Are terrible driving habits on the rise?

Cheers.

I was nowhere near him. Absolutely acres of space. I'm not an idiot.

Except it wasn't just a minor indiscretion, it was followed by a deliberate, aggressive and potentially dangerous action.

And you were there..so you would know.

He obviously sped up you numpty. I had so much room when I was pulling out. At least 70-80m. I've stated that, repeatedly. There was ample space for me to drive out, safely.

The main difference with now over 20 years ago is smartphones. Walk along any line of cars stopped in traffic, and you'll see the majority of drivers with their phones illegally on their lap, where they are position for maximum distraction impact, if not actually in the hand. It's at epidemic levels, young drivers, old drivers, grannies, school run parents, tradesmen and truckers, all driving in a way that guarantees they are not giving full attention to the traffic conditions around them.

I'm well aware of when to use the horn. "The Regulations also provide that a driver may use a horn only to warn other road users of oncoming danger, or to make them aware of the driver’s presence for safety reasons when reasonably necessary. " which is why I predicated it on how close it was to causing a collision.

I'm going on your description of the event and this is the first time you have mentioned the other driver speeding up or the distance being at least 80m when you started to pull out.

There's a lack of consistency with the incident as you describe it.

"Proceeded to flip me the bird. So I slowed down in front of him, still not main road."

vs

"By me? We were slowing anyway, to come to a junction, to join the actual road."

That's the sort of inconsistancy that makes your narrative difficult to take at face value.

If he went two miles out of his way just to give out to you that's a bit over the top.

Unless he did a U-turn right after having words he may have been going that way anyhow and just took the opportunity when you stopped.

If I thought I was being followed I'd be inclined to take some anti surveillance measures e.g. drive in a circle / loop and check if the car is still behind. If it was I'd find a safe public space to stop rather than my own house.

I had already sent a flare up to inform my unit commander. Damn comms were down.

AC-130 above!!

Cameras at lights that take picture and actually follow through with fine might soften some coughs.

I live.in a medium size town. Not many traffic lights here but the number of drivers blatantly going through red is unreal.

Phone use is off the charts too. The amount of drivers, women in particular, holding the phone out in front of their face while driving their crossovers etc and with no appreciation for their safety, their passengers safety or other road users really pi$$es me off.

They will be the very ones whining and lying on the roadside when the proverbial hits the fan.

Iv been driving 15 years. The last couple since covid iv become more nervous on the roads with all the dangerous driving iv seen. I drive roughly 20000k a year.

Yesterday a guy was bombing it on a narrow coastal road. Barely missed my mirror.

A few weeks ago a guy pulled out infront of me at a roundabout. He never even looked right. Had to slam on to not hit his drivers door.

Earlier in the year a guy slammed on the brakes at a 100k infront of me. I manged to stop and not hit him but the 3 cars behind me were in a pile up. Even tho that arsehole caused it he got away unscaved.

I'd prefer if you didn't and I live down one of those side roads that can be a pain to get out of.

People stopping the main road traffic to let people out of b roads is dangerous. I've had people stopping their lane, urging me to come out to cross 2 lanes when the road is not clear. If the driver had just driven normally, I'd have gotten out sooner and all the other drivers wouldn't have been kept waiting

Please stop doing it. While the gesture is appreciated as someone who lives down a lane, its not following the rules and can have unsafe outcomes.

People just have to wait for the gap.

In a perfect world everyone should be alert to cars suddenly stopping for no apparent reason. The truth is though most drivers are not fully clued into the road in front of them 100% of the time as they ought to be, and most drivers in Ireland have an average level of skill. This is something we have to accept.

Using the swiss cheese model of failure for an accident that involved a car getting rear ended because the car in front stopped on a main road to let someone out:

Car stopped inappropriately on main road

Driver behind not paying attention

There could be other contributory factors, such as road surface, weather, traffic levels etc, where if any of them, if they had not occurred the accident would not have happened.

So the correct way to prevent these kinds of accidents is to address all the causes - drivers should be more attentive and cars shouldn't stop on main roads unless in an emergency. The recommendations is not a case of one one or the other.

If you're stopping on a main road to let traffic from a minor road out, you need your licence revoked.

It's more complex than that. You can't control the other road users who may try to undertake your stopped car assuming it's turning right or cars on the other lane arriving quicker than anticipated, or the driver you're allowing onto the road being distracted and then panicking when they feel they're holding up traffic.

I've seen all of those things happen because someone tried to do a good deed by letting someone onto the main road by stopping traffic behind them

Out in the real world I regularly let traffic out when its safe to do so and will continue to do so, when its safe to do so. Thankfully there are many more courteous drivers out there that reciprocate when its safe tp do so. Long may it last

Yes, I let people out all the time too. But stopping on a main road when there's traffic behind you, as discussed in this thread, does not fall under "when it's safe to do so". If there's no traffic behind you, what a re you letting them out for? Just keep going and everything's fine, you're being more courteous to them by allowing them to join the road quicker.

999 times out of a thousand, you'll end up being the major contributory cause of an accident and I repeat....ANYONE who regularly sees someone waiting to join there road and decides to actually stop and let them in, needs to have their licence revoked. If you can slow down a bit to allow them join, then yeah, or delay taking off from a standstill to let someone reverse out of a garden or hold back so someone can do a U-turn....yeah, all fairly common and courteous. But that's not what the poster was describing above.

If you're driving down a main road and someone is waiting to join and you have to come to a complete stop to allow them to join, you're a numpty and shouldn't be on the road. You keep being courteous all you want, I and everyone else on the road would prefer if you could behave in the manner that we're all taught as that's what keeps us all safe.

Don't be polite, be predictable.

Almost, that's a part of what I'm saying. Seems like your reading comprehension is up there with your driving skills.

I'm saying STOPPING ON A MAIN ROAD TO LET OTHERS JOIN THE ROAD IS NOT SAFE DRIVING, seeing as you're finding it difficult to get your head around it.

More reading comprehension difficulties.

Read my post again. I didn't mention slowing down. I said stopping. I also never said it causes an accident 99.9% of the time, I said you'd be found to a be a major contributor to any accident 99.9% of the time.

Anyone who stops unexpectedly to let a car out of a side road will be found at fault for the ensuing pile up, no matter how close / far they were behind you. If you're driving down the road, in traffic, see someone trying to join the road.......which is safer? Come to a complete stop, causing everyone else around you to accommodate your bizarrely unexpected manouevre, or keep going and let them pull out behind everyone in 6 seconds' time?

If you have to stop to let them out, you shouldn't have let them out.