Tractors should not be on main roads at peak commuter time. AIBU

[Hoolajerry]

We live in a relatively rural town which traditionally has a large farming community. We have very poor public transport links. We have one major road which bypasses the town and is approximately 30 minutes to a major motorway. Without fail whenever you travel on this road there are tractors. In the morning there can be significant tailbacks 20+ cars long. Unfortunately the road does not lend itself to overtaking (amongst one of the most dangerous in the country). It also does not have many pull-in places and even if they do you will meet another one fairly soon.
I had this conversation with DH and he said that as a rural community they have a right to be there whenever they like. However, these are not small business tractors as per traditional farms, they are massive contractors who have set-up in the last 10 years who are therefore based significant distances from the farms they serve. One in particular is very new and has bought up swathes of land throughout the locality and has its base 2 miles from the motorway but comes all the way to our town it what seems to be a constant stream.
I know that I am being slightly unreasonable so this is a little lighthearted but it pisses me off that everyday my journey to work is taken at a snails pace following bloody tractors. AIBU?

It is a fact of life that all kinds of things have a perfect right to use the roads whenever they choose:
Tractors. JCBs. Horses. Caravans. Learner drivers. Moped rider. Cyclists. 4x4s pulling livestock trailers.

All of the above are likely to cause hold-ups and delays.

I live on the edge of a large city in a semi-rural location - tractors are a constant. The locals accept this. And the bunches of weekend cyclists. And the many, many horses (mine included).

Not sure there is an answer - any sort of a ban would be ridiculous. Sometimes farmers need to use the roads during rush hour e.g. to get to the local livestock market which takes in animals between 7.30 and 10.30.

Annoying when you have somewhere to be and not much time, but there it is.

The ones I know all live in the local town, not in the countryside, so to them its just a workplace. I hate to break it to you but a farm is a workplace.

Do you need your vehicle to do your actual job? If not, then you are just part of the ones creating unnecessary "rush hour" traffic.

That's a bit harsh. Not everyone lives somewhere where there is decent public transport.

I live on the fringes of the county town. We're nearly 2 miles from the nearest station and our buses only run from 8.30-5.40, which is useless for commuters.

(The buses also have a timetable of Byzantine complexity, generally approximately hourly but with 2 gaps when they are 2-hourly. Whenever I think about getting the bus, there never seems to be one within an hour of when I want it.)

@Blueoasis you think riding your poor horse on a busy road during rush hour is acceptable, not for the drivers (screw those) but for your horse? However quiet and slow cars go past it, it doesn’t stop the fact that’s over 50-60 cars and vans in a distance of 100meters? Isn’t your horse spooked or stressed? Do you think a busy A road during Friday rush hour outside Marlow or Basildon or wherever is an acceptable place for a horse? You can call people moronic all you like but wanting to practise your hobby without thinking of anybody/anything else is the least selfish.

Yellow things are diggers etc. Usually yellow and very slow.

@Henrysmycat

A lot of horses don't care about traffic, they trust their riders. I've seen videos of people that know of large grass verges next to A roads that they can have a canter on. Some people don't have access to arenas or nice forests for hacking, so what do you expect them to do? Just keep their horse in a field and do nothing with it? What's the problem if the horse is fine with it?

They are experienced horse riders that can handle the situation. What they can't anticipate is moronic drivers that don't give two shits about them and would rather speed, blast the horn etc and over take in dangerous situations. How is that their fault?

You called horse riders idiots despite knowing nothing about the sport. You are the idiot, not us.

Oh I l've been there before, trying to get to the hospital called in to work! Very frustrating as it was mid morning and there was a very long line of vehicles behind me; however they have the right to be on the road but that doesn't make it pleasant!

There was post on facebook recently of a woman in her car soundly abusing a horserider for having the audacity to ride past her house on a housing estate at 6.30 am and waking her up - with those clippy cloppy hooves. She had a right cob on. On the rider was on a cob.

She was actually claiming it was illegal to ride on residential roads between certain hours......

@UrsulaPandress yeah she got charged I think for the abuse.

She did.

More people need charged for the way they treat horse riders on the road. Do you remember that video last year I think of a car coming round a corner going too fast, ending up on the wrong side of the road and hit two horses? Then they just drove off. Yet we are the problem.

And those cyclists who overtook a horse on both sides!

More people need charged for the way they treat horse riders on the road.

Totally agree! My daughter was hit by a car while hacking the 50 yards to a bridle way - the whole thing was caught on her head cam, the person she was riding with head cam and a dash cam in a car coming the opposite direction.

The police did absolutely fuck all. Didn’t even speak to the driver

The incident ended up in the local press and the abuse and utterly vile attitude from the general public towards horses on the road was horrifying.

It would have been a good opportunity for the police to put out a statement or some sort of reminder that horses were perfectly entitled to be on the road

Where does it say that roads are for cars only? Don't we all pay for their upkeep in our taxes?

I live in a rural area so often will get stuck behind a tractor, just one of those things that come with living in the countryside. What does really annoy me though is when they churn up half the field or verge and then drive it out onto the road and then like today it is pouring down .You end up with really a dangerous road as it is covered in mud .I have gone past an accident where the particular stretch of road was literally a mud bath .

The roads are congested because there are too many cars on the road ....the majority just carrying 1 person

On my bike, I take up a tiny bit of space. I didn't choose a vehicle too big for the road. I didn't choose a vehicle that's too big to overtake without braving oncoming traffic.

Ironic folk moaning about "big slow tractors" and taking that as launchpad to moan about cyclists who barely take up any space at all on the roads.

@lljkk

People should still be treating as a car though and going into the other lane to over take you, not going past giving you just enough room. I saw two drivers tonight that didn't want to wait so overtook a bike, came into my lane almost hitting me and the poor cyclist as they just scraped by them. That's not right either, it's intimidating and dangerous.

Yellow things are diggers etc.
Thank you.

YABU with tractors, the farmers are working and you are in a relatively rural area.

Now don't get me started on caravans though. Every caravan should be impounded and blown up!!

Do you think a busy A road during Friday rush hour outside Marlow or Basildon or wherever is an acceptable place for a horse? You can call people moronic all you like but wanting to practise your hobby without thinking of anybody/anything else is the least selfish.

Don't you think that driving your car without consideration for others is selfish?

Those who drive the tractors are working. So you are saying they should not at those times? Given farming is 24 hours daily and no holidays if you have animals they cannot do such.
Part of the problem we find is people moving to the rural area and having no respect for it. They have no idea of rural life and want things their own way. Many think it ok to walk through private land with dogs or on quads without asking permission from the owner. That causes untold damage and stress to animals and destroys crops. Others open gates or report farmers to the police for doing their job. I have lived in rural area a long time and seen city and townies buy houses and cause nothing but trouble because they don't understand ( or they are spiteful )
They want the nice bits, but think that in rural areas that their kids have a right to play on everyone's land, yet complain about farmers doing their daily work.
There are other things that slow traffic as much as tractors, but you accept that, and realise that you are not the only commuter.