Had a weekend in Arnside and Kendal. Decided to return to Leeds via the A65, rather than the M6/M61/M62 route. As you can imagine at 4pm last night there were plenty of day trippers returning home. The A65 is a country road with no dual carriageway sections - its forty miles from the M6 junction to Skipton.
All the journey we were travelling in a line of traffic - more than a dozen cars at 40-50mph - not to the limit, but enough progress being made. All of a sudden I became aware of a car overtaking where the road is narrow and views restricted. I was following a Landrover - the other car drew level with me as we approached the next blind corner and carried on! He then slammed on filled the gap between me and the Landrover and proceeded to sit on the Landy's bumper for the next few miles, brake lights coming on every few seconds.
We then came to a straight section, because I left a decent gap I could see round the corner down the straight - nothing coming - the mad overtaker stayed behind the Landrover! Needless to say when the road became dangerous off he went again.
By the time we reached the roundabout on the outskirts of Skipton the other car was just 6 cars in front of me - his stupidity had saved him about 10 seconds and no doubt raised his blood pressure no end.
So to the driver of the BMW 3 series with a London reg. Was it worth it?
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and proceeded to sit on the Landy's bumper for the next few miles, brake lights coming on every few seconds.
I always have the satisfaction of knowing that drivers that do this are wearing their brake linings out much quicker than I am. By keeping a reasonable distance from the vehicle in front I am able to just lift my right foot as and when necessary and (by and large) leave the brake pedal alone.
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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wearing their brake linings
And stuffing their mpg.
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I'd like to think most of us here wouldn't drive like that and couldn't give a toss about the idiot's blood pressure. What worries me most about these idiots is the possibility that others will be drawn into accidents due to their stupid, selfish and highly dangerous behaviour. You're quite right abouth the usual outcome of such antics - a whole load of grief and potential danger for a lot of innocent drivers and a miniscule (if any) gain for the moron involved. You're also right not to let his antics adversely affect your driving (difficult though that may be at times). Best policy is not to get involved, drop back and stay as far away from trouble as you can. I think that if these people started considering their actual speed rather than that relative to the cars around them they may act differently, or maybe not :(
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proceeded to sit on the Landy's bumper for the next few miles, brake lights coming on every few seconds.
Or more commonly known as "dabber" drivers. Continually dabbing on their brakes every few seconds but not actually reducing their speed, but forcing everyone else behind them to also dab their brakes as well because they think the car in front is slowing down because their brake lights are on.
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I don't give a toss about these sorts of drivers.They can spin their car into a tree and kill themselves for all i care, but when guys like this smash into the innocent driver coming the other way and cripple/kill them as well then i have got a problem with them.
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This is an extreme example, fortunately rare. But I observe that the habit of needlessly overtaking another car simply because it is there is widespread.
If I drive into work keeping strictly to the speedlimit (singlecarriage A road) I am overtaken by virtually every single car. Yet in the queue at the other end I can see them all just a few cars ahead of me.
Was it worth it? Most people must think so.
Maybe that is why they complain that their brake disks wear out, while mine are still fine after 300,000 miles.
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"dabber" - not the word I usually use, but I shall in future !
you have to get out of the car sometime
so visit www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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A little while ago I had someone in front of me who was tailgating, maybe a couple of car lenghts gap at 50mph.
Out of curiosity I started counting: he applied his brakes fifty times to my once over about a five mile stretch.
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First point to clear up - it wasn't me and couldn't have been as (a) I have an excellent alibi for 4pm yesterday and (b) my 3 doesn't have a London registration!
Next point, I just hope he spins off into a tree before he hurts someone. Or that the oncoming vehicle around the blind bend is a HUGE artic that is hardly dented.
On second, thoughts, that isn't fair on trees or artic owners. Maybe a quarry would do it.
My practice is to think twice before overtaking. One thought is for "is it safe to go now", but the other is for "and where will that leave me?". If overtaking puts me ahead of a slow mover and with nothing else ahead then I'll go for it, if safe. However, even a safe overtake is pointless if you're just climbing the queue.
Reminds me of a holiday in Shropshire. They had long traffic flows, moving at 45-50mph on 60 roads. Whenever the road opened up there would be one numpty who would pull out and press on past as many as possible before someone appreared ahead or a bend loomed. At that point, they would look to the left and hope there was a gap. To my mind, that was a bit late to start thinking about where to pull in!
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I know the road well and the A59 - you always get at least one idiot doing this sort of thing on any particular journey and sometimes quite a few of them.
As pointed out, on such roads it rarely gets you very much further on in the end.
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