Considering the title ‘Driving Etiquette’ and subsequent posts describing ‘fine’ examples of poor driving, an elephant in the room, one which is often ‘not allowed’ to talk about, is how not always, but often, older drivers not driving to the conditions of the road. As in, as experienced about an hour ago, an older person driving 30-35mph in a 50mph zone which is around 6 miles long, then around 25mph in a subsequent 40mph zone, when it’s a perfectly fine day with zero rain or visibility issues. The tailbacks were frightening with many a clearly frustrated driver. Now, granted, everyone behind a wheel needs to control their emotions (which itself can lead to accidents), but driving in such a manner (woefully below road’s speed limit) is anything but driving etiquette and can lead to accidents itself. The amount of driving instructors I’ve asked over the years if this would fail a test and EVERYONE said yes. Not driving to the conditions, due care and attention to road signs etc.
If it is a case of not being confident in driving anymore and lack of reflexes, hence over compensation and drving in such a manner, then do the SAFE thing and hand over your car keys.
No mobile phones though 
Treat mini-roundabouts like unmarked junctions.
Narrow/single track roads: what happened to the convention of giving way to uphill traffic?
Excessive speed and tailgating are noticeably worse between 7-9am and 5-6pm, commuters on a mission, late, and in some cases still doing their hair and make-up. And that’s just the men.
I agree this is very annoying but not as much as the driver in front, regardless of age or gender, is driving at 40mph on a 60mph twisty then doesn’t reduce their speed going through a village.
You can’t get past them on the quick bits without taking a big risk, then they pull away when you reduce your speed for the 30 limit.
You did the right thing keeping well out of that one. 
I avoid weekend driving (leisure) especially in the Peak District, if you’ve ever been near the A6 it’s a constant crawl of nose to tail what some would describe ‘Sunday drivers’
Now I can say that we went out with my Mrs cousin and OH around the Peak District midweek, they in their Z4 us in the MX-5. Talk about slow, never again, only done the once. He’s got a BMW estate too, he’s even slower in that.
My daughter with kids in or not is slow too, never above 55 on the motorway, 30 in a 40 etc etc. it’s just the way she is,
I’ve got a neighbour who I’ve been a passenger in his car, he was over 80 years old and drove like a man possessed, never slow, it was frightening to be sat next to him. Another neighbour similar age backed up my driveway and nearly put a hole in the hedge, again frightening to watch. I had to takeover the reversing of said Corsa in the end.
That’s exactly the scenario which I posted about above.
But you should never drive over the circle, even if it is not raised, unless you are driving a vehicle which is too long to negotiate the mini-rounadbout without doing so. The police do enforce this at times, and it’s points on your licence as well as a fine.
I think most people have latched on to what this post is about. Driving etiquette is about common decency, respecting other road users, being patient, give and take, not tailgating, not making obscene gestures, driving according to the road conditions, obeying the rules of the road., etc. The aim of my original post was to highlight some recent experiences I’ve had of what I consider to be examples of poor driving. Having been driving for 50 years these incidents seem a lot more common than days gone by. In answer to your point, bad driving can of course lead to accidents, but my post was not specifically aimed at this aspect.
Or an SUV
Yeah I know, I always treat them as a roundabout, but it can be quite dangerous when a lot of people don’t!
Just to lighten it up a bit.
Who remembers when Germany and Holland conducted those experiments in a couple of towns where they removed all roadside furniture, signs, lines etc except the Speed Limit ones.
The only other proviso was you gave way to the right (which was always the case when stationed in Germany).
I think it was mid 2000’s and proved it reduced collisions/accidents.
Basically it made drivers concentrate properly.
I wonder why that never continued. 
A day in the life in my ND
Last Friday, around 9:30am in the morning I ‘flash’/let trough a big lorry. He’s actually quite far away, but no one was behind me and I didn’t fancy a spacial awareness fight with that. Anyway, one could say he probably haven’t had a favour like it for a month. Top down, I’m waiting patiently, handbrake on, in neutral. He comes along side of me and I kind of got a sense of ‘why is he still there?’. I looked up, and he’s looking down at me in my cap and sunnys, and called me a ‘p11ck’. Charming. Remember, that’s after I let him through. Mad, but I had a very similar one to that a while back. Hopefully not the same ‘driver’ lol Well, in fact hopefully it was, as it’d be scary to think there’s two.
Same journey, 5 mins or so later, I’m approaching a roundabout, indicating left. Car on the right of me sees the passengers shout ‘tw_t’ out of the window at me. IQ of 140, must have.
Returning home, about 500 yards away, I’m easing off the throttle to turn right, no one behind me. Indicating and crawling now in 2nd. Slowing as ‘my’ street is a right turn off a busier road. Anyway, car whom I’m waiting for sees the driver wind his window down and give me an ‘up and down phallic open fist motion’. Astrophysicist? Probably not.
Pull up on my drive. Half cover on. Inside and make a cup of tea 
I’d say I’ve had 150 or those, easy.
#patience #drivingetiquette #decency
Shocking. When we go out for a spin, either alone or with our other halves, we shouldn’t have to put up with this sort of thing. I just wish there was some sort of comeuppance, like an unmarked police car pulling them over for a ‘chat’.
You’re right. I kind of see if as funny though, as I know my car must look ace 
I can’t say I get that sort of thing with any frequency.
Abuse from tailgaters that I won’t speed up for now and again when I’m at the speed limit has happened a few times. I often move over and slow down to let them pass and it’s surprising how many don’t want to overtake, they just habitually drive a quarter of a second from the car in front.
What does seem to happen more in the MX-5 is tailgating by larger vehicles whose drivers can presumably see over it, and people simply not seeing it coming when the are turning into a major road or entering a roundabout. The ND has quite noticeable DRLs but I often drive with headlamps just to try and be seen.
Well you know what they say…No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!
I think it’s partly to do with people still seeing the MX5 as a hairdresser’s car.
I’m in France and the tailgating is unbelievable. If you leave as little as two car lengths to the vehicle in front, you will be overtaken by someone who wants to reduce that to a one car gap. Slow to leave a safe distance and in goes another one. Amazing behaviour.
Yes i found that recently too. From France into Switzerland it changes in to much better driving i found. And then you get in to Italy!!! The motorways around Milan were like a video game dodging the thousands of lorries!!
Plenty of footage from this guy to fuel the debate. I’ve been watching him on and off for years and a while back I watched a video that I saw the aftermath of as I was driving home.
When I was studying in Barcelona I learned that at some point between the wars Anarchists managed to take political control of the city and one of the first things they did away with was all the traffic laws. Needless to say chaos ensued and by the end of the week those laws had been reinstated while there were still sufficient people left alive to go and smash up Siguarda Famillia and destroy all of Gaudi’s plans for its completion.