Ignorant van driver

Saruman

I was driving down the kilshane road yesterday on the way to blanch. On the opposite side of the road a truck had broken down and the traffic was overtaking it, on my side of the road. Anyone who knows the road knows its pretty much a narrow country road not suitable for trucks in the first place... Industrial estates should not have been built there before sorting out new roads...
Anyway i stop and wait for them to pass, i had no choice.. finally last car so i start to move, then a white van comes around the bend and i move off.. when im half way i realise the van driver ignored me and proceded to overtake the truck? Where did he think he was going? So we both stop, he then actually starts shouting and making gestures at me?? And then swerves the van towards me before moving in a little and i squeeze past him!!

Seriously dangerious asshole let alone ignorant with the audacity of thinking im in any way in the wrong... he was the one driving on the wrong side of the road after all, overtaking a truck with oncoming traffic!!

Diddy Kong

Did you take his reg and report him???

Saruman

no.. what good would that do? I reported seeing a truck ram a car on O 'Connell street and force her out of the way before heading on down towards the docks.. the poor woman beeped of course but in the end was so scared she pulled over and then eventually moved on. I tracked down a garda and gave him my details as a witness... never heard anything about it and i doubt the woman did not report it...

Hal1

What a complete wanka with no consideration for other road users.

Angie

That's Terrible. Some people have no manners. I can't understand it. I saw a car in Ennis this morning slow down (litterally for 2 seconds) to read a road sign and the idiot behind started beeping his horn, several times, and waving his hands about. The people obviously weren't from the area and had only bearly stopped to read the sign. So RUDE!!!:mad:

Tabnabs

I had a UPS delivery van right up my a$$ on the Leopardstown Road a few weeks ago in busy rush hour traffic. He got past me on the roundabout and I watched him bully his way past as many drivers as he could onto the M50. A real a$$hole as he's the type to make drivers pay more attention to their mirror than to the road ahead.

I had a hackney cab try to do the same stunt with the overtaking a parked car on narrow road scenario yesterday, I let the first car through cause they got their first (jut about) but I leaned right on the horn and put the full beams on when the hackney chanced his arm. Idiot backed right off...

Savman

Such behaviour is not exclusive to Van drivers y'know...

Saruman

Savman wrote:

Such behaviour is not exclusive to Van drivers y'know...

Eh... what? Sorry i must have missed the post claiming all van drivers are assholes
Actually if you count the stories there are 2 relating to vans (mine and the UPS one) and 2 others relating to cars. So that puts them on an even footing so i fail to see a reason behind your post

Savman

Saruman wrote:

Ignorant van driver

I take exception

Fogmatic

Well, it wasn't a car driver, and perhaps if they ever read this they'll know who they are and mend their ways. I don't feel you were saying van drivers are an ignorant lot.
I speak as a van driver (a big white Transit) (though, as a 61-year-old female artist, not your typical White Van Man).

I wish, though, that more car drivers knew that vans have blind spots at the back corners! I'm sure they'd be more helpful then, instead of tooting crossly when we need to back at an angle. (But I don't mean car drivers are ignorant either!)

junkyard

I have a white van too and you automatically get branded when your out on the road, its taxi and hackney drivers are the ones I hate the most tbh. I think as a general rule you can tell what your dealing with, car or van, by just looking at the general condition of it, if it manky with the dirt and dented and scraped it will give you a fair idea of what your dealing with.

smash

don't get me started on van drivers.... leaving sandyford ind est turning at the beacon there, ther's 2 lanes... 1 to turn left at the beacon, 1 to turn right heading towards tthe garages there!

There's always some b*stard van driver that drive up the right lane and then swing to the left and cut people off.... I never ever let them in and I actually do swing wide so they have to move and end up in on-comming traffic!

upsfan

Well a study has shown that drivers of specifically white vans pass cyclists more dangerously than car drivers.

Savman

upsfan wrote:

Well a study has shown that drivers of specifically white vans pass cyclists more dangerously than car drivers.

Well, the simple explanation is that most vans are wider than cars so there is less room to manoeuvre. I don't think that link offers much more insight into the behaviour of different drivers. There's nothing in that link about HGV's etc which I'd guess would be just as "bad" as vans...

bullrunner

its not just van drivers...bus drivers are a$$holes too...was coming out of dublin past liffey valley near the m50 /n4 roundabout...buseireann bus just pulls in almost on top of me to get into the outside lane ....just missed me! he then tears off around the roundabout and stops at the bus stop at liffey valley where i passed him by. Then he came up the n4 near the traffic lights at the lucan/newcastle road and pulls out from the bus lane in front of me (again only missing me coz i braked hard!)...and then proceeded to speed off again!

upsfan

Savman wrote:

Well, the simple explanation is that most vans are wider than cars so there is less room to manoeuvre. I don't think that link offers much more insight into the behaviour of different drivers. There's nothing in that link about HGV's etc which I'd guess would be just as "bad" as vans...

Well in that case it is up to the van drivers to _realise_ this and make allowances, a bit of a silly argument really. Key would be waiting until it is actually safe to overtake.

From personal experience vans are probably marginally worse than cars on average while HGV container trucks are actually _better_, maybe because they have better training.

By far the worst are contruction vehicles, cement trucks and the like. They behave like they just don't care.

Savman

The generalisations in this thread are amazing. Now bus drivers are getting it too.:rolleyes:

It's natural that a certain category of driver will defend themselves, I'm no different in that sense but I do concede there are some lunatic van drivers out there. No more or less than there are lunatic car drivers. Or lunatic motorcyclists. Or lunatic pedestrians for that matter.

They all come under the label of "ignorant drivers" - the type of vehicle they are driving is irrelevant.

upsfan

Of course everyone is an individual but the point is that there _are_ certain statistical tendencies that do exist with driver behaviour. Indeed I think you would likely expect this to be so between drivers that tend to be on the road all day versus those only occasionally.

My person (non-scientific) experience with professional drivers of most types (vans/taxis/buses) is that there is more of a tendency for them to clump at either end of the spectrum than regular car drivers, e.g. most of them are _better_ drivers than the average car driver, but there is a significant minority that are just absolutely awful, and I don't think it is a lack of skill but of attitude.

Saruman

I seem to have failed to point out that i was also driving what is technically a white van
OK so its a commercial ford focus but its technically a van and is charged as such at toll booths.. oh and its white...

Anyway i did say "van driver" which is singular and so indicating just this guy. In fact i find a lot less asshole van drivers than asshole middle age car drivers.

bullrunner

Savman wrote:

The generalisations in this thread are amazing. Now bus drivers are getting it too.:rolleyes:

It's natural that a certain category of driver will defend themselves, I'm no different in that sense but I do concede there are some lunatic van drivers out there. No more or less than there are lunatic car drivers. Or lunatic motorcyclists. Or lunatic pedestrians for that matter.

They all come under the label of "ignorant drivers" - the type of vehicle they are driving is irrelevant.

not bus drivers....just the one...the madman driving yesterday evening on the n4!

daymobrew

Saruman wrote:

no.. what good would that do?

TrafficWatch (1890-205-805). It's great. They generally will follow up and have words with the offending driver. You can choose to make a statement and take the incident to court.
The details are logged when you phone so there is a nice undeniable record, unlike talking to the Garda.

Savman

bullrunner wrote:

its not just van drivers...bus drivers are a$$holes too...

Fogmatic

What it all boils down to is that road users shouldn't dash into anywhere they're not sure will be clear for long enough.

Some people, though, just weren't born with much spacial awareness. Like the young man in the Dublin-registered car, behind me in a gridlock in Ardara. I'd stopped a little short of the car in front, ready for when its driver realised that, if he backed a little, so could the lorry in front, then everything could start to move. Sure enough, he backed, upon which the driver behind me overtook us both and went round the lorry. I did try to keep a straight face when he reappeared in reverse, and had to continue backing, with great difficulty, to a long way behind!
More seriously, not all car drivers are good at predicting what parts of the road a long vehicle will need if it's about to turn. If in doubt, it's best to stay back - once a lorry driver is turning, so is their rear view, and they might not be able to see a car coming up on their left.

ItsJusMe

I drive a transit van for a living and drive an average of 700 miles a week,, and believe me

when i say that a**holes drive everything!! Not just vans/cars/trucks/buses. . . .

So the people blaming all the bad driving on one particular category,, please wake up to reality. . . . :rolleyes:

Fratton Fred

If you are hassled by a van driver in a logo'd van, phone the company and complain.

I used to work for a large mobile network in the UK and we had a van driver lose his temper with a femae motorist. He actually got out of the car and was screaming through the window at her. She phoned the company while he was doing it and spoke to the fleet manager who heard the whole thing.

The guy was sacked the instant he returned to the office.