That Drives me mad!

I see clipping from the government of plans to increase learner driver training hours, force the display of learner and probationary plates and so on, in an attempt to cut down on young driver accidents on the roads. I think these ideas are great, but what happens once the driver is out of the probationary period, who will their role models then be?

What I'm getting at here, in the complete lack of courtesy most drivers exhibit when driving. It's a case of squeeze through on an undertaking manouvre, and overtaking manouvre or whatever is required to get the overtaking car's nose in front of the other car. What happened to merging traffic giving way?

When I learnt to drive, part of the rules were that you had to give way, that when you pull out into traffic, you are not to slow the progress of traffic, and also when someone is nice enough to let you in, generally it is good form to wave thanks to them. Perhaps if drivers are taught to be courteous that will slow down the onset of road rage?

I still haven't found the section in a driver handbook that states that the driver of a V8 automatically has right of way, no matter how late that driver leaves the overtaking, over any driver of a 4 cylinder car.

Indicators, now there's a misunderstood tool. My driving instructor, and my driving handbook told me that when I intended to make a manouvre, I should put my indicator on, in enough time to show the drivers nearby that I was intending to do just that. My next task was to check if the way was clear, and finally if it was, to complete the manouvre and cancel the indicator. What I see is the indicator used as a right of way signal, or worse still put on for such a small time that it is almost a rebuke. Personally I blame that on guidance in driver handbooks that say that you should always signal, as that gets the driver into a habit of signalling without considering any further. If the driver had instead to figure out if the way was clear by looking over their shoulder first, then deciding if the signal was required, they would be much less likely to be driving inconsiderately. This is more the way of advanced drivers, and I think that it is good to involve the thought process instead of stating that something should always happen without regard for it's usefulness.

Tailgating - now that's just plain stupid. People should be stopped for doing that, if you don't leave a two second gap at least, and you're caught by police, you should be fined. That's an accident waiting to happen, and therefore is premeditated.

Whilst driving at speed is dangerous, I think the extreme manouvres, tailgating, not indicating and the like are much more dangerous. Perhaps if people improved in these areas, then the speeding would not be as necessary, and road rage would be so much less, as people simply wouldn't get stressed.

Before anyone asks, no, I'm not some old person at all. In my past I did sucessfully complete and advanced driving course, the same as the police drivers have to do. It really does teach you some good things, including how to control the car properly, and avoid accidents before they even get a chance to occur. Of late, I have found that I am forced to use those skills more and more to get myself out of the way of some bad driver who thinks that they're good doing stupid things on the road.

You can't force idiots to do advanced courses, as they'd do it, then only take what they wanted to from it, and thus probably be more dangerous than before. However, I do think that it would be good to be able to punish these people for making everyone else drive in a much more stresses state because of the stupid few.

I also think that it's about time the road layouts were changed instead of these extra lanes appearing then disappearing in such a way that they give these idiots the idea that they can hammer through the small space easily. Those lanes should be for left or right turnsonly, and anyone doing overtaking in them should be penalized.