Callous drivers

"Clive George" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Tumbleweed" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Yesterday while riding between two cycle-training sessions in the
Aldershot area, an elderly gentleman (75-ish) slipped and fell on a
light controlled crossing. He dropped his walking stick and sat there
dazed with traffic passing both sides.
Not one vehicle stopped, b*st*rds the lot of them.

If they'd have stopped on or near the crossing, they could, and quite
likely would, have been fined, like the guy who went through a red light
to let an ambulance through.

Tosh. Complete and utter bilge. Who's going to give them a ticket?

the same people who fined the guy who went through the lights?

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

Succorso said:

How awful. Nothing to do with motorists really - more to do with the
kind of self-centred me me me world we live in now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1542032,00.html

Richard said:

Succorso wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How awful. Nothing to do with motorists really - more to do with the
kind of self-centred me me me world we live in now.

I disagree. I think it's specifically to do with the psychology of car
driving. This came home to me because after a decade of not
motorcycling I recently bought a motorcycle. I'd forgotten just how
extremely helpful and friendly most motorcyclists are to each
other.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Chris Malcolm said:

Richard said:

Succorso wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How awful. Nothing to do with motorists really - more to do with the
kind of self-centred me me me world we live in now.

I disagree. I think it's specifically to do with the psychology of car
driving. This came home to me because after a decade of not
motorcycling I recently bought a motorcycle. I'd forgotten just how
extremely helpful and friendly most motorcyclists are to each
other.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Its true .. break down in a car and noone stops. Break down on a
motorcycle at least a 50 50 chance the next bike will stop.

In article said:

Chris Malcolm said:

Richard said:

Succorso wrote:

Quoted message said:

>How awful. Nothing to do with motorists really - more to do with the
>kind of self-centred me me me world we live in now.

I disagree. I think it's specifically to do with the psychology of car
driving. This came home to me because after a decade of not
motorcycling I recently bought a motorcycle. I'd forgotten just how
extremely helpful and friendly most motorcyclists are to each
other.

Its true .. break down in a car and noone stops. Break down on a
motorcycle at least a 50 50 chance the next bike will stop.

I've had a motorcyclist stop and help me with my car, and another one
check that I had chosen to pull off the road when I was cycling to let a
truck past, not been forced off by the truck driver.
(Hardly a statistically significant sample I realize.)

Alan Braggins said:

In article said:

Chris Malcolm said:

Richard <[email hidden]> writes:

>Succorso wrote:

>>How awful. Nothing to do with motorists really - more to do with the
>>kind of self-centred me me me world we live in now.

I disagree. I think it's specifically to do with the psychology of car
driving. This came home to me because after a decade of not
motorcycling I recently bought a motorcycle. I'd forgotten just how
extremely helpful and friendly most motorcyclists are to each
other.

Its true .. break down in a car and noone stops. Break down on a
motorcycle at least a 50 50 chance the next bike will stop.

I've had a motorcyclist stop and help me with my car, and another one
check that I had chosen to pull off the road when I was cycling to let a
truck past, not been forced off by the truck driver.
(Hardly a statistically significant sample I realize.)

I stopped to help someone with a car once. And 30 secs later a cop car
going the other way stopped to save her from the crazed bikie.

Sheesh

On the other hand I was well over the speed limit. Really quite happy I
was stopped when he turned up.

Tumbleweed said:

"Clive George" <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Tosh. Complete and utter bilge. Who's going to give them a
ticket?

the same people who fined the guy who went through the lights?

If he went through the lights to clear a path for an emergency vehicle
ISTM he had a legal excuse. Have you got a reference for this incident?

--
Dave...

This is nothing new. I was riding home from school one day about 35
years ago and had a heavy fall onto my chin. I was lying in the middle
of the road with blood streaming off me and the drivers of the next two
cars (the first of which saw me fall off) waited for oncoming traffic
to pass and then drove round me.

The driver of the third car stopped, picked me up, gave me a
handkerchief to stanch the blood, and offered to drive me home. Since I
was rather stunned, all I could remember was I shouldn't go with
strangers, so I declined. The driver then drove behind me for the next
3 or so miles as I wobbled slowly home and stopped at my house to check
if I was OK and there was someone there to look after me.

Punch-line: As he left, I offered him his handkerchief back, but for
some strange reason he didn't want it! :-)

--
Peter Headland

Badger said:

The neds are the same ones that smash bikes they cannot steal at the uni
so they are not our friends!

Neds are the friends of noone, except their own kind maybe. With the
chavscum on the streets, its no real wonder people drive everywhere.

A ned powered furnace would generate a few watts of power maybe, it would
be all they had ever contributed to society. Does fake burberry burn? 🙂
--
Chris Johns

Tumbleweed said:

"JohnB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> But it only reinforced my opinion that the majority of motorists
> couldn't give a damn about anyone else.

Quoted message said:

They may also not have seen him until it was too late to
stop safely.

Err, you mean like the ones at the front of the queue that had stopped
at the lights to let him cross, saw him fall then drove past him when
the lights changed?

no not those ones...but were they the 'majority'?

They were amongst them.

John B

Chris Malcolm said:

Richard said:

Succorso wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How awful. Nothing to do with motorists really - more to do with the
kind of self-centred me me me world we live in now.

I disagree. I think it's specifically to do with the psychology of car
driving. This came home to me because after a decade of not
motorcycling I recently bought a motorcycle. I'd forgotten just how
extremely helpful and friendly most motorcyclists are to each
other.

I agree entirely.
Once someone sits behind the wheel of a car they become isolated from
reality and disappear into a world of their own. All the worst traits of
that person come to the surface - impatience, selfishness, aggression.

It happens to people who are normally quite pleasant and calm, yet the
car seems to change their personality.

John B

JohnB said:

It happens to people who are normally quite pleasant and calm, yet the
car seems to change their personality.

There are other factors probably these days. Certainly the good
samaritan in the US has been killed off by the litigation risks they run
- good samaritans have been sued by the people they tried to help - plus
there are numerous examples of people being lured out of their cars for
theft of the car or belongings. So these days people are just a bit
more wary of getting involved. Not that that makes it right.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

JohnB <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

I agree entirely.
Once someone sits behind the wheel of a car they become isolated from
reality and disappear into a world of their own. All the worst traits of
that person come to the surface - impatience, selfishness, aggression.

Quoted message said:

It happens to people who are normally quite pleasant and calm, yet the
car seems to change their personality.

Quoted message said:

John B

I refer the honourabe gentleman to John Betjeman's 'Meditation on the
A30', written many decades ago.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

"JohnB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I agree entirely.
Once someone sits behind the wheel of a car they become isolated from
reality and disappear into a world of their own. All the worst traits of
that person come to the surface - impatience, selfishness, aggression.

It happens to people who are normally quite pleasant and calm, yet the
car seems to change their personality.

John B

So do I. I wonder whether there's any relation to the way you see a subset
of peoples' personality on the internet? My thoughts are that some of the
uk.tosspotters are likely pretty awful in real life behind the wheel of a
car.

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

I refer the honourabe gentleman to John Betjeman's 'Meditation on the
A30', written many decades ago.

Marvellous as usual from Sir John:

A man on his own in a car
Is revenging himself on his wife;
He open the throttle and bubbles with dottle
and puffs at his pitiful life

She's losing her looks very fast,
she loses her temper all day;
that lorry won't let me get past,
this Mini is blocking my way.

"Why can't you step on it and shift her!
I can't go on crawling like this!
At breakfast she said that she wished I was dead-
Thank heavens we don't have to kiss.

"I'ld like a nice blonde on my knee
And one who won't argue or nag.
Who dares to come hooting at me?
I only give way to a Jag.

"You're barmy or plastered, I'll pass you, you [censored]-
I will overtake you. I will!"
As he clenches his pipe, his moment is ripe
And the corner's accepting its kill

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

Tony Raven <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

I refer the honourabe gentleman to John Betjeman's 'Meditation on the
A30', written many decades ago.

Quoted message said:

Marvellous as usual from Sir John:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

"You're barmy or plastered, I'll pass you, you [censored]-
I will overtake you. I will!"
As he clenches his pipe, his moment is ripe
And the corner's accepting its kill

Did you look this up, or quote it from memory? ;-)

What I *love* about some of Sir John's poems is how they don't really date.

In labour-saving home, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails...

House prices in slough have gone up though...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

John Hearns said:

On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 18:33:58 +0100, Zog The Undeniable wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've just bought an (old) MX-5 :-)

Nice. 1.6 or 1.8?

1.8, basically because that's what was on offer. 1996 "P" but only
36,000 miles (it doesn't seem to be sludged up and ticks over
beautifully).

Fuel consumption is not supposed to be wonderful on either size engine
but (a) I only do 5,000 miles a year in the car, so fuel costs are
neither here nor there and (b) retiming the ignition for UK petrol
should give a few extra mpg (they all ship with the timing set for 89
octane!).

No chance whatsoever of getting the bike in, but I always use my wife's
car for that anyway. My current car is a Micra, you see...

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

House prices in slough have gone up though...

Bars haven't changed though:

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

There's also these appropriate lines from Inexpensive Progress:

Let's say goodbye to hedges
And roads with grassy edges
And winding country lanes;
Let all things travel faster
Where motor car is master
Till only Speed remains.

Destroy the ancient inn-signs
But strew the roads with tin signs
'Keep Left,' 'M4,' 'Keep Out!'
Command, instruction, warning,
Repetitive adorning
The rockeried roundabout;

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

JohnB said:

I agree entirely.
Once someone sits behind the wheel of a car they become isolated from
reality and disappear into a world of their own. All the worst traits of
that person come to the surface - impatience, selfishness, aggression.

It happens to people who are normally quite pleasant and calm, yet the
car seems to change their personality.

My most terrifying realisation was when I recognised the same process
taking place in myself when I drove. I'm much better at not rising to
stress now (both when driving and cycling), but it was an interesting if
unwelcome epipheny.

Jon

dave said:

Chris Malcolm said:

Richard
<[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Succorso wrote:

Quoted message said:

> How awful. Nothing to do with motorists really - more to do with
> the kind of self-centred me me me world we live in now.

I disagree. I think it's specifically to do with the psychology of
car driving. This came home to me because after a decade of not
motorcycling I recently bought a motorcycle. I'd forgotten just how
extremely helpful and friendly most motorcyclists are to each
other.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Its true .. break down in a car and noone stops. Break down on a
motorcycle at least a 50 50 chance the next bike will stop.

I've had a motor bike stop to help me in a broken down car on the Paris
Peripherique.

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

Love this:
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