Examples of poor driving you have witnessed!

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
I've covered best part of 800 miles the last 2 weekends, following Rangers to Workington and South Shields so have witnessed numerous incidents of stupidity and downright dangerous driving. I try to steer clear of generalising on car makes and types but what was apparent on these trips, was drivers of small cars, and their behaviour. 107 and the like, seem to have a lot of space room around them, as they don't fit a motorway line, so they seem to weave side to side while looking ahead. Also the choice of younger drivers who seemed to be having animated chats with friends and taking their eyes off the road!
I'm also really not surprised at the number of accidents that shut the motorway, in our locality, when people have so little discipline, or judgement of distance, in narrow lanes while work goes on. We really don't value life and would rather do somebody out of being there two cars earlier!


The m6 yesterday. First a women in a BMW estate literally weaving across the lanes from the inside to the outside to the middle to the outside and back to the inside purely based on the lane she could go fastest in. Flew up the inside lane undercutting the middle lane morons who should have been in that lane, only to carve straight across to the outside lane as that became the one moving fastest, then to the middle lane to undercut the outside lane traffic and this all with a kid in the car. Madness!!


Few miles further north and I moved from the outside lane in to the middle lane. As I looked to move to the inside lane I checked my wing mirror only to be met by a blue car doing at least 100 mph judging by how fast he undercut everyone else on the motorway. He then also proceeded to weave through the traffic still at stupidly fast speeds and with absolutely no lane discipline whatsoever. At those speeds him own and the death of others is quite imminent I fear. Scary stuff and its this that the police should be focusing on imo, not people driving well but afew mph over the limit.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
I believe the points raised above relates to hazard perception and risk management you should drive to what you can see and within the law. But if you can not drive to the limit in minimal risk conditions safely should you be in control of that vehicle.


This. It's not people slowing down in case a horse, cyclist or tractor is around a blind bend that i object to on the A518, it's those drivers who seem unable to drive faster than 35 to 40mph even on the straight relatively hazard free sections, and there are plenty of those sections on that road. Just all round shit drivers who do not have sufficient proficiency in driving faster than a snail and who are a danger to all those around them
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
This. It's not people slowing down in case a horse, cyclist or tractor is around a blind bend that i object to on the A518, it's those drivers who seem unable to drive faster than 35 to 40mph even on the straight relatively hazard free sections, and there are plenty of those sections on that road. Just all round shit drivers who do not have sufficient proficiency in driving faster than a snail and who are a danger to all those around them
The point is though that there is no minimum speed limit so they are well within their rights to do that. They may be nervous drivers, poor drivers, admiring the view or simply not in a hurry, whatever, they are driving within the law.

It's not like there aren't plenty of passing places on that road to legally overtake these hoards only doing 35/40mph. As they are doing nothing wrong the onus is on you to get past safely when you can if you wish to travel faster. Moaning about people driving perfectly legally is pointless.
 

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
The m6 yesterday. First a women in a BMW estate literally weaving across the lanes from the inside to the outside to the middle to the outside and back to the inside purely based on the lane she could go fastest in. Flew up the inside lane undercutting the middle lane morons who should have been in that lane, only to carve straight across to the outside lane as that became the one moving fastest, then to the middle lane to undercut the outside lane traffic and this all with a kid in the car. Madness!!


Few miles further north and I moved from the outside lane in to the middle lane. As I looked to move to the inside lane I checked my wing mirror only to be met by a blue car doing at least 100 mph judging by how fast he undercut everyone else on the motorway. He then also proceeded to weave through the traffic still at stupidly fast speeds and with absolutely no lane discipline whatsoever. At those speeds him own and the death of others is quite imminent I fear. Scary stuff and its this that the police should be focusing on imo, not people driving well but afew mph over the limit.


Totally agree, DON'T drive and weave!!!
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
You can be prosecuted for careless driving in the UK if caught driving too slowly leading to fines and penalty points.

They'd make a fortune on the A518 between Stafford and Newport should anyone ever actually implement the rules and laws of the road!! :)
 

Alee

Well-Known Forumite
I regularly get stuck behind people doing 30mph on the A518 from derrington junction to the motorway bridge . Just last week I pulled out of derrington onto A518 and got stuck behind someone doing 20! I was clenching my bum as I watched people behind me slamming on their brakes as they were coming up fast behind me . Bearing in mind that you cannot legally overtake in that stretch on rd
 

Alee

Well-Known Forumite
Do driving tests include sections on 60mph roads these days? I never went outside a 30 limit when I did mine, although it was in a previous century.
Most of my test was on 60 roads. Would fail test for going any less than Average about 50 - weather dependent etc of course !!
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
I regularly get stuck behind people doing 30mph on the A518 from derrington junction to the motorway bridge . Just last week I pulled out of derrington onto A518 and got stuck behind someone doing 20! I was clenching my bum as I watched people behind me slamming on their brakes as they were coming up fast behind me . Bearing in mind that you cannot legally overtake in that stretch on rd

My daughter failed her driving test on the Eccleshall Road between j14 and Tillington hall hotel by not making enough progress in the 30mph zone, she was doing 25mph. The explanation was that she was causing other drivers to brake as they were expecting traffic to be moving at 30mph. If this is the rules then doing 35 in a 60 is actually very dangerous for traffic coming from behind expecting the cars in front to be driving at a speed reflective of the limit and road conditions. Going much slower than the limit is very dangerous
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I regularly get stuck behind people doing 30mph on the A518 from derrington junction to the motorway bridge . Just last week I pulled out of derrington onto A518 and got stuck behind someone doing 20! I was clenching my bum as I watched people behind me slamming on their brakes as they were coming up fast behind me . Bearing in mind that you cannot legally overtake in that stretch on rd
If the hatched lane separator on that short section still has broken lines along the sides then you can overtake there. The general idea is to avoid doing so, but passing somebody doing 20mph should be seen as acceptable. If there were solid white lines along the sides, then you could still cross (into) it to pass a stationary vehicle, or a horse/cyclist.

The difference between the two types of what used to be known as "ghost islands" seems not to be generally understood any more. There may be a danger that PC49, who might observe you, may also not really know the difference.

If I passed somebody on that section, I might expect them to be waiting behind me at the next red light.

If people are slamming on their brakes, they might like to consider what they would do if the vehicle that was moving away from them at 20mph was a stationary, broken down vehicle, a tractor or a slightly less visible cow, etc.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
You can be prosecuted for careless driving in the UK if caught driving too slowly leading to fines and penalty points.

Driving too slowly comes under the offence of inconsiderate driving not careless driving. It is not an offence if the faster driver is given the opportunity to overtake.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
If there were solid white lines along the sides, then you could still cross (into) it to pass a stationary vehicle, or a horse/cyclist.

Only if the horse or cyclist is travelling at less than 12 mph, horses are likely to be travelling at significantly less than 12 mph, not so sure about some cyclists.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Only if the horse or cyclist is travelling at less than 12 mph, horses are likely to be travelling at significantly less than 12 mph, not so sure about some cyclists.
It used to be 10mph. Difficult to be confident of the speed of another road user, without following them closely from some time. Apart from the more serious types, 12mph seems a fair speed for a cyclist, in general. When I had the 'computer' on the bike, it was a struggle to keep the average above that.

Anyway,'solid' ghost islands are fairly rare things now. You could pass either of them where the edges are broken.
 

airbusA346

Well-Known Forumite
It's not like there aren't plenty of passing places on that road to legally overtake these hoards only doing 35/40mph. As they are doing nothing wrong the onus is on you to get past safely when you can if you wish to travel faster. Moaning about people driving perfectly legally is pointless.

The problem is... people are scared to overtake, so they sit behind the car doing 30-40mph, then other people join the queue and just follow. There is then no gaps between the cars for the people who want to overtake to make progress. Then you have the ones who speed up to close the gaps when they see someone start to overtake them.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Maybe I'm lucky, but I can't remember the last time I came across anybody unnecessarily driving at 30 in an open 60mph limit, where 60 would be safe.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Maybe I'm lucky, but I can't remember the last time I came across anybody unnecessarily driving at 30 in an open 60mph limit, where 60 would be safe.
Quite.

But it seems neither of us lives in the World According To Kyoto, where this sort of attrocity happens multiple times a day.

I'll leave you to decide if that's a good thing, or not.
 
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