Safe Speed Forums

My turn.

I just spent the best part of a week driving around Italy in a ‘wrong’ hand drive car (as opposed to RHD), man their driving style is….ermmm…. interesting However, I didn’t have any close shaves. My near miss was the very evening I returned back to Blighty.

I had a three lane carriageway (A27, Portsmouth) all to myself. Believe it or not I was not exceeding the speed limit (my speed was certainly appropriate). Anyway, I saw a vehicle about to join the carriageway from an entry slip so I moved to L2. The driver merges onto L1, me about to draw parallel in L2 going a fraction faster - so far so good. Then my Spidey Sense started tingling so I continued to watch them carefully. Sure enough they drifted over to the right of L1 and continued such that their wheels crossed the lane separator lines and proceeded into L2 – WTF? Needless to say I gave them a long blast of the horn and moved into L3. Thankfully I had anticipated the manoeuvre and had already planned my escape route.

I guess they hadn’t checked their 'blind spot', OK. The bit that really riled me is that the driver didn’t respond in any way: they just carried on moving into lane 2 oblivious of me (and my loud horn) and they stayed there (remember there was nothing in L1), no change in their speed, no acknowledgement that they had forced me into taking evasive measure – nothing! I can’t help but feel they didn’t learn anything from it


edit: Need I now position myself to ensure I'm not in such a 'blind spot' (what a misnomer) even though I'm in a different lane?

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

I'm quite familiar with this area. Can you tell us exactly where, in which direction and at what time this happened?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Suspend overtaking near slip roads and you'll be safe whatever they do. Obviously you need to avoid being alongside anything too.

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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

A27 westbound, at the A2030 Eastern road entry slip.
It was ~11:00pm. All sidelights and dipped were on and working (I had confirmed this immediately afterwards), regardless this stretch was illuminated by street lighting.

I already endeavour to not be alongside vehicles (already) in L1 when at entry slips.

Suspending overtaking near slips could have a negative effect if there are slow vehicles involved, but I see your point. I have to consider this further.

I could have also moved into L3 but I have seen drivers on that very stretch of tarmac (1km prior, from A3M) jump straight into L4 of 4 (no other traffic except me behind them - which kinda reinforces your point).

An extra lane joining - an on-slip - is so very similar to losing a lane in some circumstances! I do my damndest not to be alongside anything in such situations too. It's a fine call as to whether to lift off or, er, lift on but one or the other usually solves it.

Surely when traffic levels are on the heavy side, this'll just cause a big slow wave at every junction if everyone did this?