was this woman bu to complain about my husband?

[wingsofgildedsilver]

My husband drives a van for work. Driving to work in the morning traffic and the car in front of him slowed down as the car in front of her was turning off left, the woman then waited to let another car pull out of the junction.

My husband beeped his horn at her and shook his head when she looked in her mirror at him.

When he got into work, later on that day the company had received a complaint about him - the woman had noted his licence plate and company name and sent them an email.

He now has a mark on his employment record.

I guess it really comes down to the road. I drive on two roads for my commute that actually rely on people letting out cars from minor roads as otherwise a huge backlog builds up all around the area!

I am imagining a not hugely busy road, not a really fast road. Not traffic nose to tail. Car starts indicating left, slows to take the left. The car behind is practically stopped and sees a car waiting to get out so (i assume) shows a sign she is letting her out. Car hesistates a bit just to make sure (as i have done in similar situation) and bully boy behind can't understand. Toot, Toot, Toot, angry, angy, angry. Car coming out of minor road thinking wtf. Car who let car out of minor road thinking wtf. Bully boy reported.

All seems acceptable to me BUT if it was a busy road, fast moving traffic, people slamming on brakes etc etc then yeh, she'd be unreasonable.

OP needs to say.

172
The approach to a junction may have a ‘Give Way’ sign or a triangle marked on the road. You MUST give way to traffic on the main road when emerging from a junction with broken white lines across the road.

The rule is not against stopping I suppose. But as you are on the major road with no markings to indicate to stop or give way. You continue your journey. The minor road is marked and giving way to vehicles must be followed. If you see what I mean?

You wouldn't slow on a roundabout to let vehicles emerge from their give ways after all. I don't see this as any different

He wasn't the one driving behind me the other night when I stopped - in the middle of a busy road, during rush hour - whilst turning left was he? He was beeping/shaking head too. I hope he though "oh" when the old man on the bike, who I just 'knew' wouldn't stop, peddled passed on the inside of us both. To be honest, even if he had stopped I would rather hold up traffic for 10-15 seconds than end up with a cyclist flying over my bonnet.
If your husband drives for work, he should be better than us mere commuters - my dad, who at one time drove for a living used to be appalled at the standard of driving now. No consideration for other road users at all.
Your husband was BU, impatient & employing bullying tactics to try and gain, what, a few extra seconds?

Well I hope she has taught him a lesson which might mean he is less of a dick next time he fancies blowing his horn and being a twat. And it can be very intimidating when White Van Man acts aggressively towards you. I repeat therefore that I am delighted that she reported him.

That rule does not in any way say that you shouldn't choose to give way to trafffic entering from a side road.

I still think that although what he did seems to have broken the highway code,what he did was pretty minor,and the thought that the woman had to shit stir with someone's job over something so trivial says more about her than him.

But I know I'll get flamed for that view....

I don't know about flaming, but it is drivers like the OP's husband that make driving such an unpleasant experience sometimes.

Do you know what, letting other drivers in may possibly be ever so slightly breaking a highway code guideline, but it always restores my faith in the human species to see drivers being kind to each other.

VerySmallSqueak - yes, it was not a major incident, but for me, the issue is that the OP's husband had no patience and displayed aggressive behaviour - and that is not a safe trait for any driver.

As I said earlier - he cannot control what other drivers do, but he can - and must - control his own behaviour. In this instance, he lost control, albeit briefly, and probably intimidated and bullied another driver - whilst acting as a representative of his company - and should take the consequences.

It is also possible that the OP's dh has downplayed what he did - because I think it is unlikely that someone would report an incident like the one reported in the OP - but if it was more aggressive and intimidating, that would explain why she did go to the trouble of reporting it.

And maybe if more people did report drivers who drive like arseholes, the roads would be safer for all of us.

There is junction local to me on a B road which joins to an A road. Extremely busy at rush hour.

A woman, who had passed her test that week, was hesitating to join the A road. Understandable as it is a horrible junction.

A driver beeped his horn to "hurry her up" she panicked/got a fright and left the junction and was then killed by another driver who didn't have time to stop.

But you are choosing to cause an obstruction on the road in that case!

No you aren't. Slowing to let a car out is not causing an obstruction. I guarantee that any lost time etc would have been made up in less than a minute.

But bzoo, she had already stopped to let the car in front turn! Does it really make any difference if she waits a few more seconds to let the other car pull out of the side road!?

It's not as if you're sitting there for 2 hours, ignoring all around you.

It's not an obstruction if the traffic has stopped to let you out!

There are no rules which state you should not let cars out of a side road.

Even the "give way" one is not applicable seeing as the car from the side road is utilising a gap in the traffic

Until I saw that the OP had come back I was ready to call 'reverse' .

Surely you can see he was BU?

There are, however, three which point to the van drier being an arse. 112 147 and 151

[arf] driver, not drier :)

Why would you stop if a car is turning left??? How many times have you stopped completely when a car turns left? If you are paying attention you should have slowed anyway and the car wanting to emerge could have used the time and space to join surely.

Be interesting to know if the major road was classed as a clearway.

Clearly you wouldn't stop on, say, the M25 to let a car in (although you shod move across to give them room to join, even through they have to give way) but on an ordinary road where you have already slowed to allow a car to slow and exit there is no problem whatsoever and, it would seem, no rules to say otherwise.

I am still of the view that it's a mountain out of a molehill.

And the fact he hasn't been disciplined at work would support that view.

If the op comes back on and says he has in fact been disciplined I may need to back track.
But from what I know now,it is minor imo.

If asked 'would I like him to lose his job over it?' the answer would be no.
If I were the one to phone his company and complain, that could be a possible outcome that I could not control.
Therefore I would find it unreasonable to do that.

Why would you stop if a car is turning left??? How many times have you stopped completely when a car turns left?

I always slow down. Don't you? All that has happened here is that they didn't speed right up again. After all, the speed limit is a limit, not a target (that's also in the Highway Code BTW)

Er, if the car turning left had to stop to allow oncoming traffic to go before making the turn I would stop rather than plough into the back of it......