Driving up the M1 yesterday morning. Traffic heavy but motoring reasonably well. In a line of traffic which included Nissan Skyline, BMW M3 csl and Disco 3 and my Scooby. Pick up a flash of colour in the mirrors - yellow. It gets closer and looks like Ferrari F40. It is weaving in and out of lanes and frequently straddling lanes. Gets closer and can't recognise car, but it eventually gets past me and it's a Porsche Carrera GT; driver is about 55 years old. Looks respectable.
Traffic now too heavy for anything more than 65mph and Porker still weaving all over the show, finding gaps where there are none and causing other cars to swerve or brake sharply. Eventually, SWMBO rang the police who said they would monitor and at the next service station a cop car was waiting at the slip road with lights on. He pulls out and gently follows porker for several miles during which time we all overtake yellow car, whose average speed is serverly reduced.
Glad to see some notice paid to ad hoc phone calls to police.
BTW - got a mention on Classic FM last night for advising of stationary traffic on M6 in Staffordshire - my claim to fame!
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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OLD? 55? Puhleeeeese...
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On an M1 trip on Christmas Eve I was cuising along minding my own business. Near junction 40 we passed a stranded HGV on the hard shoulder. Parked in front were the police who were assisting the driver. At junction 38 a Passat flew past me doing well in excess of the limit. In a few seconds he was gone, only to be followed by the same Volvo who had been helping the HGV driver! In the distance Passat pulls over and I catch up with him, police overtake me, pull behind Passat and blue lights are on. Driver of Passat was well into his 60s. Make progress when it's quiet, but you stick out like a sore thumb and are easy pickings for the boys in blue.
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I mean old in the sense that he is not in the 17-25 age group and should have known better.
Driving down to London on Christmas Day I avaraged well over 75mph, but generally in a small line of traffic and no one particular car for the police to pull.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Exactly - don't do anything to make yourself too obtrusive and you're generally OK.
I find it surprising as well when more mature drivers behave aggressively on the road. You kind of expect it with younger men, for some reason, but this looks increasingly like prejudice to me.
Most of the worst, most aggressive motorway driving I see on my daily 40 mile M way commute seems to be by middle aged "family men", or by young women. Obviously not a scientific conclusion, but my impressions over a long period of time do seem to generally confirm this trend.
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I rather suspect that the people you call irresponsible, are the same people who kicked off the boy-racer thing. They've never grown up, just older.
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"I averaged well over 75mph" - did SWMBO ring the police?
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OLD? 55? Puhleeeeese...
My sentiments entirely. Some people don't know what 'old' is, do they?
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Blimey if you think thats bad come to Worthing for the day, old boys pulling out in front of you at junctions and then trundling along at 25mph. Seeing them trying to park along the seafront cracks me up.
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well I am 46 and being driving since 17 so 29 years with no incidents and 5 years living in Germany lh drive and consider my self to be a safe driver.
2 weeks ago on a visit to Darlington with my wife driving at 30mph in 30 built up zone,see in my mirror megane driven by "old" say 50ish ,gets closer and then start to sound his horn and wave his hand as to gesture "move it".
Continued waving hand and horn--and all of this in build up traffic 30 zone.
I see a chance to pull in and park intending to ask what the hell he playing at.
So I stop and he increases speed blows horn and waves hand-= idiot.
30mph was the safe limit and any faster -well what can I say
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This subject comes up, in various guises, time and time again.
Aggressive and bad drivers are just that - regardless of age.
We can all have our personal theories of how age affects driving ability. However I suggest that the insurance companies assessment of risk is probably the most meaningful. Most companies do not start loading policies until the driver is 75+ and some not at all.
There are plenty of statistics available on the internet to confirm the insurance companies assessment.
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I am reporting the thread to the appropriate authorities for ageism..:-)
madf
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Age is no barrier to bad driving! a bad aggressive driver can be that way all their lives.
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"BTW - got a mention on Classic FM last night for advising of stationary traffic on M6 in Staffordshire - my claim to fame!"
I think I heard this - I remember thinking 'I know tbat stretch well and thank goodness I'm not on it' - glad (surrupsingly) to be in Reading.
Was that you Espada - without giving too much away - with a Welsh Christian name?
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Was that you Espada - without giving too much away - with a Welsh Christian name?
yes it probably was!
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Certainly was me!!!
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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I don't think the older drivers you talk about are as much as a worry as a boy racer(he or she in their teens/twenties. With big tyres, big exhaust and go faster music showing how good they with their mates in the cars.
After all as its been said so many times, if people did not hog the outside and middle lanes, you would'nt have people swopping in and out of lanes trying to get in front of you if the lanes were clear from these HOGGERS when the inner lane is empty.
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My be one reason for the 'grey grrs' is that they're middle aged people in middle management positions who've got to get out there and get business. Like anyone else, they're under pressure and they take it out on the road from the safety of their metal canister.
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I'm old and irresponsible, and I enjoy it. I would hate to be young and staid again ~ it would totally bore me.
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L\'escargot.
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A few years ago my sister got married and had her reception in a pub in Petersfield.
The pub is right next to the exit from the main car park.
Me and my daughter were wandering off into town to find some cigars and were walking into the car park, approaching the exit were a line of cars headed by a VERY old man in a Metro (he looked a bit like Magnus Pikes Grandfather and must have been in his eighties at least),he was dithering about where and if to park and was proceeding at a crawl.
Behind him was a Golf being driven by a shrivelled up elderly woman (who looked like Nefetiti does now),she was annoyed at the ditheringly leisurely pace Magnus's Grandad was travelling at and gave him a loud blast of her horn,quick as a flash and with the skill only someone with experience of the usage of trafficators can muster,his arm shot out of his open window and up came two fingers,this enraged Nefetiti who drove closer and blasted her horn again,he replied with his horn and exited the car park with Nefetiti following and the last we saw and heard of them they were still balsting their horns at each other.
All this in front of my then 11 year old daughter.
I think she now knows that most of us are hypocrites.
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