Please help settle this argument re rat runs

[smittenkittennn]

Came up again on school run this morning. DH is convinced that when cars are in a traffic jam and they see a car turning off onto a side run, the other cars see the car turning and think "well he/she must know something I don't know - I'm going to follow that car."

I think in this day of sat nav nobody would do that and rather what people assume is the car that's turning is going somewhere else (home/different location/etc.). I think no one in their right mind would just follow some random thinking they know a way round the traffic jam.

When I point out to DH that he doesn't do this. He acknowledges he doesn't, but insists other people do. I finally said this morning we would let mumsnet be the decider.

YANBU = no one follows randoms
YABU = of course people follow other cars out of traffic jams

I follow randoms!

I don't

I follow ransoms all the time out of queues.

Or even randoms

Yes, I am with your DH. It’s quite obvious when people do this because they will very suddenly turn without much warning. It happens in places I am familiar with so I know exactly what they are doing. However it’s unlikely I would follow a random in a place I’m not familiar with, unless it is clear that the hold up is going to be very protracted.

Yep i do! You can tell if a car was actually planning on turning down that road, or if they have decided to do it because of the queue.

I think people do this, and the same with long queues if people start doing u-turns others are more likely to follow suit.

Only if our satnav is screwed and we're in a proper mess would we consider following a random car. If you use a live satnav that connects to traffic data and other users you shouldn't need to do this.

We do this sometimes.

Stay in queue = likely delay

Take random road = small chance of beating traffic, at worse you'll probably be as delayed as you were before

I would never follow a random when I'm alone in a car but that's because I dont feel safe as a woman alone.

I never follow randoms, but then I know all the roads in the areas I generally drive in.

Although if I was in a place I didn’t know, I still wouldn’t.

I don't follow randoms but even though Google maps is excellent, it takes a simplistic view of avoiding hold-ups - I may do my own re-routing sometimes based on less binary data when I know the area.

Have definitely followed randoms in the hope that they know something I don't! It's a risky business but half the fun is the thrill of the unknown.

Of course people do, it's the herd mentality.

We live at the end of a wide meandering cul-de-sac off a main road. Usually, we see about one car per hour. We know when the main road is clogged due to roadworks or an accident because we get regular convoys of traffic which then have to negotiate around each other outside our house to turn round and rejoin the traffic. They've clearly not looked at their satnav which would clearly show our road doesn't go anywhere.

@Nottherealslimshady

I would never follow a random when I'm alone in a car but that's because I dont feel safe as a woman alone.

You actually think there are people who purposefully pull out of a queue and go down a side street in the hope that a lone woman in a car follows?

I think that seeing a car in front in a long or slow-moving queue turn off can motivate people behind to turn off, but not because they are blindly following the other driver down a side road, but because they assume s/he can see further ahead to the source of the delay/ or that it extends a long way and have decided to take an alternative route.

So they aren't following them per se, they are following their example in choosing not to wait in the traffic jam, and finding an alternative route.

In the same way that if you see people in an unmoving jam in front of you pull out, u-turn and head back the way they came (because an accident has clearly stopped traffic both ways), you might think they could see more than you and clearly don't think it's going to be clared quickly.

I don't do it but I've seen it done. I've been know to drive in a random direction for a while then reset the satnav when I'm stuck somewhere though.

I followed a random once when a road was flooded and I hadn't a clue where to go instead slightly different as they were obviously trying to get to roughly the same place as me. You can tell when people are taking a cut through out of the traffic, they often indicate at the last second or not at all.

I had a random follow me after coming across a road closed sign. They were ahead of me, let me pass and then followed me. The hilarious thing is that I didn't have a sat nav, had no idea where I was going, was literally following my nose down single car country lanes in the pitch black with my fingers crossed! The random also had randoms following them 😂 I admit to cheering out loud when I happened across a main road I recognised, I had felt very pressured!!

I definitely do this - not often, but if I'm stuck in traffic somewhere I don't know well then yes, following someone else who might know something I don't can be useful. And more entertaining than sitting waiting!

I know my local area pretty thoroughly nowadays, but certainly learnt some workarounds originally by following others.

I've only had a car with a satnav that is helpful in these circumstances for less than two years. Previous car did have sat nav but it didn't show enough to tell about alternative routes, and was too slow to signal turns to be useful on any back routes, so I gave up trying to use it.

With all the nonsense of road closures and reroutings in London, that our normally quite responsive satnav had no idea about when I visited my sister recently, I think I'll still be using the "what do the locals know that I don't" technique often enough!

Random follower! It usually works well.

Seems to be a pretty even split....which won't settle the argument! :-) I haven't driven a car in 10+ years so in those days you didn't have sat nav. I am certain I never did this.

Agree with posters re doing a U-turn though when you see others doing the same, but I can't imagine myself following a random down a side road thinking they knew something. To each their own though!

I do. I get bored and would rather do something than just sit! It might just lead to same amount of traffic but I've also potentially learnt a new route!

Sat navs are often shit at getting round jams 🤷🏻‍♀️

I never thought randoms would know some magical way out of the traffic jam. If someone in a queue turns around or goes a different way I assume they just got fed up of waiting and decided to go somewhere/back home!