Nuxx:Edcd392e-9727-41f9-9fb1-ba454c5bc6d1@v19g2000yqn.googlegroups.com

Path: number1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!postnews.google.com!v19g2000yqn.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: Nuxx Bar  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling Subject: Re: Reporting motorists Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:02:54 -0700 (PDT) References: <4szxl.50490$cy5.27421@newsfe18.ams2>   <4h1fs4940un07fgo8n4nrlkdvio65tj46v@4ax.com> Lines: 37 Organization: http://groups.google.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 81.156.251.147 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: posting.google.com 1237838574 24708 127.0.0.1 (23 Mar 2009 20:02:54 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:02:54 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: v19g2000yqn.googlegroups.com; posting-host=81.156.251.147; posting-account=7_6kYAkAAABD6HrjM0VxehwvZOKMxm4g User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.9.0.7) Gecko/2009021910 Firefox/3.0.7 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729),gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Bytes: 3212 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:691011

On Mar 23, 12:53=A0pm, Mark  wrote: > On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:09:40 -0000, "Brian Robertson" > >  wrote: > >As for reporting people, yes, we would spend all our time being made to = feel > >VERY unwelcome in our local nicks if we reported everything, but I actua= lly > >have more of a grudge against utterly imcompetent drivers rather than > >selfish ones. > > I am the opposite. =A0Incompetent drivers may one day drive safely. > Selfish ones never will.

Personally I think that (other than those who are inexperienced) incompetent drivers are likely to be selfish by definition, since otherwise they would get further training and not inflict their lack of skill (which translates into danger, and usually delays due to driving unduly slowly) on others every time they go anywhere.

I find it very hard to believe that there are many *really* incompetent drivers who don't know that they are. If a lot of people are regularly flashing you, hooting at you, overtaking you on single carriageways, "appearing out of nowhere", passing you on the left, etc, and your friends etc all say that they feel unsafe in a car with you and they think you need to improve, you would have to be pretty arrogant to put that down to being a problem with everyone else rather than you. (And no, trolls, "incompetent driver" does not equate to "speeding driver", except in the minds of car-haters and the ignorant.)

We need driving tests every 10 years. There are a frightening number of people who quite obviously wouldn't pass a test, based on the fact that you sit behind them and they make basic error after basic error. Such people are still a very small percentage of motorists in general, who are usually pretty good at what they do (despite the car-haters pretending otherwise), but they're a serious hazard nonetheless.