To be shocked at how aggressively people drive?

[CheerfulBunny]

Just moved into a small village and our front door opens onto the street which has a narrow path both sides. There are parked cars on our side of the street meaning that vehicles have to wait if another vehicle is coming the other way. Our house is listed so single glazed so can hear road noise much more now.
I'm absolutely flabbergasted at how aggressive the driving I've observed is - mounting the pavement, accelerating madly, revving engines, blaring horns. It's completely inappropriate to drive so fast from and to the end of the road where you could meet another vehicle head on. I honestly fear for pedestrians as well. I'd really be worried if I had a cat or dog (if it accidentally got out).
AIBU to be concerned? Why is everyone so impatient and angry behind the wheel now?

It's honestly awful. Only 3 weeks ago I was riding my horse back to the stable, we have to go down a road in a village for 5 mins to get from the bridle path back to the stable, it's the only time we're on the road. In those 5 minutes, a speeding car hit us, killed my horse and nearly killed me.

Since getting back in my car and driving this past few days I've been very nervous of other drivers after the trauma of being run over and every time I've driven I've ended up in tears and had to pull over. I've been aggressively tailgated and had horns blaring at me for 45 going round windy narrow bends on a national speed limit road despite doing the speed limit on the straight stretches, I had a horn blared at me for slowing down to turn a corner !? I've been overtaken on a blind bend which scared the life out of me and cars have been so close to me I can't see their number plates in my rear view mirror. It's horrific out there.

I'm really sorry about your horse, the poor thing and your trauma - I live near stables and will always stop and turn my engine off if a horse is coming towards me or I hang right back and drive a lot slower and just wait, if I'm behind a horse.

My husband is exactly the same as me, when he's driving near horses.

Too many people drive dangerously and stupidly and it's all ages and all kinds of people who do it.

I hope the person who caused your accident is found and prosecuted and that you recover well and soon.

Thank you! So few drivers are safe around horses.

It was a very old man who claimed he didn't see us, which he obviously didn't because he didn't even brake there were no skid marks he just hit us at full speed. My horse was a huge draft horse, pure white and I was wearing hi Viz and waving at him shouting slow down. How the fuck he didn't see us is mystifying. He's either fucking blind or just was looking where he was going and was looking at something else. I hope they take his licence off him if the stupid old bastard is thatblind and dangerous. I hope he sees my horse on his bonnet every time he closes his eyes for the rest of his life, because that's all I see when I close my eyes now.

Now when people drive aggressively around me it makes me so so angry because they clearly won't ever give a shit until they kill someone. Like me or my horse!! I have a 4 month old baby, she nearly didn't have a mum and these people driving like wankers couldn't care less. Disgusting.

@BalletCat OMG that’s awful! Your poor horse and poor you. He must have done awful damage to his car hitting a big horse like yours. Hopefully the police take away his licence.

but yes OP, I’ve been thinking the same thing. Yesterday I hopped out the car leaving my husband driving, there was no one behind us. I got on the pavement and started walking and realised the slack of my seat belt had got caught in the door and it wouldn’t shut properly. So my husband leaned over opened the door and shut it again. Meanwhile someone had zoomed up behind hi and started beeping. So impatient for having to wait maybe 5 seconds for DH to free the seatbelt and move on! Beep beep beep.

@BalletCat I am so sorry to read what happened to you and your poor horse. I cannot image how traumatic that was. 💐

There was a horrible accident a few miles away in the middle of the day. Four car pile up. A woman dead and two arrested for dangerous driving.

Like you say @CheerfulBunny .... It's pretty much every time one leaves the house.

I've driven 30 miles today. All fairly short journeys on A and B roads. I've been tailgated, undertaken, had to sound my horn at someone who wasn't going to stop on the roundabout and going to plough into me (daily occurrence as it's the one near me).....and on Saturday...a woman in the supermarket carpark drove at me and my child at some speed and wasn't going to stop. I had to jump out of the way. Just utter belligerence.

@BalletCat So sorry to hear about your experience, that's awful. I love horses but haven't ridden for many years. We get horses going past the house, I think there are some schools nearby. I was hoping to get back into it at some stage.

That's awful! It's terrifying isn't it, you can drive perfectly safely and still be killed by some dickhead who doesn't care. People don't seem to realise they are driving a lethal weapon.

I live in Milton Keynes and the driving here is terrifying. It's pretty much all 70mph roads, and god forbid you don't hit 70 immediately coming off a roundabout, you'll have some aggressive tailgater driving up your arse. It can be really frightening.

YANBU to be concerned.

A number of factors I would suggest- more powerful cars, the influence of some motoring programmes, the almost ending of traffic police, and the courts believing and even being allowed to consider bleeding heart stories and as a result not banning drivers for long periods. Motoring crimes should be called that and not motoring offences.

Here she is! She was only a (very big) baby, had 20 years left 😭

Please tell me the driver's going to court.

I'm sorry about your horse, hope that you're ok.

Simple reason is that the police don't care anymore. They glibly ignore bad driving, red light hopping, overtaking on central white lines, etc. The only way bad drivers are challenged is when they cause an accident, or when they get caught by a rare and random "initiative" where loads of constables are targeting a particular road or a particular law such as mobile phones, drink driving or no seatbelts. Otherwise, the random constables driving around are blind to virtually everything! "Not my job, Guv" these days - those who aren't traffic police are no longer interested in anything related to cars - probably so dumbed down, they don't even know the traffic laws.

I’m always shocked by how fast some people take blind corners in particular - like they don’t expect anything to be around the corner - no pedestrians, horse riders, cyclists, broken down vehicles, trees across the road etc etc
Whatever happened to ‘always drive so you can stop in the distance you see to be clear’?
Doesn’t seem to be a thing for many drivers now or else they grossly underestimate their stopping distances and reaction times.

But as for not seeing a horse and rider at all, the mind just boggles. Thst’s truly awful @BalletCat 🙁

In the last week I've had a van behind me beep at my for taking an extra couple of seconds to work out if I could turn at lights that weren't working.

A car beep at me for having to slow down to turn right.

Being on a dual carriageway where everyone has pulled to the sides to allow an ambulance to pass and some guy trying to follow it down at speed instead of allowing the traffic to regain their position on the road, nearly going into the back of someone.

I think these drivers must be causing themselves so much stress that it must be bad for their health.

That is truly heartbreaking - I'm really sorry.
I hope he's haunted by it too for the rest of his life - he should voluntarily give up his licence but idiots like that never do.

Oh she was beautiful - poor darling :(

I was actually tailgated by a police van last week. Nobody understands what stopping distance is anymore. They don't care.

@BalletCat I am so so sorry for the loss of your horse, I am a fellow rider and I know just how bad the roads can be now. I got into a bit of a row with some neighbours at the weekend as we have woods behind our home with a stables on the other side, they were moaning about the horses being ridden in the woods and "churning" the ground up and that they have to put their dogs on lead when they see them. I said "where do you expect people to ride? The roads aren't safe anymore" obviously they have no answer to that question but I also pointed out I'd rather meet a horse on the tracks through the woods as they are always friendly and polite unlike some of the cyclists and dog walkers who churn the ground up just as much if not more so. I truly hope you can recover from such a horrific thing

Absolutely the roads are not safe. We had to go down the road the stables were on to get to the off road riding. We would be out for hours and only 10 mins of it would be on the road, obviously 10 mins was too long! Stay safe and stay off the roads x

Poor darling.
No defence of the driver, but as a warning for us all- the brain processes what the eyes see, and much of that is based on previous experience and expectation. You see what the brain expects to see based on a snapshot of information from your eyes. I think as we age we just aren’t as flexible and responsive. We are more limited in our expectations. Things like, not being able to see the butter bang smack in the middle of the fridge because it’s not on the right shelf.

I agree it’s appalling out there. Braking distance seems to be a foreign concept now. I think we need the old public information campaigns again.

It’s a nightmare if you drive a small car. DD has a corsa and when I drive it the difference in men with small penis’s peoples driving is incredible… intimidating, honking, aggressive over taking and generally being vile. I don’t get any of that when driving my van or DH’s Audi, and my driving is exactly the same.

It's dreadful. Speeding on my round is way over the limit. Average speed confirmed by the council but nothing ever done about it. And good luck pulling out of anywhere! No one will let you out! It's crazy.

On the flip side, drive on the motorway and the middle lane is held up by people doing 60 for no reason!

Exactly right. I made the mistake of buying a small car two years ago. I won't do again.

@BoobyDazzler I would agree with that I normally drive a Jaguar i had a Hyundai hire car after a minor prang (neighbour reversed into me) the way I was treated by other drivers was markedly different! DH says I was imagining it but I definitely wasn't I was tailgated, cut up, beeped at which rarely happens when I'm in my Jaguar

I sometimes drive back home over the peak district in the dark with the kids in the back of the car - it's a route I know well and I'm not a slow driver, but it's very twisty turny with lots of blind bends. One time there was a large van tailgating me for ages and I was really scared it would go into the back of me if I had to suddenly slow. I eventually turned off and saw it pass behind me - and it was an ambulance! It had no flashing lights or siren or anything otherwise I would have pulled over of course. I couldn't believe how close it had been driving.