By James Arnold
July 04 2006
A few months ago we published a rundown of the top 10 things we hate on the road. We asked for your response to this; and we definitely got that, we received around 800 emails!
As usual we took in and read the good, the bad and of course the ugly; some agreed with us, some disagreed and some were in a word, unprintable. Following the feedback we have put together a top 10 of what you hate on Britain’s roads, the stuff that really gets up your nose as you travel the roads everyday. The 10 we include were picked from a rather broad range of views to say the very least, and some are rather amusing. We hope you agree – though please remember these are your comments and we do not necessarily agree with any of them!
The King of the Road
First up comes an interesting one; ‘Mr Important’. He thinks he is the boss, the ‘daddy’ of the road. He has little respect for the rest of us and believes he rules the way. Unsurprisingly he also seems to get right on your nerves…
Keith, Manchester
• Fat Cats with huge Mercs/Jags/BMW - They might own a very expensive car, but that doesn't mean they own the road, even if they think they do.
Lou, Bedfordshire
• Mr Important has to go. He cannot wait in line to get on to a busy roundabout (e.g. on the A507). No, he goes down the outside of the queue at great speed, squeezes onto the roundabout next to a legitimate motorist, then proceeds to overtake on the inside and race to be first across to the exit - which is only wide enough for one car. Everyone has to brake hard and avoid him because he is so important.
Haider, West Midlands
• 'Peerless' middle-class drivers with C-class Mercs or Jag S/X types. They drive like it is their road because they earn slightly above average salaries which most of it is spent on liabilities like their semi-sport cars and houses which take two or more incomes to finance. They tailgate you and you can smell a whiff of arrogance as they overtake you. Little do they know that your second/weekend car is a Ferrari/Bentley!
Indicating; or a Lack of…
I’m sure the majority of you will be fully intact with the idea of the frequent use of indicators whilst driving? The little blinking orange lights? The ones that somewhat ironically give other road users an indication as to which direction you are headed for? This all in an effort to prevent a nasty and potentially fatal accident? Well I’m glad you lot are familiar, but what of those who aren’t? Shocking? Yes we thought so! Your thoughts…
Joe, Basingstoke
• The idiots on the road who don’t bother to use their indicators when using a roundabout, or even when simply turning right or left; just to keep you guessing.
Phil, Surrey
• What about those charming airheads who've spent so much on their cars that they couldn't afford the optional (they must be) indicators? How much time do I waste per week waiting for one car at roundabouts and T-junctions which then turns, without indicating, down the road on which I'm patiently waiting?
Mary, Nottingham
• I'd ban all the folk who "buy" their flash new cars but can't afford the optional extras - like INDICATORS?! They really are a pain in the butt - and dangerous to boot! Me? I prefer one that I can afford the indicators for.
Older Folk
This was a popular category although few of you considered that old age is waiting for us all and as our picture of Stirling Moss shows, not all OAPs are bad drivers…
James, Surrey
• How can old people not be on there? We were behind one the other day and they were doing 35mph on a 60mph road. They have no reaction time whatsoever and have no awareness of their surroundings. They should all be taught how to keep up with traffic or maybe they should just get a bus.....but buses are annoying to, so I think there should be a special road system designed for people who are old.
Gary, Grimsby
• Ban the over 65's! They're too busy crawling along the motorways and dual carriageways trying to work the newfangled Music Disc thingy to notice anybody else. Some people have a job to go to and don't have 30 minutes to wait while they manoeuvre into that oh so tight space in Sainsbury’s car park.
Tim, Sutton
• For most post 65-ers, the act of conducting a self-propelled road vehicle with any degree of aplomb has long ceased to come naturally. I had a small dalliance with such a Corolla-clad grey-head in front of me at a junction the other day, and, displaying all the control and co-ordination of an alcoholic micro light pilot, he waited ten times longer than my patience could stand before lurching into the road in front of a huge green bendy-bus. The old guy? Completely oblivious.
Kyle, St Albans
• The elderly! They drive at 20mph where ever they go! They sit at a round about and wait for someone to stop for them to get on, instead of going when there is an appropriate space! They are useless drivers! More of a danger than learners!
The Two-Wheeled Engineless Menace
Moving swiftly downwards then as you scroll; next up are those two-wheeled mobile menace, or rather the people on them – cyclists - on the pavements, in the middle of the road, running red lights. A disaster zone you thought. We wouldn’t dare argue.
Jay, London
• Cyclists who ride too far away from the pavement... Cycling in general is fine - it’s healthy, green, and even enjoyable, circumstances permitting! But for crying out loud, in a single lane road, is it absolutely necessary to ride at 3 mph in the middle of the lane?! And how about those pesky cyclists that happily manoeuvre themselves into awkward places when at junctions? Honestly, I think cyclists should be licensed before they're allowed out on the roads.
Scott, Glasgow
• Cyclists-they don't pay road tax, they don’t have a safety standard for their vehicles, they are not insured, and worst of all they don't have to sit any road safety tests i.e. getting a licence. In short they are purely dangerous on our roads and are never held responsible for any accidents.
Helen, Essex
• Cyclists who think that they are too good for the cycle paths! The council spends a ton of money building cycle paths and narrowing the road as a consequence, and nearly everyday, I get stuck behind a cyclist who is on the road...riding next to the cycle lane! Utter madness!
Tony, West Sussex
• You forgot the most conceited, arrogant and inconsiderate (not to mention aggressive) species of road yob - the cyclist! Forget the Highway Code, they just whiz through lights/junctions/stationary traffic as if they were being pursued by an escaped tiger and if you dare to get in their way then be prepared for a dose of cycle rage in your direction (must be the sad Lycra shorts squeezing the blood from their genitals and over pressurising their brains).
Buses
I’m too big, I’m usually wearing red, I’m wide, I irritate the majority with my distinct lack of elegance and delicacy in public - I should be stopped. What am I? I’m a bus. You hate them!
Jason, Essex
• Buses that just stop at a bus stop with no indication and then pull away from the bus stop as you're overtaking them. They just don’t care about safety as it’s not their vehicle!
Simone, Birmingham
• In my daily commute, I regularly get stuck behind buses which are either empty or have only one or two passengers on board. They should ban buses from operating with less than, say, 50% of passenger capacity on board. A bus emits around 40 times the amount of pollution as a car, and takes up ridiculous amounts of space on our overcrowded roads. If no-one wants to use them - leave them in the garage!
Slow Worms on the Road
Call it relaxed driving, call it keeping within the speed limit, call it whatever you like! The fact is its slow, it’s sluggish and it’s dangerous! Slow drivers are hated by you guys! Some of you have places to be, people to see! Nobody ever liked a slow-coach! Here are some of your views…
Dave, Woking
• I’d ban the idiots who drive at 40mph in 60 or 70 zones when the conditions are excellent. As a service engineer on timed calls I hate this with a passion. I am sorely tempted to remonstrate with them at the next junction as to the next time their spouse wants the washing machine engineer to arrive before 14:30 hrs!!
Jamie, Corby
• Well people who don’t know where there going, they slow to a crawl on a carriageway looking at junctions and signs where as you should be sailing along at a smooth 60mph maybe a touch faster, law Permitting.
Graham, Stroud
• Idiot drivers, usually middle to old aged men, but some women, probably Micra drivers or small hatchbacks, of who persist in driving 10 mph under the speed limit, any, and brake when a car approaches in the opposite direction. Their hands white knuckle the wheel, never leaving to indicate, or change into top gear, and there gaze is rigidly fixed on some imaginary object some 1/4 mile ahead! They usually favour the centre of the road so you cannot get past, and anyway to pass quickly you have to break the speed limit, just as the mobile speed camera zaps you, banged to rights. Please protect us from "careful" drivers who have "never had an accident" but caused hundreds.
Steve, Midlands
• People who seem to have forgotten how to read speed limit signs....you know the sort, sign says 40 so they dawdle about at 25....worse still the idiots who don’t know what a round sign with a diagonal black line mean and slow down exiting a 30/40 speed limit...... ban them until they can read!
Fog-light Fanatics!
Is it an angel gracing the earth? Is it a fire? Is it Harry Potter performing a spell to oust Malfoy once more?? No don’t panic nor get excited – it’s just a fog-light fanatic heading your way. As far as you are concerned, fog-lights should be seen only when absolutely necessary and never before.
Simon, Surrey
• I'd like to ban those idiots who leave their rear fog lights on all the time, so blinding!!
Martin, Northern England
• Its broad daylight, the sun is high in the sky and you can see for miles. Guess who's coming the other way? It's Foglight Freddie with twenty kilowatts fog lamps burning a hole into the back of my retina. A closer look (in your mirror from the middle of the field where your car has come to rest after the effects of the dazzle have worn off) shows either a baseball cap wearing twelve year old or an ninety-something coffin-dodger who hasn't a clue how to switch anything on/off in the cockpit. I say, first offence is should be a hammer through the every piece of glass on the front of the car. There will be no second offence.
Wendy, Cardiff
• Idiots who have to drive everywhere with all the lights they can find on their cars switched on. E.g. FOG LAMPS! Is these today’s equivalent of the Medallion Men of the Tom Jones era?
The Sly Black Cabs
We all use them, but yes we all get stuck behind them or get arrogantly cut up by them on the streets of our towns and cities but then who'd get us to the airport or safely home after a night out?
Keith, Manchester
• Taxi Drivers - just because they choose to drive as a career, doesn't mean they are any good at it.
Ian, Leeds
• Taxi drivers think they own the road and drive as if they do and they don’t care about the people around them!
Michael, Leeds
• Taxi drivers, they think because they are working they have the right of way on the road. They pull out of junctions, stop without warning, and expect all other road users to give way.
Anton, London
• We should ban the black cab. They think that they own the street of London. They think that they have priority for going from A to B and we should be grateful to them when in fact the road would better off without this waster of space.
Sunday Strollers
The title is ‘strollers’, yet strollers are meant to be people who wonder through parks at a slow pace, enjoying the scenery and tranquillity. A perfectly respectable Sunday activity. Strollers however, are not meant to be on the road. Do they not think of the men trying to get to the pub for the Sunday kick off? Do they not think of the mothers trying to race to Waitrose to pick up some expensive sauce to impress in-laws at dinner? Plain selfishness.
Grover, Kettering
• You missed out 'the Sunday Driver' who is still alive and causing total chaos around a supermarket car park near you every week. Still driving the Ford Escort that he bought when he retired, this car is lovingly polished every Saturday afternoon and after church on Sunday morning, used to take his long suffering wife to the supermarket to do the weekly shop because he believes that it is quieter on a Sunday, not that he ever gets out of the car to help, you will always see them sitting in the car park reading their News of the World. Of course, this precious car has never ever been driven faster than 40mph and probably never ever been in 5th gear
Dominic, East Sussex
Phillip, Lincoln
• I think you missed out one of the most annoying driving disabilities seen on our roads today, the 'Sunday Driver'. Countless times have many motorists suffered sleep inducing speeds, in a long line of cars, headed by none other than this so called 'Sunday Driver' crawling along on an open road (for them anyway) at about 45mph . Most are over the age of 60 and life is slowing down for them, but they needn't slow it down for everyone else.
Ignorantly Dangerous ‘Drivers’
We left arguably the worst to last in an ironic finish. These are the people who don’t drive a particular car, or at a particular speed, but they are simply terrible. They are potential murderers, and the worst bit is that they don’t even have a clue. It is disgraceful and judging by the following – you seem to believe a death sentence should be specially introduced for them, you are probably right.
Garry, the Wirral
• People who wear hats, gloves, or mobile phones all seem to be anywhere but concentrating on driving their vehicle. Lane changers gaining seconds in their journey, causing chaos in their wake. People who have Baby on Board
stickers in the back window, showing how bad a driver they are with young lives at risk. They should have them on their dashboards to remind them that they have a young life aboard.
Ian, Lancs.
• Motorway undertakers (lane changers, not the people responsible for the last stages before afterlife).You see them weaving about getting close to you and you think no chance of me letting you cut me up. Hence rather than be a victim you sit too close to the car in front and become a danger yourself. Someone half asleep always let's them in and you think "b-----d" and drop back again. Irrational maybe but I can't help it!
Richard, Port Talbot
• It’s not so much the vehicles it’s the idiotic driving techniques that people use. Driving close behind someone, trying to force them off the outside lane, changing lanes without signalling, and worst of all using a mobile phone whilst driving at high speed. It’s idiots like these that cause deaths, and they won’t learn until someone they love gets killed, unfortunately that’s the only way to make them think, that it’s so easy to get killed.
Paul, Wigan
• Idiots that pull out in front of me on the motorway (Most of the time trucks when I am in the middle lane just about to overtake them. They are bigger then me and they won't get hurt but I will) Even better people who from some reason can't see a bright red Toyota Previa doing about 70 on the motorway and pull in front of me in the fast lane and slow me down to at least 60.
Thanks very much for your views, your ideas and the amusement you’ve given us all – it’s not as much fun out there as we’d like, as if we didn’t know already.