Aggressive woman-was I BU?

[NotAnotherUserName5]

Driving my DC to school today, and we get into the school car park. Was driving along behind two cars, a taxi at the front, then this woman's in front me me.
Taxi stops dead on a zebra crossing with no indication, car in front does the same. I wait a few moments then carefully drive around the two cars (one way system, so nothing coming other way)
Get my DC out of the car and this woman appears from the other car and gets out and starts being very confrontational and aggressive, telling me I should drive carefully (I do) we are all waiting you know, she wanted to get past the taxi too, but was waiting.
It was more the arm gestures and aggression on her face that shocked me.
My poor DC looked scared.

I told her I do drive carefully and that I was sorry to appease the situation. I was left shaking by her aggression!

Was I bu?

In fact, the Highway Code recognises the nuances of the situation and doesn't have a blanket "Do not overtake on a crossing". www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/pedestrian-crossings.html

You MUST NOT overtake the moving vehicle nearest the crossing or the vehicle nearest the crossing which has stopped to give way to pedestrians.

Taxi wasn't moving and it hadn't stopped to give way to pedestrians. So fine, provided you take note of:

You should take extra care where the view of either side of the crossing is blocked by queuing traffic or incorrectly parked vehicles. Pedestrians may be crossing between stationary vehicles.

True, Amazingly, but the HC quotes show that even on a public road it's not automatically wrong to pass a car while driving through a crossing, so private land line is not needed to defend OP. (And conversely, I think it's a good policy to drive on private land the same way you would on public road, as it makes things more predictable for other road users).

@DadDadDad

This was also a double laned, one way road so therefore if the op had been in lane 2 no one would be having this conversation. Op I'm still with you on this.

@DadDadDad

Agree with your last post.

The typical twatty taxi driver caused this by dangerously parking without regard for other road users and pedestrians. Report the taxi to the company and the school.

I don't think what you did was dangerous as you observed the road carefully and drove past slowly.

The angry woman was a twat, feeling she is 'right' doesn't give her the right to be aggressive like that - especially in front of children.

Failingat40-the shouting at me and being aggressive in front of my DC upset me the most.
DC has ASD, and shouting triggers her to get really upset. She went into school looking anxious. I'll be thinking about her all day

It was 2 lanes, you could have been in the second lane anyway in which case you would have driven past the zebra.
YANBU
The woman was clearly upset she didn't change lanes first.

At times like this I wonder if I'm reading the same thread as other people.

She pulled round a parked car which was ON a zebra crossing, having checked first to make sure that she couldn't see any pedestrians. The driver in front of her had also stopped - if they'd decided to wait then that's up to them. Presumably having come to a stop and then moved off again to pull round the cars, OP wasn't driving at speed, meaning that she would have been perfectly able to stop had a pedestrian emerged from in front or behind the taxi. It was a one way street, so she has simply made use of the second lane, in a legal manoeuvre.

The dickhead here is the taxi driver who has decided to stop dead in the middle of a pedestrian crossing, not the OP, who by the sounds of it has carefully moved out of the way, making sure that the area was clear of pedestrians whilst she did so.

*drove

You overtook perhaps impatiently, but the woman was more in the wrong for yelling at you for it. It really depends how long you waited.

The taxi driver was most in the wrong in terms of driving for stopping on the crossing and I'd let the taxi firm and the school know.

Having read more YADNBU. The Taxi driver was parked on the zebra crossing, not before it. You were going to have to overtake at some point as he might have stayed for some time. The only question is how long you wait to overtake. Really you're just making use of the second lane as intended. Fine and legal. The woman was BU.

Taxi wasn't moving and it hadn't stopped to give way to pedestrians

The op couldn't possible have known that for certain. Especially as any pedestrians were likely to have been kids and harder to spot. You shouldn't assume you know what other drivers are doing. I specially not on a pedestrian crossing.

BitOutOfPractice-he was fully on the zebra crossing parked, not at it. Still
There when I parked up (in a parking spot) and took my daughter in the entrance by the crossing and his car.

The op couldn't possible have known that for certain. - that's true, which is why I added the proviso from the HC that you should drive cautiously. You may never be 100% sure that a car hasn't stopped for pedestrians, but you have to make a reasonable assessment from all the information available.

OP, some people are just nasty and aggressive. (Look at how some posters on Mumsnet behave!). You didn’t do anything wrong at all.

I’d just forget it and not worry about it.

The op couldn't possible have known that for certain.

She doesn't need to know it for certain, as long as she was approaching the zebra crossing in the second lane at a reasonable speed she would have stopped for any pedestrians who were crossing (just as she would if she had been in that lane anyway).

YWNBU - presumably after pulling into lane 2 and approaching the zebra crossing yourself (at a crawl), you checked that no pedestrians were crossing before proceeding over it? if so, perfectly reasonable driving in my opinion.

Op could you reiterate that you did, in fact, look to see if there were any approaching pedestrians and also could you confirm that this crossing was or was not secluded, surrounded by trees/bushes or that you had plain sight and could see everything around it.

OP - I would have done exactly the same as you.
Apart from when the woman shouted at me I would have given her both barrels and maybe even told her to shut the fuck up
< then got detention for swearing at school🤭>

Oh OP.

You were in the wrong. You're worried about this random woman?
Worry about the decisions you make when driving.

The only time two of my kids nearly got knocked down by cars were by mums near the school, they types of drivers I'd least expect to be a threat to my kids' safety.
Use your head. Be patient. Life is not a race. One small mistake and then what?

AmazinglyGrace
no one walking on the crossing or anywhere nearby for that matter

I can’t beleive people are telling you you were u. The only unreasonable people were the taxi driver for parking inappropriately and the the woman, who shouted at you because she’d been caught unawares by said taxi driver.

I need to read more thoroughly, I think. So I will.

Most parents on the school run are a bag of stress. You, me, everyone else.
The taxi driver was a dumb-ass for sure.
The woman reacted aggressively out of fear, presumably.

No. You shouldn't have overtaken on the zebra. Though I'm confused as to why they'd all stopped also. I think on balance you should have just waited it out. Sorry.

AmazinglyGrace-yes, I stopped and looked both ways. It's an automatic response to do so at crossings.

The crossing was raised, like on a speed hump (I assume this is to give drivers better visibility of smaller pedestrians and slow traffic) so visability was good.

No bushes or trees etc blocked my view when I stopped in the second lane before I crossed over the zebra.

One cannot be certain of anything when driving a car. There is always a risk attached - but that's life; a series of calculated risks. You take a risk everytime you leave your house.

Use your head. Be patient. Life is not a race. One small mistake and then what?
Where exactly did it say that OP was racing? Or being impatient? Or indeed that she made a mistake? She carefully undertook a perfectly legal manoeuvre. The fact that your DC narrowly avoided a collision with cars driven by school-run Mums who weren't paying attention is irrelevant. How do you know the OP wasn't paying attention?