4 x 4 driver, dropping off privately educated boy outside my house, on the pavement, forcing my son out of the way!

[SlartyBartFast]

garrrr

he came out of the house, pissing down raining cats and dogs, to cross the road to catch the bus, this woman in a huge black 4 by 4 drove him off the pavement to drop off her precious
i was fuming.
despite being in my dressing gown i really wanted to go out and bang on her window

Oh squiby you are funny. how far from school do you live? I live 1 3/4 miles from school and my 6 and 9 year olds either cycle or walk and are happy to do so. When they get to school they are bright and awake and they know they have not contributed to unjustified polution. Unlike the people I am talking about who live just round the corner and drive to school in a w**r mobile,(Metatron)and dump their fat kids off before going 100 yards down the road to spinning class. They are so entertaining when they scream at each other for parking spaces and bump into lamp posts and cry. I wouldn't want to change them apart from how ridiculously dangerous they are on the roads!

are you in posh area?
don't know which private school from the many
cant differentiate which 4x4 from the many

Hi Scottish mummy If that was for me, I am not even at a private school. Just the local primary, but then that does feed into the "best" secondary school. but that's another debate!!

mychildsachild i live about 4 miles away. I drive in and my already bright, skinny and energetic child is full of beans from all the singing we do on the drive in with the sound at full volume . I park my w**nker mobile (sorry but lmfao) with everyone elses and we catch up and chat as opposed to scream and rant like chavs in the street. I then toddle of home as opposed to spinning class I am actually a childminder and so have a busy day full of activities with my mindee's before heading back to school to pick up by DD at home time. I am not sure where you get your description from but see you don't actually use a private school nor drive a 4 x 4 so I guessing its more sweeping generalisations?? Really dosen't matter either way as far as I will go back to my point that at the end of the day your opinion, nor that of anybody else has zero impact on how I conduct myself.

Why is there now an assumption that privately educated children whose parents drive 4 x 4s are fat?
My children are in fact quite skinny although god knows where they get that from as DH and I are both fat bastards, hence our need for a 4 x 4. (and the fact we have 4 x DC) In fact, we have two 4 x 4's, one where we are living abroad and one in the UK.

they should ban them really

I nearly got killed by one because the driver couldn't see me behind the car (on my bike - I was leaning forward over the bike cycling at the time). And he really couldn't see me - when you look out the back of those 4x4s, there's no way you could see something like a toddler standing directly behind you. They just are not made for city driving with pedestrians and cyclists etc.

The rear vision is far too poor.

Would love an X5, unfortunately they are $100k+ in Oz and DH tells me I don't look after my vehicles well enough to have one worth that kind of money. It is true, 5 mins in my possession and the inside looks like the inside of my handbag.

These stereotypes also don't take into account my neighbour who drives a brand new jaguar (drool) and drives it to the local state school to drop off her kids. What does this mean?!

No fat kids around here. All skinny little munchkins.

"they should ban them really"

cheers for that- i'll just live in the middle of bloody nowhere and not be able to get anywhere during the crap months of the year then????? (BTW we don't even have the option of food delivery- too dangerous for the vans apparently) Think before you make sweeping comments- some of us NEED a 4x4.

And anyway why were you so close behind a car on your bike?? don't you know the rule- if you can't see the mirrors they can't see you? If its all about rear vision should we also ban all vans, lorries, pickups and the ocado wagon ?????

Oh please don't ban them. None of our other cars will pull the horse box.

No banning the ocado wagon.

are you not capable of reading reallywoundup? They are not made for city driving is what I said. Where you live does not sound like a city.

And no, it is exactly your attitude that gets people killed on the road every day (my fault for not seeing the mirrors).

The 4x4 was reversing out of a drive so I didn't clock him as it happens.

It's a design problem with them. You cannot see out the back of them properly.

Ocado van and others have that annoying beeping sound when reversing exactly for that reason.

and I don't mean to be arsey but just wait till you're nearly mown down by one of these things!

countryside and farm life was what they were intended for.

I don't blame people for driving them but I think the manufacturers should be made to do something about the reversing problem because it is an issue if they are driven constantly in city environments. Also the extent of the injuries when hit by them (front or back on) is high because they hit you high up on your body.

I think it is perfectly ok to dislike the urban use of 4x4s, driven by people who have no countryside connection: they do pollute, they do pose more of a danger to pedestrians, they do take up a lot of space.

Fair enough.

But why this should make it ok to assume that any one person seen driving a 4x4 has got to have a certain mindset is beyond me.

That was a remark made by someone who thought she could get away with a bit of class bashing as long as it was directed upwards rather than downwards. And class bashing is never nice.

ah but foxinsocks- you didn't say ban them only for urban use did you! you just wanted them banned! And forgive me if i am wrong but transit vans (that ever present white van man!) have far less rear view as there are no windows full stop and i've not heard reversing beeps on the average (older model) transit or similar! therefore they must also be included in the 'banned urban vehicles' catagory surely?

Chelsea tracors are ridiculous but a blanket approach of "they are all evil" is not going to help legitimate users of such vehicles.

yes but the newer models do = progress in safety because people realised they were bloody unsafe!

I don't know how you can defend them for city driving but as you seem to think the whole thing is so hysterical I'll leave you to it and I hope no-one you know ever gets mown down by one.

Don't they have parking sensors tho surely? I can't see out the back of my people carrier either so will we need to ban all those as well? How will we transport our kids around - they'll have to make estate cars again.

I take pedestrian safety very seriously as my children are often pedestrians and I don't want then mown down or anybody else's children. But all you have to do is reverse very slowly and use the parking sensors isn't it - not that difficult is it?

Ah but Pag state schoolaprents swear at my disabled kids all the time too PMSL,and we're benefit scroungers

So like, can I get a whole new rung just for me then?

(No actually nobody has made an official complaint about ds1 since... erm yesterday).

OP- twunt driver, YANBU to be angry. Somebody tried something similar outside or state (actually Church but that would get thread really going pmsl) school and actually reversed into me; I have no memory of it, but was holding ds3 (severely asd) in my right hand: somehow I him out of the way between car reversing and hitting my right hand but no idea how.

Our car'snot a 4X4 but looks like one and comes as one as an option (Mitsubushi).

We have no aprking sensors, and I cannot see the rear towbar but as am uber careful driver (meaning paranoid) its never been an issue. I leave a good metre space every time rather than risk anything.

We do have countryside connection as it happens, but really banning 4X4'swouldn't take a lot of the big cars off the road- ones like mine would still be there.

Peachy.
You are entitled to a rung on the social ladder all of your own by virtue of being many many things - all of them lovely

The Social Workers on my MA seem to disagree with you,Pag- no idea why

and [not a bit surprised face]