a century ago...
Brian?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-iEMUegXSU
There are as always some interesting comments here. Living in the sticks it's not really fair to discuss motorway lane discipline and so on, but as regards other drivers' perception of what goes on and where they are, it can still be pretty perilous. I've a bit of motorcycle experience and my pet theory is that every car driver should learn to ride a bike first, as it will make them think about road surfaces and speed, and remove, one way or another, the apparent concept of "No, I can't see round this bend therefore there's nothing there". I've always tried to drive on the "vanishing point" notion and to try and spot side entrances from farms and so on, think about weather and look as far ahead as possible into the distance even - are there lines of traffic visible, does the road climb or descend? - that way I can make an informed guess as to how traffic is flowing.
I taught both of my children the basics of driving (also taught my wife, sister and sister in law) and in the case of the children the instructors taught them to drive to the speed limit as much as possible and to my mind too close to the vehicle in front. The idea of driving to conditions didn't seem to come in much and we did have a couple of scares and the eventual destruction of "Oil Boy" our Pug 205 when my son hit a 4x4 which braked unexpectedly (i.e. too close).
I'm a long way from perfect and I do make mistakes, but I do try! I agree with the general line of comments though, and I don't think it's just age. People do drive too fast, and the standard of signalling is pretty dire. Another thing I've noticed a lot is how few people have two hands on the wheel and just sort of slouch along. Well worth keeping a distance!
I taught both of my children the basics of driving (also taught my wife, sister and sister in law) and in the case of the children the instructors taught them to drive to the speed limit as much as possible and to my mind too close to the vehicle in front. The idea of driving to conditions didn't seem to come in much and we did have a couple of scares and the eventual destruction of "Oil Boy" our Pug 205 when my son hit a 4x4 which braked unexpectedly (i.e. too close).
I'm a long way from perfect and I do make mistakes, but I do try! I agree with the general line of comments though, and I don't think it's just age. People do drive too fast, and the standard of signalling is pretty dire. Another thing I've noticed a lot is how few people have two hands on the wheel and just sort of slouch along. Well worth keeping a distance!
For most people the following are seen as signs of aggression, when in actual fact they're not:
Using the horn
Overtaking
Driving quickly
They need to stop projecting their own world view onto other people and instead listen and understand things a bit better. If they drove quickly or overtook someone it would be aggressive on their part, which is why they don't do it. They shouldn't then assume when they see someone else driving quickly that they're driving aggressively, that person might be quite relaxed, but just driving a more capable car and/or have a better standard of driving. With the SUV craze now fully in swing, the more capable car issue I mentioned there is certainly prevalent; there are plenty of empty roads with good visibility that I'd drive my modified 3 series down at 60mph where I wouldn't go over 40mph in a big wobbly SUV. People think everything handles, stops and goes like their Hyundai Tucson, that's the problem!
Using the horn
Overtaking
Driving quickly
They need to stop projecting their own world view onto other people and instead listen and understand things a bit better. If they drove quickly or overtook someone it would be aggressive on their part, which is why they don't do it. They shouldn't then assume when they see someone else driving quickly that they're driving aggressively, that person might be quite relaxed, but just driving a more capable car and/or have a better standard of driving. With the SUV craze now fully in swing, the more capable car issue I mentioned there is certainly prevalent; there are plenty of empty roads with good visibility that I'd drive my modified 3 series down at 60mph where I wouldn't go over 40mph in a big wobbly SUV. People think everything handles, stops and goes like their Hyundai Tucson, that's the problem!
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