Motorcycle Forums

People these days are rediculously bad at driving. They don't concentrate on what is going on around them.They only look at the back of the car infront, god forbid they glance over their shoulders. Some people believe they are driving supertankers not hatchbacks. The main thing that amazes me is why they risk a head on collision on a 60 road than get within two feet of a cyclist. Hit my helmet on an x5 mirror last week when she was overtaking a cyclist on my side of the road, luckily managed not to bin it when I hit the kerb, stupid bint.

Depends

On a bike I find drivers in London about the same.

Maybe it's because we do the thinking for them when we ride and also they don't see us as an invasion of "their road space".

In a car they're much worse and seem to do all they can to get in front of you by taking the most stupid terrible risks.

My top tip for driving in London, Look out for the Mercedes drivers if you value your life.

Is it really worse or due to more traffic?

The fact that there's more road traffic on the road today than there ever has been in the past might have something to do with it. There has always been the boy racer, GT driver, Doddery Coffin Dodger, foreign lorry driver, school run Mum (only now they have huge 4x4s which they can't park), Speedy Sales Rep with a mobile surgically attached to his ear, nervous newbie, wreckless newbie, UPS delivery guy (insert other companies as required), White Van Man (not all bad - I've been one myself), Pikey, Chav family with 15 kids squeezed into a clapped out Escort, Foggy wannabies and worst of all - cyclists! The only thing that's changed is the sheer number of them. As an occassional cyclist myself I don't want to tar all our man-powered bretheren with the same brush but who else can get away with running red lights, cutting in front of busses and making a general nuisance of themselves all while flying the smug 'Eco' flag? Anyway, that's another rant for another day. I've been a driver much longer than I've been a biker and have gained a deep hatred of the idiots who don't keep left on the motorway. Are you overtaking? No? Then move the f**k over!

Are car drivers better or worse than they used to be.

I have 40+ years of driving and IMHO standards have got worse over the years and it isn't all down to the under 21s. Middle aged & older drivers have dropped their standards.

On the other hand, while courtesy to others has also declined from when I first started driving it does appear getting better over the last few years. I see far less cases of road rage than I did 5-10 years ago.

So to answer the question, on the whole car drivers are not much worse than they used to be but the general standard of driving is far worse.

Add that to the fact that cars are a lot faster (driving standards should have increased to compensate) and that the police only seem to target drunk driving, speeding mobile phone use etc. (that are offences in their own right) and ignore a lot of those covered by 'umbrella' charges (careless, reckless, dangerous driving etc) and you have lots of drivers that do things wrong because 'they can'  'they don't know what they should be doing' or 'they don't care because they won't get caught'.

better

There is undoubtedly more awareness of motorcyclists and with more and more people riding bikes there are certainly more car drivers that know what it means to be on two wheels. What I think could be improved is the general knowledge of what travelling on two wheels implies. How would a car driver know that if you snatch a front brake you are likely to end up on the floor? The most irritating thing for me is when drivers keep nudging towards the middle of the road and when you start slowing down they start swearing at you because we are wasting their time... How the hell are we supposed to know if they are going to stop or not? Car drivers always think that they have left enough space and motorcycles can magically run around obstacles. A bit more education could go a long way. I am all for the motorcycling questions on the theory tests. Clever ones obviously...