Just had my first driving lesson

[Stevepage]

Jesus! there are some ar*eholes on the road! Think I pretty well though for my first lesson, only stalled 3 times but managed to do roundabouts and gear changes fairly good.

Any one else learning to drive?

[Philly Q]

I took my test 4 times, about 23 years ago, but never passed - I was so pissed off after the last one I gave up.

Good luck!

[noodleplugerine]

Nope, but when I first started cycling that was my reaction too. You don't quite realise as a pedestrian.

[38thBeatle]

It isn't just when you are learning that you encounter ar*eholes on the road. On the M23 this morning in heavy rain there was some very stupid people.

[Will]

I noticed it as a passenger. ie, doing 60 in a 40 zone, and 40 in a 60 zone. Stupid Mother.
That was a few years ago, I encountered someone like that the other day, and sped up when I tried to overtake, then I couldn't, then they slowed down again (pattern repeats).
I have a trip to Newcastle tomorrow which will probably anger me lots too.
Hoping for 4 months in NZ over winter though, and their M roads are similar to our A roads apparently :D

:lol: long post, I get road rage.

ps. When driving a tractor, people never take notice of your indicators, and usually overtake as you are  turning right, and dent your steps, and write off their car. Its a mighty hassle. I hate the roads

[_tom_]

I cant stand stupid drivers and there are so many. The thing that annoys me most is people who tailgate, even when I'm doing the proper speed limit. Usually if I'm not in a rush I slow down to 10 under the speed limit just to anger them further :lol:

[gwEm]

ps. When driving a tractor, people never take notice of your indicators, and usually overtake as you are  turning right, and dent your steps, and write off their car. Its a mighty hassle. I hate the roads

this sounds like the voice of bitter experience!

[badgermark]

I passed my test 3 years ago, only just got a car two weeks ago. I still got it. I can't say I'm a brilliant driver, but some other people are arses. The amount of times i've been cut up on the motorway by a dick in a big car. It's always the c--ks in 4x4s, audis or mercs that try to cut up my poor 1 l Yaris...

[hamfist]

It's always the c--ks in 4x4s, audis or mercs that try to cut up my poor 1 l Yaris...

You may not have been driving long but you've sure sussed out the way things work out there on the Tarmac !

[noodleplugerine]

And not Beamers?

I quote the great Clive Owen...

Mr. Smith: I move my finger one inch to use my turn signal. Why are these assholes so lazy they can't move their finger one $%&#ing measly inch to drive more safely? You wanna know why?

DQ: Not particularly.

Mr. Smith: Because these rich bar-stewards have to be callous and inconsiderate in the first place to make all that money, so when they get on the road, they can't help themselves. They've gotta be callous and inconsiderate drivers too. It's in their nature

[_tom_]

Shoot Em Up ftw :D

[Kilby]

Edit :
Congrats on taking the first step towards driving as it makes a real difference to your life (once you pass), it took me till I was 29 to get around to learning.

/Edit

I'm undecided as to wether I loathe Females in 4x4s doing the school run, business types in BMWs or pricks in white vans on the motorway approaching Liverpool !

Though the scariest experiance (apart from the Tesco artic on the wrong side of the road @ 03:00 in the morning), was meeting a car going around a roundabout in the wrong direction (@ Gallions Reach, just up from the Excel Center in east London)

[dave_mc]

It isn't just when you are learning that you encounter ar*eholes on the road. On the M23 this morning in heavy rain there was some very stupid people.

yeah, it's a healthy combination of stupidity and douchebaggery. i guess you could add in recklessness too.

[Antag]

I remember when I was learning to drive a boy racer cut me up at a roundabout, honked his horn & flicked Vs.  About 100yds later we came up behind him at a red light so my instructor - who was a really rough scouser - got out, ran up & banged on his windscreen

"You were a bloody learner once you f___ w___!" :lol:

[Roobubba]

I've been driving a lot lately with my new job (I live in Oxford and work 3 days a week in London (get the bus) and 2 days in Sutton, Surrey). There are several things which irritate me on the roads, though I generally keep my cool throughout the majority of events. It's just not worth getting het up about - that way leads to accidents!!
My biggest gripe is middle lane driving. I generally drive at the speed limit nowadays. With so many miles on the clock and such high fuel prices, it's better for my bank balance!! Even so, whether I would drive 80 on the motorways or 60 as I did the other day (50 MPG, woo!), I always pull over to the left-hand lane if I'm not imminently overtaking something.
I have always been taught to read the road - the cars' speeds ahead and behind, and it's very rare that I get myself boxed in. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to bother about looking at other cars on the road, so they just drive in the middle lane all the time.

I swear that 90% of the slowdowns on the motorways are caused by this one simple inaction. SO MANY TIMES a day I see a middle lane driver holding up a queue of traffic with absolutely no regard for what effect they're having.

The only thing I detest as much as this is tailgating. It's usually an Audi or a BMW, but probably only because these cars are amongst the most abundant on our roads...

The main thing I've been concentrating on in the past few years is to make sure I keep my head and don't react angrily to these situations. You just have to look further ahead and behind and be prepared to react should anything require it!

With that said, one of the most fun games on the motorway is trapping "undertakers". Those are the gimps who try to skip queues of traffic by bombing down your left then dodging back into the fast lane further ahead. (the main cause of this problem is in fact the middle lane drivers, though!!). You just open up a slightly larger than normal gap ahead of you in the queue, and they can't resist undertaking you - or you see them coming up on your left side from way back - then you speed up just enough to stop them getting in ahead of you, and not so much that they can slot in behind you (ie you drag the car behind up with you).

I once managed to get a pr*ck in a beamer boxed in behind a lorry for about 3 miles doing this! All the cars he'd undertaken made sure he couldn't get out. That was satisfying :)

But yeah, there are a LOT of inconsiderate drivers, a lot of drivers who don't look ahead or behind them, a lot who are just plain retards (particularly in town centres...). I'm far from a perfect driver, but at least I *know* that and I want to be a better driver!

Roo