Safe Speed Forums

Maybe not a near miss... But... Yes, basically what it says up there... Way home today... Going along a 2 mile stretch of motorway standard D/C (central reservation and H/S)... Wasn't going that fast IMO, there was a modest amount of traffic, so I was doing my usual sort of speed for this type of road/conditions, about 80... Perfect visibility, no sun, but still bright, no rain/fog... I pass a white van doing c. 50mph in lane 1, following a car doing c. 50mph in the same lane... Nothing strange there, he was maybe a wee bit close to the guy, but I wouldn't say dangerously close... As soon as I pass him he changes lane, no indicators, comes flying up behind me... I'm braking at this point for a roundabout coming up ahead, pretty close... I start to realise something's wrong when I see him 'bumper surfing' about 6-10 foot from my back bumper... I'm doing maybe 45mph at this stage... He's driving a slightly run down looking sprinter... I need to keep braking, either that or go into a roundabout with traffic on it... I need the right hand lane, I'm turning right... I can't think what to do differently... I HAVE to brake, or I'll get hit from the side on the roundabout... Knock the R.H. indicator on, see my gap and take it (not having to stop though)... To my absolute disbelief the guy follows me... Still sitting right on my back bumper... I'm shi**ing myself at this point... If someone pulls out infront of me or anything here, it'd be hard to avoid a crash if someone does something silly... He goes straight on (allowed at this roundabout) and I take my exit. Escape routes we're unavailable on the approach to the roundabout... No gaps I would have been comfortable taking...

Anything I could have done differently? It's not put me off or anything, but I'm trying to work out what mitigated this... I'm guessing he thought I was going too fast and was trying to teach me a lesson... I certainly wasn' the fastest car on the d/c... There were a few ahead doing my speed and some more...

On a slightly happier note... Little old lady sitting in middle of junction in her red Micra - warning bell 1... No indicators at all - warning bell 2... Wheels pointing slightly to the left - warning bell 3... I decided to hang back after seeing her road positioning and no indicators, it was too ambiguous, couldn't be sure when she would move... Turned out she was going left... Same direction as me... I give her plenty of space... Coming up to a roundabout shes heading for the left hand lane, and suddenly swerves to the right hand lane (R.T. only), and from her behaviour at the previous junction I give her plenty of space, thankfully... She cuts across from the right hand lane of the roundabout, through some hatching, to take the 2nd exit - straight forward. Was quite glad I anticipated that... Would have been bye bye rear wing...

Anyway... Glad I've picked up something over the past year!

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Mike

WVM: the only thing that concerns me is the fairly high speed differential (80-50); for some this could well be unacceptable. Other than that you seemed to have handled the subsequent situation well.

Pratts on roundabouts: tell me about it

It may be that overtaking in that place left you going faster and needing more braking than was optimal. It's often better to hang back and overtake after the roundabout.

I say this because his proximity made you worry about your degree of braking - the best situation in such cases is when you have 'space' in hand and you can slow more gradually. It sounds like you didn't have space in hand.

Even after all this, you may well have been able to change lane left and let the van past. If I felt intimidated by some other road user, I wouldn't much mind entering a roundabout in the left hand lane and making a space so that I could still turn right. 'Making space' on roundabouts is a very useful skill to acquire...

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Yea I was thinking that... I'd show you a Google Earth of it, but the roundabout wasn't there when the images were taken...On the other hand... He had about 10 seconds of road infront of me that he could have used to overtake the slower moving car... And stay in the lane, because by the time I would have caught up he would have basically been at the roundabout... I may well have been braking when I passed him actually... Not firmly, but enough to put the lights on for a second or so of warning to anyone behind that I was stopping...

Road has roundabout now at the junction at the top... 2 lanes the whole way...

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Mike

Yea, my only worry about entering the roundabout in the left lane to turn right is that the right hand lane can also go straight... Maybe I haven't understood you correctly though...

If he'd gotten any closer I could probably have braked more gently... I was quite tuned into the fact that the roundabout was coming up and I like to have my speed right down for it so I can look and assess the roundabout, while not holding other people back... I try to 'flow' on roundabouts as often as possible... Something my instructor always drilled into me... But the early braking gives me plenty of space to run out if anything happens behind, such as someone not realising I'm braking and stuff...

But yea, would have probably been better just hanging back in the first place... If he'd been going the same way as me I would have pulled over somewhere as soon as I possibly/safely could and let him past... Just hoping that he didn't do the same and want to fight... But it didn't come to that... Thankfully...

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Mike

There are so many folk screwing up their lane choices in roundabouts that it makes good sense to avoid driving alongside anyone else. That way when they spuriously change lane you simply ain't there to be hit.

A welcome side effect of the same 'space management' is that you can change lanes at any time too.

In practice it's about speed control and timing.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Ugh, tits on roundabouts, one of my bugaboos, must add that to my thread on driver reeducation that noon else seems to want to contribute to!

WVM will always tailgate you, whatever the situation. You must accept that his urgent business is more important to the good of mankind than you can possibly understand, and get your feeble mind around the utmost importance of him being a car-length ahead of where he was, before his most recent dangerous maneuver.

Seriously though, I give WVMs a double margin for stupidity (a margin I give all other road users) simply because they seem to avail themselves of it so frequently!

You must be wrong here, Paul has been quite vocal in his support for those White Van Man "knights of the road". They are safer than cyclists, don't you know.

Linky link: http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewt ... order=asc&

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Then go straight (or left if available) if you can't find or create space to go right.

A detour is a small price to pay to avoid a collision.