 I've just been for a nice run round some local forestry commision land (well I say nice, it used to be untill the windmills appeared) and on the short drive back into town I was cut up by some wrinkly old woman with her flat capped husband in the passenger seat on a roundabout. Cut up so bad I had to mount the roundabout o avoid collision and have taken a nice chunk out of my front wheel . I was turning right she was going straight through but decided to drift into my lane (middle to inside). They stopped and got out their car only to shout at me and tell me how it was all my fault and should go and learn to drive properly. Even though other drivers now held up by two cars across the roundabout had got out and were backing me up they were adamant that they should go read their highway code as well as me!!! "you stupid young boy, when you've been driving as long as me you'll know what its all about etc etc" I dont understand how many of the older generation can offended by the idea of resitting your test every so often. If you can drive competently you should have nothing to worry about!
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 It will all change soon according to a thing in the news online the other day, about them going to transform all the driving tests once more again. This time though it will be a radical shake up, as they realise it is a way of getting older cars and drivers off the roads, and gather in more money from car owners! So even in change, it does seem that nothing much changes then!  Anyway really old drivers won't be able to coome up the mental alacrity necessary to pass all the newer proposed tests for driving.......senility and all! 
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Stange to think, that with all the things that do change over the years, there's the old driving test system largely completely radically unchanged in over fifty years! Or at least that was what the online newspaper story reckoned! That old hack may very well just be a pushbike rider of course though!
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| Edited: 27/05/08 15:16 |
 I think it's changed a fair bit over the last few years. An additional written test (more cash for t'government) and now a hazard perception test (oh good, MORE money for t'government!)... ...meanwhile, I don't get any overtime any more, the cost of living goes thru the roof, the family tax credit that we were awarded has to be paid back (to the government, becausee THEY cocked up the calculations), fuel goes up, no bloody fig rolls in the shops (probably the government's fault, although I haaven't quite worked out why yet), my daughter's boyfriend appears to have moved in with us but neither of them pay any rent, and my dog has chewed our new cane furniture (can't see how I can blame the government for that one, mind). Aah, life is good! Sorry. Just felt the need to rant.
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 BBF, you don't say but let's assume that driver who cut you up was 65. Do you really think she was a better driver when she was 35 ? What evidence have you that age had anything to do with her poor driving ? There is however a strong indication that your own lack of age and therefore driving experience was to blame for the damage you inflicted on your car. A better driver would have noticed that the car in front of him on the roundabout was driven by a woman and acted appropriately. In particular he would not have assumed that there was any connection between her signals and her intentions, and left enough room to avoid her without mounting the roundabout and b*****ing his wheel.
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 "I dont understand how many of the older generation can offended by the idea of resitting your test every so often. If you can drive competently you should have nothing to worry about!" same applies to all drivers. by inside lane i assume you mean the lane next to the roundabout as you were turning right?
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 I was at work on the breast screening van which was in the CooP car park and out of the office window I saw a car drive at a fair speed into mine. I went out side and I said t the elderly woman " you have driven into my car" " have I ?" she replied. She seamed oblivious. She then got out and said "well its not damaged it" " er yes it has I said showing her the bloody great obvious black gouge " oh yes so it has but its damaged mine too" well that's alright then. Despite my car having been stationary in a marked bay for 3 1/2hours my insurance company battled for weeks to get her to admit liability
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 > er yes it has I said showing her the bloody great obvious black gouge " oh yes so it has but its damaged mine too" That was pretty much the line taken by the husband of a woman who reversed out of her drive in front of me whilst I was cycling down a steep hill, leaving me no chance to stop. When I'd picked myself up off the road, looked at my written-off bike, and then sat down at the side of the road, waiting for the ambulance, she said "Oh, I saw you, but I thought you'd stop..." Yes; I did, once I'd smacked into the side of your car, gone over the back of it, and ended up in a heap on the road... When I had recovered enough from the accident (needed a week off work), I rang her up, only to have her husband say how much damage it had caused to his car. I reminded him, rather sharply, of exactly who was at fault in this incident...
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 That's a pet hate of mine too Parky, drivers who just assume cyclists will work around them. On my way home from college I have a fairly long hill to go down with a crossroads at the bottom. I know the signal changes well enough that I neednt bother slowing down sometimes (same as in a car, if the lights are green you keep motoring!) but a few weeks ago some idiot taxi driver coming from the opposite direction decided to turn right across me. I narrowly missed the back of his car. I was travelling in excess of 20mph so had I hit him I would have been in quite some trouble.
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of course you were shining example of visibilty ben. lots of bright colours and a dayglo helmet. whilst i empathise, a lot of cyclists do not realise just how invisible they are, especially to a car driver who is concentraing (hah!) on several things at once. and especially to pedestrians! along the lines of where the feck did you come from.
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Well i'll admit that I wasn't in a fluro jacket, but I did have my bright red windsmock on. There is a filter on that set of lights so Id say he should have been particularly careful when turning across traffic. Had he waited 10 seconds he could have safely turned without nearly killing me!
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BBF, you don't say but let's assume that driver who cut you up was 65. Do you really think she was a better driver when she was 35 ? What evidence have you that age had anything to do with her poor driving ? There is however a strong indication that your own lack of age and therefore driving experience was to blame for the damage you inflicted on your car. A better driver would have noticed that the car in front of him on the roundabout was driven by a woman and acted appropriately. In particular he would not have assumed that there was any connection between her signals and her intentions, and left enough room to avoid her without mounting the roundabout and b*****ing his wheel.
Although I see the funny if somewhat sexist side of what you say, what gets me really angry isnt so much the damage to my car even though she was at fault. It was when I was told that I should grow up and learn to drive etc that got me fuming. Also she wasnt in front of me, I was in front of her on the approach to the round a bout. Whilst waiting for a gap in traffic to move off from the give way line I was in the far right, inside, nearest the round about lane...the correct lane for turning right or taking the 3rd exit. She was in the centre, straight on lane....the correct lane for going straight through or taking the 2nd exit. We both moved off at the same time but she decided to take a straight line through instead of following her lane. When I realised she was coming into my lane I had to brake hard and steer right mounting the roundabout narrowly missing the back right hand side of her car. Do I think she was really a better driver at 35?. No. Assuming she sat her test 30 years ago then she most definitley sat a test allowing her to drive a car with a greatly reduced standard of driving compared to today. If she drove like that today she would fail, I also supect if she did that 30 years ago she would also fail. They keep making the test(s) harder in a bid to raise the standard of drivers so why does it affect only new drivers? We all drive on the same roads so surely the standards should be the same accross the board? Apart from the cost I see no problem with re sitting my test ever 5 or 10 years. Parky makes a good point about cyclist sometimes not being visible. I was always told to give a cyclist as much room as a car when overtaking or manouvering round etc. It amazes me how many drivers I see whizzing past cyclists at great speed with only inches to spare. Twice in the last 3 years I have stopped to help cyclists who have been clipped by the motorist's in front of me.
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| Edited: 28/05/08 12:11 |
 Mandatory re-testing every five years, with an annual theory test. Life bans for parking on double yellow lines (unless you've got a very good reason to argue before the Beak), life bans for exceeding 100mph on a motorway (or any other road for that matter), and the stocks for any cyclist or motorist running a red light! Should reduce accidents, traffic jams etc if only by reducing the number of folk allowed to carry on driving. Result - a boost to public transport, & a burgeoning driving lesson industry to boot. What's not to like?
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Nothing I can see. Although I would like to see the motorway limit raised to 80 mph.
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waiting on the give way line? tsk. rather unsafe positioning. no leeway for you to move forward out of the way of someone smacking you in the rear and pushing you into the traffic flow. no leeway to start to move to be ready to slot into the gap
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I know you are trying to wind me up but I never said I was waiting on it I said move off from it. It was still her stupidity and lack of lane discipline that caused it. My insurance company also seems to think so. My point was about changing standards only affecting new drivers, its a bit "one rule for them one rule for us".
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1.something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison; an approved model. 4.an average or normal requirement, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc.: His work this week hasn't been up to his usual standard. Taken from here Whats the point of introducing new standards if they dont affect all of us?
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I dont pretend to know everything about driving and yes we all make the occasional mistake but bloody hell, changing lanes on a roundabout then trying to blame the person you drove into!! I know the statistics show the dangers of cocky young lads behind the wheel etc but honestly think that I've had more near misses from the blind pensioner driving with blinkers on than boy racers. A driving licence is a privelage not a god given right so like I said, if you can drive competently and to the required standard (of today mind) then you have nothing to be worried about. By the way I'm 26, I have 3 alloy wheels left and I'm not a boy racer although my insurance premium would make you wonder.
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<goes off to put kettle on and simmer down>
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I think you should admit the possibility that age does not necessarily mean incompetent and out of date. May I quote your own reference at you : 5. standards, those morals, ethics, habits, etc., established by authority, custom, or an individual as acceptable: He tried to live up to his father's standards. Now does that suggest that older must mean inferior ?
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