It's a matter of degree isn't it? (like most give-and-take situations..)
If I'm held up more than a couple of minutes (rare these days where I live -but common in London & HCs where I used to) I'll 'take' an empty piece of road (..and there are no cars coming on that side) to leverage into the opposite lane. Contrary to what's been posted, the highway code (& commonsense) encourages making progress safely - no-one owns forever a piece of road & under no circumstances is to be held up for a millisecond. London (or cabbies at least..) would grind to a halt if many slavishly 'obeyed' that mistaken HC ordinance quoted earlier.
There's another misunderstanding you often come across - people waiting forever at a rondabout because they spy another vehicle vaguely to their right - wastes everyones' time if you wait for a free & clear roundabout - I often merge to the outer lane if clear & will happily
sprint out in front of a dawdler. It freaks out some of the country bumpkins up here - mind you, they still point at planes!
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This happened to me.
A car pulled out of a junction to my left, wanting to turn right, and waited for traffic approaching from his left to leave a gap for him. The road was wet, and he hadn't left me a lot of braking space. I had enough room to stop, but while I had my foot on the brake , I looked in the mirror and saw a motorcycle struggling to stop in the gap behind me. I left him as much room as I could by stopping very close to the side of the car in front of me. The driver of the car in front of me (waiting to turn right) wasn't looking at me! He turned right, leaving a lot of his door trim and paint hanging off my chrome bumper;>)
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I know, it's a tempting option if you are driving something tough.
I once had someone deliberately pull out straight in front of me and then sit broadside on waiting for a gap the other way. I stopped moderately quickly, and pulled up with my landrover bumper about an inch from his door. Because of the position of a traffic bollard he couldn't now continue and cut the corner, nor could he open his door and get out and argue.
I let him sweat for a while and then moved back a bit so that he could edge forward, still managing to scrape his paintwork. Childish but satisfying.
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" the problem could be that these days, some junctions you never get a gap, and you have to just leg it quick. the junction in question probaly needs modifcation"
You never get a gap? Don't believe it.
Leg it quick? That's the way to do it, when it is safe to do so. But I'm talking about people who drove slowly and deliberately out into the main carriageway.
The one junction I cited has, from the side road, perfect visibility to the right for several hundred yards, and good visibility to the left for less distance. It doesn't need redesigning, and neither do the others where the incidents occurred.
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yes i know the junction. it is up for improvementby herts council, maybe due to many frequent accidents, you may have noticed the previous junction has altered near luton hoo, iwonder if they got them to pay for it.
i think you must admit there are some junction at the busy times where the luxury of a clear road in both directions is not happening
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Yesterday I saw a prime example of how not to pull out from a side road.
I was southbound on the A240 from Tolowrth towards Epsom, in the right hand lane. It's a 40mph dual carriageway and was fairly busy at the time.
Half way along, there is a side road; cvan't remember the name but it's shortly before a large carvery restaurant.
Silver people cqarrier pulls out of side road stright into the right hand lane; people in both lanes - myself included - had to brake sharply from the full 40mph; with the traffic volume it is a miracle there was not a major pile up.
A little further along, the driver of the silver vehicle compounded his error by turning right into the Ewell Court estate, which involved him braking sharply from 40 in the right hand lane and then turning right into a road called Bradford drive - this is an exit only; the only legal way of getting into Bradford Drive from there is to continue quarter of a mile to a roundabout called Beggar's Hill and then come back again.
And yes, he did cut across the stream of northbound traffic to carry out this illegal right turn.
And unfortunately no, I don't know his number plate - it was a new style one which is more difficult to remember than the older style ones. I can remember it was a 53 plate, but that's it. So there isn't much point reporting him is there?
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. . . and it's just happened again. A1081 south of Harpenden: wide road with perfect visibility in both directions. 40 mph limit, but exceeded by many because the road is wide and straight. I was northbound doing 40 and fearing the worst: just as well, as woman in a family-packed Micra or similar, with my approach fully in view, steadily and deliberately pulls out from a LH junction and blocks my way. What is going on?
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What is going on?
Stereo/fighting kids/credit crunch/celebs fears and all the other things that occupy people's minds other than the task in hand.
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A long time ago, I used to live and drive in the outer London area, where pulling half-way across the road was more-or-less accepted in congested streets. But try it down here in the South West at your peril!
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roger, please try and come out from this junction, visibility is not always perfect. I agree with what you say, but i feel the junction needs altering, but a couple more people need to get killed first, you know how it is. probaly if this junction fell into luton they wuold have improved it by now
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In these kind of cases, and I know there are a lot of drivers around who do this, I think you'd be entirely justified if they force you to brake in giving them a good, sound blast of the horn and flash them.
If everyone did it, maybe they would stop.
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There is a junction in Frodsham between a B-road and the A56, where zebra-crossing lights were installed several years ago, 10 yards away. This was penny-pinching, as a full set of junction lights would have been better. Despite clear lines and GiveWay signage, there are enough drivers being courteous to others to make those almost irrelevant, and random tailbacks and confusion can be watched at busy times of day. Occasional concessions can help traffic flow, but too many can be almost worse than none. I am waiting for the first serious collision, to see how officialdom reacts.
Edited by Pugugly on 13/09/2008 at 17:59
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PS - I didn't realise I lived in a place with a naughty name ...
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slowdown avenue
I have used that junction.
Go to Google maps and put "Harpenden, Hertfordshire" in the location box.
Zoom in to Harpenden and nudge south the the roundabout junction of the A1081 and Redbourn Lane. Nudge north to the junction with the A1081 just north of Greyfriars Lane. Here you have the A1081 almost straight and almost wide enough to accommodate four lanes, but it's two lanes. There are no buildings in site along the road and no vegetation impeding views from junctions. That's what I call perfect visibility.
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