Tricky Right Turn Causing Me to Block Traffic

[matticus]

I'm surprised none of the CChat Eagle Eyes have commented on this yet:

 

[winjim]

Yet they have them on the junction he's just left.

I guess they give the junction a bit of symmetry and are an extra reminder. If you back the streetview up towards the level crossing, you can see what it looked like before they resurfaced the road and repainted the lines. I wonder if they had a problem with people parking on the cycle lane or just had a spare tin of yellow paint that needed using up.

Before:

After:

 

[Trickedem]

Hold the traffic up. And I say that as a driver too.

If the road is too narrow for vehicles to pass while you wait to turn right, then stop them by waiting in the middle of the road, roughly where it says Wellington on your Google Street view. Sometimes forcing motons to do the right thing is the only way.

I'd second that. I never give motorists the opportunity to dangerously undertake me when I am waiting to turn right, unless the road is really wide.

 

[Drago]

Short answer, you're doing nothing wrong, and I'd do it just as you are.

That's correct.

But it's also incorrect.

The only place it is not possible for a road user to cause an obstruction is in a marked parking bay.

Blocking the traffic waiting to make a turn is an obstruction. If it's taking an undue amount of time to make the turn the obstruction becomes unreasonable and starts to cross the threshold into becoming an offence. If you can't make the manoeuvre in a reasonable period of time (and reasonable takes in many factors and may ultimately be for a court to decide) then any road user should move on.

You can be knocked off for it, though I have never personally done so. I had a colleague who came across a car doing this and it was causing horrendous tailbacks and snarling up a second junction further back. He instructed the driver to move, and the driver refused - itself an offence for a driver to fail to obey an instruction given by a constable in uniform - so he got an FPN for unnecessary obstruction. The driver contested it in court, lost, and as I recall the case made the papers (the Telegraph, as I recall).

No matter the vehicle, if you can't complete the manoeuvre in a reasonable time them move along or pull over.

 

[matticus]

... then the law is an ass. It would be a lot less fuss for a driver coming the other way to let our road-user turn right in front of him/her.

 

[Darius_Jedburgh]

And we wonder why cyclists are despised by so many motorists?......

Hold the traffic up. And I say that as a driver too.

Pot, kettle.....

 

[T4tomo]

I had a colleague who came across a car doing this and it was causing horrendous tailbacks and snarling up a second junction further back. He instructed the driver to move, and the driver refused

surely the common sense approach, would have been to momentarily stop the traffic the opposite direction, so manoeuvre could be completed and everybody is happy?

 

[Milkfloat]

surely the common sense approach, would have been to momentarily stop the traffic the opposite direction, so manoeuvre could be completed and everybody is happy?

Our Police service and common sense are not often seen together.

 

[si_c]

I'd take a primary road position as early as possible when approaching that, probably moving over to the right of the lane when crossing that little river at the latest. I'd then watch the oncoming traffic and try to control my speed so if there was space move into the bus stop prior to entering the cut through I could. Using that extra space to move over would reduce the likelihood of needing to stop at all to turn right.

Alternatively I'd do what @I like Skol said and just block traffic, it's not safe for drivers to pass, so they shouldn't, they wouldn't go around a car waiting to turn into that road.

 

[PeteXXX]

If you're blocking cars while you're waiting to turn, I'm sure a driver coming t'other way would slow down to give you a gap.
After all, they can see that the cars behind you are being delayed and they wouldn't want that state of affairs to continue!

 

[united4ever]

If you're blocking cars while you're waiting to turn, I'm sure a driver coming t'other way would slow down to give you a gap.
After all, they can see that the cars behind you are being delayed and they wouldn't want that state of affairs to continue!

Yeah, that does happen sometimes. If I get there soon after the level crossing has opened there is a stream of traffic coming towards me that has built up over the last 5 minutes and a stream of traffic behind me that has been queuing too. Often one oncoming car will let me go.

Yeah, some days it is fine but if the sequence of events conspire just as I get there it causes the situation described in OP. Happy to hear I am in the right (was fairly sure I was) and some useful tips too.

 

[neil_merseyside]

Is the station nearby? Could you time your arrival to when the gates are shut, then oncoming traffic doesn't exist and the following traffic have nowhere to go and so will be at a standstill.

 

[boydj]

If you're blocking cars while you're waiting to turn, I'm sure a driver coming t'other way would slow down to give you a gap.
After all, they can see that the cars behind you are being delayed and they wouldn't want that state of affairs to continue!

I get that quite a lot trying to turn right into my street. It costs the driver who makes the gap very little time . especially if he flashes in plenty time to let me know what he's doing.