I do find it very odd that you have started this post in some curious attempt to garner sympathy for someone attempting to stop you, and some others, breaking the law.

I might not mind as much if his 'attempt to stop me breaking the law' had had that effect, but quite clearly it had not, as it probably increased the number of offenders, including himself. Like many of us I am irritated by those who take advantage in traffic jams, but playing dog in the manger is no solution. I don't need 'sympathy', which is a useless commodity in this context.

If you are as you say, irritated by others taking advantage, why did you join in?. Look, i don't know how long you were stuck in traffic for, maybe i might have done the same in that situation, i'm just not very sure what you hope to achieve by starting a post on it. The law is very clear, this is from the highway code on the Gov website:

You MUST NOT drive on the hard shoulder except in an emergency or if directed to do so by the police, traffic officers in uniform or by signs.

Strange that the rest of Europe considers that the best route for emergency vehicles is between the outer two lanes of traffic, with it being an offence not to move over to allow the free passage. The logic is that the hard shoulder may be blocked and so it is more efficient to drive between the traffic.

<< the hard shoulder is there for emergency use only ... and no-one apart from the emergency services or as directed by them should be using it in such circumstances. >>

Yes, of course it is. I wasn't trying to justify my movements, but wondering how the Audi driver thought his actions had any useful purpose beyond preventing anyone getting past Him. But for his action I might have obstructed the shoulder for about 15 seconds. As it was, that became several minutes, and I don't know how many other cars were behind me.

Fair enough, but I've seen on more than one occasion idiots who have used the hard shoulder to jump the queue and then try and push BACK IN to the main 2/3 lanes and not slip off at the next junction to go elsewhere, or they slip off, go round the roundabout then slip back on, gaining some distance on other traffic. The second situation is stupid enough, but I've seen the first whereby they then block the hard shoulder because there's no room to let them back on.

It only would take one idiot like that and then several cars like yours behind to then create an immovable queue, again, creating a serious block for any emergency services (one car is bad enough - 30+ is almost impassable).

As I said before, the idiot who deliberately blocked your way was firmly in the wrong and by rights should've been spoken to (or more) by the Police, but so should you for breaking the rules in a different way, however well intentioned. As I said, the reason why the hard shoulder was institued and, in my view, should still be left as such, is for safety reasons.

<< the hard shoulder is there for emergency use only ... and no-one apart from the emergency services or as directed by them should be using it in such circumstances. >>

Yes, of course it is. I wasn't trying to justify my movements, but wondering how the Audi driver thought his actions had any useful purpose beyond preventing anyone getting past Him. But for his action I might have obstructed the shoulder for about 15 seconds. As it was, that became several minutes, and I don't know how many other cars were behind me.

If lots of people drive on the hard shoulder they will significantly slow the Audi drivers progression as there will be a bottleneck ahead, either at the next exit, or at the incident on the motorway. So I understand his/her annoyance. I have had a similar thing when trying to merge before a restriction. For some reason everyone used one lane only, causing a tailback onto a roundabout, thereby blocking cars going in other directions. But apparently I was wrong to use lane two to avoid that. People often get uptight, due to busy lives, horrible bosses, squawking children etc and have little patience on the roads.

If its so dangerous, why haven't you written to the papers (local is often good for this sort of thing), your MP, Sec of State for Transport and Highways England saying as much, plus everyone else? They won't do anything unless people complain in enough numbers and publicly. It also doesn't mean that taking matters into your own hands and breaking the law is acceptable.

The HC also assumes that not everyone is driving an Audi RS4 that can brake on a sixpence, i.e. for less sporty, older and heavier vehicles. You can't expect the HC to give the stopping distances for every car, nor does that take into account the skills and reactions of the driver - an elderly driver will react far slower and may not be able to exert as much force on the brake pedal, at least really quickly, as a younger person. That being said, the older driver probably has the experience to be less likely to need to brake that hard, by leaving more space than younger drivers.

I just hope your car is in tipt-top condition if you leave what you believe the absolute minimum braking distance is (I wonder how you've checked this). Additionally, what happens if you have an HGV behind you? Maybe they didn't read the sporty badge so don't realise (for example) the car in front has ventilated competition ceramic disc brakes and so drive too close. All to get to their destination a few seconds earlier. Leaving greater gaps also means changing lanes and slipping onto motorways is far easier and safer - for everyone.

Most accidents happen because people don't drive defensively (i.e. leaving sufficient room to cope with the vast majority of things) and often take undue risks, say, to get to a destination on time, often because they left no bunce in their allowance to get there if stuck in some kind of traffic jam.

I did contact Highways and received no reply. Since when did anyone do anything about people complaining about a poorly planned road? North Tyneside made a recent balls up of the Billy Mill and resolutely refuse to do anything about it, despite most people experiencing longer delays since the roundabout was covered in traffic lights!

As I said, unless people follow through and REALLY kick up a stink in large numbers, no, nothing will be done. Most people can't be bothered, or stop after getting no reply after a few weeks or a bureaucratic response from some underling with no power.

They DO listen to continued bad publicity, especially if you drag politicians responsible for the issue into it and not just the local jobsworth bureaucrat. A prime example of this in my local area was the recent changover in refuse collection company - as bad as the old one was at certain aspects, the new service was FAR worse, so people like me and many others phoned the helpline - nothin much happened. We then jacked it up and contacted the local newspapers in the Council's area, and lo and behold, after the councillor (and the party generally) in charge of that brief was subject of weeks of bad press, things have suddenly started to get better.

Unfortunately, writing a snotty letter/email to these people once doesn't cut it any more. Weeks, months or even years of campaigning, sometimes regionally or nationally is realistically the ONLY way to get results these days, because civil servants and politicians of the modern era are significantly more removed from the common person in the street, and many think they are above us. They shouldn't - they are supposed to be SERVING the public, not the other way around.

Here's a classic case of obstructive driving. If ever a driver deserved a slap in the face with a wet fish.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=51epGAms9Jc

<< I rest my case. >>

What case is that?

A nut case?