Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuvre.

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
beardy
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Joined: 23 Feb 2010, 4:10pm

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by beardy »

I am sure that I can drive while drunk, while using a phone, while eating a sandwich, while drinking a mug of tea. I could also manage to belt up while driving.
However I refrain from such activities as they are detrimental to my driving, I belt up before starting the car and remain belted until the engine is off. Never had a problem doing this simple procedure as taught for passing my basic driving test.

Another one of those "habitual" driving traits that I share with non-Advanced drivers.
AlaninWales
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Joined: 26 Oct 2012, 1:47pm

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by AlaninWales »

Well I'll frequently start driving without a seatbelt. I consider it perfectly safe to do so within my own front yard. Once outside and on public roads, I of course belt up because that is the legal way to drive: It is however no safer (statistically more dangerous for those outside the car) so IMO as a Thinking Driver, is not contributing to road safety. If you wish to imply that this makes me as unsafe as a drunk driver etc. then that demonstrates your inability to understand risk.
beardy
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Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by beardy »

AlaninWales wrote:Well I'll frequently start driving without a seatbelt. I consider it perfectly safe to do so within my own front yard. Once outside and on public roads, I of course belt up because that is the legal way to drive: It is however no safer (statistically more dangerous for those outside the car) so IMO as a Thinking Driver, is not contributing to road safety. If you wish to imply that this makes me as unsafe as a drunk driver etc. then that demonstrates your inability to understand risk.


I dont wish to imply that belting up while driving is as bad as drunken driving, that is just an argument "gimmick" from yourself.
I will however stick to belting up while driving is a small but unnecessary risk to the public which is so easily avoided by good habits like belting up before starting.

That is my opinion as a thinking driver, that belting up is part of the preparation that you do before setting off.
pwa
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Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by pwa »

AlaninWales wrote:Well I'll frequently start driving without a seatbelt. I consider it perfectly safe to do so within my own front yard. Once outside and on public roads, I of course belt up because that is the legal way to drive: It is however no safer (statistically more dangerous for those outside the car) so IMO as a Thinking Driver, is not contributing to road safety. If you wish to imply that this makes me as unsafe as a drunk driver etc. then that demonstrates your inability to understand risk.


For me, the belt must be on before the handbrake is released. Similarly, I'm happy to use the phone with the engine running but the handbrake on, perhaps in a lay-by on a cold day. I know the law may see this as wrong, but I think my activities in a car only become anyone else's concern when I begin to move.

As a driver I think I may be most dangerous / least safe when reversing. That is when I am most likely to overlook someone or something I should have seen. Naturally I try to compensate for that by being doubly careful.
Elizabethsdad
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Joined: 15 Jan 2011, 7:09pm

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by Elizabethsdad »

Haven't read all the posts yet, how many are there about cars and vans pulling out to pass parked cars and driving straight at you on your side of the road like your presence doesn't seem to matter? I get this even when I have been following a car - they wait for the car to go past and then pull out before I have gone past. Grrr!
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Mick F
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Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by Mick F »

beardy wrote: ..................Never had a problem doing this simple procedure as taught for passing my basic driving test.
Some of us passed our test before seatbelts were even fitted in cars as standard. Not me though, I passed in 1970 when seatbelts had been fitted legally from 1965.

My first car was a Mini and second a Triumph Herald. I learned to drive in 1970 in a Toyota Corolla and a Vauxhall Viva. No sign of seatbelts ever being used and even the examiner never used them. Those were the days of learning to drive with the window open so you could do the hand signals.

It wasn't until we bought a brand new Mini in 1980 that we used our seatbelts due to them being inertia reel. Previous cars had been fixed and very uncomfortable and you were not legally obliged to use them anyway. Even the Mini didn't have them in the rear like most cars back then.
Mick F. Cornwall
rmurphy195
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Joined: 20 May 2011, 11:23am
Location: South Birmingham

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by rmurphy195 »

beardy wrote:I am sure that I can drive while drunk, while using a phone, while eating a sandwich, while drinking a mug of tea. I could also manage to belt up while driving.
However I refrain from such activities as they are detrimental to my driving, I belt up before starting the car and remain belted until the engine is off. Never had a problem doing this simple procedure as taught for passing my basic driving test.

Another one of those "habitual" driving traits that I share with non-Advanced drivers.


What he said - though my habit is to start the engine first, gives a few seconds for the oil to circulate while the belt goes on!

I am coming round to reversing being one of the most dangerous manouvres, simply because a speeding vehicle can be upon you between glances to either side. So pedalling through car parks when on the bike is walking pace, and if some is reversing out I give way, not barge past. If you can't see the driver's eyes looking at you, they might not have seen you!.

Even bigger problem though is hybrids - you can't hear the b****s engines start up!
Brompton, Condor Heritage, creaky joints and thinning white (formerly grey) hair
""You know you're getting old when it's easier to ride a bike than to get on and off it" - quote from observant jogger !
jgurney
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Joined: 10 May 2009, 8:34am

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by jgurney »

One that is certainly annoying, if of questionable danger level, is responding to noticing a cyclist behind them by slowing down, particularly while accelerating at junctions. This has happened a few times to me lately. In the last two weeks I have twice had to brake sharply in traffic because the vehicle ahead set off sharply, but then slowed down again right in front of me apparently due to the driver noticing me there and for some reason coming off the accelerator in response.
brooksby
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Joined: 21 Aug 2014, 9:02am
Location: Bristol

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by brooksby »

Mick F wrote:Some of us passed our test before seatbelts were even fitted in cars as standard. Not me though, I passed in 1970 when seatbelts had been fitted legally from 1965.

My first car was a Mini and second a Triumph Herald. I learned to drive in 1970 in a Toyota Corolla and a Vauxhall Viva. No sign of seatbelts ever being used and even the examiner never used them. Those were the days of learning to drive with the window open so you could do the hand signals.

It wasn't until we bought a brand new Mini in 1980 that we used our seatbelts due to them being inertia reel. Previous cars had been fixed and very uncomfortable and you were not legally obliged to use them anyway. Even the Mini didn't have them in the rear like most cars back then.


Our family car is a 1970 Beetle, which has static seatbelts in the rear. PITA, to be honest, and I promise one day I will replace them with modern (-ish) inertia-reel belts.

That wasn't my point in writing though. I was going to add to 'annoying and potentially dangerous' the fact that so many drivers have become so accustomed to seeing lights indicating this that and the other that they forget to use common sense. Our car (again) doesn't have reversing lights, but so many people seem to have become so conmditioned to looking for the white reversing lights that they don't even notice the direction the car is travelling in... People are so used to being handheld through everything in their cars (check this, check that, light for this, light for that, sign for this, please check your brain at the door), and they have forgotten (and some never learnt) to use their own discretion and common sense. I think that is why some people have such a problem with bicycles - there aren't indicator lights and they are completely panicked by the idea that we could just do *anything*.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by Cyril Haearn »

The B+++s who wait at a junction, then move off before I am clear and miss me by a whisker. Never trust these terrorists!
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robing
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Joined: 7 Sep 2014, 9:11am

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by robing »

Had one today. Merc overtook me - very narrow pass, then immediately braked to turn right, then changed her mind and just stayed stationary. As she had just cut me up, I had very little room to pass on the inside. I rapped my knuckles on the window as I passed and she mouthed sorry.
mark1964
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Joined: 6 Jan 2012, 8:34pm

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by mark1964 »

These have happened to me, all involving motorcyclists:

1. York Road, Bristol, travelling west. Cycling in central lane for going straight on through lights. Left lane is for left turn only, big signs, even bigger arrows on road. I'm through the lights, heading across junction when motorcyclist shooting down left turn lane decides to go straight on - almost hit me. On another occasion, I had just set off rom ASL, hidden by white van. Silly motorcyclist, filtering down left turn lane to try and (illegally) get into ASL, miscalculates when traffic moves. Speeds up to overtake white van and cut into central lane, again, almost hitting me.

2. Motorcyclist enters ASL on red light, on my left. He is indicating to turn right and, yep, cuts me up when lights change.

3. Coming down from Old Market, towards Temple Meads, heading down in mandatory cycle lane, just getting to the end of traffic jam to my right when suddenly - you guessed it - motorcyclist cuts into lane from my right, narrowly missing me and enters ASL. Didn't like me pointing out two traffic offences that he committed - told me to F-Off :x
tatanab
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Joined: 8 Feb 2007, 12:37pm

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by tatanab »

Annoying but not really dangerous - riding along and a motor vehicle draws alongside and slows to my speed. The motorist is turning right but of course I cannot know this, all I know is that 2 tons of metal is alongside me at my speed.
robing
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Joined: 7 Sep 2014, 9:11am

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by robing »

Another common one I see is when I am cycling along a main road and a car is waiting to turn right from a side road on the right hand side in my direction. Even though they see me, they think it's OK to pull out and turn in to the road in front of me.
jochta
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Joined: 13 Mar 2009, 11:54am

Re: Most Annoying and Potentially Dangerous Motoring Manoeuv

Post by jochta »

Pinchpoints and chicanes where priority is for the cyclist but oncoming motorists ignore the "Give way to oncoming vehicles" sign and drive straight at you. Almost as annoying are pinchpoints with humps in them as some motorists have to overtake just before these and then slam on the anchors to go over the hump and thus impede the cyclist's progress.

Motorists overtaking and immediately turning right but usually having to give way to oncoming traffic meaning the cyclist has to stop to wait for them to complete the turn as they've now left no room to pass. I find this even more irritating than left hooks.
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