I'll third this. A few years ago, I approached some traffic lights, on red, and signalled to get into the left turn lane. I could see a red car quite far back in that lane, so I shifted over sharpish, lights went amber and I started to set off. This red car must've put his foot to the floor when he saw me move over, and came barrelling up behind me, flashing and honking, while the lights went green. He then proceeded to follow me for about 3 miles through Preston, driving about 6 inches off my back bumper. I started driving in a random pattern to make him go away. Eventually, we pulled up at some very slow changing lights, he got out of his car, kicked the passenger door of mine, and shouted at me; I was not allowed to get in HIS lane apparently. He called me fit to burn, hammering on my window and demanding I open the door. About 50 years old I reckon. Pathetic.

Not much bothers me, but that is a particularly creepy thing to do to a young female driver on her own.

Edited by Bobbin Threadbare on 11/06/2014 at 22:32

Proton Impian - made in Malaysia. Used by Humberside Police for a time.

Edited by Auristocrat on 12/06/2014 at 12:44

While we were working a main road (Emptying the bins) we were causing a small bit of traffic a middle aged man around 50 started honking and swearing at us to move out of his fing way he offers us all out to a fight but there was four of us on the crew that day ad he was a feeble looking man who could of gone over very easy. We didn't take him up on his offer of a fight as we want to keep our jobs.

It makes me laugh how someone turns in to a hard man when there in a tin box. I find its the middle aged men in people carriers that are the worst.

>>>"I guess there must be an age where the average coaster has just realised he has thrown his life away - 40 something in a dead-end non-job with no real prospects - fine if that's what you're happy with but I suspect not for the majority!"

...or perhaps had a harridan ex-wife who's shredded his life in the divorce courts? That could possibly make someone a bit nihilistic.

I saw a case of elderly rage once. An elderly woman driver hooted at an elderly man with a walking stick who was taking his time to cross at a pedestrian crossing. The old man with the stick, who was quite big and tall, turned and stood in front of the car, shouting and banging his walking stick on the windscreen!

That makes me jealous. I've always wanted to be a gentle giant.

About 8 years ago I was travelling with my wife through a fairly nice area in the West Midlands, doing about 35 in a 30 on a wide tree-lined main road. Behind me were a couple of girls in a Corsa. (They happened to be black but could have just as easily been white).

The driver had both hands off the wheel and her and her passenger were grooving around to the latest hot tunes, whilst needlessly tailgating me to move quicker. I moved to the left hand side of the road and slowed to let them past. As they drew alongside, the passenger chucked her bag containing a half eaten burger and coke at my car. Unfortunately, my driver's window was half down and she was a good shot.

My first reaction was disbelief, my second was "what a waste of food" (:>)

We did inform the police who were quite sympathetic but we never heard anything back.

I chose not to finish the girl's unhappy meal.

Sorry to say that I am one of those people who needs their licence so I stick very closely to the speed limit

I don't, but neither do I feel anyone who does should have to apologise!

Whenever I have to drive on the busy roads at 8 in the morning, I do get wound up very easily. Too many vehicles, not enough road, junctions and interchanges simply overwhelmed by the demand put on them, people sitting stationary on the dual carriageway because the queue for the exit is simply too long.

All you need in this situation is somebody doing something stupid. Like a Lorryist overtaking another one despite being limited to the same speed. You get a lot of that in this part of the country, as the nations Chinese tat is all jammed onto inferior roads at the same time.

Anyone else notice the roads were almost lawless this evening?

Its not just the roads, and it used to be confined to Friday and Saturday late afternoon and evenings/nights.

We will reap what we sowed/voted for.

Italian driving scary?....ever been to Malta? Sat at T junction indicating R to get onto a busy road.....guy in an old truck full of watermelons just waltzes past me on the right and without looking or lowering his speed just turns R through the main roads trffic flow....no hooting and no one seemed in the least put out. Kenya was good too, in a taxi which had 6 of us in belting down very bad roads at considerable speed and then into town......all the time the driver is honking his horn.....he said if you hit a pedestrian and you were sounding your horn it was always the pedestrians fault. Can this be right? Malta gets my vote, 'which side of the road do you drive on in Malta? I asked a Maltese lady I know, 'we drive in the shade' she said.

(Duplicate post)

Edited by Avant on 14/06/2014 at 13:39

I used to be a bit of a nightmare for road rage in my mid 20s but then I went and lived in Italy for a couple of years. You can imagine what the standard of driving was like there! As a result, I think I've seen so much bad driving there, that nothing surprises me any more and I've calmed down as a result. I remember being undertaken at speed by a 3-up motorbike on a dual carriageway and none of them had a helmet on! This was one of the milder occasions. Strangely though I didn't see many accidents. I wonder if the generally poor driving made everyone more alert, whereas because we are conditioned to conform, anything out of the norm which we're not expecting causes us problems.

Italian road deaths run at more than double the UK...(per head of population)..

tinyurl.com/q3llqyg

As an elderly driver, I find my habit of keeping to speed limits upsets quite a lot of drivers but I sometimes get insults just by being there. Not long ago, I was quietly partaking of my bad coffee and worse sandwich in a bar of the National Theatre when a young man, who had been staring at me from another part of the room, came over and called me an old fool, while making for the exit.

My commute to Cambridge is just 3 days each week. Just leaving 15 minutes earlier in the morning makes a noticeable differnce in traffic volume. Fortunately, I only go there on one week day otherwise I'd go mad. Sat/Sun commute is much more blissful.

BTW, Cambridgeshire police are extremely unobservant. A car has been parked in a layby on the A14 now for around two weeks. It has no tax disc.