Cycling UK Forum

If we are taking the original question seriously, the worst drivers are a small minority who drive at 50 in 30mph (or less) residential streets. I observed one yesterday, in a pimped 20 year old BMW, racing past a line of parked cars. I don't see driving as bad as that very often, so I conclude that this "worst" group is less than 5% of drivers, possibly less than 1%.

The best drivers? Well they are not the slowest. The slowest are generally very elderly and weave along the road like they cannot see properly. The best drivers are engaged with the road and other road users, imagining how events ahead might play out. Most of us are capable of being the best drivers when we are concentrating and not distracted. I find turning the radio off helps.

chris_suffolk wrote:Wow - resurrect an 18 month old thread??

Bryn is having a good rummage among the moribund threads again.

Undoubtedly black/white Audi/Range Rover drivers.Silver is fine

pwa wrote:If we are taking the original question seriously, the worst drivers are a small minority who drive at 50 in 30mph (or less) residential streets. I observed one yesterday, in a pimped 20 year old BMW, racing past a line of parked cars. I don't see driving as bad as that very often, so I conclude that this "worst" group is less than 5% of drivers, possibly less than 1%.

Or the ones who drive at a steady 55-60 mph. National speed limit? 55-60; going into a village and the speed limit drops to 30? 55-60; tipping it down rain? 55-60...

I also don't like the too slow/cautious. I get nervous when one hangs on my tail when they have ample opportunity to pass.
You also then get a string of irate drivers behind the slowie wrongly blaming the cyclist!
Sometimes it's better just to pull over and let them all pass.

cyclop wrote:Undoubtedly black/white Audi/Range Rover drivers.Silver is fine

I've a white Audi and I often drive my son's which is a black one. My driving hasn't changed much since the days of our Renault Fourgon van, disparagingly known as the white chugger. I still can't see round corners and, perhaps more to the point, I'm still aware of that limitation.

Dare I stereotype another valued element within society, but.....health visitors. Every other time I get cut up or close passed the person driving seems to have some kind of nurses' uniform on. Or is it just that there are so many of them these days.

On the other hand.....taxi drivers (they of the private car rather than black cabs)...lately I've found this much criticised group to be driving extremely carefully and politely.

Si wrote:Dare I stereotype another valued element within society, but.....health visitors. Every other time I get cut up or close passed the person driving seems to have some kind of nurses' uniform on. .

Very unlikely to be Health Visitors since the government slashed the numbers in the profession. More likely to be minimum wage care assistants rushing to the next weekly 15 minute 'care' visit, while trying to make ends meet. (End of rants)

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my wobbly using hovercraft full of eels.

pwa wrote:

chris_suffolk wrote:Wow - resurrect an 18 month old thread??

Bryn is having a good rummage among the moribund threads again.

Yes I am hoping for a nomination as CTR chief thread resusciator

The answer is audi of course (3/3, all audis yesterday, regression durch technik)

The trouble with the question in tends to be down to the local demographic rather than the national stereotype these days, Audi/bmw/Volvo seem to be top of the tree but around here it’s the dominos delivery drivers that are the ones to watch out for, have been tempted to suggest they are driving without business insurance on a number of occasions...

anyone on two powered wheels or over IMO.

they are often all as bad as each other. in Birmingham though with so many followers of fatalist religions and holders of international driving licenses it is somewhat scary at times.

Bus drivers - 'nuf said?

Worst - young women in small cars. The small cars are just because that's what young women can afford to drive or because they are not yet encumbered by children and dogs or other paraphernalia, but young women often pass too close. I think it's because they have not experienced any road riding - their cycling experience is only a pink Barbie bike they pedalled round the garden and some wobbly circuits of Center Parcs or on a park track. So they have no judgement of what it's like to be cycling on the road.

And, although it's possibly a decreasing number, young boys or male teenagers have spent more time mucking round on bikes, which may likely include the time that, with no real forethought, they cycled home on the A19 or the A303 and remember how frightening or dicey it was to be cut up by a car driver. And that informs their overtaking behaviour.

That is not to say all young women drive worse than young men or men generally, but I think they just do not think about what it's like to be a cyclist as much - there is less appreciation. I'll stop there before I get called out by #MeToo.

It's all stereotypes but I'll nominate the drivers of vehicles with HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE on the back. Not when they are doing the actual maintaining, but when driving about more generally.

I know it is fun to label certain types, identified by their age and vehicle choice, as good or bad, but in reality I've seen good and bad in all sorts of groups. One of the most careful and patient drivers I know drives a Landrover Discovery, a vehicle type often associated with arrogant disregard for others. One of my scariest moments on a bike was engineered by a very elderly lady driver in South Kilkenny, driving a very small car. And I often encounter patient delivery van drivers on country lanes. Stereotyping doesn't get us closer to truth, so I'd rather just take people as I find them.