The trouble with Primary ... Pt II

[GrumpyGregry]

[QUOTE 2550958, member: 30090"]Were there double white lines on the road?[/quote]
Nah, Long stripes.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

For goodness sake get a 'king camera mate. We want to see the peanuts on YouTube, and we want everyone to point and laugh. Shaming this kind of 'kwittery in enough numbers is a powerful way to enact road culture change.

I've given it a lot of thought. I'm still thinking!

 

[Frood42]

True dat.

Had I taken secondary, rather than moving over, he would have simply squeezed past, and I'd have probably been forced into an encounter with my least favourite drain cover in the whole county.

Or even said a quick hello to the kurb and 'enjoyed' a flight over the handlebars if you were a less experienced rider, or perhaps gone into a hedge

 

[MontyVeda]

Nah, Long stripes.

don't they mean 'hazard' or 'don't overtake' to something?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

don't they mean 'hazard' or 'don't overtake' to something?

The good book says...
127

A broken white line. This marks the centre of the road. When this line lengthens and the gaps shorten, it means that there is a hazard ahead. Do not cross it unless you can see the road is clear and wish to overtake or turn off.

To see if the road is clear you'd need to be looking though. And take some notice of the word SLOW written on the road. But no one I know ever does. And the good book also says ...
129

Double white lines where the line nearest you is solid. This means you MUST NOT cross or straddle it unless it is safe and you need to enter adjoining premises or a side road. You may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26

Same commute I'm passed on double whites when travelling at 25kph+ all the time. And don't get me started on the roads/lanes so narrow they have no lines where people try to drive straight through me.

 

[Matthew_T]

I did a 74 mile ride on Monday to somewhere I hadnt been before. I didnt know the roads well but I was still taking primary through pinch points. I had just turned left here out of Shotwick Lane to head up the hill on the A550. As you can see, there is a pinch point here so I took primary in plenty of time as there was a gap in the traffic behind me.
However, a lorry came hurtling down the hill and sped right up to me, forcing himself to brake very hard. I dont know what he was trying to do but I was not going to move because there was no chance in hell that I was going to let him pass me through the pinch point.

Primary does work but just be careful of vehicles coming behind you.

 

[Matthew_T]

[QUOTE 2552104, member: 30090"]Self preservation Matthew...[/quote]
I wouldnt have had anywhere to go. Things like that frighten me, when someone comes speeding towards you without any signs of braking and nowhere for you to go to avoid them. Some people just dont deserve to be on the roads.

 

[davefb]

jeez..
years ago a friend on his motorbike 'met' someone (car driver) overtaking pedestrians (large group I believe) on the crest of a hill ....
the only thing for his family was that it would have been a quick death.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I did a 74 mile ride on Monday to somewhere I hadnt been before. I didnt know the roads well but I was still taking primary through pinch points. I had just turned left here out of Shotwick Lane to head up the hill on the A550. As you can see, there is a pinch point here so I took primary in plenty of time as there was a gap in the traffic behind me.
However, a lorry came hurtling down the hill and sped right up to me, forcing himself to brake very hard. I dont know what he was trying to do but I was not going to move because there was no chance in hell that I was going to let him pass me through the pinch point.

Primary does work but just be careful of vehicles coming behind you.

being right is, I fear, little compensation for being dead.

 

[Matthew_T]

being right is, I fear, little compensation for being dead.

I understand that. The points I was trying to make is sometimes there isnt anywhere to go and primary is that safest option but not garunteed.

 

[BentMikey]

I wouldnt have had anywhere to go. Things like that frighten me, when someone comes speeding towards you without any signs of braking and nowhere for you to go to avoid them. Some people just dont deserve to be on the roads.

[QUOTE 2552104, member: 30090"]Self preservation Matthew...[/quote]


It seems to me that from that description, Matthew was doing his best for his own self preservation.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

sometimes safety means you just have to pullover, stop, and let them past.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I understand that. The points I was trying to make is sometimes there isnt anywhere to go and primary is that safest option but not garunteed.

That may be the point you were trying to make. But it isn't what you said. Hence the confusion and differing views...

 

[BentMikey]

I didn't misquote you at all - that was one click of the reply button with no edit whatsoever. Your words, exactly as you wrote them. Matthew's point is obvious unless you're trying to pick fights.

Sometimes there's no time and no space to pull over or get out of the way because a situation changes from quite OK to totally wrong in moments, and that's more likely to happen with a wide median like that road has, and a narrow pinch point where you absolutely cannot afford to share with an HGV. In the situation Matthew described, there doesn't seem to be any other options to me. Well, I suppose you could go and crash yourself on the verge. That's certainly better than being under the wheels of the HGV, but I don't see anyone on here doing that in a hurry.

Other times it's entirely possible to anticipate what's going to happen, and do as Greg suggests. It seems to me Matthew isn't describing anything like that.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I think from a post-hoc written description it's actually almost impossible to judge motivations and intents.

Hoist on my own petard this morning; held primary because I was irritated by Mr Honky Horn when I could, with hindsight, have slowed, pulled into the clear gutter and let the bad-tempered impatient numpty past and on his way, away from me. I didn't and, almost inevitably given he had indicated he was a knobjockey with his horn action, he squeezed past anyway and got upgraded to utter blanking knobjockey punt. By both me and the oncoming car whose headlight and horn and anti-lock brakes were called into action!