admittedly frightening encounter today

[grazuncle2]

a day out planned and heading for the M6 motorway (spaghetti junction)

there is a strange three way junction just before going do to the motorway.. waited for traffic to clear and pulled off onto the lefthand lane of the two lane road ahead when a car from behind nearly scrapped me on my side whilst passing (at god knows what speed).. i pipped the horn and he immediately braked in front of me in my lane gesturing with his fist to pull over the nearside.. I was not going to do that.. I tried to go around him when he pulled away still looking backwards and shaking his fist to pull over.. Wife is now very frightened!

I'm in a quandary now. and I am truly scared of him... I want to go down to the island underneath spaghetti so as to get on to my turn to join North but this will bring me to a stop at the island... the righthand lane takes you into Birmingham central onto the A38 expressway.. as he is still rolling i pulled over to the righthand lane as though going on the expressway.. we're still rolling. The expressway becomes a two lane road so i pulled further to the right (red line).. I waiting for him to get so far up the slip road where the kerb starts, that he cant pull off.. I'm desperately keeping an eye on what is behind if this was going to work.. (nothing at all) when he does i pull of the righthand lane (Blue line) I changed lane quickly to the left leaving him on the expressway (hoping he wouldn't U turn on the motorway slip!!!) he was sooo angry I would not have been surprised.

lane change.png (1.78 MiB) Viewed 1236 times

We carried onto our destination but it took sometime to settle down... it could have been a hospital visit or worse. someone mentioned on this forum that city driving is always worse. OMG the standard is atrocious now.. I have done some stupid things and been tooted .. if it's my fault i put my hand up. but this was another thing completely.

[Maarten]

We have the same kind of A holes here in the Netherlands
Just ignore and let them f up is the best remedy

Better take care of wife and yourself.

[SRGTD]

@grazuncle2; that was quite an unpleasant, scary encounter - good that both you and your wife are OK and it didn’t escalate into something worse.

There are some truly awful, aggressive drivers on the roads today with pretty poor driving standards - thankfully they’re in the minority (or at least I think - and hope - they are). I agree with @Maarten; best to ignore them and leave them to get on with it. I don’t have a dash cam but in road rage situations such as the one you encountered today, a dash cam could be a worthwhile accessory to have.

Stay safe…….

[grazuncle2]

Thanks for your kind words

It's made me even more reluctant to operate the horn... Not that i blast it or even bib often. It was purely reaction to a near broadside i often pull over and let the tailgaters pass.

I do have a dash cam. Even considered reporting such an incident but the thought of the repercussions are not worth it.

I'm glad it worked out.

[grazuncle2]

We have the same kind of A holes here in the Netherlands
Just ignore and let them f up is the best remedy

Better take care of wife and yourself.

Good advice.. I'll be more careful

Thanks for your comment

[RUM4MO]

Hum, yes, maybe a bit stupid, but I always feel I need to be a lot more vigilant on a 13th, regardless of it is a Friday or not!

Certainly yesterday I came across a couple of "dangerous dreamers" while out on country roads - no agro though, just annoyance.

[johnpolo2]

Many driving and walking around with poor emotional intelligence.

[grazuncle2]

Many driving and walking around with poor emotional intelligence.

an older man once told me that losing your temper easily shows great weakness.. on the other hand being able to control your temper shows great strength

[grazuncle2]

Hum, yes, maybe a bit stupid, but I always feel I need to be a lot more vigilant on a 13th, regardless of it is a Friday or not!

Certainly yesterday I came across a couple of "dangerous dreamers" while out on country roads - no agro though, just annoyance.

I find that quite a few drive recklessly; as i saw yesterday on the motorway - weaving in and out of lanes and crossing three lanes last minute to exit to the slip road was not as I expected; not a young lad but a young woman!

people round here tend to drive faster when it is raining!

[lancslad1985]

Glad to hear you and your wife are ok grazuncle. Unfortunately the standard of driving across the country is declining and the attitude of “it’s not my fault” has spread. It seems to be the standard reaction now that if someone cuts you up they then sweat at you if you react. I blame Tesco for their old customer service adverts where they’d refund you no matter what (and still do) even if you’d bought the wrong product. Someone tried to tell me yesterday on the phone at work that it was our fault he’d put diesel additive in a petrol car despite them being different colours and wording….

Back to the incident at hand, that’s the benefit of the gti. If someone starts being a muppet you can either burn them off or make a last minute decision to avoid them. Did it myself earlier this week on the m61 when someone came charging up my backside on the middle lane as I was overtaking a group of lorries. Outside lane was clear, so when he eventually overtook I put my hand up as if to say why do that - I didn’t swear. He then tried to slow down in front of me. So I waited for a car to be next to him in the outside lane then pulled out and just burned off.

It’s incidents like these that make me think twice about getting rid of the gti. You did the right thing but I’d advise a dash cam if you haven’t got one already. Mines already sorted an incident last year where it proved I wasn’t the one at fault.

[grazuncle2]

I'm not surprised at all.. tell people they will always be right and they will try anything... depressing as it means.

if it was their business dealing with it I doubt they would see the customer as right. I have a dashcam and it would have helped if it go to it.. I'm seriously thinking of getting a rear view one too now.