yep, back on the road means back to ranting about other drivers.

Yesterday I saw perhaps the worst example of driving in my life.

I was sat at a traffic lights on a single carriage way road with a bike lane to my left. I was taking quite a central position when I pulled up and left the normal few metres infront of me.

I checked my rearview as you are supposed to do just before braking and saw nothing to worry me. When I stopped I did the same and saw a couple of blue lights in the distance, about 150metres back.

I knew I was blocking the lane with the other people and I decided that the car/ambulance would be able to fit through between the cars and central reservation if necessary if we all went into the cycle lane. This wouldn't be necessary if he went down the other side of the road but I couldn't be sure.

I pulled the car forward on near full lock and got to the side, the Porsche 911 (classic one) immediately checked his mirror and did the same. Good I felt others will now notice.

Cue white mondeo....he then took over us and sat next to me in the traffic light queue?! He actually thought that both me and the Porsche had pulled into the cycle lane for him to jump the queue? Both myself and the Porsche driver were in fits of laughter at what a tit the guy was, he blocked the police car who then nearly stopped, couldn't fit through because of him and had to go around then, wasting about 15 seconds. The Porsche guy then thought he would have a laugh and when the cop car had gone and the lights had changed he went to take over me but then shouted out the window "I'm just kidding, what a ******!" and let me in.....

I just can't believe some people (!?) I know if somebody moved to the side light that I would assume that there was either a motorcycle/bike/police etc. that I hadn't noticed and would do a check, i wouldn't proceed to go past them!

/rant

Apart from that no other annoyences (yet)!

Feel free to post your rants on idiots on our roads.

:whogives:

I would have done if I was faced with a criminal and 15 seconds was the difference between life and death

People love putting rants down about stupid driving....

depressing familiar mr negotiator..i see it almost everyday, and nearly got wiped out on a "blues and twos" run a few months ago, i mean it's not as if we don't have a siren loud enough to wake the dead or lights that you can see for miles, but maybe the sight of a huge great big big fricking silver 5 series estate in police markings should have given it away to the muppet in the green civic that pulled out in front of us as we were blatting along at about 130km/h.....the dashboard still has my fingernails in it.....

The Negotiator said:

I was sat at a traffic lights on a single carriage way road with a bike lane to my left.

I pulled the car forward on near full lock and got to the side, the Porsche 911 (classic one) immediately checked his mirror and did the same. Good I felt others will now notice.

Click to expand...

I thought we had a big discussion about cars using cycle lanes !!!!! . You could have blocked a police officer on a push bike by stopping in the cycle lane.

sorry to say that coppers in london have a tough job, but there is no way in the world that you should have been doing 130KPH (75MPHish) in town... sirens or anything

when someone hits the emergency button....you do

you dont... you may be a good driver with great training, but you still make very small mistakes EVERY time you get in a car, which manifest themselves very quickly at those speeds, especially in such a busy city.

come out and play some time alex, as you are well versed in police procedure...course when you do walk into a situation and require assistance, and press you radio button for help..i'm sure your attackers wont mind waiting for the officers coming at 30mph.....me i'm happy to ride shotgun to help a collegue, or get to a motorist in a rta at speed, what would be nice is some of the muppets we see on the road acknowledge that its difficult enough for some of the response drivers to shift a standard car round our poor roads at speed without the need to block them as well

Paul that's actually not a very bad show of driving at all - try having an 'invisible car' like me .

Alex said:

you dont... you may be a good driver with great training, but you still make very small mistakes EVERY time you get in a car, which manifest themselves very quickly at those speeds, especially in such a busy city.

Click to expand...

I find this offensive. Police are trained to a high level of driving and I'd bloody well want them to hurry along if it were me they were coming to assist. If idiots make their life difficult in high speed manoeuvres it's not the police that want stopping.

p.s. why is that people always push the pram out into the road first, especially from between 2 cars? don't they love their kids enough to go first?

fixitagaintomorrow said:

I find this offensive. Police are trained to a high level of driving and I'd bloody well want them to hurry along if it were me they were coming to assist. If idiots make their life difficult in high speed manoeuvres it's not the police that want stopping.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

i totally agree, Alex imagine it was you that was being attacked, god forbid, would you rather the cops come as fast and as soon as possible to help you or would you rather they come at 30MPH and maybe get there before you were killed but hey you know what if you died well at least the didnt break the speed limit. thats a silly way to look at it, they go out every day to help people and there are total w@nkers making their jobs harder even though they risk their lives to help others.

turboned said:

p.s. why is that people always push the pram out into the road first, especially from between 2 cars? don't they love their kids enough to go first?

Click to expand...

i know thats always made me laugh!!! its like 'just test the roads clear...BANG...no ok lets wait a bit!!!' :nutter:

Seriously, the number the police accidents seem to be quite small compared to the number of incidents they respond to everyday. The other thing is the police are human and if one of their colleagues is in trouble they will pull out all the stops to reach them. I guess they rely on this to be able to do the job.

It's not a job I would like to do and although I joke about getting a speeding ticket (is there anything you can do about that by the way Turboned ), we are all relieved to see them when we need them.

cheers guys...i'm feeling the love in this room!

ticket ? sorry no...i'm a lowly grunt!

turboned said:

come out and play some time alex, as you are well versed in police procedure...course when you do walk into a situation and require assistance, and press you radio button for help..i'm sure your attackers wont mind waiting for the officers coming at 30mph.....me i'm happy to ride shotgun to help a collegue, or get to a motorist in a rta at speed, what would be nice is some of the muppets we see on the road acknowledge that its difficult enough for some of the response drivers to shift a standard car round our poor roads at speed without the need to block them as well

Click to expand...

I'm not having a go, not am I well versed in police procedure. I expect you to drive at 30MPH to the scene of what ever adversity life has thrown up that you have to deal with. I have no problem (unlike many people I know) with the police driving over the speed limit on an emergency call. But my opinion is that 80mph is far too fast, regardless of the car your driving ability. Of course it all depends on the road, if you're hammering around the dual carrage way on the north circ, or up (or down) the a3, then fair enough, but if you're on a single carage way etc... you're stuffed if some old codger misses the break and plants it, right in front of you. descression is the better part of valour, last thing you want is to stuff your nice shiny police issue german barge into some halfwit that can't get out of your way because your going to fast.

p.s. if you're serious, I wouldn't mind a day out with the met, although, I get light headed at the site of my own blood at times . Help me see the error of my ways perhaps?

turboned said:

depressing familiar mr negotiator..i see it almost everyday, and nearly got wiped out on a "blues and twos" run a few months ago, i mean it's not as if we don't have a siren loud enough to wake the dead or lights that you can see for miles, but maybe the sight of a huge great big big fricking silver 5 series estate in police markings should have given it away to the muppet in the green civic that pulled out in front of us as we were blatting along at about 130km/h.....the dashboard still has my fingernails in it.....

Click to expand...

silver is invisable, the new police lights are not as noticable as the old ones, and the sirens are not as loud as the old der der ones

dave said:

silver is invisable, the new police lights are not as noticable as the old ones, and the sirens are not as loud as the old der der ones

Click to expand...

But apparently silver is better for re-sale, not that you would be worried about the fact they have been raced all over the place and probably had loads of bodywork damage.

Andy

Turboned sounds like you have my dream job - so much so I have seriously considered leaving my degree to join the police force.

I think Alex has been misunderstood for a point he misunderstood, he was saying there's a time and a place for speed and turboned was saying he sometimes uses speed, they don't really disagree.

I just think that the person in the Mondeo should have wondered why we have moved out the way rather than not thinking and pulling forward. I myself do my absolute best to make sure an emergency vehicle has the best possible root through traffic because I know that if I were to ever need them I would expect others to do the same.

The job the police have to do is hard enough without idiots on the road slowing their progression to where they need to be - it can be life and death!

Poggy mate you're quite funny