Was I out of order for driving into the petrol pump in front rather than waiting?

[HappyPinkHare]

AITA? Just want to get everyone’s opinions on petrol forecourt / station etiquette in the uk. Two petrol pumps are placed one in front of the other, in single lanes, so if someone is in front of you refuelling, you can’t drive past them (you either have to wait or reverse). When I drove into the forecourt, a black car was in pump 1, still filling up and pump 2 (in front of them was free). So I drove up the other lanes and reversed in front of them into pump 2. I got out, opened my petrol cap, paid using my credit card a pin and lifted the nozzle. At that point, the lady came out of her car aggressively and told me to move out of the way so they could drive off the forecourt as they were in a hurry. If I was still in my car, I probably would have moved, but as I was already about to refuel, I asked why she didn’t reverse and go down the other lanes. It basically got out of hand and she was knocking the hose in my hand to stop me from refuelling and screaming saying “are you going to pour petrol on me?” Anyway, after lots of swearing and aggression (from both husband and wife) and me passively refusing to move, they ended up reversing (just one car length by the way) and leaving via the route I had suggested originally. It got me thinking that what I did (reverse into pump 2) was maybe wrong because why were they so angry, was i out of order?

I’d have just waited it out if I was either the OP or the couple. Even in a rush it doesn’t take that long to get petrol.

But I’d have been irritated by the OP’s maneuver. Also you don’t know how long they waited to get to the pump in the first place.

Their reaction though was insane.

They were blocked in. Performing a reverse manoeuvre in a single lane petrol station is a dangerous thing to do. And all for the sake of a couple of minutes. How impatient do you have to be to pull this kind of bullshit?

My driving skills aren’t in question here and I have no desire to share my credentials with you. I’m not the one who made a stupid decision then came to Mumsnet to try and make herself feel better about it with some wild story about a manic woman.

If you don’t know this, surrender your licence.

Do you seriously need it spelling out that reversing, or expecting others to reverse, is less safe in a petrol station forecourt designed around a one-way system, where visibility is reduced, control is less precise or intuitive, blind spots are inevitable, and there are fuel pumps full of flammable liquids, fixed bollards, and pedestrians who are quite reasonably not anticipating vehicles travelling backwards?

If you reverse slowly and carefully it is perfectly safe. If you can't, surrender your licence 🙄

Obviously their reaction was totally out of order but I wouldn't do what you did over just using the free pumps which meant I had to stretch the hose - they're designed to be used that way in most cases.

I came to mumsnet to see what the major concensus is and so far it’s floating around 85% in disagreement with you. I didn’t make up a wild story. That is in deed exactly what happened. I’m not even questioning their conduct because we all know it was absolutely uncalled for and verging on criminal. My ultimate aim of this post was to see what the public think of what I did. As far as I know and have experienced in the past, no one has been annoyed by type of manoeuvre and i have believed it to be ‘normal’. So out of interest I wanted to ‘understand’ why they were so irate. And learned from this post that there is a minority of people (15%) who do indeed find it annoying. No wild stories, all absolutely true.

The thing is with the voting is I voted not unreasonable because I don’t think what you did was unreasonable enough for the reaction you got.

However I do think you were rude to do what you did instead of simply waiting or using the other pumps.

As I said previously, there was no inability to use the right-side pump, I just saw a left-hand pump free and made a manoeuvre that I thought was ‘reasonable’ and had it happened to me, I would have just reversed. However, I had not considered people who weren’t comfortable with reversing / getting annoyed about something I considered reasonable and hence my post to get an idea

The woman was an absolute idiot, hitting your hand when holdIng s petrol pump. Did she want to be soaked with a flammable liquid?

Oh well my question was: Was I out of order for driving into the petrol pump in front rather than waiting?

I haven’t questioned their reaction. I know their reaction was OTT.

She has explained that the right sided pumps are difficult for her to use.

How hard is that to understand?

She did get some splashes on her from the nozzle when she was it hitting it away to prevent me filling and that’s when she screamed: are you trying to pour petrol on me? I said calmly: I’m not doing anything to you. You are in my space and this is on the verge of assault.

I am wondering with the husband and wife's reaction, and also some of these replies, whether there's a fair number of people out there who really struggle with reversing a car? I hope not because that's a scary thought.

I think what you did was mildly annoying OP but I feel like anyone who can confidently reverse a car would not have thought twice about backing up slightly and driving out of the empty lane. Am I crazy?

You were being a bit weird when you could almost certainly have avoided this hassle by using one of the other pumps, but it's a tut-and-eye-roll job, not a scream-and-shout-at-somebody job. Honestly when you realise that you can fuel a normal car from both sides it's like having a little superpower that enables you to jump queues in a single leap. Mind you it does require you to park within two feet of the pump, which is a problem for some.

Dangerous? What exactly do you think is likely to happen?

Blimey, calm down. None of what has been described is dangerous (as long as all drivers understand how reversing their car works (I suspect some may struggle with this judging by the responses!)

Why shouldn’t her preference trump theirs? It’s a forecourt, she took an available space.

If the couple found reversing dangerous, they could just wait for OP.

I wouldn’t have done that myself, but then I am a very chilled driver (outwardly, inside the car I curse you all) I would have waited behind them. If I had been the other driver I’d have waited for you to finish because, as I said, I am a very chilled driver (outwardly, inside the car you’d have been called many sweary names). Either way, they over-reacted, a toot and a cut eye would have done the trick.

I don't think you did anything wrong apart from not using 3 or 4 - people who insist on the pump being on the right side annoy the hell out of me at petrol stations. Just stretch the hose and stop creating an unnecessary queue! Or drama, in this case!

Perfectly fine OP. I’ve done this and it speeds things up for everyone. If you’re waiting I bet someone else would have done what you did and you’d have to wait even longer.

those people sounds super angry and quite dangerous

There were two available spaces before she got to that one. It’s a dick move to drive past two spaces to get to the one which causes the most obstruction to someone else. Yes they could reverse to get out but they wouldn’t have had to if she hadn’t have been a dick in the first place.

The other people’s unhinged behaviour doesn’t cancel out OP’s twatty behaviour

Report her for assault. Petrol stations have CCTV.

try again, maybe with actual reading comprehension rather than what you've made up.

OPs OWN WORDS "there was no inability to use the right-side pump."
she didn't even consider it. At no point did she say she finds it "difficult" for her to use them, as in she has some disability or a shaped car or anything else that prevents her from using them, she just "finds it more awkward". Which it is, very very very slightly, for everyone because you have to actually move more than 2cm while holding the hose. God forbid.

If it's unfair to expect OP to inconvenience herself the tiniest amount by stretching slightly, or waiting 2 minutes then surely it's unfair to inconvenience someone else by making them reverse?

Either both of those things are perfectly normal things for a decent driver and person to be able to do, or neither of them are.