Page 17 | Did I do anything wrong here? Driving

Azzywhatty · 2025-01-27T13:48:22+00:00

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??)

Funkyslippers · 27/01/2025 16:53

mum11970 · 27/01/2025 16:44

If you were only going at 20 mph the lorry driver probably was just tooting a thanks for pulling over. They are usually working to quite a tight schedule and he probably knew the road well so was more than likely very happy you let him pass

I can't understand someone tooting as a thanks and have never heard of it before. You're only supposed to use your horn to warn someone of your presence

ProfessionalPirate · 27/01/2025 16:53

FindusMakesPancakes · 27/01/2025 16:15

Typing The End doesn't make it the end. Nor does it make you right.

I fundamentally disagree with you. If I see someone indicate, I am expecting them to manoeuvre off the road, whether it is into a side road, a gateway, a layby etc. I am not expecting them to just come to a dead stop on the road.

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This is entirely your problem though, as it is a legal and accepted way to indicate the intention to pull over. You are driving carelessly if you can’t anticipate this as a possibility and react accordingly.

Mapandthermos · 27/01/2025 16:53

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 16:48

That’s his fault though, surely? What if a deer had ran out?

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Unfortunately, I think part of driving safety is being prepared for others to make mistakes. I’m used to rural roads and wouldn’t have stopped like that with a lorry behind me.

LongTimeLurkerFirstTimeCaller · 27/01/2025 16:55

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 16:46

So no, then?

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Often drive near Goatsbridge, I assume I'd find you underneath it

Curtainqueen · 27/01/2025 16:55

Jenala · 27/01/2025 16:52

GUYS. Pulling over on the left is part of your driving test! It is absolutely OK to do. You do it the way OP did - wait until it's safe so not on a bend, by a junction etc. Mirror, signal, manoeuvre. HOW can you be a UK driver and think pulling over isn't OK? The absolute certainty from people who are wrong is incredible.

Some links if it helps

https://www.gov.uk/driving-test/what-happens-during-test

https://www.passmefast.co.uk/resources/learning-to-drive/manoeuvre-and-skill-guides/pulling-over-safely

That depends whether there's a lorry behind you which has a greater stopping distance because it's heavier than a car.

Fencehedge · 27/01/2025 16:55

Jenala · 27/01/2025 16:52

GUYS. Pulling over on the left is part of your driving test! It is absolutely OK to do. You do it the way OP did - wait until it's safe so not on a bend, by a junction etc. Mirror, signal, manoeuvre. HOW can you be a UK driver and think pulling over isn't OK? The absolute certainty from people who are wrong is incredible.

Some links if it helps

https://www.gov.uk/driving-test/what-happens-during-test

https://www.passmefast.co.uk/resources/learning-to-drive/manoeuvre-and-skill-guides/pulling-over-safely

Not with a lorry accelerating / preparing to accelerate behind you, you don't..

L0bstersLass · 27/01/2025 16:55

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 15:17

No one behind me was going 60mph because I was only going at about 20 down the single track lane.

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@Azzywhatty Well that's probably why he beeped you then. 20mph is extraordinarily slow. And yes, I live in the countryside so am used to lanes, even ones with grass growing up the middle of them.

He was likely beeping to say thanks for moving out of my way.

FindusMakesPancakes · 27/01/2025 16:56

Proudtobeanortherner · 27/01/2025 16:35

Please don’t drive down rural roads with this attitude. If you pull off a lot of them you’ll need that lorry to pull you out or a farmer with his tractor. Please stay in town or on the motorway.

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🤦🏻‍♀️ fuck's sake, did you not actually read my post? I clearly stated 'manoeuvre off the road, whether it is into a side road, a gateway, a layby etc.' Not into a ditch, onto the soft edge etc.

I live and drive rurally, including having driven the bloody tractors you are on about.

Original poster

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 16:56

StripyDog · 27/01/2025 16:50

I live rurally and regularly drive down endless country lanes, single track lanes etc

I would not have stopped in the way you have described. In an absolute emergency I’d have put my hazards on and slowed down before coming to a stop but it wasn’t an emergency.

You didn’t need the sat nav to tell you where to go if it was a long straight road with no turnings. You should have waited until you got to a turning to pull off where there was nothing behind you and then stopped.

Large vehicles are driven very differently to cars. They are more difficult to slow down and more difficult to manoeuvre. Most drivers would not be expecting the vehicle in front to stop in front of them and the lorry driver was probably annoyed that he’s had to make a sudden movement to either steer around you or stop.

Cars being parked outside houses on a 30mph residential street is a very different scenario to the, presumably, 50/60mph road you were travelling on.

If you are so very adamant you are right, why did you start a thread to ask and then argue with everyone who tells you that you were wrong?

I thought people would read the thread. I’ve said multiple times that neither of us would’ve been doing much over 20mph.

OP posts:

StripyDog · 27/01/2025 16:56

Jenala · 27/01/2025 16:52

GUYS. Pulling over on the left is part of your driving test! It is absolutely OK to do. You do it the way OP did - wait until it's safe so not on a bend, by a junction etc. Mirror, signal, manoeuvre. HOW can you be a UK driver and think pulling over isn't OK? The absolute certainty from people who are wrong is incredible.

Some links if it helps

https://www.gov.uk/driving-test/what-happens-during-test

https://www.passmefast.co.uk/resources/learning-to-drive/manoeuvre-and-skill-guides/pulling-over-safely

Pulling over at the side of a 30mph residential street is very common and an expected manoeuvre and absolutely part of the test.

Pulling over on a 50/60mph road is not to be encouraged. Particularly with a large vehicle behind and where the road, although 2 lanes, is not particularly wide.

Scirocco · 27/01/2025 16:57

What's the point in posting if you're just ignoring the feedback?

You shouldn't just stop on a rural road, in a lane where there's traffic behind you, unless it's an emergency. Dropping your satnav is not an emergency. If you have an emergency, where you need to stop in a lane for moving traffic, then you put your hazards on asap to alert people behind you. If you have dropped your satnav, you find a safe place to park (note that parking is not just stopping in a lane being used by other vehicles). If that means you miss a turn on your route, the satnav will get you back on track (route-finding is its purpose, after all), and that minor inconvenience is not worth the risk of causing or increasing your risk of being in an accident.

Curtainqueen · 27/01/2025 16:57

Fencehedge · 27/01/2025 16:52

Then the deer would get mash-up. Just like the car in front gets mash-up if a lorry can't stop or change direction in time.

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And besides, a deer didn't run out so that's irrelevant.

Original poster

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 16:57

Fencehedge · 27/01/2025 16:52

Then the deer would get mash-up. Just like the car in front gets mash-up if a lorry can't stop or change direction in time.

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No. What if a deer had ran out in front of my car causing me to emergency stop? Lorry drivers are responsible for being able to stop their vehicle.

OP posts:

ProfessionalPirate · 27/01/2025 16:58

Barrenfieldoffucks · 27/01/2025 16:27

You don't just stop in the road for anything other than an emergency (which this was not), whether there were 2 lanes or not. Very odd behaviour. Could you not have managed without it until an actual layby, petrol station or something else?

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Says who? You?

StripyDog · 27/01/2025 16:58

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 16:56

I thought people would read the thread. I’ve said multiple times that neither of us would’ve been doing much over 20mph.

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I’d imagine that coming out of a single track road at 20mph, the lorry driver would be expecting you to speed up when the road widened, not stop!

Fencehedge · 27/01/2025 16:59

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 16:57

No. What if a deer had ran out in front of my car causing me to emergency stop? Lorry drivers are responsible for being able to stop their vehicle.

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Jesus God. Give me strength 🙄

Jenala · 27/01/2025 17:00

Curtainqueen · 27/01/2025 16:55

That depends whether there's a lorry behind you which has a greater stopping distance because it's heavier than a car.

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Of COURSE you can stop with a lorry, or any vehicle, behind you. That's why it's mirror, SIGNAL, manoeuvre. It's the responsibility of the drivers behind you to be aware of your signal and slow accordingly. Yes, lorries take longer to slow down. So if you have a lorry behind you, signal a little longer before manoeuvring, and slow down gently. You'd probably avoid doing it on a downhill stretch of road too. But lorries are capable of stopping, and we signal to allow others to be aware of what we're doing. I've already suggested to the OP maybe she stopped a little abruptly hence the beep. But it is absolutely wrong to suggest no one can pull over with a large vehicle behind them.

It's fine to say maybe OP didn't take into account the size of the vehicle and slowed too abruptly, and maybe that was the problem. That doesn't mean pulling over with a vehicle behind you is in itself wrong or a problem, which many posters are saying.

Yet more completely confident and patently wrong people I love it.

ProfessionalPirate · 27/01/2025 17:01

FindusMakesPancakes · 27/01/2025 16:27

There aren't kerbs on many rural roads. Do you really not know the difference between pulling over to stop on a residential road with pavements/ kerbs, where parking is routine vs stopping on the carriageway of country road?

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What is the significance of the pavement / Kerb?

Original poster

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 17:01

Curtainqueen · 27/01/2025 16:55

That depends whether there's a lorry behind you which has a greater stopping distance because it's heavier than a car.

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So now cars should never stop if there is a lorry behind them? Or break if a lorry is behind them?

OP posts:

StripyDog · 27/01/2025 17:02

Jenala · 27/01/2025 17:00

Of COURSE you can stop with a lorry, or any vehicle, behind you. That's why it's mirror, SIGNAL, manoeuvre. It's the responsibility of the drivers behind you to be aware of your signal and slow accordingly. Yes, lorries take longer to slow down. So if you have a lorry behind you, signal a little longer before manoeuvring, and slow down gently. You'd probably avoid doing it on a downhill stretch of road too. But lorries are capable of stopping, and we signal to allow others to be aware of what we're doing. I've already suggested to the OP maybe she stopped a little abruptly hence the beep. But it is absolutely wrong to suggest no one can pull over with a large vehicle behind them.

It's fine to say maybe OP didn't take into account the size of the vehicle and slowed too abruptly, and maybe that was the problem. That doesn't mean pulling over with a vehicle behind you is in itself wrong or a problem, which many posters are saying.

Yet more completely confident and patently wrong people I love it.

Edited

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Would you mirror, signal and manoeuvre on a dual carriageway? Or a busy 60mph road?

Just because you can stop, doesn’t mean you should!

CautiousLurker01 · 27/01/2025 17:03

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 15:03

😭 It wasn’t a dual carriageway. Do people really think dual carriageways connect to single lane tracks?

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Sneering isn’t a good look - I qualified my answer with reference to YOU saying there were two lanes? And yes, plenty of single lane roads lead to cottages and farmhouses and then onto the dual carriageway near me, after all the lane you referenced was clearly wide enough to be used by a lorry. The A31 has plenty of such roads that adjoin it.

Clearly you don’t really want to know ‘if’ you were right, do you? You already feel you were.

Original poster

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 17:04

StripyDog · 27/01/2025 16:56

Pulling over at the side of a 30mph residential street is very common and an expected manoeuvre and absolutely part of the test.

Pulling over on a 50/60mph road is not to be encouraged. Particularly with a large vehicle behind and where the road, although 2 lanes, is not particularly wide.

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NO ONE WAS DOING 60MPH.

OP posts:

Original poster

Azzywhatty · 27/01/2025 17:05

Scirocco · 27/01/2025 16:57

What's the point in posting if you're just ignoring the feedback?

You shouldn't just stop on a rural road, in a lane where there's traffic behind you, unless it's an emergency. Dropping your satnav is not an emergency. If you have an emergency, where you need to stop in a lane for moving traffic, then you put your hazards on asap to alert people behind you. If you have dropped your satnav, you find a safe place to park (note that parking is not just stopping in a lane being used by other vehicles). If that means you miss a turn on your route, the satnav will get you back on track (route-finding is its purpose, after all), and that minor inconvenience is not worth the risk of causing or increasing your risk of being in an accident.

What lanes are for stationary traffic, out of interest?

OP posts:

Jenala · 27/01/2025 17:05

@StripyDog
"Would you mirror, signal and manoeuvre on a dual carriageway? Or a busy 60mph road?
Just because you can stop, doesn’t mean you should!"

OP wasn't pulling over on either a dual carriageway or a busy road! Aaah!

No I wouldn't pull over on a dual carriageway as you shouldn't unless an emergency. A busy road would also be hazardous.

Yet again, the fact that sometimes you wouldn't doesn't mean in general you can't or in this case OP shouldn't have.

You may as well be saying "would you drive 60mph on a residential road by a school?! No? Then 60mph is always wrong"

CatusFlatus · 27/01/2025 17:05

Good grief OP, some (most) of the responses you've received are absolutely nuts. I hope you've learned your lesson and never again post on MN about driving!

From your description you did nothing wrong.