The Prats on our roads.

[The PIT]

Weather Damp with outbreaks of drizzle and pockets of fog.

1) So what do you see 1 out 10 cars with no lights on.

2) Cars driving too fast.

3) Cyclists with the darkest most non relflective gear on.

4) Cyclists without any lights on.

5) Cyclists bunched across the road without lights or decent reflective clothing.

I didn't see any Lorrys or Buses or taxi drivers to comment on them.

[Paulr]

Cyclists are the biggest bane to all us drivers.
They ride accross the road without signal and expect you to stop.
They ride three accross blocking the whole road and if you are unlucky enough to knock one of them off you are every bastard under the sun!
Cyclists are rarely prosecuted even though non of them ever stop for red lights etc.
I'm in Cambridge (which is considered by many as one of the cycling hotspots in the country due to the sheer number of students here) and near misses with them becomes an almost daily thing.

I resort to a simple system with cyclists:

20 points per cyclist
10 point bonus if the bike is un-rideable
50 point bonus if you take his 'jack-ass' mate out as well.

[The PIT]

I reckon Cyclists are Bus drivers when they're at work. They've got about the same number of brain cells.
The dumbist riding every seen is about thirty off them on a narrow country lane blocking it completly. They were very lucky they didn't meet another bunch of cyclists coming the other way doing the same thing and even luckier they didn't meet another car or van coming from the opposite direction as they'd never been able to get out the way.
Cyclists complain about lack of room given by motorists but are quite happy to try and overtake a car on the left with only a few inches to spare.
One these days I'll meet a group of cyclists blocking the road and the opposite side of the road is under a couple of inches of water and I'm going to give them a chance to get into single file and when they don't I'm going drive striaght through all that water.

[impact]

Well I guess it's time to mount those extra headlights with 80/100W rallye bulbs.

[The PIT]

By the way most of the time I walk and get run over by all the buggers the biggest culprits being wait for it cyclists.

[RichL]

I dunno, I reckon joggers should be up there at number 3 at least - Nissan Micra's at four.

My route home from work takes me down a nice little lane - half a mile of straight into a couple of S-Bends, all with a 60mph speed limit. Theres about two houses within five miles, no pathways, barely wide enough for two cars and nice tall hedges so you can see the lights of oncoming cars way in advance at night. Its quite a popular back-cut and I usually end up stuck behind a Nissan Micra, going flat out at thirty-five

One night I'm heading home down this lane at dusk, doing a sensible speed for a change, ease gently into the first left-hander at forty, and see this jogger running down the road towards me on my side of the road.

No refective clothing, no lights, no brain.

If I'd not been paying attention he'd have been sprayed over my bonnet, as it was my mirror must've missed him by inches as I swerved and braked - and if I hadnt been in the green hornet he'd have taken the mirror in the gut.

WTF this clown was doing on a road like that apart from trying to get himself run over is beyond me.

[The PIT]

Talking of joggers theres a prat that regularly runs down one of the main roads facing on coming traffic he doesn't seem to care if there isn't much room or not. I presume he thinks the car/bus/lorry will simply disappear if there isn't any.
I used to work in Horsforth Leeds and one of the exits from work was down a narrow country lane. I called it the death run becuase of the number of people that would cut the corner despite you being there. I used the brakes quite a bit on that round. It was also a bad route for walkers. A women and her baby was very lucky one night that she didn't get run over. She was facing on coming traffic round a blind bend (She hadn't crossed to the other side so that she would have been in full view of anyone on the road) I couldn't see her and I'd just had swerve to avoid one of the many prats who'd cut that corner. If she'd been five feet further on or the other vehicle a second later she would have been a goner.

[The PIT]

Huh two sucidal Women drivers on the way home luckily my brakes work.
Do I see a car yes will I pull out slowly across it Yes. Grrrrrr.

[Bohrn]

i find pedestrians to be worse here than cyclists. they just walk out infront of whatever they like. Its a case of "well, the car will be in the wrong, and I will get an insurance settlement" My wife used to do this too. She'd get really mad at me when I told her not to do that. I told her that it doesn't matter if you are rich if you are dead, and from then on she was a bit different about the whole thing.

Mall parking lots are the worst, in my area. Old folks don't even look, stop or anything, just keep on walking off the sidewalk, and right down the middle of the road, not off to one side. Oh well, I haven't hit one yet.

[impact]

Another great tip... do you know what an electro-pneumatic horn is? It's the funny looking thing that is usually mounted on a ship... when mounted on your car and used at the right time, it will make all the people around your car cover their ears and scatter. Large rigs often use these because they need to be heard from a distance, but those things work wonders mounted on small cars, too.

http://www.marco.it/html/eng/pneunaueng.htm

[Lizzard[MPE]]

haha haha haa

[The PIT]

Theres some road works near where I live. If you move the road closed sign and the cones you can get your car through. So guess what the dumb motorists have done? They moved the cones and signs to one side so they can get through.
I'd like to see the argument when two cars meet on this bit.
It also reminds me of the time when the closed the road outside our pub so they could repair the bridge overnight at the weekend.
One problem was that the council didn't put the diversion signs up properly so the poor car user was sent round and round in circles. Despite people working on the bridge the motorists removed the cones and drove through or if they didn't want to do that drove the wrong way down a one way steet a few yards away. One driver manged to hit a bus doing this and drove off very quickly. He wasn't thinking about his baby child in the car doing this.
Outside my mothers sister house was a close accident a women pulled out in front a bus they missed but since some passengers were standing up to get off they were injured.
The women said I can't stop for the bus I've got a child to pick up.
Lack of Brain cells there isn't there. Hopefully the police will charge her for dangerous driving as one passenger also recalled her doing the same thing the week before. Ooops. She also may get sued by the passengers on the bus. Good.
People like that should be banned fined the cost of the vehicle they bought and have another very large fine if they try and drive again.

[Novdid]

Those problems in UK is the result of one thing and one thing only: Left traffic. It's as wrong as it gets.

[The PIT]

Nah thats the right way to do it.
The problem is ignornace and the common belief that if I don't caught I'm okay.
The road closure signs are now in hole in the road.

[RichL]

Originally posted by Novdid
Those problems in UK is the result of one thing and one thing only: Left traffic. It's as wrong as it gets.

Its all Napoleons fault, you know.
In the days of horses, everyone used to ride on the left side of the road, as this meant your sword hand (right in 90% of the population) was towards anyone who might request either your money or your life.
But Napoleon was left handed, and insisted France (and everywhere he conquered) ride on the right.

I did hear a report that the majority of the world are Right-eye dominant - ie your right eye does the main focusing and imaging, while your left fills in the bits for 3d.
Therefore, if you drive on the left, your best eye is facing oncoming traffic.