Aggressive Driving

[leenewham]

This morning while pulling out of a junction the car behind me started beeping it's horn. When a gap appeared so I could pull out of the junction, despite me indicating right and turing right, he overtook me me on the right! The lollypop man at the school had to jump out of the way of him.

Another time we were going out for the day and I had parked just outside the post office and was talking to my young son in the back seat while I a sited for my wife. Behind me was an empty space (a car was in the bay when I parked) and a disabled bay. A car pulled across the road to face me, started beeping for me to move out of her way to park in the in the space. She could have parked behind me, but I moved out of the way as she was blocking the traffic. She then started angrily gesticulating in behind the wheel for me to move back even further into the disabled bay (which I didn't do).

I've noticed an increase in this recently. Some people are in such a hurry to get to where they are going. People overtaking on the inside left lane and then driving straight on like they are in an F1 race expecting all others to get out of the way.

I've seen cars overtake cars overtaking on the 20 zone at the top of Sydenham Hill, intact I've even see a car overtake a car that was already overtaking there.

Either the standard of driving (or driving tuition) has dropped, people are driving without an actual license or perhaps people are just more aggressive and angry these days?

[Robin Orton]

I used charitably to think that people who drove like that were genuinely in a hurry - train to catch, wife in labour in the back seat, etc - but now realise that is not the case. Some people, particularly men, just like driving fast and aggressively. I wonder why? It might be interesting if someone did a survey of their average penis size compared with that of us more considerate drivers.

[monkeyarms]

I've noticed a fair bit of this sort of thing in Sydenham, usually on the high street. It seems to be almost comedically in direct proportion with hot or humid weather.

On the other hand, drivers seem to be a bit more considerate on the side-roads, where you have to pull over frequently given the narrowness of roads when cars are parked on both sides. I've had a few near misses in that respect though.

[stuart]

Not just drivers and not just Sydenham. Last week on the Dartmouth Road approach to the Forest Hill traffic lights - a motor bike behind swerved to the left (as a 176 would have taken him out if he tried to overtake on the right) mounted the pavement, zipped past and did a wheelie at considerable speed. If someone had stepped out of a shop they would now be jelly.

Even if a police car had been present - what could they have done? I presume the bikes license plate would not have led anywhere useful. The Darwinian solution is a long time a-coming.

Absolute madness. I did plenty of stupid stuff when I was younger, but not that stupid.

Stuart

[Parker1970]

Not just drivers and not just Sydenham. Last week on the Dartmouth Road approach to the Forest Hill traffic lights - a motor bike behind swerved to the left (as a 176 would have taken him out if he tried to overtake on the right) mounted the pavement, zipped past and did a wheelie at considerable speed. If someone had stepped out of a shop they would now be jelly.

Even if a police car had been present - what could they have done? I presume the bikes license plate would not have led anywhere useful. The Darwinian solution is a long time a-coming.

Absolute madness. I did plenty of stupid stuff when I was younger, but not that stupid.

Stuart

On Saturday evening we had the joy of 12 quad bikes and 3 motorbikes riding down Sydenham high road doing wheelies.. All with scarves around their faces to hide them. There are times I wish I was callous enough to tie wire across the road.