I was pootling down the M27 on Saturday night and there was a very small accident (looked like a blow out and engine fire) with 2 jam-jars and a fire engine in attendance. This of course created the mandatory traffic jam as people had a good look at other peoples' misfortune.
Why can't we do what sometimes happens in France? I once or twice have come across the scene of an accident but the authorities have erected blinds all around the accident thus giving no opportunity to rubber neck.
Sure there is a small tail back as people have to slow down as invariably a lane has been blocked off, but a moderate and safe speed is maintained.
Surely this is not too difficult to do....
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It *never* ceases to amaze me the amount of disruption that is caused by rubberneckers on our motorways. I've recently changed jobs which means I now travel to Bedford once a week on the M1. The last two times, travelling northbound my journey time has been augmented by I would say at least 20-30 minutes because of two *very* minor RTAs which occurred on the *southbound* carriageway.
There is little more infuriating than sitting in a queue of slow-moving traffic for an hour or so only for the jam to disappear once you get past the accident on the other side of the road. I'm sure this has something to do with shockwaves etc..
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Would work for smaller incidents, but there was an accident involving 5 cars on the M62 last night - the distance between the first and last car on the hard shoulder was about half a mile.
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Fair point about the bigger incidents, but it is the ones that RobZilla is on about that can easily be screened off.
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Screening - an excellent idea.
What frustrates me is that sometimes you get to the front and think "So what the ...... are they all looking at?"
"Nothing..... err..."
"Ooops, I've just done it myself. Oh...."
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I don't believe in rubbernecking
everyone complains about "someone else rubbernecking"
What actually happens is that when you have dense traffic, then if anybody brakes at all, then because traffic behind is too close, then even though "car one" brakes only slightly, and briefly, "car two" brakes slightly harder and for longer. "Car three" brakes harder again, and so on....
This "braking wave" propgates backwards, getting more intense, until the cars become stationary. It will persist even when the hazard has gone. these waves can be viewed using time lapse, and are the subject of much study, what causes them etc. everyone has had the experience of dense traffic coming to a halt for no obvious reason. The speed restrictions on the M25 are an attempt to prevent this phenomenon. I believe there was a New Scientist article about this in the past
If you're driving along at 75-80mph and you see a plume of smoke on the horizon, or the blue flashing of emergency vehicles, it's only common sense that people start to reduce their speed. It's the close bunching of traffic that causes the traffic to slow to a halt.
I don't believe that even one person makes a concious decision to slow down and have a look at the twisted metal
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An old colleague of mine did. He was so busy looking at the crashed cars at the side of the road that he failed to notice that the car in front had stopped. Cue one expensive repair bill!
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"...looked like a blow out and engine fire..."
How do you know the details of what happened? Unless there was someone else in the car, you must have looked yourself.
This interests me greatly because I used to do the same thing; complain about rubbernecking then do it myself. I know this is going to sound a little smug, but I now really cannot tell you what caused a hold up, apart from a general "probably an accident". This is because I now look closely at what's going on with the car ahead of me (which is normally a profile of the driver's head as they crane in the hope of seeing a few corpses spread across the opposite carriageway).
As for the reason the queue builds up in the first place, people look away from the road, look back to find something going on, hit their brakes a little harder than they need to, and so the queue starts to form. I concentrate on driving as carefully as possible in the knowledge that the drivers in front, behind and alongside are not concentrating on what's going on around them
V
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"...looked like a blow out and engine fire..." How do you know the details of what happened? Unless there was someone else in the car, you must have looked yourself. This interests me greatly because I used to do the same thing; complain about rubbernecking then do it myself. I know this is going to sound a little smug, but I now really cannot tell you what caused a hold up, apart from a general "probably an accident".
Busted!!
I presumed that it was an engine fire as there was a fireman with a extinguisher wandering about.
However, I am fortunate enough to be observant enough to have a quick look and still not need to slow down or crash into the back of the car in front. If I don't take anything in with my brief glance I will carry on without worrying aboutnot knowing what goes on.
Vin - I get your point!
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That's what I meant by "shockwaves" - isn't that what they call them? Bottom line is though, in this situation it is the rubbernecking of the driver in "car one" that starts off the shockwave..
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There was a serious fatal accident a few weeks ago on the M4 between J4 and J5, it was slow moving but the Police had used a load of incident tents and a few vans to create a screen.
By all accounts it wasn't pretty, a 911 Cab had got onto the slip and hit a van and flipped.
Not nice.
The queue in the opposite direction was longer than the lanes involved in the accident.
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I think if you've already been forced to slow down, stopped for a while, then crawling, it's only reasonable that your attention will fall to whatever caused the delay - people are only human (mostly)
I feel duty bound to have a good look though as I'm a GP and have stopped on occasion to lend a hand if the paramedics etc haven't arrived - I have a good look to see if the injured are walking / talking etc, and if in doubt go and give a hand. That has so far only happened on A roads though. Once stopped to help an old bloke who had stopped on lane 2 of a dual carriageway, he was in an old turquoise lagonda invalid carriage - seemed to have stopped to admire the view - said he was OK and trundled off at 15mph. very odd.
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I am always amused when the police routinely complain of drivers rubbernecking - then they appear on the scene with more lights flashing than on the spaceship in 'close encounters of the third kind'- what are motorists supposed to do: blast past all the flashing lights oblivious to the incident; at which point the police cry 'driver inattention!!- or, slow down and ascertain what is going on (ie. rubberneck)?
Maybe they could fit dimmer switches, (to the lights that is).
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Maybe the emergency services could fit ORANGE lights if the cause of the hold-up is not a massively serious one - i bet people take less interest in AA vans than they do in police cars.
I know a female friend who broke down on a motorway at night recently, and a patrol car thoughtfully stopped to keep her company until a breakdown van arrived. Unfortunately due to the patrol cars blue lights, within five minutes a decent sized jam had formed full of people trying to suss out what was going on.
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A couple of years ago in winter there always used to be a jam on the M1 between J24 and J25 caused by drivers slowing down to look at the river trent in flood!.On travelling by there recently however I`ve noticed the view has been shielded on the southbound side thus stopping a potential hold up caused by rubbernecking at a natural phenomenon!
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On travelling by there recently however I`ve noticed the view has been shielded on the southbound side thus stopping a potential hold up caused by rubbernecking at a natural phenomenon!
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They did the same thing, some years ago, on the perimeter road at LHR to stop people being distracted by aircraft movements.
In the good ole days in the winter it really was a distraction when going West on the Northern perimeter road when Concorde was taking off on 27 right. To see the four reheats that close as it went past and up up and away with of course my windows open to experience the full effect.
Now that really was a case of extended rubber necking.
Guilty as charged!.
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Rather late for a reply here but just as a pedantic topical point the screening at LHR was put up as an anti-terrorist measure. At the same time some may remember that the observation deck of the queens building was closed.
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I don't think it's rubbernecking. It's a myth created by the Police et al.
I think the roads run at over full capacity (all lanes full and nose to tail) and the slightest event brings the whole stack of cards crashing down as people increase the gap between them and the car in front - it only takes a few dozen people to do this and those at the back are stood still and chaos ensues. Exacly the same effect happens often where there is no accident, but some other event. What's more, the Police often make an accident look apolcalyptic by sending too many cars with flashing lights that park all over the place and make it look 100x more serious.
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Why is it that when an accident occurs on a motorway, where the inside lane is closed, some people will always drive past queuing and courteously filtering traffic to reach the front of the queue, then nearly always drive past the accident so slowly, allowing upto a couple of hundred yards between them and the previous car, and once past the scene continue as though they have all the time in the world.
What gits,
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Concorde was taking off on 27 right.
Snap yes, guilty here too. I defy anyone not to look at a sight like that, concord being the eigth wonder of the world
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Well...welcome back 3500S. Hope all is progressing OK with you in the post-Rover world.
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He's probably moved to China.
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I always slow down to point and laugh
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