Rush-Hour Drivers

My god… What is it with people being in such a hurry to get to and from work that they have to completely disregard the entire highway code or forget how to drive? Give your head a wobble…

Some of us just want to get to the gym first thing on a morning (yes, I’m now going to the gym, but that’s for another day).

Give your head a wobble...

I always drive the same way to the gym around half 7 on morning and yes it’s still dark which doesn’t help matters. I have to drive through the village and across a standard crossroads with a (pointless) mini-roundabout in the middle of it, which is about as useful as diet water…

If you occasionally frequent through the charming village of Sherburn then no doubt you’ll be familiar with the fact that NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO USE A CROSSROADS… and more specifically who to give way to, so they all just sit there like lemons… or you know, just do what they want.

This morning I witnessed three possible accidents in the space of about 10 seconds, back to back to back. I didn’t know whether to laugh or just go home and have a stiff drink! If you don’t drive then you may not be familiar with the highway code and who to give way to at a crossroads, but for those of you who live in a country that drives on the opposite side of the road to us in England, just remember that we drive on the left side of the road… Here we go…

so they all just sit there like lemons...

As I’m pulling up to the crossroads incident number one occurs. It involves a car from the left going straight and a car across from me turning left, so from where I’m sat they’re both going to my right, but instead of the car across them giving way to his right, he just pulls out and barely misses the car going straight. They ended up abruptly stopping and having a bit of a sign language session in the middle of the junction, then they move on.

Incident number two happens straight afterwards involving the car in front of me going straight but with the car opposite us turning right (our left). The car in front of me is either in a hurry or doesn’t know how to drive, so instead of giving way to the car going across them they just crack on and drive straight through the crossroads, nearly taking the other car’s bumper as a souvenir.

Then it’s my turn… By this point I definitely didn’t want to have to deal with any of this nonsense, so I’ve already weighed up who has right of way as I pull up to the junction. There’s a car coming up to the junction to my left who’s indicating left, there’s a car opposite me going straight ahead, and I’m also going straight ahead. You’d be thinking to yourself that a hamster could figure this one out… Simple equation: Give way to your right, but low and behold the peasant to my left woke up this morning and decided he didn’t want to function like a normal human being. So as I’m driving across the junction he doesn’t even look to his right (at me) and just starts to turn left without a care in the world, like no one else exists… He finally sees me as I drive past his number plate, causing him to slam on his brakes and reassess his life choices… Plonker.

You’d be thinking to yourself that a hamster could figure this one out…

No buses or taxis were harmed in the making of this post, surprisingly… Don’t even get me started on that time an Arriva bus rear-ended me because he decided using his eyes was overrated… Yeah it really hurt and gave my neck problems for months, but at least I got a Mercedes out of it… Thanks Arriva!

Chris KilgourComment