Dickhead drivers

Allow me to pre-face this by saying that not all British drivers are idiots, most are very courteous.

Where we live in north Dorset it is very pretty, very hilly countryside with lots of narrow winding roads which are often lined with tall thick hedges (which make it impossible to see oncoming traffic when the road winds left and right).  So narrow are the roads that in some places cars can only go single file and if someone else is coming from the other direction there is usually a courtesy system where the first person to be able pull into a driveway or side street or even a puddle will do and the other driver will drive carefully past and give a quick salute to say thanks.

Not today.

I was coming back from doing some shopping in a town about 20 minutes drive away, and I decided to come home via the back road as there is less traffic.  I always drive so carefully on the back roads since a few months ago when I almost had a head-on smash with a courier van driver who thought he was the only person on the road that day (don't get me started on courier drivers either, I've had it up to my teeth with them!).

So today, a woman driving a big van saw me coming with about 30 metres to spare and we both stopped, unsure of who was giving way to who first.  She then pulled over to the side of the road as much as she could to let me pass her.  The problem was, there was kerbing on the other side of the road so as I tried to pass her my car's tyres were wedged up against the kerb on the left and my side mirror on the right was about an inch away from scraping against the side of the van.

I considered reversing back up the road (around a bend, mind you) but then I was suddenly trapped by another vehicle approaching behind me.  So I wound the window down and told this woman I couldn't pass and she would have to move back.  She and her boyfriend proceeded to have a go at me for not backing up, despite the other vehicle now stopped and waiting for them to pass him.

How can they expect me to reverse about 20 metres back when all it took was for them to reverse a whole three metres?  Twats!

Honestly, van drivers have such an attitude on the road here, I really think they believe they should have priority because they drive a larger vehicle.  No, the roads are there to share people, pull your fucking heads in.

British roads are not designed for carrying this much traffic, their "lorries" (they are not lorries, they are trucks) often take up the whole lane and then some of the opposite lane on the main road (called an A road - B roads and C roads are even narrower and in even shoddier condition than A roads!).  For the amount of traffic, the Brits are rubbish at maintaining their roads.  Australian roads are a luxury to drive on by comparison.

Rant over.