Idiots aplenty

Yesterday three pats on the back for people I have had dealings with lately.

Today some brickbats:
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Merged onto the M1 from the Logan Motorway, then put blinker on to merge right as the lane ended. Driver of a silver Commodore taxi was texting and nearly cleaned me up. Not a smart move when your number is displayed on the boot.:no::no:

Fellow following us down the M1 and tailgating very closely. We move over and he gives the evil stare. Wonder how he felt when the motorcycle cop pulled him over!!:D

This morning. Tradie fills ute at service station and then roars off like Ayrton Senna nearly collecting me and another pedestrian in the process.I thought the full moon had been and gone!!!:((:((

Yes plenty of them around artme, whatever happened to a little friendly courtesy. I love the Friday afternoon Grand Prix, people just have to get home as quickly as possible risking their lives and others just to watch Summer Bay or Neighbours on TV:no:

To quote the current F1 world champion "you get cucumbers every where even on the public roads".
Regards

Where do you live ? I'd call that a good day out here in the western suburbs.

I moved from sydney to brisbane in 95/96 can't remember exactly. To this day I've never got used to how dreadful drivers are up here. On the one hand you've got the locals in a coma, on the other the ex-melbournians looking for someone to ram.

It's not just the roads. Try walking around the CBD, but be warned football pads are a good idea. If they aren't queue jumping they are bashing into you as you pass on the footpath, r walking blithly out in front of traffic just expecting everyone to stop for them.

I swear people here are ruder than Sydney now. IMO Brisbane has overtaken Melbourne as the worst place in Australia to live..YMMV.

I live in a very small township and we have one marked pedestrian crossing with flashing lights. The number of cars that take no notice is unbelievable.
Cheers,
Jim
ps the cars aren't the problem of course just the idiots driving them.

After having my car written off in a full head on by an idiot texting while driving these jokers are increasingly getting on my nerves. I don't know how many times I have had to toot stationary (mainly younger women) driver too busy texting under a green light and several of them have even given me the finger thereafter. I was thinking of pasting a sign on my car saying something like, "My last vehicle was written off by someone texting while driving". Just last week I watched a guy in a BMW 4WD drive at a fair speed right through a roundabout while he was texting - he only glanced up once briefly during the whole manoeuvre.

No worse than the drongo I had to avoid this morning. I'm the 3rd of 4 cars sitting on 100k and up comes the dopey tradie in his flash black commodore towing his tradie trailer and starts overtaking us. That's OK until he gets beside me and his trailer unhitches :o - sparks flying, me and the car behind me braking like all stuff to avoid the whipping trailer. He pulls off on the other side of the road eventually thanks only to his safety chain and I kept going - idiots like that don't deserve help. Lo and behold, 15 k up the road and who overtakes me!!! But he got his this time - I was in a 60 zone doing 60 and I don't think he even saw the camera-car :U:U

I like the new signs on cars - "P" stands for "Please be careful around me, I am busy texting".... There's a green one and a red one, I guess green is for iPhone, and Red for Windows Mobile....:roll:

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Originally Posted by Claw Hama

..... just to watch Summer Bay or Neighbours on TV

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How do you know what's on at that time. You have a TV on at work?

I made a ladie flick her phone out the drivers window. how did I do this, well coming in on the mackay-bucasia road, this ladie was weaving in her lane and sometimes in to the lane I was in, as well she changed lanes going through round aborts, coming to the lights at mount plesent I pulled up beside her and saw that she was still texting, so I let rip on the horn. She jumped, and the phone went out the window, ow I drive a 8 ton waste truck with air horns (very loud):U

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Originally Posted by opelblues

I made a ladie flick her phone out the drivers window. how did I do this, well coming in on the mackay-bucasia road, this ladie was weaving in her lane and sometimes in to the lane I was in, as well she changed lanes going through round aborts, coming to the lights at mount plesent I pulled up beside her and saw that she was still texting, so I let rip on the horn. She jumped, and the phone went out the window, ow I drive a 8 ton waste truck with air horns (very loud):U

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Did you back up over the phone?

Twice on my bike I have, after being sideswiped or very close called, in stopped traffic, their window wound down (2nd time i tapped on it to make the guy wind it down) grabbed their phone off them and thrown it under the wheels of the oncoming traffic. Then ridden off through stopped traffic. Best place for it.

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Originally Posted by veloaficionado

Twice on my bike I have, after being sideswiped or very close called, in stopped traffic, their window wound down (2nd time i tapped on it to make the guy wind it down) grabbed their phone off them and thrown it under the wheels of the oncoming traffic. Then ridden off through stopped traffic. Best place for it.

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I guess that qualifies as road rage, I can see why bike riders don't want number plates:(

So two wrongs make a right after all then?

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Originally Posted by veloaficionado

Twice on my bike I have, after being sideswiped or very close called, in stopped traffic, their window wound down (2nd time i tapped on it to make the guy wind it down) grabbed their phone off them and thrown it under the wheels of the oncoming traffic. Then ridden off through stopped traffic. Best place for it.

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Originally Posted by Big Shed

I guess that qualifies as road rage, I can see why bike riders don't want number plates:(

So two wrongs make a right after all then?

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Yeah! Maybe chuckin gin over their back seat? :shrug: Gets the point across but not costing their parents a fortune. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by veloaficionado

Twice on my bike I have, after being sideswiped or very close called, in stopped traffic, their window wound down (2nd time i tapped on it to make the guy wind it down) grabbed their phone off them and thrown it under the wheels of the oncoming traffic. Then ridden off through stopped traffic. Best place for it.

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Originally Posted by Big Shed

I guess that qualifies as road rage,

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Nope, just keeping yourself safe.

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Originally Posted by artme

This morning. Tradie fills ute at service station and then roars off like Ayrton Senna nearly collecting me and another pedestrian in the process.I thought the full moon had been and gone!!!:((:((

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So you're the old bugga who wouldn't get out of my way:p:)

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Originally Posted by tea lady

Yeah! Maybe chuckin gin over their back seat? :shrug: Gets the point across but not costing their parents a fortune. :rolleyes:

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Do you often have an open bottle of gin in your hand while you're driving TL:p:D:D

Cheers
Michael

I wonder how a sign, "I am carrying paint-stripper", would go?:D
Of course, for the information of any disgruntled texter, this thread is purely a work of the imagination.
Cheers,
Jim

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Originally Posted by Big Shed

I guess that qualifies as road rage, I can see why bike riders don't want number plates:(

So two wrongs make a right after all then?

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After they've come very close to sending me (and probably others) to hospital, removing the cause of their bad driving as an example seems to be a public service. A bit like pouring an alky's booze down the drain. So you'd like them to have continued doing what they were doing, and waited until someone died as a consequence? Or youre happy that they'd get a pat on the wrist from a court, in the infinitesimally unlikely event they were caught and booked? Are you feeling defensive and aggrieved because you're forced to take more care in your regular driving because there's more cyclists around nowadays? Get off my case.

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Originally Posted by veloaficionado

Get off my case.

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Why ? You described acts of theft and destruction of property on your part. Thanks for painting a target on the backs of fellow cyclists. Me included.

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Originally Posted by dabbler

Thanks for painting a target on the backs of fellow cyclists.

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I have been living (if you could call it that) in Melbourne for a bit over 2 years now, not by choice but for family reasons.

The average melbourne motorist could not drive a sharp nail into hot $h!t. I have driven in every state of Australia and many countries around the world but the ONLY place where i feel that I am taking my life into my own hands every time i take the car out is here!

And its not just how they drive! they push shopping trolleys the same way and the basic concept of keeping left when walking in a crowded area is a foreign concept to them.

Why is it that the average melbourne motorist will cut in front of you within a metre of your bumper bar on the freeway at 100 km/hr or more but they will sit at a green light until the vehicle in front is 20 metres away before they will move?

As for cyclists (and I have spent many years as one when I was younger) they are the absolute WORST! What idiot signed off on the law that lets these morons overtake on the left? they might as well have ordered them all to be euthanased. I have had these idiots riding on the FOOTPATH ringing their bells to get pedesatrians who have every right to be on the FOOTpath (show me a bicycle that travels on feet) to get out of their arrogant way.

Getting on and off the train every day is like being in a pinball machine.

If there is anywhere in the world where motorists and cyclists and yes even pedestrians are more inconsiderate, arrogant and impatient than in Melbourne then it should be evacuated of sensible people, nuked and flattened out and used as a car park for neighbouring areas.

Come on fellas, Im loosing track here, who is in the red corner, who is in the blue corner, who is the ref. Shake hands and lets all have a friendly beer....cheers :cheers2:

I don't see a problem.
I have a camera in the car that records the last 4 hours.
Anything funny happening in front of me (texting included) I put it up on You Tube :U

Much as I sympathise with Velo, vigilante type reaction is likely to be counter-productive. Not only are you doing something illegal but anyone who is so stupid as to risk others lives by texting etc is unlikely to react in a safe way to their toy being snatched and destroyed. It could create the basis for more stupidity and increase the risk of an accident.
Cheers,
Jim

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Originally Posted by doug3030

I have been living (if you could call it that) in Melbourne for a bit over 2 years now, not by choice but for family reasons.

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I am with you 100% except for one thing. Here in brisbane we have 50/50 melbournians and locals. The mexicans as you say try to ram everything they see, but the locals drive round in a coma. The combination is horrendous. Worse than melbourne because you never quite know whats around you until it's too late.

As for texters (?) before it was people calling on mobiles while driving and before that it was drunk/drugged drivers. If you study the crash data you find there are a small number of drivers vastly over represented, just plain irresponsible. If we got serious about removing this small minority, repeatedly causing serious crashes, our roads would be much safer.

Trouble is speed tickets make money and jails and courts and catching them costs. It'll never happen.

Anyway time to go for my swim...getabiggerbullbar..:D

Drove down the Calder this morning in and out of thick fog. It was amazing the number of drivers who think they don't need lights in such conditions.
Cheers,
Jim

You Don't.
The headlights reflect back at you giving you less visibility.
The only thing you need are parking lights so you have red at the back for the people coming behind you to judge distance.
Or if you have one of those Hyundai's that have the fog light at the back.
In Europe its illegal to drive with them on when there is no fog.
People here seen to use it all the time. I hate them......

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Originally Posted by _fly_

You Don't. The only thing you need are parking lights...

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Aren't parking lights.... lights?

In such circumstances the fog lights should be switched on. The idiots are the drivers who leave them on incessantly like some 'cool' fashion accessory.

I'm talking about rear lights.
Cheers,
Jim

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Originally Posted by Woodwould

Aren't parking lights.... lights?

In such circumstances the fog lights should be switched on. The idiots are the drivers who leave them on incessantly like some 'cool' fashion accessory.

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Thank-you Woodwould, I was beginning to think I was the only one who knew that. :2tsup: Driving around with the fog/driving lights turned on when they arent necessary should be illegal as it is like driving around with high beams on in a built up area. It is unnecessary and can cause visibility problems for other drivers.

Doug