By nature, i’m not a road rage kind of person. I actually think these people are a bit stupid really as shouting at other cars is pointless as they can’t hear you! That being said, i’ve just called myself an idiot as since i’ve moved to Hertfordshire, my road rage is growing by the day…
It’s largely because of people not being nice or courteous and this is coming from someone who grew up driving in Kent. Here are a list of my gripes:
1) People drive too close behind you – It seems there’s no stereotyping either as it’s a mixture of all cars from small Ford Ka’s to lorries.
2) People don’t understand roundabouts – Going on the outside lane three quarters round the roundabout is very dangerous thing where i’m from, but here it’s not just acceptable, but fairly normal.
3) People don’t understand roundabouts 2 – The normal rule is to give way to those on the right. Here, the rule is to give way to whoever is fastest. This applies to whether the car is already on the roundabout or on approach and it doesn’t matter if you’re already on the roundabout and have priority. Speaking of priority…
4) Pinch-point priority – There’s a road here that has two pinch-points to slow traffic. They both have different priorities – if you have priority for one, you won’t for the other. This tends to mean that if someone goes through the one where they don’t have priority, they then drive straight down the middle of the road as they have priority for the next one. This is regardless of whether there’s a car going through the one at the other end. I’ve had countless close calls, a few “I can’t believe he didn’t hit me!” moments and i’ve been practically run off the road twice. All because morons forget that there are two sides of the road…
5) Finally, motorbikes – Here’s a prime example which happened only this morning and caused this rant. I was in a queue approaching a junction. I wanted to turn right and so did a motorbike a few cars back. As the car in front of me approached the junction I see the motorbike weaving in my mirror. I think little of it as he’s still a few cars back and the car in front of me has now pulled out. I pull up to the junction, look right, look left, prepare to pull out, start my move and the motorbike pulls up on my left and drives straight across me, causing me to brake. What was he doing on my left hand side when he wants to turn right??!?! I then pull out behind him and give him the “What the hell??!?!” hand gestures and he/she just shakes their head. What a prick!
