Any traffic officers that can help with a disagreement?

chocolateflake

Ok, so i have a friend who has not been ticketed or anything, but we are having a massive disagreement about her driving standards lol!...

When driving along the road, if there is a pedestrian on the pavement waiting to cross, (no crossing or anything), or a car waiting to pull out onto the road, she will just put the brakes on and stop the car to allow the person/car to cross/pull out! I get so mad with her because this just isn't right and she will get hit up the back one of these days...

I've told her not to continue as I am certain it is an offence under the road traffic act 'driving without due care and attention', but she says I am being ridiculous and there is no such offence so just does it even more now....ahhh!

Anyone clarify please?

JustinR1979

Well you'd fail your driving test for not making good progress.
Dunno if you'd find an offence for being overly courteous though.

Spicy_McHaggis

chocolateflake wrote: »

Ok, so i have a friend who has not been ticketed or anything, but we are having a massive disagreement about her driving standards lol!...

When driving along the road, if there is a pedestrian on the pavement waiting to cross, (no crossing or anything), or a car waiting to pull out onto the road, she will just put the brakes on and stop the car to allow the person/car to cross/pull out! I get so mad with her because this just isn't right and she will get hit up the back one of these days...

I've told her not to continue as I am certain it is an offence under the road traffic act 'driving without due care and attention', but she says I am being ridiculous and there is no such offence so just does it even more now....ahhh!

Anyone clarify please?

You're both wrong.

There is such an offence but what she's doing isn't really careless.

Rover_Driver

Not necessarily 'without due care and attention', but if it causes problems for others, it could be 'without reasonable consideration for other road users' - Contrary to s.3, Road Traffic Act 1988.

chocolateflake

I'm not talking tiny side roads here but main roads where she's doing the speed limit...i've been driving 41 years and never been a passenger with someone doing this lol!

motorguy

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

You're both wrong.

There is such an offence but what she's doing isn't really careless.

Its downright dangerous though if theres traffic behind her and she just weighs on the anchors.

I'd have thought it was a big no no.

chocolateflake

motorguy wrote: »

Its downright dangerous though if theres traffic behind her and she just weighs on the anchors.

I'd have thought it was a big no no.

exactly my point:)

fivetide

Unsurprisingly this board is just full of traffic officers. They all know best. Good luck resolving this OP!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

How does she not make progress to any destination in good time doing this, im sure a what would be a 10 min drive turn into a 40 min drive to the local shops to get groceries by stopping for nearly every tom dan and harry that want to exit a junction or cross the road.


I think she's been quite lucky in that people behind her have been perceptive, but it will only take one person tailgating or on the phone or looking away to go into the back of her.


Not to mention the pedestrians she is stopping for may chance it and the other vehicle going round her or oncoming may not expect a ped to cross and hit them and vehicles she is letting out oncoming cars may not stop for them and if they chance it, carnage!!. There's a time and a place to be courteous and in my opinion being overly courteous can be dangerous.

Marktheshark

Miss placed courtesy, in my opinion right up with speeding, texting, driving drunk and you name it as factors in accidents.
Especially involving waving on pedestrians.

DaveF327

I've been in the driver training industry for 16 years now, and I can confirm that what she's doing isn't correct driving practice, but the matter of how "wrong" it is depends on the circumstances.

To clarify what I mean by "correct driving practice", her driving does not match the expectations of other road users (both driver and pedestrian).

If she's the only driver on an otherwise deserted road, and stops for a pedestrian, she hasn't done any harm to anybody. That said, the pedestrian may be a little perplexed as they were probably waiting for the car to pass, so to find the car driving slower and slower and never quite reaching them, means they will have taken longer to cross the road than if the car had just passed by at normal speed.

If she has following traffic, then a judgement must be made. If the traffic is dense and there is a pedestrian who has been trying to cross the road for some time, and it looks like they will be there for a considerable time to come with the never-ending traffic, then with due regard for the speed and proximity of the following car, she could lose speed gently and very early, allowing a gap to increase in front of her, helping the pedestrian to cross / car to emerge. This very gentle loss of speed (over time) is hardly going to make an impact on someone's day.

If, on the other hand, she is a ditherer, indecisive and waits until she is almost on top of the pedestrian before braking firmly, without checking her mirrors, or causing following traffic to brake significantly, then this is unacceptable and she must be made aware of the impact she's having on other road users. To please one pedestrian, she has probably put more than two following drivers at potential risk. This activity is an offence under section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and drivers can now be given £100 fixed penalty notices (with 3 penalty points) for "driving without reasonable consideration for other road users" instead of the old way of being summonsed to court.

Stopping on some roads (or parts of roads) may also be an offence, depending whether the road is a clearway, a red route, has a yellow box junction, etc.

In summary, assuming there are no road specific restrictions, there is no law against stopping on a road if you want to, but once you cause inconvenience or danger to traffic, an offence is committed.