Small Rant: Drivers!!!!

Not posted for a while, just wonder how many others have been in this situation:

 



Why is there always one knobhead driver? Running along, against traffic wearing lumo clothing last night. About 15 or so cars coming towards me, all gave me space, last one decides to head for me and get as close to the kerb as possible. As I jumped out the way, I heard his tyre scrape the kerb!

Good luck in court when you eventually do knock over a runner. Love to hear your defence claim.

Second time in as many months on the same stretch of road! Do they think it makes them big & hard? No doubt some lard are who has never lifted more than a hotdog is deep down is jealous.

 

I was talking about it on Facebook last night, and a friend said I don't pay road tax. Firstly, I have 2 cars, and my partner has one. Secondly, it's Vehicle Excise Duty - not "Car/Road tax". Thirdly, council tax funds highways and the maintenance, which I also pay!

«13

Comments

  • I feel your pain.

    Puzzled by your friend's comment.  Is he/she suggesting that runners should pay "road tax"?!

  • no idea. Probably same mentality that people have towards cyclists!

    As mentioned above, I think deep down it's jealousy. As much as people may laugh, everyone would like to have some degree of fitness.

  • For some of my road running, I run along roads that have a cycle lane (facing traffic and wearing HiVis kit). Hardly anyone goes in the cycle lane, but you do get the odd knob who see you, aim for you and at the last minute swerve with a big grin on their face. Not to be ageist, but my guess is aroung the 20 mark driving a Corsa with a broken exhaust (or at least that is what it sounds like - probably cost £hundreds).

  • Re. "road tax" vs "VED", look at the top of your VED reminder next time you get one.  In big letters it says, "Road Tax".

    There's at least one knob-head in any group.  This morning I saw two knob-head cyclists (riding on pavements), one knob-head pedestrian (dropping litter), but I didn't see any knob-head drivers.

  • Why did you have to jump out of the way?

  • Clive has the right answer i reckon. Corsa or a Nova 1.2 SR! Some people just have that mentality.

    I've always wondered what the definitive answer to "Who has the right of way" is. This forum has loads of threads about it, but I'm yet to find a conclusive answer.

    But whoever has the right of way doesn't give anyone the right to drive like a dick.

    Personally, my biggest gripe is drivers not indicating....

  • Funny you say that, this was a silver Polo.

     

    Shouldn't stereo type as I get it a lot. I'm 28, and have a Mk3 Ibiza Cupra (currently in the garage as a show car). It's been tuned up as I did a lot of track days years ago, but people would always assume I was a boy racer!

     

    Anyway, I'll carry a few rocks next time lol. Or maybe wear a head camera and just report themimage

  • Intermanaut: Not wanting to go off topic, but I can assure you that Council Tax funds highway maintenance.

    mattywarr: My driving instructor always said pedestrians have right of way.

    Regardless, I'd love to hear their defence in court. Aiming a 1tonne+ chunk of metal at a minimum of 30mph at a defenceless runner/walker/cyclist etc. No need for it regardless.

  • Intermanaut wrote (see)

    Why did you have to jump out of the way?

    I didn't fancy spending any time in A&Eimage

  • There is no such thing as road tax - that was abolished in 1937. It is Vehicle Excise Duty or commonly know (by Government) as Car Tax.

    The Disc itself, or at least the white square it is in has the words Rate of Vehicle Tax printed on it.

  • Thank you for confirming.

    Anyway, that is not the point image

  • I think anyone who wants to have a driving licence should first be made to cycle on roads so they would have more appreciation for other road users. I think people who walk/run/cycle/drive on roads are more courtious to other road users. People who just drive have no idea how to deal with other road users and always presume they are in the right.

  • Massively agree. Many years ago, cyclists would "annoy" me, but I would never harm them and always gave them space.

    However, over the past couple of years, I just sit back, give them time and space until it's safe to pass.

  • In right of way arguments, I always thought that a pedestrian always takes priority. Not so much in being able to go first (obviously not always possible) but that if there were a collision, the onus would be on the driver to show that he or she had been driving reasonably.

    As a general principle rather than explicit rule laid down somewhere.

    Happy to be corrected though.

  • I'm not arguing where road funding comes from (I already know).  I'm merely making the point that arguing that it's not road tax with people who think is is pointless because it's called that on their renewal notices - an official document.

    Besides, given that a bicycle is a zero-emission vehicle the tax duty payable would be the same as it is on some Audi A1s, some Fiat 500s, some .

  • Intermanaut wrote (see)

    Re. "road tax" vs "VED", look at the top of your VED reminder next time you get one.  In big letters it says, "Road Tax".

    There's at least one knob-head in any group.  This morning I saw two knob-head cyclists (riding on pavements), one knob-head pedestrian (dropping litter), but I didn't see any knob-head drivers.

     

     

    mine doesn't .It says reminder to geta tax disc on one side ..........and..........Flurflen atgoffa i gael disg treth   on the other side image

  • @seren - mine did - it arrived about two months ago, and is entirely in English.  I'll see if I still have it.

  • seren nos wrote (see)
     tax disc on one side ..........and..........Flurflen atgoffa i gael disg treth   on the other side image


    Which everyone knows is Klingon for 'Road Tax' image

  • I think it's safest to assume that everyone is a knobhead until proven otherwise. It's just that the knobheads in charge of fast-moving metallic objects are more dangerous than, say, the ones moving at 2.5 mph walking in texting mode.

  • Driver probally didnt even see you as they were too busy on the phone ...

  • But from a BBC website - so must be right:

    "The DVLA  - now calls it vehicle tax. The Post Office calls it car tax. So does gov.uk, the government website formed to communicate simply. So does the Campaign for Clear English. And the AA"

    So Intermanaut, if your reminder says Road Tax, it must be fake, so don't pay it!! image

  • Hope he scaped his alloys.

    If there was no pavement why was there a curb?

  • There is an edging to the grass that runs by the road. The grass banking is sloped and uneven and has breaks in it to access people's driveways

  • Just another idiot then. Showing off his superior driving skills (or lack of).

    Sooner or later he'll get stopped and fined under the new change to the careless driving law. 

    There is a guy I see regularly running in the road at peak periods despite there being a pavement. Causes all sorts of chaos, he seems oblivious to it. 

  • I've seen a woman running in the road in a built up area with her kid supporting her from a MTB riding along the pavement. Bizarre. No need for her to be on the road at all round here. We're civilized !
  • When the traffic is light, I will run on roads as I find it softer than the pavement, but if I see someone coming, I will then hop onto the pavement whilst they pass. But in this case, I had no choice.

  • NayanNayan ✭✭✭

    Had a cyclist screaming at me after he decided to cycle across a zebra crossing as if he was a pedestrian with wheels.

    Runners who eschew the pavement and think they are cars with trainiers are pretty annoying for drivers. Sort of like douchebag cyclists who  - being too cool for red lights and/or indicators - get flattened when undertaking a white van just as it turns left.

    That said nobody deserves a boy racer kerbing his Focus in an effort to run you off the road. Boo

  • Runners are people. Drivers are people. Cyclists are people. Some people are idiots. That's why drivers drive badly, cyclists ride wrecklessly and people enter Run to the Beat.

  • Mat Reynolds wrote (see)

    Intermanaut: Not wanting to go off topic, but I can assure you that Council Tax funds highway maintenance..


    Does it? What about those roads (pretty much all major ones) that are the responsibility of the Highways Agency and not the Local Authority? And do Local Authorities not receive grants from Central Government that go towards funding road repairs?

    Road Tax (or whatever you want to call it) doesn't exclusively fund highway maintenance but you are mistaken if you think it is council tax.

  • The whole road tax/ car tax argument is irrelevant. Paying it doesn't give you the right to hit a pedestrian. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure on this one. And surely runners are in the same catergory as pedestrians. Especially if they are on the pavement. The man who made the comment on facebook is a very silly boy.

Sign In or Register to comment.