Mole wrote:
There is, however, a subtle variation on this ... my late boss had a Volvo 850 T5 - pretty quick in it's time. He was, however, a less than "accomplished" driver ... just on the edge of the Pennines, these nearly always started and finished with a run across the moors on NSL single carriageways. He would drive INFURIATINGLY slowly on any stretch that wasn't poker striaght. This would lead to a long line of vehicles (and a few hedgehogs!) stuck behind him waiting to overtake. As soon as we'd get to a straight, you'd see the right indicator on the next vehicle behind us go on and then my boss would accelerate and the poor sod behind would (nearly always) have to fall back and resume his frustration as soon as we got to another bend and we slowed right down.
Now, I'm all in favour of people driving within their limits and not being intimitated into going ANY faster than they feel competent to.
BUT ONLY when they do so courteously. I really felt for those poor sods behind us! Having a car capable of decent straight-line acceleration, he'd leave them no chance to get past on the straights.
Now here's the interesting bit, HE thought he was doing them a favour by getting out of their way. He felt that he WAS driving courteously!
I'm also in favor of people driving within their limits. However, since people are generally either ignorant of their limits, or taught and filled with
"Lowest Common DUHnominaor"
dogma in such a way as to artificially lower them, it follows that they are usually ignorant of how many discourtesies they commit in any given timeframe.
Many lack the ability to believe they are even CAPABLE of discourtesy, while we wait for an oppurtunity to put them behind us.