To be a little surprised how many essential trips

[Hingeandbracket]

Were being made yesterday in cars and on motorcycles with extremely loud exhausts blasting around at full tilt. Perhaps it was the absence of other traffic, but it does seem as if some bellends are using it as an excuse to roar around in their fucking noisy bellend-mobiles

I’ve noticed people driving much faster than usual. Roaring past doing 50 or 60 on a 30 road. Some people seem to be using quieter roads as a personal race track.

It's totally bizarre behaviour. The other day I was driving at the speed limit on so residential road whilst some man tailgated me..driving inches from my bumper. Hilariously he was wearing a mask. I mean you're so worried about dying you'll wear mask but won't drive sensibly...

Definitely some motorbike racing on the M40 this weekend. Twats.

Slightly different, but there were lots of people making ‘essential’ journeys to the lake near us yesterday. I walked round it, leaving from my house, and there were at least 20 cars parked along the roadside. No other reason to be there than walking.

I've noticed it here as well, some drivers are definitely treating the roads as their personal race track.

It is not the noisy bike or car driving past on the road, it is the off road / dirt bikes that are just being driven around, so the noise is constantly there, or going out and coming back into ear shot.

It's all of the above. The lone very fast drivers are probably more dangerous to others from what I've seen. The packs are more annoying.

I hate the peace of a Sunday afternoon in the countryside for miles around being shattered by a group of bikers (mostly middle aged men in leather, not kids!) who even in normal times roar around and congregate at out of the way sandwich vans etc. I wish there was a legal noise limit, there's no earthly reason why cars and even moreso motorbikes need to make that amount of noise nowadays. Good powerful cars are quiet!

Sorry... quiet if they're being driven properly.

That's nice, Equimum that people are able to do a short drive to have a pleasurable walk around a lake, especially when they haven't got such on their doorstep.

am not content to leave it to seize up on the driveway during lockdown
It won't seize up from a few weeks on a driveway.

Slightly different, but there were lots of people making ‘essential’ journeys to the lake near us yesterday. I walked round it, leaving from my house, and there were at least 20 cars parked along the roadside. No other reason to be there than walking.

The guidelines have been clarified, you can drive to get to a walk if the time spent walking is 'far greater' than the time spent driving. So a 10 min drive to access a 2 hr walk for instance, not half an hour each way for an hours walk. Obviously not a good idea unless you know there's likely to be a lay-by with space if car parks are closed.

Yes but pandemic-wise, if they're just going for a ride and not getting out anywhere, they are less a threat than most people are walking around or going shopping.

Plus, making a loud noise on the road isn't illegal.

Going for a trip in your car and staying within the speed limit is not against the law.

Even now.

Goin for a trip in your car and staying within the speed limit is not against the law.

Some of the people being complained about are not staying within the speed limit and/or on country lanes driving at a safe speed for the conditions.

'Going for a trip in your car' unless there's a 'reasonable excuse' for it is against the covid legislation. The clarifications include as an example of 'likely to be unreasonable' Driving for a prolonged period with only brief exercise.

www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/COVID-19/Documents/What-constitutes-a-reasonable-excuse.pdf

Yes we have heard some noisy bikes and cars out (and yesterday in just 30 minutes sunbathing in the garden we had 2 planes over head (we are under the Heathrow flight path I suppose and not far from Northolt air field) and 2 helicopter - obviously they could have been essential services helicopters .

My son who drives groceries for a living says driving to work and also driving at work the roads are very clear so that aspect of the job is easier than usual. Traffic is usually the worst bit of his job. Risking catching a deadly disease whilst delivering vital food supplies to people at home - hard to say what is worse. Hopefully he will be safe and mumsnetters get their grocery deliveries.

@Hingeandbracket I’m afraid it will. It is a powerful car that needs to be run regularly. It is also stored indoors, covered and on a trickle charger.

I feel like I’m getting a lot of heat for not being content to drive around in a tiny compact electric hatchback. 😆 I race cars and funnily enough understand how to build, maintain, manage and also, enjoy them. Apparently that’s not acceptable on MN.

Now, to be clear, I’m not defending dangerous motoring, I was merely saying that I probably fell under the people that bothered you yesterday and to me that was an essential journey.

I do think that bellends are using this as an excuse to ride around in their bellend mobiles. I'm in another country and we've had an increasing in the number of extreme speeders - there have been quite a lot of fines reported of people driving at around 120 kmh in 50 kmh areas. We had someone last week driving 200kmh in a 100kmh zone. These are knobs taking advantage of empty roads and assuming that the police are occupied with Corona and not monitoring speeding. They've had to move more police from Corona duties to speeding duties as it was getting out of hand.

I've had a lot of tailgating and horns beeping too in our 30kmh zone on the way to my local supermarket just because I was sticking to the speed limit.

My son who drives groceries for a living says driving to work and also driving at work the roads are very clear so that aspect of the job is easier than usual. Traffic is usually the worst bit of his job. Risking catching a deadly disease whilst delivering vital food supplies to people at home - hard to say what is worse

One of my neighbours is a carer for a variety of people in their own homes. She says the lack of traffic has been a huge bonus for her, as it means she can get between calls quickly so can give her clients their full time and more and isn’t wasting petrol waiting in traffic jams. She also said, after I asked, that she has plenty of PPE, which was reassuring.

A lot of knobs around here doing the same, but with added loud and obnoxious music!

Near where I live, last week there was a biker's funeral with around 150 bikers attending. There was an accident where someone was killed at the funeral, the police made several arrests, uninsured, untaxed, unlicenced bikers.

Wind your neck in OP, you have no idea why people might be out and about

Does anyone else think "racing cars" might be one of those hobbies that really dates and will look ridiculously immoral in 100 years? Using fossil energy just purely to move about fast. Like big game hunting. Or laughing at circus freaks.

I'm sure everyone I could hear and see going up the Snake Pass near me yesterday was on an essential journey...an accident hot spot where the air ambulance is often required as well as ground emergency services.

Wind your neck in OP, you have no idea why people might be out and about

Apart from the 'slightly different' comment in the middle of the thread, we're not talking about people driving normally.
Do you think all these groups of bikers, quad bikes and people exceeding the speed limit are going a few miles for a walk or for a weekly shop?

Does anyone else think "racing cars" might be one of those hobbies that really dates and will look ridiculously immoral in 100 years?

Track cars, as an exercise in fine engineering maybe not. But road cars - yes. In 100 years hopefully the AI in every legal vehicle won't let you roar around.

Not really an issue with the noise but we were surprised, last week, at the number of cars on the motorway.

We haven't been in a car for about a month. Last week was my mum's funeral so we travelled to that. I said to DH I didn't know if it was workers using a car instead of public transport but there were a lot of cars on the motorway in the afternoon (about 3pm so not 'rush hour') which did surprise me. All moving fine, but a bit slower than the speed limit in places just because of the volume of traffic. So imagine a motorway on a normal Saturday afternoon.

Owning a car that you ‘have’ to drive in case it seizes up even when you have nowhere to go sounds ridiculous. A car should be a convenience that makes life easier not another chore. It reminds me of Jim in Friday Night Dinner who was terrified of his dog Wilson. Something that was meant to be life enhancing but isn’t.