A whine about spanish driving!

[princess peach]

Just a moan really.
Took a trip down to Malaga airport on Saturday evening about 10pm...why cant the spanish drivers keep to their own lane??
We travelled down mostly in the fast lane using the tolls and several times i felt like i was going to be sick...they sway and swerve over into your lane,causing you to brake hard!
They do not know how to enter onto a motorway and insist on slowing down to 20kms...and sometimes to a complete stop!!!

So after arriving safely back home again...deciding to go to a nearby market and garden centre on the Sunday morning...we go to pull away from the garden centre car park and next to us in a parked car ready to pull away ,is a guy skinning up a joint!
No wonder the buggers are all over the place.

[Julie]

I think they must be copying the Brits Lol !

[masterob]

princess peach wrote

They do not know how to enter onto a motorway and insist on slowing down to 20kms...and sometimes to a complete stop!!!

But isn´t that what you are supposed to do? The Highway Code in the UK says :

Driving on the motorway
259. Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should

give priority to traffic already on the motorway
check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane
not cross solid white lines that separate lanes or use the hard shoulder
stay on the slip road if it continues as an extra lane on the motorway
remain in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before considering overtaking

I´m guessing the Spanish equivalent says something similar but obviously with right lane instead of left lane. My experience both here and the UK is that some drivers simply drive straight out onto the motorway without considering what traffic is already on the motorway and whether someone in the right hand (left hand in UK) can safely move across.

Sorry PP, one of my pet hates.

[hillybilly]

It's the roundabout driving that gets me. A road I drive daily is used by driving schools and I swear this is what they teach learners to do:

You are approaching a large roundabout which has 2 lanes all the way round it, an exit to the right, one straight on and one to the left.
You want to take the left (last) exit.
Don't, whatever you do, indicate to let other traffic know that you intend to turn left.
Go ALL the way around the roundabout in the outside lane. Leave everyone guessing which exit you might go for.
Don't, whatever you do, indicate at the exit you do actually take.
Simples

[country boy]

Succinctly put Hilly, can't find fault with that at all. You forgot ... if you want to cut across their bows because they are still in the outside lane when it is your turn to turn out, they must not on any account give way and preferably hoot at you for doing it right. (But you do get used to that ).

[Marina]

A driving instructor told me that they ARE taught to go all the way round in the outside lane.

[markwilding]

some overtake when you have stopped to allow someone to cross at at zebra crossing

[gretch]

Just curious but, how can you tell a drivers nationality?

[BENIDORM]

Gretch Wrote...Just curious but, how can you tell a drivers nationality?

Gretch...If they wind the window down and shout ...FFffing Ddddiii.ck Head....They are British..

But if they wind the window down and shout .....Hijo da ppppp.uuutttt a..Then they are Spanish...

Gordon...

[markwilding]

Where I live If they're not me. they are Spanish

[BENIDORM]

Dear me...I just swore twice ..live ..on the internet....Don't know what came over me...

Ten thousand apologies ...

And I'll go straight away and wash my mouth out with Fairy liquid ( well actually Tesco's best )
..
And then I'll thrash my back three hundred times with a rolled -up News-of-the -World...

Regards,
Gordon...

[Marina]

Gordon, Tesco's best! ? How do you get Tesco's products out here? Am I missing a vital piece of information?

[BENIDORM]

Marina,
How do I have tesco washing up liquid.?.....well.....

I'm a bit like a yo-yo...UK -Spain- Uk- Spain..Don't know where I am when I wake up.
Called my wife a different name the other day when I woke up....Must have been dreaming..

.Been doing the well beaten track backwards and forwards for a few years now....must settle down ...

So always bring a big stock of everything British to Spain...mainly from Tesco...

Regards,
Gordon..

[markwilding]

Beni If you're passing Bilbao any chance of dropping in some sweetpickle

[BENIDORM]

Mark,
No problem....meet you in Arrigorriaga...

You don't do B&B by any chance ..do you ?

Regards,
Gordon..

[frog]

a correction to the spanish highway code

when you get to a roundabout,park

if you put on hazard warning flashers at any time,the road is now yours and you can do what you like

you always have the right of way

if a driver lets you out of a side street you must ignore them at all times

a one way street is ok as you are only going one way,whichever way you are going

when getting your car from a parking space,you need to bump the car in front and the car behind at least 3 times

when parking,try to take 2 spaces up

indicators have no use,do not use

when you need to get somewhere,stay 30cm from car in front,when you dont drive at 10kmph

when held up for more than 10 seconds,beep horn longer as this will solve the problem

and to end,if you are in the police,drive along the seafront very slowly looking for illegal topless young women

[princess peach]

We should all write a book shouldnt we!They are all the same no matter where we live in Spain then!
It would be interesting to hear what the spanish think of our driving..lol...i know in UK i feel a lot safer on the motorways.

While travelling home one night on my moto,i heard loads of car horns when i approached a roundabout(one you cant see over the top of or around because of a huge monument in the centre)
as i got onto the roundabout..there was only a car coming round it the wrong way..it swerved and just missed me!

MRob~

check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane

I totally agree with that,BUT....the traffic in the slow lane on the motorway is hardly ever going at 20kms,or at a complete standstill...the only time you have to come to a complete stop on the slip road is when the Spanish wont/cant(not very often) move over to let you on.

[hillybilly]

when you get to a roundabout,park

[anis]

Nice one, Frog
You forgot the zebra crossings.....they are there for you to cross in your car, not pedestrians, do not stop at zebra crossings.
Pedestrain rules - always push you pram out first with baby aboard. If someone does stop quickly for you, don't thank or acknowledge them

Can't even see the zebras in A el Grande because I don't think they have been painted for over a year, especially those on Gerald Brennan street.

[julian]

"always push you pram out first with baby aboard"

isn´t that the way prams are pushed onto pedestrian crossings the world over ? until they eventually make prams that get pulled along behind you instead o getting pushd along!