Satch
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2003
- Messages
- 3,508
- Location
- Surrey
- Car
- S211 E320Cdi Avantgarde Estate & Toyota Land Cruiser
is the only term I can use to describe yesterday. Often said that standards of general behaviour are dropping but that is wrong. They have dropped already and seem to be getting worse.
It was supposed to be easy: self & Mrs S. to drive 120 miles to drop/collect aged/infirm relatives then 140 back home including detour to drop them off. So, 7.00am yesterday off we go and sure enough little traffic. There before 9.00am. Splendid. Huge brekky at arranged meeting point and wait for in-laws to turn up so we can do an exchange of hostages.
We wait. And wait. They turn up at 12.00 after dreadful journey.
So getting back was not quite so easy. Took five hours thanks to many delays but during that journey experienced and witnessed idiotic behaviour and sheer ignorance on the grand scale.
So here we go with the edited Top Ten highlights of 140 miles and 5 hours
1. Dual Carriageway A road. Despite my being in lane two and not hanging about at that moment, biker overtakes me on the outside at least 50mph above my speed, proceeds to do the same to the car in front before vanishing into distance weaving in and out of traffic. Maybe he got there.
2. Audi A4 undertaking everybody by simple expedient of driving along hard shoulder at 85mph+.
3. Three lane stretch of motorway, pull out of services. Indicate and then into lane 2 to pass heavy vehicle also having left services. Loads of space to do so. Lane 3 is empty in front and empty behind. Yet a silver C class coming up behind either is daydreaming or considers it to be beneath her dignity to pull out into (wholly empty) lane 3 to pass and so eventually has to do a panic brake & goes into flashy lighty strop.
Tailgates until I tire of this and pull away. Lane 3 is still empty so this cretin then decides to occupy it and sit there. At least she blocked the other traffic for a while but otherwsie not fit to be in charge of a roller skate.
4. Small cars full and loaded to roof, crawling or wobbing about at high speed: far, far too many.
5. People who cannot filter 2 > 1 without making it look like a bunch of retards fighting to get through a door at the same time: many
6. Downhill only tailgaters in really crappy cars: many.
7. Caravans. Oh yes, a few of these abominations but this time trumped by:
8. Motorhomes! Must have been a rally because loads of them and mostly towing a small car behind. No doubt very useful, seem just to slow them down even more and add to general instabilty.
9. Elder citizens who really, really should be asking themselves if they are OK to be driving any more: rather a lot I regret to say
10. Sales frenzy: Now this is my own fault but it was so depressing.
By now feeling a bit groggy & foolishly agreed to drop into a big retail park so Mrs S. could get some stuff. OhGodohGodohGodohGod it was a nightmare, even at 5.30pm. People were going nuts, the veneer of civilsation having long since been stripped away. Huge car park, loads of spaces in one section but that was, oooohh, a 200 yard walk from entrance. So I parked up in relative peace but could see the carnage.
Whole areas of the car park near the entrance had turned into a gridlocked war zone with cars "parked" in stupid places causing yet more chaos and trolleys just being left and cloggng the place up. Mrs S. returned very soon, empty handed but grim faced, bearing tales of catfights, stout matrons bellowing at each other and general lunacy. Took 25 minutes to get out onto main road and the main exodus had not even started.
It was sh1te. Absolute misery and I can see this sort of thing becoming the norm.
It was supposed to be easy: self & Mrs S. to drive 120 miles to drop/collect aged/infirm relatives then 140 back home including detour to drop them off. So, 7.00am yesterday off we go and sure enough little traffic. There before 9.00am. Splendid. Huge brekky at arranged meeting point and wait for in-laws to turn up so we can do an exchange of hostages.
We wait. And wait. They turn up at 12.00 after dreadful journey.
So getting back was not quite so easy. Took five hours thanks to many delays but during that journey experienced and witnessed idiotic behaviour and sheer ignorance on the grand scale.
So here we go with the edited Top Ten highlights of 140 miles and 5 hours
1. Dual Carriageway A road. Despite my being in lane two and not hanging about at that moment, biker overtakes me on the outside at least 50mph above my speed, proceeds to do the same to the car in front before vanishing into distance weaving in and out of traffic. Maybe he got there.
2. Audi A4 undertaking everybody by simple expedient of driving along hard shoulder at 85mph+.
3. Three lane stretch of motorway, pull out of services. Indicate and then into lane 2 to pass heavy vehicle also having left services. Loads of space to do so. Lane 3 is empty in front and empty behind. Yet a silver C class coming up behind either is daydreaming or considers it to be beneath her dignity to pull out into (wholly empty) lane 3 to pass and so eventually has to do a panic brake & goes into flashy lighty strop.
Tailgates until I tire of this and pull away. Lane 3 is still empty so this cretin then decides to occupy it and sit there. At least she blocked the other traffic for a while but otherwsie not fit to be in charge of a roller skate.
4. Small cars full and loaded to roof, crawling or wobbing about at high speed: far, far too many.
5. People who cannot filter 2 > 1 without making it look like a bunch of retards fighting to get through a door at the same time: many
6. Downhill only tailgaters in really crappy cars: many.
7. Caravans. Oh yes, a few of these abominations but this time trumped by:
8. Motorhomes! Must have been a rally because loads of them and mostly towing a small car behind. No doubt very useful, seem just to slow them down even more and add to general instabilty.
9. Elder citizens who really, really should be asking themselves if they are OK to be driving any more: rather a lot I regret to say
10. Sales frenzy: Now this is my own fault but it was so depressing.
By now feeling a bit groggy & foolishly agreed to drop into a big retail park so Mrs S. could get some stuff. OhGodohGodohGodohGod it was a nightmare, even at 5.30pm. People were going nuts, the veneer of civilsation having long since been stripped away. Huge car park, loads of spaces in one section but that was, oooohh, a 200 yard walk from entrance. So I parked up in relative peace but could see the carnage.
Whole areas of the car park near the entrance had turned into a gridlocked war zone with cars "parked" in stupid places causing yet more chaos and trolleys just being left and cloggng the place up. Mrs S. returned very soon, empty handed but grim faced, bearing tales of catfights, stout matrons bellowing at each other and general lunacy. Took 25 minutes to get out onto main road and the main exodus had not even started.
It was sh1te. Absolute misery and I can see this sort of thing becoming the norm.
I think the days of courteous driving are just a distant memory. I wonder how many of us qualify as polite, courteous and understanding drivers?
