To think it wouldn't kill them to pull over once in a while?

[Featherbag]

We're driving through County Durham, it's a beautiful day and were heading to a lovely village for afternoon tea and ice cream for the toddler. We're on a National Speed Limit road, single lane, stuck behind a horse box doing 23mph. There are 8 cars in front of us also stuck behind it, and I can't see the back of the queue. It's been like this for almost half an hour - AIBU to think it would be polite of the horse box driver to pull the fuck over every now and then to let the queue pass?!

I think it's safe to say that the majority of road users have never driven a truck or pulled a horsebox.
But the majority of road users will have been a little bit fed up following a slow moving vehicle for any length of time.

I am afraid I would lose any game of 'guess the tonnage' .

It isn't fine to dawdle along in a slow moving vehicle and make no effort to pull in. What if somewhere in the long line that the driver has created there is an emergency ambulance taking someone to hospital or get to an injured person, or a sick child needing to get home to use a nebuliser (as happened to us)?

It isn't ok to say suck it up. The right thing to do is to pull over, if possible, and not ignore the chaos you are creating. Or get a better horse box.

Morgause, it sounds like there is no horse box that can protect the horses from sudden changes in speed etc.

An ambulance would have its sirens on if needed and cars on both sides of the road would pull in, not wait for a layby.

I've been in queues in the Welsh mountains so long that a siren wouldn't be heard by the dawdler at the front, Doctrine.

Guess the tonnage :o :o

Now I've heard it all.

The thing is, transporting horses to competitions is hardly an essential activity. I would suggest therefore it is down to the driver to make sure before the journey that they know the route and have checked out potential pulling in places. People here have mentioned the problem of suitable laybys which aren't signposted - this would avoid that problem.

What about transporting horses to vets, nenny?

Even now, having sad behing the truck for half an hour doing nothing, the OP cannot tell us the tonnage.

I don't recall anyone asking her, but I for one couldn't guess the tonnage of a truck even if I was behind it for days on end.

To be fair, Nenny, lots of road journeys (including the OP's) aren't essential. So that's kind of irrelevant.

Morguase, then why didn't the ambulance pull past the first several cars until it got nearer the front? People will stop in both directions for an ambulance with sirens on. The entire queue wouldn't fit in a layby so at some point the ambulance would need to get past the queued cars.

Doctrine, people on this thread have have written in terms of day to day transporting of horses. But I would guess that most horse owners don't choose to travel to vets that are a long way away and would be familiar with roads in their local area.

Toby, I think it is relevant because of the special circumstances relating to transporting horses repeatedly set out on here. Most large vehicles on the road - whether making essential or non-essential journeys - are capable of pulling over, don't need to be driven at a consistent slow speed, and it doesn't matter so much if they have to stop or pull in fairly sharply. If you are driving a vehicle where you will inevitably cause tail backs on a non-essential journey, and where you have to consider the safety of livestock, know your road.

I don't know the answer to that, Doctrine. It couldn't happen if the dawdler had shown some consideration to other road users, though.

And the sick child in the car? No sirens just an agonised wait until the slow moving vehicle finally got where it was going and we could go at a normal speed.

Nenny, knowing your local roads doesn't mean that they have suitable lay-bys.

I am really sorry about your sick child. And I think most horse box owners have said that pulling in if possible is the right thing to do but that a layby that looks ok to a non-box owner might actually not be ok to pull into safely for various reasons.

Doctrine, obviously not. But no-one suggests that people pull into unsuitable laybys. My post was in the context of people saying they can't pull into suitable laybys because they aren't signposted far enough in advance. If you know it's there, you can plan to pull into it if there is a traffic build-up behind you.

Not all drivers feel that way, though, Doctrine, some say suck it up.

I used to have a horse a long time ago and the box he went in had to cross a lot of muddy tracks to get to the road and it never got stuck so I'm not convinced by the unsuitable layby comments. If you can tow it across a muddy flied a layby is a cinch.

*field

Of course it's difficult to guess the tonnage that was the whole point...it is also difficult to tell whether there are suitable places for a slow moving, large vehicle to pull over. If the OP can't tell one (as well as doesn't know much about trucks anyway) it's likely that she can't tell the other.

It is very easy to get an idea of what it's like to drive a truck, book a lesson in an HGV driving school. Try driving one on a windy day, the effect of wind on high sided vehicles is incredible; it's something you rarely if ever get to experience in a car, but can suddenly pull the whole truck to the side.

Emergency vehicles have sirens and lights and everyone stops for them so it is easier for trucks to also stop for them.

There is no 'normal' driving speed to which we all aspire. A tractor or wide load may be driven a lot slower than a horsebox, a combine harvester even slower, a bicycle or a horse walking will be even slower. In some rural roads with no pavements or verges pedestrians will be on the road, possibly causing cues of cars, especially if they are pushing a buggy or using a wheelchair. There is no right to get to where you're going to in a speed optimum for your vehicle and driving ability.

Thanks for explaining that Booboostoo (re horse transportation and the difficulties of making them safer)

I think booking a lesson in an HGV driving school in order to understand this thread is quite OTT.
I am not sure how the HGV driving instructor would take it either.

I do 25 miles of rural driving every day and I have been stuck behind everything. Sometimes I get fed up, sometimes I think yes, they could pull over. Sometimes DS1 gets fed up because I am late. Sometimes his school bus is late because they have been stuck behind something. It's just life isn't it?

The thing is that if you choose to undertake journeys with all the problems attached to driving horses in horseboxes, it surely must make sense to plan ahead, and that should include thinking about your effect on other roadusers, and indeed looking for pull-in places because you might need them anyway. I'm quite bemused at people who regularly choose to drive horses around the country knowing that if they don't plan ahead they will inevitably obstruct every road user behind them, and that will equally inevitably include people who have very legitimate reasons for being in a hurry (as in the sick child scenario) or who are simply entitled to use the roads without being obstructed when it is avoidable.

How slowly was this horsebox going anyway?

In the OP it says 23 mph Exit. Very slow.

Whoops - it seems such a long time ago that I read the OP.

Bit like being stuck behind a slow moving vehicle.