People who should be taken off the road...

[fredfelt]

They don't have to! They do have to give way to pedestrians who are already crossing the road though, and nothing is written about somebody coming down a road to a junction where there are pedestrians, though giving way is always better than running some poor sod down just to prove a point!

True, but when people are walking they happily avoid confronting others. You don't see people shouting and swearing when pass each other on the street. Whereas it seems sit them behind a wheel and they can start demanding their rights of way rather than being respectful to others.

I mention this as when walking to work this am I was trying to cross a busy junction with give way markings on it. I caught a drivers eye when starting to cross and he started on his horn and swore at me - however he was happy to wait for cars at the junction. I expect he's still having a bad day.

 

[MikeMcc]

True, but when people are walking they happily avoid confronting others. You don't see people shouting and swearing when pass each other on the street. Whereas it seems sit them behind a wheel and they can start demanding their rights of way rather than being respectful to others.

I mention this as when walking to work this am I was trying to cross a busy junction with give way markings on it. I caught a drivers eye when starting to cross and he started on his horn and swore at me - however he was happy to wait for cars at the junction. I expect he's still having a bad day.

Very true, personally I can't see the point at getting hacked off at much anymore.

Saying that, amoungst my pet hates are people swerving onto 'my' side of the road to go past cyclists, why can't they just wait till there's sufficient space to go past the cyclist safely? Middle-lane hoggers on the motorway, they seem to be the main cause of conjestion rather than heavy traffic.

Biggest pain is un-predictable drivers, why stop at a give way line when you can see there's no approaching traffic, or not pull out when there is a space available? Last week, I paused behind a parked car to let the on-coming traffic go past, a police car coming the other way decided to be all civic and stop to let me go round the parked cars. Because I wasn't expecting him to do so we sat there for about 15-20 seconds just looking at eaach other before I twigged what he wanted me to do. If he'd just followed the system from the Highway code we'd both have been out of each others way in that time!

 

[extra dry]

i'm assuming here that the A1 is particularly busy and/or dangerous...

Yes the A1 is one of most dangerous 'main/motorway' roads in the UK. Several of my friends have been killed or injured on it in past 20 years.