Country road etiquette. Am I doing it wrong?

[JensonsAcolyte]

I have a new twice daily commute which is mainly country roads. Very twisty and windy, most of it is wide enough for two cars to pass but not all. Lots of up and down hills as well.

I’ve done the journey three times now. It’s 40mph until it hits the two villages then it’s 30.

Every single time I’ve had a car right up my arse for nearly the whole way. I’m starting to think it’s me.

So I drive at 40 along the straight bits with good visibility ahead. I brake coming into sharp turns and then accelerate coming out. I slow right down if I think I’m going to struggle with the gap with an oncoming car. I sometimes have to tap the brakes on a downward steep hill to stay at 40. I slow down to 30 approaching the village.

Every single time I slow down, the car behind pushes right up to me. It was a big white van this morning and yesterday morning (thinking about it, it could be the same guy) and an Audi SUV thing yesterday evening. The Audi overtook me when we got to the dual carriageway and GLARED at me. I’m in a mint green fiat 500, girly little car which I think is half the issue.

Am I being over cautious? Do I need to just thunder round the lanes at a steady 40?

If you are the sort of driver who would be pissed off with me can you explain why?

@LemonRoses @Spiderplants

Please direct me to the typo where I said I speed in a hgv or towing horses. Oh yes, that's correct, I didn't even vaguely imply that was the case. You've just decided that on the occasions I have been stuck behind a car driver when I'm in a large slow vehicle it must be the case I'm speeding, rather than the fact they are driving ludicrously slowly, to the point my usual manner of driving when transporting horses, which any vaguely capable car driver should be able to safely and legally exceed, is being further slowed by an incompetent car driver. But hey, if you need to tell yourself I must be travelling horses without due caution to justify your own driving deficiencies that's ok.

Perhaps it's different where you are lemon but round here instructors don't tend to take pupils on 10 mile jaunts down nsl roads on their first lessons. And even beyond that, it wouldn't occur to me to feel irritated by a learner. It's those supposedly capable of driving alone but driving in a manner that demonstrates they clearly aren't I take issue with.

Personally I think a new driver, or one that's recently out of hospital after a crash is at risk, and unlikely to feel reassured by witnessing driving that would result in a fail on a driving test for inability to make reasonable progress. Driving that clearly indicates they are incompetent.

My dc learnt on private land, but had that not been the case I certainly wouldn't have wanted them learning or as new drivers on the roads with dangerously over cautious drivers anymore than I would with dangerously under cautious drivers.

TrainspottingWelsh, You are the author of ‘How to win friends and influence people ‘ aren’t you?

@LemonRoses

TrainspottingWelsh, You are the author of ‘How to win friends and influence people ‘ aren’t you?

People drive like arseholes on back roads. Like a pp said, there's no-one else on the road until suddenly there is and you've hit them because you were taking corners at 60 like a cunt.

Although it could just be your car. Mint green fiat's give me the rage. Soon as I see one I'm hit by an inexplicable urge to overtake them and cut them up. Nothing to do with the awful manager I used to have who drove one, though. Definitely not.

I appreciate the posters saying you should drive round corners with the expectation of something in the road. I understand the thought process. But I totally disagree with this.
I drive a NSL road 60 miles a day and there's lots of blind summits and blind corners but you don't slow to half the speed limit 'just in case'
In 31 years of driving tiny rural roads, once, just once I've come round a corner (at about 45mph/NSL road) to see a logging lorry coming right for me. Fast responses and a bit of a bounce off the verge saved me from ploughing into it. My heart was racing. I still don't take that corner or any other at 20mph though.
They probably are arseholes, but arseholes who drive the road daily and probably have for years and probably have never encountered many (or any) hazards in that time.
Slowing to 20mph for bends or other cars is extremely annoying. I wouldn't be up your arse but I would attempt to overtake ASAP. On the straight bits you need to slow down and indicate to let them past, if you're speeding up to 40 and it's a short straight they might not have time to get past you.

Once you've done it a few more months you'll feel more confident. Don't feel pressurised to going faster if you can't though.
I learned on these types of god awful roads, I learned to judge where the verge was (and the width of my own car) when cars and vans were coming towards me, I learned to look at the verge/hedges at night when you're blinded by full beams to stay on the road and not veer one way or another, I learned which corners to brake at and which you just ease of at. I also learned to drive on roads covered with snow that weren't gritted. Not skills you pick up learning in big towns or cities.
Stick with it snd ignore the aggressive drivers..

@SpaceRaiders

I was once driving on a country road behind someone who was pootling along at around 30 in a 60. I only narrowly avoided a very near miss with the HGV which came up round the bend behind me. Dc and I would have almost certainly been killed had it not been for the quick thinking of the driver, luckily there was also no oncoming traffic which meant he continued his emergency break on the opposite side of the road.

Driving well below the speed limit is equally just as dangerous as driving beyond it. Genuinely, if you’re not confident at driving reasonably within the limit then perhaps some extra lessons like pass plus are in order.

Surely this was the fault of the HGV driver going too fast not the other driver going too slowly? I drive on windy country roads every day and I'm aware that there could be, and often is, cyclists, joggers or horse riders round any bend. I would have to be able to break if there was - I can't rely on there being no oncoming for me to continue an emergency break on the opposite side of the road. Many country roads need the speed limits updating to account of modern traffic.

@TrainspottingWelsh

I'm aware that my familiarity with country roads, both in general and those I'm accustomed to isn't universally shared, plus the fact I've ridden on them all my life, so I'm not impatient with capable drivers on an unfamiliar road.

However, I have no tolerance for nervous or incompetent drivers. I don't tailgate, I just think they should be banned or fuck off elsewhere. I can understand eg not being able to predict the safe speed for a sharp corner on a new road, and completely agree it's better to be over, rather than under cautious. But frankly excessive braking because you are incapable of judging the distance to pass another vehicle is just shit driving.

I've been stuck behind vehicles when I'm driving a hgv horse box or pulling a trailer, as have tractor drivers I know. We don't thank them for driving so cautiously, we just think they're dangerous twats.

I also don't agree it's about the car. Mine has enough power it's not an issue if the driver in front practically parks before going up hill, and I can overtake on a straight stretch. In dsds tiny fiat, or if I'm towing or in the box, it's a fucking nightmare. And there's a special space in hell for crap drivers that speed up on the straight stretches so only powerful vehicles, or sometimes nobody can safely overtake.

Ditto drivers that think the signage for the speed on a corner then applies to the rest of the road.

God, I love a good MN driving thread post like this 😂😂😂

I had a mini, I was tailgated beeped at, overtaken, undertook and intimidated. I now drive a big male looking (it’s my partners car) BMW. I drive exactly the same and none of these things have happened.
My partner hated borrowing my car because of the way people in other cars treated him.

@LemonRoses @Spiderplants yeah, you want a signed copy?

There is a wide range of confidence and competence in the driving population, also of arrogance and dickishness.
@TrainspottingWelsh There may also be older and/or disabled drivers on the road. people with dogs and or children/babies. God forbid they should cause you a tiny & likely insignificant degree of inconvenience!

Interesting, having lived in Rural Scotland a fair amount of my 64 years I pretty much know how to drive on windy hilly rural roads. My DH who was brought up in South East England on the other hand! The main thing he does is not use his gears enough. All he does is break at every corner then he has no reves to pull out and speed up. I always use my gears to slow down, I then have more control round corners can get up hill easily after the corners and can cope with all road conditions. The problem with rural roads and it's drivers in my opinion are that they tend to be driven by locals who know the road like the back of their hands and can drive almost on auto pilot. Nowadays they are also used more and more by delivery drivers on a very tight schedule. So if your not familiar with the road put over and let them past rather than speed up on the straights.

Sorry to say but I think it’s a gender issue mainly. Have been driving for years. I Always give way to oncoming traffic in country lanes. Whenever someone gives way to me , it’s a woman. And I thank her.
Women drive more carefully. Insurance for women drivers was once cheaper than fir men in recognition of that.
Drive at what you think is a safe speed. Pull over if some man is up your backside and let him have it. You do not lose any dignity by doing so but maintain your own safety and calm dignity.
Always slow more than enough time for your journey. Let the men stress out. The next car will be in their way too. And the one after that. !

I’m thinking on our single track road with several 90 degree bends, high hedgerows and few passing places I regularly (daily) pass tractors, quad bikes moving sheep, deer, a shoot with five or six landrovers going slowly, cyclists, crossing on horseback, ramblers, people trying out the vintage Porsches, log vans, Ocado lorries, the postie, septic tankers, oil tankers. Most are not going at the permissible (but inadvisable) 60mph - only a complete idiot who wanted their tyres shredded on the loose flint across the road and who had a death wish would.

I have done more than my fair share of speed awareness courses. I’m not a nervous or particularly cautious driver. I’m happy handling most vehicles, but it is speed which kills not driving a bit slower than others want. You cannot see around bends nor guess what might be there.

It’s irritating following a cyclist for six miles, but they have a legal right to be there. It’s irritating having to move a carcass someone has hit and left in the road - or worse break it’s neck/call someone to shoot the deer because it’s too badly injured by a reckless driver. Very rarely is that down to someone going too slowly to stop. .

@DoubleTweenQueen whether a driver is disabled, elderly, has dogs, children, or Lord Lucan riding Redrum on board, there is still a basic level of competency required.
It also isn't the inconvenience that particularly bothers me, riders, cyclists, learners, tractors etc don't annoy me. it's the fact they obviously lack the basic skills to be on the road but do it anyway, under the illusion their shiteness represents safe and superior driving.

@TrainspottingWelsh You're missing ‘in my opinion’, as well as any shred of self-awareness or humility.

I drive a small car on narrow country roads and all the time big 4x4s come ploughing along in the middle of the road, don’t slow down and seem to expect me to slow right down and/or drive in the ditch to avoid them. They’re the ones with the off road vehicle!

All the roads round me are 40mph limit because of the risk of animals on the road. There are signs everywhere but still people speed and animals get killed regularly.

No @DoubleTweenQueen that's not my opinion, that's the law. There isn't a separate test that allows dog owners, parents, the disabled or elderly to pass a different test where it's ok to drive badly. I would also add that bar the very elderly that on an individual level are no longer capable and lack the capacity to recognise it, none of those groups particularly spring to mind as the main offenders.

It's not you, OP, it's them. There are unfortunately a lot of country dwelling drivers who let familiarity with the roads make them overconfident on the windy roads and too often come a cropper. They might know all the twists and turns of the roads like the back of their hands but that will not help them see the tractor in the middle of the road round that blind bend.

In the village I grew up in some idiot lost control on a sharp bend and ended up ploughing straight through the living room of the house on the corner and ended up in their back garden.
Through some miracle no one was killed but the house had to be demolished.

I live rurally and learnt to drive on narrow country lanes and my work journey has a lot of very narrow lanes .People who drive them regularly can get blaise about it then get frustrated at people who they deemed to be too slow .But the thing is you don't what Is round the blind corner , Country roads can be more dangerous than main roads.I would let them past they want take that chance so be it .

They will glue themselves behind you whatever speed you are doing. They are idiots. My sister got a speeding ticket because she allowed a driver behind her to intimidate her into speeding. Sod the driver behind you. Continue to drive safely. There could be a cyclist around any bend and you need time to react.

I was driving on a country lane yesterday. I went round a tight bend and there was an oncoming car, my side of the road, right in front of me. Idiot was overtaking 2 cyclists on the bend. Whilst he was in the national speed limit, if I hadn’t been going at an appropriate speed, am pretty sure he’s have either had to drive straight into me or the cyclists.

I live in the country and drive at 40 on most lanes even when they're 60. I brake around corners although as I've got more used to it I tend to lift foot on accelerator now instead . I give not one flying fuck if that annoys others. I would pull over and let them pass if possible though for my own peace of mind.

Although if someone is driving up my bum I slow down and drive at 30 for the next ten miles....

I HATE following people who drive very slowly around all the bends, then speed up on a straight stretch. I always think it is to stop people passing them. They think they own the road.

Of course they speed up on the straight bits where you have good visibility , they slow down before the bends because you cannot see if it the road ahead is clear or if you will be met by a tractor or livestock on the road.

I’ve lived in the countryside most of my life. You’re spot on with your driving and you need to ignore the idiots. My mum witnessed a terrible accident once that left multiple people dead and paralysed because they didn’t take things seriously in a situation just as you describe. If you hate being glared at, get a muddy Land Rover and put an NFU sticker in the back