countryside road etiquette

[Crystyclear]

oh dear... it's the holidays.

yes, i know you enjoy driving your pretty little sportscar/hulking great caravan/ posh saloon (delete as appropriate) around the countryside lanes, but please, please learn some basic fecking etiquette:

if you're on a single track road and you meet a car coming the other way and there's a pull in space just behind you, do reverse into it and let them by

or if there's no pull in but the road is wide enough for two, then pull over - so no one has to scratch their car squeezing though.

don't honk and fuss at the farmers and their vehicles - they are working and live here and will usually pull over when they can to let you by.

i don't care what the sat nav is telling you - if the road sign says no vehicles over X height or X width, it's not a joke and having the only road to your house closed due to a jack-knifed car with caravan is certainly not funny.

or AIBU?

YANBU - it boils my piss

Oh - and give space / slow down for horses !

And remember that you are 6 times more likely to have an accident on a country road than on a motorway.

And just because you can go at 60mph doesn't mean you should. Never go so fast that you can't stop for the horse you've only seen when you've come round a bend.

AND DON'T THROW YOUR KFC BAG / PLASTIC DRINK BOTTLE OUT OF YOUR CAR WINDOW YOU SCUMMY LITTERING TWUNTS.

This gets on my goat too. Okay so I have a 4x4 to access my clients sick animals in all weathers, but that doesn't mean I actually want to put it in the hedge and scratch it just because you won't to move to your side of the road.
Oh yes and when you pass the horses make sure you can see clear road ahead of you and don't honk me because I won't pass the horses on a blind bend.

Come join me on my similar thread, OP.

Am I being unreasonable to make a sign for this woman. Fun ranting to be had by all!

And remember that a lot of lanes have no pavements, so children will be walking on the road.

give way to pheasants and the things that look like pheasants but paler

ANd don't drive at 30mph on a National Speed Limit road that is totally safe to drive at 45mph. Not when I'm trying to get a kid to the GP's.

If you drop litter perhaps you would like me to follow you home and drop it in your garden?

Abr1de - I was out cycling on country lanes once, lovely woods either side and a car passed me; I then saw a Burger King bag get thrown out of the car. Car sped off.

I was so incensed that I picked up the bag and stuffed it in my rucksack with the intention of disposing of it properly. A bit further along the country lane the same car was pulled into a small layby - driver window open, music still on, I guessed the guy had just stopped for a pee.

So...I emptied the greasy contents of the bag onto the driver's seat! And cycled off via a little track in the woods!

rhinestone that's brilliant!

It was a wonderful opportunity, too good to pass up! Was chuckling all the home imagining the guy's face.

Rhinestone you have made my day...

rhinestone!

totally agree op.

Rhinestone that is brilliant.

I drive through country lanes every day, and I am astonished at the amount of people who zoom past horses and barely slow down. I have hardly ever been on a horse and know nothing about them, however I go down to about 5mph and give them room.

I also quite like reversing into laybys, for some inexplicable reason.

definitely slow down for horses, walkers and cyclists on country roads.

round here we walk 2 miles on the side of the "main road" to the pub, and it's considered normal. in the summer this becomes a dangerous act, despite wearing hi-vis, carrying a torch or it being plain daylight.

Getorfmyland I also weirdly like reversing into pull ins, and waving hello or thanks etc to the people passing. it's friendly, not inconvenient.

Totally agree. And please don't drive right up my back bumper in a really aggressive and impatient way when I am driving slowly along a single lane road.

Instead stop to think that I may have information that you dont. Like the fact that there's a riding school just around the next bend and the horses cross the road there all the time.

I agree - usually people give you a beaming smile and wave.

I like being waved at by strangers in cars for things like this, it is one of drivings small pleasures.

On the flipside, if someone doesn't wave/flash, I wish the wrath of satan to fall upon their heads.

I agree with all of these but I do feel the need to have a wee rant

Just because you are being all healthy and marvellous and wearing lycra does not mean you should be four a breast on a country lane for frigging two miles . Single file would be great thanks so I can over take you without the fear of death .

Agree with everything but it would be nice when you slow down for horses if the riders could acknowledge that.

People on horses round these parts are normally fine and tractor drivers will generally pull in after a wee while . And dog walkers and just general wandering humans are good too .

It just seems to be those arses clad in lycra that need a bit of a lesson .

Rhinestone you are an evil genius :)

A teenager I know had his foot broken when a twunt drove over it at dusk on a country road recently. Someone died on the single track road to my parents' old village when a van decided to take a sat nav inspired short cut and collided with the car (both going too fast it is suspected) but the contents of the van came over the top of the trailer bit and through the guy's windscreen.

Today a bitch in a soft top with parked cars on her side refused to stop or pull in for me and when I stopped for her, didn't wave. Not a country road but it still made me fume. A coach also started to pull over into the fast lane on the dual carriageway today without looking and nearly drove into me. Thank goodness I got my horn fixed recently. (Also not country roads but I'm incensed by them all today)

When you're driving past our farm and we're moving sheep across the road from one field to another, casing you to have to stop your chelsea tractor because of a flock of sheep on the road, don't start beeping your horn and screaming out of the window "fucking hurry up you tosser" to my DH. It will only upset the sheep and then they will jump on the bonnet of your car in a panic. It will also rile my DH, who, being a farmer, knows far more abusive swear words than you do.

Oh, and don't tell my DH to "get your fucking dog under control". He's a working sheep dog doing his JOB. Unlike you, sat in your car beeping your horn and upsetting the sheep, you fat toss-pot.

Happened this morning. It took me 2 hours to calm DH down and stop him ranting about townies in the countryside.

And round here some of the horse riders also need a bit of a lesson.

Don't ride two abreast, and if someone's behind, it would be a nice gesture to break into a little trot to the pull in, half a mile ahead, instead of ambling.

Plus, seeing as this lane is right next to extensive woodland, criss- crossed with bridleways, why are you riding up the road anyway? I have to, if I'm in the car, but no way would I want to, if I'm walking/running/cycling/horse riding.

Quiettiger - i feel your DH's fury. farmer's muck spreading here and all i can hear out the window is cars beeping because they are stuck behind the tractor and spreader going up the lane. townies took the sat nav "shortcut" to the beach...

i wonder when they will realise that living in the country is not about lounging on the beach and eating cream teas all day....