Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Dustbin lorry drivers, they sit so high and focus on the horizon, the vehicle just in front is perceived with peripheral vision only
Had to let two of these terrorists by today
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tykeboy2003
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by tykeboy2003 »

Worst - taxi drivers. I'm not talking about London Black Cab drivers - I don't have sufficient experience to judge them, I'm talking about local private hire vehicles.
millimole
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by millimole »

tykeboy2003 wrote:Worst - taxi drivers. I'm not talking about London Black Cab drivers - I don't have sufficient experience to judge them, I'm talking about local private hire vehicles.
Agreed. We live next to a school, so we see a lot of 'creative driving', and 'artistic parking', but it's the private hire taxis that do the 17 point turns with no thought for the children (or parents) who might have the temerity to be using their god-given limbs. It's the same drivers who arrive 30 minutes before pick-up time and leave their engines idling. And guess which drivers signal their presence to their charges by sounding their horns when it's raining?
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Lance Dopestrong
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Lance Dopestrong »

Audi pilots. I hate to perpetuate prejudice, but I've been making a note of such things recently and theres little doubt the Audiots genuinely are the worst behaved. I feel sorry for the few genuinely decent Audi drivers who get to suffer a bit of guilt by mere association.
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xjs
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by xjs »

Mini drivers. The new Minis, that is.

Feels like Audi drivers are improving, in London at least.

And yes, private hire Priuses... too busy looking at their Uber app, no doubt. London's black cabbies are aggressive, but at least they seem to be aware of what's going on around them.
robing
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by robing »

Still think for sheer contempt and disregard for other road users it's Highway Maintenance vehicles.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

robing wrote:Still think for sheer contempt and disregard for other road users it's Highway Maintenance vehicles.

Any examples? I think they have a very hazardous job and are often abused and threatened by motrons
Minusplus?
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thelawnet
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by thelawnet »

Had several encounters with van men yesterday. One shouted at me for being in the 'middle of the road' (it was a two lane road with queuing traffic, 30mph limit, and I was in the middle of the left-hand lane, and going much faster than him), and then a couple of minutes later another cut in very close to pass, despite the fact that I was in the left lane of three, which was shortly to become a bus lane, so he would have been better off in the middle lane ignoring me entirely.

A third van man was gesticulating angrily at a car in front of him who had stopped for ooh 20 seconds to let me and my son cycle through (there was a car parked on their side, though in all honesty there wouldn't have been an issue with the car coming through as there was room for bike + car + parked car).
robing
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by robing »

Cyril Haearn wrote:
robing wrote:Still think for sheer contempt and disregard for other road users it's Highway Maintenance vehicles.

Any examples? I think they have a very hazardous job and are often abused and threatened by motrons
Minusplus?

Most of my experiences of them are as a car driver. As they are bigger than you they will often just pull out in front of you. Once on a bike I did catch a driver of a huge tipper truck pull out without looking as he was looking at his phone on his steering wheel. I didn't have my phone with me at the time. As a cyclist we don't tend to have too many interactions with HM vehicles anyway. Van drivers as in the above post are more typical.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Worstbest: bus drivers
How do they manage to operate the ticket machine and cash up while driving? :(
..
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pwa
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by pwa »

Cyril Haearn wrote:Worstbest: bus drivers
How do they manage to operate the ticket machine and cash up while driving? :(
..
People Who Cycle are better than those who do not, scientists have proved, I read somewhere, did not note where, sorry :wink:

But those are generalisations, and like all generalisations they are true for some examples but not for all. I used to work with a young woman who cycled a lot to get around the city where she was living, but when she gave me a lift in her car I was holding on tight to the seat, with her driving very close to the vehicle in front, going round corners too fast and accelerating too hard. I think we should avoid generalisations because they are always unfair to someone.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Not a generalisation! A survey I read about in the motoring section of the local newspaper
Just scanned the article but I do remember it claimed that drivers who cycle had much better perception/observation than drivers who do not cycle

Likewise with bus drivers, without specially observing I have seen them cash up while driving many times, hair-raising, likewise selling tickets, handling cash while driving through town
And ignoring stop signs, that is bad driving and illiteracy :?
Many times
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The utility cyclist
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by The utility cyclist »

Drivers who use oversized cars such that they apparently can't see out of them and cyclists appear from nowhere :twisted: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-47886682
pwa
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by pwa »

Cyril Haearn wrote:Not a generalisation! A survey I read about in the motoring section of the local newspaper
Just scanned the article but I do remember it claimed that drivers who cycle had much better perception/observation than drivers who do not cycle

Likewise with bus drivers, without specially observing I have seen them cash up while driving many times, hair-raising, likewise selling tickets, handling cash while driving through town
And ignoring stop signs, that is bad driving and illiteracy :?
Many times

It is generalising because there are good bus drivers and bad bus drivers. Saying bus drivers are bad, even with statistical evidence, is still unfair to the good ones you draw in with that blanket statement. And while I hope and believe cyclists have more perspective when they drive, I know for a fact that at least one regular cyclist I worked with was a very poor driver.
reohn2
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by reohn2 »

The utility cyclist wrote:Drivers who use oversized cars such that they apparently can't see out of them and cyclists appear from nowhere :twisted: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-47886682

No driving retest after the ban to asertain if this driver is fit to drive again I see :? :twisted:
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