AIBU to be surprised at the reactions?

[FromthePinkGlitterySide]

My bloody car has broken down on the way back from the school run so I've been standing on the side of a really busy road for nearly an hour waiting for the rac. The car is on the left hand lane of a two lane run up to a roundabout so easy enough for people to go round me. Hazards on.
I've had people beeping at me, shaking their heads, huffing and shouting at me one lady stopped to ask if I was ok.
I'm really surprised, so many vans and cars have gone past and they just seemed to be really annoyed instead of wondering if I was ok.

I think you see so many people pulled in in stupid/dangerous places so regularly now for what seems like no reason, often just on the phone or whatever that people assume it's that rather than a breakdown. If you put you bonnet up I'd like to think you'd have gotten more help, not that you should have to either

That's really sad - I would have expected that a single woman standing next to an obviously broken down car would elicit a more sympathetic response. I really hope the rac have turned up by now and that you're soon home with a nice cuppa

Some arsehole from the council tried to give me a parking ticket when my car broke down in the entrance to a car park. You'd have though the hazard warning lights going and me sitting on a log in the snow would have been a clue...

Hope the RAC turn up soon.

My car broke down right at the junction of a roundabout in the right hand lane in the rush hour with both children n the back last year.

It was an automatic and failed 'in gear' so despite being on the down slope of a hill couldn't be easily pushed to the side of the road. I had at least a dozen men beep, swear and aggressively drive around the car before an elderly man pulled up behind me with his hazards blocking both lanes and recruited some people to help us 'bounce' the car to a safer place. His wife stood with my children in a safe place whilst we did this. With help it only took 3/4 minutes to move the car but people were too busy being pissed off at something I had no control over to even try.

Sorry this reaction seems common and RAC get to you soon.

I was lucky when I broke down a few weeks ago it was quiet and it made a hell of a noise when it went (apparently an arm snapped so the front driver wheel was essentially no longer attached) so a lovely man came rushing out of his home to see what had happened. Found me in the middle of the road (was in the middle of overtaking a parked car) very shaken up with my 6 month old DS. Him a d his family stopped traffic while I got my son to safety then another car with 2.men stopped and they managed to bounce the car to the side of the road. Once I had called breakdown recovery they invited me to wait in their home and made me a brew.
It single handedly restored my faith in people, I wish I could thank them all properly.

RAC were lovely and towed me to a garage next to home so now I'm back doing my bit in our 24 hour exercise bike ride for help for heroes

If this kind of thing ever happens again, put your bonnet up. It's the international symbol for, "My car's suddenly and mysteriously fucked and I'm not just a cheeky, lazy ass using my hazards to just stop where I want"

A lot more people will stop and offer to help.

About 3 weeks ago my car overheated in the fast lane of the dual carriageway just outside of Aberdeen (there had been an accident further down the road so the traffic was moving at a snail's pace) - smoke started billowing out of the engine so I had to pull my car to the side and turn it off. I had the bonnet open, I'm very blatantly pregnant and I was crying my eyes out as I didn;t know what to do and not one person asked me if I was okay or needed help - even though people were crawling past with their windows open and a good few just staring at me. It was absolutely unbelievable so I understand completely how you felt!

I stopped in a lay by with an obviously burst tyre AND a raised bonnet (i decided to regill wipers etc as the tyre would NOT budge). It was just me and the baby. I ONLY got abusive hand signals and laughter (single lane road). UK sucks for this.

Just to play devil's advocate a bit...

I make sure I check my car's levels, fluids, tyres etc regularly. It takes a few minutes every fortnight.

So when, during the really hot spell a few weeks back, I was driving past significantly higher numbers of broken-down cars than normal on the motorway, I didn't have a lot of sympathy as I reckon most of them had simply overheated.

(Yes of course there are occasions where a car suddenly goes entirely kaput without rhyme or reason, but I do think they are the minority and most breakdowns are avoidable with simple maintenance and checks - i.e. engine coolant or oil etc.)

Me and DM had this we were on the way to my final wedding dress fitting when the clutch went and it were on a hill at traffic lights, we had the hazards on and had one arsehole shout abuse at us. I'm ashamed to admit I reliated, lucky we broke down near my inlaws and my FIL came and pushed the car onto the pavement so cars could go round and wasn't blocking the traffic until RAC arrived and took the car away.

I've broken down awkwardly twice.

Once, first day in a new car at a shopping centre. Everyone was beeping, somebody eventually came to help and people were trying to overtake as he was trying to push the car out of the way! Eventually a lady in a van blocked the road

Second time, at four way traffic lights at rush hour. I was midway through a right hand turn and the car just died. An Arctic behind me was beeping.. Not sure what he expected me to do! Then everyone tried to carry on but couldn't as I was pretty much blocking the whole road. Again, after about 10 minutes, someone pushed me out the way but then I was blocking one side of a merge point.. Still got loads of abuse.

Sorry everyone was crap OP, maybe they're all stressed about back to school or something. Or maybe they were just knobs.

There was a man broken down near me with a child a couple of months ago, on a really hot day. I saw him when I was driving into town and about an hour later I drove past him again on my way back home, obviously he was waiting for RAC or whatever, so I stopped at the shop and bought him and the child an ice lolly. When I got back to him the child had fortunately been picked up already (by the mum I think) and the RAC were there, so I gave the broken down man and the RAC man an ice lolly! I hope it brightened their stressful day. You all need to break down near my house!