Why don't drivers get out of the way anymore

[andya700]

I have been riding bikes since I was about eighteen, and I am now fifty. I remember when I was in my twenties I did ride a little too quick etc etc. I went out for a ride one day only to come across a high speed smash with a bike and a car, both bike rider and car driver were killed. It knocked me sick and I was in shock all day. Maybe to have said goodbye and see you after, to a loved one and go and drive off to work etc, only not to return.

As I have gotten older, I have become more aware how valuable life is, and I now take as much care as possible when out on the roads. Not just for myself, but for other road users also :|

Well said Jon, we were all young once, and probably did things which we would now think better of.
I have never had a problem with bikers, and always let them past, maybe because I rode bicycles and motor bikes in my younger days.
I nearly got taken out yesterday by another car driver on the M2. She pulled across from her slip road, straight in front of me (I was in the middle lane, having seen the merging traffic) and almost got taken out by a car in the outside lane - she was on her phone:bang:

 

[Overexposed]

I have been riding bikes since I was about eighteen, and I am now fifty. I remember when I was in my twenties I did ride a little too quick etc etc. I went out for a ride one day only to come across a high speed smash with a bike and a car, both bike rider and car driver were killed. It knocked me sick and I was in shock all day. Maybe to have said goodbye and see you after, to a loved one and go and drive off to work etc, only not to return.

As I have gotten older, I have become more aware how valuable life is, and I now take as much care as possible when out on the roads. Not just for myself, but for other road users also :|

First sensible post in this thread!

 

[ZoneV]

Really? My pet hate are clowns on motorbikes who treat the a roads up here as private race tracks. I do not give them an inch of road or an ounce more consideration than any other road user. If they cannot hold their side of the road, then it ain`t my problem,and laugh at every new shrine that appears at the roadside.

That doesn't sound like a very healthy attitude.

 

[Raptor Mike]

Really? My pet hate are clowns on motorbikes who treat the a roads up here as private race tracks. I do not give them an inch of road or an ounce more consideration than any other road user. If they cannot hold their side of the road, then it ain`t my problem,and laugh at every new shrine that appears at the roadside.

It's a pet hate because of when I'm driving my van Slow drivers don't really hold you up when you're on a bike. Plus I don't get out much on mine due to time.

I think what you have written above is totaly out of order, having been very nearly killed years ago because of a car driver. We have all been having a moan about how others drive/ride, which is fine and making interesting discusion but that is low.

I don't mind clowns on motorbikes as they are the countries organ donors. Without them being stupid many more others wouldn't get kidneys, hearts and such like!

Don't just give the 'Clowns on motorbikes' the credit, blind car drivers who pull out on bikes help too :shake:

 

[LCPete]

I have been riding bikes since I was about eighteen, and I am now fifty. I remember when I was in my twenties I did ride a little too quick etc etc. I went out for a ride one day only to come across a high speed smash with a bike and a car, both bike rider and car driver were killed. It knocked me sick and I was in shock all day. Maybe to have said goodbye and see you after, to a loved one and go and drive off to work etc, only not to return.

As I have gotten older, I have become more aware how valuable life is, and I now take as much care as possible when out on the roads. Not just for myself, but for other road users also :|

Me too I was not as careful as I should have been when I was younger but saw the results of a lad my age having a bad bike crash, never forgot it and ever since like yourself take as much care as possible when out on the roads when riding my bike or driving

 

[faddius]

If they cannot hold their side of the road, then it ain`t my problem,and laugh at every new shrine that appears at the roadside.

This has to be one of the most disgusting attitude I have ever seen on this forum, even with your further edit that laughing may have been a bit over the top.

I ride bikes, I've had accidents that were my own fault and I will hold up my hands and admit when something was my own fault, but I have also have accidents that were not my fault, such as having a car do an emergency brake in an outside lane so the driver could swerve for a side road that she had already passed, crossing into my lane. I had nowhere to go and less than 10 feet to slow down as much as possible. I could have been killed in that situation, quite easily, in fact I almost lost my leg - what would you have done? Come and laughed at my "shrine"? How about the time I had a young lad come racing up a slip road onto a dual carriageway and pull in alongside me. From here, I could see him watching me in his side mirror and he waited, actually waited, for me to be in line with his door before swerving over into my lane. This was a blatant attempt to take me off my bike at 60mph, he knew what he was doing and had even waited for the opportune moment to do it. Would you of come and laughed or been indifferent then, just because I'm a clown on a bike?

I'm sure you would be fuming if you lost someone close to you in a rta and found someone laughing and joking at their "shrine". I almost hope that you do so you can see what it's like, but I wouldn't want to wish that on anyone, as I've lost friends to rtas and paid my respects to their "shrines". Perhaps I'm just not as indifferent as you and actually give a toss if people get killed.

Well, rant over.

I have very few issues getting past vehicles if I want to, as they will generally move over slightly for me, same as I have no issues moving over if someone wants to get past me. In fact, I don't like vehicles moving over for me as I always plan my overtakes presuming the vehicle in front won't move, when I start overtaking I watch the road ahead for dangers and any sudden movements in the corner of my eye from a vehicle moving over always causes an immediate distraction.

All it takes is a bit of courtesy and consideration towards other road users, for example I have no issue with falling in behind a scooter on a busy road and travelling at 30mph to help them maintain a larger road presence and be able to drive safely, I remember all too well how many times cars would try to squeeze past me when I was on a scooter, always at the worst moments, often leaving mere inches of clearance between us. What goes round comes around, call it karma or whatever you like, but I've also had multiple lorries work in unison to partially box me in on the motorway in an attempt to protect me from high winds if they see me struggling. I've also stopped to help broken down vehicles, but it would seem that this positive attitude to using the roads has been mostly lost and more and more these days seem to take the me me me attitude and seem to think the roads belong to them.

 

[LCPete]

This has to be one of the most disgusting attitude I have ever seen on this forum, even with your further edit that laughing may have been a bit over the top.

I ride bikes, I've had accidents that were my own fault and I will hold up my hands and admit when something was my own fault, but I have also have accidents that were not my fault, such as having a car do an emergency brake in an outside lane so the driver could swerve for a side road that she had already passed, crossing into my lane. I had nowhere to go and less than 10 feet to slow down as much as possible. I could have been killed in that situation, quite easily, in fact I almost lost my leg - what would you have done? Come and laughed at my "shrine"? How about the time I had a young lad come racing up a slip road onto a dual carriageway and pull in alongside me. From here, I could see him watching me in his side mirror and he waited, actually waited, for me to be in line with his door before swerving over into my lane. This was a blatant attempt to take me off my bike at 60mph, he knew what he was doing and had even waited for the opportune moment to do it. Would you of come and laughed or been indifferent then, just because I'm a clown on a bike?

I'm sure you would be fuming if you lost someone close to you in a rta and found someone laughing and joking at their "shrine". I almost hope that you do so you can see what it's like, but I wouldn't want to wish that on anyone, as I've lost friends to rtas and paid my respects to their "shrines". Perhaps I'm just not as indifferent as you and actually give a toss if people get killed.

Well, rant over.

I have very few issues getting past vehicles if I want to, as they will generally move over slightly for me, same as I have no issues moving over if someone wants to get past me. In fact, I don't like vehicles moving over for me as I always plan my overtakes presuming the vehicle in front won't move, when I start overtaking I watch the road ahead for dangers and any sudden movements in the corner of my eye from a vehicle moving over always causes an immediate distraction.

All it takes is a bit of courtesy and consideration towards other road users, for example I have no issue with falling in behind a scooter on a busy road and travelling at 30mph to help them maintain a larger road presence and be able to drive safely, I remember all too well how many times cars would try to squeeze past me when I was on a scooter, always at the worst moments, often leaving mere inches of clearance between us. What goes round comes around, call it karma or whatever you like, but I've also had multiple lorries work in unison to partially box me in on the motorway in an attempt to protect me from high winds if they see me struggling. I've also stopped to help broken down vehicles, but it would seem that this positive attitude to using the roads has been mostly lost and more and more these days seem to take the me me me attitude and seem to think the roads belong to them.

Agree Alex I was fuming when I read it did not say what I really thought of him I would have got in trouble on here
It has to be the worst post that I have seen on here:bang:

 

[srichards]

Some interesting statistics here:

http://www.ukwheels.com/accidents.asp

 

[Raptor Mike]

The most common factors which contributed to motorcycle accidents were ‘loss of control’ (a contributory factor in 16 per cent of accidents), ‘failure to look properly’ (15 per cent of accidents) and ‘failure to judge another person’s path or speed’ (12 per cent of accidents). However, on bikes with an engine size of 50cc or smaller, 23 per cent of accidents were due to the inexperience of the rider.

SO how where the other 57% caused??

 

[Raptor Mike]

A quick google http://www.bikelawyer.co.uk/bike-accident-statistics

The figures also show that 48% of crashes between motorcycles and cars were the result of the car driver failing to look properly.

Failing to look properly was the most frequent cause of crashes for all vehicles except motorcycles. Motorcyclists were most likely to crash through ‘loss of control’ and also most likely to be the victim of someone else failing to look.



So whether you like bikes or not PLEASE LOOK

 

[Bernie174]

Andy

Therefore the way I see it, if you constantly drive so slowly that you are holding up other traffic, then your driving has fallen below the standard which is required, and you should not be driving on the road.

Its the standard of the average driver, not the standard required. A subtle difference but important.
Secondly, the driver of a car is responsible for deciding how fast, up to a speed limit he drives at, based on whatever he wants to base that on. It matters not what another driver thinks, it's not their decision.
If slow vehicles were such a big issue, then tractors, for example which are not capable of speeds over say 20 mph wouldn't be permitted on a dual carriage way with a speed limit of 70. But they are.
Goods vehicles on a de-restricted Duel carriageways which are restricted to 50mph wouldn't be allowed, thats 20mph under the speed limit, but oh, look, they are. Milk floats wouldn't be permitted on urban roads, they can't make 30, yet they are permitted.
The fact is there's nothing in law to make you drive at a speed limit.
Certainly in 20 years of being a police officer, I've never once seen or heard of an accident caused by a slow moving vehicle. Plenty where a vehicle being driven too fast by the normal standard of fast driver who thinks the world ends at the start of their bonnet and therefore doesn't need to look beyond it, have ploughed into things going slower, but thats down to the latter, not the former.

 

[jonbeeza]

The fact is there's nothing in law to make you drive at a speed limit.
Certainly in 20 years of being a police officer, I've never once seen or heard of an accident caused by a slow moving vehicle. Plenty where a vehicle being driven too fast by the normal standard of fast driver who thinks the world ends at the start of their bonnet and therefore doesn't need to look beyond it, have ploughed into things going slower, but thats down to the latter, not the former.

Some pretty interesting stuff there Bernie

 

[Raptor Mike]

Andy


Its the standard of the average driver, not the standard required. A subtle difference but important.
Secondly, the driver of a car is responsible for deciding how fast, up to a speed limit he drives at, based on whatever he wants to base that on. It matters not what another driver thinks, it's not their decision.
If slow vehicles were such a big issue, then tractors, for example which are not capable of speeds over say 20 mph wouldn't be permitted on a dual carriage way with a speed limit of 70. But they are.
Goods vehicles on a de-restricted Duel carriageways which are restricted to 50mph wouldn't be allowed, thats 20mph under the speed limit, but oh, look, they are. Milk floats wouldn't be permitted on urban roads, they can't make 30, yet they are permitted.
The fact is there's nothing in law to make you drive at a speed limit.
Certainly in 20 years of being a police officer, I've never once seen or heard of an accident caused by a slow moving vehicle. Plenty where a vehicle being driven too fast by the normal standard of fast driver who thinks the world ends at the start of their bonnet and therefore doesn't need to look beyond it, have ploughed into things going slower, but thats down to the latter, not the former.

That is true. But dual carridgeways are A roads. Tractors and 50cc bikes arn't alowed on motorways because they are too slow. If I drove at 30 on a motorway I wonder how long it would be until there's an accident.

Like I said earlier, it really enoys me that people who think it's not safe to go over 40 on a NSL road, think they are good enough to keep doing 40 when the limit turns to 30. They are obviously trying to make up time in town. :bang:

 

[AJQS]

That is true. But dual carridgeways are A roads. Tractors and 50cc bikes arn't alowed on motorways because they are too slow. If I drove at 30 on a motorway I wonder how long it would be until there's an accident.

Like I said earlier, it really enoys me that people who think it's not safe to go over 40 on a NSL road, think they are good enough to keep doing 40 when the limit turns to 30. They are obviously trying to make up time in town. :bang:

I damn near hit a tractor on the A55 once, approaching tunnel with sunglasses on, just taking them off in tunnel entrance...argh tractor dead ahead! Scary but nothing came of it.

The second class of people I think is more due to driving in sheer blissful ignorance of their surroundings rather than trying to make up time. I like to drive fast, but if I don't need to I won't, I trundle along at 45 quite happily, but if I clock someone in the rear view then they either get let through or I switch back to normal pace, whichever suits the situation, I've been managing it since I started driving, I fail to see how hard it is for anyone else. I'd love to see people get pulled for it and offered more training because they clearly need it.

 

[fracster]

Quite frankly, I don`t care what the motor cyclists on here think. I don`t care if they wrap themselves around trees, battle stone walls or fight with fence posts. Think once, think twice,think bike? Why, they don`t care about themselves, so why should I?

How many times do you listen to bikers bragging about how fast they go, how quick they can get from A-B or how fast they can take a bend?

Pretty regular in my experience.

So,yes, they are somebodies father,son,husband or wife, but why should I care more about their life than they do? If they did care they would ride sensibly and a damned sight slower. Granted, some are killed by other errant road users, but you can say that about any other road user. But, statistically, I would wager that more bikers are killed through their own fault rather than by anybody elses.

I should not have to, as such ,I don`t worry unduly about the pocket rocket, middle aged men in one piece leather, trying to re live their youth on a machine that they cannot handle.

You disagree? Try going to Devils Bridge on a Sunday morning.