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??)

Exactly. The petrol station's 10 miles away, so the would-be passengers have to take a cab to it. That's just how it's done out here in the countryside.

Fantastic 👏

OP, I hope you know we will talk of this thread in the months to come. When the next driving thread comes up I will definitely be bringing this one up 😆

And the cab could only collect them if they had a drive to pull into. Otherwise they would have to stop on a moving road.

You don't get it OP. You will never get it. It's okay.

It doesn't matter how many times people explain it in very plain basic language you're still comparing your situation to completely irrelevant situations which aren't comparable to yours, it's pointless and tedious and it has absolutely no bearing on what happened.

You weren't pulling off the road, or stopping to pick up kids, or pulling up outside your house or pulling into a driveway, or going to the shops or any number of places where someone following you would expect you to stop.. You were on a 60mph road with nothing around, coming out of a very slow section of road, and the person following you probably didn't expect you to stop, and maybe you didn't give him as much time to react to what you were doing before you actually did it as you think you did.

You wouldn't have had to make him stop or go around you if you'd have found somewhere off the road to pull up, but maybe you just aren't comfortable negotiating anything like that. You won't change, inconsiderate people don't suddenly learn to be considerate, it's either in you or it isn't.

“It’s either in you or it isn’t”. What a load of old tosh. 🤣😆🤣

Honestly this is hilarious. The idea that you must not make one vehicle go around you that’s travelling at 20mph, but it’s completely fine to hold up an entire street of traffic if it’s going 30mph and you’re on a 30mph road because is somehow magically different.

Omg, this thread has been so entertaining, albeit slightly alarming, when considering the amount of misinformation that's been spouted! 😂😂

I'm really hoping that all the posters piling in to insist that the OP is in the wrong are not actually car drivers themselves. If they are, then God help us all!

I'm thinking this thread should go into Classics! I'm sure it will be talked about for years to come.

You could have caused an accident. If someone was driving in the same lane as you blocked, you'd have forced them to swerve and overtake. Worst case scenario someone could have ploughed straight into the back of you!

No one was in the other lane as far as the eye could see. If someone had went into the back of me it would have been due to them driving very dangerously. You need to be able to stop if the car in front performs an emergency stop, never mind a slow, indicated manoeuvre.

Someone recommending one of my threads for classics feels like being told you’ve been nominated for an Oscar 😆

Are you saying you never pull over to the side of the road and park your car? 🫤
It's an every day event surely.

And your indicators are just there for decoration. They don't have any actual purpose. Your indicators are not an indication of intention. Other vehicles seeing you indicate should not anticipate anything.

Can I refer you again to my earlier post. In this picture of a 60mph national speed limit road is a bus stop. I can't imagine it's regularly used, but occasionally it will be.

Is the bus driver going to cause an accident stopping to pick up or drop off passengers??

No, because the bus will have indicated and slowed to a stop, like OP did.

It's not like she did an unexpected emergency stop in the middle of the road without any indication!

Whoever is driving along a road, no matter what size their vehicle, should give enough room to the person in front of them so that they can stop in an emergency.

If you drive into the back of someone that perfectly legally indicates and pulls over to the side of the road, then you should hand your driving licence back in!

@Azzywhatty
The funniest thing on this thread are the people convinced they are right telling you it's wrong to indicate and pull over and park on the side of a road where there are no road markings indicating no stopping.

Also your brake lights don't mean you are braking. Vehicles behind you should not anticipate that they might have to slow down on seeing your brake lights. They should continue to speed up as it is a 60mph road.

You're the one that got beeped..

You're the one doing 20mph on a 60mph road

You're the one that has to immediately stop driving when your sat nav falls off.

You're the one that couldn't be arsed to look for somewhere to pull over that wouldn't cause an obstruction to a lorry that was following close behind you.

You're the one that won't accept that what you did may have been inconsiderate.

I'm not sure what else anyone could say?

😂😂 Try saying that to your driving examiner when you take your test!

I understand what you're trying to say, but you didn't actually say it!

What you mean, I think, is that indicators cannot necessarily be relied upon to be a signal of a driver's intended manoeuvre. Therefore drivers should remain vigilant and make judgements based on more than just another driver's indicator, such as whether they are slowing down or changing direction or looking in the expected direction etc.

When I learned to drive, one of my my instructor's mantras was "expect the unexpected."

Right. I’ll try again, slowly. I was doing 20mph on a single track lane. They’re full of pot holes and ditches. Many country roads are 60mph simply because no one is paid to fanny about allocating speed limits to each individual rural road. You drive to the road. You don’t bomb about at 60mph because that’s the limit.

I did not immediately stop driving. I stopped once it stopped being a single track lane and turned into two lanes. I say so in the OP. I have no idea why you’re making things up.

Nope. I was being sarcastic. PP doesn't think the lorry driver could have anticipated that the OP was going to pull over even though she indicated it. It was a shock and a surprise to him causing him to swerve across the road to avoid smashing into the back of her.

When, in reality, if you see someone indicate, you do anticipate them doing something.

Yup - very few country lanes are good enough for you to do 60mph down!

As gets repeated often on these pages - 60mph is a limit, not a target!

Here's a National Speed Limit lane near my friend's house in Cornwall. Fancy doing 60 along there? There's a 90 degree bend just at the end of your eyeline - I'm sure it'll be fine! 😂

Another note: don’t joke on Mumsnet, @HollyKnight

Very similar to the road I was on.

True, though we don’t know why.

She’d just pulled onto that road from a single lane road, of course she was going slow.

She didn’t immediately stop driving, she found somewhere safe to pull over, indicated and proceeded to do so.

Again, she did look for somewhere safe where the lorry could overtake her safely.

It wasn’t inconsiderate in the least.

One could say you’re talking shite, but one must not be rude 🤐

The OP was driving at 20mph because of the nature of the road. At that location it was single track.

Here is a photo of a road near me that has a 60mph speed limit. Would you drive along there at 60? I certainly wouldn't! I drive that particular road at about 20mph, as is appropriate for the type of road.

Not when you stopped I hope!