Polite drivers who don't obey the rules of the road

[PlayOnWurtz]

Why do you do it? Why do you decide to suddenly stop in the middle of a busy road to let someone out or let someone cross?

No one is expecting you to do it and you cause accidents so just stop it!

Don't be so close up their arse then!

I only do this if I can do it safely - ie if the traffic is moving very slowly, so I can just slow down and let the person out.

AGreed op. It makes you unpredictable an unsafe. However if I have time/distance to slow down safely enough to let someone out/cross, then I will do so. Stopping suddenly or expecting people to mindread when you choose to do something against the highway code is a bit daft!

Suddenly stopping like this is a bit rash - I would check my rear view mirror to see if anyone is behind me before stopping in the road to let someone out

Because they are courteous and whatever the highway code says, there are some roads you would just never get out of with the volume of traffic on the roads today. These are not the people causing accidents, they are caused by the driver behind following too closely to be able to react to what happens ahead.

Miniwookie - I am alarmed by your lack of road awareness / driver 'savvy'. On a 40mph busy route you don't just randomly stop to let someone out of a side road. Whilst it is appropriate to stop or slow down considerably to allow someone to join the road from a side road when you are indicating and slowing down anyway (to turn into that side road from the main road for instance), by contrast it is ridiculous to just come to a grinding halt on a 40mph stretch of road for no good reason...and if a police car happened to be nearby and watching I am sure you would be pulled over for some driver education

How about the poor sods going the other way not expecting a car or pedestrian to suddenly appear in front of them? Or at a roundabout someone deciding they don't give way to the right they'll be nice and let someone else out...

hmcAsWas If there's no one behind you then there's no need to stop as the person would be able to get out after you.

I let people out or pedestrians across if traffic is at a near-standstill or I've been at a standstill and am about to pull away again, but when traffic is moving at speed it's not polite to slow right down to let someone out, it's reckless and lacking in road sense.

Half the time there's nobody behind them anyway but they still stop to let someone out when they could have gone 2 seconds after anyway!
Totally not aware of their surroundings or using their mirrors

In free moving traffic, I would agree.

If traffic is crawling then I do stop to allow folk to cross, it helps them and takes no time away from my journey.

Letting alternate cars in is just road etiquette. Why wouldn't you?

I think it's just a general lack of awareness, and people not using their mirrors. The opposite is when you are sat in nose to tail traffic not moving at all and someone stops across the mouth of a road where people are waiting to come out.

My other pet hate is people who stop at traffic lights leaving a gap almost big enough for another vehicle between them and the car in front.

Yes you don't want to be so close that you couldn't pull round them if you needed to, but some gaps are ridiculous. It just means some other poor sod behind you gets stuck.

I saw one this morning, stopped leaving a gap big enough for 2 Fiat 500s between him and the car in front. Van behind had obviously assumed he'd move up and was stranded on the yellow box. Driver in front chatting away to his passenger completely oblivious.

The most important factor in road safety is being predictable. You will be involved in far fewer accidents over your driving "career" if you behave precisely as everyone expects you to behave.

^ this is. My bugbear^

My oh slowed to wave a car to pass, a pedestrian he didn't see misunderstood his gesture as meant for him aube walked in front of our car just as we started to move. Dangerous.

I almost got hit from behind by a double decker bus, car in front of me decided to stop dead on the motorway to let a car that wasn't even indicating into the slip lane. Toddler in back shrieking mummy that bus nearly crashed into us, all thanks to the car in front that stops on the motorway

"hmcAsWas If there's no one behind you then there's no need to stop as the person would be able to get out after you"

PageNowFound - not always true if the car trying to pull out is turning right and needs to clear two lanes of traffic (that approaching from his right, and that on the other side of the road approaching from his left).

If you are a lone car approaching from his/ her right it might be helpful to stop / slow (assuming it is safe to do so) when there is nobody behind you if the oncoming traffic on the other side of the road approaching from the driver's left is such that there is presently a gap which will be unfortunately filled by oncoming vehicles by the time you have passed.

Stopping on the motorway

It's been obvious to me for ages that most people find driving difficult. My philosophy using the roads is to expect the unexpected and assume that other drivers will do stupid things from time to time. I do get a bit amused when I see people get the raving arse about other road users but I never get worked up as a result, and just continue to try to drive sensibly. What else can you do?

I was a passenger for a long time before I learnt. I'm glad because I saw that all driver make the occasional error, of course we do, we're human. When someone makes an error my experience tells me that chances are its just one of those misjudgements. I have rarely been behind someone for long enough to see they are at the poorer end of ability but not dangerous enough to not be on the road. Upshot is report if it's wreckless but they've probably made one of those boobs we all do from time to time. (These threads are like the threads about discipline and everyone is convinced that that are perfect). OP I would stake my life on you having made an error at some point.

Obviously it's dangerous on high speed roads but in general 20-30mph town situations I don't see why it's such a drama. If those behind are paying attention like they should be there's no reason why it would cause an accident any more than when you have to slow down or stop for any legitimate reason.

My driving instructor taught me that unless I know exactly what the driver in front is going to do (impossible) then I need to assume he's going to stop at any moment and leave a safe stopping distance. It's served me well for 25 years, apart from when I rear ended someone due to late braking, wet road and cheap tyres.
I do occasionally slow down to let some poor bugger out of turnings that I know take an age to get out of, but only a berk would do an emergency stop to do that.

I agree with you, even though I always keep a safe distance. I generally see it with older people who simply let anyone in. The problem is that it causes blockages as the traffic lights are normally planned to accommodate a certain amount of traffic etc.

In crawling traffic in London i do let people in. Everyone does, no-one would get anywhere if this didn't happen.
at stopping on the motorway

It's fine, IF it's safe. I have a near-miss pretty much every day on my bike as people let cars out straight across a bike lane into slow moving traffic. These cars just don't look for bikes and often sit in the bike lane, blocking it.

50/50 half the time it seems helpful and necessary for people to pull out of or cross certain roads. At other times, I feel like people need to brush up on signs and rules...