Tuesday 9 March 2010

Poetic justice

I believe that I am a careful and considerate driver and don't give in to 'road rage' very often. However there is one bit of driving which seems to be prevalent in Norfolk, possibly due to the ridiculous road layouts created by the council, which does infuriate me.

For example, two lanes of vehicles come to traffic lights, go through the lights together and suddenly are expected to 'merge' into one lane! Now I know that cars are expected to behave sensibly and merge one by one but does that happen? No way! The one in the outside lane feels it is his right to get ahead of the one in the inside lane, by any means possible!

Last week I sat at the lights, inside lane, with a blue Audi next to me. I don't dawdle around at lights and, knowing the sequence, was quick off the mark and up to the 30 mph limit. However, the Audi felt it was his god-given right to be in front of me and as I, a mere woman, grey haired as well, had beaten him away, he obviously felt affronted. He therefore drove level with me, on hatched lines, and because he couldn't pass me before the central traffic bollard, he went the WRONG side of the bollard to over take me, doing speeds of well over 40 mph! I couldn't believe it!

You can imagine that I took a certain amount of pleasure today, when being told that this same car had carried out virtually the same manoeuvre (except for the bollard overtaking) but had been side swiped by a large lorry when he tried to cut in front of it. YES!!

He won't be trying that again for a while - at least not in that car!
Just for reassurance, no-one was hurt but I did feel a sense of retribution! ;))

3 comments:

  1. Here in Reading they've put up signs saying 'merge in turn'. Amazingly, it sometimes works - although probably not on Audi drivers who didn't get past 'Elementary Testosterone' at key stage 2.
    I find a BMW 335i helps, but then I'm male.

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  2. Actually, they've put up 'merge in turn' signs on one small roundabout on the Norwich ring road where the entry is two lanes which go down to one and I have to admit it works 95% of the time, except for the BMW 335i drivers ;)). This is Norfolk remember, so everything is 20 years behind the remainder of the country.

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  3. That sort of behaviour happens down under too, but oddly enough in reverse (must be the upside-down thing!) The people in the merging lane leap out in front because They Want To Be First, and then slow back down to a crawl. Drives me nuts! The other thing I find infuriating is those morons who sit in the right hand lane, going more slowly than the traffic they're supposedly overtaking...

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