You know, I’ve mentioned many times before about the idiotic things people do in front of you when they see you have L plates on the car.
Apparently, if you see a car opposite you at traffic lights with L plates on it, it means you can turn right in front of them. L plates also mean that the car wearing them must be overtaken, no matter what speed it is doing, and no matter what the speed limit is.
But I saw something today that really took the biscuit – and it had nothing to do with L plates or learner drivers.
I was heading down Radcliffe Road with a pupil through West Bridgford, and the time was 3.55pm – so traffic was beginning to build up for the rush hour, although it was free-flowing (and Radcliffe Road is a 40mph road, which is busy at the best of times). All of a sudden we came to a complete standstill for a minute or so, and I just assumed that there was a bus or something waiting for a passenger to find her purse and pay.
So, imagine my surprise when I realised it was an NG11 taxi making an illegal right turn into Priory Road. He caused a hell of a queue.
You can see from the photo (and the Google Maps link) that there is a no right turn sign and ”ahead only” painted clearly in big white letters on the road. But obviously, NG11 taxi drivers are exempt from this.
I only mention this because I have been pissed off with taxis no end today. First of all, they just pull out and do U-turns wherever the hell they want. And then there was one in Nottingham city centre (during the same lesson this afternoon) who decided that he would stop to drop someone off in the middle of the light-controlled junction of Mansfield Road/Shakespeare Street (right outside PC World), and while one lane is closed because the road is up.
Taxi drivers are among the worst drivers on the road (and lest anyone should make any assumptions here, the NG11 driver in this case was white Caucasian male, driving a black “luxury” vehicle).