Driving to the letter of the highway code.....
Discussion
I've just come back from a week's holiday sightseeing various places around England and as I had the Mrs and the visiting in-laws in the car I decided to keep things nice and smooth and make each journey as comfortable as possible.
With this in mind and to satisfy a question I had running around in my head for a while; would driving to the letter of the highway code result in a safer and more satisfying journey?
To cut a long story short (and I can expend if you like in further replies), it resulted in no less than 3 separate road rage incidents directed at me and I lost count on how many times it resulted in agressive driving behaviour by other motorists.
Things like "only a fool breaks the two second rule", smooth acceleration from junctions/lights, stopping at lights as soon as they turn amber, waiting for the green light and not setting off on the amber, sticking to below the speed limits, keeping a constant speed on motorways, keeping two chevrons from the vehicle in front, waiting until there is sufficient gaps in traffic in order to pass cyclists to give them a car's width..... the list goes on and on.
They all seem to result in creating tension and aggression in other drivers towards oneself.
I invite you to try it for a period of time and see if you get similar results to me.
My experiment was over a 7 day period and took in a variety of roads, from small villages, to London streets and also various motorways and 'A' roads. Most of them at some point resulted in a driver displaying some sort of 'aggression' as I attempted to 'follow the rules'.
[[[ I can guess some of the replies to this thread may state that "you obviously were not following the highway code"..... my answer to that is that I invite you to try it and note how many times you get tail-gated, or have vehicles swerving around trying to get past or even the usual shake of heads and hand guestures ]]] .
It may be safer, going from my little experiment, to ignore a lot of the higway code in order to have a safer and more relaxing journey
With this in mind and to satisfy a question I had running around in my head for a while; would driving to the letter of the highway code result in a safer and more satisfying journey?
To cut a long story short (and I can expend if you like in further replies), it resulted in no less than 3 separate road rage incidents directed at me and I lost count on how many times it resulted in agressive driving behaviour by other motorists.
Things like "only a fool breaks the two second rule", smooth acceleration from junctions/lights, stopping at lights as soon as they turn amber, waiting for the green light and not setting off on the amber, sticking to below the speed limits, keeping a constant speed on motorways, keeping two chevrons from the vehicle in front, waiting until there is sufficient gaps in traffic in order to pass cyclists to give them a car's width..... the list goes on and on.
They all seem to result in creating tension and aggression in other drivers towards oneself.
I invite you to try it for a period of time and see if you get similar results to me.
My experiment was over a 7 day period and took in a variety of roads, from small villages, to London streets and also various motorways and 'A' roads. Most of them at some point resulted in a driver displaying some sort of 'aggression' as I attempted to 'follow the rules'.
[[[ I can guess some of the replies to this thread may state that "you obviously were not following the highway code"..... my answer to that is that I invite you to try it and note how many times you get tail-gated, or have vehicles swerving around trying to get past or even the usual shake of heads and hand guestures ]]] .
It may be safer, going from my little experiment, to ignore a lot of the higway code in order to have a safer and more relaxing journey
Ozzie Osmond said:
AJI said:
sticking to below the speed limits
Oh yes. How far "below"? No wonder you were popular!AJI said:
keeping a constant speed on motorways
Oh yes. One can only imagine which lane you were using.... To satisfy your 'poking' read 'below' as 68-69 on motorways or about 59 on 'A' roads or 29 on city roads where the relevant speed limits apply.
And also read which lane I was in as being in accordance with the highway code. ie. lane 2 or three when I was overtaking only.
Edited by AJI on Tuesday 30th July 00:03
g3org3y said:
AJI said:
To satisfy your 'poking' read 'below' as 68-69 on motorways or about 59 on 'A' roads or 29 on city roads where the relevant speed limits apply.
Speedo indicated I assume (rather than on the sat nav)?As we were on holiday and covering a lot of miles touring England it was also an economy style drive hence why I selected speed and just slapped cruise control on.
Does this also set me up for an eco-drive attack?
Ozzie Osmond said:
AJI said:
My experiment was over a 7 day period and took in a variety of roads, from small villages, to London streets and also various motorways and 'A' roads. Most of them at some point resulted in a driver displaying some sort of 'aggression'
If you're deliberately driving in a way which annoys other road users then you're driving like an idiot - it's as simple as that. Just keep off the roads, please, and let normal humans get on with their lives.But if you read my original post, I was driving to my interpretation of the highway code, and attempting to drive in a manner that was as close as possible to the letter/meaning of that code.
So what you are attempting to state in your reply here is that you view the highway code as being annoying and idiotic to other road users, which from my experiment does actually back that up.
Which makes your reply a bit confusing as you seem to be stating that 'normal humans' "should" not be following the highway code.. ?? .. ?
S. Gonzales Esq. said:
My 2p on this subject:
It's entirely possible to drive strictly according to the HC if that floats your boat, but only if you bear in mind that no other road user will be expecting you to behave that way.
That is a very strange thing don't you think?It's entirely possible to drive strictly according to the HC if that floats your boat, but only if you bear in mind that no other road user will be expecting you to behave that way.
That nobody these days expects one to drive to the highway code.
Part of my reason why I chose to do a little write up on this (hence this post).
S. Gonzales Esq. said:
In any situation, you'd need to be aware of potential for conflict and make it easier for other road users to tell what you're going to do by appropriate signals and clear 'chassis language'. Watching how they react will give you feedback on how well you've managed this.
Driving to the highway code is supposed to demonstrate this yes?S. Gonzales Esq. said:
If you're regularly encountering road rage, you're not doing it right.
This part I do contest. I consider myself an experience driver in both senses of the meaning, that being car control and ability to demonstratably follow the highway code.I've been teaching motorsport track driving on and off since 2006 and also recently teaching a few newcomers to road driving in my spare time, so I've recently been reading up on the highway code. OK, there will be some who instantly state that this doesn't make you an expert on anything, indeed it doesn't. But, I would say that I am definitely not below standard in any respect and if I were causing road rage from inapproriate actions on my behalf then I would not be attempting to gloat about it on PH nor anywhere else.
I think the main issue is what you've already stated previously... that being that many road users these days do not expect vehicles to fully act within the tight boundaries of the highway code, and that as so many vehicles demonstrate bending of the rules, that when an impatient driver expects the vehicle infront to bend them and they don't, it irritates them.
I will expand on one of the road rage incidents I encountered within 15mins of my holiday.
The road is a 2-lane dual carriageway with national speed limit. I'm travelling along at gps stated 69mph. I approach two HGVs elephant-racing with the overtaking HGV slowly creeping past the other. I take off cruise control and engine brake down to about 50mph as the HGVs were overtaking on an incline.
I mirror, indicate and maneouvre in to lane two and keep the "2 second rule" gap distance as lane 2 traffic slowly edges past the HGV in lane 1.
Checking my mirrors regularly I notice white van man approaching at....lets call it 70mph to reduce any potential arguments or pre-judging.
White van man has to slow as both lanes infront of him have traffic.
But as I keep a 2 second gap he pulls in to lane 1 and attemps to "undertake" (or passing on the left as people will like to point out). But the car following the HGV in lane 1 slows and prevents him passing on the left.
White van man pulls back in to lane 2 and starts to tail-gate.
Meanwhile the overtaking HGV starts to slow a little meaning that both lane 1 and 2 traffic is travelling at the same speed.
Still maintaining the 2 second gap I slow in accordance with the HGV in front of me.
This seemed to be the 'tipping point' for white van man as he now flashes lights and gives hand signals.
Car in lane 1 is now about half a car's length infront to the nearside and the HGV in front of me is still at 2 second gap.
White van man now closes gap so that I can only see the mercedes badge on the front of his bonnet grill in the rear view mirror.
I decide that this gap is not safe and the 45(ish) mph speed we were travelling at meant that any hazzard ahead that could result in braking would have a high change of him running in to the back of me, maybe spinning me off the road and injury etc. etc. (possibilities are endless some would say).
So, due to the close proximity of the following white van man I did not want to use the brake pedal to slow my speed, so instead I placed on my hazzard lights for a few seconds and lifted off the accelerator.
When I had a 2 second gap space in lane 1 I then indicated left for a few seconds and pulled in to lane 1.
This was the second 'tipping point' for white van man in which he pulled up beside me with window down shouting all sorts of abuse and even swerving his van close to my car with us both travelling at about 45mph.
I did not react, although if the inlaws were not in the car it would have been a very different story!
Anyways, the missus noted the reg plate and it was reported to the police.
If you can find fault with my actions then I would really appreciate how I could have done it 'better'. Also if you notice any points of my actions above which do not follow the meaning of the highway code.
Riley Blue said:
Captain Muppet said:
Riley Blue said:
OP - the make and model of car might have a bearing on other motorists' attitude towards your 'by the book' driving. What was it?
Either he needs to update his garage or he was conducting his experiment in a Ferrari 458...Saab 9-3. A car that doesn't usually attract negative attention.
Just to keep this discussion rolling along for a little longer...
It is a normal thing to do to check your passenger side wing mirror before taking a motorway exit if you are in lane 1? (ie. checking the hard shoulder even though you do not have an intention of moving in to it on an exit?)
A second occurance of a road rage incident I had was again when sticking to the speed limit and maintaining a 2 second gap was at a motorway exit.
The traffic on the motorway was heavy but moving along at 'reasonable' pace, but lane 1 traffic was only doing 50mph max. (Rush hour).
I was in lane 1 and a car approached from behind at above 50mph (I saw that he had found a gap in the road behind and used this space to accelerate and then brake as he approached).....he pulled out in to lane 2 and got alongside me and then decided that he did not want to pass so he slowed down and pulled in behind me (rather close as per usual). He then did a similar thing on two further occurances, ie. pulling out and alongside me then back in behind.
The vehicle in front of me required the approaching exit and started to indicate at the 300yrd marker countdown, I also required the exit and started to indicate at this point. The car behind did not indicate.
As we passed the 100yrd marker countdown the car infront started to slow down. I also slowed down to maintain the 2 second gap. (Both probably doing about 40mph at this point).
Then as we started to encounter the exit markings on the road and the start of the slip road the car infront of me was already crossing over them, but the car behind me had dissapeared from my rear view mirror. I was in the process of starting to turn off the motorway when I get a loud horn blast from the car that was now attempting to pass me on the hard-shoulder in order he could get past and take the exit before I could.
I had to hit the brakes and let him pull from the hardshoulder and back on to the road in order that he could take the exit. (He didn't indicate this maneouvre but forcibly placed his car back towards the road).
The motorway exit had traffic lights on it and I'm guessing this guy was a local and had attempted to calculate the green light phase and didn't want anything infront of him stopping him making that green.
Unfortunately for him the lights went to red and two lanes of traffic had already stopped before he got there.
I pulled up behind him and again I was unusually restrained and did not react. But for some reason he had put his reverse lights on and edged his car backwards twice in a manner that suggested he was going to ram my car!
At the same time giving the usual hand signals that us british seemingly like to do.
Again, would you guys think that with me sticking to this 2 second rule had forced tension/aggression on to other motorists?
The replies so far seem to be split on this 2 second rule. But I do find it strange that some motorist react this way when they see an amount of space in front of your car and think that this space should be filled with another vehicle.
On this second occurance of road rage I did start to think there may be something wrong with the car, so I did a full check of the brake lights and indicators assuming there must be a fault... but no, everything was working.
It is a normal thing to do to check your passenger side wing mirror before taking a motorway exit if you are in lane 1? (ie. checking the hard shoulder even though you do not have an intention of moving in to it on an exit?)
A second occurance of a road rage incident I had was again when sticking to the speed limit and maintaining a 2 second gap was at a motorway exit.
The traffic on the motorway was heavy but moving along at 'reasonable' pace, but lane 1 traffic was only doing 50mph max. (Rush hour).
I was in lane 1 and a car approached from behind at above 50mph (I saw that he had found a gap in the road behind and used this space to accelerate and then brake as he approached).....he pulled out in to lane 2 and got alongside me and then decided that he did not want to pass so he slowed down and pulled in behind me (rather close as per usual). He then did a similar thing on two further occurances, ie. pulling out and alongside me then back in behind.
The vehicle in front of me required the approaching exit and started to indicate at the 300yrd marker countdown, I also required the exit and started to indicate at this point. The car behind did not indicate.
As we passed the 100yrd marker countdown the car infront started to slow down. I also slowed down to maintain the 2 second gap. (Both probably doing about 40mph at this point).
Then as we started to encounter the exit markings on the road and the start of the slip road the car infront of me was already crossing over them, but the car behind me had dissapeared from my rear view mirror. I was in the process of starting to turn off the motorway when I get a loud horn blast from the car that was now attempting to pass me on the hard-shoulder in order he could get past and take the exit before I could.
I had to hit the brakes and let him pull from the hardshoulder and back on to the road in order that he could take the exit. (He didn't indicate this maneouvre but forcibly placed his car back towards the road).
The motorway exit had traffic lights on it and I'm guessing this guy was a local and had attempted to calculate the green light phase and didn't want anything infront of him stopping him making that green.
Unfortunately for him the lights went to red and two lanes of traffic had already stopped before he got there.
I pulled up behind him and again I was unusually restrained and did not react. But for some reason he had put his reverse lights on and edged his car backwards twice in a manner that suggested he was going to ram my car!
At the same time giving the usual hand signals that us british seemingly like to do.
Again, would you guys think that with me sticking to this 2 second rule had forced tension/aggression on to other motorists?
The replies so far seem to be split on this 2 second rule. But I do find it strange that some motorist react this way when they see an amount of space in front of your car and think that this space should be filled with another vehicle.
On this second occurance of road rage I did start to think there may be something wrong with the car, so I did a full check of the brake lights and indicators assuming there must be a fault... but no, everything was working.
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