To have beeped back

[lakia10]

Okay I am a very nervous driver and don't have much experience of driving on long dark country lanes. So I decided to take the plunge and drive to Wales with my dp but was very nervous about it.
Anyway I did quite well felt good that I had plucked up the courage. However travelling home late at night pitch black roads I did feel disorientated but kept it together I tried to pick up the speed but didn't drive as fast as alot of people do and many overtook me. However one particular lorry driver was driving behind me in a massive intimidating contraction and getting up my arse flashing and beeping his horn aggressively.
It really upset me and unfortunately I felt angry and as he overtook me I kept my hand on the horn back. It knocked my confidence and I now won't travel there again. Aibu.

Neither of you should have beeped. That isn't the point of the horn. But to be honest, if a lorry over took you on a country lane then you were probably going a fair bit slower that 50.

If you are as nervous about driving as you seem to be then it would be best to avoid long journeys until you are more comfortable and definitely stay away from unfamiliar country roads at night.

nobody is 'forced' into risky manoeuvres.
OP said she was on the way back so could have been out of windy roads? but any driver trying to intimidate is a dangerous arrogant entitled knob and certainly not worthy of being called a 'professional'

50mph on a winding Welsh road in the dark is faster than I'd drive - especially if I didn't know the road - you're likely to get a sheep, ancient land rover or a tractor round the next bend.
imho it's actually easier in the dark as you can often see lights of oncoming cars gleaming above the hedges - but beams full on behind you destroy that and sheep don't have lights.

I agree that if the lorry was coming up fast behind you, then you must have been going much slower than it and too slow for the road.

Sorry. I think yabu. A lorry is limited to 56mph.. you were clearly going slower than 50, to allow a lorry to pass. You can cause worse accidents driving slow than driving a little over the speed limit. If your scared of a road don't drive it you could end up killing someone driving like an idiot. If one lorry overtaking you has put you off driving maybe it's a good thing your not on the road. I think you maybe need a few more driving lessons. The road is a dangerous place you can't fanny about.

I really want to ask which road it was, but think it’s kind of irrelevant, if many cars are overtaking then I think the OP was going too slow.

Oh and those it's a limit not a target you do know driving so slow that other cars are overtaking you including juggernaut lorrys is actually against the law. Police can slap you with £100 fine and 3 points. Speed of the roads there for a reason folks became a law in 2013...

"However, driving too slowly or braking without good cause is an offence, coming under the scope of ‘inconsiderate driving’. This is defined as driving a vehicle on a road or in a public place without reasonable consideration for other people. In order to prove that you're guilty of this offence, prosecutors must show that another driver was actually inconvenienced by your driving.

The reason it’s classed an offence is that a car that’s travelling far below the speed of the vehicles around it can create a hazard for other road-users, as it’s unusual and unexpected. At the very least, a dawdling car causes concern as other motorists wonder what other unusual driving behaviour might be exhibited by the driver. HGVs may also be motivated to overtake, which can contribute to congestion as they’re slower than cars."

pulled from saga insurance website

Last post on this. This was also pulled from an insurance company's website

"Driving slower than surrounding traffic is more likely to cause an accident than speeding, according to research. Driving 5 mph slower than surrounding traffic is more likely to cause an accident than going 5 mph faster than drivers around you."

If you are driving so slow you should pull in to let other people pass. This is in the Highway Code, not something that you need to learn from mn.

I drive home on windy country roads every night - and yes in the winter it's often pitch black with no street lights. I hated it at first - I only passed my test in October but the only way I was going to improve was to keep practising.

I now go around 40-45mph at night in the dark, which is about average for the roads I drive - but if someone's up my arse I do pull over and stop. It does help that I know where the passing places are though, which you often don't when it's an unfamiliar road and dark!

If a massive lorry can overtake you on country roads there is no way on earth you were doing 50mph. More like 10/20.

YABU to drive so slowly that a lorry can overtake you. You should pull over and allow them to overtake, then continue when safe to do so.

OP why won't you say how fast you were driving? If a lorry managed to overtake you on a country road, you must of been going very slow!

Yeah... I drive a medium-sized Peugeot and in no way would I be overtaking anyone doing 50 on a narrow road at night, let alone if I were in a lorry.

"If you are driving so slow you should pull in to let other people pass. This is in the Highway Code"

Can you point to the section on Highway Code that says that doing 50 on a 60 road is that "slow"?

There is actually a relevant law in California. Once you get 4+ cars close behind you, pull over & let them by. I think OP said she was going 50, though, which is hardly "slow" on a rural twisty Wales road.

hgv speed limiter is set to 56 - but the limit for vehicles over 7.5 ton in England / Wales on any non motorway is 50 or the posted limit if less.

I used to live in an area of Wales with many winding roads - one route in particular carried traffic from a quarry and it wasn't even vaguely unusual to have a fully loaded wagon harassing your tail downhill. - without the specific location we can't judge whether 20, 30 or 40 was acceptable - certainly on any B road you ain't going to get prosecuted for doing 20-30 even with a national speed limit in place.

'my' frustration is not justification for intimidating someone else.

Trouble with pulling over on dark roads is by the time u see a pull in place your scared to try and pull in if a arse is up close behind u

Why, for goodness sake? They're not going to pull in behind you - in the highly unlikely even that they do, you just drive off again.

I recently stayed somewhere with lots of unlit windy lanes. It was uncanny how, every time I turned off the main road, someone else would turn off just behind me who obviously knew the roads well and wanted to get on. Each time I simply pulled in and let them pass me. I actually found it very helpful, because the fact that they were in front of me meant that it was easier to see where the bends were.