Safe Speed Forums

..*Stop* any motor vehicle on the highway in a manner that prevents access to or egress from any minor road (Including private drivways)

(Think queuing traffic on the approach to junctions or any other obstruction)

Discuss!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Why ever not? Box junctions and Keep Clear signs exist to prevent problems in congested conditions.

Far more important is that you do not slow or stop to give way to vehicles exiting from minor roads or driveways. It is appalling that one person can delay tens of others on a major road while they 'kindly' let out another.

Think: single carriageway - rush hour traffic congested in both directions........side roads every 20m - some busy, some not. Enforce the rule and there are more gaps than cars - and the traffic queue increases in length by the sum of those gaps. Sure, it will allow access from the side roads which is not really an issue when they are filtering into the traffic lane but there is (and always will be) the one turning right.....we've all met him - blocks the nearside lane because no-one will let him filter into the offside traffic queue.....and that queue has not left a gap 'because they are not blocking a minor road' (who will remember the 'egress' rule completely?). And to include private driveways? A car length gap for every queueing car in some cases.

Not practical I'm afraid.......and impossible to enforce consistently; there aren't enough BiB to take on the task - remember we already have selective policing on our roads! - and the last thing any citizen needs is yet another regiment of a private 'enforcement' army.

Sadly, courtesy and consideration have disappeared from driving culture; unfortunately those traits will not be recovered through legislation.

Except that they dont!

And you are mixing two separate issues.

#1 stop/start traffic

As an example my driveway is about 50 yards back from a mini roundabout. at busy times stationary traffic will frequently queue accreoss the entrance preventing me from exiting. this is not an issue of "Not slowing down" it is a case of "Deliberatly preventing me from emerging" Now, for me this isnt *that* big an issue since *I* do not usually drive at peak times and there is useually somebody who will stop short to let me out. It is just that I feel that this sort of situation should (Perhaps) be formalised so that access to the highway does not rely *solely* on somebody elses goodwill.

#2 Re "Slowing & Stopping" IIRC the HWC says something along the lines of "Not pulling out in a manner that causes somebody else to brake/swerve" However, this (ISTM) goes hand in hand with drivers on the main road, when busy, leaving sufficient gaps that an "On the ball" driver is able to pull out without causing undue inconveniance to the main road traffic.


In the main, the trick surly should be that considerate driving requires that you drive in a manner that allows everybody to have reasonable access to the road space to be able to complete their journeys in a reasonable time.

Just because main road traffic has "Right of way/Priority" should not entitle drivers to drive in a manner that is intended to deliberatly prevent minor road traffic from joining (or leaving*) the highway.


(*Going back to my example. Pillocks who stop accross my driveway and prevent me from turning right into it can, if the traffic is heavy enough, gridlock the junction further down the road)

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"