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What annoys you about driving in the UK?

C

CortexRock

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 3, 2006
413
0
Canterbury, England
As much as I suspect many of our American cousins will have plenty to complain about on this front, I'd like to hear from fellow inhabitants of this sceptred isle...

Here's my list for starters:
  • People who change lanes without using indicators
  • People who use mobile phones while driving
  • People who bully/tailgate/undertake you because they've got a bigger, faster car - especially when you're already doing the speed limit
  • People blocking junctions when stuck in traffic queues
  • People driving into box junctions when there's clearly no way out
  • People waiting til the last second to force their way into a single lane of traffic, when the outside lane gets closed for maintenance
  • People who don't say thanks or acknowledge you when you give way to them
  • Petrol prices!
Bit of a rant, but I'm sure it'll start a healthy debate! :D
 
CortexRock said:
undertake you - especially when you're already doing the speed limit
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If they can undertake you, maybe YOU are in the wrong lane!

Lane hoggers are the biggest problem on the M4 and M5 which I use everyday. In my opinion we should have the same laws as in the US where you can pass people in any lane.

EDIT: And the cost of petrol relative to the rest of the World!
 
sreedy said:
If they can undertake you, maybe YOU are in the wrong lane!
Click to expand...

For the record, I'm not a lane hogger - I usually move aside if someone is going faster than me, as long as it's safe to do so (ie, there's not a huge lorry with bald tyres being driven by a Romanian who's not had enough sleep on the inside lane... lol).
 
I absolutely love driving, but what bugs me is:

- The cost of diesel [saw it at £1.29 ($2.55) per litre today...]

- Speed cameras, which are never in a place where people regularly speed, rather are hidden behind trees on a country bend just after a 30mph limit [guess who got caught the other day... :rolleyes:]

- Idiots intent on overtaking EVERYTHING they come up to. Driving through Lincolnshire's country roads I regularly see near-misses, usually commited by either execs of fathers with a car full of kids.
 
• People that don't move over to the left when it's clear. :mad:

• Petrol price

• Elderly drivers doing 20mph

• People that pull out on you then don't get up to speed quickly enough and force you to slam on brakes.

• Generally inconsiderate drivers

• Chavs that pull up alongside you at the lights revving the feck out of their 1 litre corsa/nova thinking they can beat anything and everything. It doesnt happen as much now I have a 2.8Litre BMW Sport. :D I seem to get other BMW drivers doing it. However I have had it 'debadged' so they dont quite know how big the engine is. Its great fun watching their faces in a 2.0L BMW when this young kid flies passed them at 2.8. :D Thats one joy of driving I have. :D I'm not an idiot driver though I just have a bit of fun now and then. :cool:
 
Fecking traffic wombles. Someone stops to change a tyre and they descend like flies on crap, closing off two lanes and causing enormous tail backs

Middle lane hogging morons causing congestion.

Over sized speed bumps.

Old people doing 46mph on a beautiful open clear dry road with a 60 limit

Lone females in 4 x 4's looking STRAIGHT ahead and wandering across lanes like they own the road.

People who use bus lanes.

People who use mobile phones ( I now just honk my horn and leave it honked till they hang up )

The traffic planning of Leicester. Some of the junction designs are moronic - the only way they can exist is intentionally to make driving difficult and dangerous or monumental incompetence.

Road traffic signs that 'dry up'

People who ignore the lane markings regarding turning left/right/ahead

People who take a month to pull away from a standstill, and then just miss the lights at the next stop.

Blacked out windows

Illegally illegible number plates

BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM from the chav in the hatchback with his windows open.


But....but.....

A sweeping B road, quiet traffic, sunny day...I love my driving.

Doug
 
arkitect said:
Cost of fuel
Congestion charges
Sleeping policemen
BMW drivers ;)
Click to expand...

I 'hated' BMW drivers too until we got ours. Its not arrogance or anything its down to peoples perception of you and your lifestyle when driving a beamer.

I said to my Dad the other day its weird how people treat you when you drive a BMW. Everyone hates you, so you inturn you drive to piss them off. :D Its a circle brought about by a select few BMW drivers (exec ********s) and people that take offence. Now its just engrained into society. :(
 
- People with Big-Car-Syndrome. I drive an Aygo and the amount of time people in a bigger, faster car overtake me just to be in front and then do the same speed I was or even slower (an Audi A5 did this last week) just because they hate sitting behind a smaller car. I drive the speed limit everywhere except on very icy days, in chronic fog, in torrential rain with poor visibility or in a built-up area with lots of parked cars. But that's not enough, they have to overtake.

- Tailgating.

- Lane swappers.

- Fuel wasters. They overtake dangerously, break the speed limit, weave in and out of traffic and guess what? You catch them up at the lights/junction/roundabout anyway.

- People who use the incorrect lane on the roundabout then cut across to jump the queue- I nearly got sideswiped by a lorry doing this once.

- The cost. Fortunately my car's cheap as chips to run but the cost of petrol's terrifying.

On a plus side, next April my Road Tax drops from £35 to £20 per year :D
 
I completely agree with CortexRock and Duncyboy! Driving from Oxfordshire and taking the M40 to London and back everyday is tiring to say the least, just because of inconsiderate drivers.

Another thing I absolutely hate are people who slow down to see a car crash that has been moved to the side of the road. I don't get their mentality - you've seen one crash, you've seen them all. You wait angrily for 4 hours to move because everyone is busy looking, and when you finally get to the crash site, you completely forget how angry you were waiting and slow down yourself to have a look. :mad:
 
-People in the wrong lanes at roundabouts
-Tailgaters
-People in parked cars who swing their doors wide open without looking
-Drivers in the middle of the road taking up 1 1/2 lanes
-People sitting on the fast lane of the motorway when there are no other cars around
-People with stupid exhaust pipes that make a ridiculously loud noise
-Backseat drivers when taking parents anywhere
-Ignorant drivers sitting blocking a lane as they need to go right out of a junction
-People not acknowledging being nice
-People barging past when it is your right of way.

Sorry but some things really bug me about driving in a really snobbish part of the UK. Everyone is so full of their own importance to care about any other drivers
 
CortexRock said:
For the record, I'm not a lane hogger - I usually move aside if someone is going faster than me, as long as it's safe to do so
Click to expand...

You should be in the inside lane anyway unless you're overtaking.

It's almost impossible to be in the right when you're overtaken on the inside - if there's enough lane available for somebody to overtake you, *you* should be in that lane.

My main annoyance is with people who drive at 50 rather than 60 on single carriageways outside of built-up areas where the national speed limit is indicated.
 
Tailgaters who refuse to overtake you even though you're on a straight road and there's not another car for miles.

People who drive at a constant speed which is too slow in a 60 zone and too fast in a 30.

Women on the school run in massive SUVs refusing to acknowledge the existence of other drivers on the road.

People who pull out in front of you and proceed to drive VERY SLOWLY INDEED so you have to slam the brakes on.
 
Oh - if I get tail gated, I brake test them.

If I'm on my own in the car - I'll do it very hard.

If it's on the motorway, I'll do it gently, and then more and more until they get the message - just slowing and slowing and slowing until they back off.

Tailgating is one of the worst crimes imho - it's TOTALLY unnecessary, and VERY dangerous.

Doug
 
Most of my driving is on the M1 and as such the usual motor-way annoyances.


Although recently I have been taking myself on jaunts through the Peak Disctrict, ahh Snake Pass bliss. :D:D
 
Brize said:
You should be in the inside lane anyway unless you're overtaking.
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Not if the inside lane is full of the aforementioned dodgy Eastern European lorries up from Dover.

I'm talking mainly about the M2 in Kent, which is only two lanes wide (the bit I use anyway)... the lorries take up the inside lane, plodding along at 56mph on their limiters, so a lot of time *has* to be spent 'overtaking' in the outside lane.

Except of course when one lorry driver decides his 56mph is faster than the other guy's 56mph, and tries to overtake - usually uphill - causing further delays.

This is also usually when the BMW/Mercedes/Audi/4x4 comes whanging up behind you, doing 90mph or more, flashing their headlights and beeping, expecting you to get out of their way because they're motorway royalty. Lorry on the inside, me in the outside doing 70... what the hell am I supposed to do?
 
Not really driving, but driving lessons i pay £30 for an hour and a half for, about £80 for a test and £30 for a theory test...It comes to alot of money
 
CortexRock said:
Not if the inside lane is full of the aforementioned dodgy Eastern European lorries up from Dover.
Click to expand...

Again, if the inside lane is full of lorries, it shouldn't be possible for anyone to overtake you on the inside. If there's space for overtaking on the inside, you should be in the inside lane yourself. If you're overtaking a vehicle yourself, it would be impossible for anyone to overtake you on the inside.
 
CortexRock said:
Except of course when one lorry driver decides his 56mph is faster than the other guy's 56mph, and tries to overtake - usually uphill - causing further delays.
Click to expand...

You missed that he's usually going round the outside of a corner too...
 
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