I usually let people in from side roads, and perhaps about half the drivers acknowledge it. However, some years ago I let a guy out and he mouthed obscenities and threw me a two-fingered salute as he drove off! A bad hair day, perhaps, or maybe he'd been waiting for half an hour!
P.
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Standards of courtesy generally on the road have dropped enormously during my motoring lifetime. At one time if you were stationary at traffic lights at night the custom was to turn off your headlights until you started to move again to reduce the strain on the eyes of the stationary drivers facing you. I still do it but very very few other people do. On single-carriageway roads, if someone behind wanted to overtake, you moved over to the left as much as possible to make it easier for the car behind, and either waved them past or operated your left indicators once or twice. Who (apart from me!) does that now? After the car had passed you flashed your headlights as soon as it was safe for them to pull in. They then acknowledged your courtesy .
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L\'escargot.
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"On single-carriageway roads, if someone behind wanted to overtake, you moved over to the left as much as possible to make it easier for the car behind, and either waved them past or operated your left indicators once or twice. Who (apart from me!) does that now? After the car had passed you flashed your headlights as soon as it was safe for them to pull in. They then acknowledged your courtesy."
All the time in Ireland.... You'd never get anywhere if people didn't do that.
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I deliberately block all all BMW's and 300c's.
BMW's so that PU comes on here and rants and raves, 300c as there must be *some* way of making MTC fall out of love with his monster.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Let someone in in Poland and they'll sit there with a look of bewilderment and refuse to budge.
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I doesn't bother me if people don't wave - to be honest I'd rather they kept hold of the steering wheel with both hands and concentrated on their driving.
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> It doesn't bother me if people don't wave - to be honest I'd rather they kept hold of the steering wheel with both hands and concentrated on their driving.
My driving instructor used to tell me not to wave for that reason. I do now, though - a spot of human courtesy really
does make all the difference. I even wave to drivers who stop behind the parked car on their side, rather than pulling out in front of me - not that I get many opportunities to do that these days. >:--(
When I look back on incidents of any kind, I usually find I regret the ones where I've been grumpy, rude or aggressive. Am I just a dreamy utopian or would life really be better if we made eye contact with strangers and smiled a bit more often??
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I don't mind if they don't wave - but I do get annoyed when I stop/gesture to let them out.................and th're so dimwitted that they don't observe you and just sit there .........................
Then - just as you give up and move forwards - the penny drops and they pull out right in front of you !
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I deliberately block all all BMW's and 300c's.
300c as there must be *some* way of making MTC fall out of love with his monster.
You'll have to do a lot worse than that :) :). I usually get flashed IN with a cheery wave !
Arnie has just had his 1st birthday and hit the 18000 miles mark and is running as faultlessly as ever.
It still gives me a smile when I go for a drive and I still enjoy it when complete strangers come up to me and want to talk about the car --- and if the trade press is to be believed, the trade in price is bearing up very well, as well.
Loads more happy things about 300C ownership, but I don't want to do a full thread hijack.
MTC
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"On single-carriageway roads, if someone behind wanted to overtake, you moved over to the left as much as possible to make it easier for the car behind, and either waved them past or operated your left indicators once or twice. Who (apart from me!) does that now? After the car had passed you flashed your headlights as soon as it was safe for them to pull in. They then acknowledged your courtesy." All the time in Ireland.... You'd never get anywhere if people didn't do that.
I find myself doing this frequently for motorcyclists, lets them know I have seen them and pulled over deliberately so they can pass. Have yet to see one fail to acknowledge me as they pass.
Car drivers on the other hand seem to assume that it is their god given right to overtake and if anything display signs of anger if their path is not cleared immediately.
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I find myself doing this frequently for motorcyclists, lets them know I have seen them and pulled over deliberately so they can pass. Have yet to see one fail to acknowledge me as they pass.
mostly it's an absolute lack of awareness..........they don't even realise that their actions show a lack of courtesy
m/c's, generally, have to be more aware, otherwise they're coming off, hence the extras such as courtesy come into the equation, because they're aware enough to do it
don't do what i need a few years back..........because i admit that a lack of courtesy does annoy me greatly.......
driving a Transit minibus in a side street, realised i wouldn't fit through two sides of parked cars and pulled into a small gap to let an oncoming car through........female driver beetled down the middle of the road and no hint of a wave to acknowledge........so i pulled forward quicker than i would normally have done and gave an elaborate completely over the top wave myself as a form of sarcasm.........then noticed she only had one arm and was driving with a busmans wheel and couldn't have waved if she'd wanted to (not without steering with her knees anyway).... stopped me doing that again.
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'Lack of courtesy' is these days almost universal. Extreme moronic rudeness is not unusual.
We do not yield the carriageway to other drivers, or let them out at junctions, because we want to form relationships with them. We do it to keep the traffic flowing as freely as possible.
Many years ago in Lagos I used to come across colossal traffic jams for which, when one got to their focal points, there never seemed to be any good reason. I concluded that the cause was usually a clash of untutored egos.
When someone does acknowledge courtesy (or intelligence, which makes one stay polite on the road) it is a pleasant bonus. Its absence is of no significance whatsoever. So just calm down all of you, and get used to the idea that people are not very well brought up these days.
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As someone else once said:
"Respond to rudeness with politeness. It really annoys them."
I often let people out and receive no thanks. I no longer care and I certainly do not care enough to get wound up. Life's too short to worry about ignorant people. Bear in mind that even if they do not thank you, they might let someone else out, and they helps improve the overall driving experience.
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All the time in Ireland.... You'd never get anywhere if people didn't do that.
Except Dublin (in my experience) where the assorted stresses of city living seem to have put paid to much of the courtesy commonplace on other Irish roads. Slow down for a Dublin motorist stuck in a side-road and he stays there, afraid to pull out. Wave him out and he thinks you're being impatient. Flash your headlights and he fears you're warning him not to pull out - or else!
Contrast that with the country road where two farmers stop in their jeeps for a chat. When another car approaches, they'll cheerfully pull into the nearest gap on both sides of the road and wave you through when the way is free. Then they'll reverse back out and continue the conversation until the next car comes along...
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L
ooh, yes, spot on! I find that if someone's rude, give a great big smile and wave. They go bonkers!
JH
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On single-carriageway roads, if someone behind wanted to overtake, you moved over to the left as much as possible to make it easier for the car behind, and either waved them past or operated your left indicators once or twice. Who (apart from me!) does that now?
I do it escargot. Notably on the A29 when groups of two to five bikers quite often come up at warp speed... it's really just to let them know I know they're there, and coming up rapidly. They nearly always give a cool little lift of the left hand as they zap by.
Interesting that bikers (popularly seen as rough types and sometimes actually that very thing) show courtesy on the road when fat waddling bourgeois car drivers are apparently in a coma. Must be because they're so much nearer the edge of the void.
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Yes, I find bikers to be the most courteous for the very same reason, Lud.
I believe, in all walks of life, that what goes around comes around. And I know that life is too short to give oneself heart palpitations over a few feet of dirty tarmac.
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I ride a bike most of the time, not having my own car - and it still strikes me how when I'm on the bike most drivers are visibly helpful and courteous - this is in spite of the fact that I can make some pretty cheeky moves when I'm filtering in traffic. In fact, it's what I really like about using the bike - there is so much less stress than when driving a car.
As for waving - please understand that sometimes we might be in a position where we simply don't have any free limbs!
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I'd go mental if I lived in Leeds. Not because it's a nasty place, it's rather nice.... but the standard of driving is abysmal. I have no idea why, but it's noticeably worse than anywhere else I go except South London.
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I do the headlight thing sometimes, and the indicator thing. I even try to avoid using my screen jet things if I'm likely to spray others.
Do we have the makings of a Gentlemen's Motoring Club here?
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Excellent idea. After you, Carruthers.
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Courtesy Causes Confusion.
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Actually you're not joking here. You do get this After you Cecil, After you Claude garbage wasting time. You can see people thinking: I'm damned if I'm going to give way in the courtesy joust and go first. Then both parties blink simultaneously and rush forward nearly colliding. Then if you're one of them you hope the other one has a sense of humour.
They have usually.
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.........After you Cecil, After you Claude
Crikey, Lud, you're showing your age!
Anyway, it was "After you Claude. No, after you Cecil." It was from ITMA (It's That Man Again) ~ BBC wireless(!) programme 1939 to 1949.
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L\'escargot.
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You get some who stop to let you out,very kind etc.,but there is no traffic behind them.Leaves me wondering if they are just excessively polite or they pay insufficient attention to the rear view mirror.
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David Horn,
I'm thinking about reciprocating and not letting cyclists in!
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L\'escargot.
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