Road rage: what does it for you?

If we've all passed the same driving test, why do some motorists seem so completely incapable of employing the most basic driving logic, asks Lara Page.

Use the comment form below to tell me your motoring pet hates.

Yesterday evening on my drive home, I encountered not one, or even two, but five of my all-time biggest driving bug-bears in the space of a 30 mile trip.

It began shortly after I set off. I had to follow someone insistently driving at 30mph on a road which was signposted 40mph at almost every turn. "Why can't they see it's a 40 zone?" I wondered with creeping impatience. That was pet hate number one.

Approaching a T-junction, I did the charitable thing and let someone out. I flashed to indicate they could go. And waited. I flashed again. The driver stared blankly at me. Finally losing patience, I waved my hand around in a way that would either encourage them to move or imply I was having some sort of fit. And after what seemed to be about half an hour, they pulled out. Pet hate number two.

When I reached a similar junction myself, I spent a good few minutes watching dozens of vehicles amble past without offering the same courtesy. When I finally spotting an opening, a 4x4 approached and slowed down to a near stop. "Great," I thought, "I'll just slot in there." But the moment I edged out, he lurched forward and closed the gap, leaving me to hold up a traffic-choked lane while a mounting procession of drivers beeped in unison. It was like some kind of road rage symphony in A Minor.

I was almost compelled to start chanting "calm blue ocean" or something to that effect, when I happened upon pet hate number four - and this is a big one - drivers leaving garden centres.

A lot of garden centres in Shropshire and the West Midlands are perched on the edge of 60mph roads, a speed which, for most people, is generally considered quite fast. So, by all logic, if you're going to pull out onto a fast road, you'd better either wait for a comfortable gap or do it pretty sharpish.

I was heading towards someone hovering at one such exit, and imagined (or hoped) this person would have the sense not to pull out. They didn't. At least not until I was within a few perillous yards of them - at which point they chose to crawl out and proceed at hedgehog pace, forcing me to either slam on the brakes or plough into an arrangement of hand-crafted bird tables.

"Mental note to self," I thought. "Check train times."

I was almost home when a boy racer-type pulled up alongside me in the right hand lane of a roundabout. Judging by the alarming sense of urgency with which he was driving, I had a feeling I knew what he was going to do. And he did - overtook and cut me up on the roundabout, beating me to my own exit. Grrrrrr!

So that was my journey home. I could go on, but I fear I might start foaming at the mouth.

So it's over to you. Leave me a comment below and tell me what, in your opinion, is the single most annoying thing another driver can do on the road?

After all, they do say it's therapeautic to get gripes such as these off your chest!

By Lara Page