Safe Speed Forums

I know I am really playing devils advocate here, but I have to sympathise just a little.

Perhaps anyone who is able to try this should give it a whirl. I will explain the scenario. If one is to take the M27 heading away from bournemouth, with the intention of turning onto the M3 north at the interchange. This juction allows L2 to turn right or go straight ahead to Portsmouth.

Frequently I find myself overtaking slower traffic in L1, therefore I will be L2 turning left. Now the fun begins, 90% of the motorists on this road don't seem to read the signs, so when I approach the junction, specifically as the lane is divided by a solid white line, I indicate left (as is required, to signal that I will be taking the second filter lane from L2. All of the traffic inside of me bunches up to credit card seperation, in what I can only assume is a bid to halt my (illegal) re-entry into L1. When I take the (legal) exit from L2, and pass the huge queue of traffic, however, without fail some car will bury the throttle and pass me waving fists and other such gestures!

My point being, that early indication seems to give notice to poor drivers that they need to block the manoeuvre!

Not an excuse, and I am expecting my arguments to be torn to shreds

I know it's bad planning, and not really totally related to this topic, but when you're left high and dry, say you need to be in lane 2 on a roundabout to go right, but no gap appears in time... What would be the right course of action? Normally I would just take the first or second exit, depending on the roundabout, but I wouldn't take the right turn exit from lane 1... If I take exit 1 or 2 I just find somewhere to turn/find an alternative route.

I know many drivers would just take the exit they had initially planned to take, going right round the roundabout in the outside lane, but that's dangerous and possibly illegal?

On a slightly more serious note... What should you do if you go to overtake someone on a s/c and they wait until you're alongside and decide to speed up? I encountered this on Sunday, I went to pass a driver doing about 35mph in a NSL S/C road, as soon as I got alongside he hit the accelerator... Now I don't exactly have the performance to 'nail it' and get past him in a short space of time... This time I think I probably made the wrong decision, but it was okay, nothing bad happened, but I dropped down another gear (had been in 5th originally, waiting for a straight stretch, dropped to 4th to get a bit more torque, and ended up in 3rd whilst alongside), which made the engine roar quite a bit, and I do believe I cut it too close to a oncoming bend... I guess I should have probably hit the brakes and aborted the overtaking manoeuvre, better to be held up a bit than dead, but I'll note that for next time... I just can't believe people can be so silly... I know, slightly hypocritical there, I was the one that decided to continue accelerating...

That would be the one downside I see about forcing younger drivers to drive small, less powerful cars... When overtaking there is a real problem with accelerating quickly enough to complete the overtake safely.

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Mike

No, I think you're quite right, especially the bit I've put in bold. I think most people drive around asleep these days, then panic when they find they're about to be diverted to Winchester instead of Portsmouth, or whatever. The other attitude which is prevalent these days is "you're not getting in front of me". But I don't want to be in front of you, I just need to be in that lane. When your vehicle is 60 feet long, it's easy to deal with people who try and block you...you just pull out anyway. I know this is very bad.

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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the kerb.