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 have waited until it was free to overtake. You can't gesture politely to reverse.

Highway Code says "The rules in The Highway Code do not give you the right of way in any circumstance, but they advise you when you should give way to others. Always give way if it can help to avoid an incident."

This is why car A politely gestured for Car B to reverse
I don’t think you can ‘politely’ gesture for someone else to do something for you. You’re still unnecessarily telling them what to do.

Car A (OP) is weird for expecting someone to reverse back because they struggle with driving through small gaps.

If there is enough room but you don't want to risk it, that's fine but don't expect others to then reverse to accommodate you.

Out of curiosity @chickenfeathers what car is car A? It looks the size of a tank.

I just came on to compliment the excellent diagram.

We have a staggered four way junction which regularly gets into a four way gridlock. (The queue emerging from one side road blocks the near lane of the main road, because it's unable to join the far lane of the main road, because that in turn is blocked by the queue emerging from the other side road.) Getting disentangled is hard because it requires drivers to be able to read each other's minds/come up with the identical plan. Which they don't, of course. I suppose self driving cars wouldn't get in that pickle in the first place.

Hello Car A 👋🏻 You should've waited until it was clear. B could have reversed if they were feeling generous but they have right of way.

Agree 😊CarB should have reversed and stopped being a twat!

Car A should not be gesturing at anyone to move back. Just wait for the other car to pull out and Car B to pull forwards.

Car B shouldn't be shouting. Just ignore the gestures from Car A

Car B is bu as they have nowhere to go. I had to get out of the car once to direct traffic out of a gridlock. Two drivers ended up nose to nose in a small dead end street with a queue of traffic behind each and parked cars all along one side leaving only the one lane. I asked a woman, who had just turned into the street and was in the position of car A to stop more cars from joining queue but to wait on the main road while I sorted it out and a van driver almost pushed her over. Madness.

Car A just needs to be patient and wait and not gesture at people to back up.

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.

Although Car B could have reversed, they were under no obligation to do so. As the obstruction was on Car A's side, Car B had the right of way.

Right? Who does that? (well, aside from OP, obviously).

Car A should have stopped behind parked car
Turn right car should have turned right
Car B pull toward junction
Both get on their way

I definitely wouldn't reverse as Car B, unless there was likely to be a long wait at the junction. Car A could just wait. They don't have right of way as their side of the road is not clear.

For those asking, car A was the size of a Transit van. Car B much smaller in comparison.

Car A checked behind them, and seeing the driver of the car at the front of the junction was struggling to see, they gestured for car B to reverse back a slightly. It is a nasty junction whatever the time of day.

Car B is obviously in the wrong. Car A which is driven by the OP is in the right.

This!

The diagram!!

<<chef’s kiss!>>

A should have waited
B could have been ice and backed up
parked car is the dick in this scenario

Wait until you’d evolved to have x-ray vision?

The size of vehicles is irrelevant. Bigger cars don't get more rights, though some of their owners think they do.

10/10 diagram well done

And also this. (Although as others have said, the real culprit is the driver of car C…)

Wait until there was space to pull round the parked car once the other cars had left the junction.