No need to be ashamed. Shows the sort of initiative and cunning that got us through the dark days of '39 - '45.
It's a rat race, and the fastest rat wins.
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I have used gthe "e34kid" gambit as well.
Sometimes its a bad one when the queue on the slip to rejoin the Motorway takes longer than the motorway!
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Petrol stations on the corner of traffic light junctions can be a handy time saver if you are turning right or left.
Nip in to fill up then "suddenly notice" you have over half a tank full and drive out the other side.
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Petrol stations on the corner of traffic light junctions can be a handy time saver if you are turning right or left. Nip in to fill up then "suddenly notice" you have over half a tank full and drive out the other side.
In the village where I grew up there was a DIY warehouse that had entrances to its forecourt either side of a pelican crossing. Occasionally you'd see a cheeky motorist jump a red light by pulling onto the forecourt through one entrance and driving straight back out the other. They must have saved 5 seconds.
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Yep, sometimes it does backfire, and more often than not the queue to rejoin stops you from gaining the full half mile. But two or three E34kid gambits in one journey can lop half an hour or so off your journey when used in the right (or wrong, whichever way you look at it) conditions.
The effectiveness of the E34kid gambit is enhanced if you happen across a junciton that goes nowhere of any consequence. Then the queue to rejoin is drastically reduced, usually made up entirely of people employing the same tactics.
Maybe I should call it Jon's Gambit. It's less of a mouthful.
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A lot of selfish folk out there....
Brooks' Gambit hurts more people than the ones you cut in front of because it also obstructs traffic flowing in any other direction on the roundabout. Everyone has to wait while you swing by on the roundabout, slowing them down.
This frequently happens on the A9000 at Kirkliston where a 2 mile southbound tailback results solely because of northbound drivers heading for the Forth Road Bridge using this trick to jump the queue.
Canuck
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Widespread use of Brooks's Gambit suggests that perhaps the roundabout in question could use a little work.
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I do it from time to time. It doesn't delay anyone you've gone ahead of, because as you go round you're creating a new gap for them, meanwhile the cars that were behind you and are now two spaces nearer the front (yours and the one I've just mentioned), but a car waiting at another entrance may have been delayed as you pass.
Seems to me it's no net effect overall other than you've saved sometime, unless of course everyone does it.
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I think that sometimes poor local authority traffic management policy encourages this kind of behaviour. At a busy roundabout near where I live, the predominant traffic flows (I'd guess 80%)are straight on and left, the right turn being to a small village. In their wisdom the LA have marked the left hand lane for traffic turning left or heading straight on, the right being used exclusively for the small volume of traffic heading into the village. Result? Huge queue in LH lane, nobody in RH lane, lots of people employing Brooks' Gambit. Previously traffic heading straight on could use RH lane, making the roundabout function much better IMO.
(Churscombe Cross roundabout near Marldon, A380 southbound, for anyone who knows it)
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In my defence (apart from the grammer mistackes)
I do re-charge my Karma on roundabouts - when I get to a roundabout which is incredibly difficult to get onto (Such as the M275) I fairld often go around it quite slowly to allow the card trying to join and leave the town space. Usually 3-6 cars can get away when it would have taken 3-10 mins as everybody going south on the M275 whizzes down there and (v. v. often) block the yellow box...
So I think my Karma is balanced.
ohmmmmmmmmmm.
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the first couple of spelling mistakes up above were deliberate. the rest is re-written below..
In my defence (apart from the grammer mistackes)
I do re-charge my Karma on roundabouts - when I get to a roundabout which is incredibly difficult to get onto (Such as the M275) I fairly often go right around it (sometime 2-3 times) quite slowly to allow the cars trying to join (where I had been) space. Usually 3-6 cars can get away when it would have taken 3-10 mins - mainly as everybody going south on the M275 whizzes down there and (v. v. often) block the yellow box...
So I think my Karma is balanced.
ohmmmmmmmmmm.
Mods.. please hide my former errors!
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Google search results at tinyurl.com/7fbb6 . Gives descriptions but not origin!
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Sorry AS but the link does not work
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You are right, it doesn't!
{It should work now. A space was needed between 7fbb6 and the full stop. DD}
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Sorry again AS but the search turns up 2 links that don't work and the other takes you to excerpts from "Ducking and Driving" which gives the explanation that the original poster of this thread has copied and pasted in, so we still don't know its origin!
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myweb.tiscali.co.uk/duckinganddriving/excerpts.html
You have to read this - its hilarious and scarily accurate.
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All very sad, really, and I mean that in a mournful rather than scornful sense.
All these little acts of competition and petty oneupmanship just go to create the aggressive, stressful, miserable atmosphere we have on the roads these days. If any of you do these things, just think for a minute. You possibly cut 30 seconds off your journey time, but you also made a few other people feel a little less respected, a little more pushed around, and a little more unhappy.
I've thought about this so-called "Brooks Gambit" in the past. And rejected it for the reasons above. It's unfair, in the same way as queue jumping in a supermarket is unfair. Don't tell me it's the rat race. I'm not a rat, and I don't want to live like one, or treat others like one. We aren't animals: we have a choice in the way we behave.
I don't know if this makes any sense to any of you, but reading that silly London driving guide makes me realise why I sometimes find driving a lot more tedious and just a bit depressing these days.
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Well said,Mr Other. Count me in as a member of the non rat race!
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In this case call me Roland......
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Heeeeeey Rat Fans
(I used to have a Roland stuck, like garfield, to the rear window)
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As there are really no written rules about this or any other driving manoeuvre some would call plain old cheating, could I suggest...
1. Anything goes as long as no damage ensues and no one is hurt (and it wouldn't upset your sister or startle the horses)
2. The best "tricks" to use are those where other drivers affected by it don't actually know you've done it
3. Anything that keeps traffic flowing and reduces queues HAS to be a good thing.
Zip merging should be made compulsory at lane closures; The two normally irreconcileable concepts of British "queue up whenever possible" and "traffic efficiency" could finally meet in the same place!
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I thought it was a tactic for advanced players of Mornington Crescent :-(
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A E
the link does not work for me 404 error
anybody esle?????/
--
pmh (was peter)
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anybody esle?????/ --
>
Yup.
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That Tiscali link is on the blink!
Further thoughts on (alleged) queue jumping.
I'm not convinced the analogy with supermarket queues is valid, as there isn't a "relative speed" element, neither is there bunching up; people tend to be stationary.
Ever been in the supermarket queue when a neighbouring checkout suddenly opens, only to see the mad rush of half your queue (those just behind you) taking up a place in a new line? This is not actually fair. If there are a dozen queueing up and shoppers 7 to 12 form a new queue, then they have each effectively jumped six places. (Veterans of WWII and/or rationing are at the front in milliseconds.) If you were shopper number four in the old queue, you'd feel aggrieved - especially at shoppers 7, 8 and 9 who are now in position 1, 2 and 3 - wouldn't you? The only way to resolve this is to ask alternating shoppers to join the new queue, odd numbers to the left, evens to the right, in a reverse zip-merge manoeuvre; try imposing that on late Friday night shoppers with the authority of anything less than a detachment of Marines.... And none of this would actually work, since it is impossible to determine who is the lethargic, pedantic checker-outer or shopper until it's too late!
As to traffic - once we get inside the protective environment of those motorised metal boxes it is a rat race, every rat for itself. Normal rules of human behaviour simply don't apply.
Eek eek eek...
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As for shopping queues... seen loads of long queues and people happy to wait. I go upto customer service or the people looking after tills and ask them to open some more. So they often do and I get to the front. Am I cheating then? Not sure as it was me personally that got the extra line opened. The others just queuing like lemmings.
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not suprised, that link is two years old, as is the thread.
------
< Ulla>
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I've used it sometimes in the past - I would also create space to allow the queue in the left lane to use the roundabout.
On a motorcycle, I've used it when the left lane is empty (usually the area is free of traffic).
Even doing a couple of circuits of the roundabout before deciding which exit to take.
I don't expect car drivers to understand that at all though :-)
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A more extreme version of this happened to me some time ago. I was in one queue of traffic and saw a dozy driver bearing down on me at what the more laconic BIBs would call a "fair old lick". Obviously no time to stop before hitting the last car (me!) so I darted into the other lane in order to (i) save myself; (ii) give the dozy so-and-so more time to brake, if he actually got round to braking.
In the event, much scorched rubber, lots of noise, khaki underwear all round but no actual damage. Had there been damage and/or injury I would maintain that I was taking the right course of action - would anyone disagree?
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I did this myself earlier this year - saw an accident about to happen in my mirror, moved into the middle of the road as the car behind me was shunted from the rear into the car in front of me.
I stopped and gave my name as a witness and have heard nothing, after about four months.
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When I was working in Norwich I used to encounter a 2 lane stretch leading to a major roundabout. My office exit used to join this 2 lane road at cross roads controlled by traffic lights with a yellow box junction.
When the lights released the opposite traffic into the 2 lane stretch to my left, most headed for the left hand lane with the queue frequently blocking the box junction so often only one car made it from our exit before the lights changed again.
When I finally made it to take the left turn I would nearly always take the right hand lane and execute the Brooks Gambit at the roundabout. My theory was that I was improving traffic flow and cannot see anything wrong with this.
Of course, if the authorities had enforced the box junction rules then the Brooks may not have been necessary.
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There was a thread recently that started with a video clip of cars and a lorry trying to turn right onto a busy dual carriageway, and the problems of stopping half-way. Anyone remember?
The official best advice was to turn left instead, then go right round the next roundabout and so join the opposite carriageway further up. Isn't that just another variant of Brooke's gambit - in other words, easing the traffic flow.
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