Why are people are such fucking awful drivers??

[NoWayNoHow]

I have nearly had 3 accidents in the last week, all because people genuinely don't know what the crap they're doing on the roads!

1st near miss, a really old man just cuts across me in traffic without indicating, making me absolutely anchor brakes, while his poor wife waves madly at me mouthing, "I'm so sorry!"

2nd, I'm driving down a bendy road, road bends completely to the left and as I come round the corner, a guy coming in the opposite direction is overtaking a frickin' bicycle on the bend - had to ramp the pavement to stop from getting hit, lucky I didn't burst a tyre.

And then this morning, I'm minding my own business driving down a residential road and when a huge pick-up truck jumps out of one of the side roads and would have driven right into the front of my car if I didn't put my brake pedal through the floor of the car.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?????

[VoiceofUnreason]

Two things I notice most mornings coming into work.

1. Drivers not signalling at roundabouts or junctions. 9 times out of 10, female.
   
   
2. Cyclists with helmets but all dark clothing, no lights on bike or person. 10 times out of 10, male.

[specialsubject]

given that everybody was deemed fit to drive at some point, it is unbelievable.

using a phone while driving has been illegal for a while. Nope, still happening.
continually braking-accelerating wastes petrol, which is expensive. So many do that.
less than 2 seconds apart is too close. No-one seems to know that.
speed limits are maxima, not targets. If it is raining or foggy, SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.

one small note of good cheer. I was going along signalling to turn left into a junction, chap was waiting to come out of it. I noted that he did not actually come out until my wheels started to turn and he saw that I really was turning. I know to do that but have never seen anyone else do it!

[scurryfunge]

I don't think everyone should be subject to a retest though maybe enforce one or a compulsory refresher course for those whose driving falls below standard. Difficult to manage though.

[Avuncular]

Hey what does anybody think about having to re-take the driving test every 5 years, ten years?? I'd like to see safer roads, too! From next April Police will be able to pull in anyone driving poorly and give them a ticket on the spot.

[NoWayNoHow]

Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme I had a similar experience with an ambulance.

It was piling on towards me on a narrow road, not giving me any time at all to slow down whilst at the same time forcing me to ramp the pavement to avoid being hit.

I burst my tyre and had a close encounter with someone's front garden because of that

[Havingkitties]

I witnessed a right arse of a driver last week. We were driving down a main road which had a couple of miles of road works on it and a ambulance blue lighting comes up a couple of cars behind us. We pull over on the round about to make room for it to pass and low and behold a right douschebag thinks that its a great opportunity to overtake us and goes who whizzing past...and now the ambulance is stuck behind him due to all the traffic cones on the road. So now the ambulance can't get past. We go past another roundabout and douschebag doesn't pull over but continues to drive in front of the ambulance. Cue now lots of drivers coming the other way flashing douschebag, yet he continues obliviously or maybe he's doing it on purpose. The ambulance is getting rather peeved and starts tailgating him, finally the road works stop and the ambulance over takes him (but not with about 3-4 opportunities for this guy to pull over and let the ambulance pass).

The ambulance then drew up next to him, the passenger window was rolled down and the paramedic extended his middle finger to the driver. Cue cheers in our car.
I hope that the ambulance guys reported this driver.
Honestly, I can't believe someone would obstruct an emergency vehicle. How would they feel if there loved one desperately needed help and was unnecessarily delayed because of someone's lack of driving skills and downright arseholeness?
It was a young guy driving with a passenger, not like an old dude who couldn't hear or see the ambulance.

[RooneyMara]

Yes lorries take a LOT longer to slow down and stop than a smaller vehicle. They know this

and still they do it.

[maddening]

Ps if you're on a country road try to stay on your own side rather than coming round blind bends on the wrong side just to avoid breaking a bit more and approaching the bend at the appropriate speed grrrrrrrrrrrr!

[maddening]

I was about to overtake a lorry on the dual carriageway that was tailgating a small car ( less than a car's length behind it at 60mph ) .
the small car had to break as another car joined in front of it from a slip road so the lorry had to pull out in front of me - I had to break hard as had been level with his bumper

I rang his employer with his numberplate - if he had not been tailgating then all would have been fine but no -he is a twat tailgating pisses me off no end but if a lorry tailgates and can't break in time people are most likely going to die.

[HoobleDooble]

I'm glad it's not just me! I feel scared to go out this week, I seem to be infested with corner-cutting dickweeds on every street I drive up. Nearly had my front end removed 4 times in the past couple of days, not to mention the buck-toothed Kyle-target who decided to attempted a right hand turn when coming the opposite way to me yesterday (he must have thought I was turning to, as I wasn't indicating to go straight on along the street!).

[ethelb]

Driving is one of those things that anyone who has passed their test becomes a complete expert on.

I passed earlier this year and the crap people came out with while I was learning was hilarious. I think lots of people just don't know the highway code, but are utterly, utterly convinced they do.

[MurderOfGoths]

I posted this at the time, but a while back we were driving on a dual carriageway, doing the speed limit, so not dawdling along. There was a slow moving lorry in the slow lane, so we moved over to overtake it. When we pulled over there was no one to be seen behind us in either lane.

We had barely started overtaking the lorry when some idiot came zooming up behind us, tailgating us and flashing his lights.

We moved over as soon as it was safe, but that wasn't enough for this twunt, he then tried to ram our car off the road and into a barrier.

[MurderOfGoths]

"Immaculately perfect and they never make a mistake or lose patience with anyone else, even in the tiniest matter."

Seeing as most of the posts are about people driving aggressively that comment is more than a little out of place.

[MrsMiniversCharlady]

I nearly pulled out into the outside lane into the side of a car overtaking me last week Why? Because it had NO HEADLIGHTS on at 6.45am in the pissing rain Luckily I realised and didn't pull out and I flashed and flashed as it went past

[redlac]

I really hate drivers who think they are being nice by stopping in the middle of the road and waving me and DD across the road while walking to school - not realising that I'm not going to cross the road cos there's a car coming round the bend going in the other direction and another car coming out from the junction behind me.

How can I teach DD good road sense when some drivers stop randomly and wave her across??? Grrrr

[ilovetermtime]

Oh don't get me started, please.!

OP are you me? ;)

We have a roundabout near us which only has 3 exits and all 3 approach roads have two lanes. It couldn't be simpler, if you're going left you need to be in the left lane and if you're going right you need to be in the right lane. How do people not get that?! And yet...

[RooneyMara]

(sorry to bring gender into it - hope it won't start anything - just a revelation that needed a gender based aibu thread to go on, and there wasn't one)

[RooneyMara]

Yes I've had a few oddos this week too. Sort of 'wtf are you doing!' moments.

Mind you I did figure something out last night in the dark, coming back from a hospital trip that was an utter waste of time.

I figured out why, possibly, women are perceived as probably worse drivers than men.

It's because we've been generally brought up to think we are, ie, when I was young (Ok many moons ago) all the little boys I knew were actively involved with motor vehicles in either maintenance capacity or 'driving' stuff or playing with toy cars, or all three.

It wasencouraged among them, massively, and actively discouraged in girls (I know - the trouble I got when I was interested in model railways - shocking) and we got laughed at whenever we expressed an interest.

Thus we, or I'm certain a lot of us, grew up feeling like we would never be accepted by men as drivers or as able to fix cars or anything like that. We never had the early background in it. We were excluded.

And NOW they get to laugh at us for being crap at driving, when really, we're just disadvantaged and it was never our fault.

Saying this fully aware that most women are just as good as most men, but we've had to learn as teenagers or adults while a lot of them were sat on their dad's lap as a young boy and told how to drive right there.

Makes me really cross...and it means that if women ARE ever worse at driving, it's probably for that reason, not because we are women - just because we were never shown the ropes when we were kids.

[ErikNorseman]

Yesterday I was driving along the dual carriageway at night at 40mph because one lane was closed. Plenty of space between next and following cars. Suddenly, out of literally nowhere, a car pulled in front of me out of the blocked off lane. I don't even know how he got in the lane in the first place but I didn't see him until he was right in front of me and I had to slam my brakes on. I think the idiot thought he could just slot in between the cars but the lanes are divided by posts atm so driving through the gap slowed him right down. Dick.
I actually wish that stupidly reckless drivers end up having a non serious crash - one that fucks up their cars and teaches them a lesson.

[scurryfunge]

My rule is to anticipate that everyone else will be unpredictable and treat them as a potential hazard.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

This is some years ago - I was walking the boys home from school, when a driver decided he didn't want to wait until the lights ahead changed, and the queue of traffic moved off, so that he could turn left - so he simply headed up onto the pavement, where I was walking with my three primary school-age children!

I stood in front of his car, yelled at him and actually pounded on the bonnet until he reversed back onto the road - and then I told him off for not having strapped the child in the back of his car into a car seat.

Some people genuinely ought not to be allowed to have a licence or own a car.

[Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme]

I was walking my girls to school recently and a police car came tearing through our village with its lights and sirens blazing. Overtaking every parked car. Leaving no room or time for the lorry coming the other way which had to go up the pavement to avoid it. The pavement that I was walking along with my two dd's. Sometimes they run a bit ahead but thank The Lord they were actually right beside me and I just grabbed them out of the way. The lorry's wheels were bigger than they were. I was nearly sick with fright. Fair put the wind up me. Unfortunately I didn't get the number of the police car. He would have got a fucking rocket up his arse and no mistake.

[carabos]

We live in a semi rural area with a road that goes from too fast with steep hills to very slow with tight bends. One of the zigzagging tight bends has a series of humps at close intervals for about 300m along it as it is REALLY IMPORTANT to go slowly round the sharp blind bend.

The other day some dick overtook me on the hump. Actually alongside me on the wrong side of the road, on the bend, on the hump. There was literally nowhere to go if a car had been coming the other way. Words fail me at the way some people drive. Where are they going in such a tearing rush that they need to shave seconds off their journey and blow their stacks if they perceive they are held up for a micro second? It's terrifying.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Yes, until someone gets hurt, Avuncular. This is why bad driving irritates and frustrates us - because these people clearly don't realise they are in charge of a heavy, deadly weapon. They are safe inside their little bubbles, with no interest at all in the outside world, it seems.

[Avuncular]

Don't worry - it's the L plates they're cutting up, not the driver. Trust me, I'm a Grade 5 DSA Instructor. When I'm driving, I and my pupils get a laugh over it. Real life is better than television comedy, if you can see it that way.