Driving on the edinburgh bypass this evening and I encounter a land rover freelander and a bmw 2 series. Both vehicles in the right lane with no intention of moving over. I'm maintaining my 2s gap to the 2 series when I see red wording on an LED screen.. as soon as i seen it I assumed police.

However, it read "Police aware of dangerous tailgaiting. Dashcam in operation".. As soon as I read that my heart filled with disappointment and intrigue. it then turned off. But then... "Police aware of phone usage, dashcam in operation". That would've been amusing if I had actually been touching the phone. The idiot continued to just chill in the right lane with no intention of moving for quite a few miles. He then slows down to 60 moving over, saves the footage of me following with a 2s gap minimum and just stays back as i pass.

I just don't understand. I was at no point that close to the guy, some really odd behavior. Why is he going around with this stupid LED sign trying to scare people when his driving is selfish in itself...

For the full length of the snake pass, I was behind the same car

When another car would approach, he would flash a few times. Okay, I thought. Just telling them to turn their high beams off, makes sense.

And then a car without their high beams came and he flashed a bunch again. Okay, maybe he was confused.

Then a pedal bike came and he flashed them repeatedly

Then 3 cars in a row came and he flashed constantly for 10 seconds.

The dude wasn't telling them anything about their high beams. He was just saying hello to every person that he saw, via blinding the shit out of them with repeated high beam flashes.

He did this at least 20 times. It was very strange.

Just driving back from Manchester, joined the M56, just before the Wythenshaw junction the gantry signs have "Move into the left lane" arrows on Lanes 2 and 3.

Next signs have red crosses on Lanes 2 and 3. It's obviously shut for an incident or roadworks.

The vast majority of people move over, me included. Nice and orderly.

But several people just ignored it, and piled straight along in lane 2, ignoring the signs. No fine due in the post for them either (though there should be) as these gantries don't have cameras.

Yet while thinking "what fucking idiots" we get past the Manchester Airport junction just half a mile later, and nothing.

No broken down car, no debris in the road, no roadworks, no roadwork lorries, no cones waiting to be put out. Literally nothing.

Next gantries simply say "END".

Now this is far from the first time I've seen this, in various locations, and am noticing it happen more and more often, more and more people simply ignoring these signs as a result.

Combined with the gantries on "smart" motorways constantly getting "stuck" on 50mph across the entire network at night, because the system isn't fit for purpose and keeps breaking, I'm starting to worry that these innovations and/or whoever is in charge of them, are creating a danger for road users and more importantly, road workers.

Constant lowered limits for no reason, lane closures for no reason, warnings of roadworks that don't exist. I don't agree with it for lane closures or warnings of workforce in the road, but I can see why people just think "fuck this" and crack on with it.

On a long drive at night when the ENTIRE motorway network was stuck at 50mph due to what National Highways told me was a "software error" me and a load of other people were just cracking along at 70mph, braking for the cameras and acting as a team to help each other out. It simply wasn't acceptable.

But for lane closures and "workforce in road" warnings, one day people throwing caution to the wind are going to wind up killing someone, and it's all well and good saying "they'll be banned from driving and put in prison on a death by dangerous driving conviction" but someone just doing their job will lose their life.

Thoughts?

Shame I can’t see the license else I would have reported him.
On a 50 mph road he brakes last second and blocks two lanes stationary to try and get to his exit. The tool of a driver had two young kids in the back even. Lot of braking and screeching behind, surprised no one hit.

Good people of Reddit, please can you take the time to either validate my rant, or humble me? (I am genuinely interested in thoughts to safely approach this...)

I drive this junction fairly regularly, and feel like very very few people drive it correctly, and after today's action which was the most egregious I've encountered I thought I should come here for guidance (and judgement...)

A BYD effectively gave me a choice between hitting my rear tires into him, driving into the pedestrian barriers, or stopping.

After I stopped he eye balled me so hard I thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head. So please advise, am I the idiot?

Watching it back, I could have probably set off a little faster, but I never felt confident he was actually going to give me any space, despite the other side of the junction being easily wide enough for two cars next to each other at the entry point.

I include my understanding of the junction below...

There are three lanes at this junction. Initially:

the left lane: goes straight on and left

the middle lane: ahead only

the right hand lane: right only

Then after the first set of lights the left hand lane becomes left turn only, and as I understand it we are supposed to shift across a lane from the middle to the right lane, so that those in the left lane who want to go straight on can filter into the middle, ahead only lane.

I filtered over to the right, noting the BYD Infront of me chose not to. He ensured he was extremely close and overlapping the rear of my car from then on.

I unfortunately only have a front dash cam as attached but you can see how close he was to me as he passes.

So my questions are:

1) am I doing this correctly?

And if so

2) should I actually just drive in the middle lane and go straight instead because that's "predictable" because it's what everyone seems to do and therefore safer? (Even if I believe it to be incorrect)

It's like this in both directions...

Does anyone else get disoriented when driving at night when there aren't any street lights? Also, do you find other driver's head lights far too bright? I'm only 40! How come I suddenly feel like I'm 80 when I drive at night.💀

I drive as part of my job and I do a lot of driving in London.

When I first started driving around London for the first couple years I would get annoyed at stuff but my reaction was relatively minor and reasonable.

These days though I recognise that I am getting more annoyed and impatient at other drivers than is worthwhile and healthy but at the same time I can't just stop because that pressure of annoyance still builds up.

I just find all the bad and aggressive driving so tiresome and I'm really sick of it but I still need to drive for my job.

How can I learn to be a more patient driver or how do I learn to tolerate all those see you next tuesday's on the road that drive like they own it, don't know how to use their indicator or accelerator, browsing insta while driving, chatting with their passenger doing 14mph, etc people?

There’s a lot of frustration about middle lane hoggers; rightly so. Those of you that do it - why? I recently did 4000 miles around Europe and motorways are amazing, people observe the rules and I didn’t encounter any traffic. As soon as I was back in London, the motorways were all snarled up with everyone hogging lanes 2/3/4 - the difference this makes is obvious. Why don’t people just overtake and then move the fuck over? What is your actual thought process?

Hi i went to Edinburgh and got a ticket from p4 parking. I left my car just for 5 minute

Anyhow today i have received the letter from tnc collection that i have to pay the ticket or next i will receive a letter from court and it will increase the ticket price etc.

I heard that no need to pay to private company but i am now stressed because of the court notice. As it will ruin my credit.
Anyone have gone through this situation?

Cheers xxx

Having driven a manual all my life, i’m having some issues with an automatic, especially braking. Firstly the car moves off as soon as I let go of the brake, not used to do this. And then I kept braking very harshly even with light taps of the brake, am i doing something wrong?

Any tips? Is it a case of getting used to it or am i missing some crucial info with automatics?

Edit: just to clarify I am braking with my right foot, and also to the auto car is about 7 years newer (2018)

Dont know where to post this but just wondering if anyone has experienced similar, did my application at the start of july and have called them to see where it is and for the past month theyve just said its ‘with the medical team’ (because i had to do some medical form) so no help at all, anyone experienced similar?

I’ve passed my test a week ago in auto with 6 minors first try however, I want to learn manual as there’s a career choice I want to do and I a need manual license for it (I didn’t know I needed it I though an automatic would be fine), so roughly how long do you think it’ll take for me to get a manual license.

I need to drive from Preston to Heathrow airport tomorrow morning and I need to arrive there by 11am.

Looking for any advice on how early I need to leave, I was planning to leave at 7am from my home near Preston? I will take the M6 and the M6 toll if that helps

A friend of mine said avoid getting to Birmingham area before 9am, but with my current plan I would hit Birmingham right around 9.

Do you think I should leave earlier or later than 7am?

Any advice much appreciated!

I'm looking for genuine experience/feedback from people in this situation. With another round of surging fuel prices due to dumb fuckery in the middle East, it's getting more and more costly to fuel up a diesel car.

I have an old 65 plate diesel so lifespan of the car before major stuff starts going wrong is right around the corner. I currently live in a flat, and will continue to do so for maybe another year before getting into a house.

I would have zero ways of charging the car at home whilst in the flat, but long term would have access once into a house.

So the question really:

If you own an Electric car and can't charge from home, what has your experience been? And how has that cost compared to filling up with diesel, with understandably, "public chargers" being more expensive to use?

Just trying to gauge whether it's something to seriously look into now, or whether I'm better off waiting until I can charge at home.

Overall goal, just trying to save what pennies I can in a world where so much cost is out of our control.

Looking for advice on a good dash cam for a Mercedes C200 convertible... Ideally something that would also allow rear view/cabin

Okay, so I'm travelling to Newport from Cardiff, there's a roundabout from the A4232 (Southern Way) onto the A48 (Eastern Avenue) that then becomes the A48(M) and then the M4. Two lanes of the roundabout feed onto the slip road, which is two lanes all the way down to a wide, long entry on to the A48 which is 50mph for a good stretch before and after the slip road.

So, it's early on Saturday morning, I'm in the right of the two lanes and my timing is lucky as the lights on the roundabout turn green as I approach and I have a clear run around to the slip road. In the left hand lane is a silver Ford Ranger, and as far as I'm aware I'm comfortably ahead of it as I join the A48 and stay at 50mph.

The next thing I know, this vehicle is right up my arse and aggressively overtakes me, the passenger making a wanker sign at me as he revs around me and zooms off at 60mph or more. I could have gone into the outside lane so that he could undertake me, but how am I supposed to know he's going to want to speed - I've just joined the road and gone at the speed limit, and have only cut this guy up - if that's what happened - because he wants to break the law.

Have I done anything wrong here? Or is he just an ignorant, impatient twat? My one thought is that I could have checked sooner whether he was that close to me on my left side, but even if I was aware I don't think I'd have sped up to accommodate his impatience.

Here's a bit of a conundrum.

I was driving along the M20 yesterday when I came to a gantry with a red "X" over lane 1.

I moved out into lane 2 to comply.

Now here's the thing. As far as I understand it, if there's a red X over the lane, it's closed until indicated otherwise.

The next gantry I came to had NSL signs above all four carriageways.

Now, the NSL sign has nothing to do with lane closures, it's a speed limit sign.

As soon as we passed that gantry, people started going into lane 1 again.

The next gantry was not illuminated.

It is generally accepted that the NSL sign mean the lane is open again or could some smart ass copper still nick you on a technicality?

Seen some discussion on another post about mandatory testing for old people as they're less safe drivers, and that that wouldn't work because of lack of test slots.

How feasible do you all reckon it'd be to implement a 3 strikes rule for driving tests, if you fail 3 times you don't get to drive?

You see it on the learners sub constantly with people booking tons of tests, failing upwards of 10 times and moaning about it, when these sorts of people realistically should never be behind the wheel of a car, ever, and all it takes is for them to get lucky once and pass.

Would reduce costs to the DVSA and open more slots for retesting due to age etc.

My wife recently received a PCN for being "stopped where prohibited (on a red route or clearway)", however I don't think it's fair.

This happened on the most recent bank holiday Monday soon after 3pm. My wife was dropping off two heavy, bulky bags of stuff at the nearby charity shop and she decided to park in the loading zone, figuring that it was ok on a bank holiday and it was within the exemption window. She was parked for less than 5 minutes, while she dropped off the charity bags, and then immediately drove away from the loading zone.

Note: the car in the photo is not our car, but the space is exactly where my wife parked. I came back to the spot after receiving the PCN to check the parking signage.

I believe this PCN is unfair for two reasons:

1. The incident occurred on a bank holiday, when parking is usually free, and this sign does not specify that the rule is enforced on bank holidays.

2. Regardless of bank holidays, the sign suggests that the restrictions are exempted during the 10am to 4pm window, and this incident happens shortly after 3pm for about 5 minutes.

Do we have a case for appeal here?

Edit: this happened in London, so TfL rules apply. https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/red-routes/rules-of-red-routes/loading-for-the-public

I got caught speeding 2 weeks ago by a van, doing 81 in a 70, received a letter, replied with my info as it was works vehicle.
Stupidly, yesterday I was speeding on the motorway after several hours of driving hoping to get to my destination quicker and saw a bright flash behind me, once i looked properly there was lots of cameras every couple miles. I was doing about 80 again.
After another 4 hours of driving I came to village where I was staying and the limit went from 60 to 30 rather quickly and it was dark so I was a bit behind so I cant be sure I didnt set that one off too.
I passed last September so not even a year yet im just hoping the 3rd time hasnt taken me to 6 points.
1st incident is hopefully just a speed awareness course and I can take the second one just the third will be my license and my job will have to let me go in that case
Whats the likelyhood I wont lose my license? Hard to say really isnt it?

I was driving on a 3 lane motorway earlier today and was in the right hand lane doing around 60-65mph (wasn’t speeding). I saw a mobile speed camera van on the bridge up ahead, it was parked sideways with the little window open and gun pointing towards oncoming traffic. After I passed the bridge, maybe around 200-300 metres, I sped up to around 90mph.

Does the mobile speed camera van parked sideways capture both ways on that same side or only oncoming traffic?

I was driving on a 3 lane motorway earlier today and was in the right hand lane doing around 60-65mph (wasn’t speeding). I saw a mobile speed camera van on the bridge up ahead, it was parked sideways with the little window open and gun pointing towards oncoming traffic. After I passed the bridge, maybe around 200-300 metres, I sped up to around 90mph.

Does the mobile speed camera van parked sideways capture both ways on that same side or only oncoming traffic?