speed limit to go up.....theres a first!

Originally Posted by Bibio

and that my dear sir is why driving is better in Scotland as you had better pay attention and leave space or your gonna get in a fight. so people tend to be a bit more courteous.

so let that be a warning to you southern shandy drinkers thinking about visiting Scotland, leave your driving habits at the border. once you have crossed the border chill out, take care and enjoy the bliss.

Road rage is not generally considered to be a good thing Bibio!

It also leads to a lot of people carrying a weapon of some description in the car.

I prefer driving down here in that respect.

You'll note that I carefully used the words "in what they perceive to be your bad driving".

Last one I had was joining the M74 at Bellshill, which is a two lane slip road, I was in the right lane, with a car behind, a car in front and nowhere to go but forwards. To the left of me is a car who starts indicating right and shuffling about in his lane, because he wants to join the motorway in my filter lane, instead of his which joins a few hundred feet later, and gets extremely frustrated that I am using the lane to his left (where I have priority in a flow of faster moving traffic BTW, he is supposed to put his indicator on and wait for a gap, or continue to the end of the slip and join the motorway with the rest of the slower traffic in his lane), so he is forced to stay in his lane and wait until I've joined the motorway. He leant on his horn, joined the motorway behind me, raced level with me on my right whilst his "beautiful" wife showed me how few teeth she had left by mouthing lots of f' words, then raced ahead again, pulled into my lane in front of me and slammed on the anchors!

I would see this kind of aggression on the roads in Scotland fairly regularly, whereas in the same situation down here, you might get a dirty look as they went past, but rrsssing around trying to run people off the road takes far too much time and effort, the only thing a driver down here would be interested in, is getting away in front of you further towards their destination, in as short a time as possible.

A driving education problem that Scotland does suffer from with a lot of 2 lane motorways, is not understanding that faster traffic approaching in lane 2 has priority over lane 1. The majority think that putting on a right indicator gives them the priority to change lane. If you are that faster traffic, and you don't reduce your speed to let them out, they end up either swerving half way out then back in again in a panic, or braking to avoid running into the back of whatever it is they are trying to overtake, because they planned the lane change too late, then they get all upset with you because there wasn't a clear gap for them to pull into, and the light flashing and swearing starts behind you. The M8 is a nightmare for this.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Bibio

and that my dear sir is why driving is better in Scotland as you had better pay attention and leave space or your gonna get in a fight. so people tend to be a bit more courteous.

so let that be a warning to you southern shandy drinkers thinking about visiting Scotland, leave your driving habits at the border. once you have crossed the border chill out, take care and enjoy the bliss.

You mean aggressive kn*bheads who think they know better are a GOOD thing?
Only one step from cagers swerving into your way when filtering because you're doing something "dangerous".

I'm all for considerate driving, but not for road rage. Only a matter of time before someone driving something bigger will take the hump and ram them off the road. Your mate there in ralphs example, personally I reckon he deserves to be wearing a 3 tonne battering ram 4x4 as a hat.

[QUOTE=yorkie_chris;2493028]You mean aggressive kn*bheads who think they know better are a GOOD thing?
Only one step from cagers swerving into your way when filtering because THEY THINK you're doing something "dangerous".
QUOTE]


im sure i heard a cager got sent down for 3 years because he could see a biker in his mirror going around the outside of a long line of traffic, the cager decides this is too dangerous so pulls out to stop the biker, not realising how close he is, biker swerves out to avoid him and comes off bike then under a van and sadly died.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Only one step from cagers swerving into your way when filtering because you're doing something "dangerous".

This happened to me and ralph couple of weekends ago, overtaking stationary traffic in Kidderminster and some web footed window licker swerves towards ralph, then done the same to me when I about 75 ft behind, as he went past me I was virtually stopped and expected him to eyeball me, did he feck, he wouldn't even look in my direction.
I then watched him turn right into an estate, I was hoping ralph was gonna turn round as I was foaming at the mouth by now. Took me 30 mins to calm down.
I just don't get why they see it as a problem, this guy had loads of room, didn't have to slow down at all due to us filtering.

Originally Posted by specialone

This happened to me and ralph couple of weekends ago, overtaking stationary traffic in Kidderminster and some web footed window licker swerves towards ralph, then done the same to me when I about 75 ft behind, as he went past me I was virtually stopped and expected him to eyeball me, did he feck, he wouldn't even look in my direction.
I then watched him turn right into an estate, I was hoping ralph was gonna turn round as I was foaming at the mouth by now. Took me 30 mins to calm down.
I just don't get why they see it as a problem, this guy had loads of room, didn't have to slow down at all due to us filtering.

This guy was doing 20-30mph in oncoming traffic by the way, I was splitting the white line, and he swerved towards me, I had to butt flick the XT to the left to get through the gap between the car to my left and his front right wing to my right. Car to my left nearly got a nice scrape down the side. If I thought there had been any chance of catching him I might have pulled a U turn, but if he's prepared to do that then he probably prepared to side swipe you and take you off as you pull alongside for a wee chat! Just wasn't worth the aggro and possibility of being knocked off, a bike is not going to win a fight with a car whilst they are both still moving.

The driving standards in scotland are just a complete joke. Empty motorway or quiet at times - idiots drive in lane 2 at 50mph in the 70 mph zones and are still using a mobile phone glued to their ears. Lane 1 is always virtually empty, and lane 3 is a cruising lane for doing 60mph, and not moving over to let faster traffic by....

I drive and live in the central belt of scotland in everything from bikes to artic trucks, and the things I see daily makes you wonder how on hell these idiots ever got a driving licence in the 1st place. I undertake when driving now after a while now, cos I get bored flashing them to move into the slow lane, and they still sit there like useless ****s... holding up 2 - 3 miles of traffic behind them. The police should be stopping them and charging them with obstructing traffic... Make the fine 4 figures and 11 penalty points....

Yet you drive a truck, have good lane discipline, etc etc, and the police and the public treat you like a third class piece of **** .The 1st thing they do to HGV drivers when being pulled over is PNC check them. I hold the firearm and shotgun certificates, and this info comes back to the officers over their radios... To get them you need to be a very good boy, and their entire attitude towards you then changes.. I just laugh now when I overhear their radios saying "Mr. so and so holds gun licences
They usually just let you go then after looking at your tachos. "Have a nice day sir is the responce I get now"

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Yes, there is an obvious difference in the sheer volume of traffic, speeds and the level to which everyone is in a rush. Driving standards are better in Scotland in terms of awareness, observation, etc. In Scotland I'd choose the car over the bike if the weather was crap and I had the choice. Here I'd take the bike every time unless it was ice or snow. The roads are running to the limit of capacity down here, they are a cats whisker away from a traffic jam most of the time, so it only takes a small incident to tip the balance and cause a nightmare. If two alternative routes get blocked, switch off your ignition and forget it. 20 years ago you could come off the motorway and take an alternative route, now the A roads and towns are so packed, I regret it every time I try it, quicker just to sit in the jam on the motorway.

I was coming home from Leeds on Friday night and there was a problem on the M1 and the A1 was closed for an accident investigation, both just South of where the M62 joins them. With two major routes south closed or delayed, the North East just ground to a complete stop. The journey home took me 3 1/2 hours, would normally take 2.

The positive thing down here compared to Scotland, believe it or not, is there is LESS aggression. The Scots are more aggressive by nature, but down here most people are only interested in getting to where they are going by whatever means fair or foul, but it's not personal, they are not interested in what they perceive to be your bad driving and they are not interested in making sure you know what they think. There is far less beeping, flashing of lights, shaking of fists, flicking of middle fingers, shouting, and pulling in front of you and slamming the brakes on, etc. Get too close up somebody's tail on a busy English motorway and you'll be ignored, do it on the M8 and the guy in front will slam the anchors on, shake his fist then accelerate away as hard as he can. Another example is when overtaking on the bike and the oncoming vehicle starts flashing the headlights in protest, when he's still 300 yds away and you are going to finish your overtake several seconds before he gets anywhere near. Happens a lot in Scotland, a lot in Wales, doesn't happen down South, people just keep driving. Down here people are only interested in getting to where they are going, and not interested in what other drivers are doing around them, they've got enough to think about with their own driving, and they are much more accustomed to other vehicles getting close to them than drivers are in Scotland. What would annoy drivers in Scotland, is just par for the course down here.

can tell your not from London or use the m25 much, here its very aggressive

[L3nny]

Least agressive place I have ever drive was suprisingly in Los Angeles. There is no lane discipline at all, it's a free for all so everyone is always expecting someone to come from any direction. You also have at least 4 lanes on most roads and they all move at more or less the same speed.

Another thing is that a lot of people carry guns in their cars so road rage is none exsistant becuase you could end up getting shot.

When we went to LA my dad warned me: "Unlike everywhere else in the US, people in LA drive FAST."

Really? We drove all over the city at all times of day and night and I can't say I agree! Not because of traffic, either, even when the roads were quiet nobody drove as fast as they do in Europe.

While there is some lane discipline, it's not always possible as you can have offramps on the right AND left. Some people would say it's poor but on the other hand, as L3nny says, it also means you need to be aware of everything all around you.