Driver manners and road rage

[mzjo]

This might just be me but I don't think it is.Have driving standards really dropped that noticeably in the 20 or so months since the virus came among us? I have just come over for the first time since january 2020 and last night coming up from Newhaven (by car) I was surprised and indeed sometimes very shocked by the speed, lack of consideration and sometimes downright dangerousness of some of the drivers. I was cruising at60moph, more when allowed and witnessed at first hand some furious cutting up of other drivers (the fact that I drive defensively and leave a lot of space so wasn't too much directly affected changes nothing in the observation). Have I really aged that much since the beginning of last year? It was in a couple of cases worse than the Toulouse rocade in the rush hour and that's saying something:

[Jaded]

I think this might be because the more timid and law-abiding drivers haven't been on the roads much over the last 20 months.

With more well-behaved drivers about, badly behaved drivers behave better.

[Duckfoot1606]

It’s holiday season and there a lot of rusty amateur drivers on the roads. Motorways/trunk roads at this time of year are always a joy, filled with drivers who barely use these roads at other times of the year and thus have little idea about how to drive on them, crawling overtakes and lane hogging are worse than usual at this time.

Beware the slow overtaking car as you approach a motorway slip, reasonable chance they will suddenly realise it’s the one they want and chop across your bows.

A

[Jaded]

There’s been an increase in drivers WHO WILL NOT GO INTO THE OUTSIDE LANE!

You see them coming up behind you (usually in a black tank) at a fair lick, then they slow down and sit close behind you, even though the outside lane is completely free. You cannot do anything because there is traffic you are overtaking in the inside lane. If you slow down, they slow down, if you speed up, they speed up. The only way to get ris of them is to find a gap in the inside lane, they then rush off, still in the middle lane.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I hear a lot of people saying driving standards have dropped but my experience is the opposite. Certainly there's been an increase in wide passes as a proportion; it's no longer unusual, in fact it's almost usual, for drivers to go entirely into the other lane to overtake you. I don't think I'm riding in a different way so I tend to put this down to less traffic making wide passes easier and perhaps the trickle effect of publicity campaigns. And maybe there are significant regional differences.

[Jaded]

Wide passes are much more prevalent. I think it shows how media campaigns do work.

[Duckfoot1606]

Wide passes are much more prevalent. I think it shows how media campaigns do work.

I’d agree with this as a cyclist. As a driver it’s more like Dodge City out there

A

[mzjo]

Seems reasonable to write an update now that I have left a small fogbound island off the north shore of the pronmised land  . My original comment related to cars on a motorway which was the only driving I did. The return trip was similar to the outward one, albeit less frightening because in daylight. Blatant overtaking on the wrong side (as in "we go into the extreme left lane, with the vehicles exiting the motorway, then move back over after the obstacle" which is something I personally  detest), coupled with drivers hitting the exit from the extreme right lane at the last minute. I must be getting old.

On the other hand I did get a bit of cycling in around Kidlington. Driver manners not bad at all (but the road surfaces were horrendous; I have serious doubts about the longevity of a 32 spoke rear wheel with my daughter and grandson as load!). Fat tyre sections definitely very worthwhile (and shorts not advised on cycle paths bordered with stinging nettles!)

[nobby]

Wide passes are much more prevalent. I think it shows how media campaigns do work.

Agree with that completely. I thought at the time that with so many off the road when the ads were on that it would have little effect.
I am amazed at the van drivers holding back and giving me space, and I salute everyone of them with a whole handful of fingers.

[drossall]

Wide passes are much more prevalent. I think it shows how media campaigns do work.

I’d agree with this as a cyclist. As a driver it’s more like Dodge City out there

+1. Driving standards around cyclists have generally improved. Even those who did that peculiar maneouvre have changed - the ones who managed, on a long, straight road, to time their overtakes to coincide with the arrival of the only oncoming vehicle for over half a mile. They haven't changed their timing, or anything radical like that. However, instead of squeezing the cyclist off the road, they now give the cyclist a wide birth and squeeze the oncoming driver

But on average, standards are better than they were.

[MikeFromLFE]

Wide passes are much more prevalent. I think it shows how media campaigns do work.

I'd agree (not that I'm riding a lot at the moment).
But, there doesn't seem to be any great improvement in the pass distance from the artics on the A47 though, and certainly no change from the foreign lorries, although there are fewer of them to offend.

[De Sisti]

I recently had a disagreement with a car driver. What made things worse, was another
car driver stopping to have a go a me. It had absolutely nothing to do with him, but he
decided to get involved and expressed his anti-cyclists views.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Sorry to hear that.

[De Sisti]

Sorry to hear that.

The bloke in the car that had no business to get involved was prepared to get out of his vehicle
and bash me because I pointed at him. In view of his strong 'european' accent, I was going
to say that in this country one can point at someone without fear of violence, but as he was
about to get out of his car (and probably racially abuse me before possibly punching me in the face)
I decided to carry on riding. I'm still thinking about that incident to this day.

[Peter]

You sound like me!  It takes me ages to get over stuff, even though I know I will.

[Solocle]

Sorry to hear that.

The bloke in the car that had no business to get involved was prepared to get out of his vehicle
and bash me because I pointed at him. In view of his strong 'european' accent, I was going
to say that in this country one can point at someone without fear of violence, but as he was
about to get out of his car (and probably racially abuse me before possibly punching me in the face)
I decided to carry on riding. I'm still thinking about that incident to this day.

I once got "racially abused" by a road raging white van man... He'd approached me looking for a fight in Leeds, I swung my bike around, and he backed off, saying "well, if you talked proper, I'd av ad you".
Yes, I'm a southerner.