Page 7 | New Highway Code rule of 2 metres between cars and horses for overtaking

Grumpyosaurus · 08/01/2022 21:08

[quote RoyalFamilyFan]@Grumpyosaurus you cant always tell wealth just based on jobs. A lot of people inherit for example.[/quote]
I live in a small community. These are people I know. They're not offshoots of the local gentry, take it from me.

TrainspottingWelsh · 08/01/2022 22:12

It's highly unlikely anyone is getting prosecuted because they pass at a 1m distance with the rider waving them on. Fuck, people don't get prosecuted when they pass horses in an utterly cunty and murderous manner.
The rule just means that if you're driving like an arse you don't have the excuse of pretending you thought an inch was a suitable distance.
I'm also not denying horse riders can be ignorant the same as any group of society. But even so, the naturally ignorant tend to realise they are vulnerable on a horse and not in a position to play arsehole top trumps on the road.
Also keep in mind that if a rider doesn't pull over or seem keen to allow you past, they probably know something you don't, rather than it being entitlement. And more often than not that something is a problem caused by another driver they are trying to deal with. Likewise if people riding double don't move over to single file, when in addition it can be a child or young horse on the inside.
If you don't like horses on roads then you can stick to only driving on motorways.

CovidCorvid · 09/01/2022 07:03

@ChristmasTreeBee

I live in the country and there a bloody horses everywhere - I hate the fucking things…

Most of the riders around here are entitled twats!! And have been known to deliberately make it difficult to overtake! I reported the dash cam footage to the police who did fuck all!

There are enough bridleways near me so a horse theoretically doesn’t need to be any where near a highway!

Sadly the Highway Code seems to have been written by an imbecile.

Annoyingly I could be fined for not having my dog on a lead yet a 2 ton horse which could cause significantly more damage is allowed in roads

You do realise that the roads were actually built for horses?

FreedomFaith · 09/01/2022 07:15

Don't forget op, it's not just a horse you are hitting if you collide with one, it's a person too. Two horses recently were killed on a hack and both riders put in hospital. That driver could easily be charged with dangerous driving and spend time in prison. And if I was that rider and found out who had hit me, you can bet I'll be using every insurance policy I have to rip the driver a new one. I would do everything in my power to ruin their life. There's too many people out there driving like morons when not even near a horse or pedestrian on the road, and they seem to manage to drive even worse when they get near them. If that means that by hitting them hard with insurance payouts and increasing their payments by triple or quadruple the cost so they can't afford it, oh well. Not my problem.

So instead of complaining, think about do you want to kill a person? An innocent animal? Do you want a prison sentence? Do you want to keep your licence and car and nice lifestyle? If they are all important, quit bitching and accept you have to treat people on the road with due care and attention. It's not hard.

HarlanPepper · 09/01/2022 07:19

OP is getting a hard time here, i ride regularly on the sort of country lanes she's talking about and she's right, you couldn't pass with a 2 metre gap anywhere. What has to happen is, cars behind us need to wait while we trot to a passing place that is a bit wider, or a driveway or field entrance, we stop there and the car can pass, but the gap would still probably only be a metre or so in some places.

Brigante9 · 09/01/2022 07:20

2 horses were killed (or injured so badly they had to be euthanised) and both riders put in hospital this week, but yeah, you shouldn’t have to be delayed by 30 seconds in your oh so important life. Knob.

Original poster

01iv30i1 · 09/01/2022 07:20

You really need to read my posts properly. I do. Always at a crawling pace with happy riders as far to the right as I can. It isn’t 2 metres though as the road isn’t wide enough. But that is still ok as has been pointed out by a previous poster.

OP posts:

daisychain01 · 09/01/2022 08:26

@01iv30i1

You really need to read my posts properly. I do. Always at a crawling pace with happy riders as far to the right as I can. It isn’t 2 metres though as the road isn’t wide enough. But that is still ok as has been pointed out by a previous poster.

Everything in the Highway Code is based on the actual road conditions so if the road is too narrow then of course it isn't dictating that you have to do the impossible. It states that you shouldn't squeeze yourself through the narrow gap, you just take your quivering foot off the gas, take a chill pill and wait until it is safe to overtake.

Unfortunately there are far too many people out there on the roads who don't know the meaning of word patience.

FreedomFaith · 09/01/2022 08:57

@01iv30i1

You really need to read my posts properly. I do. Always at a crawling pace with happy riders as far to the right as I can. It isn’t 2 metres though as the road isn’t wide enough. But that is still ok as has been pointed out by a previous poster.

That's what you say though. Everyone I'm sure wouldn't admit to driving like an asshole and hitting people on the road, and yet it still happens.

As the above poster said its about patience. If you can't get past safely, you wait. Problem is most don't. They just assume nothing will go wrong and don't often care a lot when it does go wrong.

kungfupannda · 09/01/2022 09:33

It’s really not going to cause the level of carnage you’re describing. It’s a guide, intended to make people take more care and think about the safety of what they’re doing. I live down lanes like you’re describing - space for two cars to pass in a few short stretches, but you generally have to reverse for each other - and there are lots of horses. I stop and wait if they’re coming toward me, barring meeting them in one of those rare wider stretches, when I can edge past slowly, and if I’m behind them, I drop back and wait. They always stop as soon as they reach a bit where I can conceivably pass, as it’s not exactly pleasant for them to have an engine chugging behind them for long stretches.

If a horse rider decides to take umbrage at a car passing slowly and as wide as possible where the lane doesn’t allow for 2m, the police aren’t realistically going to be interested in camera footage. There’s no offence of ‘not sticking to the Highway Code’ - they’d have to prove careless or dangerous driving, which would only be possible if it genuinely wasn’t safe to pass. In which case you presumably wouldn’t be passing anyway!

You only need to worry about this if you’re habitually passing in situations where you have a niggling feeling that you shouldn’t really be risking it. Otherwise you’re fine.

Lb603 · 09/01/2022 09:38

I still fail to understand how it will take you 'years' to get anywhere. Riders will pull in to the nearest safe passing place, and will often trot to it if safe to do so. Or if safe will flag you to pass there and then.

Honestly the amount of drivers that pass us on horses In a massive hurry is scary, and we can see the pot hole filled with water your going to hit at 30mph causing an issue a mile off. Takes seconds to slow down and pass safely. Not hours

Hardly an issue- do you feel the same when you get stuck behind farmers at harvest time?

kungfupannda · 09/01/2022 09:46

I meant to say that I’m fairly sure this has been specifically added as there are so many drivers who seem to have absolutely no idea that a horse isn’t as reliable as another car. I’ve been waiting at a passing place for a horse - that I know to be almost bombproof in traffic but that I still wouldn’t pass in that spot - and a young woman overtook me and drove right up to the horse. The rider stopped dead and refused to move, as even if she’d moved over the car would have been almost touching them while squeezing past. The woman eventually reversed, looking very confused and angry. When she reached me, I wound my window down and suggested that in future, if she saw someone waiting in a passing place, she should also wait, as there would always be a reason for it. No one in their right mind would park on those lanes. She said ‘But there was space to squeeze past.’ She genuinely seemed surprised when I pointed out that you couldn’t squeeze past a horse like you could another car. She said she didn’t usually drive on small roads.

They really should be publicising the Highway Code changes more than they are - ideally with online links to head cam footage of things going wrong with people passing horses and bikes dangerously.

daisychain01 · 09/01/2022 10:01

@kungfupannda it's unbelievable how so few drivers know how to reverse. When you live in a rural location an absolutely must-have driving skill is to be able to reverse to allow a car through - we get used to it, but so many drivers only know how to drive forward, only want to use their accelerator and brake, don't want to have to change gears. I reckon a large proportion of people haven't reversed since they did it for their driving test!

I would welcome the day when the police take Go-Pro footage as evidence against dangerous, reckless driving, people are beyond idiotic and because they get away with it each time, it plays into the theory of Normalisation of Deviance, they think they're such great drivers because they mistakenly tie it to not having a RTA, and therefore they take even more risks.

AlwaysLatte · 09/01/2022 10:04

I always leave a gap that wide anyway, and I also live rurally.

Russelhobskettle · 09/01/2022 10:15

@ChristmasTreeBee

I live in the country and there a bloody horses everywhere - I hate the fucking things…

Most of the riders around here are entitled twats!! And have been known to deliberately make it difficult to overtake! I reported the dash cam footage to the police who did fuck all!

There are enough bridleways near me so a horse theoretically doesn’t need to be any where near a highway!

Sadly the Highway Code seems to have been written by an imbecile.

Annoyingly I could be fined for not having my dog on a lead yet a 2 ton horse which could cause significantly more damage is allowed in roads

You're a bit hard of thinking - how do you think the horse riders get to the bridleways? If you don't like the things that come with living in the countryside why live there? You live in the country - you will encounter muck spreading smells, tractors on lanes and vulnerable road users sharing space with you. Maybe the police did fuck all about your dash cam footage because the riders did nothing wrong? If you've got a complete idiot coming at you too fast clearly wanting to push past yes - makes sense to try to slow them down. You know there could be someone pushing a pushchair around your next country lane bend don't you?

lampygirl · 09/01/2022 10:24

@daisychain01 some police forces do now take dash cam uploads and the like for incidents. I’m not sure if it’s all forces though.

I think you are right about some drivers (in general, not aimed at anyone on here individually) being inept and things like judging passing horses or cyclists or having to use single track lanes exposes them and some sort of inadequacy in their abilities and it makes them feel bad so their reaction is to get angry.

It’s definitely not all drivers but it should not be acceptable to be on the road and not be able to reverse your average sized car, the one you drive every day, back a few hundred yards into a passing place. There’s a sub set of people round here seem to celebrate being unable to parallel park!

thereisonlyoneofme · 09/01/2022 10:55

I live in the country, also a horse rider. I have yet to see a situation where a car cant pass for several miles for a strolling horse ! Over the top much

thereisonlyoneofme · 09/01/2022 10:58

Im sure even country roads are wider than 2metres plus a horse !

thereisonlyoneofme · 09/01/2022 10:59

Sorry meant to delete that stupid maths , why no edit !

fairylightsandwaxmelts · 09/01/2022 11:10

@thereisonlyoneofme

Im sure even country roads are wider than 2metres plus a horse !

Again , it's not 2 metres plus a horse. It's 2 metres plus the width of a horse plus the full width of a car.

And many country roads really aren't that wide. But luckily most people aren't as literal as the OP and will be sensible - riders will stop and wait and beckon drivers past - they just need to drive as far away from the horses as is physically possible.

It's not like anyone is going to go out with a metre ruler, measure the distance and ring the police because you passed with a 1.9 metre gap and not two

Mogul · 09/01/2022 12:44

A lot of posters on this thread are why I ride and cycle with a hat cam

Magnited · 09/01/2022 12:51

@01iv30i1

You really need to read my posts properly. I do. Always at a crawling pace with happy riders as far to the right as I can. It isn’t 2 metres though as the road isn’t wide enough. But that is still ok as has been pointed out by a previous poster.

If one reads your posts properly they do come across as containing the ridiculous. you said -

Those of us who live and use country lanes with no alternative are now going to take hours to get anywhere.

Hours? It is not going to take you hours to fulfil your journey when you come across horse riders. You wait and overtake when it is safe, when they pull into a gateway or onto the verge to let you pass.

It is really hard to take you seriously given what you said in your opening post. It really does undermine your argument.

Alexandra2001 · 09/01/2022 12:53

@01iv30i1

You really need to read my posts properly. I do. Always at a crawling pace with happy riders as far to the right as I can. It isn’t 2 metres though as the road isn’t wide enough. But that is still ok as has been pointed out by a previous poster.

Whats the problem then? You are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

I used to live nr Duchy College, hoards of horses on the road, slow down, they stop, i pass... happy hunters!

This rule is for the twats who pass horses and cyclist at high speeds and/or too close.

Stupid as the Police will take action as so many have helmet cams now.

YourenutsmiLord · 09/01/2022 12:55

Perhaps people will follow behind the horse gently revving the engine to encourage them. We don't even have white lines on the road as two vehicles cannot pass - so we're supposed spend hours of time trailing behind horses.

Tommika · 09/01/2022 13:08

@Russelhobskettle

^ You're a bit hard of thinking - how do you think the horse riders get to the bridleways?

^

Duh!!! They use horse paths and horse bridges of course