Why do people on the other side of the road slow down & look at accidents on the other side causing tailbacks?
Answers:
Natural morbid curiosity.people act (look) before they think.it does not cross their mind that each of them that slows down to oogle the wreck, is forcing EVERYONE to slow down who is behind them.thus, traffic backs up for no real reason.
It's quite annoying.and often causes other accidents as a result of people slowing down and getting rear ended by someone who wasn't expecting that to happen in the middle of the highway.
rubbernecks. human nature i guess
Morbid facination
Curiosity?
They do that here in Dallas SOOOO bad. If so much as one person cracks a head light, everyone has to slow down and rubber neck.
I do not know
natural human curiosity
cuz they are stupid and like probley 5 min later some one hits them for driving so slow!!!!
To see if there are any other witnesses before they leave the scene of the accident.
For the same reason people watch horror movies I reckon.
because they're nosey
some crashes can be really interesting.
they are probably the same people that complain about traffic jams
Because we are freakish, thats why we have "car crash tv" like reality shows and soaps we need to revel in others misery .
Morbid curiosity
The problem is when people slow to rubberneck they often end up causing accidents themselves. Frequently if you have an accident on one side of a motorway, shortly afterwards there will also be one on the other side as people slow down and stop looking at the road.
As they are too nosey
Its a sort of gory wanting to know what has happened and then when you do see wishing you hadn't because its quite upsetting and you feel bad for hours or days and wish you hadn't seen it.
People who hog the centre lane.
Do I even need to start on this subject? I thought not.
Centre-lane missiles.
You're on the motorway, approaching a joining slip-road. You pull out in to the centre lane to clear the inside lane for joining traffic. The rep-mobile comes tearing down the on-ramp, straight across the inside lane (without looking), straightens up in the centre lane and then stays there despite the fact that the inside lane is clear for miles. I was hit by one of these guys once - a green BMW (oddly - it's always Ford Mondeos or any sort of BMW that does this) tore into the centre lane of an empty motorway and ripped off my front bumper in doing so. I'm still not sure to this day how I avoided the pair of us becoming so many pieces of flesh inside a mangled twisted heap of torn and burnt metal. Evidently though, it was my fault. It seems I had no right to be in "his" lane. At least that's what he told me just before he clouted me with a Krooklok after we'd stopped. I never saw him again. But then I was unconcious on the side of the road for 20 minutes so that sort of explains it. Oh - and because I couldn't get any witnesses, the police weren't interested.
Brakelight-sensitive lane-discipline.
You're driving along, minding your own business. Everyone is in the outside two lanes because they have no concept of what the inside lane is for. Suddenly, there's a rash of brakelights ahead of you in the outside two lanes. Now, all the lane-hoggers decide it's about time they used the lane on their left instead, and everyone pulls in because (curiously) those lanes are free. This in turn frees up the outside lane, at which point I pull out to overtake all the lemmings, and at which point I'm then usually given no end of abuse by those same people for using my initiative and following the overtaking rules. Hey - it's not my fault that you guys don't understand what the left lanes are for. Interestingly, they're not only for use for when you tear across them to get to the outside lane, or need a free lane because the traffic in front is slowing down YOU MORONS!
People who don't indicate.
Especially when I'm on my motorbike. People just changing lanes on the motorway with no warning should be cautioned. The other scenario is people on roundabouts who never signal their intentions.
People who do indicate, but..
.then decide that perhaps they're not going to turn after all. A good example - you're waiting at a side turning. The car coming along the road sees the junction after where you are, and starts to indicate. You pull out because you see him indicating to turn into what is presumably their first available exit. *Smack*. Even Apeldoorn bellen. (for the Dutch amongst you).
People who do indicate, but only microseconds before they turn.
Typically these fools sit in the front row of a traffic queue at the lights in a lane which is assigned for straight ahead or turn right. They wait for a nice long queue of cars to build up behind them, and then when the lights go green, on comes the indicator. Now everyone who is in the lane to go straight ahead has to wait for this person to clear their path. They in turn have to wait for a gap in the oncoming traffic. They never seem to think that perhaps if they'd been indicating whilst stationary, then that row of irate, shouting drivers behind them could have been avoided..
People who indicate as or after they turn.
There's plenty of these about. Not much to say really. They change lanes on a motorway, and once they're halfway across, the indicator comes on for less than one blink. These people should be forced to do a single journey by motorbike to give them a better understanding of how inconsiderate and dangerous they are.
People who ignore your indicators.
These types always believe that they own the road, and that no other road user can possibly mean it when they start to indicate. Consequently, whether you are indicating for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, they will not allow you to change lanes, or maneuver as you're intending. Instead, they hog their own precious little bit of road as it you are somehow challenging their right to live by wanting to change lanes.
My Bulbs don't work?
These are the people who drive around without ever once checking to see if perhaps one (or all) of their indicators/headlights/tail lights/brakelights might have failed. Strangely, this seems to affect newer cars more than older ones. On average, I'd say the split between the number of cars less than 3 years old, and those over 3 years old that have at least one failed light is roughly 90/10 respectively.
Foglight Morons.
There's two subcategories here:
Frontlighters. Listen, you Billys, those are foglights, not driving lights. TURN THEM OFF IN NORMAL DRIVING CONDITIONS - IT MAKES YOU LOOK STUPID AND ANNOYS THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYONE ELSE!
Backlighters. Okay - look carefully at your dashboard. See that red light that's lit up with a foglight in it? Now look up - is it foggy? No? THEN TURN OFF THE SODDING FOG LIGHT!
People who don't see motorcyclists.
*CRUNCH*. "Sorry mate - didn't see you." Exactly which bit of me didn't you see? The six-foot motorcyclist in a reflective jacket? Perhaps the two headlamps on full-beam? Or was it the huge, white, quarter-ton motorbike that you somehow missed? Despite the fact that 99% of motorcyclists drive with their lights on in the daytime to make them more visible, that's the comment that every single car driver in the world makes. Without exception. A statistic for you - 98% of motorcycle accidents are caused by car drivers. (source RiDE magazine, Jan'97)
People who try to take revenge on motorcyclists.
There is a peculiar breed of motorist who sits all day long in their RepMobile in traffic jams, thumbing their list of contacts and talking on their mobile phone, who seem to take offence when motorcyclists overtake them. Splitting lanes is principally why a lot of motorcyclists choose this form of transport - it means they are not subject to the delays, queues and aggrevations of being stuck in a tin can in solid traffic. But these drivers seem to be of the opinion that because they themselves are stupid enough to sit in a traffic queue, anyone displaying half an ounce of creativity and common sense by using a motorbike should be smitten down by the hand of God. And if that can't be arranged, they try to knock the motorcyclist off themselves.
People who push in to traffic queues.
There's going to be a lane closed on the motorway. The warning signs start 2km ahead. There are countdown markers every 200m for the last 800m. What is it that these twits don't understand about this signage? Why are there always those who go all the way up to the front, where their lane stops, and then try to push in causing tailbacks for everyone else? Because they're self-centred egomaniacs, that's why.
People who block junctions when their traffic isn't moving.
This is a classic. Despite box junctions and 'keep clear' areas, why do so many drivers block complete junctions when their own stream of traffic isn't going anywhere? "Oh I know - because I can't move, nobody else is going to!" Why? Why not just keep a section of the junction clear (like they're supposed to) and allow the traffic across. It's not going to kill them to lose 4m in their queue position is it? Evidently this is not how they think though.
People with no idea or regard for who has priority.
Not a lot of explanation needed really. A typical example is people who don't understand that the traffic on a roundabout has priority over the traffic joining it.
People who pull out in front of you.
.when the road behind you is completely clear. They don't know how to accelerate and 9 times out of 10, you are the one who is forced into taking evasive action. These types typically then dawdle along before leaving the main road with no indication.
People who won't allow you to overtake them.
This one I particularly hate. These people should have their cars confiscated and sold off. You know the types - they bumble along all over the road for no reason. Yet when you go to overtake them, they suddenly find the accelerator pedal, and speed up. This causes one of two problems. Either the gap you were aiming for disappears, or worse, you cannot get back in safely without causing the oncoming traffic to take avoiding action. Although you can guarantee that as soon as you pull in behind them again, they slow down and start dawdling.
People who won't let buses pull out from bus stops.
There seems to be something buried deep in the psyche of drivers in the UK that prevents them from allowing buses to pull out onto the road from bus stops. I've actually seen people go on to the other side of the road and force oncoming traffic up on to the kerbs simply because they didn't want to let the bus out in front of them. 99 times out of 100, the traffic isn't going anywhere anyway so their futile and childish efforts just make them look even more clueless.
People with speed limit blindness.
There are so many of these in the UK that it's amazing more accidents don't happen. The number of people who think that the national speed limit is 45mph or 50mph is beyond comprehension. These types typically speed through town centres above the limit, but as soon as they get on to an open stretch of road, they slow down to 45mph. In fact, the limit is 60mph. These are the same type who argue that the speed limit on a dual carriageway is also 50mph, not the 70mph which it actually is.
Tractors.
.or more specifically tractor drivers. According to the Highway Code, drivers of potentially obstructing vehicles should occasionally pull over to allow the traffic behind them to pass. I have never once seen a tractor driver do this, even if it's bloody obvious that there's a mile of virtually stationary traffic following them.
Straight-liners.
So-called because they manage to turn any curve on a road into a straight line. These are the ones who go on to a roundabout in the outside lane, cut across to the inside lane partway over, and then cut back out to the outside lane to exit the roundabout. They never take any notice of what else might be on the roundabout already, and if you happen to be the one caught on their inside, you've got three options. Mount the roundabout, brake sharply to avoid them, or run into them.
cause they are nosey. i hate the ones who automatically hit the brakes when they see a police car
Because they are very sad people, or perhaps they are just plain nosey
I never look or slow down. Rubberneckers should be scooped off the road into large piles where they could sit and gawk at themselves for days.
I'd say that mostly, people just want to know what's going on, and in some cases if they can help..? People just want to know "what happened here?"
human behaviour
I don't think it's because people are sickoes. Quite the reverse in fact, I believe people slow down because they feel they might be able to offer assistance if it's required. We are a social species after all.
Morbid curiosity i suppose
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