Road user rant

[veekay]

Sorry about to rant. I have just got in from driving in Wick. Crossing the road was an aged man OK so he shouldn't have crossed the road in front of the traffic but age does strange things to you ( I am told!!) Anyway the driver o f a small blue car driving too fast, came to a halt beside him and gesticulated like mad to get him to move out of the way quickly which he obviously couldn't do. As I said I know he was wrong in the first place but I thought pedestrians got right of way on our highways. What has happened to basic manners and respect.

[wifie]

Respect? Veekay these days that's a good one! Some people might do well to remember that they too will be old one day!

[rfr10]

Sorry about to rant. I have just got in from driving in Wick. Crossing the road was an aged man OK so he shouldn't have crossed the road in front of the traffic but age does strange things to you ( I am told!!) Anyway the driver o f a small blue car driving too fast, came to a halt beside him and gesticulated like mad to get him to move out of the way quickly which he obviously couldn't do. As I said I know he was wrong in the first place but I thought pedestrians got right of way on our highways. What has happened to basic manners and respect.

Well if they were driving too fast then they probably didn't want to admit it was their fault so they make it out as though it is someone elses fault. For example, we were turning out from a junction onto a main road, no cars about and then suddenly just as we were about to turn out, a car came speeding past, must have been at about 80mph so I shook my fist at them (not actually intending on being serious!:Razz) and then they stuck their finger up. Goodness knows how he could drive one handed at that speed. Some road users are a disgrace these days and also some pedestrians but do you know that if a pedestrian has begun to walk out onto the road and you approach then in a car, the pedestrian has the right of way. Sometimes I've seen cars deliberaely speeding up to scare these people.

[dirdyweeker]

Yes rfr10 is quite correct. The pedestrian HAD the right of way. He had already started crossing before the car appeared. Just a pity the 'old boy' didn't gesticulate back!

[hotrod4]

The thing that annoys me most is these "new fangled" cars that dont have indicators.
They have big orange lights on the vehicle but for some reason they arent connected to the electrics, funny that the other lights are.(this is especially true on the wick "doughnut" off bridge street) or maybe theres a"quantum electrical klingon signal destroyer crystal" that prevents them from working ;)

[nikki]

It's not just car drivers. I was driving into Wick this morning at about 20 to 8 and at one of those horrible blind corners just after Thrumster I was nearly put off the road by an idiot on a motorbike coming towards me on the wrong side of the road, he had tried to overtake a car and a van on the aforementioned blind corner, and obviously thought it impossible that something might be coming the other way. This is the stretch of road that had recently been widened, and thank goodness it was, because if not I would have been on the verge and had no chance, or even worse I might have hit him. I was shaking like I don't know what afterwards, I've only been passed my test for 6 weeks, and even in that time I've seen alot of stupid drivers, but this just took the biscuit.
My dad wonders where bikers get the bad rep from, well this guy was one reason.

[percy toboggan]

It's not just car drivers. I was driving into Wick this morning at about 20 to 8 and at one of those horrible blind corners just after Thrumster I was nearly put off the road by an idiot on a motorbike coming towards me on the wrong side of the road, he had tried to overtake a car and a van on the aforementioned blind corner, and obviously thought it impossible that something might be coming the other way. This is the stretch of road that had recently been widened, and thank goodness it was, because if not I would have been on the verge and had no chance, or even worse I might have hit him. I was shaking like I don't know what afterwards, I've only been passed my test for 6 weeks, and even in that time I've seen alot of stupid drivers, but this just took the biscuit.
My dad wonders where bikers get the bad rep from, well this guy was one reason.

As a long time motor-cyclist myself Nikki I'm afraid I also have to disagree with your Dad. Most 'bikers' are sensible but a large minority seem to top up their tanks with a testosterone infusion and leave their brains at home. They ride super-fast machines which outpower their own abilities. With limited imaginations they take so many risks in chase of a thrill. The cemeteries are filling up with them down here. It's a great shame.
Of course many accidents are caused by inattentive, or unskilled car drivers but statistics show the number of one vehicle accidents resulting in rider fatality, or serious injury has grown enormously over the last ten to fifteen years.

[brokencross]

My dad told me to treat all drivers as virtual "idiots", expect the unexpected, assume nothing, beware of cars fitted with quantum electrical klingon signal destroyer crystals as they could go in any direction at any time. (He also told me more specifically to watch out for old, grey haired men, with horn rimmed glasses, wearing a trilby hat and leather driving gloves driving a green Morris Minor Traveller)

Re: bikers, I agree with Percy, the majority of bikers are responsible, sensible road users (and it because they don't do anything idiotic or dangerous you don't notice them going about their business). It is a highly conspicuous, dangerous minority who give bikers a bad name.
Near where I live there is a road on the North York Moors, the B1257, between Stokesley and Helmsley and it is very popular with bikers because of its meandering and dipping layout and they treat it like a race track. It is notorious for biker accidents and there are numerous fatalities each year. Not all are caused by the bikers but most are.
Apparently there is a category of the "born again biker", i.e. middle aged man (or woman) who were bikers in their youth, gave it up for cars and then hankering after their youth returned to biking with more money than sense, buy a high powered bike and don't have the skills to handle it plus, as Percy says, "a testosterone infusion"; this is a recipe for disaster.