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Yep, putting yourself in danger for no reason – you need to really get some training.
Putting myself in danger by driving within the law in case someone who decides to break it comes tearing up my arse? Really? And it's me that needs training?!
How exactly am I putting myself in danger? By the sounds of it you are concerned that someone else's driving would put me in danger, not my own as there is no reason for anyone to get close to me in the situation I describe.
Going up the M6 a few years ago, that long climb out of Tebay heading north. There were two lorries in the inside and middle lanes doing their drag race of 55mph and 55.5mph so I moved to the outside lane to overtake (one car miles back in the rear view mirror).
Well **** me if that car wasn't doing well over 100 and he was rapidly coming up my bumper in no time at all. Some Jaguar saloon thing. I pushed it to 80 and pulled in and the guy went past at a proper rate of knots.
Less than a minute later, another car passed me going even faster. This one had flashy blue and red lights in the back of it and I laughed a LOT when I passed Jaguar Man pulled over on the hard shoulder a couple of miles later. I love it when that happens.
It seems that a number of people think that a driver abiding to the law has less rights to be on the road than dicks who like to speed.
I don't think anyone is implying that flashing light man isn't a dick - it's more about being dynamic to your surroundings than resolutely sticking to a set of rules. Common sense normally trumps sticking to 'rules'. There's really no harm in speeding up a little bit to get yourself out of a situation with an arrogant arsehole. Or slow down, whichever.
Of course you don't 'have' to do either, but that's slightly ridiculous tbh
I find it quite astonishing that on a STW motoring thread which usually attracts self-righteous high-horse riders like moths to a flame, there are so many posters here suggesting that the OP should have 'given it a bit more' and is somehow feeble for not breaking the speed limit.
All motorway lanes bar the first are overtaking lanes. If you're in one and not overtaking, you're in the wrong lane. That said, the OP was - as presented, at least - overtaking a vehicle in lane two. Whether this is an accurate description or whether the OP was being undertaken out of frustration for their 'tootling' along, only one poster will know for sure and the rest of us are speculating.
In the situation the OP describes, you have three basic courses of action. You speed up, you slow down, or you do nothing. The first is illegal, the other two both have potential to inflame the situation. Lifting off will allow you to pull in behind the driver in lane two who's just discovered what the pedal on the right is for, but you're slowing down even more the Wing Commander you're towing. Maintaining a constant speed just prolongs the issue, like when you see two trucks drag-racing at 55.9mph for miles.
Hard to know what I'd have done to be honest. If someone is in a hurry I'll do everything I can to let them past safely, but fundamentally I hate bullies and if someone thinks they can just muscle me off the road then I have little patience for that crap. I'd probably just have booted it for a couple of seconds to get out of their way, but if I needed then off my arse and didn't have that option then maybe drag the brake pedal with my left foot to put the lights on?
Really though, I wouldn't have put myself in that situation in the first place. Motorway driving, I like to have as many escape routes as possible. If I'm overtaking then I overtake, it's an active manoeuvre not 'tootling' along. Similarly if I'm being overtaken, either get on with it and come past or get behind me. I'll try to avoid having another vehicle alongside me for longer than is absolutely necessary because it reduces my options if something were to go wrong and, well, creates this sort of dilemma.
Or the ones that flash at you to get out of the way, to sit on the bumper of the car in front, that's moving at the same speed as the 10 in front of them.
I may have given free issue of screen wash for folk like that... my windows were dirty.
Cougar
I’d probably just have booted it for a couple of seconds to get out of their way, but if I needed then off my arse and didn’t have that option then maybe drag the brake pedal with my left foot to put the lights on?
As tempting as it is to do this, what this will result in is the car behind undertaking at the first opportunity then brake testing you.
I don’t think anyone is implying that flashing light man isn’t a dick – it’s more about being dynamic to your surroundings than resolutely sticking to a set of rules. Common sense normally trumps sticking to ‘rules’. There’s really no harm in speeding up a little bit to get yourself out of a situation with an arrogant arsehole. Or slow down, whichever.
I tend to agree with this approach to dealing with such drivers. However at the weekend I was coming off the A1 to take the A19 (this is a dual carriageway straight away so there are two lanes of vehicles still travelling at high speed) and I could see a guy in a Volvo v60 coming up quite quickly behind me but still indicating left although he had left it very late to squeeze in. I speeded up a bit to make room behind me so he could merge in but ohh no, he didn't want to do that – he carried on past me then made a suicide manoeuvre swerving in right in front of my bonnet *just* before he ran out of slip road. Idiot. Lesson learned – don't go changing speeds to suit what you *think* others are doing / are about to do – just stay at your speed and let other drivers work out for themselves what they are doing.
As my dad has often said
“Pee or get off the pot”
If you are in lane 3 get on with it. Sitting in L3 for two miles creeping past a L2 hogger at 70 is nearly on a par with flashy twerp. It’s just less aggressive, slightly more legal but likely to upset L2 hogger and everyone else too!
As tempting as it is to do this, what this will result in is the car behind undertaking at the first opportunity then brake testing you.
No it won't, because as I said,
All motorway lanes bar the first are overtaking lanes. If you’re in one and not overtaking, you’re in the wrong lane.
The only time I ever get undertaken is if someone is properly driving with their head on fire (or it's a slow-moving traffic jam). It can't happen if you pull back in once you've completed an overtake.
Yep, big load of whoosh going on here I think!
One hopes, but then again have you been on the roads lately?
Less than a minute later, another car passed me going even faster. This one had flashy blue and red lights in the back of it and I laughed a LOT when I passed Jaguar Man pulled over on the hard shoulder a couple of miles later. I love it when that happens.
Happened to me on the A417 whilst cycling. Dickhead rep man flying by and dangerously overtaking. Passed him pulled over in a pub car park whining at a policeman. I was SO tempted to pull in and watch whilst smirking.
I've had occasions where a complete stranger was an egregious dick to me and been shaken up and upset for a while after - it's the fight/flight response, sort of, as you realise how powerless you are in those moments.
I am guessing, OP, that if you had been driving an unmarked cop car with cameras on your way to a meeting of chief constables, you'd be feeling rather different about this incident.
The feeling does eventually pass.
Paradoxically the going over it in your head sometimes "wears out" the emotional impact and is helpful!
Still sucks until you do get over it, but you are not alone, if that helps.
I wouldn’t have thought the old bill would drive that close up your arse, so it’s 99.9% going to be a bell end behind you.
Bit late to this.....but
I was heading down the M6 at xmas to go to the in-laws. I was in the fast lane, about 70-75, leaving space between me and the car in front. Some bell-end comes barrelling up my chuff somewhere close to light speed and inches off my backside. I thought about stopping at the next services so he could buy me dinner first. I get past the car on my inside and pull back in when it's safe.
Mr up-my-chuff batters past and hes got "Dog Unit" in reflective signage all over the back of his Octavia estate.
No blue lights, no siren, no horn or lights flashing like I was in the way of the constabulary, so was I supposed to guess he was on an emergency callout or was he just a ****?
Mr up-my-chuff batters past and hes got “Dog Unit” in reflective signage all over the back of his Octavia estate.
No blue lights, no siren, no horn or lights flashing like I was in the way of the constabulary, so was I supposed to guess he was on an emergency callout or was he just a ****?
Quite often securuty guards who take themselves a bit too seriously plaster their motors up to look like the police. You generally find the ones that call their outfit the 'dog unit' are the ones that go OTT with this
Yep, sounds like a plastic plod rather than the real thing.
Oi you mustn't call it the fast lane, you'll get called an ignorant fool if you do😃
I'm quite disappointed too at a lot of the responses on here. My comments and questions about indicated Vs real speed really were a suggestion not a rule. My recent experience (not isolated it seems) shows that there is very little offset in some cars and I was trying to raise awareness of the fact. If you have k's of miles in various cars that have an offset, that's great for you. There may be a difference with the cross climate tyres I'm using. Again, I'm not the only one with those so if that's what's 'correcting' the readout there will be many others on the road in the same situation.
People need to understand what they are driving.
But yes, let’s say they are doing constant 69 and I have my cruise control set at 70 then assuming the outside lane is clear when I commence the manoeuvre then I will overtake them at a difference of 1mph
Creating a small but definite extra risk as you will be in their blindspot for several seconds.
I'm in the overtake briskly school (as in at least a 5mph differential if not more) so I'm not sitting in a blindspot. If that means briefly (shock!) hitting 80mph so be it.
Drifting past at 1mph on cruise control is just lazy driving as well as blocking the lane for the majority of people who rightly or wrongly do slightly more than 70mph when safe to do so.
Putting myself in danger by driving within the law in case someone who decides to break it comes tearing up my arse? Really? And it’s me that needs training?!
How exactly am I putting myself in danger? By the sounds of it you are concerned that someone else’s driving would put me in danger, not my own as there is no reason for anyone to get close to me in the situation I describe.
As a motorcyclist you quickly learn that "no point been dead right".
You're putting yourself in danger, and I'm not the only one telling you.
Just seen almost exactly the same just now. Audi A3 is overtaking on a dual carriageway at c70 or maybe under. I am a couple of cars behind. The A3 takes a while to get past, nothing amiss there. Then a silver 4x4 thing with NITRO on the back barrels up to the A3. All over it, inches away. A3 completes the overtake and pulls in and then the NITRO cockmobile overtakes, pulls in and brakechecks. I pass the mess and see NITRO cock now weaving around at probably 30mph with a queue starting to form behind. Bellend.
Didn't get the numberplate though.