To not have a clue what I did wrong?

[Stationclare]

Back story
Inexperienced driver, not massively confident, but getting there.
Journey to work is horrible. Inner city. Dodgy aggressive drivers.
There are a few routes that i can take but I take the shortest and most familiar. There is one part I hate.
Anyhow, I always stay in the left hand lane but at this one part there are sometimes parked cars so I move to right hand lane. This was the case today. I indicated and moved over.
Next thing I heard police sirens behind me. I thought shit.
Did I do a dodgy manoeuvre? I didnt see the police prior to this btw.
They then moved into the left lane next to me. The officer driving, mouthed at me " are you fucking stupid?".
Well I feel fucking stupid. Now im thinking was he trying to get past and i Didnt let him out and didn't pay attention as i was too busy trying to keep safe on that dodgy road.

Nicky
I can only presume you or your partner ante in the police force.
Please make your excuses to your colleagues for my dangerous driving.

Yes brave
And if you read back
You will see I've reflected and analysed and made ssense of it

@birdwatching

I learned to check inside mirror, then outside mirror and a quick check over the shoulder to cover a potential blind spot. Sounds like something went wrong there.

Police was still out of order to swear.

Don't overthink. write it off as experience and learn from it.

This.

The shoulder check is probably more important than checking mirrors. If you don't check your mirror's blind spot you risk pulling out on someone already there.

The OP has repeatedly described herself as "safe", despite her novice status, and other drivers as "dangerous". That's a bit of a red flag tbh - if you're driving a car, you're not safe. No driver is safe - everyone has flaws, whether they're over-confidence, or dithering indecisive driving, or a momentary lapse in concentration. If you're travelling at 30 mph (or more) in a glorified metal box, you have to accept you're not safe. Accepting that, and accepting that you'll screw things up is half the battle to achieve the awareness and mental state required to make good decisions as often as possible. If you start out thinking you're "safe" and other drivers are dangerous, you have no hope of being rational and objective behind the wheel.

Dithering can - in certain circumstances - be as dangerous as speeding. Lacking awareness of the road can be as dangerous as doing daft things while knowing you're doing them.

Sorry if this has already been suggested, haven't read every response, but if you still feel a bit nervous driving you could think about sticking one of those green P stickers on your car to flag up you're a newish driver at least. Not everyone takes notice of them but might reduce your chances of getting a bad reaction if you do something unexpected (or even annoy someone by doing something by the book!).

I am not absolutely but delicate. Ha ha
I'm quite feisty
Thats why im bloody mad the policeman swore

This is such a mass of contradiction.

Very odd comments
Can't say I'm safe. What I mean is I try to as safe as possible.
Saying I'm feisty. Is a contradiction.
Ok I'm a drip. Is that better.

I'm feisty. So I'm mad the policeman swore as unprofessional.
I'm.not aggressive in my job. I'd be reported.

What do you want? For everyone to say yes, he's a dick, get him sacked, defund the whole police force?

No, you weren't paying attention and you're an inexperienced driver. If you're not going to learn from this I'd suggest you better get used to people critiquing your driving!

I take it back you are feisty.

Here is the definition google came up with, 'touchy and aggressive'.

No of course I don't want that.
I do accept my mistakes!!

Prettypass
Thanks for going for the trouble of looking it up.
Dont think i can win here can I?complain and im called delicate.
I say I'm quite feisty in RL and im called aggressive.

Delicate people often are aggressive. They can't cope with minor slights or insults and so have absurd over-reactions to them. Resilient people can shrug these things of, or at least put them in their proper context, perhaps reminding themselves of times when they are less than perfect themselves.

You are not being resilient or strong or assertive, or whatever it is you are defining as feisty. You are not standing up for yourself against some egregious insult. You are having a massive over-reaction to a trivial event. If this is the type of behaviour in RL you are applauding yourself for as being 'feisty' maybe you need to stop and take some time to reflect.

You are clearly nuts. How's that for a definition.

I've only read the first page soooo..... it sounds like the police officers put their sirens on too late.

But regardless if they are in that much of a rush to blare there sirens what on Earth was that copper doing taking the time to swear at you. So rude and incredibly unprofessional.

Some police officers are just dicks op.

Don't worry the more you drive the more your confidence will grow.

Thanks stressed mom

@Stationclare

No of course I don't want that. I do accept my mistakes!!

So what is the point of all this angst?

The only thing i can think of in that situation is that you pulled out directly in front of the police officer and almost caused an accident. Perhaps he was frightened in that moment by a near miss, especially if he was traveling at speed. Either way it's a lesson learnt to check you mirrors and blind spot thoroughly before you change lanes.

You are clearly nuts

Thank you for illustrating my point

The point is I was unsure of what i had done so initially posted to try and make sense of it
There's no angst, Just i was overthinking it in my head. No one wants to think they did something shit do they?

Prettypass
Stop being a wind up merchant.

I asked for advice on mistake. I made as an inexperienced driver.
Someone said I was delicate so I said not really, I'm quite feisty. Maybe wrong choice of word. I'm confident.

Everything I say is twisted.
I said I'm a safe driver-told no your not. You're driving a piece of metal around. Thats dangerous!!
Jesus!!!

OP what are you going on about your race and class and personality and the fact you usually get on with the police ad though they're homogenous, for

Crikey, you say yourself you're not overly confident driving, clearly some minor incident has happened that resulted in absolutely nothing. They haven't pulled you over, thankfully you didn't cause a crash or hinder their emergency journey. Nothing will happen as they've not pulled you over - I can understand being a bit shaken but why so much fuss? Why let yourself be drawn into personal arguments over it or have to justify to strangers you are 'actually' rather 'feisty'(awful term with grim sexist connotations) For all we know, you misheard, or indeed, did something very dangerous that you missed and are lucky to have not been fined or crashed.

Or, he swore, shouldn't have but...what...you want everyone to encourage you to do your best to report him for upsetting and embarrassing you. Do it if you want, you don't need others permission. I think the police probably have enough on their plate though. I'd just get on with the day.

Unless they had sirens on already they Should have stopped you and explained what you did wrong. They shouldn’t have sworn at you - They are public servants and that is very unprofessional

Blimey
You lot like to let rip.
I only mentioned police/race/class as several posters have suggested I 'lip read ' wrong and the policeman did not swear.
And that i wouldnt lie it's a boring story that a policemen swore.

I was trying to illustrate that i have no issue with the police or obeying the law when I said I've only had positive experience with police.

Am I the only person who has ever done something bad whilst driving but not been clear, as an experience driver what it is.
The aggressive/non aggressive policeman.is a separate issue.

@heartsonacake

On that stretch of the road im mostly aware of keeping to the left and not getting anywhere near the knobs racing on the left.

You need to be aware of everything going on around you, not just one particular bit. Inexperience isn’t an excuse for unsafe driving.

This kind of advice isn't useful.

No one can be aware of everything, it's not possible. The brain always has to filter sensory information or it becomes overwhelmed. It's why little kids can find new situations so difficult. Adults have usually learned what's important to pay attention to and the rest is filtered out.

The biggest problem for new drivers is they don't yet have a good sense of what is important and what isn't so they are trying to pay attention to everything, especially in a new area or difficult stretch of road. So their attention is too dispersed and it's much easier to miss something. Once they have more experience they will be able to focus more on what is important and notice anomalies more easily and automatically. They will also be able to predict problems further ahead.

OP - what I would suggest is that if you have to drive that road regularly, practice it more often, and maybe try a few times when it is going to be simple and easy, when traffic will be quiet. If you know the road better you can then spend your focus on what is going on on the road in busier times.

Also try mentally driving through it, anticipating problems and solutions. There are some things you learn with experience that are best in certain environments which may seem to go against the regular rules. For example, although normally you drive in the left lane if at all possible, in a high traffic area where you know cars tend to park up that lane, it might be best just to get in the right lane from the start and stay there until you have passed the area where they regularly block the way. Remember that every time you change lanes, there is a risk to that - so sometimes it can be better to stay put rather than repeatedly change.

These are the kinds of judgement calls that become easier with driving more regularly and also knowing the area you are driving in.