Safe Speed Forums

Why? If you hit a fox, badger, deer etc. or even a pheasant it can put a bloody big dent in your car.

There isn't much that really bothers me - life's too short, and I'd rather be concentrating on my own driving than getting worked up about the incompetencies of others. But there are a few things that occasionally elicit a quietly muttered rude word...

- People who don't follow the lane markings on complex junctions (e.g. M40 J4 Handy Cross) and then slice across your path at the last minute. You can often spot them by their "body language" but sometimes it requires drastic action to avoid a shunt.

- People who are clearly lost, or looking for a side road, and dawdle along main roads at 20mph instead of pulling over while they get their act together. Usually followed by sudden braking then a useless last-second signal.

- People who don't bother to signal when turning left at mini roundabouts - you wait for them, then they peel off before they get to you.

- People who drive in lane 3 of a 4-lane motorway when lanes 1 and 2 are both empty.

1. JCBs doing a steady 25 in an NSL and wondering why there's a queue behind them.

2. People who whinge about 4x4s without ever having driven one.

But mainly people who moan on and on and on and on about other road users!!

More to the point, what right do you have to kill or inflict painful and probably terminal injury on a living sentient creature purely because you're too lazy to shift your foot a couple of inches from the throttle to the brake pedal?

_________________
"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev

If you hit any of the following you must stop and/or report the accident

Horse, cattle ass, mule, sheep, pig (both varieties ) , goat or dog

1. Lane changing without indicating
2. Direction turns without indicating
3. Drivers refusing to check their blind spots before changing lane or direction (coupled with lack of indication)
4. Tailgating
5. Drivers undertaking and then pulling into my stopping distance
6. Chavs with bean can exhausts and chequered baseball caps
7. Car drivers who also happen to be parents who think they deserve priority parking spaces - it's their choice to have kids.

_________________
Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

Mine has got to be humps: even worse then cameras. How can they possibly justify putting in obstructions on a road which are known to cause serious damage and injury? At least with cameras you do have the choice to drive slower, but no matter what speed you brave a hump it can still rip a gash down the bottom of your car.

BottyBurp

7. Car drivers who also happen to be parents who think they deserve priority parking spaces - it's their choice to have kids.

I dont think I deserve a priority parking space, what I need is a wider space when I am extracting my toddler from her car seat. As I stated earlier:-

Dont be surprised if a mother bangs her door into your car whilst attempting to extract her child from a car seat whilst parked in a normal space because some selfish twat has parked in one of the few parent and child spaces.

Now if you are happy to have dents down the side of your car thats fine with me, personally I think its better to provide wider spaces for whoever needs them.

_________________
Nick

Nothing surprises me these days! I won't park in disabled spaces, but others are fair game... How will a mother know to bang her doors against mine? Do parents have some special windscreen display card?

_________________
Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

BottyBurp

I was using the "royal" you, not specifically you.

For sure no one is going to target your car specifically, but I assume that your "fair game" comment means that you prefer to park in these spaces thereby increasing the risk to others cars and making it more difficult for parents to load/unload their kids (I know - not your problem).

For all those who have childeren the benefits of wider spaces are self evident, for those who simply use them becauce its more convenient is just like the majority of people buying 4x4's for "safety". Your safety decreases mine, your convenience increases my inconvenience.

I'm all right Jack

_________________
Nick

Cyclists who don't know that there are four pages in the Highway Code that specifically relate to them.

People who pull out onto the M-Way carriageway from the hard shoulder without building up speed first.

Nutters who overtake at traffic lights.

Ditto at roundabouts.

Tailgaters.

Drink-drivers.

Speed Cameras.

Traffic calming measures.

_________________
Anyone who tells you that nothing is impossible has never bathed in a saucer of water.

What if the wide spaces reserved for "mother and child" were the furthest away from the entrance? Would you use them then?

I would (to protect my car from thoughtless idiots) but the real point is "Apart from the disabled, should there be spaces reserved for any special interest group?"

I am quite in favour of supermarkets providing wide spaces near the door for their best customers: middle class customers with big cars who spend a lot each visit.

_________________
Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Malcom

Yes, the whole point is that you need to open the car doors as wide as possible to lift a child in or out, on some occasions when using a standard space I have to move the car part way out of the space thereby blocking the lane so I can get the kids in. Not really a problem for me but it does wind up some people who have to wait before they can get passed. Still if there was a wide space I could have used instead...............

_________________
Nick

Seconded...

_________________
Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

Handy Cross roundabout is lethal, but it's down to bad road design and misleading lane markings. If you get in the lane that the markings tell you to get in, you have no choice but to cut across traffic at some point.

When approaching the roundabout from the A404 Northbound, you have to get in the lane marked A4010 if you want Marlow Road Cressex, The lane marked Marlow Road Cressex if you want the A404 Wycombe, the lane marked A404 Wycombe if you want the M40(S), and M40(S) if you want to double-back. Obviously, most people who navigate the roundabout do not know of its "idiosyncrasies" and get misled by the lane markings. It's not their fault - go easy on them.

Thank God that roundabout is being re-engineered.

Still, I think I'll add "Locals who show no patience towards other drivers who don't know the roads as well as they do" to my list of annoyances.....

_________________
“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

Hear, hear...

_________________
Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

Hehe, I guess you're right there. But I was really thinking of the driver leaving the M40 northbound, getting into lane 1 of 4 on the slip road (clearly marked "A404 south"), then when the lights go green they decide to go straight on instead, and nearly take out all the folks in lane 2 who are also turning left! You have to watch out from all sides on that island.

But in terms of routine lane hopping as you progress around the island, it's not as bad as the M4/A33 at J11. If you are arriving on the A33 northbound and plan to take the M4 eastbound, there comes a point where you have to cut across TWO lanes to stay in the "correct" lane. It works if everybody does it, but it sure feels wrong when you do, which is why many don't.

People who "undertake" on the inside lane and then think they can cut in front of you at the last minute to make that right turn.
I (and everybody else) have had to join the queue, what makes you think you are so special?

People who don't bother to indicate they are turning right at traffic lights until AFTER you pull up behind them in that right hand lane.
Is it so difficult to turn your indicator on BEFORE you get to the junction fuckwit?

_________________
What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

yes - as a parent of 4, the oldest is 3, I think the parent and child spaces should be away from the entrance, perhaps Tesco in Cheshunt is a good example. As long as there are suitable walkways between the distant spaces and the shop, that is - doesn't take much, just some paint on the ground usually!

We often park away from the shop anyway, as it makes me laugh to see people fighting for those spaces in the near quarter of the shop and to trundle past into the vast open hinterland of tarmac and choose to park where I like!



The supermarkets think the fertile spend more money than the barren? Clubcard data certainly suggests that is true. I bet our weekly shop costs more than the national average, probably up there in the top 20%!

_________________
COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Agreed, humps are the single worst thing on the roads

What we need is the "Paul Smith of the hump"

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed