A pair of idiots...

[AntonyH]

So there's this lass in a Fiesta, more or less in our boot. I can't see her number plate in any mirror, for a lot of the time.

 

I am already around / at the 30mph speed limit, which is being forcibly moderated by the traffic in front, to which I've left a sensible gap; a gap that's getting longer now that I have to allow a gormless and unsighted lass in a Fiesta to react within, as well as being able to stop myself.

 

Then we approach a give way, at which traffic is queuing. Also, there's a parked car in our lane. Between the far end of parked car and the back of the line of half a dozen queuing cars is a space just big enough to safely get our car in to, but absolutely nothing else.

 

So, I go around the parked car and pull back in, such that I'm not blocking the opposite lane and risking gridlocking the junction.

 

Turns out, the lass in a Fiesta was following us so closely because she physically cannot see more than 20 feet beyond her own dashboard! That explains it!

 

Or at least, I presume that's the case, because she follows me, then is forced to stop next to the parked car, blocking the opposite lane, which "suddenly"* becomes filled with oncoming traffic which now has nowhere to go and starts backing up towards the junction. I can only surmise that the line of queuing traffic was completely invisible to her when she set off around the parked car.

 

Ms Magoo cannot now reverse either, because the idiot in the Punto behind her has also blindly followed her into the opposite lane, and they won't back up because presumably they can't even see ten feet past their dashboard and can therefore not possibly appreciate why the Fiesta has stopped, or that there is anyone trying to come the other way. Or why anyone could possibly be beeping their horns.

 

Very fortunately, up at the junction, the traffic ahead of me is able to progress and gridlock is avoided.

 

Seriously, are people really *that* blind, or that inconsiderate (I presume she was in a desperate rush to get somewhere that she didn't care about anyone else being delayed, not that diving into a dead-end bottleneck actually sped her progress at all), or just that short of foresight and forethought? Really?

 

Actually, don't answer that. I already know the answer and it's just plain depressing.

 

 

 

Rant over. Well, this one. There was another idiot just a few minutes later, but he was an idiot in front of a marked squad car which then followed him, so hopefully he got an appropriate talking to. Sometimes there *is* a copper about when you need one!

 

 

*Ask an advanced driving instructor or a traffic cop about how often anything on a road happens "suddenly". Oncoming traffic on an urban street would seem pretty predictable and easy enough to anticipate, I would have thought.

[shn7]

There, you feel better now don't you 😬

[Jonathan Kay]

I seem to be see more people casually drifting to the wrong side of the road in built-up areas, and I'm particularly sensitive to it when I'm on a bike or the scooter because I can't be sure they've seen me coming the other way.

 

But I don't know if it's my awareness or their behaviour that's changed.

 

Jonathan

[shn7]

Could be both. More people drifting making you more aware of the problem.

[TobyCoulson]

Quoting Steve Newman: 

Could be both. More people drifting making you more aware of the problem.

Could the drifting be due to them being on a mobile phone I wonder.

[AntonyH]

Quoting Steve Newman: 

There, you feel better now don't you 😬

 

Yes, much, thanks!

 

....and breathe...

 

[Jonathan Kay]

Quoting TobyCoulson: 

Quoting Steve Newman: 

Could be both. More people drifting making you more aware of the problem.

Could the drifting be due to them being on a mobile phone I wonder.Could be: it doesn't feel like aggression or the pushiness that a few drivers show in dense slow traffic.

 

Jonathan

[chrisb]

This types of thing really annoys me as well.

Next pet hate is people crawling forward in the traffic just becuase the traffic light is green. Clearly no chance of clearing the junction due to the queue. Lights change, and the cross traffic then sits there blocked by these narrowminded idiots.

Grrrr

 

Too many people drive with the I'm alright for the next 10 seconds mentality, and not whats going to happen in 30 seconds or a minute.

 

Ahh better now...

 

 

[TobyCoulson]

I bet mumsnet doesn't get threads like this 😬

[shn7]

On mumsnet I guess it would have been entitled "A pair of t*ts"

[TobyCoulson]

Quoting Steve Newman: 

On mumsnet I guess it would have been entitled "A pair of t*ts"

😬

I suspect it would be thread about some bloke I was following left me stuck on the wrong side of the road next to a parked car.

[nicmac]

They get to use the F*** word 😳 😳

here

[Myles]

The street I have to use to get to our cul-de-sac always has cars parked down one side - this road is also the back road into one of the many stately-home type places here in Scottingland.

 

The local residents are all very good about the whole thing - everyone knows that traffic on the side the cars park has to hop between the gaps - and generally all passing drivers raise a hand in thanks.

 

From time to time, there are minor events on (Weddings, minor trade shows) that use the back road - you can always spot a visitor as they are totally oblivious to normal etiquette or standards of common sense and try to bludgeon their way through - often resulting in gridlock or pavement driving.

 

What particularly incensed me recently (bemused really as there really isn't much point in getting properly excited) was the behaviour of one driver behind me as we headed away from the country-house end. Before the long stretch with the parked cars, there is a traffic restrictor with priority given to incoming traffic. Immediately beyond this, there are usually two or so cars parked on the 'wrong' side of the road - the whole lot creates a chicane.

 

On this occasion, I'd commuted to the width restrictor - but then spotted incoming traffic - so I dutifully stopped before the two 'offside' parked cars - leaving enough space for the incoming cars to negotiate the chicane.

 

Muppet behind me must have thought, well, nothing really - he followed through the width restrictor, overtook me, swung through the parked-car chicane and then came to a dead stop when he came nose-to with the oncoming traffic.

 

I doubt it even registered with him.

[AntonyH]

Quoting TobyCoulson: 

Quoting Steve Newman: 

On mumsnet I guess it would have been entitled "A pair of t*ts"

😬

I suspect it would be thread about some bloke I was following left me stuck on the wrong side of the road next to a parked car.

 

😬 😬