Thursday, July 14, 2005
Vehicular polarisation...
Not only are we facing an increasingly polarised society but now we are experiencing polarisatino of vehicular ability. BMW made the X5 as the perfect 4x4/SUV for the road. It's big and fast like a luxury car yet it is tall and imposing like a 4x4. Apparantly it handles like a car and is an absolute pleasure to drive. The problem with this is that it turns the people that own them into the pricks of the road. They know they've got an intimidating vehicle that is ultimately faster and safer than most other things in the fast lane. They are in effect the bullies of the fast lane. Only today I had one up my arse at 75 mph in the fast lane. I usually let people off this behaviour if they do it for a bit and I have the opportunity to move over but this guy had nowhere to go. If I pull over I would be inconveniencing myself and he would only be one car ahead of me. It was heavy traffic so I didn't want to pull over and get pinned into the middle lane with all the lorries crawling up the hill on the M62. I didn't want to go much faster either so I just stood my ground at 78 ish. This X5 Nazi would not back off though even with my braking and slowing down to 65mph. When I finally let him past about 3 mins later I gave him the universal "wanker" sign at which point he tried to intimidate me more and slowed down to try and pin me into the middle lane. This kind of behaviour is causing road rage all over the country but the X5s of this world are the biggest bullies. I hereby call for a national "grassing up" hotline where if a car reg gets grassed up more than 3 times in an hour by 3 different people they get a visit from the smoky bacon. I'm usually fairly chilled out on the roads but I will not be bullied by people who happen to have bigger, faster cars than me who are endangering my safety. If you want to test the water to see if someone will pull over for you fair enough drive a little close for a second or two but don't sit on their ass for minutes pressuring them, it's just gonna start a war. Empty Sprinter vans, this applies to you too!
Not only are we facing an increasingly polarised society but now we are experiencing polarisatino of vehicular ability. BMW made the X5 as the perfect 4x4/SUV for the road. It's big and fast like a luxury car yet it is tall and imposing like a 4x4. Apparantly it handles like a car and is an absolute pleasure to drive. The problem with this is that it turns the people that own them into the pricks of the road. They know they've got an intimidating vehicle that is ultimately faster and safer than most other things in the fast lane. They are in effect the bullies of the fast lane. Only today I had one up my arse at 75 mph in the fast lane. I usually let people off this behaviour if they do it for a bit and I have the opportunity to move over but this guy had nowhere to go. If I pull over I would be inconveniencing myself and he would only be one car ahead of me. It was heavy traffic so I didn't want to pull over and get pinned into the middle lane with all the lorries crawling up the hill on the M62. I didn't want to go much faster either so I just stood my ground at 78 ish. This X5 Nazi would not back off though even with my braking and slowing down to 65mph. When I finally let him past about 3 mins later I gave him the universal "wanker" sign at which point he tried to intimidate me more and slowed down to try and pin me into the middle lane. This kind of behaviour is causing road rage all over the country but the X5s of this world are the biggest bullies. I hereby call for a national "grassing up" hotline where if a car reg gets grassed up more than 3 times in an hour by 3 different people they get a visit from the smoky bacon. I'm usually fairly chilled out on the roads but I will not be bullied by people who happen to have bigger, faster cars than me who are endangering my safety. If you want to test the water to see if someone will pull over for you fair enough drive a little close for a second or two but don't sit on their ass for minutes pressuring them, it's just gonna start a war. Empty Sprinter vans, this applies to you too!
