the worst drivers?

[old_windbag]

I think to drive an audi many years ago was perhaps different. Today Audis are fashion/status symbols... the must have car if you're a high flyer. If I had millions in the bank, which I sadly don't, I'd still be happy with a ford focus or similar as they can perform the same job with as many luxury features for less and don't advertise that you're somehow better than everyone else. This isn't a lack of ambition as I've had nice cars in my life but I think theres more useful purposes for excessive wealth I feel. When I see people with hundreds of millions( dragons den types ) I question why they simply wouldn't want to cycle around the uk/europe/world doing random acts of kindness for human and animal kind. I'm sure you'd die more spiritually fulfilled, but thats my simplistic view on what lifes about and probably why I'm poorer( financially I must add not spiritually ) than my peers whose focus was on office politics and looking after number one.

Anyway in modern times the Audi for me is still number one for bad driving in my area, sorry to stereotype but from real observations. Those tyres are very low profile, the driver will feel the road like us cyclists!

[Cyril Haearn]

The worst?.............................the one's in front of you!

or maybe the one behind me who thinks I am too slow

saw an appropriate sticker on the back of a car in Rhyl:

"the close you follow, the slower I go"

[Cyril Haearn]

I think that "...behind the wheel of a vehicle" covers it. I used to know a bloke who ran himself over with a forklift.

Re the EU regs: I know that in Germany you don't (or didn't, I haven't lived there for years) need a licence to drive a vehicle whose engine is under 50cc. I once saw a TV report about a bloke who was offgepisst at losing his licence and, in revenge, had fitted a moped engine in an Opel Astra and would take it out to drive at around 10 kph at the rush-hour, creating huge tailbacks with impunity.

10 kmh - great! anything that holds up the terrorists is good.

There are indeed mini-mini vehicles in Germany for disabled people, they carry a big sticker "25" (maximum speed in kmh), and several sorts of mopeds etc, some are limited to 25 kmh.

[robing]

Well I can honestly say the best drivers I've come across are in the Outer Hebrides, having just come back from there. They are patient, friendly and give you really wide passes. I think it's partly down to the more relaxed pace of life and also due to all the single track roads with passing places - they are used to having to stop all the time.

[Jimstar79]

The worst driver I met in 3 weeks of cycling in Scotland was on the A838 towards Durness.

On a nice descent with no cars ahead I got up a lot of speed and was whizzing along at 25+mph when I heard an engine revving loudly right next to me. I looked over my should quickly and not a hands length away from my rear pannier was a land rover!! I was terrified as there just was no room for both me and him on this stretch of road and feared that he would bounce me off the road into rocks and all sorts. I emergency braked the best I could and anticipated that he would whack me, but he, too, came to a halt. I shouted, 'astonishing are you doing?' through an open window. An accent that sounded like something out of Eastender's shouted, 'Get to the F'ing side of the road, you prick!!' I was stunned. I shouted back, 'Do you know how close you were to my bike...you could have killed me?' He replied, 'I couldn't give a [inappropriate word removed], mate!' and shot off, nearly losing control of his vehicle.

I just had to stop and recover my senses. I ended up just laughing about it to myself - my surprise at a Cockney abusing me in the far north of Scotland - when a car coming from the other direction stopped and asked me if I was alright, they said they'd seen what happened and couldn't believe it.

Bizarre that something like this could happen in one of the most beautiful glens that I cycled in!

[Jimstar79]

Well I can honestly say the best drivers I've come across are in the Outer Hebrides, having just come back from there. They are patient, friendly and give you really wide passes. I think it's partly down to the more relaxed pace of life and also due to all the single track roads with passing places - they are used to having to stop all the time.

Robing, glad to hear that you are back from your tour! Hope you had a great time? I agree with everything you say about the way drivers are up in Scotland. 99% or drivers I met on the road were excellent!

[old_windbag]

My experience of cycling around the western isles of scotland was totally positive and a breath of fresh air compared to the urban area I lived in. Drivers were courteous and patient to me as a cyclist but also when I walked along the roadside where they'd give me a cars width of space or more. I think it is a more chilled existence and lower population density, better community spirit is the way forward. To be able to live without direct neighbours must be bliss.

[robing]

Well I can honestly say the best drivers I've come across are in the Outer Hebrides, having just come back from there. They are patient, friendly and give you really wide passes. I think it's partly down to the more relaxed pace of life and also due to all the single track roads with passing places - they are used to having to stop all the time.

Robing, glad to hear that you are back from your tour! Hope you had a great time? I agree with everything you say about the way drivers are up in Scotland. 99% or drivers I met on the road were excellent!

Yes, it was wonderful thanks. Only 10 days, but a great tour nonetheless. I did an 'end to end' of the Outer Hebrides from Vatersay all the way up to the Butt of Lewis. Then I cycled the length of Skye and got the train back from Mallaig. I was very lucky with the weather, it hardly rained and the days on Lewis were glorious sunshine. It was quite midgy though and had some pretty strong headwinds.

[james01]

. Drivers were courteous and patient to me ........when I walked along the roadside where they'd give me a cars width of space or more. .

As a cyclist who also regularly walks along country lanes I actually feel more vulnerable on foot than cycling. I experience exact parallels to familiar cycling scenarios, for example getting horn-abuse for walking two abreast when there's huge passing space and no other traffic around.

[Jimstar79]

Ah excellent - that makes me really happy for you, Robing! Brilliant - glad you had such a good time

[Flinders]

Due to family illness, I've been doing a lot of M-way driving in the last fortnight.
Generally I'd say BMWs and Audis are most likely to be speeding and tailgating, with Audis now the worst of the two (but as always in both cases with many honourable and considerate exceptions). Big 4x4s seem to be the worst offenders for really excessive speeding, ie.e., what I'd estimate as 90 or more, not so much tailgating.

What I have noticed is toyota drivers - not so much speeding or tailgating, though possibly a bit worse than average there, but for sheer pig-headed inconsiderate driving*. I have no idea why and hadn't noticed it before.

* failing to let traffic in from slip roads, blocking traffic in the left lane moving out into the middle lane to let traffic in from the slip road when the right lane is empty, hogging the middle lane, that sort of thing- the 'I'm in my lane doing the speed I want and I don't care what else is going on' driving.

I have also noticed the police pulling a lot of people over- almost every trip there is one, and sometimes more than one, when normally I seldom see it more than once in a year. That's in the Midlands to North M6 and general North West M-ways area.

[jezer]

I rarely drive on motorways, but if more offenders are being pulled over I'm pleased to hear it. Are all police patrol cars now fitted with ANPR in order to detect no insurance/tax/MOT/banned drivers? That's all to the good, but the fact remains that on other roads vulnerable users are still subjected to bad driving. I live in hope that will be addressed as well.

[Flinders]

I rarely drive on motorways, but if more offenders are being pulled over I'm pleased to hear it. Are all police patrol cars now fitted with ANPR in order to detect no insurance/tax/MOT/banned drivers? That's all to the good, but the fact remains that on other roads vulnerable users are still subjected to bad driving. I live in hope that will be addressed as well.

I did read that there is an anti-speeding campaign on EU-wide at the moment. Not before time.

[mattsccm]

I'm going to add professional drivers. The over all attitude (of course only evident in their driving techniques) is that their "need" to get everywhere fast is greater than my need to get somewhere alive. Of course they are all super human being able to stop in half the distance needed by other drivers and have a different licence that allows them to ignore the highway code and use parts of the road not meant for others or indeed their machines.

[karlt]

I'm going to add professional drivers. The over all attitude (of course only evident in their driving techniques) is that their "need" to get everywhere fast is greater than my need to get somewhere alive. Of course they are all super human being able to stop in half the distance needed by other drivers and have a different licence that allows them to ignore the highway code and use parts of the road not meant for others or indeed their machines.

Two thingsI'd like to have removed from the cultural discourse of the UK.

"You only really learn to drive after you pass your test" - this has a positive meaning, in that experience builds competence, but too often it means "you stop driving the way you've been taught and start speeding, tailgating, cutting corners, overtaking with a fag-paper clearance, cutting over hatchings etc. etc."

The other is equating of driving competence with car handling competence. They are not the same thing. Just because you can drag a car around a blind bend at 50mph without leaving the road because you understand racing lines and where to brake and where to accelerate etc. etc. etc. doesn't mean you should. It's a bit like the adage that knowledge means knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.