Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
DaveGos
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Joined: 13 Nov 2009, 12:40pm

Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by DaveGos »

Horse box trailers and lorries with horses seem the worst to me and its ironic that they when not in vehicle are the most vulnerable road users. Last week I was travelling on a b road and one pulled out of a minor lane , they saw I was there but pulled out regardless, so close I had to apply brakes or i would of piled into the lorry. The other dislike in this area are the trailers wider than the vehicle and they pile past you and then when the trailer passes you loose another 6 inches. After that its got to be range rover drivers , something deranged with a lot of them , often very aggressive towards cyclists
pwa
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Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by pwa »

DaveGos wrote:Horse box trailers and lorries with horses seem the worst to me and its ironic that they when not in vehicle are the most vulnerable road users. Last week I was travelling on a b road and one pulled out of a minor lane , they saw I was there but pulled out regardless, so close I had to apply brakes or i would of piled into the lorry. The other dislike in this area are the trailers wider than the vehicle and they pile past you and then when the trailer passes you loose another 6 inches. After that its got to be range rover drivers , something deranged with a lot of them , often very aggressive towards cyclists

Having towed many trailers, it is best if the trailer sticks out a tiny bit wider than the body of the towing vehicle but not wider than the mirrors. That way you can see the trailer in the wing mirrors when you are reversing and provide steering inputs more accurately. You do, of course, have to remember the trailer is there when passing something or someone. I've had a caravan come sideways at me before!
peetee
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by peetee »

Anyone who struggles to assess or ignores the relative speeds of other road users. Specifically:
Drivers that think there's enough space to get in front before a junction/obstruction.
Those in a side road that only give a cursory glance your way, see a 'slow' cyclist, look the other way then pull out.
Those on a slip road that don't look for a gap early and adjust their speed to match the traffic.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
hemo
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Location: West Sussex

Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by hemo »

From a 49 mile ride yesterday I would also say the Bell End/prick driving a van who was impatient/narked by having to be behind me on a narrow country lane out in East Sx /Kent borders of Cowden/Marks Beech. Having got by me he deliberately decide to kick all the dust/crap up by driving in to the n/s edge, for my part I was able to stop and pull in to a filed gate/entrance until the debris/dust settled.


I believe in Karma and no doubt it will come to bite him somewhere/somewhen in his life.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Bus drivers, I could not steer one of those monsters :?
They are the worst too, I thought buses had an automatic brake that was applied when the vehicle stops so it cannae creep forward while tickets are being sold
But I saw one today stopped at the lights by the train station, it moved off again and crawled over the line on red, that does not happen through absent-minded-ness, it's worth a few points, second time I have seen this recently by chance without specially observing
Ten points, no licence!
Could we send the driver to PurgaTory?
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BrightonRock
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Joined: 4 Apr 2019, 7:37am

Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by BrightonRock »

Agree with the above, horse box drivers are nice concerned with the condition of their contents than other road users
robing
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Joined: 7 Sep 2014, 9:11am

Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by robing »

One thing that seems to be on the increase is drivers stopping anywhere - and I mean anywhere often in inconvenient or downright dangerous places. A lot of it is phone related. But instead of finding a safe place to pull over they stop anywhere they like.
Bonefishblues
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Bonefishblues »

A tragic and sadly topical case in point.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-englan ... rash-death
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Courier drivers are bad
I think they are told to reverse into parking spaces where necessary and safe
Observed several recently reversing where there was no need to, maybe they need to learn when reversing is appropriate and when not :?
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Mike Sales
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Mike Sales »

I cannot tell one make of car from another, so it's easy for me to resist this invitation to generalise.
I find that the worst are those with a motor.
I would not want to base my reaction to an approaching vehicle on their bonnet badge. Treat 'em all as suspect until proved otherwise is safest.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Sloth
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Sloth »

Buses and taxis where I live.Bus drivers with their "you have no right to the road attitude" it seems
Cyril Haearn
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Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 11:26am

Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Driving instructors for bus drivers are awful
Saw one who had stopped her vehicle part-way onto a zebra yesterday
'You must keep the crossing clear, you @#*%&€!', I roared
He then nudged forward to block the crossing completely
..
Anyone who thinks that encouraging friendly cooperation on the road makes sense should go into town at 7:30 Thursday, chaos, terror reigns. Too many of us, including me, pontificate from our leafy suburbs. Enforcement and reduction of traffic are the solutions
Last edited by Cyril Haearn on 16 Aug 2019, 5:24am, edited 1 time in total.
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Sloth wrote:Buses and taxis where I live.Bus drivers with their "you have no right to the road attitude" it seems

Right again
Why is there no interlock to stop them selling tickets while the vehicle is moving?
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Cugel
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Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by Cugel »

Mike Sales wrote:I cannot tell one make of car from another, so it's easy for me to resist this invitation to generalise.
I find that the worst are those with a motor.
I would not want to base my reaction to an approaching vehicle on their bonnet badge. Treat 'em all as suspect until proved otherwise is safest.


Ha ha - a sensible post in a sea of stereotyping. :-)

The worst drivers are those who drive badly, causing not just inconvenience but serious danger to others and themselves. The best drivers are those who drive carefully, with anticipation and consideration, doing their utmost to understand and control their vehicle so that they offer no harm or inconvenience to others.

These best & worst drivers come in all kinds of vehicles.

One can develop the cyclists' 6th sense for the worst ones by learning their variety of car twitches, jerks, thrust and so forth. Add in visual expressions upon the driver's fizzog for more clues as to the next act of the vehicle within your orbit.

Some vehicle aspects can be indicative. A personalised number plate, for example, is often (not always) the signal that the inhabitant is a self-important thruster careless of anything but his ego. Go faster stripes, boot wings and similar boy-racer paraphernalia is also something of a clue.

But it's what they do, rather than how they look, that is the best way to anticipate and avoid the loons. Even some Audi drivers are careful!

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
MOARspeed
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Joined: 5 Jun 2019, 11:09am

Re: Who are the best/worst drivers on the road?

Post by MOARspeed »

I think there is a type of driver, who's poor driving is "enabled" by a certain type/brand of car (German or JLR), and such people actively seek out ownership of such vehicles.
In the same way that some great employee's make terrible managers. Once given that perception of having a raised position over other people, they turn into monsters.
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