...to not understand why some drivers are so aggressive!

[AnguaUberwaldIronfoundersson]

I know it’s been done to death but I’m so frustrated with the aggression of other drivers! I had a serious accident a couple of weeks ago - a car crashed into mine because the driver was distracted and drove off without exchanging details. I don’t know whether it’s made me hyper aware of others driving.

So many incidents today alone. The first was a BMW driver who was trapped behind my vehicle as the road split into two lanes. It wasn’t yet wide enough for two cars and unfortunately I was at the back of a long queue to turn right. To get around me and drive straight ahead in the clear lane, the BMW driver aggressively mounted the pavement on the left, almost hitting my car and then stuck the V’s up at me as he passed!

The second was a speed restricted to 62MPH van trundling along in the overtaking lane. I was near my junction and didn’t have time to overtake him so sat to the rear of him to avoid undertaking. This won me a lovely “wanker” hand gesture and beeping!

Three separate incidents of people not just narrowly scraping through the amber/red lights but completely ignoring them and going through on red regardless. The first was a woman completely ignoring the red light and turning left (luckily a T-junction with nothing coming the other way and no pedestrians). The second was cars cutting through the bus lane to jump the red light because the normal lane had traffic. The last was a car about four cars back from me that went through a red light to get on the motorway. The car in front of me stopped in plenty of time, as did I and the next few cars. The fourth car back decided the red light wasn’t for him and just carried on going (the lane splits as you get to the lights, he just pulled out and went for it)

Is it just me or are some drivers becoming arseholes!

@SmarmyMrMime superb post!

I completely agree with the last line - the number of times I approach a roundabout to find almost no one bothers indicating (and I’m not talking about those going straight on etc...)

And the amount of mobile phone usage at the wheel is truly, deeply shocking. I’ve watched people drive past my car in stationary traffic. 1...2...3 seconds pass and they’ve not looked up from their phone. So if someone’s DC steps out...

Back in the 80s, cars were commonly understood to be penis extensions. In our day, cars are this but on steroids. Cars have become an extension of our egos. In life, you can't let others out-do you, you have to show who's boss for fear of being perceived as a weakling. You have to take what (you perceive) is owed you, because no one else will do it for you. That's how I understand the world now. People are fearful and cling on to their sense of self in the world through their car. I live in a narrow-laned rural spot. The number of oversized cars (that then hilariously get scratched on the hedgerows) is RIDICULOUS. Why can't people just drive normal or modest runabouts? I know why: projection of wealth.

Sigh. Let cars be cars. Drivers are all the same, we just want to go from A to B.

@MorondelaFrontera I notice that as well.

As well as a car I drive a 7.5 ton horsebox and with horses on board avoid any sharp turns or braking , the amount of cars that cut me up and dangerously overtake is unreal. Its like they see it and have to get past at any cost.

The New Forest has an issue with speeding drivers killing the horses on the roads and did some research and found that driving at 60 instead of the limit of 40 adds on average 3 minutes to someones journey.

All that stress, aggression to save 3 minutes!

YANBU some people turn into insecure, impatient arseholes the second they get behind the wheel.

YANBU I have noticed much more aggression and don't enjoy driving. I belong to a local fb group and without fail at least once a week there are reports with photos of car crashes where you wonder how on earth?.. car flipped over, car in someones front garden. My boy wants to cycle to school however a friend in the police who's normally quite laid back warned me Do not let him under any circumstance! He says out of all the stuff they witness the cycle accidents are the most traumatic and everyone haunts him.

We have got 3 cars, but the behaviour of people depending on which one I am driving is astonishing, but equally nasty in their own way. One is a sports car, and seem to bring the most enraged competitive mood in so many drivers, it's unreal - they become even more aggressive and dangerous when they realise it's a woman driving!

This is so so true. I drive a (small) sports car and it's a magnet for aggressive, competitive male drivers. It being driven by a blonde woman seems to infuriate them further. I don't rise to the bait but it gets very tiresome. I lent my car to my Dad for a while when I was overseas and he was shocked at how many nutcases it attracted when he was stopped at traffic lights.

I also get tired of the big 4x4 drivers who think they can use the size of their vehicle to intimidate me out of their way (when I have right of way) but I'm in a small, lowslung car. Tossers.

I live in an area of central London that is particularly notorious for bad driving. Everyone I speak to (including professional drivers) comments on how lawless it is within a small radius of a mile or so. It is just bonkers. Cars going the wrong way up one way streets (on a regular basis). Cars cutting corners so badly that if you're coming up to a junction you need to be careful and be ready to slam your brakes on to avoid being hit by a car turning in on the wrong side of the road. Cars straddling across junctions in stationary traffic is constant. There's aggressive drivers coming from side roads trying to push you out of the way (when you're on the main A road and have right of way). Add in a mixture of aggressive cyclists, incompetent cyclists who aren't safe to be on busy roads and some suicidal pedestrians (who merrily walk out into the road and expect all the traffic to stop), it's just a recipe for disaster. Leaving or arriving home is the most stressful part of any journey. My particular 'favourite' is when I was at a standstill in traffic (huge queue due to a change in phasing of the traffic lights) so the car behind me decided to UNDERTAKE ME ON THE PAVEMENT. Seriously. Cars were bumper to bumper. There was nowhere for him (or the rest of us) to go. He was just stuck there straddling (and blocking) the pavement. It beggars belief.

By contrast to the madness of where I live, I find driving everywhere else pretty relaxing. But like others on this thread, the Sunday drivers drive me loopy. Some of them are just so dangerous. I drive a 180 mile round trip on Sundays to do voluntary work and boy do I see some sights on the roads. There are some real shockers from the people who do 30mph regardless of what speed limit is to the people who drive cars that don't seem to be fitted with indicators and everything in between. I find driving on Sundays much more unpleasant than driving during the week. During the week I find everyone tends to be aggressive but reasonably competent if somewhat lacking in patience. But on Sundays there are pockets of morons who just aren't safe to be on the roads. They're the really lethal ones.

Why can't people just drive normal or modest runabouts?

In my case, because a bigger car is safer for the kids inside. I am happy in my little car by myself, but we have a big family one that has much much better reviews in term of safety if we get involved in an accident (plus all my kids don't fit in my city car at the same time, but that's another issue

I had someone emergency brake in front of me (a huge Discovery) in the outside lane of a massive motorway, they then drove perpendicular across the motorway and back in the opposite direction down the hard shoulder to the junction we had just passed. Saw my life flash before my eyes and luckily the white van behind me managed to not go into my boot 😱

I have noticed that the drivers of Highway Agency vehicles tend to be rather bad drivers.

I've just been for a walk into my local town centre. When I got to the end of my road I thought the traffic was worse than usual. Anyway nearby is a junction where you have to wait for a green filter to turn right. At that junction were two police cars and a fire engine. A Highways Agency vehicle turning right had collided with an SUV coming the other way and they were trying to extricate the two vehicles from each other.

I can't help thinking those drivers tried to race each other, and an accident was the consequence.

Fortunately, by the time I walked back less than 30 minutes later it was all cleared up and you wouldn't have known an accident had occurred there and obviously no serious injuries.

Oh and just saw a van pull over on a double yellow line, partly on the pavement, while delivering to a house on the opposite side of the road outside which was an empty parking bay. AAAAAAGHHHH!

I find driving on Sundays much more unpleasant than driving during the week. During the week I find everyone tends to be aggressive but reasonably competent if somewhat lacking in patience. But on Sundays there are pockets of morons who just aren't safe to be on the roads. They're the really lethal ones

Also agree with this.

Agree that other drivers' attitude towards you is often affected by what you drive. For years I drove a white minivan, as FIL gave it to me for free, and I don't care what I drive. Drove it about town with no bother from anyone.

Recently I scrapped the minivan, and inherited a pastel-coloured Ford Ka from another family member. It appears small, pastel-coloured car + blonde female drive = sitting target, as I'm now overtaken and cut up far more than I ever was in the van, without changing my driving habits.

I have the same issue when driving my little car. I have a Picanto so very tiny and I drive down a couple of very busy roads to drop DS at nursery on the way to work.
The sheer volume of drivers who try to bully me on the road is crazy.
I get the feeling a lot of drivers assume my car won't move as fast as theirs, despite the fact it whizzes along quite happily, as so many of them pull out in front of me when I'm travelling at 60mph and I have to spend my time driving watching for them haring down toward the junctions.
I often worry about someone going into the side of me as it'll be the side DS sits on and he would likely be crushed by the impact. People really need to think about their anger issues while driving and learn a bit of patience!

YANBU.

We bought a dash cam last year for this very reason. I got so fed up of people driving up close behind me, now they see a camera and back off.

I'm a member of the institute of advance motorists and people's inability to drive is shocking.

We have a big family car and a small run around and the difference in the way other drivers behave around them is a psychological masterclass!

There are a lot of arsehole drivers near me. I’ve lost count of the amount of times people (well really men) have aggressively overtaken me when I’ve been doing 30-35 in a 30 zone. There was one that used to do it most days on my commute in until I changed the time I left. He would tailgate me and then zoom off at 60plus in the 30 zone. I was so tempted to report him to the police but I was never convinced they’d ever do anything about it.

Oh and I agree that type of car matters and time of day and conditions. Rain seems to being about some shocking behaviour. I also worked out that driving from the station at 5.30 seems to be peak risk for bad driving. Earlier seems fine (so it isn’t school run traffic) and 6pm plus is lovely in comparison (so not an issue re peak traffic). The only thing I can think is that it is the peak for childcare pick-ups and everyone’s stressed about missing collection. There is a really marked difference at that time.

Hundredmilesanhour - there's a fair few insults in your last post, directed at everyone from pedestrians to cyclists to other drivers. Surely it can't always be other people at fault?!

Somehow being encased in a vehicle makes people feel like they can be as rude and ignorant as they like. I have to pull into busy very slow moving traffic from a train station every evening, I always know the ones who won't let me out just by looking at their ignorant, indignant expression.The traffic is so slow moving at this particular stretch of road that it won't cause anyone any inconvenience to leave a space for a car from the station traffic to come out, but some people are just so thick headed that they WILL NOT let anyone out. It's like they get some joy out of being a MASSIVE ARSEHOLE

Vulpine

Hundredmilesanhour - there's a fair few insults in your last post, directed at everyone from pedestrians to cyclists to other drivers.

Surely it can't always be other people at fault?!

I agree with everything Hundredmilesanhour says, and I'm one of those tossers who drive a 4x4

I agree with everything Hundredmilesanhour says, and I'm one of those tossers who drive a 4x4

Ha ha thank you @BossAssBitch

I know what you mean. Last week during the school run we actually witnessed a proper punch up - man got out of his car, went up to car behind … 2nd man gets out, and 1st man grabs him around the throat and full on fight ensues. We were going the other way, they were in stationary traffic so no idea what had happened. Then 2 days ago I'm going through one of those traffic calming things, where it's basically one lane and one way has priority: I go through no problem, there's a car approaching from the other direction … car further behind me goes for it, even though other side has priority … and car approaching speeds up and blocks her exit. So they are basically bumper to bumper. I mean, is it really worth starting a fight just to prove a point? Car approaching could have just slowed down a touch and the other car would have been through.

I saw a parked car the other day that had a window sticker on it reading 'installed with a black box because trust me... I'm far more fucked off than you!'.

I think it's safe to say drivers, probably 75%+ men, drive super aggressively and with no thought for other motorists. Other end of the scale is people dawdling along at 40mph in a 60/70. Aggressive drivers give no fucks to anyone else on the road ignoring red lights/indicators/the entire Highway Code, and if an accident occurs it's definitely not their fault, oh no. When I learned many years ago defensive driving was taught, yet aggression not defence and observation is the prevalent characteristic on our roads. DD wants to learn to drive, ugh.

Some drivers can be very aggressive, but I think a previous poster answered what I think earlier when I said it's also the behaviour of other motorists that effects my driving.

One regular occurence is I drive an 11 mile section of A-road to get to DP's place, the road is wide, well lit and has a few roundabouts and is a 60mph zone. Every single time I drive on that road I end up behind someone doing between 35-40mph which is just as dangerous as speeding. Some people would see me overtaking at a safe place as aggressive driving - but to me I want to be driving in the correct manner and not trailing someone doing such low speeds.

Another is cars who sit in the outside lane with no intention of overtaking, and have a huge gap to the next car infront which means cars end up undertaking. As I'd never undertake I end up behind cars like this all of the time, and it's infuriating for me. Along with people faffing when moving off from traffic lights or junctions, or my worst hate looking down at their knee because they're obviously on their phone, there seems to be something about driving that brings out the worst in people.

Angry vehicle drivers are the most lethal thing on our roads . Ironic today kenneth noye is released from prison.

I used to live in a little house on a village high street that was narrowed to one lane because of parked cars. When I was home on mat leave I'd regularly see nose to nose standoffs because (usually male) drivers could not bear to just back off or wait to let the other car through. Saw a couple of get out of the car incidents and the worst were always a man having a go at a woman who he thought he could intimidate, even though the nearest gap to reverse to would be on their side.