Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think my colleague is being a bit unreasonable re “ratrun”?

34 replies

DizzyPhillips · 08/04/2019 12:44

Which is a term I hate anyway but that aside...

She lives on what is generally a very quiet street. There are fairly long term roadworks with temporary traffic lights on one of the nearby main roads and the traffic is bonkers in the morning. Bonkers.

So people going to work have taken to bypassing the roadworks by driving down her street and rejoining the main road after the temporary lights.

She is INCENSED by this. Honest to god has not stopped moaning about it.

“It’s a quiet street and it’s being used as a rat run and it’s noisy and busy and I have to wait to get out of my driveway and how dare they and blah blah blah”

I mean i suppose I can see why it’s potentially slightly irritating but it’s a public road! Surely people have as much right to use it as she does?!

I’ve seen people moan about their roads being used as “rat runs” on here before and on Facebook/Twitter and I genuinely don’t get it 🤷🏻‍♀️

I do generally think there are too many cars on the road. The traffic around here at rush hour is chaos and near constant roadworks (badly planned) do not help. Public transport here is not fit for purpose.

OP posts:
pessimisticstateofperception · 08/04/2019 12:47

I can see why she would find it annoying. She is NBU at all to have a moan about it.

Original poster
DizzyPhillips · 08/04/2019 12:48

God there’s having a moan about it and there is constantly raging about it.

OP posts:
Original poster
DizzyPhillips · 08/04/2019 12:49

I think she enjoys using the phrase rat run

OP posts:
Alsohuman · 08/04/2019 12:49

Yup, public road. Put up and shut up.

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 08/04/2019 12:55

I live in a similar quiet side street and it does become irritating after a while. Can't get off your drive easily, always have people blocking the bottom of the drive waiting for you to go past so they can continue down the street, but then being rude when you indicate that you want to turn in to your drive. Constant pot holes caused by too much traffic on a small, narrow street. Not being able to allow your kids to play out. I have often fantasised about the top of our street being blocked off to solve it.

Then I remember that I chose to live there, and just didn't consider the implications of living in a small side street which people would use ad a cut through to avoid traffic lights and heavy queues by the local primary school. So it's my own problem and I wouldn't moan to anyone at work about it!

alittlesnow · 08/04/2019 13:09

She is not being unreasonable to be pissed off about it, (I suffer similar now and again with living in a side road 7 minutes walk from a big Church, and on Sunday mornings, and when there are Christenings, and weddings, it's a ballache, as I find it so hard to get out of my driveway. People park directly opposite my driveway sometimes when there's a wedding/Christening/big service etc, and they sometimes stop me from getting my car out.

It's generally at weekends, so if I know I am going to need to go out later that day, I move the car onto the road when I get up (at 8am-ish,) so as not to risk being trapped in my driveway.

Your friend/colleague is being unreasonable whingeing constantly about her issue though, as it is tiresome to hear.

I don't mind people having a whine now and again about something, but when it's non-stop, it can become unbearable. The worst thing is when people complain incessantly about their 'health problems.' It's usually the ones who have least to moan about, who moan the loudest and the most often IME.

Pinotjo · 08/04/2019 13:20

There's a road like this where I live, people who live there moan but it's a nice wide road and using it cuts off a congested traffic light system, a runner ran into the road in front of me without looking , ended up on my bonnet, unhurt thankfully, I don't use this road anymore!

WallyTheWasher · 08/04/2019 13:26

Rat run has always been common parlance. I remember my Dad using it in the 80s. I love a good old rat run

DGRossetti · 08/04/2019 13:28

A lad at our school was killed by a car using the road as a ratrun. My DM and other parents got themselves arrested for staging a sit-in in the road. But it forced the council to block it off.

FamilyReferee · 08/04/2019 13:33

For me, it depends how people drive on the rat run. Sometimes a motorway a few miles from us closes, and people use our road as part of a route to get around it. I can't say it makes me happy, but I accept it.

We had a bit of land in the country with some animals on it, and this is regularly used as a rat run by commuters. That in itself I don't object to, but what I do object to is them driving as if they're on an A road - it's not even a B road, it's a quite country lane, but they drive at mad speeds where they can't stop if they meet a tractor or a horse rider round the next corner, honk horns at anyone who gets in their way, sit on your bumper if you drive appropriately on the lane, etc. That kind of use of a rat run annoys the fuck out of me.

And don't even get me started on the motorbikes that come out to the country, then rip around the roads illegally & inapropriately - I'd love to go to their houses, and drive tractors up & down their roads, and see how they feel about inappropriate use of roads where they live.

So I think it depends how people are driving past your colleagues house, whether she's being unreasonable. If they are driving within the law and appropriately for the conditions, then she IBU. But if they are driving dangerously or inappropriately then she INBU.

Original poster
DizzyPhillips · 08/04/2019 13:39

See that’s sad about the boy who was killed in that manner but surely it’s no different than if he’d been knocked down anywhere else? It’s just a person using a road they are entitled to use?

OP posts:
DGRossetti · 08/04/2019 13:44

See that’s sad about the boy who was killed in that manner but surely it’s no different than if he’d been knocked down anywhere else? It’s just a person using a road they are entitled to use?

Well after some well-deserved bad press, the council disagreed and blocked the road off. Part of the problem is almost by definition, drivers using a road as a shortcut are time-pressured. And - mysteriously - being in a hurry does not only not improve ones driving skills, but may very possibly degrade them.

OddBoots · 08/04/2019 13:47

Our roads would be chaos if there was only one route from A to B, there need to be alternative routes for when there are roadworks or other closures or restrictions. Sat navs use traffic data to do exactly this.

Collaborate · 08/04/2019 13:51

Our house is right by a high school. Before they moved the main entrance our road was clogged up each morning with the school run. As I was happy for society to pay to surface the road, I was also happy for society to get to use it, so I never once complained about the congestion (now the inconsiderate parking was a wholly different matter).

Damntheman · 08/04/2019 13:55

Nope, she is not being unreasonable. Having a previously quiet road explode into rat run (which has been an in use phrase since I was tiny 30 years ago) is irritating AF. Can she stop them? No probably not, although she could go to the council and try. Is she allowed to rage about it? Absolutely. Roads not built for a ton of cars will pot hole, a road that was peaceful and quiet when you moved in is suddenly no longer safe for the kids and a source of constant noise and pollution. It's awful.

TotHappy · 08/04/2019 13:59

It depends if the road is suitable, that's all. If it's not designed for use by that volume/type of traffic it can cause lots of problems - visibility, state of repair, adequate signage, parked cars. It's not people using it, it's the volume of people using it.

MrsEricBana · 08/04/2019 13:59

Is rat run ratist then?

Hobbesmanc · 08/04/2019 14:00

Of course its a public road so people can drive on it but I really sympathise. Many residential side roads- especially in older areas just aren't designed for volume traffic- cars parked both sides, people reversing out of drives, big trees, kids who aren't used to the traffic on their road, pets. And some drivers just think its fine to accelerate down to shave seconds off their commute.

thebeesknees123 · 08/04/2019 14:01

I live on a rat run. I don't get irritated at cars as such but I do get annoyed at them driving too fast for the road conditions . Visibility is not great with parked cars and it's narrow so they should go more slowly. I am sick of them bibbing me for edging out of my own drive because I can't see past a parked van blocking my view and someone thinks it's appropriate to fly past at 30 mph and wonder why I haven't seen them. It is also very much a family road. A girl recently got knocked off her bike down here.

Holidayshopping · 08/04/2019 14:03

As someone who lives on a road that used to be pretty busy but is now extremely busy, my sympathy is limited.

Roads do get busier as there are many more people and many more cars. It used to be fine to park down my road, now it’s so much busier. I’m just pleased we have a drive.

Someoneonlyyouknow · 08/04/2019 14:09

It's understandable she is a bit miffed but annoying if she bangs on everyday. Perhaps you can try a sympathetic "Oh yes, you told me about that" or even ask every day first thing "How was the rat run this morning?" and hope she realises how boring she is being. Also, does she drive to work only on main roads or does she use quieter side roads if there is congestion or road works ahead?

needmorespace · 08/04/2019 14:10

I live on a road that can be used as a rat run in the mornings and evenings.
recently, there were stop/go lights at one end and so it became a constant rat run during the day.
Some wanker scraped down the side of my car because the road obviously isn't meant for that level of passing traffic.
So I don't blame her for being annoyed about it.
I'm fucking seething

cantfindname · 08/04/2019 14:25

FamilyReferee do you live along my lane? It used to be a lovely quiet country lane, beloved of walkers, dog walkers, parents and children, horse riders and families cycling. Then there were major roadworks on the local A road some years ago and it was utilised as a rat run. Sadly many of the drivers realised it is also a good shortcut, taking approx 5 miles off some journeys.

So now it is a dangerous place to be. The verges are all churned up as people try to pass at speed, the wildflowers are vanishing and a car in the field/hedge/ditch is by no means uncommon.

I can understand it is a much nicer route, and shorter but FFS drive according to the road, not at 50mph with blind bends and children around. All it takes is common sense Hmm

Elphame · 08/04/2019 14:27

I fully sympathise with her. The temporary roadworks in the village sent 100x the usual traffic down the lane I live on. I lost both my cats within days.

Sadly a lot of drivers still come this way having realised it's a substantial short cut.

supersop60 · 08/04/2019 14:30

She is NBU to be annoyed, but she is BU to constantly moan about it to people who haven't caused it, and can't do anything about it.
Tell her to direct her anger elsewhere.