Is Britain's queuing culture disappearing?

I've now lived in Manchester for around 10 weeks or so. Daily I cycle up and down one of the main feeder roads into the city. Each morning the single lane roads turn into double land roads close to the lights, however, I now notice more and more that a huge number of cars simply over take the queue when the lights aren't even in sight!

For example, today a C70 went around the outside of cars sat about 150metres from the lights, close to the lights people were in two lanes (one for turning right etc.) It was an overtaking manoeuvre, after he had gone past 4 cars and a little space appear behind a bus, he snuck in there. Every minute I see similar, people pushing into the queue.

Don't get me wrong, I know that there's a time and a place for such behaviour (I.e at lights when it helps traffic flow) but these people (often 4x4s, BMWs, Golfs - how stereotyping am I being) just seem to have no regard for anybody else and go around everybody (to the extent of being on the wrong side of the road).

If everybody had this mentality, the roads would be useless to use and it really pisses me off TBH! As a cyclist sometimes I am forced to go on the outside of cars which in Nottingham is fine in traffic if necessary, in Manchester I have been overtaken overtaking cars several times, facing a dangerous situation when they face on coming traffic and remember they are on the wrong side of the road pushing the queue.

If it happened in a shop, the person would be sneered at and IME, told to join the back of the queue again, but people in cars get away with it. Does anybody else face this and/or agree that this is madness?

How did you do that you must type well quick.

lose the small text its hard on the eyes

I'm not bad ~ 54WPM last time I checked, I also had a phone call whilst writing that!

LOL, the font changed half way through when I pasted in manoeuvre after checking the spelling from word.

Sorry Ghost, see above post for reason.

Ah, you cheat then

I agree Paulie, it happens here too. On one of the roads I drive to work on, there are two lanes and one is usually quieter and faster than the other. So people tend to drive along in the faster lane then push into the slower one (slowing it down further!). I never let them in, have made someone drive the long way round several times now .

I write reply in the other topic and no sooner do I return to the leisure lounge and not only have you answered it you've written us an essay on another thread - all in the same minute!

It's the first time in ages I checked the word!

Good boy Paul, take the help, you need it!

Liam

I know, it's because most the stuff I write these days is sci spk or maths

I agree completely...people are very very impatient when driving (although I will freely admit, Im no better, but I wont jeapodise (sp?) my car or life to get somewhere quicker)

Its highly irritating, but I find it even more annoying when Im on my bike (pedal bike mind). But corner cutting really really aggravates me!

TOm, my point is there's a different using the outside lane at a set of traffic lights (when it is a possible straight on) when everybody else is waiting in line, it's legal and the highway code says you should use the lane of least resistance, it's something most drivers do. I am talking about random over taking of traffic in normal flow - i've not experienced it (bar one occasion) before Manchester.

Basically people feel safe in a car and as such do things they wouldn't do in a shopping queue. No one can invade their personal space, so they can be more aggresive without fear of recompense.

The thing that used to annoy me when riding a bike is when you go past a bus at a bus stop and they pull out while you are trying to pass them, like you're not even there. Then you are stuck in the middle of the road, outside a bus that is pulling away from you, often with traffic behind it making it very difficult to get back to the edge of the road even after the bus is out of the way. That used to happen to me regularly.

That happens to me daily, I forgive the driver though, he doesn't want to have to wait for my bother to cycle past and he more importantly doesn't want to get this xton huge bus passed me again overtaking. If this is the case I usually back off and let them go. - On my "commute" I can overtake and get overtaken by the same bus more than 10 times lol.