A driving AIBU: three point turns

I agree with you op about the reality of driving, in London at least. The other driver was a bit of a twat for not slowing down.

Then, surely, you wait until it is safe to manoeuvre and not "fully expect" someone to yield to you because you decided you have priority.

Yet there is a busier road quiet enough to consider a 3 point turn.....of course you can find a better turning point

I would slow down as you’re mid manoeuvre, but I’d be irritated. People often do this near school, and there are other options (that would take them slightly longer but not inconvenience others), but they choose to suit themselves. I myself make sure to take plenty of time and turn my car round before parking up, so when I leave I’m facing in the right direction.

Three point turners are so annoying, just drive the long way round

No, you shouldn't be doing that unless the road is absolutely clear.

If you follow Google Maps or your own car satnav, they will never have you performing a turn in the road. You will be sent a mile or more In the same direction until there is a safe roundabout or junction to make a U turn 🤓

Oh god, you're not the driver who started a thread about stopping her car to pick up her sat nav the other day? The one who had a lorry right behind her and who just indicated and stopped in the live lane. That thread was heaving with people saying it was fine to just stop in the road for whatever so I'm sure they'll be coming along to tell you to crack on with your 3 point turns.

YABU.

The polite thing to do would have been to wait for you to complete your move. But unfortunately, people aren't always polite. And if it was easy enough to slip by you, rather than wait, I can see that that is what most people would do.

YABU. You shouldn’t be doing the manoeuvre unless a completely clear road and if necessary you should give way before completing the manoeuvre.

No, what IS reckless is starting to undertake a turn when a car that you can see will reach you before you complete it.

Driving threads on here are always a bit weird - in reality, OP, the vast majority of people would slow down for a car doing a quick manoeuvre that they had clear sight of for 300m.

YABU, you shouldn't have made a turn in the road until you could do so without impeding traffic coming in the opposite direction. And yes, that does mean that in a place like London in the circumstances you describe there may never be an opportunity to do one.

It would have been polite of them to let you go, but the Highway Code is on their side.

One of the first things my driving instructor taught me was to assume that every other road user and pedestrian is at best not paying attention.

I can do 3 point turns within 10 seconds, how slow are you driving to take over 22 seconds to do one?!

That said, I wouldn't do one if there was an oncoming car. I'd have driven in the direction I was parked, then turn into the next right hand turn and come back on myself that way.

I would slow down but only because I can control my driving not that of idiot road users! As a rule I would rather have the idiot in front of me than behind too

the fact you did it outside a school makes it even more daft

Echo most people.

Out of courtesy and to avoided a potential collision I would have waited.

But you were totally in the wrong for doing what you did. You should have gone in the direction you were facing and used a side road to turn round, not doing it on the main road and holding up traffic.

It was their right of way, not yours. They could have waited as a curtesy but were in no way obliged to and come on, if you’re used to London driving then you must know it’s quite rare for anyone to wait and the norm is to squeeze past the second they can! In future your best bet is plan your route there to ensure you’re facing in the right direction to drive straight off- I do this with DD’s school as the road is a bit of a nightmare. Even if it’s a detour of a couple of minutes to get there ultimately you save time because you can safely drive straight off afterwards. If you aren’t able to do that for whatever reason then often driving round the block is preferable to attempting a 3 point turn on a busy road!

London is not a different country and doesn't have different rules of the road. If there's not space to do a 3-point turn, find another way of turning your car round - via a roundabout or side streets.

I think the reality of urban driving is that sometimes you have to cause and/or wait for another driver to slow down and let you perform a manoeuvre otherwise no-one would ever get anywhere.

Or, and hear me out, you should just wait and accept that people don’t want to be, and shouldn’t have to be, inconvenienced by your manoeuvres.

Your op said that you fully expected the approaching car to adjust their speed so I could drive off. Such entitlement! You were the issue here.

Oh you are one of "those drivers" who can't be arsed to turn down a side street and have to stop the flow of traffic to do their sllloooooooowwww "3" when in reality it's 5 point turn

Yabu. The person doing the non-standard maneuver is definitely a lower priority than the person who is just on their journey not doing anything unusual.

But also it sounds like an inappropriate road to do a 3 point turn in and a considerate and safe driver would have driven in the wrong direction a little way until there's a side road, where you could either go into the side road fully and do your 3 point turn out of the way, or if there's no one behind there might be time to do a reverse-around-a-corner into the side road and hence reverse direction with without obstructing the main road at any point.

In your situation if I thought I had time to do the turn and found I didn't (car suddenly turned into the road for instance) I would give way to the oncoming car.

In reality most decent (as in nice or courteous) drivers will slow (if safe) and allow the 3 pointer to finish and move off. It's like letting someone out if you see they're indicating, or waiting to allow someone to reverse out of a parking space.

That wouldn't be illegal.