Bad Neighbour / Good Neighbour

[Lazy-Commuter]

The early part of my trip to work takes me along a single-track "quiet lane" which is a no through road to motor vehicles, but has a pair of bridleways going off the end of it.

It's only a mile or so long, and there's maybe a dozen houses scattered along the length of it, plus a farm towards the end. The middle section is a reasonable climb, and there's plenty of mud, grit, gravel and stuff scattered along the section from the farm to the main road.

As you'd expect, there's little traffic on this road and I'm on nodding terms with many of the cagers I see leaving their houses for work in the morning, or "good morning, nice day" terms with the peds / horse riders you often see up there.

Except one family. I sometimes have to wait for cars to come through in the very narrow bits, or sometimes people will wait for me. But, there's a metallic blue Focus the driver of which seems to be in a world of their own so I always keep a good watch out for them though I've never managed to spot which house they're in.

'nuff preamble. This morning I was in one of the narrower sections on the climb so doing maybe 7-8mph when I heard a car engine from one of the drives up ahead. There's a lot of hedges so I couldnt see it but dropped a gear and moved out into the middle of the road to get a better view.

I could then see the car, a big 4x4 thing, which nosed the front out a bit and then stopped. It was a little way in front so I slowed down, though I took heart from the fact that it seemed to be coming out carefully. It inched out a bit more, stopped again, and by now I could see the driver .. I was a bit less than 10 yards away and got good eye contact with him. Still doing around 6mph so going to take maybe 5 seconds to get past the car, which I still had room to do.

Apart from he then came out of his drive. I don't know why: it wasn't dangerous as such as I was easily able to stop, but there simply wasn't space for him to get past me*, which he realised once he'd moved out enough to block any chance I had of getting past him. So he stopped.

And I stopped. And we looked at each other. Rather, I glared at him and he looked at the hedge. I kind of hoped he might go back into his drive but it seems that reverse gear is an optional extra on big ole 4x4s and he hadn't bought it. So after what seemed like ages but was probably only a few seconds, I walked back down the hill a few yards with the bike and squished into the hedge and he went past, throwing a hasty "thank you" type wave over his shoulder as he went. All the while refusing to have his retinas burnt out by making eye contact with the glare he was getting from me.

Still fuming, I got back on the bike and then noticed the famous blue Focus on the drive he'd just left .. aha, a whole family to watch!! Bad neighbours.

Having toasted my legs up the rest of the hill to burn off my tetchiness, I noticed the van from the house at the top coming towards me along the flat bit just after the farm entrance. I made ready to stop so he could use the farm entrance to go past - he's let me through in the past and come up to check I was OK once when I was removing mud and leaves from the back wheel having emerged from the woods on my way home, so I was glad to let him through. Besides, I was glad of the rest and it would take me a while to get to the next passing place. But, bless him, he stopped and flashed me through. Which I was kind of grateful for in a "ouch me legs" kind of way, so I just did the best I could to avoid holding him up. Good neighbour; brandy and mince pies for you.

* quite apart from the fact it was my right of way.

Edit: cor, I do waffle on, don't I? Sorry.

 

[BentMikey]

* quite apart from the fact it was my right of way.

Err no. It wasn't.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Err no. It wasn't.

Why not? He's already on the road that the car is turning on to... surely must be his right of way, no?

 

[BentMikey]

Why not? He's already on the road that the car is turning on to... surely must be his right of way, no?

You are this: wrong.

 

[marinyork]

Bentmikey you are wrong. The highway code specifically recommends action for this situation and the driver chose not to take it.

 

[BentMikey]

No, I'm correct. That situation does not give him a right of way. More specifically, it doesn't give either of them a right of way.

 

[sjb]

Apart from he then came out of his drive. I don't know why: it wasn't dangerous as such as I was easily able to stop, but there simply wasn't space for him to get past me*, which he realised once he'd moved out enough to block any chance I had of getting past him. So he stopped.

And I stopped. And we looked at each other. Rather, I glared at him and he looked at the hedge. I kind of hoped he might go back into his drive but it seems that reverse gear is an optional extra on big ole 4x4s and he hadn't bought it. So after what seemed like ages but was probably only a few seconds, I walked back down the hill a few yards with the bike and squished into the hedge and he went past, throwing a hasty "thank you" type wave over his shoulder as he went. All the while refusing to have his retinas burnt out by making eye contact with the glare he was getting from me.

One of my neighbours had this problem in his car on the narrow raod at the back of our street. Boy racer in souped up Corsa came flying round the corner as Tony was driving carefully down the hill. Boy racer had approx 10 yards to reverse into a layby to let Tony past but wouldn't budge.

Tony got out of his car, locked it up and started walking up the road towards his house at which point the lad starts shouting and swearing nd asking him what the F he thinks he's doing etc"

"Tny's reply, over his shoulder, was great "I live at number 10, when you've calmed down and grown up enough to come and apologise like a man, and moved your car into the layby, come and get me and I'll move"

He only had to walk another couple of steps and the Corsa was reversing........

 

[marinyork]

A driveway does not count as a junction so it isn't one of the junctions that has no right of way that the highway code tells him to look out for.

If it hadn't be a driveway and the car had been on the road rule 155 deals with this pretty well.

Single-track roads. These are only wide enough for one vehicle. They may have special passing places. If you see a vehicle coming towards you, or the driver behind wants to overtake, pull into a passing place on your left, or wait opposite a passing place on your right. Give way to vehicles coming uphill whenever you can. If necessary, reverse until you reach a passing place to let the other vehicle pass. Slow down when passing pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.

As the driveway wasn't even on the single lane road, this is an even stronger condition. Not to mention the driver was also breaking some pretty fundamental things

Before moving off you should

* use all mirrors to check the road is clear
* look round to check the blind spots (the areas you are unable to see in the mirrors)
* signal if necessary before moving out
* look round for a final check

Move off only when it is safe to do so.

The highway code tells lazy commuter to do several things but the driver of that car is so wrong to be unreal. Just because there are no white lines doesn't mean the car driver can act like an arse.

 

[BentMikey]

Regardless, neither of them have right of way. You are still wrong.

 

[marinyork]

No. The cycle is on the road, the car is not. The vehicle on the road has right of way. Furthermore as lazy commuter got off his bike he momentarily became a pedestrian on the road and the highway code tells the car driver turning out of a junction to give way to the pedestrian. You are factually incorrect. Whichever way you look at this situation the car was in the wrong and has been specifically advised by the highway code to let the bike/ped past first. They chose to dangerously disregard the specific points.

 

[BentMikey]

OK, I'll let you off the hook - he does not have right of way. You probably mean priority, and I'm sure we all agree that the driver was in the wrong, completely.

Slightly pedantic, perhaps a little trolling, but it's still mostly because I think this actually is important. I don't think people in general should be using the words right of way because it's incorrect and because it is part of the "get out of my road" culture. Priority is the correct description, and much better because it implies that sometimes you'll be required to cede that priority. From the highway code:

"The rules in The Highway Code do not give you the right of way in any circumstance, but they advise you when you should give way to others. Always give way if it can help to avoid an incident."

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Sorry guys, didn't mean to start a big row. I was just going with the assumption that as I was on the road and he was coming out of his drive he should give way to me.

To extend the analogy, I wouldn't expect to pull out of my drive onto the road (even though I only live in a small cul-de-sac) if there was a car coming and I'd be pretty p'd off if I was, for example, in a car running along a 40 limit road and someone came out of a drive right in front me ..

Anyways, in this case, regardless of the fine letter of the law rights and wrongs he was a bit silly: had he waited, he'd have been on his way in a few seconds. He didn't and so it was the best part of a minute before he could go anywhere. Longer for me ...

Edit: Sorry, posted this before seeing post 11. Wrong use of terms by me there. Should have said "priority". A bit slapdash .. I was just using "right of way" as that tends to be the colloquial term. Sorry.

 

[BentMikey]

LOL, no row at all, just a really good opportunity to pass along something important I learnt not so long ago. I don't think you did anything wrong.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

One of my neighbours had this problem in his car on the narrow raod at the back of our street. Boy racer in souped up Corsa came flying round the corner as Tony was driving carefully down the hill. Boy racer had approx 10 yards to reverse into a layby to let Tony past but wouldn't budge.

Tony got out of his car, locked it up and started walking up the road towards his house at which point the lad starts shouting and swearing nd asking him what the F he thinks he's doing etc"

"Tny's reply, over his shoulder, was great "I live at number 10, when you've calmed down and grown up enough to come and apologise like a man, and moved your car into the layby, come and get me and I'll move"

He only had to walk another couple of steps and the Corsa was reversing........

.. much respect to Tony.

 

[marinyork]

OK, I'll let you off the hook - he does not have right of way. You probably mean priority, and I'm sure we all agree that the driver was in the wrong, completely.

Slightly pedantic, perhaps a little trolling, but it's still mostly because I think this actually is important. I don't think people in general should be using the words right of way because it's incorrect and because it is part of the "get out of my road" culture. Priority is the correct description, and much better because it implies that sometimes you'll be required to cede that priority. From the highway code:

"The rules in The Highway Code do not give you the right of way in any circumstance, but they advise you when you should give way to others. Always give way if it can help to avoid an incident."

Yes, absolutely right. The highway code does say give way and this is regarded as a synonym with right of way. The highway code also tells lazy commuter several useful things to avoid conflict with people like this which is good advice. My point is that if the driver of the 4x4 got it wrong once or twice, that's understandable we all do that but he/she's basically just ignoring things and acting like an arse, probably to other road users on the narrow lane too.

Lazy commuter, we're just arguing about points in the highway code. We're just being pedantic but the document really does offer some hints as to what should happen in these sorts of situations. I sympathise but if the other people you encounter on the lane are all friendly and behave well you aren't doing badly.