Safe Speed Forums

Anyone help on this? Was I wrong and if so what should I have done?

Arrived home last night having gone on a trip to offie for essential provisions

I have a drive outside the house which I reverse on to. I approached the house which was on the opposite side of the road, (nothing coming) pulled up on the right hand side of the road ready to swing out & reverse in. It was dark and I had my headlights on. As I began to swing out I noticed a car approaching so I stopped and let my car roll back to its position parallel to the kurb to let them past to and avoid obstructing their progress. The driver of the car then sounded the horn as he went past, presumably because I was on the wrong side of the road with my headlights on. (I was indicating throughout BTW)

I'm aware that you shouldn't have headlights on whilst parked on the right hand side of the road. Should I have used sidelights as soon as I pulled up? It was a fairly momentary thing.

The only reason I can think for tooting the horn was if he thought that you hadn't seen him - you certainly shouldn't have turned off your headlights.

The only thing that I would have done differently, is not stopping the reverse - once you have committed to a manoeuvre, it is normally better to complete it, than to appear to dither by going back to where you were. Presumably there was nothing coming when you started reversing, and if you hadn't hesitated you would probably have been out of his way by the time he reached your position.

if you ask me this English obsession with parking on the wrong side of the road is nothing short of dangerous and should be banned completely. You probably blinded the poor b*stard as your left light is designed to project much further than the right.

So how would you reverse into a drive on the opposite side of the road then?

I do admit there is another option, and that is to drive in forwards, and then reverse out in the morning. For my house this isn't a problem because the pavement is 12' wide, and I can turn the car either way before getting onto the road. Mrs Rewolf has a different view though, and reverses fully onto the road. The road in question is a 30 limit A road, and her reverse takes her onto the other side of the road - traffic is often stationary anyway, and even if not, she gets as far out as she can then waits for someone to slow and let her out.

Neither of us has had a problem with our individual approaches, and without the extra wide pavement I would probably do what she does.

Obviously both of us take care when reversing out to only creep until we can see clearly down the pavement - the biggest danger is the cyclists that regularly use the pavement in preference to the road, but they worry me most as a pedestrian.

So what does (or would) everyone else do?

You may be right Rewolf although it wasn't a case of dithering, I was maybe a yard into swinging out and continuing the manouvre would have made the other car have to brake and come to a virtual halt. Just a straightforward courtesy judgement. Its difficult to explain the layout but you've got to be quick and if the driver of the other car is making progress you need to be prepared to bail out.

what one does in civilised countries where deliberately blinding oncoming traffic is considered a bad thing is either (a) drive into the driveway, reverse out, drive forward and finally reverse in or (b) if the road is wide enough, drive past the driveway and do your u-turn on the road...

Ooof! I ain't reversing onto our road at rush hour! More dangerous than speed camera policy!

johnsher makes a fair point though. I forgot about the alignment of the headlight. I could continue to drive up the road and turn around, thereby allowing me to park up on the left as I come back. It would add a minute or so to the journey though. Only a prat uses the horn in that situation however (and at that time of evening). I don't think he was simply 'making me aware of his presence'.

The sad thing is that I could drive back to the house from the opposite direction but the speed bumps on that bit of road damage my Alfa 156 to the tune of £100s a year, whether you do 10mph or 30mph over them.

Im sure i remember years ago being told to never reverse on to a main road as its an obscure offence of some sort.......dont know how true that was but i always try and reverse into drives as its usually a lot easier to get out forwards than backwards..........

This is my view 1.Pull onto offside of road
2. Extinguish headlights until no oncoming vehicles
3. Prior to starting manoeuvre decide whether you need to illuminate headlights again or not.
continue on your business the worst culprits for this are taxi drivers pulling onto offside at night and allowing passengers to embark.

I suppose you could always try turning around and reverse in from the correct position that way you wont cause anyone any unnecessary upset.
Stephen

Agreed. But I go further. Headlights off as soon as I'm parked. Why risk causing dazzle when you have no need to see?

It's critically important to kill your headlights if you're on the 'wrong' side of the road, partly because they 'dip the wrong way' and partly because some idiot might decide he needs to pass to the left of your headlights.

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Paul Smith
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Actually you shouldn't park on th eright hand side of the road after dark at all but you weren't parked, you were manouvering. Should we all turn round and reverse down the road if there are cars parked on the left? No.



With hindsight, probably. What I would have done though (and I have a similar situation when parking) is carried on the manouver.

As for reversing off a driveway. A pet hate of mine. There is a rule (law?) that you must not reverse into a main (or is it major) road but what constitutes a main road. I had been told anything more major than the road you are on, and you don't get much less major than a driveway. But I don't think that is the letter of the law (rule?).

Anyway, reversing onto a drive is always preferable to reversing off.

If there are street lights it is leagal to park on the wrong side of the road without lights.

I believe...
If it is an unlit area you may park but must leave side lights on. unless you are facing the correct way

in your case I would reduce lights to side lights and indicate my intention to rh side. then reverse when clear enough.

I think that if you build a new house on a main road or modify the driveway of an existing one, you'll be expected to make the driveway such that you can go in nose first and turn around on it so you can go back out nose first as well. Obviously not everywhere has the space, but if you have... A friend who bought an old house with no driveway but a decent sized front garden was told that he'd got the room to provide a turning spaceso he would have to do it before they'd give permission for the drop kerb. Another who was building a house got nagged about turning spaces, again because it was a main road and even though he'd planned space for that purpose which the silly sods hadn't noticed.

Again, it all still hinges on what a main road is. A roads? A and B? What about cul-de-sacs if they're busy?


Whether it's a parking space or my own driveway or garage, I always reverse in unless there's a pressing need not to (boot access usually).

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Interesting thoughts, not sure that I agree or fully understand what you are suggesting though...

By having lights on dipped, it is obvious to everybody that you are an "active" car rather than one just parked up with sidelights on, or worse no lights. I don't see how this impacts on "some idiot" - it could happen whenever you are parked on the wrong side irrespective of what the state of your lights is. Some idiot is probably going off very soon if they cannot work out where the road is going.

Pulling over on the left side of the road when you want to reverse into a driveway on the right? That won't work, because by pulling in hard to the left you prevent the swing of the front end required to reverse across into the target drive. Are you really suggesting reversing across both lanes of the road? That would impact on both directions, not just one, and would be much harder to find a gap for. It is such a potentially dangerous move, that I can only assume I have misunderstood.

One option to prevent dazzle would be to use the dip adjustment wheel that most modern cars have - lowering the aim of the beam would reduce dazzle or eliminate it altogether.

I can see the purpose of a taxi parking on the wrong side of the road, because in general, a car crossing the road is a lot safer than a group of pedestrians crossing, especially when they might be slightly "worse for wear". This is the group of pedestrians most likely to get mown down by us reckless speed maniacs, surely parking on the wrong side is better than forcing then to stagger across the road, where they will probably open the road side door because it is nearest and spend several minutes in the the road while they argue about who has to sit in the middle.

The only answer appears to be that if you need to reverse into a drive, it must always be on the left, and if it is on the right, then you need to drive on and turn around first.

I beg to differ, as many have said in previous posts, switch off the headlights when stationary - whichever side of the road you are on.
I think there's a law (is it 'construction & use' or 'road traffic act'?) against having lamps of a certain wattage (higher than 21?) lit when stationary.
Also, an oncoming drivers eyes are naturally 'drawn' towards the bright lights and even if they manage to focus away from the source of the light they are blinded to the less well lit areas because of the natural aperture adjustment that the human eye performs.
The fact is that the oncoming driver probably couldn't see much of your indication as the headlamps would have made it difficult to pick out a 21 watt indicator against a 55 watt headlight!

I must admit though - one of my pet hates is stationary vehicles with headlights on!

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http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/22.htm#222

222: You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space.
Laws CUR reg 101 & RVLR reg 24

223: All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph.
Law RVLR reg 24

Quite a few years ago now a school friend of mine was coming out of Shaftesbury into Motcombe on his motorcycle, when he came across a car, parked on the wrong side of the road with his headlights on.

We can only assume that the headlights were on full beam as he obviously was blinded and went to the left of the car.

You can still see the imprint of his goggles on the telegraph pole.

Just north of the M4 junction on the A419 is a lay-by where I have seen this habit a few times and I must admit I do blast my horns at the people who do it. They just sit there with full beam headights on and I can just imagine that some poor soul is going to lose their life here.

The first time it happened, I almost went to the left of them.

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I think it's 'major' road, and I think it's a relative term. Like giving way to the more major road.

Maybe the rule should be: "never reverse in such a place that you would have to give way to other traffic if moving forward". (OK, I know the wording is clumsy - it's not at all an easy thing to word well, but you get the idea...)

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Glare, dazzle and deep shadows for nothing.

Here in North Scotland, on the single track roads, passing places at night show this 'loss of vision' effect very clearly. If the vehicle giving way in a passing place keeps dipped headlights on, you can see very little of the smallish gap you are about to drive through.

On the other hand, aware drivers kill their headlights when giving way and waiting in a passing place. This improves the other drivers' view considerably.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Beamer, g_attrill,

I do not see what the parking regulations have to do with this situation: the vehicle is not parked, it is intended to be stationary for about 1 or two seconds while reverse is engaged and the area behind is checked to be clear of obstructions. According to the description in the first post, the vehicle was only stationary for about this time, with the first attempt to reverse aborted because it would obstruct an oncoming vehicle thus extending the duration to about 10 seconds. If Sam was parking, then that is a totally different situation, but he wasn't.

Are you also supporters of the new local regulations that are starting to appear that force drivers to turn off their engines when stationary, including when stopped at Traffic Lights! Perhaps Sam should have been forced to turn off his engine as well for the 10 seconds it took for this vehicle to pass.

What I am saying is if you are stationary while preparing to reverse, the concept of being forced to switch your lights to parking or side lights in response to an oncoming vehicle that may or may not appear is an unnecessary complication when you will only plan to be stationary for 1 or 2 seconds.

If you take Beamers words literally: "switch off the headlights when stationary - whichever side of the road you are on", then you have to turn your lights off every time you stop at a set of traffic lights or pedestrian / railway crossing, or even when the motorway stops at night. You will be stationary for longer in any of these situations than Sam intended to be, but are you suggesting that you should turn off your lights in all of these situations too? Personally I wouldn't turn off my lights in any of them because in all of these situations it is important for other drivers to know that your car is Active as opposed to Parked, and leaving your headlights on is the best way to indicate this.

Most cars are not even designed to quickly switch light modes - it is not a quick flick of a stalk like main to dipped is, on my current car it is a rotary action on the lights switch, but if you want parking lights, then it is an additional switch on the top of the steering column, on the mondeo it is a rotary switch by the drivers right knee. It is certainly not an action that can be taken if you are not familiar with the car because it varies so much.

I really do not think that this is the intended interpretation of the highway code.