How many idiots on the road have you experienced this week?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
41

Had a confrontation with some right tool on the M6 northbound near Tebay last night, I was in lane 1 plodding along just starting the climb up towards Shap, some clown overtook me really slowly in lane 2 and finally moved into lane 1 after a nice bit of middle lane hogging for a few minutes. He then started to slow down, so I moved over into lane 2 to overtake (why overtake in the first place if you intend to start to slow down after overtaking!?) and as I got parallel with him he predictably accelerated very slightly, leaving me stranded in lane 2 (my van’s limited to 62) for about 30 seconds. Then all of a sudden he decides to put his foot down. So I moved back into lane 1 and gave him a nice long flash to show my general displeasure at his inept driving and lack of awareness and he decides to SLAM ON his brakes, forcing me to overtake again. He then proceeded to driver right up my arse with his full beam on for about a minute before overtaking again and heading into the distance. These sorts of occurrences happen to me at least twice a week.

Can someone please also tell me why car drivers just love to floor it and squeeze in front of you into the most ridiculously-small gap as you are about 50 yards from the motorway going down down to 1 lane for roadworks? We’ve all been there, the countdown starts 800 yards, 600 yards, 400, 200, virtually down to 1 lane and some clown undertakes and almost takes the nearside front corner of your vehicle off to nip into an impossibly-small space, despite miles of wagons and 1 lane ahead.

42

Sprinter Si:
So I moved back into lane 1 and gave him a nice long flash to show my general displeasure at his inept driving and lack of awareness and he decides to SLAM ON his brakes…

Sprinter Si:
These sorts of occurrences happen to me at least twice a week.

Do us a favour van driver; dont ever go for your HGV licence, we’ve enough cabbages already.

43

Contraflow:

Sprinter Si:
So I moved back into lane 1 and gave him a nice long flash to show my general displeasure at his inept driving and lack of awareness and he decides to SLAM ON his brakes…

Sprinter Si:
These sorts of occurrences happen to me at least twice a week.

Do us a favour van driver; dont ever go for your HGV licence, we’ve enough cabbages already.

No good anyone go for a HGV licence, its LGV licence these days, and a lot of van drivers have been artic and rigid HGV/LGV drivers at one time. :stuck_out_tongue:

44

Tris:
3 days running now. Tuesday - foreign truck driver pulls out of a layby in front of me forcing me to swerve and brake.

No big deal foreign trucks have steering wheel on the otherside so will often do strange things… top tip be wary of foreign registered vehicles and help them out where-ever possible, saves the paperwork hassle.

Wednesday - got overtaken by a jag on a solid white line who then had to swerve in front of me as a car was coming the other way forcing me brake hard.

Yep cars with their incredible acceleration will do strange things, bear in mind the restrictions in place (solid white lines etc) are not understood by your average car driver, top tip expect this and ease off early to save on the hassle, not to mention paperwork.

Today [zb] in a white Audi undertakes me as I’m using the fast lane on the M1 to overtake a wide load and want to pull back into lane 2 after.

Perhaps you left too much room, top tip straddle the fast lane (as you call it) and in doing so you will give the wide load enough room if they should need to move over a bit due to an unforeseen obstacle on the hard shoulder and also stops cars undertaking. By leaving the door wide open you are inviting this situation to occur.

That’s without mentioning the 90% of drivers that don’t signal on roundabouts and if they do only signal right on entry and leave it on as they exit left. The police need to start enforcing lack of signalling/incorrect signalling with penalty points it’s got that bad nowadays. :imp:

No they don’t, cars move so fast round a roundabout that its sometimes pointless in them indicating, we can make a best guess judgement on which exit they are going for and maintain progress accordingly, we can also ■■■■ things up by pulling onto a roundabout too early and cutting someone up, if this happens raise your hand to your side window to apologize and crack on.

When you gain some experience you will take all this in your stride, for us its about the journey and protecting other road users from themselves, yes to the novice its annoying but take the emotion out of your driving style and realise that even though its a war out there we are all on the same side…

45

Yep,it would be great to hold your line to prove em wrong but that paperwork lasts an awful long time afterwards.

46

Sprinter Si:
Had a confrontation …So I moved back into lane 1 and gave him a nice long flash to show my general displeasure at his inept driving and lack of awareness and he decides to SLAM ON his brakes, forcing me to overtake again. He then proceeded to driver right up my arse with his full beam on for about a minute before overtaking again and heading into the distance. These sorts of occurrences happen to me at least twice a week.

They happen because you are a crap driver, flashes of headlights are not to show your displeasure they are to show your prescence i.e. dark country lane etc. So you happen upon a driver who you didn’t agree with, fair do’s we all get annoyed but its how you react thats the difference between a vocational driver and your average A-B’er who just doesn’t quite grasp the finer points of the highway code.

Can someone please also tell me why car drivers just love to floor it and squeeze in front of you into the most ridiculously-small gap as you are about 50 yards from the motorway going down down to 1 lane for roadworks? We’ve all been there, the countdown starts 800 yards, 600 yards, 400, 200, virtually down to 1 lane and some clown undertakes and almost takes the nearside front corner of your vehicle off to nip into an impossibly-small space, despite miles of wagons and 1 lane ahead.

They do it because they are faster than you, they see you as an obsticle they must pass, yes we know its daft but we also know its going to happen as it has happened many times before.
A driver of a small fast vehicle will see the countdowns as a challenge as opposed to a larger vehicle that needs to prepare earlier for the event, don’t get me wrong in the days of unrestricted HGV’s we could crack on regardless, but now we have to prepare earlier, so what if I’m undertaken by a fast car, I don’t care - all that matters is that I am in the right lane for what is about to unfold, if I need to adjust my speed to assist a car who’s left it too late then i will. The reason behind this is because I am still making progress but I would make no progress at all if I gave it the bigun and caused a predictable collision to try and stop a car getting through.

47

Dipper_Dave:
[if I need to adjust my speed to assist a car who’s left it too late then i will. The reason behind this is because I am still making progress but I would make no progress at all if I gave it the bigun and caused a predictable collision to try and stop a car getting through.

Like all your post especially the above bit :wink: crack on driver :sunglasses:

48

Right barrel of self-righteous laughs you lot are, so you’re honestly telling me you’ve never flashed a driver who thinks it’s fun to pull in front of you, slow down forcing you to overtake, then speed up again because that’s obviously how they get their kicks? And flashing said drivers make me ‘crap’?

Where in the Highway Code does it state that we should all flash HGV drivers back in once they’ve overtaken us? Nowhere, but I do it out of courtesy and it has evolved into good etiquette. Car drivers causing me to move into the middle lane because they have no bloody clue what’s going on around them is just bad driving and if I wish to flash them to show my displeasure then I will continue to do so in the hope that said car driver might wake up and hopefully not do it again to both myself and wagon drivers.

And over 1,000,000 (that’s a million for those of you that are ‘crap’ at maths) miles of driving in twelve years without so much as a hint of an accident or bump would suggest I’m not a ‘crap’ driver otherwise I think I’d have been found out by now.

49

I’ve had car drivers who’ve panicked when I’ve tried to over take them so they speed up then slow down then speed up then slow down. That ticks me off and you’ll get a blast of the horn. Going down the M62 in the roadworks I had a BMW driver riding the white line so close to my offside. A quick horn tap and his car snapped back to the middle of his lane.

50

Radar19:
I’ve had car drivers who’ve panicked when I’ve tried to over take them so they speed up then slow down then speed up then slow down. That ticks me off and you’ll get a blast of the horn. Going down the M62 in the roadworks I had a BMW driver riding the white line so close to my offside. A quick horn tap and his car snapped back to the middle of his lane.

Be careful, you’ll have all the saintly robots who have posted above deeming you a ‘crap driver’ with those sorts of horn antics!

51

Sprinter Si:

Radar19:
I’ve had car drivers who’ve panicked when I’ve tried to over take them so they speed up then slow down then speed up then slow down. That ticks me off and you’ll get a blast of the horn. Going down the M62 in the roadworks I had a BMW driver riding the white line so close to my offside. A quick horn tap and his car snapped back to the middle of his lane.

Be careful, you’ll have all the saintly robots who have posted above deeming you a ‘crap driver’ with those sorts of horn antics!

I am a crap driver, I freely admit that :laughing:

52

R.D:
This tool nearly took my offside mirror off on M1 earlier whilst going through the roadworks.
he stayed out there for a good mile as well.

Maybe the traffic in lanes 1&2 were sat at 50 and he wanted to overtake at 55/56 to see how long it would take him, in preparation for the speed increase on A roads…don’t wanna be losing a couple of minutes does he! :smiley:

53

Must say, I’ve not experienced much bad driving from drivers in Ayrshire compared to what I’m used to in Glasgow. They seem a much more considerate bunch down there.[emoji2]

54

Sprinter Si:
Right barrel of self-righteous laughs you lot are, so you’re honestly telling me you’ve never flashed a driver who thinks it’s fun to pull in front of you, slow down forcing you to overtake, then speed up again because that’s obviously how they get their kicks? And flashing said drivers make me ‘crap’?

Where in the Highway Code does it state that we should all flash HGV drivers back in once they’ve overtaken us? Nowhere, but I do it out of courtesy and it has evolved into good etiquette. Car drivers causing me to move into the middle lane because they have no bloody clue what’s going on around them is just bad driving and if I wish to flash them to show my displeasure then I will continue to do so in the hope that said car driver might wake up and hopefully not do it again to both myself and wagon drivers.

And over 1,000,000 (that’s a million for those of you that are ‘crap’ at maths) miles of driving in twelve years without so much as a hint of an accident or bump would suggest I’m not a ‘crap’ driver otherwise I think I’d have been found out by now.

In which case my earlier presumption that you where a crap driver may have been incorrect, obviously you cover enough miles to know what is going to happen or more accurately what potentials there are for dramas.

I must confess I have flashed car drivers or dare I say papped my horn to show disspleasure at a manouver that although predictable was down right silly.

The difference is and this is the hard bit, I have bollocked myself for doing this, when I am in a position to know what a car driver is going to do even before they know and yes I have the ability to cause an accident and make it look like its not my fault (although dashcams may prove otherwise). In the end for a pro / vocational driver its all about the journey, the elite amongst us will weigh up how our actions will affect the flow of traffic but the rest of us have to be prepared to put the effort in and remove the danger from a situation we know is about to unfold.

I also must admit I do flash other trucks in but there are times these idiots in trucks pull in far to soon even before my flash and appear very uncomfortable trying to control their vehicle whilst overtaking due to not having the ability to look left without steering left, they may bleat on about knowing the length of their vehicle but all it shows to me is they have no concept of safe distance and are just iditots that I would rather watch from a safe distance than have up my arse.

So carry on doing what your doing but bear in mind that your experience should make you a better driver, perhaps try and remove the emotion of flashing to show disspleasure (I’m trying but as stated it doesn’t always work) and just for that split second think ‘hang on this is going to stress me out more than the numpty that has cut me up, whats the point’.

55

Swampey2418:
Every day I get behind the wheel. but its all good… Just don’t stress about it…

ditto just ease off and let the stress pass me by.

56

Getting cut up on roundabouts is almost a daily occurrence but when some traffic cop in a marked car does it then in my eyes takes it to another level.

57

friday night a six wheeler curtain passed me in the roadworks on the m1 north at j29 in the 3rd lane , sat behind him was a nice patrol car who followed him from j29 to nearly j30 when he pulled back into lane 2, 500 yards before woodall services the patrol car passed him and pulled him into the services for a chat i would assume

58

tooooo many!

59

Dipper_Dave:

Sprinter Si:
Right barrel of self-righteous laughs you lot are, so you’re honestly telling me you’ve never flashed a driver who thinks it’s fun to pull in front of you, slow down forcing you to overtake, then speed up again because that’s obviously how they get their kicks? And flashing said drivers make me ‘crap’?

Where in the Highway Code does it state that we should all flash HGV drivers back in once they’ve overtaken us? Nowhere, but I do it out of courtesy and it has evolved into good etiquette. Car drivers causing me to move into the middle lane because they have no bloody clue what’s going on around them is just bad driving and if I wish to flash them to show my displeasure then I will continue to do so in the hope that said car driver might wake up and hopefully not do it again to both myself and wagon drivers.

And over 1,000,000 (that’s a million for those of you that are ‘crap’ at maths) miles of driving in twelve years without so much as a hint of an accident or bump would suggest I’m not a ‘crap’ driver otherwise I think I’d have been found out by now.

In which case my earlier presumption that you where a crap driver may have been incorrect, obviously you cover enough miles to know what is going to happen or more accurately what potentials there are for dramas.

I must confess I have flashed car drivers or dare I say papped my horn to show disspleasure at a manouver that although predictable was down right silly.

The difference is and this is the hard bit, I have bollocked myself for doing this, when I am in a position to know what a car driver is going to do even before they know and yes I have the ability to cause an accident and make it look like its not my fault (although dashcams may prove otherwise). In the end for a pro / vocational driver its all about the journey, the elite amongst us will weigh up how our actions will affect the flow of traffic but the rest of us have to be prepared to put the effort in and remove the danger from a situation we know is about to unfold.

I also must admit I do flash other trucks in but there are times these idiots in trucks pull in far to soon even before my flash and appear very uncomfortable trying to control their vehicle whilst overtaking due to not having the ability to look left without steering left, they may bleat on about knowing the length of their vehicle but all it shows to me is they have no concept of safe distance and are just iditots that I would rather watch from a safe distance than have up my arse.

So carry on doing what your doing but bear in mind that your experience should make you a better driver, perhaps try and remove the emotion of flashing to show disspleasure (I’m trying but as stated it doesn’t always work) and just for that split second think ‘hang on this is going to stress me out more than the numpty that has cut me up, whats the point’.

You know what you’re right. Every time I return from a long holiday and I’m feeling de-stressed and relaxed, I swear that I’m just going to ignore all the inconsiderate driving and lane hogging and not flash other drivers and just let it all wash over me, but I just find it very difficult. Covering the amount of miles I do I know each night I head out I am likely to encounter at least one act of buffoonery and even when I know what is going to happen (i.e. the example of cars undertaking me 100 yards from the motorway reducing to 1 lane) I find it almost impossible to show my displeasure, I suppose I feel at times i’m on a one-man mission to try and get people to be more courteous and I flash in a hope that these drivers might behave differently in the future, which I know is unlikely. I like to think I am always considerate to other road users (e.g. if a wagon is overtaking me very slowly, I go down on the cruise control a few notches to hasten their overtaking so they aren’t in the middle lane for too long) and I guess I just expect everyone else to be up to the standards of professional drivers.

60

Friday afternoon in Devon, just coming out of a 30 zone, a star in a car booted it and overtook me, not realizing that we were approaching a traffic island which created a short single lane dual carriageway, anyway he had to carry on and pass the keep left bollard on the right, and ended up traveling n/bound on the s/bound lane for the 200 yds or so that the short d/c lasted. :laughing: luckily for him nothing came towards him.