Pinch Points, What would You do?

[Sheepshanks]

WJNB said:

silverfoxcc said:

At The Rolls Royce Chauffeurs School the phrase was
'Command the Road'

That's pure arrogance & I suspect typically male.
Also just because YOU have priority it's stupid to assume others will recognise that.
When you grow up & have nothing to prove, value your mirrors, expensive alloys & pristine flanks sometimes it's better to swallow ones ego & act defensively. Let other drive of feeling clever & superior, professionally trained or not.

We do defensive driving at work with ex-Police driving instructors. Defensive it ain't - "bold positioning" is their mantra.

The damage you speak of won't occur because your positioning doesn't allow it to. What might happen is some brain-dead school run mum could hit you head-on, utterly convinced that it's her "right-of-way".

[WinstonWolf]

WJNB said:

silverfoxcc said:

At The Rolls Royce Chauffeurs School the phrase was
'Command the Road'

That's pure arrogance & I suspect typically male.
Also just because YOU have priority it's stupid to assume others will recognise that.
When you grow up & have nothing to prove, value your mirrors, expensive alloys & pristine flanks sometimes it's better to swallow ones ego & act defensively. Let other drive of feeling clever & superior, professionally trained or not.

That's utter balderdash and I suspect typically female.

Taking ownership *is* driving defensively. I take it you've not completed any additional training since you passed your test?

[IT1GTR]

WJNB said:

silverfoxcc said:

At The Rolls Royce Chauffeurs School the phrase was
'Command the Road'

That's pure arrogance & I suspect typically male.
Also just because YOU have priority it's stupid to assume others will recognise that.
When you grow up & have nothing to prove, value your mirrors, expensive alloys & pristine flanks sometimes it's better to swallow ones ego & act defensively. Let other drive of feeling clever & superior, professionally trained or not.

Ummmmm, commanding the road is being defensive. It's plainly signalling your intention to the other party. Obviously always be prepared to yield if it's some jumped up school mum in her 4x4, who feels that you need to get out of the way because you have a large ego due to your road positioning. But that's the whole point of advanced driving!!

[Gary C]

depends on the situation, but in every case control speed and be prepared to stop.

I do A mostly if I know there is enough room for a safe pass, but B may cause aggression and lead to an needless confrontation. If you think it's to narrow then hold position and begin or prepare to slow and stop (depeding on how far away)

[Spartikus]

B. Acknowledge thanks as you pass and they have waited

[Spartikus]

If they try to pass raise both hands and adopt WTF? expression

[vanordinaire]

Gary C said:

depends on the situation, but in every case control speed and be prepared to stop.

I do A mostly if I know there is enough room for a safe pass, but B may cause aggression and lead to an needless confrontation. If you think it's to narrow then hold position and begin or prepare to slow and stop (depeding on how far away)

This.
My commute consists of 12 miles of single track roads with passing places, often meeting 38 Ton log timber lorries. There are points on the road where 2 vehicles can squeeze past with millimetres to spare and others where an artic on it's own struggles to stay on the tarmac. Every meeting is different and there are vast differences in skill and perception levels of the other drivers. It's not just about your own capabilities, you have to anticipate how another driver might act and act accordingly yourself. To take the exact same hard and fast approach in every situation is a recipe for disaster.

[TooMany2cvs]

vanordinaire said:

My commute consists of 12 miles of single track roads with passing places, often meeting 38 Ton log timber lorries. There are points on the road where 2 vehicles can squeeze past with millimetres to spare and others where an artic on it's own struggles to stay on the tarmac. Every meeting is different and there are vast differences in skill and perception levels of the other drivers. It's not just about your own capabilities, you have to anticipate how another driver might act and act accordingly yourself. To take the exact same hard and fast approach in every situation is a recipe for disaster.

Yup.

Here in the boonies of western Herefordshire, single-track lanes are the norm. Everybody copes, and it all works swimmingly.

Where we used to live, on the edge of the Chilterns, there were quite a few single-track back routes... including one straight off an M25 junction*. Jesus wept. Chaos. You'd tuck in to a passing place (if nobody had parked in it), and have a gap big enough to get a mobile crane through. Yet somebody in a Smart would be folding in their mirrors and getting shouty at you because you hadn't reversed half a mile around two blind bends and they didn't think they'd fit...

• If ever you want to see panic, watch people blindly follow their SatNav north off Jn17. It's hilarious.

[cat with a hat]

depends how close they are to initiating the move to pull out to pass the cars.

If they are a fair bit back, own the whole thing. If you can't stop them from entering then move over.


I've been the other side where someone decided that there wasn't enough space for two cars and that they needed 5ft to the left of them to clear the curb. We met in the middle and then they wondered why our wing mirrors clipped.

[WD39]

Spartikus said:

B. Acknowledge thanks as you pass and they have waited

Every time.

[PositronicRay]

Mini Spirit said:

Pinch Points

Parked vehicles on the offside, approximately say five vehicles, so you have right of way, the road is not that wide, your half way through the hazard, your a good doors width away from the parked vehicles & a vehicle is approaching towards you.

You anticipate that he's going to try & squeeze through, instead of holding back for a few seconds.

Do you.

A: Change speed & position & move over very close to curb. Or

B: Move a little more offside, maintaining a doors width from the parked vehicles, to try & dissuade the oncoming vehicle.

Defiantly "B" but accelerate, fix the opposition with a steely stare, and cover the horn with your free hand.

[mph1977]

brman said:

Maintain current road position as you should already have anticipated an oncoming vehicle and be positioned accordingly? Prepare to slow/stop if he makes a bad decision and move to your nearside only when necessary to avoid a collision.

yep sounds fair

1. you have the priority
2. you are already int othe pinchpoint ...

[mph1977]

WinstonWolf said:

That's utter balderdash and I suspect typically female.

Taking ownership *is* driving defensively. I take it you've not completed any additional training since you passed your test?

taking ownership of the space is nothing special to Rolls , it's also what;s taught to Vocational drivers where the geography of the road layout means they need space and to emergency services drivers as something to consider at all times when driving not just when responding ...