Are drivers getting dumber?

in actual fact he know owed me however much money it would take to fix the wing mirror, passenger door and front wing that he has smashed in.
He grabbed his bike and buggered off.

So somebody rode in to somebodys car, a but of an arguement, cyclist does one on his bike……….did driver not see this coming??

I’ve got third party insurance. I don’t need to run away and I don’t care who I hit because my insurance will pay out and it won’t cost a single penny extra 😀

Insurance for all! 😉

Bails…..you’re not a dumb cyclist then, insurance good idea!

I don’t care who I hit because my insurance will pay out and it won’t cost a single penny extra

You really haven’t grasped the concept of insurance, have you? ❓

He can talk! He can’t be dumb.

I’ve long been of the opinion that driving should require regular testing. Had to do my theory test for motorbike last week and it does at least mean I had to revise a few things first.

Every five years?

Rachel

Every five years?

Every crash ?

I’m certainly getting dumber by the day.

Drivers are all different – some are stupid (dumb for Americans), some are arrogant, some are lazy, some are incompetent. (etc).
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more and more of these traits as the years have gone by.
So: Yes.

If dumber means “thinking less/not at all” then yes, I think so. But it seems to me that generally there is a lot less thinking going on these days.

I have a theory about this but it is without the scope of this thread.

Agree with Rachel, drivers (and I am one sometimes) should be re-tested regularly. In fact the police should be able to stop any driver, any time, and ask three questions from The Highway Code, all to be answered correctly, failure = a fine/points, repeated failure = disqualification.

And that includes all of you drivers out there who regularly, without fail, overtake me and pull into the braking distance space* I have left between me and the car in front of me.

* and this is not even big enough, if I kept the correct distance TWO cars would squeeze into it GRRRR

Are drivers getting dumber?

No.

You really haven’t grasped the concept of insurance, have you?

Why not? I accidentally cause damage, BC pays to put it right, I pay no excess and then next year I still pay the standard membership price.

The post was actually tongue in cheek, after thinking about how the drivers who call for all cyclists to be insured might end up with a different situation to the one they expect.

If cyclists are all insured then damaging a car has no financial repercussions and the driver is no longer arguing with a bloke on a bike, they’re arguing with his insurance company and their lawyers.

But it seems to me that generally there is a lot less thinking going on these days.

It doesn’t take “thought” to use indicators. I have to concentrate not to use them! And yet on roundabouts you only see about 1 in 6 or 7 cars indicating (correctly or at all). It’s just incompetence, laziness and ignorance.

Every five years?

would be nice

Every crash ?

should be mandatory but seeing as how you can K/SI someone and still walk out of court with your driving licence intact and not have to prove that you’re actually capable of driving safely, even for a 60minuite test, I don’t see either happening anytime soon.

I hate like the people who make the effort to get it completely wrong. Approach a roundabout in lane 1, end up going all the way round to the third exit without indicating, then flick the right indicator on whilst diving left to turn off.

did driver not see this coming??

As soon as the cyclist starting arguing saying that I knocked him off his bike I knew I was in a losing situation [edit- I was stopped at the traffic lights, handbrake on]. What was I to do though? Tackle him to the ground and march him to the police station or cash point?

And that includes all of you drivers out there who regularly, without fail, overtake me and pull into the braking distance space* I have left between me and the car in front of me.

* and this is not even big enough, if I kept the correct distance TWO cars would squeeze into it GRRRR

A couple of the things I learnt on my speed awareness course (mine was pretty good, I thought) were around realising how little some things matter – designed to help you stay relaxed while driving.

You’re driving from A to B at 60mph for one hour, and every minute, someone cuts in front of you into your 2 second gap. You drop back to to give yourself 2 seconds gap again. You get to B 60 seconds later. Hardly worth getting upset over, is it?

I don’t know how you’d get this sort of thing out there to more people. It’s worth a campaign, 5 little things like that to make people think a bit. It’s baffling and depressing to see how quick some people are to incandescant rage over things that will not impact their journey by even a millisecond. Like a cyclist existing near them, sometimes. Doesn’t do anyone any good at all.

I hate like the people who make the effort to get it completely wrong

there was a woman this morning in her little Fiat – didn’t occur to her to put her right indicator on to let people know she wanted to get into the right hand lane on the approach roundabout (to take the third exit)… no, she just hovered about next to me in the left lane with the obvious intention (to me) that she wanted to cut in… She ended up sneaking into the gap between me and the big lorry behind me half way round the roundabout. MORON!

And that includes all of you drivers out there who regularly, without fail, overtake me and pull into the braking distance space* I have left between me and the car in front of me.

Not this again… What Ned said or perhaps you’re driving like a granny? If someone overtakes you, where would you like them to go? Should they just vanish in a puff of smoke? You should allow them to pull in in front of you and if needs be, slow down a smidgen. It’s really not hard to get along on the roads.

Hardly worth getting upset over, is it?

I think it’s not so much the sixty seconds (tho if enough tossers pulled the same maneouvre you quickly get to 5mins….and longer….and longer) it’s the fact that for several seconds you have no safe braking space (and again, if more people do it there’s some more time without room to brake)

but yeah a campaign about it would be good. People know they drive too close tho, I see it on the m6, where it has chevrons indicating the safe distance everyone spaces out, as soon as they chevrons disappear they bunch up again. Daft

user-removed this is motorway stuff I’m talking about, people move in to a too small gap infront of you, either after overtaking you or in an attempt to overtake someone else, they should be waiting for a proper gap. If they’ve passed me in the 2nd or 3rd lane and there’s not enough room infront of me they should stay in the lane they’re in, not bully their way in and force me to slow down to try to regain a safe braking distance ahead of me, it’s shite driving.

Not “dumber” as such but definitely more impatient – which tends to lead to them pulling dumb manoeuvres like the woman yesterday who insisted on overtaking me (I was on the bike) even though we were coming up to a set of red lights or the back end of a traffic jam. She did it 3 or 4 times and each time within 5 seconds, I’d have gone past her again.

What Ned said or perhaps you’re driving like a granny? If someone overtakes you, where would you like them to go? Should they just vanish in a puff of smoke? You should allow them to pull in in front of you and if needs be, slow down a smidgen. It’s really not hard to get along on the roads

Can I just say: Oh piss off! The reason these impatient twonks overtake is because they think they have to get in front all the time likes it’s some kind of race. A race to the junction where a few seconds later they will be sitting in the same queue. Why can’t they just go behind and drive in the left lane for a tiny bit longer? I get it all the time – massive gap behind me but they pull alongside 200metres before the junction they want to get off at and indicate, expecting me let them in. MORONS!

I’ve long been of the opinion that driving should require regular testing. Had to do my theory test for motorbike last week and it does at least mean I had to revise a few things first.

This – and the initial test should also include a test of intelligence.

My parents are both in their 70s and both still drive. They both passed their tests in the late 1950’s. Their standard of driving is not up to scratch. I positively avoid letting them drive me anywhere because I just don’t feel safe with either one of them at the wheel.

I would happily take my driving test every five years, if only to prove a point to everyone else.

Impatience is definitely on the increase on the roads, as it is in modern life in general. On the way to Croyde at the weekend I saw some shocking overtaking manoeuvres that simply got the driver one vehicle in front, they gained a couple of seconds at most. Why the hurry? Seriously, where are you going that is so important?

My own unscientific study of people wot I encounter while travelling about suggests that road users are getting dumber, if that’s defined as being evidenced by doing things that are dangerous to themselves and / or others, being inconsiderate and / or selfish and treating every journey like some sort of gladiatorial contest which must have a winner and a loser.

I include in this, as well as drivers, pedestrians.

And cyclists.

This is regarding cyclists not drivers but the dumb cyclists thread got moved to the bike section and either no one cares, or no ones read it.

It scared the hell out of me though so I had to share

Bad news today. I had to call an ambulance for a cyclist. He will be fine, just a little smashed up. Very bloody face, possible fractures on his left leg and right shoulder.

I was in a queue of traffic coming down towards the lights at the bottom of the hill, probably doing about 20 miles an hour. The cyclist was caining it down the white line in middle of the road and tried to cut accross the car behind me to make a left hand turn. No signals, no nothing. He didn’t have the speed to make the gap so got hit by the car and was bounced into the back of my car. He ended up falling on his bike and getting hit again by the car behind but at a much lower speed. I think all the damage had been done on the initial impact and then the impact into my car as well.

As I said, not critical but definitely bashed up. Just lucky he didn’t try that when the cars were going faster.

Cyclists of Bristol. Sort your selves out.

I wrote a piece about a fight with a motorist that you might enjoy[/url] or not 😉

That’s a really nice piece of writing. I like the pace and humor of it as well as the message. Good work. 😀

I wrote a piece…

I enjoyed it

well the subject matter was kinda depressing, but well written.

No I **** well don’t drive like a granny – on the other hand, I don’t drive like a **** either.

They certainly are in Newham East London

“Not this again… What Ned said or perhaps you’re driving like a granny? If someone overtakes you, where would you like them to go? Should they just vanish in a puff of smoke? You should allow them to pull in in front of you and if needs be, slow down a smidgen. It’s really not hard to get along on the roads. “
you should sodding well over take if you have no where to go. ****holes

Is there an “n’t” missing fromwhat last sentence Matt?