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I would imagine that bumps at x-roads must pretty well always be settled by insurance companies knock for knock.
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OK, I make that 4.5 to 2.5 in favour of waiting for the car going straight across - a majority but not unanimity. But it's a common enough situation, as Bill Payer confirms, and it would be good to see it dealt with unambiguously in the Highway Code, wouldn't it?
On reflection, I suspect TVM is right and that Rule 156, on turning right, supports him:
...Wait until there is a safe gap between you and any oncoming vehicle.
provided you extend 'oncoming vehicle' to include one stationary behind the opposite give-way line.
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There are of course variations on this basic situation:
1) both vehicles want to turn respectively right - do they /can they cross each other or go round back to back?
2) the side roads are not exactly opposite, giving one of them a built-in advantage in terms of getting across first
3) there is an island in the middle, but not enough space for a car to wait in the middle clear of both lanes on the main road
4) example near us - the dotted line marking the stopping position on a side road is stupidly set so far back that it is not possible to see the traffic on the main road, so cars have to edge forward.
5) one of the side roads has a stop line, the other does not. Does that convey priority to the other road, or not?
6) the whole layout is skewed by having a bend on the main road, or approach roads at oblique angles, so that "straight on" = right turn, or v.v.
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Dont know where it is covered but I was taught, many years ago, that if turning right you gave way to traffic going straight across or turning left. My FIL was prosecuted for breaking this rule when he was hit by someone he turned across, he wanted to plead not guilty and went through several solicitors before he found one who would take the case because they all felt he should plead guilty - which he was.
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Trouble is, most of the people we're likely to meet won't have the reasoned ablity of the posters here,
so all the hypotheses are bound to meet their disproving case. I always 'flash' or otherwise make clear
to the protagonist in these situations that they can go first - the small delay is better than a big delay.
Mind you, I have made gestures or flashed in some cases & the other driver stays resolutely stationary - in which
case I gingerly, though 'theatrically' make forward progress.
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Mind you I have made gestures or flashed in some cases & the other driver stays resolutely stationary - in which case I gingerly though 'theatrically' make forward progress.
That's exactly the approach I take, and it's always in my mind that if we do bump, and the other driver says "you flashed me!" then I'll say I was simply indicating my presence!
What happens (which is really dodgy) at the X-roads I referred to earlier, is oposite drivers pull out together but turn sharply near side to near side (the main road is single carriageway A road and isn't wide enough to go around each other. So they end up driving up the wrong side of the A road for a short distance and then swerve across! With 60MPH traffic approaching in both directions, this is fraught with danger.
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From a defensive driving point of you i.e. learnt on a bike where the whole basis for survival comes from if you don't know what the other driving is about to wait for him to do it. IAM probably have some worthy neunomic to remind you to do this.
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George Bishop in Car magazine some years ago related a theory told to him by some bloke from the 1930?s, in that the best way to deal with crossroads was to whiz through at high speed (say 60mph). Two reasons:- first, you?re in the ?zone of danger? less time than going through at lower speeds, second, that any oncoming driver will be scared witless to see you coming at such a rate and will stop anyway. Make of that what you will!
S6 1SW
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Didn't the Highway Code once say that, at a crossroads, you always pass offside to offside?
That way you pass behind the other car - whatever it does - and it's impossible to hit it.
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George Bishop in Car magazine some years ago related a theory told to him by some bloke from the 1930?s in that the best way to deal with crossroads was to whiz through at high speed (say 60mph).
Like Ryan O'Neil in The Driver?
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