What on the roads has annoyed you today?

[Parafox]

On 31/05/2025 at 09:31, The Bear said:

Nobody is perfect John. Even when it comes to driving. All it takes is a tiny mistake combined with some bad luck to let things like this happen. Small lapses in concentration are going to happen all the time. 99.9999% of the time they won't matter, but everybody's luck runs out eventually. 

 

I consider myself a good driver for awareness and anticipation of what's happening on the road in front of me (and behind me). Doesn't mean I haven't made mistakes or had small bumps in the past. You drive for long enough, bad luck and the wrong circumstances catch up with you eventually.

 

I seriously wouldn't worry about it too much. 

 

 

 

On 01/06/2025 at 11:46, Bellend Sebastian said:

I'd add that there's a lot of luck involved in driving and on another day the 'mistake' you've made doesn't have any consequences whatsoever. I've known plenty of people that have consistently driven like cretins and convinced themselves they're GREAT at driving when what they are is lucky. Being overly cautious behind the wheel isn't helpful, but over confidence and forgetting that anything bad can ever happen is much, much worse.

 

Yes, it's a ball ache but I'd file this one under 'regrettable but if that's as bad as it gets I'll take that'. You may need a new folder for that

 

I disagree.

 

I know you might say blue lights and sirens might give some protection but trust me, avoiding colliding with some drivers who don't have a clue what to do combined with arrogance and ignorance, and plain stupidity, I still find it surprising that I have driven ambulances and response cars for over 30 years and never had an accident, ever. And I don't put that down to luck. 

 

So much of driving is about complete awareness, anticipation, defensive driving, hazard awareness. It's not just getting in the car and driving to X destination. I maintain, if you can't remember at least 50% of your journey, you haven't been aware for the other 50%.

 

For the general public, driver training is just about adequate enough to let people get behind the wheel, but once that test is passed there's no progression. Most drivers will have skill fade once they've passed because they don't have to be "on it" in front of an examiner any more.

Edited 18 June 2025 by Parafox

[ftfagos]

Watching how the GBP tackle a mini roundabout tells you all you need to know about the state of driving in the UK.

[The Bear]

1 hour ago, Parafox said:

 

 

I disagree.

 

I know you might say blue lights and sirens might give some protection but trust me, avoiding colliding with some drivers who don't have a clue what to do combined with arrogance and ignorance, and plain stupidity, I still find it surprising that I have driven ambulances and response cars for over 30 years and never had an accident, ever. And I don't put that down to luck. 

 

So much of driving is about complete awareness, anticipation, defensive driving, hazard awareness. It's not just getting in the car and driving to X destination. I maintain, if you can't remember at least 50% of your journey, you haven't been aware for the other 50%.

 

For the general public, driver training is just about adequate enough to let people get behind the wheel, but once that test is passed there's no progression. Most drivers will have skill fade once they've passed because they don't have to be "on it" in front of an examiner any more.

Agreed. I'm one of those people if I see young kids walking or messing about near the kerb I always slow down and keep my eye on them. Only takes one silly moment for one of them to jump out in front of you. 

[Tuna]

26 minutes ago, ftfagos said:

Watching how the GBP tackle a mini roundabout tells you all you need to know about the state of driving in the UK.

What is GBP

[FoxesDeb]

1 minute ago, Tuna said:

What is GBP

Great British Public I guess

[Tuna]

4 minutes ago, FoxesDeb said:

Great British Public I guess

That's what I thought tbf!

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, Parafox said:

 

 

I disagree.

 

I know you might say blue lights and sirens might give some protection but trust me, avoiding colliding with some drivers who don't have a clue what to do combined with arrogance and ignorance, and plain stupidity, I still find it surprising that I have driven ambulances and response cars for over 30 years and never had an accident, ever. And I don't put that down to luck. 

 

So much of driving is about complete awareness, anticipation, defensive driving, hazard awareness. It's not just getting in the car and driving to X destination. I maintain, if you can't remember at least 50% of your journey, you haven't been aware for the other 50%.

 

For the general public, driver training is just about adequate enough to let people get behind the wheel, but once that test is passed there's no progression. Most drivers will have skill fade once they've passed because they don't have to be "on it" in front of an examiner any more.

Well, you can reduce risk down to a level by being on top of those things, certainly and maybe largely eliminate the chance of causing an accident, but you can't eliminate being in one, can you? When someone drove into the back of me while waiting at the lights near Braunstone Leisure centre there wasn't a thing I could do about that, and that that has  happened to me but not the hundreds of thousands of other drivers who've waited there without some div hitting them because they're chatting to their girlfriend and not looking at the road properly is down to their good fortune

[The Bear]

With so many other users on the road luck will always play a part. As Parafox is saying though, you try and mitigate that as much as possible by being aware of as as many things as you can. 

Edited 18 June 2025 by The Bear

[HighPeakFox]

Tossers in large new cars, not signalling right at a roundabout. One today could not have really complained had someone driven into him.

 

And (and I know I have mentioned this before) people signalling right at roundabouts and going straight ahead. Baffling.

[NAKC20]

2 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

Tossers in large new cars, not signalling right at a roundabout. One today could not have really complained had someone driven into him.

 

And (and I know I have mentioned this before) people signalling right at roundabouts and going straight ahead. Baffling.

People not indicating full stop. I followed a car a couple of days ago for around 5-6 miles that must have included at least 7 T Junctions/cross roads and not once did he indicate. The driver was an oldish guy possibly late 60s early 70s and i even got to the point where i flashed him and waved my arms left to right and i could see him looking at me in his mirror and he looked bemused by the whole thing

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Supervising a student on her way to St Helen's for a test and there's a car in front with the hazards on, so I advise my student to change lanes as soon as it's safe to do so. 

 

The car was using its hazards to inform us it was about to turn left into a concealed entrance.

 

Your brake lights and left signal will tell us so much more about your intentions. People are so bad at appropriate signals.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Coming back to Leicester on the A47 and overtaking a vehicle on one of the many crawler lane sections only to see coming head on a car that had cross the double unbroken lines to overtake, of all things, a motorbike.

 

Some people shouldn't be allowed on the road.

 

Oh, and it was a BMW, of course.

[Crinklyfox]

Narrowly avoided a collision on the M5.  I was in a reasonably fast moving queue of traffic in the inside lane designated as the exit lane for the next junction when a van alongside me in the next lane decided that he needed the exit lane too and just turned left into me.  Only hard braking on my part kept us apart.  Either he didn't notice me or didn't care.

[The Bear]

1 hour ago, Crinklyfox said:

Narrowly avoided a collision on the M5.  I was in a reasonably fast moving queue of traffic in the inside lane designated as the exit lane for the next junction when a van alongside me in the next lane decided that he needed the exit lane too and just turned left into me.  Only hard braking on my part kept us apart.  Either he didn't notice me or didn't care.

If you've got a dashcam, report him and upload the clip to the police on their website. 

[JonnyBoy]

People just genuinely don’t know how to drive and I’m sure it’s getting worse. I must pass multiple drivers daily who must not have a driving license.

[JonnyBoy]

On 19/06/2025 at 19:13, HighPeakFox said:

Tossers in large new cars, not signalling right at a roundabout. One today could not have really complained had someone driven into him.

 

And (and I know I have mentioned this before) people signalling right at roundabouts and going straight ahead. Baffling.

this is peak barrow upon soar as you come over the bridge and take first roundabout towards Quorn. 

[ftfagos]

1 minute ago, JonnyBoy said:

People just genuinely don’t know how to drive and I’m sure it’s getting worse. I must pass multiple drivers daily who must not have a driving license.

There’ll be a fair few of these on drugs 

[The Bear]

Driving licenses need to go digital the same way your insurance and MOT is automatically checked when you tax the vehicle. 

 

Any time you send off a V5 to transfer a vehicle to your name, your driving license should be automatically checked by the DVLA. 

[adam1]

Sunday. Car next to me on the A46 drifts into my lane.

 

The reason for the drift was to avoid a collision with an idiot doing about 100mph (based on how quick they went past/pulled away) on the slip road to join the 46.

 

Person in the car next to me realised that they were not going to stop and that it would be safer to partially drift into my lane.

 

The car speeding uses the whole length of the slip and their tyres are borderline on the grass at the side of the road at the end. This is because there was a limited gap to get through.

 

This car then speeds off to almost rear end another car further up the road, forcing them out of the lane.

[ALC Fox]

I'm doing 70 in the inside lane of the southbound M1 last night. The road is very quiet, it's an easy drive. I'm approaching junction 22 and about start going past the slip road when a car in the middle lane pulls alongside me, suddenly indicates and drifts into my lane, causing me to brake heavily to allow them across so they can leave the motorway at junction 22.

 

Clearly someone wasn't paying attention and only just realised that their junction was coming up, but it just baffles me why they couldn't have just eased off and let me go past instead of suddenly trying to sideswipe me off the road.

[RonnieTodger]

Not signalling is annoying, but at mini-roundabouts it’s infuriating.

[Free Falling Foxes]

Twice in 3 days I've had a car exiting a car park that drives straight across the pavement, without checking anyone is walking along said path., narrowly missing me

They then stop to check no cars are coming before pulling out onto the road.

TRY STOPPING TO CHECK NO ONES COMING ALONG THE PAVEMENT TOO, YOU TWONKS

 

[adam1]

Driving around j21a at 15mph. Then joins the A46 at 35mph. 

 

Licence revocation for the old lady in the Yaris

[Trav Le Bleu]

Modern cars with teeny teeny indicators that you can barely see in bright conditions.

 

Seems to be a bit of a trend.

[UniFox21]

On 04/07/2025 at 09:02, RonnieTodger said:

Not signalling is annoying, but at mini-roundabouts it’s infuriating.

I don't believe most that use them anyway at mini roundabouts, I just assume they've wrongfully hit it.