Is Someone Putting Something in the Water!?

[inhen]

I've been working away for many years and have recently moved back to the UK to find absolute anarchy on our roads! In the first week back I almost had several accidents attempting to manouever round roundabouts.

Are people tought 'Manouever, Mirror, Signal' nowadays? The other day I was approaching a roundabout (with a police traffic car behind me), a Discovery was approaching from the opposite direction indicating straight-ahead until half way round when he flicked his right indicator on causing myself and the traffic cop behind to perform emergency stops! Oddly, the cop pulled 'me' over a little further down the road and gave me a lecture on 'giving-way to cars already on the roundabout'!

Why do people drive around with their foglights on at night when it's not foggy?

Why can't anyone park their car in a civilised manner any more? Even in my village people have started parking on the footpaths! They can't all be doing it unwhittingly, can they?

Is it okay to stop on a zebra crossing nowadays? It doesn't say you can in the highway code or has the English language been amended without my knowledge.

But the worst problem I have discovered is; no one can reverse park anymore!?! I have had my A8 from new since 1998, when I put it in to storage it had 3 stone chips and that was all the visible body damage there was. It has been back on the road for a few months and in that time both nearside doors have been 'totalled' by douchebags trying to manhandle enormous SUV's forwards in to parking spaces! The rear bumper has been dented by another douchebag trying to park a medium sized SUV behind me! Thats £1500 in excess payments I have had to make when my policy for the year is less than £200 all because these degenerates don't have the common decency to leave their insurance details!

I wonder how cost effective it would be for the economy to stop and sterilise these animals on sght?

On a lighter note, great forum, solved my hot start issue xx

BOSH!

[tintin]

My suggestion is that you go back to bed, turn over, then get up again, and everything will be all right...

[David's8]

Welcome to the rest of the grumpy old men! Mirror, signal, mirror, manoeuvre was the mantra taught me - but dont make me laugh; Mirrors are for adjusting your hair/makeup and those funny orange lights on the corners of our cars - they're for showing that you have left your car unattended in the middle of the road whilst you go to the shops.
Sorry to hear about your damage - but if I find you loitering by my Ming Blue S8, I there'll be trouble

[tonupkid]

Welcome from another miserable old git. I think that fog lights are seen as some sort of status symbol by those inconsiderate clear weather users. And indicators are just confirm the manoeuvre they have pretty much completed by the time they use them.
And stupidity often trumps, the easy to park attributes of a brick shaped, fitted with parking sensors and big mirrors SUV.

ahhh! that's better. A good whinge always helps

Where have you been these past years? Tell us about your 8 and pictures are a must

[Goran]

Welcome back to the mad house
I have to agree with you completely, although I have lived here all the time I have definitely noticed in the last few years things have got worse.

No one indicates. Those on round-abouts taking the 3rd exit happily go around without indicating. Maybe light bulbs are expensive? i don't know. In London no one indicates to pedestrians that they are turning into a side road, including black cabs! take your chances.

On suburban roads when their lane is blocked by a parked car or a bus, the oncoming driver will happily jump out into your path making you brake hard, after all he got to the obstacle a split second before you so it must be his right of way???

People park in my road blocking neighbours driveways, and park in such a way to make it impossible for me to get out of my drive. I guess consideration for other people is out of fashion?

People slam their doors into mine in the car park, so I have taken to parking in the most obscure spots or next to expensive cars in the hope that they actually care about their own doors.

And just last weekend, on the A13 just as it changes to 30mph near Canning Town, a complete lunatic barged past between me and a car next to me who was changing lanes to get into the right lane. He literally went down the middle of the dividing line between lanes at 50mph or more, I don't know how he didn't scrape me and the other guy. I don't want to judge maybe he was in a real hurry?

Sometimes I really dread driving I'm almost guaranteed to encounter some nutters even on a 10 minute drive locally.

[Delboy]

Yeah assholes like that deserve a brick through their windows, I'm cosidering buying a dash cam with parking feature to record all the cretins

[tc4332]

Rear bumper "car parked" in ASDA car park 3 times in four weeks.
Both nearside doors scraped at Sainsbury's.
And over the last week I have found three new different size wood screws on the road outside the house.
That is before I start on the driving problems.

[David's8]

Originally Posted by tc4332

Rear bumper "car parked" in ASDA car park 3 times in four weeks.
Both nearside doors scraped at Sainsbury's.
And over the last week I have found three new different size wood screws on the road outside the house.
That is before I start on the driving problems.

Are you accusing people of deliberately sprinkling screws on the road, Ray? You must be getting a persecution complex (not unknown in '8 drivers) - or is it OCD (just normal) because they were of different sizes?

[tc4332]

I have had five punctures caused by screws, mind you that is in over 55 years driving so not too bad???????
Now if they had left me several boxes of different sizes I would not be moaning!!
I believe that most probs of this sort are just carelessness or maybe carenviousness

[Burnzybubbles]

I'm another one that believes this country has gone to ****e, not only it's driving, but everything, people's attitudes are the worst and what makes it even more so is that you find yourself getting dragged down with it otherwise people will just take advantage of your good nature.

The thing is I see posts like this on nearly every forum I visit so it's a nation wide problem, but nothing seems to be done about it, it'd be nice if people could use dash cams to prosecute bad drivers as you would just never know who is recording you, it'd probably make the standard of driving much better if they knew they where being constantly watched.

Recently I got to the top of a slip road waiting at the lights to join the round about, a focus RS was in the lane next to me, as the lights turned green he proceeded to just wander across into my lane with no care whatsoever, when I pulled along side him he just gave me some smug look and said I'm sorry in the most vindictive way possible, the driving was bad but then to just mug me off like that afterwards I was fuming.

middle lane hoggers is my next pet hate, they cause such a back log of traffic as they essentially block 2/3 of the motorway off reducing it to a single lane road, and all because they are too lazy to use the road properly, I know it's wrong but often I will just undertake said morons, my excuse is if they where using the road correctly then I wouldn't of been able to do said manuver, it's also an endorsable offence to middle lane hog and tail gate but I've yet to see it enforced.