Real crimes with very real victims (From York Press)

Couldn't agree more, if only people would learn - crass stupidity and the mindless idiocy of some drivers beggars belief.

I'd like to add, too, that drivers of larger vehicles can be utter menaces. Why skip-trucks need to be barged through traffic at a million miles an hour is beyond me.

Particularly, though, are some bus drivers. Sat at Bootham Bar lights this morning, a large group of students were crossing when the lights changed. The driver of a no. 6 bus chose to push through regardless of the pedestrians; even speeding up, narrowly missing about 4 people - the IDIOT - we couldn't believe our eyes!!

As you can imagine, my next letter's to First York!

Indeed, its time to get into drivers' consciousness the idea that all those pesky rules aren't there just to please officious testers and Mr Policeman, they are there for safety and for respect to fellow road users.
Deliberately not bothering with such things doesn't make you cool it makes you anti-social.

I find the arrogance of people who queue jump whilst driving is my irritation. We're British and if there's one thing we do well it's queueing. So for someone to try to push in whilst I've sat patiently for as long as it takes does make my blood boil, I've refused to let them in and then they swear like the thugs they are. Respect the rules of the road and you'll find people will do decent things towards each other, like letting you out when they could just all drive by and keep you stuck there.

Silver wrote:
I find the arrogance of people who queue jump whilst driving is my irritation. We're British and if there's one thing we do well it's queueing. So for someone to try to push in whilst I've sat patiently for as long as it takes does make my blood boil, I've refused to let them in and then they swear like the thugs they are. Respect the rules of the road and you'll find people will do decent things towards each other, like letting you out when they could just all drive by and keep you stuck there.

You are just creating problems for yourself there Silver by having a confrontation.
Let the idiots go, they'll be out of your life forever & hopefully a bit of karma will sort them out further down the road.

I broadly agree with Claire but, I have to say that there are instances of "revenue harvesting". To see this in all it's glory, you have to travel north of the border. First of all, we have the incredible M74. Best motorway in the country but it is bl00dy difficult keeping the 100 mile-plus drag down below 70mph. So I have my TomTom set to sound "cuckoo" when I touch 73mph (about 78mph on the always over-rated speedo's). In Scotland, they have droves of detector vans and they wait on the flyovers of long downhill sections. They will do you if you are doing over 78mph.

Further North, we have the lovely A9 to Inverness. Best A road in the country. But most of it isn't dualled and therefore limited to 60mph. It was here, some years ago that the dreaded Northern Constabularly got me early on a Sunday morning. Nothing else on the road and I was merrily chatting away to others in the car and hadn't noticed my speed creep up on a long downhill sloping section. They got me at 73mph and as well as depriving me of 60 quid I got a sanctimonious letter from C.I. McSweeny rabitting on about improving my driving habits.

So, whilst I agree mostly with Claire, i think there needs to be a little rethink and the best way to start would be to give ALL motoring fines to charity. Then we can be sure that there is no 'revenue harvesting'.

Mr Udigawa wrote:

Silver wrote: I find the arrogance of people who queue jump whilst driving is my irritation. We're British and if there's one thing we do well it's queueing. So for someone to try to push in whilst I've sat patiently for as long as it takes does make my blood boil, I've refused to let them in and then they swear like the thugs they are. Respect the rules of the road and you'll find people will do decent things towards each other, like letting you out when they could just all drive by and keep you stuck there.

You are just creating problems for yourself there Silver by having a confrontation. Let the idiots go, they'll be out of your life forever & hopefully a bit of karma will sort them out further down the road.

Probably true but you can spot the jumpers, if it's a tourist you can tell because the roads are confusing. But as I said we're British we are natural queuers you mess with that at your peril. Plus Karma seems to take it time...sadly

For once I agree with all that is written here.
A good balanced response. However, to add to the negative, don't forget the Scottish case of the guy taken to court for blowing his nose while stationary in traffic, with the hand brake on.
In York a few years ago, same thing happened to someone stopped@ traffic lights while taking a drink on a rare warm day.
There are of course decent cops with good common sense but the rogues determined to get their quota at any price let the side down.
Road rage-rs are one of the biggest headaches on the road these past 15 years or so, especially as we get more congested. Horn tooters especially annoying.

When you have white hair and stick to the rules of the road you always have Mr or Mrs Toad of Toad Hall up ya bum. Usually in a powerful German car, as a symbol of their self perceived importance in life.

I covered the whole country as a salesman, often averaging 50,000 business miles a year creating millions of pounds worth of business and jobs across the land.

I was always very aware of the danger of loosing the most important tool in my living. I saw good salesmen forced to hire drivers to keep their business going.

I am now very aware of the importance of our car to our freedom to get about in retirement and I am not going to jeopardize that for Mr or Mrs Toad.

I wish men like Claire's husband every success in their fight against todays highwaymen of our roads, holding lives to ransom.

petethefeet wrote:
I broadly agree with Claire but, I have to say that there are instances of "revenue harvesting". To see this in all it's glory, you have to travel north of the border. First of all, we have the incredible M74. Best motorway in the country but it is bl00dy difficult keeping the 100 mile-plus drag down below 70mph. So I have my TomTom set to sound "cuckoo" when I touch 73mph (about 78mph on the always over-rated speedo's). In Scotland, they have droves of detector vans and they wait on the flyovers of long downhill sections. They will do you if you are doing over 78mph.

Further North, we have the lovely A9 to Inverness. Best A road in the country. But most of it isn't dualled and therefore limited to 60mph. It was here, some years ago that the dreaded Northern Constabularly got me early on a Sunday morning. Nothing else on the road and I was merrily chatting away to others in the car and hadn't noticed my speed creep up on a long downhill sloping section. They got me at 73mph and as well as depriving me of 60 quid I got a sanctimonious letter from C.I. McSweeny rabitting on about improving my driving habits.

So, whilst I agree mostly with Claire, i think there needs to be a little rethink and the best way to start would be to give ALL motoring fines to charity. Then we can be sure that there is no 'revenue harvesting'.

So you were so distracted by chatting to others in your car, that you didn't realise you were doing over 20% more than the speed limit.

What else might you not have noticed at that speed? Frightening!

You've just completely proved the point of the original letter writer.

George Appleby wrote:
When you have white hair and stick to the rules of the road you always have Mr or Mrs Toad of Toad Hall up ya bum. Usually in a powerful German car, as a symbol of their self perceived importance in life.

I covered the whole country as a salesman, often averaging 50,000 business miles a year creating millions of pounds worth of business and jobs across the land.

I was always very aware of the danger of loosing the most important tool in my living. I saw good salesmen forced to hire drivers to keep their business going.

I am now very aware of the importance of our car to our freedom to get about in retirement and I am not going to jeopardize that for Mr or Mrs Toad.

I wish men like Claire's husband every success in their fight against todays highwaymen of our roads, holding lives to ransom.

Just hope"" the cyclist" doesn't read this.