the thing that gets me - most when im driving the landrover... is when people ' slow down ' as they think your going to fast... the ' old gits ' and ' blue rinsers ' that are doing 40 in a 60 as tehy think its ' safer ' or people who pull out infront of you when they see you thinking ' i can be quick and get out before that large car... ' then force me to slow down... makes me an ANGRY driver...

 

I probably startle some drivers by doing that, but the car's going quite quickly by 9K in first!

 

That's an good point. I'd not thought about those dishonest types. Such things (I'm told) are on the increase not just on the roads, but pedestrians as well tripping over any slight misaligned kerb and trying to sue the local council. because they can't be bothered to go out to work and earn an honest crust.

 

I was towing the trailer a few weeks ago, pootling in the inside lane at about 60mph with a lorry a way in front of me and a slip lane joining the motorway to my left.

I moved over to the middle lane because I could see the morons coming down the slip lane had no idea I was there and were just going to drift across in front of me and I didn't want to slow down for them or cause an accident.

No stress, all fine, cars in front of me in the middle lane.

Within about 2-3 seconds the first car to join the slip lane had swung over into the middle lane between me and the car in front - again no stress, there was just about comfortable space. Irritating but no danger.

Then the cock in the Audi decides to swing into the gap that isn't there and brake to squeeze himself in (going up a hill now so original puller-outer has decellerated, plus Audi-man doesn't have a gap to ge tinto so he's planted the throttle to pull in then has to brake to avoid going up the other car's back end), resulting in emergency braking for me (about 3 tonnes of vehicle with Land Cruiser + trailer + Caterham + fuel etc. etc.) - I can't swing into another lane just like that as it risks unsettling everything with dangerous consequences, and legally I'm not allowed int he outside lane anyway.

No reason for him to pull out, he had a large gap in front of him before any other traffic.

As I was still hard on the brakes he gave me the coffee beans wanker through the rear window - outside lane was empty, he made no effort to move over there, just wanted to sit in the queue in the middle lane.

No provocation from me whatsoever although I'm sure he was surprised to suddenly see the nose of the LandCruiser quite so close behind him.

As the inside lane was empty I just indicated, pulled over, and carried along at the speed of the traffic in that lane as he disappeared into the distance behind me.

To this day I wonder what on earth was going through his mind!

 

Nothing but clean air and maybe...

 

On motorways, if you're doing everything else correctly (using mirrors, leaving space, planning) there's no need to indicate.

Unfortunately people just don't do it as a matter of course.

 

Well, since girls don't do it like that, one must presume that said Audi driver was merely announcing himself with the Gareth Hunt!

A tad unnecessary, since the four Auto Union rings seem to mean precisely the same these days.

 

it's an exceptional example

and it's fraud, not an accident

so in the case of a real accident, I think anyone will struggle to come up with an example where it will not be deemed the rear-ender's fault

I worked around motor claims for a number of years and never heard of one

 

Whatever, hitting the brakes deliberately hard and late because you are imagining an obstruction is bloody stupid.

2K miles a week sometimes, from Devon to the tip of Scotland so I see it all out there.

The 'not indicating' logic is easy.
Nobody GAF any more and won't let you pull into outer lanes a lot of the time.
They must percieve others as competition for the 'faster' lane and delibrately block.
Hence, signalling your intent actually hampers your progress.
This is prevalent behaviour in commuter traffic / school run times.
During the office hours the roads are full of idiot repmobiles - but at least they are predicatable and just 'get on with it'.

 

I find driver bahaviour fascinating. I quite enjoy reading car drivers next moves-I find I am quite good at if I do say so myself.