Tonight I was following a learner driver down a street which intersects with my street when they drove left into a side street.  At least, I thought that was what they were going to do.  They then pulled hard right and stopped perpendicular across the road blocking my path entirely and forcing me to come to an unexpected stop.  It turns out that she was doing a U-turn and didn’t seem to consider there was a car following her.

I didn’t have to lock on the brakes because I’d given them enough room but I still didn’t expect the need to brake in order to avoid a collision with the side of their car.  I threw up my arms at them in an exasperated sign to communicate “what the hell were you thinking?”.  The window of the driver’s door was down and my SPOTD - the father of the learner driver - leaned across to yell at me.

SPOTD: Give her a break!  She’s a learner driver!

Me: Well, under your guidance she’s just made an unsignalled left turn into a side street then crossed a solid line at an intersection to make an unsignalled right turn across another solid line within ten metres of another intersection.  Which, by the way, is a friggin’ roundabout and she could have just gone around it to do the U-turn and then not blocked my path you nit!  Perhaps if you learned how to drive first you moron she’d have a friggin’ chance of learning how to drive herself!  Get out of the f***ing way!

Grr.  Yes, I am a much calmer driver than I used to be but I still get riled up over bad driving, especially when it’s in my neighbourhood.  And before you jump down my throat on this one please note that it’s not the driver I consider to be my SPOTD - it’s the person in the passenger seat supposedly teaching her good road practice.

Categories: SPOTD