To think drivers are some of the most self-centred people around?

If you re an entitled and arrogant driver, who takes up cycling or running or snooker... or flower arrangement, you'll be arrogant and entitled in this new pursuit too.

This is spot on and clear common sense. There are many different threads on Mumsnet demonising either drivers or cyclists or pedestrians using mobiles. The fact is that there are inconsiderate or entitled people in the world who also happen to drive or cycle or walk. Assigning negative traits to an entire group, simply because you’ve recently experienced inconsiderate behaviour from someone in a car or on a bike or on foot, is illogical, and often leads to confirmation bias and poor or dangerous behaviour on the part of the aggrieved person. I’m a driver and a cyclist and a pedestrian and I’ve had dangerous experiences in all these areas. But I also have to hold up my hands and admit I’ve also made mistakes or responded in unhelpful ways when my anger has got the better of me. And who hasn’t. So rather than pour fuel on the fire, let’s try to take a breath sometimes and let things go, and accept that, unless an accident has occurred, most of us have been culpable of bad behaviour at some point.

So are the vast majority of people driving around on a Sunday morning, most are taking part in their "hobby" be that a garden centre, going to see events etc certainly not commuting.

So we do allow people to take part in hobbies on public roads....

Your post shows the entitlement of car drivers that the OP is highlighting.

Anyone who dares slow you down should be banned.

Touch Screens are also not the problem... the problem is drivers thinking its ok to be looking at these instead of the road, if you cannot find the function you want, wait until you can stop... simple really

Ah, here you go again. Got a source on your claim that the vast majority of cyclists are hobbyists? Horses are also allowed on public roads. Doesn’t that qualify as a hobby?

Well cyclists and pedestrians ARE an inconvenience, the vast majority of cyclists are literally just playing their hobby on a public road. They aren't commuting, just playing. That should be banned. We don't allow any other hobbies to be played on public roads. Pedestrians are less of an inconvenience because you can overtake them safely and they generally don't cause delays.

It's the proliferation of touch screens, which have easential functions, buried deep in the software, that are a big problem.

Cyclists aren’t injuring and killing several people every single day in the UK. I can’t imagine why you think they could ever be worse than motorists. And I say that as a motorist.

SOME drivers are, yes, but a lot aren't. The worst offenders round us are large SUVs driven by flippy-pony-tailed young women in very dark glasses who look neither left nor right, anticipate nothing and drive from A-B as though nobody else exists. I reckon they're shit scared driving such a monster and should be in Fiestas.

People are allowed to cycle on all roads except M-Ways, its not your job to police other people and how they chose to spend their time, plenty of keen cyclists will be riding expensive bikes to and fro work, you have no idea what their motivation is.

Having a car driving licence means you have to deal with traffic in a calm manner, if you find yourself unable to deal with cyclists or any other traffic on the roads, without getting angry then thats on you.

Maybe you should take the bus as you seem keen to tell others to use a tow path?

I drove 35k miles per year, over 32 years, the main reason for delays was car accidents and road works, the number of times delayed by cyclists was tiny and then it would be just a few moments.

Or do you get mad because your totally un-necessary trip to the garden centre etc on a sunday morning is delayed by others using the roads for their interests??

Some (many) people are selfish and self centred. It’s not surprising that when in cars, they become selfish drivers and that, when on bikes, they become selfish cyclists.

@jaws33 dont forget the ones who sail through red lights like they don’t exist and the ones who go ‘straight’ around an island so they nearly take your front end off

Well actually earlier I and some other cars were at the crossing. Lights on red. Two pedestrians having a chat then decided to cross once the lights turned green so we all had to sit and wait.

I don't think it is drivers specifically, it is people in general these days that go around with a massive entitlement to be thoughtless, as though even basic cognitive functioning is too much effort. I am a driver and a cyclist and when on the bike, the majority of drivers are decent, the problem ones are those who don't look properly at roundabouts and just charge onto it forcing me to take evasive action. We have an issue with poor situational awareness in this country, examples include people who drive at 40 mph down slip roads to join free flowing motorways, people who walk five abreast on the pavement at half the standard walking pace, people who won't zip-merge and cause traffic congestion to be way worse than it should near busy merge points, people who walk dogs and take up the entire width of the path preventing anyone from passing, people who fawn over someone elses dog whilst squatting in the middle of the road, the gobshites who walk and shriek through residential areas at midnight, people who fanny about in supermarket aisles trying to select one of six things whilst blocking access to the one item I want, people who fanny about at checkouts because getting their method of payment ready whilst standing in the queue rather than when the cashier asks for it then going fumble fumble I-had-it-here-somewhere requires too much forward planning, people buried in their phones who can't now walk in a straight line, people with their phones blaring out on trains as though everyone else wants to listen to their shit music. I could go on. A consequence of living in a very safe and civilised society is that people get away with being thoughtless/gormless/careless and the externalised consequences impact everyone else in their vicinity.

With drivers, there is the fact that in a car, you are segregated from the outside world which suppresses empathy for those outside and engenders a feeling of being seperated from any potential direct actions of others, therefore anything goes, rather like those who bully and abuse others through social media (because they can and no-one is going to stop them). The programming of entitlement through the media protraying driving as the idealised version of being free and alone, cruising on the open road and the dreadfully misunderstood notion of what road tax actually is (hint, it is not a road tax and it isn't ringfenced for road expenditure) contributes to entitlement.

Generalising too much, really. Yes, some drivers are inconsiderate, but not all. This is true of any group though - drivers, cyclists, pedestrians. Some are extremely inconsiderate, but by no means all. I would even venture to say the majority are not inconsiderate.

Some people are dickhead. Those people are dickheads whether they're behind the wheel, on a bike, walking, or on a mobility scooter.

It's just a lot easier to spot them being dickheads when they're in control of a 2 ton hunk of metal.

Replace the word “drivers” with “mumsnetters”, and I’ll agree.

Are you self centred when driving?

There is I suggest a certain type of driver in an expensive car who I am sure are members of the Socialist Workers Party attempting to be rich gits so that us plebs rise in revolt against their disgusting entitled behaviour and overthrow the Government

I find illegal parking around schools really shocking. At my dd’s school, parents continue to park on double yellows to be as close to the school as possible, in spite of repeated warnings by the school. It’s so selfish but I am also shocked by how little shame they have. I would never be as brazen.

I prefer people on skateboards.

They’re nice

A new development here on Sunday mornings is a bunch of lycra clad men touring the country lanes in some kind of pound shop peleton. They ride five abreast so nobody can pass them for miles and the whole area slows to a steady 12 miles an hour behind them whilst they bawl at each other and suck water through a straw from a lycra hump on their back.

All of them have helmet cams. Who watches that shit back? Don't get me started on their shoes. Goat's hooves with pink over socks pulled up to calf height.

I got use to the lack of indicators but now i'm noticing people in the wrong lines, turning my way around a corner or moving into my lane but still no fucking indicators!

Cross post with @PoliteSquid !! Totally agree with you

Well cyclists often ARE an inconvenience and it can be maddening, particularly when they have a carbon fire bike, a load of expensive gear and are cycling somewhere very inappropriate (happens a lot round me). Those people aren’t cycling because they need it as a mode of transport, they are entitled wealthy generally middle aged plus men avoiding their family - go and find the toe path if you want to cycle for a hobby and get out of the way on this windy road!

If the cyclist is on an old beat up push bike wearing a Parker and battling rain I have more sympathy - they clearly need to be cycling.

This.

SO many threads on MN in the past few months seem to lump everyone together as if they were operated by one brain.

'Men .....'
'MiL.....'
'DiL.....'
'GP Receptionists....'
'Old people .....'
now
'Drivers.....'

Also, why is everyone driving a ford ranger nowadays? And there is never ever anything in the truck bed either. I live in the suburbs of
a big town too, not rural America or the outback!