I wouldn't reverse

[whyyyyyisitmonddayy]

driving home from work about midnight. meet another car on a country lane I know really well. Woman I meet has her brights on and will not turn them off, despite me flashing her (?). She's coming uphill towards me, meaning it's so bright that my eyes are watering and I can't make out the verges clearly or even my bonnet. I've never experienced this before so I'm a bit discombobulated.

I know that if she reverses a few feet she can go into the passing place and let me go. My nearest passing point is very far back and I can't reverse safely as I've been really badly dazzled. I stop 5m or so in front of her, turn off my lights entirely hoping that it will remind her to switch her brights off, and wait. she does not and starts revving her fucking car!!!!

She's not got her window down and is having a right proper go just shouting at me to drive and waving. just reply that I'm dazzled really badly and can't safely proceed unless she switches off her lights temporarily so I can see into my rear view and past her car (to see if I can squeeze past or reverse back). I also tell her that there's a passing place just to her left, could she go into it please? I just keep asking her to please lower the lights / turn them off so I can get my bearings! but she wouldn't. she's swearing at me at this point despite my calm tone. she screams "move" at me, so I just say "no". at this point I'm seeing splotches and can't see my gear shift anyway, and If I could see around me, I would happily reverse five miles back if only it meant to get away from her.

She eventually turns off her brights, slams on her accelerator, clipping me with her wing mirror, coming very close to hitting me properly, and possibly damaging her car against the verge. she's slamming on the horn and still raving. she's driving a nice car so no clue why the fuck she did that?

Brilliant

Wasn’t flashing on approach. Flashed her once she’d dazzled me. Then we talked and she made it clear she wanted to me to reverse all the way back up.

Wherever possible is the key word in that code.
She was also driving an EV. so no need for clutch control. And what - I should reverse, with restricted vision, all the way back up the lane? Instead of her reversing into the space genuinely on her left…?

It’s not a concrete rule. Theres nuance to be had — stipulates “wherever possible”

i’m a slight 22 year old woman. No fucking way I’m getting out my car at midnight to talk to someone who is being aggressive. Until she shouted over to me I had no clue she was a woman!!! What if it had been a man, or someone violent?

in the past I've stopped my engine, put the keys on the dash and started fiddling with the radio. The issue is always resolved in about 2 minutes. On this occasion I'd be tempted to dial 999 and show the other driver.

Some people are just twats. We recently had one half hanging out of a passing place and refusing to shuffle his shiny black BMW 1.5m back into it and forcing DH to reverse back to the next one. We couldn't be arsed to argue the principle with someone so obviously that stupid and incapable of driving. Naturally there was no thank you either.

I once had a needlessly agressive one in an urban area while passing a long string of parked cars. I was on the wrong side so immediately gave way and went into reverse. This would have been far simpler if the stupid bitch hadn't driven up towards my bumper reclaiming the road inch by inch as I reversed. I don't normally have an issue reversing even by night, but her agression was off-putting and made me faffier than usual than if she'd held back. When we were done, DS said that the passenger was making a variety of sweary hand gestures at us.

People like that make life more unpleasant but at least we're not the ones living with them all the time or creating that level of stress and bad feeling for absolutely nothing. They're pathetic.

She was driving an SUV so thinks she can do exactly as she wants.

Trickling a car a few yards back down a hill is so much easier than reversing one a long way back up it, I can’t believe people piously quoting rule 155 at you!

The posters quoting the “give way uphill” rule lack common sense and probably shouldn’t be on the road if they can’t adapt to conditions. No two country lanes are the same, driving them requires give and take.