Safe Speed Forums

I know we all see examples of dreadful driving on a regular basis, but I still can’t believe what I saw yesterday.

Heading south on the M1, in the distance, on the hard shoulder is a Highway agency vehicle parked behind a car, broken down I assume. Nothing strange there. In lane 1, a car indicates left and starts breaking as they are approaching the two vehicles on the hard shoulder, good to see someone giving such clear instructions before moving onto the hard shoulder, no! they pulled up in lane 1 alongside the Highway agency vehicle and then waved a map out of the window.

Pleased to say though, that all other drivers approaching behaved very well, everyone anticipated the situation, adjusted speed and made room for those who needed to change lanes.

if only they had a satnav. Maps should be banned!

We only have Mark's word that it was a map - maybe it was the instructions for the sat nav!!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

markb - I think I can go one better. On the day of Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, the funeral cortege had to proceed northbound on the M1 to Northamptonshire, and Diana's final resting place. Drivers on the southbound M1 had stopped and parked in L3, alongside the crash barrier, and many had got out of their cars and stood in L3 to watch the cortege drive past!

I have seen someone replacing a wheel on the central reservation of the M6.

Likewise at top of Corley Bank going south ( in hatched section where the 4 lanes merge into 3) - wheel replacement of passenger side.


Kami kazi sprung to mind

And on the M62 westbound, there was a queue in L1 waiting to exit on the M6 slip road - and a dumbwit stopped in L2 half way along the queue indicating left.

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Brian

Now - one i have posted before ----

broken down on M40 , a touch short of 2M from J10 services , going south.
Sitting on bank , see car get onto hard shoulder, and stop 5 yd behind mine.
Woman gets out - on L1 SIDE - "Get over here ",I shout.
She gets into gap between cars and asks "got any diesel or petrol , i'm low "
"No " says i.
"How far to services "says she .
Me , points to sign ( 20 x 20 ft ) about 5 yards ahead saying "J10 SERVICES 2M AHEAD" ----"AHAH", SAYS SHE , and gets in car.

(Don't forget gap between cars )

She reverses about 5 yd. Then right indicator on she tries to get into L1 (ONLY at this time HGV is approcching) .30 SECS LATER, I EMERGE FROM THE UNDERGROWTH TO FIND HER GONE.

And thank St Christopher for my good fortune.

We saw one complete muppet having a picnic on the hard shoulder of the M20 once.

"Nowt as queer as folk down souf! "

They even had a picnic rug laid out. Little table .... we could not work out if they'd broken down and NO they were not French heading to the port either. UK registered...

But in the case of the person changing wheel on central reserve... presumably he'd had a blow out and was unable to steer to the hard shoulder. He should have moved himself out of the way as soon as safely possible. and used the SOS phones for Trafpol to close off and activate the gantries and signals to close off L3 till that car was cleared.

Nowt as queer as folk.. it must have been M6 towards the South.. of course

But it does open up a sub-question.. what do you do if suddenly stranded in L3 and faced with prospect of crossing L2/L1 to reach the "safety" of the hard shoulder and have to abandon car .. which might also cause accident if stranded with hazards on in L3? Must be very very scary when that happens.

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I see that more often than I'd like on my way to work - heading west along the M40, L1 is nose to tail between J1 (the on-slip here becomes the new L1) and 1a (M25), meaning anyone who was in L1 on the M40 and who wants to get onto the M25 has to get from what is now L2 into the jammed new L1... total pain in the arse for them AND those of us who want to stay on the M40 - for that mile and a half, the onward M40 is pretty much reduced to a single lane until all the M25-bound traffic has merged out of the way.

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Chris

What irritates me in that situation is the people not using the road capacity. Moving into one stationary lane too early when there could be two more freely flowing lanes instead.