mattleonard Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 When I was learning to drive, I seem to remember that it was stressed that you should take extra care in dangerous conditions, like ice etc. When the snow fell, and for a few days afterwards most of the people I saw seemed to be driving really carefully, and well. But now much of the snow has melted the attitude of a lot of people seems to be "Yippee!!! I can ditch my highway code and common sense and start behaving like a pratt." The standard of driving I've seen over the past couple of days has been perhaps the worst I've ever seen, and much of it would be dangerous and idiotic even if there wasn't ice about. For example, yesterday morning the guy who decided to pull onto Abbeydale Road 2 metres in front of me - if I hadn't slammed on the brakes we would have crashed. Or the guy yesterday evening who went straight through a red light at the junction of Abbeydale and Woodseats Roads, and when he realised that he wasn't going to be able to exit, chose to sit in the middle of the junction blocking it for everyone, rather than reversing to the space they'd vacated. or the guy this morning who was beeping the guy in front of him because he was stupid enough to not go through a red light. The rush-hour traffic hasn't been helped by all the buses not being able to use bus lanes because it seems that parking regulations have been suspended and a state of emergency declared. When the roads were full of snow it made sense that people's cars were stuck in their spaces and they hadn't been able to dig them out - fair enough. But now people seem to think "Oh, there's a bit of snow about - I can park on a single-or-double-yellow/in-a-bus-stop. Nevermind that there's no snow on the road at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecanary Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Have to agree with this. Althought the majority of drivers seem to have behaved sensibly, I've seen some absolutely shocking examples of driving these last few days, not least being aggressively tail-gated and gesticulated at for driving carefully on a very icy road (a steep cul de sa with a narrow space between parked cars, not a major thouroughfare, I might add!). Hopefully sanity will return shortly.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonny5 Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 You get stupid people in all walks of life and they are everywhere. They aren't suddenly going to get and IQ over 80 just because they get behind the wheel of a car. Just have to try and ignore them. But its not nice having some knuckle head on your bumper in icy conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattleonard Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 You get stupid people in all walks of life and they are everywhere. They aren't suddenly going to get and IQ over 80 just because they get behind the wheel of a car. Just have to try and ignore them. But its not nice having some knuckle head on your bumper in icy conditions. I agree, but what's really weird is that it seems to have got worse in recent days, as if people are using the thaw to behave more like idiots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User Name: Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Yes, yesterday was awful with the sun shining on the road, worst I've ever seen it. People were driving like total cocks. I have to saw, mostly, in my experience it was people who didn't own the vehicle they were driving, van drivers, company car driver etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiSiSi Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Yes, yesterday was awful with the sun shining on the road, worst I've ever seen it. People were driving like total cocks. I have to saw, mostly, in my experience it was people who didn't own the vehicle they were driving, van drivers, company car driver etc. People driving large vehicles (in which they are relatively safe) that they don't personally own have always been a problem on the roads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattleonard Posted December 10, 2010 Author Share Posted December 10, 2010 People driving large vehicles (in which they are relatively safe) that they don't personally own have always been a problem on the roads. Oh, this makes me think of a couple of days when I was here and there was ice filling a good metre from the pavement on my lane, and a van comes speeding in the other direction in the middle of the road at probably 45mph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aries22 Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 Well went out today, and the road and pavements are just the same as they were last Saturday, except that cars had speeded up even though l still had to walk on the road. One car l waved up and down to slow down, they just waved back lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number Six Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 When I was learning to drive, I seem to remember that it was stressed that you should take extra care in dangerous conditions, like ice etc. How do you take extra care? Surely you should be as careful as you can be, all the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattleonard Posted December 13, 2010 Author Share Posted December 13, 2010 How do you take extra care? Surely you should be as careful as you can be, all the time? How about driving more slowly - not trying to squeeze through a gap in traffic which would normally be reasonable etc. Driving is always a balance between being careful and getting somewhere - taken to extremes at one end is paranoia, and at the other is recklessness. The balance is what the driving test calls "making progress". So yes, being more careful is just setting that balance more towards the paranoia end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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