8 Stupid Things All Bad Drivers Are Guilty Of

1. Distracted driving

A car is a big, two-tonne chunk of metal travelling at high velocity. It’s probably a good idea to pay attention to where you’re pointing it, then, but as we so often see, most people seem to think it’s okay to concentrate on anything but driving. If you’re sat behind the wheel texting your mates, eating cereal, or fiddling with the car radio, you’re an accident waiting to happen.

2. Not giving way

One of my biggest annoyances on the road is when people are clearly not paying attention to their surroundings. This is most evident when they don’t give way; the flow of traffic moves much more smoothly when people are polite and let others in and out of junctions, or merge out of a slip road.

3. Giving way unnecessarily

On the flip side, and perhaps even worse, are the people who always give way, no matter the situation. There’s a crossing by my house that is shortly after a humpback bridge. The amount of times I see people with no one behind them stop to let someone cross, when they could’ve just carried on and let the person walk behind them, is incredible. You then get cars coming over the bridge who are suddenly faced with a stationary/slow moving car, leading to panic braking.

4. Middle lane hogging

Someone recently told me: "I stay in the middle lane when I’m in an unfamiliar area so I have time to react as I approach junctions and can plan appropriately". Okay, so I totally understand why that makes sense to inexperienced drivers, however there’s one big problem with it: junctions don’t suddenly appear out of nowhere.

In the UK, on motorways (where three or more lanes tend to appear), you usually get massive overhead signs one mile ahead of each junction explaining which lane goes where. If you can’t plan one mile ahead at 70mph, you shouldn’t be driving. Keep left whenever possible, please!

5. Driving at inconsistent speeds

Last night I was cruising down the M25 at 70mph in our Skoda Octavia vRS longtermer. I joined the motorway with a red Volkswagen Up, who I promptly overtook. Shortly after, she overtook me, then, sure enough, I caught up with her again. All the while she stayed in the middle lane of a mostly empty motorway, so each time I caught her I had to cross three lanes to overtake, then drop back in… and then the whole thing repeated itself again.

6. Excessive braking

Most of the traffic jams on motorways are caused by excessive braking having a snowball effect. Ever been sat stationary in traffic, and after a while everything starts moving again, with no crash site or broken car to indicate why things snarled up? It’s usually down to people following too closely, so when one person brakes, the person behind them brakes a bit harder, and so on until it reaches you, sat stationary, wondering why you even bothered leaving the house.

7. Cyclists who ignore road rules

Not strictly stupid drivers with this one, but definitely stupid road users. With the CT office being based in the centre of London, I walk through the streets of one of the busiest cities in the world every day. You’d think the biggest danger to pedestrians would be cars, busses and trucks, but for me, cyclists are the biggest hazard. Not all riders are bad, but many speed around taking bizarre lines through traffic that no driver can be expected to predict, push through red lights at junctions, and fly towards pedestrian crossings with their headphones in completely unaware that traffic has stopped to let someone pass.

The other day I saw a cyclist lying on the ground, surrounded by paramedics and onlookers. His bike was in a heap in front of a Smart car, with a distraught women in the driving seat being comforted by an old couple. The bike was facing the car, and the car was on the correct side, meaning the cyclist was probably trying to quickly cut a corner and didn’t see the car coming. I want to have sympathy for these people who get knocked off their bikes, but from what I see every day I can’t help but think most accidents could probably be avoided if more cyclists respected the road.

8. People not saying thank you

Just a minor thing, but if I’ve stopped to let you through, just a quick acknowledgement of my good deed is always much appreciated. It always makes me laugh when I see people gormlessly staring off into the distance as they pass you, almost certainly unaware that you’re even there…