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?

@Cantstopeatingchocolate

Ah i see, thanks for the clarification... country roads aren't really the A303, which funnily enough is 50mph for much of its none D/C length.

I used to drive between 30k and 50k per year and tbh it makes almost zero difference how fast you try and drive on A and B roads, you always end up behind a queue of traffic following a caravan or a lorry & even if you don't the time saved is very small, a few minutes at most on say, Exeter to Brighton

Aside, just been for a long bike ride today, on B and unclassified roads, everybody was really considerate.. maybe they read this thread? lol!

Oh I had this last week staying with family, only they were 60 roads. My car is an old estate, over 40 on some bends is simply swing the back out into the hedge. I speed up on the straights. One road is along the cliff with some insane open drops and a huge hill , I’d have fuck all chance of stopping my older car if I did 60.
I wish people also had some common sense to realise that not all vehicles handle the same.

LimitIsUp That’s why I added on

Or just get the sticker to the op

Cheaper and make tailgating drivers think twice

Obviously you could, if you have the cameras jyst leave the sticker unstuck and pop on the parcel shelf and remove when parked - that’s if you’re having an issue with tailgating constantly. Or report on operation snap and people tailgating may stop?

Hmm, not sure that you'd be quicker than my Audi SQ5

There is 1.3 seconds in it, the Audi being a fraction quick

@ivykaty44

LimitIsUp That’s why I added on

Or just get the sticker to the op

Cheaper and make tailgating drivers think twice

Obviously you could, if you have the cameras jyst leave the sticker unstuck and pop on the parcel shelf and remove when parked - that’s if you’re having an issue with tailgating constantly. Or report on operation snap and people tailgating may stop?

Yes - not a bad idea. Just prop it up and remove it when not in the car

@AnneElliott

It's not likely to be you. It probably is the assumptions they are making about the car.

In DHs Audi I didn't get this behaviour but in my car I did. Although there were the teenagers that pulled up next to me at the lights and asked me to race. I had. 2ltr Audi and they were driving a fiesta .

I admire their optimism

I do get frustrated at drivers in the country who don't know the roads going very slowly round the bends then going at 60 on the straights, so impossible to pass

but you shouldn't overtake on a bend, and 60 is the limit. I don't see the problem?

@poppycat10

I do get frustrated at drivers in the country who don't know the roads going very slowly round the bends then going at 60 on the straights, so impossible to pass

but you shouldn't overtake on a bend, and 60 is the limit. I don't see the problem?

Well there are degrees of going slowly round bends. Someone who knows the roads and is confident on the bends can usually go round them perfectly safely at a higher speed than a visitor or someone who is a new driver etc. Hence if you are in that situation it is polite to allow the person behind you to over take on the straight so that they are ahead going into the next bend and don't get held up by you. This happens to me quite a lot. Our house is about 8 miles from a main road down a smaller A road that is a series of bends interspersed by 3 straights that you can safely overtake on. I fairly frequently find myself behind people who slow down to about 10mph on the twisty parts but then accelerate hard on the straights meaning it isn't safe to try to overtake them. Then we're back to crawling round the next set of bends. I just wait - no point in pressuring people - buy I cant deny it irritates me. I think sometimes tailgaters bring this kind of behaviour on themselves though. If the driver in front is feeling under pressure sometimes they feel that they have to speed up when they can do, to placate the angry druver behind them, whereas both parties would be better off if they gave the following car the chance to pass. But there are also some drivers who are just oblivious to other road users, though I don't think that's confined to country roads.

Ultimately, I think there are lots of forms of dangerous driving. Tailgating and speeding is one. Driving far too slowly is another. Driving cautiously is not. The make of the car is really neither here nor there.

Id just ignore them !

I drive on country lanes 80 % of the time and the most dangerous thing I see - every day - are cars not slowing appropriately for blind bends and encroaching onto my side of the road.. I avoid accidents because I slow down and hug the left hand because I know it's going to happen. I am also quite good at emergency stops.
Also, folk who don't know how to use passing places, and often park in them to go for a walk - think it's a handy lay-by.

OP, you’re fine, it’s them. They also drive more aggressively as they know if there’s a crash, you will bear the brunt of it, being in front.

I drive a small car too and the amount of aggression I face is unreal. I’ve been driving for 20 years, and I’m very considerate of others but that doesn’t seem to be enough.

I’ve been given the finger just because I dared to overtake a man on a dual carriage way, I’ve been threatened by a man attempting to ram his car into me because I went straight at a roundabout and didn’t let him go first as he was on my left. I’ve seen a man refuse to reverse when there were parked cars on his side of the road, he expected the oncoming car (a woman) to reverse even though her side of the road had no parked cars.

The level of male entitlement as drivers and pedestrians is shocking.

@DoubleTweenQueen

I drive on country lanes 80 % of the time and the most dangerous thing I see - every day - are cars not slowing appropriately for blind bends and encroaching onto my side of the road.. I avoid accidents because I slow down and hug the left hand because I know it's going to happen. I am also quite good at emergency stops. Also, folk who don't know how to use passing places, and often park in them to go for a walk - think it's a handy lay-by.

100% your first paragraph - I do the same, hug the left and slow down because far too often someone is hurtling around the bend far too fast and encroaching on my side of the road

@LimitIsUp And they always seem to be caught unawares that someone else is using the same road!

[quote DoubleTweenQueen]@LimitIsUp And they always seem to be caught unawares that someone else is using the same road![/quote]
A regular cause of accidents round our way. My OH ended up in a ditch avoiding someone doing just that in ICU weather. Of course, they just carried on without stopping to check he was ok.

Oblivious, no doubt. Hope he was ok?

but you shouldn't overtake on a bend, and 60 is the limit. I don't see the problem?

I overtake on bends if I can see the road ahead and road is wide enough.

Oh look - Audi didn’t make the list of cars that have the most accidents! www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-9512293/We-reveal-vehicles-likely-crash.html

Blah, blah, blah confidence, overconfidence, blah, blah.

Anyone, however good they may think think they are behind a wheel can have an accident or have their car break down. It's never a good look to go screeching around country lanes. Let them sweat behind you though it can be frustrating if you have a car that takes a while to get going and you're behind something slow - just tough though and we all have to be careful and considerate. Whatever insane speed restrictions (limits not targets) are on roads. The person that made the point about horses and tractors is spot on!

smilingontheinside

The person behind you would hate me. If the same car was continually "pushing" me to go over the speed limit I would drop right down and crawl along at 25mph. I had a white van man keep getting close, pulling back, getting close, beeping horn once because I was doing 30 in a 30zone. We got yo an island and I was waiting for traffic from my right to clear and he had his hand on the horn the whole time. So I pulled on my brakes and let loads of traffic through, even missing gaps where I could have gone. When ready I moved off and did 30 in the 40 zone ahead. My friend and I waved to him when we moved into the lane we needed and he passed by. Just because they want to drive like twats doent mean you should feel intimidated for following the speed limits and driving safely.

We all hate drivers like you.

Don't know when you passed your test (assuming you did) but defensive driving ie slowing down when idiots are riding your bumper is a strategy and advised.

We have a lot of cyclists around our semi rural roads and the kind of drivers I hate are the ones who tailgate me while overtaking a cyclist, at a particular spot where it drops from 40 to 30. So I overtake the cyclist but obviously can't go back up to 40, but the driver behind hasn't allowed for this and puts the cyclist at risk when there's a car coming in the opposite direction.

Tailgating is a careless driving offence ( 3 points and a fine ). There are more fatalities on rural roads than other types of highways.
Don't be pushed into driving faster than you feel comfortable or over the speed limit. If you feel intimidated, pull over and let the speed freaks go past.

What is dangerous is trying to teach people a lesson if they're driving in a way you don't like, whether it's going too fast or too slow. Concentrate on driving safely and don't let yourself get so frustrated that you want to punish people. People who get into doing things like brake checking or deliberately driving extra slow to teach others a lesson are, in fact, inflaming the situation and making things worse

If someone is driving too fast, it is often safer to pull over and let them go. It gets them away from you, and that has to be good