2 'road rage' incidents in 1 day! Am I a crap driver or were they?

[BubbleGirl01]

This morning, driving along a straight road, road is blocked on my side with parked cars so I am driving on the right at that moment, nothing coming towards me. A car approaches from the side road on the right indicating to turn right into the road where I am currently driving on the side that they would be turning into. I see the woman looking to her right to see that the road is clear, which it is as that is why I am on the side of the road so she turns straight into me. I emergency brake just she turns into me and she clocks me then hooting her horn frantically. We avoid a collision by literally millimetres. In fact I expected for an impact. She then winds her window down and say's it was my fault as I was on 'her' side of the road swearing away.

Later on, I am driving up another straight road approaching a mini roundabout which I want to turn left at. There is a bus in the opposite lane just before the mini roundabout stuck in stationery traffic. Seeing that the bus is waiting to go straight on and will not be turning right in the direction that I am going to go, I turn to my left at the mini roundabout. Suddenly a car jumps out from behind the bus, zooms into their right hand lane and turns right into the direction I am going so I almost collide with it on the mini roundabout. I beep at the woman in the car as I emergency brake. She had DC in the car and so do I and I am bloody furious as she was going very fast. We are actually going to the same place so we park up while she is giving me evils and I tell her she was in the wrong as we pass each other into the building. She insists that she had the right of way as she was turning right at the roundabout and it didn't matter that the bus was in the way. After 5 minutes of her telling me that I need to read the highway code again we agree to disagree!

I am starting to lose my confidence in my driving anyway due to anxiety so was I in the wrong on either of these incidents?

But the car wasn't at the side road junction when she started "overtaking" so the road was clear. She started her maneuvere and so had right of way. She was already on the road, the other car wasn't.

What should she have done in your view? Just sat there and never driven round the park cars just in case a car approached the junction? Even though it's that drivers responsibility to check the road is clear before they turn in to it.
Or stop as soon as the car got to the junction and reversed back to let the other car join the road the OP was already on?
The car at the junction is the one that should give way

I'd never get anywhere if I followed your way of driving!

If there had been a car coming over the brow of the hill then it would have to stop and give way to the OP as she was already performing her manoeuvre.

I am really curious

carol what would you do if there was a row of parked cars on your side of the road and you could not see the side road or indeed over the brow of the hill?

Would you wait there indefinitely? Are you there now? I'm getting a bit worried for you, just pull round the parked cars love...

Seriously though what are you supposed to do?

The Highway Code:

162
Before overtaking you should make sure

the road is sufficiently clear ahead.

If you have to drive around parked cars at the brow of a hill then you do so carefully and slowly enough to be safe whilst swearing under your breath at the stupidity of other car drivers. And more importantly, if you are approaching the brow of a hill with parked cars on the other side you do so slowly and with caution in case someone is overtaking. What you don't do is drive over at full speed expecting the people on the parked car side to either a) never move until the owners of the parked cars leave, or b) will know by some 6th sense that you are there and will wait for you.

But the road was clear Carol and the other car was joining from a minor road so was turning into the OP. Obviously (and legally) the other drivers fault. Second one not so clear as I can't picture it.

Not overtaking where there may be oncoming means overtaking

Passing parked cars is not overtaking.

Would you suggest the OP should have done a U turn and driven back the way she came? Because that's what you're suggesting if you're saying she can't go past parked cars if there happens to be a side road half way down the row of parked cars.

Blimey if that was the law I wouldn't be able to leave my street!

And op did check the road was clear. after she had started her manoeuvre of passing the parked cars another car pulled into her path.

It was that second cars fault.

I am so shocked and upset by this thread I can't type in a coherent manner!

OP, as far as I can tell from the info given, you were in the right both times.

But Carol!!! I really really hope you are not a driver; but if you are, please, please, PLEASE!, do not drive again - EVER - until you have had a course of lessons with a fully qualified driving instructor!! (Not just your mate next door type of thing)

I am horrified that you think it is correct to enter a main road, where cars could possibly, legally, be driving at speeds of up to 60mph (even on the 'wrong' side of the road at times), without checking both ways. And even apart from this...what if a pedestrian was crossing then???

Shocking!

I'm leaving the thread now before I have a heart attack. Thank goodness the majority of posters know the rules of the road.

I have just asked my dsis who is a driving instructor you are wrong carol the first incident was not the OP's fault. The other driver did not have any right of way as she was not on the road the op was on. You cannot have right of way on a road you are not already traveling on if that makes sense.

The fact that the cars are parked is of course relevant and the overtaking near a junction etc refers to over taking moving cars

The highway code actually says that you should keep to the left, except when you want to pass overtake, turn right or pass parked vehicles or pedestrians in the road
and that you should give way to oncoming vehicles before passing parked vehicles or other obstructions on your side of the road

it also says that when you are coming out of a side road, you must make sure it is safe to do so.

So the person coming out of the side road is in the wrong. It it their responsibility, before joining the main road, to ensure that there are no hazards.

A line of parked cars is a very visible hazard. As soon as you see that, you should be running through in your mind all the things that could possibly happen. Checking for a car overtaking the parked vehicles is high on the list. Anyone joining from a side road should always look both ways. You never know what's coming and you should never make assumptions.

Priority is to the car on the main road with its side clear. There was no vehicle on the main road so it was safe to overtake the parked cars.
The responsibility is on the person joining the main road to assess that it is safe to do so. She failed to do that.

The only thing you should have done differently is assumed the other driver was incompetent and slowed down, preparing to stop if they did indeed prove to not know the rules of the road.

"Thank you. I had another incident this morning where I was cut up at a roundabout I was going straight across at (double lane and I was in the outside lane) by someone jumping in at speed from the inside lane. "

If you are going straight over, you should be on the left hand side, unless the exit has 2 lanes, in which case you can go in the right hand side.

OP you were in the right both times and probably just bad luck.

I just this minute had a similar incident where a woman drove her car straight at me in a narrow road where she was overtaking parked cars. There was a bloody huge gap for her to pull into but she drove at me as if I were going to disappear into a puff of smoke! I just put my handbrake on and sat there smiling, I wasn't in a hurry. Eventually she reversed back in to the big gap enough for me to get past but you could tell she thought she was in the right somehow.

Some people just shouldn't be on the roads really.

Not always once

Our local roundabout means you have to be in the left lane to go straight ahead, left hand lane goes left only

It is clearly marked but it is a bit unusual

Sorry right hand lane to go straight ahead!!!!

I do do it right when I'm at the roundabout...honest

I agree with the thoughts that some people shouldn't be on the road.

Twice today I've almost had my car wrecked by elderly women drivers. The best one has the woman who kept reversing out of their parking space while I was passing. I was honking my horn and still she carried on. How on earth she didn't hit me I don't know. She just sat there bewildered as I stopped and gave her a mouthful, as if she didn't understand why I was furious. FFS use your mirrors and look around you stupid.

Although today the amount of people I've come across that deserve Darwin awards is amazing.

Blimey Carol - I do hope you don't drive!

I work near a small, hilly town which is always stuffed with cars parked along the edge of the roads - and up hills - nobody would ever go anywhere if they 'took responsibility for the road being clear'. It would be like an episode of Randall and Hopkirk (deceased)

I think the first situation when you saw that the driver hadn't seen you . in hindsight you should have sounded your horn to make her aware of your presence. The other situation I'm not sure really.
Don't worry though driving is full if near misses!

I also think its good you are reflecting on your driving.

I never said the person pulling out should not have looked, but I, for one, will continue to take responsibility when I am on the wrong side of the road and ensure I am alert enough to side roads to stop or alert the road user to my presence. I will also continue to look both ways when pulling out.
If both drivers had been doing the right thing, there would not even have been a near miss.

I once avoided a very nasty accident by looking where I didn't need to look (turning right at a crossroads with a right green filter showing).

My passengers were mid-mock when a car came screaming through the junction at easily double the speed limit, across us, a foot or so in front of my bumper. If I hadn't been proceeding with caution, I almost certainly'd have been killed , the car would have been a total write-off, etc. I have also had a "near miss" with someone ignoring one-way signs.

My driving instructor taught me to assume other drivers are crap, unpredictable, wrong, etc. Indicators aren't definite - don't commit yourself until you see the wheels turn.

OP I think it very likely you encountered several of the dangerous idiots on the road today. But I might also advise you to take my driving instructor's advice, and proceed a little more cautiously in future.

I know an actual person who thinks if they appear when you've overtaken however many parked cars you should reverse the length as it's her right of way.

She also thought cars on the main road have right of way at mini roundabouts.

The highway code is clear:

www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/road-junctions-170-to-183

The person should have looked, did not have right of way and was in the wrong regardless of what side of the road OP was on.

It is also clear that overtaking is fine and legal when safe to do so- which it was until a bad driver rocked up.

The OP had the right of way, she was actually on the road itself and performing a manoeuvre. The other driver had no right of way because she wasn't on the same road at all and when she pulled out she was effectively cutting up.

No one is perfect on the roads, everyone has bad days but there really are some knobheads and people who shouldn't be driving.

Case in point: someone who went round not one, but two miniroundabouts the wrong way

Someone going the wrong way up a one way street dbecause it was 'quicker' and 'only 200m'

Someone who repeatedly almost cause pileups on the M11 because they kept pulling into lanes without checking their blind spot.

Someone who crashed into a stationary car because they were too busy oggling inside a shop.

Someone who almost took out my car plus the horse and rider in front of me because they actually went the NSL on a windy country road which was single track and labelled for horses- very poor judgement on their part.

Anyone go any others?

In the case of stella driving, I saw someone manage to avoid an accident, not even sure how exactly but they managed to swerve at the last minute onto the hard shoulder (thank fuck it was here) because the stupid bint in front who pulled into her was gobbing on her phone!

1. YANBU. Other driver failed to carry put observations and ensure it was safe to move out when she didn't have priority. What direction the other traffic was coming from is not relevant. At least careless driving and a public order offence: report to police.

1. YANBU. Unless you were hesitating, if you couldn't complete your manoeuvre before she completed hers and got to the other side of the roundabout then she was driving too fast for the conditions and driving without due consideration and courtesy for other road users.

Road rage aggression is always U no matter what the circumstances.