Big Fine For Causing Traffic Jams?

Nothing pisses me off more than waiting in traffic. I can just about cope with traffic caused by roadworks because it's a necessity.

But what really pisses me off is waiting in traffic because someone was driving like an arsehole or made a stupid mistake.

Research shows that 99% of accidents are caused by human error, yet when we're sat in traffic for hours on end missing vital meetings or doctor's appointments we just accept it. We moan and bitch about it but nothing is ever done.

So my proposal is this - anyone who causes a traffic jam of more than 5 minutes is heavily fined. If you cause a small 10 minute traffic jam you get a £500 fine, but if you cause one of those massive motorway jams you get a £20k fine. And if you've killed yourself in the process of being a dickhead, the fine passes to your next of kin.

It may seem extreme, but perhaps it would make people think twice before driving like a dick.

Could it work?

I like the idea but it's not very practical. Who decides who is responsible? The trouble with fines is that poor people (or people who claim to be poor) never pay them and rich bastards hire expensive lawyers and get off on some technicality.

Driving in the UK is a bloody joke. The roads are always gridlocked at peak times and are nearly always in a piss poor state of repair. Most of the money from road tax is hived off for other things instead of road maintenance.

Reebok Trotter wrote:Driving in the UK is a bloody joke. The roads are always gridlocked at peak times and are nearly always in a piss poor state of repair. most of the money from road tax is hived off for other things instead of road maintenance.

The money for road maintenance comes from the Council Tax and not the Motor Vehicle Excise Duty, as its local councils that look after the roads (A,B and other roads).

Department for Transport looks after the Motorway system but again money is not directly taken form the MVED.



It has been like that since 1937 when it became just a general taxation.

It is hilarious when people moan about being stuck in traffic without stopping to think that they too are traffic.

jayjay23 wrote:It is hilarious when people moan about being stuck in traffic without stopping to think that they too are traffic.

You moron. I'm stuck in traffic because some dickhead can't drive properly. Someone like you probably.

Ha Ha.
Yes, I am constantly causing traffic jams on purpose. It's not my fault I am a rubbish driver.

x

jayjay23 wrote:Ha Ha.
Yes, I am constantly causing traffic jams on purpose. It's not my fault I am a rubbish driver.

x

It's okay for you to laugh because you probably enjoy being in traffic - it's as close to normal people as you probably ever get.

But some of us run international companies and need to be in meetings or tribunals, time is money for us.

Learn to drive you moron.

No!

And plus. I am talking about general traffic jams which happen every day through congestion caused by too many cars on the road. People moan about being stuck in rush hour traffic but never think that they are part of the hold up to exactly the same degree as every other car.

Now what I hate is people who don't read the road properly and cause minor delays. What I mean is things such as when you are in a long line of traffic to get through the lights and some people, once they are through, start leaving large gaps between them and the car in front - totally forgetting that about three cars back from them at the lights they just came through their gap is meaning that less cars are making it through the lights.

Or at a junction where the car in front of me is turning right and I want to go left. If the road is wide enough then pull to the right, all the way up to the centre line (instead of plonking yourself in the middle) so that all the left turners can keep going while you wait for a gap!!!

jayjay23 wrote:No!

And plus. I am talking about general traffic jams which happen every day through congestion caused by too many cars on the road. People moan about being stuck in rush hour traffic but never think that they are part of the hold up to exactly the same degree as every other car.

Now what I hate is people who don't read the road properly and cause minor delays. What I mean is things such as when you are in a long line of traffic to get through the lights and some people, once they are through, start leaving large gaps between them and the car in front - totally forgetting that about three cars back from them at the lights they just came through their gap is meaning that less cars are making it through the lights.

Or at a junction where the car in front of me is turning right and I want to go left. If the road is wide enough then pull to the right, all the way up to the centre line (instead of plonking yourself in the middle) so that all the left turners can keep going while you wait for a gap!!!

I couldn't agree with you more. I am on the road 6 hours minimum and yet I only cover 100 miles per day. It takes me 3 hours in the morning from 7am to 10am to cover 50 miles and I then repeat the process in the afternoon from 2.30pm to 5.30pm.

You get to witness horrendous driving on a daily basis with some drivers having no consideration for other road users.

There is a major road in my neck of the woods that is a major trunk road into Manchester. During peak periods the traffic is nose to tail. The road has two lanes with the right lane clearly marked as a right turn at the traffic lights which forms a T junction. The left lane is for straight on only. Most drivers who are going straight on wait their turn in the left lane but you still get idiots who go down the right lane and as soon as the filter light goes off they stick on their left indicator and start edging in on the left hand lane as if they have a divine right to jump the queue. It gets on my wick.

One day I was in the left hand lane when the car in front of me suddenly put on it's reversing lights and started to reverse backwards into a bus-stop lay-by just to my left. The driver was a woman in a full black Burka with the post box headgear meaning she had no peripheral vision whatsoever!

RT, i feel your pain my brother. But that was me in the Burka - I was on my way to Ninja class.

jayjay23 wrote:RT, i feel your pain my brother. But that was me in the Burka - I was on my way to Ninja class.