An event from my morning commute for your contemplation
Discussion
Had a near miss this morning and thought I'd share it with the forum as we all love a little schadenfreude and to pick over other people's shortcomings!
I can't post a google maps link, did have it sussed but them maps changes so back to Sq.1. Anyway, the location is Horton Rd northbound through the village of Datchet, at the Tesco Express. Dry conditions, good visibility, my lights on, fairly light traffic. A few behind, one towards me.
I was travelling northbound towards the Tesco, and could see a little black Citroen C1 waiting to turn right out of the Tesco car park, i.e. across my path and then along the main road, back past me. Approaching the junction further up was a large jolly fellow in a newish red Discovery, he was indicating to turn in to the Tesco and beginning to move into the central turning box. As I approached, I could see the two of them were having a genial disagreement about who should go first. You know the sort of thing. "You first", "No, after you", "No, I insist". I backed right off down to about 10-15 mph in 2nd and let them get on with it... until I was about 10 yards away (estimating now). The lady in the Citroen had definitely seen me; she was looking left & right and was unwilling to pull out, even though there was initially plenty of time and I had slowed to accomodate her.
At this point I made the decision that the window of opportunity for either (or both) of them to make their move had defnitely closed - I was about 10 yards away - so I continued on and made to go through the gap. At this point the Land Rover man decides otherwise and starts his turn into the car park. We both anchor on and miss offside/offside by inches at best. I stopped just beyond; no contact, no damage, no harsh words.
What went wrong? What could I have done better? I've thought about it; my first mistake was not getting, or being certain of having, the other driver's attention. This would have been an ideal situation for the horn, and might have persuaded both of them to think twice about moving. I could have backed off further beforehand, giving them more time to sort out their polite argument; but that said they had a good window of 10 - 15 seconds or so from when I picked them up, which I feel should be ample. I'd clearly backed off and was accomodating. My second mistake was assuming they had also realised their window had closed when I decided to go. Other people are idiots sometimes!
Ultimately the best/safest course of action would have been to slow right down and even stop, as neither of them were going to cause me any other impediment, but then thinking about that there was no reason to stop until right on top of the situation and my natural instinct - perhaps an inherent weakness - was to go. They were both apparently stopped, I was right on top of them, the gap was ample, and I had priority.
So, that's my analysis, over to you.
I can't post a google maps link, did have it sussed but them maps changes so back to Sq.1. Anyway, the location is Horton Rd northbound through the village of Datchet, at the Tesco Express. Dry conditions, good visibility, my lights on, fairly light traffic. A few behind, one towards me.
I was travelling northbound towards the Tesco, and could see a little black Citroen C1 waiting to turn right out of the Tesco car park, i.e. across my path and then along the main road, back past me. Approaching the junction further up was a large jolly fellow in a newish red Discovery, he was indicating to turn in to the Tesco and beginning to move into the central turning box. As I approached, I could see the two of them were having a genial disagreement about who should go first. You know the sort of thing. "You first", "No, after you", "No, I insist". I backed right off down to about 10-15 mph in 2nd and let them get on with it... until I was about 10 yards away (estimating now). The lady in the Citroen had definitely seen me; she was looking left & right and was unwilling to pull out, even though there was initially plenty of time and I had slowed to accomodate her.
At this point I made the decision that the window of opportunity for either (or both) of them to make their move had defnitely closed - I was about 10 yards away - so I continued on and made to go through the gap. At this point the Land Rover man decides otherwise and starts his turn into the car park. We both anchor on and miss offside/offside by inches at best. I stopped just beyond; no contact, no damage, no harsh words.
What went wrong? What could I have done better? I've thought about it; my first mistake was not getting, or being certain of having, the other driver's attention. This would have been an ideal situation for the horn, and might have persuaded both of them to think twice about moving. I could have backed off further beforehand, giving them more time to sort out their polite argument; but that said they had a good window of 10 - 15 seconds or so from when I picked them up, which I feel should be ample. I'd clearly backed off and was accomodating. My second mistake was assuming they had also realised their window had closed when I decided to go. Other people are idiots sometimes!
Ultimately the best/safest course of action would have been to slow right down and even stop, as neither of them were going to cause me any other impediment, but then thinking about that there was no reason to stop until right on top of the situation and my natural instinct - perhaps an inherent weakness - was to go. They were both apparently stopped, I was right on top of them, the gap was ample, and I had priority.
So, that's my analysis, over to you.
There's too many people ignoring (even though it's well intentioned) the rules of priority in my opinion. By backing off you invited this to happen, don't hesitate and sound the horn early. As soon as you see this happening you could have sounded the horn whilst maintaining speed. Safe and no misunderstanding about your intentions.
If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
Benrad said:
There's too many people ignoring (even though it's well intentioned) the rules of priority in my opinion. By backing off you invited this to happen, don't hesitate and sound the horn early. As soon as you see this happening you could have sounded the horn whilst maintaining speed. Safe and no misunderstanding about your intentions.
If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
Agreed ,If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
Benrad said:
There's too many people ignoring (even though it's well intentioned) the rules of priority in my opinion. By backing off you invited this to happen, don't hesitate and sound the horn early. As soon as you see this happening you could have sounded the horn whilst maintaining speed. Safe and no misunderstanding about your intentions.
If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
I agree, but consider the alternative: I continue at my original speed (20-25, having come off the harsh speed bump), given that we now know one or the other of them was going to go; chances of avoiding the collision perhaps smaller?If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
Horn makes all the difference.
Benrad said:
There's too many people ignoring (even though it's well intentioned) the rules of priority in my opinion. By backing off you invited this to happen, don't hesitate and sound the horn early. As soon as you see this happening you could have sounded the horn whilst maintaining speed. Safe and no misunderstanding about your intentions.
If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
Indeed perhaps it would have helped to flash the lights, blow your horn and accelerate towards the C1 aggressively, whilst gesticulating vigorously with two fingers at the incompetent fools. If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
goneape said:
Benrad said:
There's too many people ignoring (even though it's well intentioned) the rules of priority in my opinion. By backing off you invited this to happen, don't hesitate and sound the horn early. As soon as you see this happening you could have sounded the horn whilst maintaining speed. Safe and no misunderstanding about your intentions.
If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
I agree, but consider the alternative: I continue at my original speed (20-25, having come off the harsh speed bump), given that we now know one or the other of them was going to go; chances of avoiding the collision perhaps smaller?If you do begin to let someone go first then do it and commit to it, but I'd say don't do it in the first place
Horn makes all the difference.
U
And to the other poster, this is exactly what the horn is for, warning of your presence. Make eye contact and smile afterwards, it does not have to be aggressive
Edited by Benrad on Friday 11th September 12:40
By slowing more than they were expecting you to do in order to continue ahead, you may have inadvertently led the LR driver to believe you were going to turn left, and he was only intending to turn into Tesco behind you.
That is, the slow speed fooled him into thinking you were turning left.
That is, the slow speed fooled him into thinking you were turning left.
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