This evening I was in a queue of traffic on a single carriageway, approaching a pedestrian crossing point (bollards in the centre of the road, with 'keep left' arrows).
One driver made his getaway by going up the 'wrong' side of the road, to the right of the bollards.
What does the law say on this? The practice seems to be becoming more common.
Oz (as was)
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As the roads become more stupid assualt courses (sorry obstacle courses) the driving standard gets worse. Where I work, there are 22 violent road humps on each carriageway and 22 in the middle.
This encourrages drivers to sprint round slow OAPs and people in clapped out bone shakers, and overtake the wrong side of keep left bollards,, but nevermind, it's been traddic calmed - well worth £2m NOT!
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Oz
Section 36 RTA 88: Fail to conform to a Traffic sign.
&3,000 fine, discretionary Disq, 3 points.
Would have been along but run out of HO/RT/1's (producers) from an earlier thread.
DVD
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Problem with these mid-road islands is that I often use them to cross the road (due to the "refuge" half way across). I occassionally do not look left and I expect many others do not either. I wonder how many fatalities are caused by drivers going on the wrong side of the bollard (and particularly in London it seems to be 2 wheel users motorised or not)?
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I wouldn't have though anyone would do it with pedestrians there, but there may be.
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When you've got white van man, a taxi, or school run mum stopped right next to one of these bollards, you haven't got much choice but to go round them on the wrong side.
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Several times I've seen vehicles stop right next to the central bollards to let emergency vehicles past. Muppets! Do they really expect a fire engine to get through the 1 foot gap they've left?
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interesting thread this one.my nephew was crossing the road with a central refuge when some hammerhead decided he would pass the line of traffic he was in by going the wrong side of the bollards.Result being nephew gets thrown some 10ft in air according to witnesses was in a coma for a week and is now brain damaged.
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Is a "clapped out bone shaker" fair game then? When I last owned a car that might be considered one of these (though in fact it was far from clapped out or a boneshaker) I was regularly overtaken, flashed at and otherwise abused while doing thirty-ish in a thirty limit. Were people assuming I was driving within the law because the car couldn't manage any more? These poor people, driving dangerously because other people in old cars force them to. I do feel sorry for them. Not.
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The overtakers should calm down, see Van Driving Man for details
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Motor and Pedal bikes are the worst for doing this. But I do see a lot of cars going right around mini roundabouts (as in straight over and driving on the right hand side of the road as it is a straight line), where driving as you should would mean turning the wheel left a bit then right a bit. Mad and lazy.
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There's a particular place in Hounslow where I see this every single working day on my way in to the office. Sitting in a queue watching car after car speed past the line and pass to the right of a keep left sign. They then sit at the traffic lights 50 yards down the road waiting to turn right as we, in the main queue, pass them due to the light sequence. This small island is only there as a pedestrian refuge, so there are frequent close calls.
I've half-heartedly thought of setting up a video camera one morning and then taking the tape to the police. The trouble is I would probably be charged with invading the privacy of the offending drivers or some-such nonsense. I am cynical enough to believe that no action will be taken until a pedestrian is seriously injured or killed by one of these selfish idiots.
Re: Mini roundabouts mentioned above - I'm of the opinion that you are not compelled to go around them, and that crossing straight over is acceptable. Is this wrong? (Never too old to learn.)
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Re: Mini roundabouts mentioned above - I'm of the opinion that you are not compelled to go around them, and that crossing straight over is acceptable. Is this wrong?
Mini-roundabouts Approach these in the same way as normal roundabouts. All vehicles MUST pass round the central markings except large vehicles which are physically incapable of doing so...
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD 10(1)
From www.highwaycode.gov.uk/17.shtml#164
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Mini-roundabouts Approach these in the same way as normal roundabouts. All vehicles MUST pass round the central markings except large vehicles which are physically incapable of doing so...
That doesn\'t say which way round them. So passing round on the right would be OK?
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"But I do see a lot of cars going right around mini roundabouts (as in straight over and driving on the right hand side of the road as it is a straight line), where driving as you should would mean turning the wheel left a bit then right a bit. Mad and lazy."
Eh? So, if the roundabout is no more than a blob of white paint on an otherwise flat road, and to "straight-line" it causes no inconvenience to other road users, that is "Mad and lazy"?
I suppose if the road is winding and there is no oncoming traffic, similar straight-lining would also be "Mad and lazy"?
Well, I'm more than happy to be "mad and lazy" and, IMHO, you have to be very petty to get worked up about it (no offence intended).
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If the mini roundabout is clear and clear on other approaches, I go straight over them, just as on the approache to some bens in the country I move onto the 'wrong' side of the road, or straddle white lines to straighten my line.
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OK, maybe I didn’t explain myself in simple enough terms.
Example:
A mini roundabout is used on a residential road. You may find that to go straight ahead, the road layout forces you to drive round the white hump in the road, sharp left, sharp right, basically in a horse shoe shape. It’s as much as a traffic calming measure in some cases and rightly so-the mini roundabout was put there to ease the traffic congestion because it is a busy junction.
What I am referring to is people who want to go straight over the roundabout but rather than taking a slightly straighter line and clip or drive over the white hump they will veer right, onto the oncoming side of the road and take that line.
There is no ‘driving over the mini roundabout’ at all. This is driving 100% on the wrong side of the road.
So what about other vehicles approaching the roundabout from the other side or vehicles pulling out of driveways etc?
The point of this thread was about drivers going right of central islands-are you saying mini-roundabouts can be treated the same?
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See it now Runboy, sorry. I agree with you entirely.
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Isn't this just another symptom of the general lowering of moral standards?
In my younger days it was (apart from being illegal, as it still is) not socially acceptable to push-bike on pavements. Nowadays children grow up having been taught by their parents example that it is OK to cycle on pavements. Similarly, some children consider it to be socially acceptable to drop litter on the ground because it's what their parents do, and it's what their parents get away with. Nowadays no-one knows where to draw the line as to what is socially acceptable and what is not. What we need is for the police to adopt zero-tolerance policies in order to bring back a reasonable standard of public behaviour.
--
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Is it just round here that these central islands seem to be being placed at bus stops?
So bus pulls up at stop and blocks both the central island, pants for person crossing road to catch the bus, and drivers presumably have to either queue behind the bus or overtake on the 'right' side of the island.
Stupid
Erm, make that stupid and dangerous
Better still make that stupid, dangerous but safe, cos you'll be doing less than 30mph, probs...
Kev
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You're lucky if kids (little ones I mean) you can cycle on the pavement round here: the space has already been booked. I do agree that we're far to soft on anti-social behaviour, but to get anywhere would require herculean efforts now. I blame the 60's. Father: no, it was the 50's and rock and roll where the rot set in....
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NorthernKev-I agree. Got the same in Norfolk. I appreciate people getting on/off bus may need to cross the road, but how much more pollution is given out by the long queue of traffic stuck behind a bus/island combination? If only the island is moved a few yards...
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Same round here in SW London (as well as filling in the layby type bus stops).
"Almost" got ploughed into by a courier bike this morning as crossing the road as he was riding the wrong side of the bollards. The other 2 courier bikes waited and kept to the correct side of said bollards.
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