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?!

Whilst I think extremely slow vehicles should pull over if necessary, it wouldn't hurt some people to wait

I think the ops suggestion I should see my gp outweighs anything I said, tequila. (Insinuating some kind of MH issue that i need to get checked out?) On the scale of nobbishness, op wins. Anyway im done here. Hope you remember next time op that you and your husband aren't always the most important people on the road. And that someone disagreeing with you on an internet forum doesn't mean they need medical help.

Well jumping you did seem to answer quite angrily which is rather odd. Maybe if you toned down your defensiveness you wouldn't get replies like that. No use acting like the victim now.

I agree Jack

Mind you, I think of cars as means of transport

I desperately want to know specifically what a 'dad racer' is?

YANBU.

and I think actually sometimes it does hurt to wait. I've been in the car with DS who is regularly very sick and on way to hospital sometimes we have been stuck behind people doing half the speed limit with a big queue. Sometimes I want my own fucking siren and sometimes I've had to ring an ambulance where I just couldn't risk being stuck behind someone doing that. It makes me very panicky in those situations. One time DP had to beep his horn for about five minutes, when we over took we got beeped at and all sorts of rude hand gestures given to us by the extremely slow driver not bothering to pull over!

red

That's awful for you.

Op wasn't in this situation

I'm aware Jones but what I'm saying is the driver doesn't know this or what the situations are of any of the people waiting in the lengthy queues behind. It can hurt to wait, it doesn't hurt to be considerate

Have you considered that they were not the reason for the hold up? We have been stuck behind another vehicle before and had someone behind us overtake then try to pull in front not realising we were not the cause of the holdup! One did it and tried to pull in quickly as though to make a point and almost totalled his brand new 4x4
It may also have been the case as with us today that they couldn't go any faster due to the horse on board - we had an early foal and needed to move it ASAP but you can't go fast with a foal only a hour or so old on board. It could have been that they had a sick animal on the way to the vet collage that needed urgent treatment but could only go that fast due to nature of the illness?
There are many possibilities like that or it could just be that much faster on that road despite it being a national speed limit would have been dangerous, horses can't balance themselves easily if you take bends at speed not matter how inconspicuous that bend may seem to you and there is nothing scarier then a horse down in a lorry try to scramble back to its feet.

mrmonkey

The advice for transporting equine neonates is to transport in a car, precisely for the reasons above - they need to be moved to hospital quickly in a temperature controlled environment. They can't be transported safely and quickly in a box/trailer, so you move them in a car and their mother behind more slowly in a suitable box.

I drive tractors on the road and sometimes pull over, but sometimes not. If it's a heavy load you need a lot of space to get back up to a reasonable speed and some passing places are on relatively unsafe bits of road. Also, if it's safe and easy for people to pass me but they'd rather follow very closely behind me without bothering to try, I don't bother to pull over.
I do find some horse owners are extremely precious about their fluffy ponies though - I know someone whose horse 'didn't like left turns' so would drive miles out of their way by only taking gentle left bends instead.

YANBU. I live in a rural area, miles from the nearest dual carriage way. I'm generally a calm driver, I drive at a reasonable pace but not crazy. I think it is incredibly selfish to hog the road with a slow vehicle and not allow faster vehicles to pass safely for miles and miles. What sort of person would feel ok doing that?

well said tequila

Hmmmmm Jumping your arsehole reaction makes me wonder if you perhaps recognise yourself in the OP

OP YANBU as had been pointed out, even the Highway Code advises against holding up other road users-thank fuck.

Tough luck. They've got as much right to use the road as you. Ditto cyclists and tractors.

You can have a right to do something and still be a cunt for doing it. This isn't really a valid argument.

"It was one of those windy windy country roads with stretches suitable for overtaking few and far between!"

This is probably your answer Op. It's not just about there being a place where it's safe to pull over, it's about it being safe to pull out again as well. Any vehicle transporting animals can't accelerate fast because that's highly dangerous for the animals inside. If the driver couldn't see a place where it was safe to pull over AND also where they would then have enough visibility on a bit of straight road to have time to pull out slowly and steadily gain speed they weren't in a position to safely pull over. Imagine your husband driving along playing in his new toy at the national speed limit on a windy country road, and as he rounds a bend there is a horse lorry pulling slowly out of a passing place maybe 30 yards ahead.

The other thought I have is that I drive along a lot of windy lanes and they very seldom have a layby that is big and deep enough, with enough safe visibility for a lorry to pull into. For example, the gateway into a field is no good, it's not big enough. They are windy country lanes after all.

The other thing about windy country lanes is that, although on paper they are national speed limit, in practice it's seldom wise to drive along them at that speed. The visibility isn't good enough. Round any corner you could find a cyclist, walker, horse rider, slow tractor...

I suppose my problem is along with a lot of horsey people I value my horse's life far higher than that of most of the arseholes I encounter whilst driving so tbh, I couldn't give a shite less how inconvenienced they are as long as my animals are safe. Get a grip - you may have to drive slow but it won't kill you

If there really were many, many suitable places to pull over, then YANBU.

Most of the "windy windy country roads with stretches suitable for overtaking few and far between" near me actually don't have many suitable places for a horse box to pull into though - there's a fair number of places where a car could pull in, but most of them are too short, too muddy / badly surfaced, or too close to bends for drivers to have good visibility when it comes to getting back on the road. The horse box driver may have felt that the places you saw were unsuitable for a horse box.

Often these slow vehicles speed up just enough to make it impossible to overtake on the few places where you could do so if they kept going slow. That's when I truly see red.

Just to clarify (ignoring the nobs), there were many long, tarmaced lay-bys that were more than suitable for the horse box to pull over in, I think they are actually designed for HGVs! And (ok, slightly less ignoring of nobs) my DH and I are genuinely nice people who absolutely WOULD pull over to help push someone who was stuck, and have done so before!

Surely it's ok to be frustrated when stuck in a MASSIVE queue of traffic caused entirely by someone being selfish, and driving in a manner not in accordance with the Highway Code?! Or on MN do we all just smile sweetly and settle down to enjoy the wailing of small children from the back seat? Does having a new car capable of going fast and being fun to drive mean that my DH instantly turns from a really nice bloke who enjoys driving into an arsehole on here?!

What's that got to do with the price of fish?

I'm sorry Op, I don't quite get this. One minute we're on a windy windy country road, then we've got long, tarmac lay-by's suitable for HGV's. It seems slightly unusual. But if it was a good clear stretch of road, with nice lay-by's and clear visibility then probably a horse box driver could pull in once in a while to let people past. That's once in a while, not every 5 minutes.
As for being nice and willing to help push someone out - good luck with pushing a horsebox out of mud. Horsebox leaving safe road surface and getting bogged in any way is a situation to be avoided. Very dangerous to be winching, shoving, rocking a lorry that has a horse inside.
I must admit, when I'm in the countryside on a nice windy lane I just appreciate that I'm in the countryside, not bowling along a dual carriageway, and I'm prepared to take things easy. You expect to meet slow moving vehicles and other vulnerable road users in the countryside.

There could have been a reason why the horse box was going really slowly ie carrying a mare and foal. Carrying a sick and or injured horse.

Sorry but suck it up. If you want to use country roads then expect country traffic . You all got there and you Got there safely.

Country roads are not townie racetracks

So Featherbag you always always drive within the Highway Code