to be coming to the conclusion that there are an awful lot of bad drivers (who think they are good) on rural roads?

[hatwoman]

I've just moved to a rural area and am getting increasingly annoyed by a particular type of driver that seems very common round here. the roads between villages aren't bendy country lanes - they are wide enough for two - but they are bendy, and have lots of blind hills etc. I'm a careful driver and I am not going to thrash my car along these bendy roads at 60mph. the price I pay for my caution? dickheads (usually in bmws, always male) driving right up my arse bottom. yesterday one was so close that I don;t doubt for a minute that had I needed to brake hard he would have killed himself, and done myself and dds considerable harm too . when I was taught to drive I was taught that you need to leave adequate distance between you and the car infront to able to do an emergency stop without going into it. that bit of "good" driving seems to have passed some people by. and I think it would be fair to assume the offenders are convinced they are "good" drivers. give me central london taxi drivers any day. ok they might be a bit unforgiving if you get yourself in the wrong lane but the worst that's going to happen is an expensive bump.

ok rant over. and breathe.

YANBU!

Disclaimer - sure there are loads of rural Mners who drive carefully..etc etc

My Mum lives in North Norfolk. Many roads are quite narro, bendy and undulating, and there are few verges.

I would be terrified to walk, cycle or ride a horse along these roads because people drive at 60 or 70mph with no thought that round the bend there could be a horse, and a car coming the other way.

what really grates is that I know full well they're sitting behind me cursing my driving.

I know. But they'd only be speeding towards the next tractor. Or caravan

I didn't know you had moved to the country! Are you enjoying it otherwise?

(well I thought you'd left mn!) yes, I'm loving it. it's very friendly. the surroundings are gorgeous and I'm getting lots and lots of fresh air (we have a dog now too). but I'm not sure about the long-term - we're renting a house for 2 years - and managing work by freelancing and regular trips to london - which isn't ideal - I can see that re-assessing the situation when we come to the end of 2 years will be hard.

drivers have been bastards today.

hatwoman - welcome to the country! You'll get used to it after a while. Just drive a tank.......

yanbu

Slow down even further, and if they are still trying to access your rear end then slow down even more. Then either they get the message and back off, often they do realise why you have slowed down and back off. Or if they go in the back of you the speed is that slow no real damage would be done.

Sometime though they try to then overtake you, on the bendy blind hill

They can curse me all they like for slowing down - it doesn't bother me

ivykaty - while I know at heart I'm in the right I'm just not confident enough to do that. I feel like it's my fault that they're driving like that. which isn;t true or rational but the thought is still there. plus I just don;t want to anger them as angry drivers scare me - more than stupid ones. the guy in question the other day overtook me - unsafely - a car was pulling out of a layby and had to duck back into the layby to avoid him. (ok maybe he shouldn't have pulled out, but he didn;t expect there to be a car on the wrong side of the road) - I know that had there been an accident between dickhead and lay-by man I would have spent my whole life blaming myself. and that's another thing that bugs me - people like this are playing with people's long-term emotions too. I remember once seeing a car that had basically fallen off one of these roads down a steep bank. late at night. (I wasn;t driving) I was shaking and terrified because I thought there was some poor sod badly injured in it. called teh police and ambulance. turned out it was some tosser driving home from the pub drunk.

A lot of rural drivers are awful, truly appalling.

BUT--an BIG PLEA to townies (don't mean the OP) coming to the country for Easter: if you are driving outside an urban clearway the speed limit is actually the national speedlimt (unless marked otherwise): 60mph. It may be stupid and reckless to drive at that speed (I certainly don't on our roads) but if you insist on sticking to 30mph (and again I'm not accusing the OP of this) you will drive everyone demented and probably cause accidents.

YANBU - My DH is a nightmare for driving like an idiot. I HATE it. I used to work for the CPS and saw loads and loads of death by dangerous driving cases. It doesn't take much to cause a fatal accident and end up ruining dozens of lives. I tell him that he could end up killing me and the dc. SO then he'd not only have lost his family, but it would have been his fault and he would be doing time as well. I'm such a lovely wife. I'll never understand why men people seem to want to drive at such speeds on roads with the least safety measures.

We saw a car go off the road into a field that had just zipped past us on a country road. They were going so fast they didn't see that it was a T junction and just carried on. It was actually very funny as the field was only a tiny drop down from the road so nobody would have been hurt. That'll learn them!

I must admit that it drives me absolutely insane to be stuck behind someone who drives at 40mph and breaks for absolutely every bend regardless of whether they have to. However, I still keep my distance, usually more of a distance than normal since I think that if they feel the need to break for even the slightest bend then their driving skills might not be that great.

I never drive faster than I feel is safe which is slower that DP thinks is safe. I also never drive in a country lane that is not wide enough to comfortably fit 2 cars fast enough that I couldn't stop within the distance that I could see.

There are an awful lot of crap drivers, too fast and too slow, everywhere though, not just in the country.

Another rural driver is the one you meet on single track roads who refuses to pull into a layby and keeps driving at you so you have to reverse into a ditch or something. Loads of people like that where I live, a blue van did it to me today. People think they can get away with driving like idiots in the countryside because there aren't always the usual lines on the road and there are fewer people about. Drink driving is also more of a problem in rural areas because roads are quieter, more secluded and people think no one's going to catch them in a country lane (prob true). Oh and towny boy racers race along the lanes at night too.

YANBU. Trouble is, when people feel they 'know' the road they often feel comfortable going fast and it feels horrible when they drive up your bum - it's intimidating.

DS1 has a horse and he was hit by an idiot trying to drive past him at speed while he was riding down the road near the stables. I'm always acutely aware that there may be cyclists or horses around a bend and while I'm a competent driver (I hope!) I always slow down if I can't see the road ahead as I don't know who may be round the corner...

I'm a rural-liver and get hacked off at townies people in huge 4x4s who expect me to drive my (sporty-type) car into a ditch on narrow lanes so they don't have to get their wheels muddy. I have been known to just stop and wait for them to carry on...

There are good drivers and bad drivers everywhere though - the most irritating to me are those who drive at 40 - 45mph on the open roads and also through our (clearly-marked 30mph) villages. If you're not happy driving any faster on the open road, that's fine - but please, please, please - pull over and let the rest of us pass.

Yes, the people who drive at the same speed everywhere. I bet they wouldn't like it if someone came racing through the street where they live but apparently its fine to go tearing through a village with no thought to the people that live there.

yup. I live in rural area. I have also lived in big town near london. I saw the aftermath of more accidents in my first year in this area, than i did in 8 years down south!

Narrow bendy roads - blind bends, round which could be anything! tractor, broken down car, caravan, bikes, hikers, sheep...not a good idea to do 60!

taking sharp corners so fast they have to go wide - what if a car was coming the other way?

overtaking you when they can't see far enough ahead and they are level with you when something comes hurtling towards them..you slam on brakes, they nearly hit you cutting in front of you..

all terrible stuff.

Oh I sympathise. I moved to a rural area from London 5 years ago, still find the stupid driving absolutely shocking.

I particularly hate being tailgated at night by some tosser in a 4x4 with full beams on...

full beams are easy. put your fog lights on. I've done that before. They got the hint.

I am also aghast at much of the stupid and aggressive rude driving in London - pushing in, overtaking on residential streets, idiotic blocking and not giving way....

Hatwoman - sounds great...I have never left Mn, but find I lurk more an post a lot less tha I used to. And dip in and out rather than sustain long discussions.

I think a lot of the problems are caused by people thinking that you can drive in an urban manner on country roads - ie lots of braking and acceleration instead of using the gears and braking and accelerating slowly. My ex-BIL was like this. Driving with him round our way was horrible - stop, start, lurch, stop, start.

YANBU

If you are being tailgaited, it is the official advice of the Government that you slow down. So even if you are already at 20 mph and you are being tailgaited, slow down more.

It is not true that just because the speed limit is 60 you are allowed to drive at that speed; it is obviously illegal to drive dangerously. If you have a clear view with no bumps, bends or or other roads or driveways joining your road ahead, then you can drive at the speed limit.

The rural road between my house and my children's school is national speed limit (although where there are houses it is 30 or 20). Police frequently turn up on the road during the school run, and stop people who are under the speed limit, but over what it could be considered safe to drive given the conditions and the presence of pedestrians/cyclists on the road.

If you are in a rural area, there usually aren't any pavements and you are sharing that road with pedestrians. Slow down. It is rarely safe to drive at 60.

I wish (and I know this is massively contentious) that we had a law like Cuba's, where if you killed a child while driving, you automatically went to prison. I can't see any other way of getting drivers to realise that in areas with no pavements, the roads are not just there for them.

Our police presence, and the involvement of our council in monitoring the road, is down to campaigning by local people. If you want people to slow down, campaign locally.

Why not pull over and let them get past?

because on a narrow winding country road there is quite often nowhere to pull over TO. Or you could block your side of the road and let them go past on the other side, but sometimes they are so close you really fear they are not paying attention and wouldn't notice you indicating and slowing and so would smash into the back of you if you did stop!

And don't get me started on the drivers who think that blasting any pedestrain very loudly with their horn replaces the need to slow down

Running can be a most erm... exhilirating business

I've been hooted at because I stopped at a zebra crossing erm..that's what you're supposed to do. Twat.