Broken windows policy - STOP signs!

[Cyril Haearn]

Bearing in mind how few STOP signs there are these days, I doubt if there are many places where a PC with time on their hands could find one to stand by. By coincidence, this morning I was driving through Bradford on yet another welfare-related trip (as you grow older, so do most of your associates) when I was nearly wiped out by a driver who ignored a STOP sign at some speed. Very slow moving traffic in both directions when a driver was able to edge out from my right to join the queue I was in and he was followed by a van that shot straight across the junction at some speed. The STOP sign is there because emerging drivers have no view to their left.

Sounds like the signs near me, police time would be well spent there, as easy as taking candy from a baby. Or more appropriately, as easy as scraping the muck off the floor of the cowshed
I am a bit confused by my own metaphors, doesn't the scum rise to the surface?
Maybe you could spend a while observing traffic there and report back?
Thanks for drifting back on course

[thirdcrank]

... Maybe you could spend a while observing traffic there and report back? ...

The absence of a suggests you may not be joking, or I'd have posted that you must be.

[Cyril Haearn]

... Maybe you could spend a while observing traffic there and report back? ...

The absence of a suggests you may not be joking, or I'd have posted that you must be.

Of course I am not joking %((
I post funny things clearly marked elsewhere
I do indeed plan some observations at the stop signs here, just need to get a clipboard

I was just thinking of you TC , just read that the cops in Berlin have a new chief, Barbara Slowik, she is not a policeperson but a doctor of law. She wants to change the **image** of the police!
I am all for ladies not laddies at the top, what do you think?

[thirdcrank]

... I am all for ladies not laddies at the top, what do you think?

I've no problem with men or women in the role.

[Cyril Haearn]

Slowing down for bullies:
I drive carefully, maybe 20% under the maximum limit, through the industrial estate where I work because I often see tricky situations there, enormous car transporters maneuvering, illegal parking, plenty of idiots going too fast
This morning a WVM followed me closely into the estate, bright lights dazzling in my mirrors. A hint with the brake lights was of course ignored, it stuck to my tail clearly much too close, maybe 2m behind, so I stopped to let it by. It had to pause for a moment, passed me, and 50m later turned off to make a delivery. Delay: 5-10 seconds?
If I had accelerated to the maximum speed limit it would have kept close behind me, that would have been crazy by me, right?
The b*****r cost me a few seconds too by forcing me to let him by

I would (not) like to know what swear-words the WVM directed at me

[pwa]

Slowing down for bullies:
I drive carefully, maybe 20% under the maximum limit, through the industrial estate where I work because I often see tricky situations there, enormous car transporters maneuvering, illegal parking, plenty of idiots going too fast
This morning a WVM followed me closely into the estate, bright lights dazzling in my mirrors. A hint with the brake lights was of course ignored, it stuck to my tail clearly much too close, maybe 2m behind, so I stopped to let it by. It had to pause for a moment, passed me, and 50m later turned off to make a delivery. Delay: 5-10 seconds?
If I had accelerated to the maximum speed limit it would have kept close behind me, that would have been crazy by me, right?
The ***** cost me a few seconds too by forcing me to let him by

I would (not) like to know what swear-words the WVM directed at me

You of course decide for yourself what the safe speed is in the situation in which you find yourself, and if that means someone else has to wait, so be it. It is only if you slow someone down to a speed lower than the safe speed that you should start considering the work schedule of the person behind. And only if they are not tailgating you. Fair?

[Bonefishblues]

Slowing down for bullies:
I drive carefully, maybe 20% under the maximum limit, through the industrial estate where I work because I often see tricky situations there, enormous car transporters maneuvering, illegal parking, plenty of idiots going too fast
This morning a WVM followed me closely into the estate, bright lights dazzling in my mirrors. A hint with the brake lights was of course ignored, it stuck to my tail clearly much too close, maybe 2m behind, so I stopped to let it by. It had to pause for a moment, passed me, and 50m later turned off to make a delivery. Delay: 5-10 seconds?
If I had accelerated to the maximum speed limit it would have kept close behind me, that would have been crazy by me, right?
The b*****r cost me a few seconds too by forcing me to let him by

I would (not) like to know what swear-words the WVM directed at me

You did the right thing. The loss of a few seconds is worthwhile. I do it myself (or facilitate an overtake on their part) if someone is keen to travel more quickly than me. Better they are ahead than behind.

What do you mean by the part in bold?

[Cunobelin]

Slowing down for bullies:
I drive carefully, maybe 20% under the maximum limit, through the industrial estate where I work because I often see tricky situations there, enormous car transporters maneuvering, illegal parking, plenty of idiots going too fast
This morning a WVM followed me closely into the estate, bright lights dazzling in my mirrors. A hint with the brake lights was of course ignored, it stuck to my tail clearly much too close, maybe 2m behind, so I stopped to let it by. It had to pause for a moment, passed me, and 50m later turned off to make a delivery. Delay: 5-10 seconds?
If I had accelerated to the maximum speed limit it would have kept close behind me, that would have been crazy by me, right?
The ***** cost me a few seconds too by forcing me to let him by

I would (not) like to know what swear-words the WVM directed at me

You did the right thing. The loss of a few seconds is worthwhile. I do it myself (or facilitate an overtake on their part) if someone is keen to travel more quickly than me. Better they are ahead than behind.

What do you mean by the part in bold?

Similar happened to me last week.

Traffic lights were at red, as they turned to green I could see an Ambulance approaching with blue lights on and stayed still to allow it past

Guy behind is having apoplexy tooting flashing and waving, so eventually pulls onto wrong side of road and drives past me making gestures and swearing. If he had spent less attention on the obscenities he might have seen the Ambulance that had to brake as he drove right out in front of it

[pwa]

Slowing down for bullies:
I drive carefully, maybe 20% under the maximum limit, through the industrial estate where I work because I often see tricky situations there, enormous car transporters maneuvering, illegal parking, plenty of idiots going too fast
This morning a WVM followed me closely into the estate, bright lights dazzling in my mirrors. A hint with the brake lights was of course ignored, it stuck to my tail clearly much too close, maybe 2m behind, so I stopped to let it by. It had to pause for a moment, passed me, and 50m later turned off to make a delivery. Delay: 5-10 seconds?
If I had accelerated to the maximum speed limit it would have kept close behind me, that would have been crazy by me, right?
The ***** cost me a few seconds too by forcing me to let him by

I would (not) like to know what swear-words the WVM directed at me

You did the right thing. The loss of a few seconds is worthwhile. I do it myself (or facilitate an overtake on their part) if someone is keen to travel more quickly than me. Better they are ahead than behind.

What do you mean by the part in bold?

Similar happened to me last week.

Traffic lights were at red, as they turned to green I could see an Ambulance approaching with blue lights on and stayed still to allow it past

Guy behind is having apoplexy tooting flashing and waving, so eventually pulls onto wrong side of road and drives past me making gestures and swearing. If he had spent less attention on the obscenities he might have seen the Ambulance that had to brake as he drove right out in front of it

And then presumably he felt like the right wally he is.

[Cunobelin]

Trouble is people like him probably got even crosser that the Ambulance had crossed a red light when he had “right of way”

[Bonefishblues]

Or could just have succumbed to anger when he hadn't understood the poster's actions. I've done similar and felt foolish afterwards.

[Cyril Haearn]

Slowing down for bullies:
I drive carefully, maybe 20% under the maximum limit, through the industrial estate where I work because I often see tricky situations there, enormous car transporters maneuvering, illegal parking, plenty of idiots going too fast
This morning a WVM followed me closely into the estate, bright lights dazzling in my mirrors. A hint with the brake lights was of course ignored, it stuck to my tail clearly much too close, maybe 2m behind, so I stopped to let it by. It had to pause for a moment, passed me, and 50m later turned off to make a delivery. Delay: 5-10 seconds?
If I had accelerated to the maximum speed limit it would have kept close behind me, that would have been crazy by me, right?
The b*****r cost me a few seconds too by forcing me to let him by

I would (not) like to know what swear-words the WVM directed at me

You did the right thing. The loss of a few seconds is worthwhile. I do it myself (or facilitate an overtake on their part) if someone is keen to travel more quickly than me. Better they are ahead than behind.

What do you mean by the part in bold?

You bolded it not me%), I mean touching the brake pedal so the lights flash for a moment, not real braking, I hardly ever do that
Even better maybe, as suggested elsewhere on these fora, just flick the sidelights on for a moment
When stopping it is best not to indicate as this may be interpreted as an invitation to overtake, right?

[Cyril Haearn]

You did the right thing. The loss of a few seconds is worthwhile. I do it myself (or facilitate an overtake on their part) if someone is keen to travel more quickly than me. Better they are ahead than behind.

What do you mean by the part in bold?

Similar happened to me last week.

Traffic lights were at red, as they turned to green I could see an Ambulance approaching with blue lights on and stayed still to allow it past

Guy behind is having apoplexy tooting flashing and waving, so eventually pulls onto wrong side of road and drives past me making gestures and swearing. If he had spent less attention on the obscenities he might have seen the Ambulance that had to brake as he drove right out in front of it

And then presumably he felt like the right wally he is.

Probably not, he is a *non-thinker*, unlike you and I and others here, who think too much

[Bonefishblues]

You bolded it not me%), I mean touching the brake pedal so the lights flash for a moment, not real braking, I hardly ever do that
Even better maybe, as suggested elsewhere on these fora, just flick the sidelights on for a moment
When stopping it is best not to indicate as this may be interpreted as an invitation to overtake, right?

I would caution not to brake unless you are actually braking. It's not going to achieve the desired outcome, and may inflame, as may using lights. Just carry on doing what you are doing until you can pull in, using your indicators if that's appropriate (and it may be sensible to if a vehicle's close behind).

[thirdcrank]

A similar incident to Cunobelin's ambulance post happened to me on the same journey when the van driver ignored the STOP sign.

I was second in the queue pulling away from traffic lights when the driver in front of me did an emergency stop, just as we were getting up to speed. The reason wasn't immediately obvious because we were approaching an offside bend. I had enough room to pull up behind him in a fairly organised manner but the driver behind me still had a lot of trouble avoiding a shunt. The driver in front had stopped because an ambulance was coming the other way, although there was plenty of room because its driver had three lanes to go at. No doubt the emergency stopper thought he was doing the right thing, but to what purpose? He just slammed on instead of thinking for a moment how best to facilitate the passing of the ambulance. Had I been shunted, it would have been the fault of the driver behind me, but if he had swerved out into the carriageway to avoid a crash, that might have affected the ambulance.

In the circumstances, no wrecks and nobody drownded, on a day when I seemed to be on the wrong end of a lot of poor driving. And FWIW, all recorded on dashcam.

Rule 219
Emergency and Incident Support vehicles. You should look and listen for ambulances, fire engines, police, doctors or other emergency vehicles using flashing blue, red or green lights and sirens or flashing headlights, or traffic officer and incident support vehicles using flashing amber lights. When one approaches do not panic. Consider the route of such a vehicle and take appropriate action to let it pass, while complying with all traffic signs. If necessary, pull to the side of the road and stop, but try to avoid stopping before the brow of a hill, a bend or narrow section of road. Do not endanger yourself, other road users or pedestrians and avoid mounting the kerb. Do not brake harshly on approach to a junction or roundabout, as a following vehicle may not have the same view as you.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway ... 204-to-225

(It is the driver of the following vehicle who may not have the same view, although driverless vehicles may eventually be different.