Streetlife

It used to be www.BetterDrivingPlease.com, but it no longer seems to be operational :(

Good job you were alert the other day, Freddie, there are some death-wish nutters about!

What a shame about that site. :( There's plenty members of the "secret indicators club" I'd be interested in reporting... and plenty of drivers with no patience.

I've bought one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009S3JN1W/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 cheap and simple to use, it gives you a little bit of safety as it will record all incidents, then you can do what you want you want with the evidence, report these numpties to the police or shame them on youtube.

Thank you Heather, that was the one i was thinking of.
Jabber, i thought those people hadnt discovered indicators, either that or they think we're all telepathic mind readers who know where they're going too.
John, The police don't seem to care and anyway they need to see the incident to be able to take action. 
A few years ago some woman ran into me at the Heartsease roundabout. Seems she was checking her child on the back seat. If i hadn't of been waiting she could have been killed. Same thing, mind everywhere but where it should be.
Thank you for your comments folks, they are much appreciated.

This a very interesting subject, and I think driving standards are dropping. I have encountered many learners and it seemed the instructors are not teaching them the right way. The times I have been cut up by learners who are not being shown what that little stick does is quite frankly amazing!

Another thing that I will never understand is why going straight over requires you to indicate right and then left.........?!

...the instructors are not teaching them the right way...

I agree!!

I was amazed at what my son told me he was being told by his instructor when he was learning to drive a couple of years ago. From what I've seen there seems to be a trend to teach aggressive driving, rather than defensive driving. Its no wonder that most accidents involve younger people and that their insurance is so high. If I had done half what my son was being told was 'OK' when I was learning to drive in the '70s' I would have spent most of my time stationary as the instructor used the dual controls. Do they still have dual controls? I know the AA Driving school cars do but what of the smaller/one man outfits..

Yes, they still have duel controls. As a pedestrian I have noticed that quite a lot of drivers expect me to be psychic while I am trying to cross the road. How the hell ma I supposed to know where they are going if the don't indicate!!! 

You are right there some instructors are teaching them bad habits too, (I dont drive) but the other day a L driver came round corner so fast without looking. My partner said he should have made him stop and look. its all for money, money instructor was probably booking in next client. It was the same down to my partners driving skills. My partner works at Ambulance control so hears the outcome at otha end.
I am not saying they all bad as I know they prob not, but that one was. Im glad I dont drive its bad enough watching from passenger seat.

Freddie M,  stupid woman, would have been no good telling her, anyone that thoughtless probably would'nt know what you were talking about. How about these two. Waiting to cross at the junction of Magdalen St./ Magpie Road junction a large silver Mercedes came across from Bull Close Road into Magpie Road, the driver had a mobile phone jammed between his left ear and shoulder,was holding a notebook on the steering wheel with forefinger and thumb,and was writing in the notebook as he drove up Magpie Road,or,  on another occasion the lady who  past driving with one hand while bottle feeding her baby which was in the seat beside her.

There is no central database for it as far as I know. What I do was to 'name and shame' them by uploading videos from my dashcam. If it's very serious, I report it to the police with my video on CD.

In London, they have this awesome scheme - http://www.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/

I asked Norfolk Police to see if they are planning to set up something like this and they've said they're looking into this... but that was last year. :(

There seems to be no attempt whatsoever to enforce speed limits on the residential streets where I live, even though everyone knows that speeding is the prime cause of accidents. And when I say speeding. I don't mean just a few mph over the speed limit, but really going for it. Is there any way of reporting these drivers?

Hi Jane,

You can report it via the police, but unless you have proof, it's your words vs the driver's words... so it's more likely the police will not do very much unless others has reported the same thing too.

Thanks Tony. Looks like we could really do with those Met forms for Norwich.

Maybe someone with the necessary knowhow could set up a website either similar to streetlife or as a part of same like this for discussion. Then people could keep notes.
I must admit that when i used to drive for a living i used to notice the idiots more when a full moon was close.

We have speed humps outside our house , but drivers still like to do 60mph over them ! ..Saw a lorry early one morning around 6am nearly take off as he was going so fast ..and might add , do live op a school , but that dont seem to matter either ...

I know I am going to stir up a hornets nest but if you had to take evasive action due to bad signalling/lane use of the driver in front it makes me wonder if you were driving correctly yourself.

If you had to take evasive measures it makes me think you were:
A) Driving to close to the person in front
B) Not anticipating the actions of another road user.
and
C) Possibly travelling to fast to take safe avoiding action in case of an emergency.

Just a well a child was not crossing the road that you had to enter in order to take evasive action. "Her manouvre caused me to take evasive action and enter the road to the estate on the left" as you would no doubt be telling a different story now.

A) Driving to close to the person in front

This one in particular really gets my back up. Don't people know about the 2 second rule any more and why it exists? That time goes up in bad weather yet you see people practically piggybacking in snow! [rolls eyes]

To add as well, those that are critising the driving instructors/learners - you have to anticipate that they're going to make errors - it's why they wear the L on the car in the first place.

From the way this thread is going, the "pros" are just as bad as the learners! ;) I do wish they'd do a re-test system to weed out the bad habit drivers (especially those that think they can do no wrong), but that could be very expensive for all involved... :/

Actually, Jabber, I reckon the "pros" are often worse than the learners – at least the learners are trying to think about what they are doing. Some (note: some, not all!) of the taxi and bus-drivers are the worst of all. I don't ride with them as I don't like white-knuckle rides.

When you suggest a driver retest system, I would be all in favour of this, but I fear this would soon become another cash-cow for the government to charge us more and more year by year for our retests, whilst getting the unemployment figures down via the appointment of ever more testing examiners, inspectors and trainers ...

There again, it would probably do more good than the MoT vehicle testing, as I'm sure that even in the days before that was introduced, more accidents were caused by bad driving than were ever caused by vehicles falling apart whilst being driven (even mine ...)

Freddie M and others, good on you for trying to do something about it. I'm sure I've said on this site in the past, being relatively new to living in Norwich, I can't believe how bad the driving "standards" are generally(obviously there are some good and thoughtful drivers)I am a pedestrian and bus user, have never driven, but I have been a passenger of a handful of people, who were very good and careful, thoughful drivers and you don't have to be a driver to notice bad driving!

I don't think hardly anybody indicates in Norwich, that's turning in and out of streets, pulling in to park and coming out again and it's all age ranges, the older people seem to be as bad, if not worse. I sometimes wait at the bus stop on corne rof Mousehold Street and Anchor Street, near the Robin Hood Pub and opposite the bus stop, there's a block of bungalows for older people, Don Pratt court(I think)quite often see older people pulling in on the road outside, either visiting, collecting or picking things/people up and none of them indicate. Surely this must lead to near misses, possible accidents and if they won't even do that, what else don't they do? A close friend, who's been a driver for over 30 years and never had an accident/points on licence(also drove for a job)used to say, "it must be so difficult for those lazy drivers to lift there little finger to the indicator part"!!

Can someone tell me is there nothing that can be done? I keep seeing posters up about road safety in Norwich and Norfolk, called something like, "mind road" and how you can learn/take part, surely they should be looking at doing something about drivers in Norwich? Sometimes people foolishly say, "what does it matter to you as a pedestrian", well I think that should be obvious as I still have to cross roads and all drivers hav eto be pedestrians at some point, however brief? I wonder if they blame all those other inconsiderate drivers? And don't get me started on the inconsiderate parking!!

Rather than retest everyone, surely it would be better to simply prosecute people for dangerous driving, which almost never happens. A friend of mine was recently hit by a car whilst he was stopped in the correct place, with his indicator flashing, waiting to make a right turn. He suffered facial injuries and neck injuries and was off work for a week as well as being badly shaken up. The police told him that they never prosecute bad driving in cases like this unless there has been a fatality!

Driving is a bit like going through life....there are good and bad.
 I recently did a driving assessment 'test' with the county council, although it cost me £29 it was well worth it.You spend an hour driving with an instructor on local roads, and he tells you where your bad habits are. It is not a test and you cannot lose your licence because of it.
More information on Norfolk County Council website or phone 0344 800 8020. 

Drivers that use mobile telephones while driving. I see a least 10 to 15 drivers a day that do it. When are the POLICE going to clamp down on it. Where are the POLICE!!

I did put the answer to Mr S's questions but it seems to have been removed. Does anyone know who by or why?