Road Rage / Middle Finger

Alun

maoleary wrote:

SI unit is Kilometres per hour, indicated as either kph or Km/h, with the latter being the textbook physics abbreviation.

'kph' isn't any kind of SI unit. What kind of length measurement is a 'k'?

Stark

If we wanted to use SI units, we'd all be measuring speed in m/s

ToxicPaddy

Dyflin wrote:

What's a good response to the middle finger? The grown up thing to do is to ignore it, but what's a good comeback?

Next time blow the "lady" in question a big kiss..

Drax

seamus wrote:

Maybe he was thanking you? I know, it's a long shot, but...

Thats what I was thinking. Depends on the flash - if its a short blip then I would take that as a thank you - anything longer than a second or two and its anger.

Had an interesting one the other day. Moved into the overtaking lane (to overtake another car) on the M1 as did the car behind me but traffic slowed so the left lane opened up. The guy behind me blipped his lights to signal he was moving back into the left lane. Have to say it did catch my attention. I moved in aswell. Love it when a plan comes together

blastman

Stark wrote:

If we wanted to use SI units, we'd all be measuring speed in m/s

"Yes, guard, I was below the motorway speed limit of 33.333 m/s..."

About the flashing thing, along with horn-blowing, it's almost always assumed to be an aggressive signal and people automatically get shirty about it. It's not like that in other countries, though. In Saigon, for example, when I was there, the traffic was mental, and people constantly blow their horns, but it's more to alert people that they're there, or that they are going quicker than you, so could they get through? Coming from the Irish model, it was amazing to watch (and hear!)

NUTLEY BOY

I never bother with the gesture thing as it really does nothing except to break your concentration. Also, these days, if you do it to some headbanger you could end up with a screwdriver or a knife where you don't want it !!

Rude gestures are probably not an RTA offence but could they constitute any other type of offence ? e.g. public order or the like.

UrbanFox

NUTLEY BOY wrote:

I never bother with the gesture thing as it really does nothing except to break your concentration. Also, these days, if you do it to some headbanger you could end up with a screwdriver or a knife where you don't want it !!

Rude gestures are probably not an RTA offence but could they constitute any other type of offence ? e.g. public order or the like.

See the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994.

S. (6) covers threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place.

antodeco

ToxicPaddy wrote:

Next time blow the "lady" in question a big kiss..

thats exactly what i do!! Had a big transit driver guy give me the finger after refusing to merge with me heading onto the m50. He was doing the w@nker symbol at me so i blew him a kiss!! Face was priceless!!

another idea is to pick up the end of ur car charger (the bit that goes into the cigarette lighter) and pretend ur "radioing in"

littlejukka

a big grin and a thumbs up usually does the trick. people don't seem to know how to respond. a sly wink has the same effect.

icemanjimbo04

Sorry but you should have been alert enough and traveling at a safe speed on a roundabout for this not to cause a problem or make you slam on the brakes.

If she was making an illegal turn let the Guards deal with it, and you should concentrate on changing lanes to go around her or just sit it out.

If you Beeped you horn in a driving test because of these instances you would fail your test.

The only time the horn should be used is to alert kids playing on the streets or if an animal wouldnt move off the road.
Its not there for you to have a go at bad driving..

Spitfire666

at the end of the day, get over it.
If you want to, beep her again, but just forget about it. its not that big a deal. i wouldnt say its the most offensive thing ive ever seen either as i've seen a guy on the malahide road in coolock indicate to pull of the road into the texaco petrol station and then the car i was in (not driving) pulled out and low and behold he swerved violently into the other lane (not going into the petrol station) slammed on his brakes and leaned out his window shouting and waving his fist out the window. i waved at him and he then leans out and spits in the direction of the car im in. He was a bit imbred i'd say as the spit just hit his own car as we were driving but it was still not a nice thing to do. the end of the story would be seen as encouraging bad behaviou so wont be told but he couldnt apologise enough to the lady driving the car i was in by the end of it.

overdriver

Heartwarming story, Spit!!



(Hope you're going to swing by next week to check out my new Triumph, given you're in the area??)

OldmanMondeo

icemanjimbo04 wrote:

Sorry but you should have been alert enough and traveling at a safe speed on a roundabout for this not to cause a problem or make you slam on the brakes.

If she was making an illegal turn let the Guards deal with it, and you should concentrate on changing lanes to go around her or just sit it out.

If you Beeped you horn in a driving test because of these instances you would fail your test.

The only time the horn should be used is to alert kids playing on the streets or if an animal wouldnt move off the road.
Its not there for you to have a go at bad driving..

Sorry to inform you but I was alert enough and traveling at a safe speed, if I hadn't off been I would have hit her. I was about to exit the roundabout, not enter it, had that have been the case I would have had nothing to complain about.
As for the right hand turn, why should she be allow to hold people up? The turn is clearly marked no turning right, out of a one way road. There is not enough room to pass on the inside. Why should I or other people be held up and possibly late for work because of people like her.
Your horn should be used in more than just alerting kids on a street. It can be used for alerting drivers of other hazards. Tell me this, if your driving on a dual carraigeway at 80kph and a car pulls out in front of you from a side road, what do you do, shout?
Do you agree with people being allowed to drive as they please.
My question was should I report her for showing the middle finger as road rage. I know she can't drive, but that is not what I was asking.

icemanjimbo04

OldmanMondeo wrote:

Tell me this, if your driving on a dual carraigeway at 80kph and a car pulls out in front of you from a side road, what do you do, shout?
Do you agree with people being allowed to drive as they please.
My question was should I report her for showing the middle finger as road rage. I know she can't drive, but that is not what I was asking.

If someone pulls out in front of you, you should concentrate on slowing down or changing lanes safely rather than hiting you horn and then trying to avoid an accident.

I dont agree with bad driving, but you or i are not on the roads to deal with them. Obviosly beeping your horn at her had no affect on her so whats the point, it just causes road rage.

Not much point reporting her either, showing the middle finger is hardly road rage, and if it was it would be her word against yours.. And honestly could you be arsed??

OldmanMondeo

Yeah, I am talking about not hitting the brakes or trying to avoid the other car. I mean when you have avoided the other car, letting them know that you had to avoid them. Itake it you just go merrily on your way.
As for reporting her, probably not worth my while, I only asked as it happened twice within a week with the same person.

icemanjimbo04

OldmanMondeo wrote:

Yeah, I am talking about not hitting the brakes or trying to avoid the other car. I mean when you have avoided the other car, letting them know that you had to avoid them. Itake it you just go merrily on your way.
As for reporting her, probably not worth my while, I only asked as it happened twice within a week with the same person.

Normally im really calm at the wheel.. Id drive by and give an evil look and shake me head tho..

blastman

icemanjimbo04 wrote:

The only time the horn should be used is to alert kids playing on the streets or if an animal wouldnt move off the road.
Its not there for you to have a go at bad driving..

What about someone who decides to change lanes into the spot you're currently occupying? I think I'd be inclined to blow the horn to let him know I was there.

Fozzie Bear

r3nu4l wrote:

I would definitely have reported her to be honest.

The best thing I ever saw was a boy racer overtake a line of four cars on a back road in Kildare.

I was second in the line of four cars. The car in front of me beeped at boy racer as he went by and boy racer flips him the finger.

Car in front of me suddenly emits flashing blue lights and siren and pulls boy racer over to the side of the road...

0wn3d

That was a good day.

Love that. Seen a similar thing on the N17 between Tuam and Galway last night around 9pm when it was dark. I was heading towards Galway from Tuam when some twat pulls out and over takes a line of cars coming against me. This forces me and the cars behind onto the hard shoulder to avoid said twat going head on in us. Now this happens regular enough as its a huge wide and mostly straight road and it normally would not bother me as its just a case of putting your inside wheel temporarily onto the hard shoulder to give them space to over take. But the aggresive manner in which this guy did it had to be seen... Next thing a silver Opel Vectra which had been behind them lights up like a UFO with blue lights and takes off after them. Brightened up my day!:cool:

ambro25

Typical reply to a lady's finger wave is, driving circumstances permitting, either to

(i) blow her a kiss, as previously suggested, or

(ii) sign-languaging 'You?' (finger pointing at her) then 'Me?' (finger pointing at self, sequence conveys 'you and me?') then a prayer gesture and a look of rapture - some go redder than a red light at that one

As for road rage, I've calmed down to such an extent behind the wheel that most acquaintances now think I'm on something prescribed, whenever anything caused by some prick or other happens - comes with age, I suppose . Very rarely use the horn nowadays, I just shrug it off in 95% of cases, happy to be sound, alive and with no damage... though I've been known in my younger days to drive a car or two off the road after they either accelerated while I was overtaking (gravest sin in my driving book) or did some other unprovoked nearly-as-dangerous moronic act.

But on the bike, to date I'm on my 3rd dented panel after hoofing dangerous cagers who'd rather see me off the bike than stay patiently in their place in the traffic queue

icemanjimbo04

blastman wrote:

What about someone who decides to change lanes into the spot you're currently occupying? I think I'd be inclined to blow the horn to let him know I was there.

Well firstly if they dont see you, chances are your in their blind spot.. so if you just brake a little it wouldnt be a problem. Unless overtaking you shouldnt really drive along knowing you are in someones blind spot tho..

But that isnt a reaction to bad driving.. That is similar to what i said about alerting someone to your presence on the road..

Marcus.Aurelius

ambro25 wrote:

Typical reply to a lady's finger wave is, driving circumstances permitting, either to

(i) blow her a kiss, as previously suggested, or

(ii) sign-languaging 'You?' (finger pointing at her) then 'Me?' (finger pointing at self, sequence conveys 'you and me?') then a prayer gesture and a look of rapture - some go redder than a red light at that one

lmao

OLDYELLAR

Na giving the middle finger I wouldnt consider that road rage. You could report her for dangerous driving alright but na the finger definately not.

jwt

ambro25 wrote:

... though I've been known in my younger days to drive a car or two off the road after they either accelerated while I was overtaking (gravest sin in my driving book)

I can never figure out why people feed the need to accelerate while you overtake them.

Mind you the equall and opposite of overtaking someone then slowing down is equally silly

John

Stark

jwt wrote:

I can never figure out why people feed the need to accelerate while you overtake them.

It tends to be either

a) Indignation. "I'm not letting that speeder get past me!". Irony being that you're the more dangerous driver in this case and are showing no regard for any oncoming traffic even if the overtaker was in the wrong.

b) Obliviousness. Driver sees a clear stretch and decides to give it some throttle without so much as a glance to the mirrors to see if anyone has decided to overtake him/her on the clear stretch.

unkel

Stark wrote:

It tends to be either

a) Indignation. "I'm not letting that speeder get past me!". Irony being that you're the more dangerous driver in this case and are showing no regard for any oncoming traffic even if the overtaker was in the wrong.

b) Obliviousness. Driver sees a clear stretch and decides to give it some throttle without so much as a glance to the mirrors to see if anyone has decided to overtake him/her on the clear stretch.

With about 90% in the latter category in this country in my experience.
Oblivious, ignorant, incompetent, uneducated and hence dangerous as drivers

jmayo

An old example of drivers having no regard for other road users was something that used to happen a fair amount on country roads years ago.
I haven't come across this much nowadays.
While driving at night, some eejit with spots all over the front of his car, aka Billy Coleman's rallycar, would come up behind you and blind you as way of making you move or just for the hell of it.

Well someone I heard of was tired of this and came up with an interesting response. He mounted a powerful rear tractor light in back of his van with switch on dash. Next time someone did this to him, he accelerated suddenly and hit the light switch . Suffice to say guy ended up in ditch and was taught a valuable lesson in manners.
I know it is not legal and is dangerous for person behind, but I have to say some people just deserve what they get.

I just hope some of the people that do the very inconsiderate stuff in this country try it somewhere like the states.

green123

iceman
it is a good idea to beep the horn at people because it lets them know they have done something wrong. maybe they will think about what they did wrong and maybe not do it again.
if you dont beep then they probably have no idea they have done something wrong

Andrewf20

I suffer from road rage. Recent incidents include roaring my head off with rage behind the wheel after been stuck in a queue of cars blocked by a car at the front trundling along the sliproad coming onto the M50 at 35 mph.

I have no patience whatsoever for drivers who are not clued into even the basics of driving. Even as a passenger I can get freaked!

Dr. Loon

icemanjimbo04 wrote:

Well firstly if they dont see you, chances are your in their blind spot.. so if you just brake a little it wouldnt be a problem. Unless overtaking you shouldnt really drive along knowing you are in someones blind spot tho..

If you're going to change lanes, one of the first and last things you do is check your blind spot. I often beep people who are trying to change lanes into my car. Check your f*ckin blind spot!

Regards road rage, I was once heading into Dublin city and was first in the queue at a red light. The lights went green and I cut out. Woops! As I was turning the key to start the engine again the guy behind me started going nuts. Beeping the horn and flashing me.

It took me about 3 seconds to restart the car and take off. He annoyed me with his impatience so I flipped him the bird. It was hilarious how he reacted. Started punching his wheel and dash and generally looking like a mentalist. I mean I cut out and delayed traffic for 3 seconds. I know city centre driving is all fairly rushed and some lights can change within seconds but cop on and chill out.

Esel

Tauren wrote:

No, i mean anagram. Thats what all the cool kids have decided it will be used for. ya old fogie.

No, you mean acronym, you FW!