Did I do anything wrong here? Driving

[Azzywhatty]

I drove home from rural Northumberland today. On a single track road my sat nav fell out of its holder onto the passenger side floor. There was a lorry behind me. I continued along the single track road until it widened into two lanes, then indicated left, slowed down and stopped so I could pick it back up.

The lorry behind me beeped as I stopped. Did I do anything wrong here? I indicated and slowed and waited until the road went back to two lanes and it was safe to stop. I can’t work out why he was beeping.

There was no other traffic in either direction.

YANBU - you did nothing wrong
YABU - you did something wrong (what and why??)

Why did you choose to pull over in traffic for a satnav that was presumably still talking to you. I really don’t care what kind of road you were on… doing what you did for no apparent reason makes you wrong in my book.

This is hilarious. People trotting out their longest most official sounding words. Many of you must be currently driving as apparently it's never safe to stop in a 'live lane' even if it's a completely dead country road. I have to stop in a live lane to park outside my house every day, we don't all have driveways. Honestly so entertained by this

Yeah that was bloody ridiculous!

That’s be a comfort when they plough into you then…

If the road changed from one country lane to two, I think most people would expect you to speed up, not slow down. Most people also wouldn’t expect you to stop on a straight road with nowhere obvious to pull in - like a parking bay, drive way or gate for a field. I think lorries also have longer stopping distances so he may have needed longer to react to your signal you think - especially if he was doing something he shouldn’t with his phone. I think what you did was quite risky and probably surprised the lorry driver but a lot depends how long you indicated before stopping, how fast you had been going and how long it took you to slow down and stop.

I know it is. 🙄I'm saying this is where people are getting carriageway from.

I’d not have stopped there with a lorry behind me for the same reason I wouldn’t stop on a hard shoulder outwith an emergency.

I’d have kept going until the lorry was no longer behind me or I found a layby.

I have my satnav on silent.

OP doesn't have to have a valid reason for pulling over. What she did was legal and done safely.

Are you hard of reading? OP stated in the opening post there was no other traffic.

Can you not read well?

This thread is hilarious OP, sorry. The amount of people don't have a clue how to read or what terms such as single track or carriageway mean, and yet wade in anyway, is so so funny. From your description it sounded reasonable and even more so from the screenshots. I wonder if either you stopped a little abruptly hence the beep, or you had been going in his opinion too slowly beforehand since you mentioned he'd been quite fast and close and so that was why.

I do a lot of rural driving in Norfolk and I know the roads so can be fairly confident but people still get right up close behind. Perhaps they are MNers who think they are doing national on a single track dual carriageway with passing places where you can park with your hazards on only 😜

No! She indicated her intention to stop, then slowed down and stopped.
The driver of the vehicle behind her then judged that it was safe to pass, so he did.

For some reason that none of us knows (could be a way of saying "thanks for pulling over to let me pass" or "don't open your door, I'm passing you" or "I'm annoyed because I didn't see your indicator, so I'm venting by blasting the horn") the driver gave a blast on the horn as he passed.

The end!

Omg the lorry driver was on his phone now 😆🤣😆🤣😭😭😭

The thing is you are deciding it was safe for him to pass
the reality is driving a lorry is a lot different than driving a a car zero acceleration and about 4 car lengths to pull back in
where as if you are in a car you think u could just do a quick overtake

You weren't "wrong", but I wouldn't have risked it in front of a lorry. I would have pulled in elsewhere such as across a driveway or in front of a gate to do it, where I could get properly out of the way. Obviously not ideal to block anywhere but I would have been stopped for under 10 seconds.

Finding a lay-by would still require slowing down, and therefore slowing down the lorry.

I suspect @Azzywhatty that you maybe didn't signal earlier enough and/or that you were stopping/ slowed down too quickly? Lorries take a LOT longer to come to a stop than cars do so maybe he had to break sharply before going around you.

Or he may have just been saying thank you? If it was a short toot I would think this more likely?

Truck driver here.You did nothing wrong,I would say it was a friendly toot as thanks for pulling over and allowing him past.

There are no laybys or hard shoulders on country lanes. You might find a passing place (which depending on the road might be find for a car to pass but anything bigger would struggle) or a gate (where you're risking getting stuck in the mud ATM, at least where I am)

Yes good point - I also have to stop in a live lane so I can go into my house of an evening.

I think all the Townies are on MN today.
I used to have to visit people in the Yorkshire dales, there's many a time I've had to pull over to study a map in those days.

No, she was deciding it was safe for her to stop.
It's up to the lorry driver to drive in a safe way, not OP. If the lorry driver isn't leaving enough distance to stop then they are not driving safely.

@Azzywhatty where in the proper north are we talking about here? I am a Blyth / Cambo / Thropton / Morpeth and Hepple lass

That doesn’t seem very safe.

What if it were to fall on the floor while you were on a road carriageway motorway single lane cow path driving in front of a lorry?

I didn’t say country lanes have hard shoulders, I meant on motorways. Does everything need to be spelled out here to stop people deliberately misconstruing things?

You keep going until it’s safe to stop. The sat nav isn’t going anywhere.