Great Galloping Gooseberries...

[athersgeo]

Yesterday, it was idiot car drivers. Today, it was idiot articu-fucking-lated drivers.

Dual carriage way. Heading up to a major, lights controlled junction. Articulated truck in the right hand lane, turning right. Me, the Fiesta Queen, in the left lane for straight on. As you get up to these lights, the two lanes are seperated by a concrete barrier so as to facilitate pedestrians crossing. Truck and I are both approaching said concrete barrier...when I suddenly become aware that the truck is indicating to pull into the left hand lane, apparently RIGHT ON TOP OF ME AND THE LIGHTS ARE RED WITH TWO CARS IN FRONT OF ME AND I CAN'T GET OUT OF THE WAY...

Seeing as I'm here to type this entry, you can probably guess that the truck stopped, but for a few seconds I wasn't sure he was going to, and because of various railings and such (to say nothing of the cars behind and infront of me) there was nowhere I could go.

And that's all on top of some motorcyclists with no sense of self-preservation (which is just so routine it's not worth mentioning most of the time), a pedestrian with the same lack (why cross the road in front of me when there's NOTHING behind me???) and rain that's coming down steadily (the Fiesta aquaplanes at the drop of a hat at the moment; I need to get my tyres checked).

Can we say Rachel did not enjoy her commute into work this morning? I think we can.

On the upside: I'm in the office on my lonesome from now until the end of next week, and yes, I have a very short worklist. Guess what this means... ;)

Comments

[antigone-ks.livejournal.com]

I used to think big vehicle = small penis, but I'm starting to think that big vehicle = small brain.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes very definitely. The bigger the car the slower and fewer the thought processes.

Though that doesn't always follow; I got stuck behind a Renault 5 once. The Renault 5 is not MUCH bigger than a Mini Cooper. (I'm not sure if the newer Minis aren't actually bigger, in fact!) This idiot obviously considered it was the size of a Cadillac from the way he was cautiously inching through a six foot gap... *headdesk*

[antigone-ks.livejournal.com]

Maybe he was used to driving a bigger car and wasn't familiar with the outside parameters of the Renault?

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

You may be right. On the other hand, not realising that your Renault 5 is not even HALF the size of the gap you're trying to go through, even if you ARE unfamiliar with it, does say something pretty bad about the driver's spacial awareness - which in and of itself is scary in someone behind the wheel of a lump of motorised steel...

[antigone-ks.livejournal.com]

Or, he could have been an American tourist. I speak from experience when I say that sitting on the opposite side of the car makes one even more cautious than driving on the opposite side of the road. The bits of the car that hold the windows in, fr'instance, get in the way when you're not used to seeing them out of your right eye.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* I know exactly what you mean; I have enough trouble remembering to get in the 'wrong' side to be a passenger - when I stayed in Rochester a couple of years ago I did, to my friend's complete amusement, keep trying to get into the driver's side. It wouldn't have been a problem (she was quite happy to let me drive!) except for 1) She has an automatic (I've never driven an auto before) and 2) There was two feet of snow (at the time, I'd never driven in snow). We both judged problem 2 meant that it was no time to alter problem 1...

[antigone-ks.livejournal.com]

Oh, automatics are dead easy. Just keep both hands on the steering wheel to alleviate the urge to yank the gear shift. If you absolutely have to stomp the clutch, the worst you can do is twist your ankle against the floorboards.

Snow is more problematic, unless you've got chains and a couple bags of sand. *hates driving in snow*

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

Mm - snow is evil. Though, it has to be said, not half as evil as Bristol Drivers In Snow. The chains/sand is basically unnecessary here (as Mish can verify, Bristol gets very little in the way of snow in the general course of things), common sense, however, is vital. Guess what most Bristol drivers lack (on the basis of what I experienced in March...)

[antigone-ks.livejournal.com]

Maybe they need to include a common sense test along with the written to get a DL.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

And preferably apply it retrospectively, too...

(Yes, I had a bad drive home, too. *sigh* Nearly hit two different people up the rear. My fault, you might think, except... Idiot numero uno shot out into traffic right in front of me, regardless of the fact that I WAS MOVING INTO THE SPACE HE WANTED - there was a sticker on his fender "Powered by Prayer"; in this instance, God was definitely looking out for him; I saw him just before I hit him, and the guy behind ME saw him and didn't rear end me when I was forced to slam on my brakes. Idiot numero duos just didn't bother accellerating up this extremely steep hill because she was more interested in changing her tape over - or at least, that's what it looked like she was doing from behind, either way, she was paying less attention to where she was going; again, fortunately for me, I realised what was going on and avoided accellerating my fiesta into her trunk and equally fortunately, there wasn't anyone tight behind me, either. Shesh.)

[antigone-ks.livejournal.com]

Por Idiot numero uno, you have my sympathy. Por idiot numero dos, you have my undying admiration. Hills and Anti and manual transmissions go together like oil and water and... a third unmixy thing. Much with the rolling downhill and/or jumping forward.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

As you've probably noticed, the inability to drive up (and down) hills in Bristol is a Bad Thing TM. Of course, I DID cause my father to seriously wonder about my driving on a hill: Current car has a 5 speed gear box. Previous car had a 4 speed gear box. This means that first was in a very different place to where I was used to it being. This means, when I first picked the new car up and drove it home, I attempted to do a hill start, travelling up hill, in third. This is a Very Bad Thing TM. I think I stalled the danged thing about eight or nine times and began to wonder if I was EVER going to get it going. Then it occured to me to check the gear I was in...

(Thank you for the sympathy :))

[cmar-wingnut.livejournal.com]

That sounds terrifying... *hugs*

I hope you've had your quota of scary/frustrating driving incidents for a long while.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

*hugs back* Let's put it this way; I did get the first couple of scenes from my life go by until I realised that yes, he was stopping and no he wasn't going to actually drive straight over me.

I certainly hope that's going to be my last scary incident for a while. On the other hand, I've lived in Bristol all my life; I know exactly how bad most of the drivers are around here. It's a faint hope. *sigh*