Has anyone else noticed the sheer amount of road rage about recently?

[dinoma]

I do live in a city and one of the biggest issues is cars park on both sides meaning there’s only room for single traffic meaning a lot of cars meeting and reversing.

I have noticed the anger and rage, mouthing obscenities and hand gestures because someone else happens to be there.

I get the inconvenience of having to pull in or reverse back but I would never feel the need to aggressively stick my fingers up (or worse) or mouth something at another driver for simply using the same road.

I’m sure these people aren’t like this in their homes or businesses.

Because you keep saying they are inappropriate on country lanes!

And? Yes I know I’ve mentioned country roads. Like I said I took my driving test many moons ago, I don’t need you telling me what the signs mean. And my original point is nothing to do with country roads really, more to do with twatting behaviour of people holding traffic up for no real reason.

@Flyingintotheunknown I really can't be bothered to continue with someone who just wants to pick a fight. Someone going slower than you'd like is not knobbish. Of course things irritate me, but other people simply existing and living their lives is not one of them. So I'll leave it there.

Me picking a fight? It’s you who started quoting me and arguing with me and every time I respond you keep coming back for more and now you have nothing else to say you are now claiming you can’t be bothered! Ok 👍

Yes things irritate you and do something you don’t like and you think it’s ok to call them knobbish but anything someone else calls knobbish that you don’t agree with is all of a sudden not ok. Some double standards right there! Anyway yes please do leave it here!

I think there's a difference between just thinking something is knobbish and getting irritated to the extent of road rage by it. I think most of us just roll our eyes and Tut.

Where have I mentioned road rage? I was thinking more along the lines of knobbish myself. But yes you go and turn my posts into whatever narrative suits you 👍

Your posts read as quite ragey. Also, I thought that was what the thread was about.

It's not but they are not the ones getting angry

Oh really. Well you read them wrong then!

Its not about never getting irritated, but just control it behind the wheel

Jesus wept you make it sound like I’m this big raging buffoon! I’m a sensible driver, I stick to the speed limits and get slightly irritated by slow drivers as well as speeding arrogant drivers who think they own the road. Doesn’t mean I’m a danger behind the wheel! Give it a rest.

Can anyone link to the 'can't zip-feed on the motorway' thread?

Ive been driving for decades and the thing I notice most is that nobody drives with consideration for other road users. Nobody gives way, nobody indicates, nobody pulls over when they should, nobody drives within the limit, people cut you up...

The worst thing though is that people seem to have forgotten (or dont understand) how to indicate. They'll go around a roundabout and take the last turn but they'll indicate all the way around that theyre turning left, so you have no idea where theyre going. Indicators just ignored or blatantly wrong.

Its young people too, not older drivers.

Ticket prices are expensive because demand vastly exceeds supply. If they can fill trains at extortionate prices then why wouldn't they? HM Treasury insists on this too as intercity services cross-subsidise rural stopping trains, therefore reducing the subsidy required from the taxpayer.

You might ask why we don't just put more trains on to match demand, but the existing infrastructure cannot cope. That's what HS2 was supposed to solve, doubling capacity between Manchester and London as well as boosting many other flows. But Rishi Sunak decided that there's no need as his helicopter gets him there just fine.

I've recently got a dashcam. It's very relaxing knowing that if I have an accident because of not being able to avoid someone else's bad driving, it will at least be on record. OTOH, I'm also aware that my driving is being recorded, which does concentrate the mind.

There's a T junction I've been using for decades where most people turn right, across 4 lanes of traffic. That's fine because there's a traffic light. Unfortunately, just after the turn, but invisible from the traffic light, is a bus stop. The junction is a box junction, and the camera is always live. I know that if I see a bus go across the junction, I must take care when my light turns green that I don't get stuck behind the traffic that came from my left and is held up by the bus, or I will get caught on the box. So I wait at my (green) light until I see the traffic move. This often infuriates the drivers behind me who beep or lean on the horn or yell out of the window at me - it's like the Last Night of the Proms. But there's no way I'm going to get a fine. Occasionally a driver squeezes round me and then gets stuck on the junction. Satisfying.

Clearly, OP, YANBU. I'm actually tickled and weirdly reassured by some of the rage evident on this thread. I've noticed a deterioration in driving standards, and I'm not so arrogant as to imagine my own skills remain untainted. I was getting a bit worried, frankly, with DH's diminishing courtesy on the road, and wondered if it was a symptom of something concerning, but if it is, it's more of a collective phenomenon.
Maybe I should be neither tickled nor reassured.

Normally whoever’s side of the road is blocked is the one who should pull in and wait. That system seems to work well around here. It’s only when someone ignores this and tries barge past on the wrong side of the road that road rage can develop.

That happens a lot where I live. Usually men in big SUVs driving like a maniac who think it’s ok to bully others off the road!

Its not just driving, I speak to multiple businesses daily, the way I am spoken to is disgusting, id get fired if I spoke to people the same way.

With how people speak to each other I've noticed a lot more automated directories when calling places. I wonder if after "talking" to several of those before reaching a human some people are just carrying forward how they speak and forgetting it's a real person . Living in a very impersonal world changes us.

God yes. I had recent experience in bank when one of the staff didn't even let me finish single sentence, just kept directing me elsewhere. I was in the right counter which another found out after finally letting me finish my sentence!

Covid and driving
https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/01.wnl.0001051276.37012.c2

Sometimes learners do make sudden movements and with the best will in the world an instructor can't always predict that. Did the instructor take any action once the learner had done that? There are good and bad instructors everywhere but non of us can see what is happening inside a car. I suppose I have seen enough dashcam footage to see how people behave towards learners.

No the instructor took no action whatsoever that’s why I was in disbelief. It was really strange. I could have put it down to a general mistake if it wasn’t for the fact they were in a company learner car with a qualified instructor

Ok well at the very least you would expect the instructor to acknowledge a mistake was made and apologise. It happened to us once where a learner suddenly pulled out but at least the instructor slammed on the breaks and apologised.