Couldn't be your driving could it?

 

I say the same to the other half.
She's always telling me about crazy other drivers she comes across.
Funnily, I very rarely see any.....

 

There really is some terrible drivers out there. Thought of an in car camera?

 

I totally agree sometimes i genuinely wonder how some people passed their driving test, theres a junction near me that goes onto a 60 people just drive out into the road and THEN look or dont look at all
I drive this route regularly and i have literally have to overtake a few times or I would go straight in the back of them, people seem to have a terrible perception of speed these days, what really

me off though is people who pull out on you and then have absolutely no urgency to speed up when theres a whacking great gap if they had waited till you pass

 

I walk or bike to work daily and the journey takes me around 2.5miles across town - some of the really dopy things I come across do scare me. I do think there would be merit in having to re-sit a compressed driving test every some many years for some people and requiring additional training if standards aren't met. Also think it is a great shame that when people get caught speeding / cause accidents they're not retrained. I know they have awareness courses but my understanding is they're not exactly a test that can be failed.

The more I look the less I want to see on some days, esp the dumb risks people seem to take to jump the railway level crossing I have to pass.

Only today I saw a clap of wing mirrors. Some plonker in a clapped out fiat brava took 3 stabs at pulling out of a junction because he wasn't looking or concentrating. on the 3rd go as he finally decided to commit to his mavouver, he hadn't bothered to check his exit was clear, a car coming the otherway was passing a parked car, this plank wondered out and had to the swerve immediately out the way of the oncoming car.

Then 5 minutes later down the road, a silver 4x4 gets half way passed overtaking me (on my pushbike), then stops and flashes a car waiting to turn across the road, essentially asking them to wipe me out and its not like he can't have seen me as he started to go around me.

people are stupid - you've gotta expect them to do stupid things I suppose!

 

I know how the OP feels im constantly frustrated at other peoples driving but im having a day with Martin (azionamento) in a couple of weeks to see how i can make my own driving better. Its easy to say everyone else are

drivers and keep thinking you are not doing anything wrong.

 

The thing is i see other peoples errors and bad driving,so how can that make me the bad driver?
If i didnt see the way they drive or to a certain extent anticipate thier errors as they are making them then clearly i would be lacking in driving skills as its the people who see nothing wrong who cant see the problem before its too late.

Also how could i bring on myself a woman reading "litrature" at the wheel, you really cant say that i did?!

 

Steve - I know what you mean but just think of a driver (not you) who drives at an inappropriate speed, doesn't leave a sensible gap to the vehicle in front, leaves braking late, accelerates hard in traffic...none of these might be illegal or even 'dodgy' driving (to some) but may result in them having lots of near misses with other vehicles. Who's to blame?

I'm not saying you are doing any of these things but how do you know you aren't making things worse for yourself?

Conversely a really good driver, who makes lots of space around them, drives at an appropriate speed, has excellent awareness and anticipation might just seem to be 'lucky' to others.

(As the legendary golfer, Gary Palmer once said (I'm not into golf!) when asked by a reporter how come he was so lucky on the course: "The more I practice, the luckier I seem to get")

 

I always leave space around me, this is part of the problem as the other drivers see the space and pull out in to it, now whilst theres enough space for me to brake comfortably, as i drive like Miss Daisy, the space might not be always enough to get the other car in to, as im sure you'll know.

Thats it i shouldnt leave enough space, then i cant be at fault, my god thats where ive been going wrong!?

 

I think everyone picks up bad habits after they've passed their test, and people don't notice that they do it, it just becomes routine whether it's good or bad.

There is a simple way to help you out..........................get a bit of advanced driver training, because at the end of the day the "bad drivers" won't give a toss about their driving. You may also learn something that you do which contributes to the situations you've been ending up in.

 

OMG im not the

one that needs help in this picture lol its the people who pull out,dont bother to use indicators,scream up behind because i have a quick car and they want a race, the people who drive 2/3's over the white line almost in the lane i occupy, the people who,as said read whist driving, the bus that decided she wanted to take up two lanes...is anyone seeing this yet or are you all blinkered ??

I see these issues yet in the main you people think im the one who could be the one at fault?

Tell you what come to Coventry or Leicester and you guys drive around in the rush hour traffic see how you all get on.

 

You just need to drive for everybody else, very frustrating but no one seems to have commonsense these days

 

You got that right mate.

 

Sorry Steve but I drive around 20,000 miles per year on all sorts of roads and no, I don't see as many examples as you seem to. I've very rarely had any problem with others taking the space I leave...even on lane 3 on the M25.

The last one I remember was in queing traffic in Bristol city centre - I was in a long stop/startqueue up to traffic lights. I tend to let the gap open up so i can keep moving but I noticed the driver behind driving very close to me, talking to herself and banging her steering wheel. As soon as she could, she overtook me to take the space in front and tailgate again. It was so ridiculous I laughed and opened up the gap once again. To be honest I'd much prefer a driver like that to be in front where I can control the safety of me and my precious ST.

I can't imagine the drivers around you are any differect to the ones I meet everyday - most are actually OK with a few numpties sprinkled in but I treat them as a challenge and don't let them get to me.

Keep chilled.

 

More chilled than a Penguin right testicle matey

 

It sounds like it's getting to you too much. This is probably where some instruction could help you out. There's nothing wrong with your skills you need to find some coping strategies to deal with what other road users do.

When I started driving I'd find others would get to me a bit. I've learnt over 15 years to chillax at the wheel:

I think you can almost pick the numpties on the road. They're not looking where they should be on a roundabout.
They are pulled out too far or not enough at junctions.
etc. I think there's lots of subconcious clues out there.

I've never done an advanced driving course although I probably should so I can find out what bad habits I have and improve on my perceptions of others.

The biggest thing I do struggle with is where can I safely enjoy the performance of the ST on today's roads? I love the noise and a quick dash up to speed on main roads and motorways etc. But most of the time the ST feels very much within itself on A roads and B roads, I could drive much faster, the car and my skills will keep me on the road, what they won't do is deal with the cyclist or horse rider you can't see round the next bend. I honestly think to progress my car control etc. I need to go for a trackday.

The recent snow flurries I actually found a lot of fun because it gives me a chance to slide the car a bit at safe'ish speeds - I'd never dare slide the ST on the road normally - and made me think carefully about braking, steering and throttle inputs.

 

...I could drive much faster, the car and my skills will keep me on the road, what they won't do is deal with the cyclist or horse rider you can't see round the next bend. I honestly think to progress my car control etc. I need to go for a trackday.

Experience gained from trackdays has limited usefulness on the road, I would suggest. Observation, anticipation, smoothness are more important than being able to handle your ST at (or beyond) the limit of grip...you shouldn't be anyway near that on the road. Being able to correct a slide is great but you'd probably run out of space on the road and hit a kerb, tree or worse, an oncoming vehicle, before your you can demonstrate your 'Schumacher-like' skill.

 

depends where u live and at what times ur regularly drive

 

totally agree their are some right useless drivers out there .have the same myself.people pulling out not indicating .pedestrians are just as bad,had a pedestrian crossing at lights when i had green light told him to wait until they went red he just said

.very frustrating

 

I love how your driving skill level is being questioned, I'd say your driving is very good if you managed to avoid these accidents providing it was no fault of your own which I'm guessing its not.

 

We're asking questions because the OP seems to encounter far more 'bad drivers' than we do.

 

Unfortunately you cant teach people common sense and the are an awful lot of people these days that simply don't have any

Everyone wants to get where there going far to quickly and don't plan for any interruptions to there journey and then there lack of patients leads to accidents and unnessasarry risk taking

Only yesterday a driver at my garage had a wvm pull straight across in front of his double decker on a very busy road and this time the outcome was very bad, the bus hit him full side on and tipped his van over!!! All because he hadn't read the road properly and was impatient

 

I can see both sides of the argument here and yes, I appreciate the point being made that a person's driving style might lead them into more than average 'near-miss' situations. I commute roughly 25 miles each day to work on a busy, single lane A road that is used by a lot of HGVs that use it as a rat run rather than going on the longer by-pass and I constantly see examples of poor driving skills. A good example would be this morning, where I lost count of the amount of people driving in thick fog either with side lights on or no lights on at all. OK, a minor thing but important all the same. I also see an awful lot of tailgating that I have noticed seems to have increased in recent years (I have been driving since circa 1997 so long enough to notice trends). On a road with slow moving HGVS, you see it an awful lot - cars bunch up behind the slower vehicles, don;t leave enough of a gap and end up treading on the brake pedal every 5 seconds as they get too close and can't seem to judge distance/speed. Again, fairly minor but the sort of thing that leads to accidents.

Thing is, the plural of anecdote is not data and I'm sure driving standards vary from different parts of the country to the other. Maybe the OP lives in an area where standards are particularly poor? Who knows.

 

don;t leave enough of a gap and end up treading on the brake pedal every 5 seconds as they get too close and can't seem to judge distance/speed. Again, fairly minor but the sort of thing that leads to accidents.

I always have a smirk on the way home, about 5 miles of the A1 dual carriageway to get home, the only time I have to touch the brake is when coming off the exit slip road. While everyone ahead tries their best to form a Christmas tree flashing all of their brake lights every 10 seconds

 

Are you in the South?

 

My nan terrifies me with her driving and once told me a story about how many incidents she see's in her rear view mirror, funnily enough she did not take it too well when I said perhaps she is the cause of all the things she see behind her.

 

Ok,another one for you to say it was my fault.

This morning at 05.15am yes there is another 5.15 opposed to the one found in the afternoon, a driver decided it was best for him to instead of going round the mini round-about,but not go over the top of it where you might be forgiven for bad judgement, but to cut across the wrong side of it, thus heading towards me on the wrong side of the road,where because i always leave space and dont drive that fast i braked and stopped dead untill he had gone past,not too bad on the whole but made a lot worse by him doing maybe 40mph-ish.

My fault again no doubt due to my bad driving skills??

 

Steve - I'm not saying all the incidents are your fault...all I and some others here are saying is: you seem to suffer more driving incidents than us. Now that's either as a result of your driving style or perhaps you are more sensitive to other's poor driving?

If you don't accept that, what's your explanation?

 

Too many rsholes on the road

And I'm not sensitive to others driving simply too many retards trying to do things that simply aren't safe and putting others in a position where you have to notice their bad driving else it could affect you in an expensive way.

 

Very interesting reading, I can see both sides. I feel I let other people's driving get to me, I drive into work at 5.30am and it like eat or be eaten. My drive starts in town moving to a 50 speed limit, I often check out the car behind me in town for tail gating and jumping red lights behind me, if so I'll keep my speed down when I get to the 50 limit and encourage them to overtake but it's amazing how many people just want to sit 2 meters off my back bumper. I've had to actually stop some times and let them past because I can't concentrate, by this stage I'm spitting fire and end up giving them a short dose of tail gating which I know is madness on my part. I always leave a big gap to the car in front and read the road far in the distance. I do agree with the op on people pulling out causing you to brake hard, I always give a long horn press and a stare if overtaking them. Seems after typing this out I need to do yoga or something to chillax a bit more.

P.S. I can remember seeing on telly an old guy on why they often pull out at the last minute, its because as you get older you brain still works at the same speed as when you were young but the rest of your body slows right down. After this, its made me a little more forgiving of the old people.

 

...giving them a short dose of tail gating which I know is madness on my part. I always leave a big gap to the car in front...

It's tempting to get really wound up with others driving...but it really isn't worth affecting YOUR safety or your car, to get your own back. Don't know about you but I'd feel a right knob if I damaged my ST trying to make a point in the heat of the moment. Take the 'moral high-ground', pull back and drive really well instead, safe in the knowledge they will get their dues sooner or later...karma and all that!

 

Martin your right, its not worth it.

 

My main enemies on the road are airborne radar guided stones,you hear them but never see them,clever *******!

 

i travel cov leicester bristol s wales brum man etc etc
lorry driver
and i dont see or have many near misses
you should take more notice of your own drive insted of other ppl,

 

If your saying its the OP's driving that needs to change and it his driving thats not up to scratch then why is it NOT possible that it could be the other persons driving that is bad makes no sense.
Your post isn't constructive in any way

I think the best solution is just to try and forsee the worst out of every situation when I'm coming upto the junction i spoke about previously I slow down because i know what's going to happen. I think the best way to avoid these situations is to look at other drivers unfortunately as unskilled drivers which they might not be at all but if you do you will find although people do stupid things like pull out on you in the outside lane you will be prepared for it and it won't surprise you making you angry

 

do shift work and go to work when everyone else is asleep, tends to help when i have the whole motorway to myself

on the serious note, there's nothing you can do about bad drivers apart from keep away from them especially when you have much more to lose. the fact that people can drive here and not even know what some road signs mean is ridiculous but hey we don't run the country.

if someone annoyed you, don't follow them and you will forget about it within about 60 seconds. you'll never see them again anyway so what's the point in raising your blood pressure, unless of course it's your next door neighbour.