Who is being unreasonable - it's a driving one (with diagram!)

[chickenfeathers]

Who is being unreasonable in this situation?

Car A (large, transit sized) indicated and turned left into a very narrow side road. There was a parked car half on the footpath on their side of the road, and a car waiting to pull out onto the busier main road. Car A is partially obscuring this drivers view trying to pull out due to where the parked car is (on a blind corner 🙄).

Car B (very small car) is almost level with the parked car. Nothing behind them. Car A waits for car B to reverse back but the driver doesn't. Car B then moves forward to behind the car waiting to pull out, despite car A gesturing for them to reverse back to allow them through easier.

Car A may have fitted through the gap, but it would have been very, very tight. Car B driver then shouts at car A driver they "would have got through" and "they need to learn to drive". A short heated exchange then occurs until car B is able to finally move forward.

So who was in the wrong here?

Car A - they should have tried to drive through the gap

Car B - they should have reversed to allow car A though with more room.

Car A should just have waited, shouldn't have gestured at B. The obstruction was on A's side so shouldn't be asking B to move as B's carriageway is free. Reversing is much more risky than going forward so A should have waited patiently til they could go forward.

Marvellous diagram. Car A waits. Car B has priority on their clear for them side of the road.

I dont let other people decide where my car will/wont fit so if I was A I wouldnt have squeezed through

Yes, this. You started it - but either mildly or aggressively, depending very much on the gesture - but B escalated it by shouting and demanding you move through a gap you don’t fit through.

Car B was a bit of a dick but technically did nothing wrong by not reversing for car A. They probably delayed themselves for longer because car A is obscuring the view of the car at the junction.

Both are wrong for yelling at each other (let alone commenting on driving skills) and the car parked on the blind corner of course)

yes, car B could have reversed to be nice, but they're not under any obligation to.

I have a filtering left turn on an often tailed back road, and the number of times I'm looking at the cars in front of me thinking if they'd just pulled over a bit in the lane, or pulled forward a bit more then I'd be able to squeeze through and be on my way, but they don't and so i just wait. Because that's life.

Did the gesture to reverse from car A come before or after car B wound their window down and started shouting?

Because if it came before then car A shouldn't have expected car B to reverse back down the road for them to carry on unhindered and started the exchange of telling other people what to do and got a response in kind they didn't like by the sound of it.

I was in a similar position to B recently and I reversed.

Agree

Drivers should be helpful to each other irrespective of 'the rules', but it's bound to go wrong sometimes because of people being unimaginative/stupid/absent minded/bad tempered/embarrassed/at cross-purposes/whatever.. people. All you can do is be careful, and don't rise to anything. I find that if I just look gormless smile and nod the whole time, it keeps my own temper in check.

I'd say both were knobheads. Car A because they gestured for B to move back rather than just waiting for the road to be clear, Car B for shouting advice/criticism at Car A.

Car C should not have parked there - it was a dick move.

Car A should not have turned until they could see the way was clear. I am struggling to imagine a scenario where I turn down a street that I cannot see is clear before I have committed to the turn. Even if that requires a little patience on the road I am turning from. A terrece house might make it so you cannot see the road early before you start to turn, but shouldn't make it so that you cannot see the road just at the point you are about to turn - unless the road doubles back on itself at a sharp angle, which isn't shown in the diagram.

However, given that car C did park there and Car A did turn in, IF car B could not see the road was clear to pull out, they have to reverse. But, in doing so, they are making up for everyone else's fuck up, imo. And deserve some gratitude rather than being waved at as if expected to reverse automatically.

This exact situation happens all the time at my son's school, same road lay out. It seems to happen that car A just always has to wait for the car B lane to clear before they move forward. Nobody ever moves over for car A in my situation

Parked car is the real dick here.
Car B shouldn't have moved forward once they saw Car a was waiting to get out. Car B is also unreasonable to shout at other drivers.

Left it too late to add - I never engage. I might think B could reverse for me, but I won't say so.

This.

There's a van that regularly parks on a corner of my street and it drives me mad the amount of people that turn in then seem surprised they've got nowhere to go. You don't turn into a road if your path isn't clear.

Car A is impatient. Everyone needs to just wait, let the car that's turning do its thing, and then the others can move.

OP, what an excellent diagram.

Car A wasn’t ‘just’ waiting, they had already gestured to Car B.

despite car A gesturing for them to reverse back to allow them through easier.

@chickenfeathers did A gesture first or did B shout first?
Could the Car in front of B see to get out of the junction with A positioned where it was?

imo, if the car in front of B (Gonna call it D, as someone already labelled the parked car C) could see to get out of the junction then A should have just waited and not gestured or anything. If Cs view was obscured by A then the B should have reversed, as then A would be out of the way and not causing an obstruction.

tbh I think B was a bit of a dick and had I been driving B I’d have waited back until D had pulled out anyway.

If I was car B I would have reversed - no skin off my nose.

They weren't obliged to, but it would have been easier for everyone if car B had just held back/backed up. I don't imagine the car turning right had very good visibility with a van there like that. If I was car B I would have done, it probably would have cleared faster that way. B is a twat and your diagram is lovely.

Technically, Car B has right-of way. The parked car is the issue here—is the neighbourhood Victorian, ie pre-car ownership, or is it a modern neighbourhood with driveways? Either way, because of the actions of the owner of the parked car, A and B find themselves in a pickle. Negotiation, rather than aggression, is required. Not sure who started the aggression—A could have been arsey and entitled when signalling for B to move (even though they technically had right of way), or B could have started with the aggressive tone.

I’d have just waited if I was Car A TBH. Car B sounds like a dick though. I suppose it depends how pressured they felt to reverse - Car A didn’t like feeling pressured to try and go through the gap either. I’m guessing you are A?

Impossible to see the parked car on the side road? I've lived on streets with lots of junctions with old terraced houses, and you know not to just turn onto side roads without first looking because of lots of parked cars. I know lots of occasions when people have to wait on the main road with their indicator before the side road is clear to turn into. People shouldn't be just turning into side roads without looking?

Local driving microcultures develop. Where I live there's a lot of this sort of situation, and cars in the position of 'B' would typically hang back so oncoming traffic can flow freely even though B has right of way. Then changeover when the junction clears.