Inconsiderate Caravaners

daveyjp

Common courtesy if you are in a slower vehicle is to indicate left when you can see ahead, pull over and slow slightly to allow the following cars to overtake. in Ireland I noticed it was practiced by many locals in rural areas.

Car drivers should assist motorcyclists by doing this and pulling in to the left to let them pass on country roads, how many of you do?

mikey72

Isn't the A381 a long straight road with nowhere to pull in for miles and miles though, but good vision ahead to overtake anyway?

davidlizard

daveyjp wrote: »

Car drivers should assist motorcyclists by doing this and pulling in to the left to let them pass on country roads, how many of you do?

I have heard conflicting information on this.

Some motorcyclists (including a police motorcyclist) have told me not to do this as it can throw up debris from the side of the road. They can overtake easily enough anyway.

Others have told me (including the chap who did my advanced driving course at work) that it provides a clear signal to the motorcyclist you are aware of his presence, and are giving them more room.

What is the general consensus?

mikey72

daveyjp wrote: »

............Car drivers should assist motorcyclists by doing this and pulling in to the left to let them pass on country roads, how many of you do?

I do, and I also pull out to the centreline to block them if I'm trying to overtake the car in front of me.That way they're in no doubt as to what I'm doing, and I don't get them scraping off my offside when I pull out and they decide to try to overtake both of us on the first clear stretch.

Notmyrealname

knightstyle wrote: »

Yesterday set of for a long drive and got stuck in a line of cars, vans and lorries behind a snail, mile after mile. The car behind flashed his lights several times but was ignored as we crawled on past places where he could have pulled in.
So PK53 xxx driving from Kingsbridge via Totnes to the A38 please be a bit more considerate in future, 1 hour to do under 20 miles.

What about the long stream of vehicles in front of you driven by people who seem completely incapable of being able to overtake?

I live on the main tourist route to two seaside resorts, the most popular ones for people from West and South Yorkshire so we get lots of caravans. I have no problem getting past them however as most of the people following seem to be holidaymakers with their heads in their backsides, I have to overtake them as well rather than sit there waiting for them to overtake the caravan because they quite simply won't.

In short, if you ended up in the situation you were in, it was entirely of your own making. There is nothing written anywhere which says you have to wait for the vehicles in front of you to overtake something ahead so if its obvious they're not, then do it yourself if the opportunity presents itself.

On the road I mentioned, when going to work I would spend a large proportion of the 30 mile journey on the wrong side overtaking the long lines of brainless halfwits sitting there waiting for others to overtake first.

mikey72

Then again, if I'm on holiday, I'm happy to potter along behind, and if some brainless halfwit is so desperate to pass he's welcome to. Normally I'll potter along behind the moron at the next set of lights anyway, and he's still biting the steering wheel as I wave happily to him.

Mankysteve

im-lost wrote: »

and your journey is more important because? im sure wherever you needed to go would still be there when you turn up.
You know the speed limit? its not there as a target, and even caravans have as much right to be on the road as you.

why should the caravan pull over? there's no law that says they should.

Its in the highway code though.

Lum

Notmyrealname wrote: »

In short, if you ended up in the situation you were in, it was entirely of your own making. There is nothing written anywhere which says you have to wait for the vehicles in front of you to overtake something ahead so if its obvious they're not, then do it yourself if the opportunity presents itself.

Once the queue reaches a certain length then this is no longer true. There are very few roads in this country that are suitable for overtaking a mile-long queue of people who are driving nose-tail behind a slow vehicle.

In fact in my entire driving career I've only managed to do this once. I'm not sure which road it was other than it was somewhere in Lincolnshire. 60 limit single carriageway that was straight for about 5 miles. I decided to overtake about 5 cars as one was actually leaving a gap, upon reaching the gap saw that there was still nothing coming and there was another gap further ahead, so carried on. Repeat for several miles and 5 speed cameras and I ended up overtaking the 40mph lorry at the front of the queue. The driver of that lorry gave me a nice thumbs up as I passed the rear of his trailer too!

sebdangerfield

davidlizard wrote: »

I have heard conflicting information on this.

Some motorcyclists (including a police motorcyclist) have told me not to do this as it can throw up debris from the side of the road. They can overtake easily enough anyway.

Others have told me (including the chap who did my advanced driving course at work) that it provides a clear signal to the motorcyclist you are aware of his presence, and are giving them more room.

What is the general consensus?

Which course? All three course providers (iam, rospa and police) all say the same as I understand it.

rdwarr

Delivery_Driver wrote: »

I've never seen one caravan or tractor pull over to let the queues pass in all the years I've been driving.

I always used to do that when I had a caravan. Or if we came to a roundabout I'd go round twice so that, if I had build up a line of followers, they could get past.

I didn't care if it was the law or not - it was just common courtesy to other motorists.

However, more often than not it wasn't me causing the hold up but a slower car in front. People would get so close behind they couldn't see past my caravan.