Commuter Rants & Obs'

Now I’d disagree with that one. There should be no need to indicate when pulling back in after overtaking as you should have passed, left enough room before pulling in and be moving away from the vehicle so aren’t affecting them. That’s what I was taught by a police advanced driving instructor.

 

Doesn't hurt to do it that way, after all, no-one is going to get pissy and blow the horn, or worse, because you HAVE indicated, more likely to be the other way round.

 

This is another situation where people tend to not anticipate what’s going to happen.
If I thought the vehicle in lane 1 might be considering pulling out I’d continue in lane 3 until I’d passed them, leave enough room and then pull back in.
I’ve had it done to me so many times where someone has not anticipated me having to pull out and has blocked me. And don’t get me started on those who insist on travelling at the same speed as me in the next lane right on my rear quarter. Just go past you idiot!

 

Yep, I did a defensive course with work and the instructor told us not to indicate back in as well. According to him there are lots of dual carriageway accidents where following cars speed up and hit the car indicating back in after overtaking. I remember being surprised to hear it. Although as a not particularly fast driver I often have people trying to get in the back of my car, and squeezing past as soon as I move over, they always seem to want me to cut up the car I am overtaking.

 

A good technique to aim to master is one a BMF/Advanced Instructor mentioned recently. He said to his "student" that whoever showed their brake lights first on a 90 mile Motorway ride buys the coffees.

The principle is that you should be able to assess far enough ahead to anticipate what will happen to allow you to keep a big enough "bubble" of space around and ahead of you, so that braking is not required.

Quite a challenge!

 

I love stuff like that. A much maligned piece of road because of the average speed cameras is the cat and fiddle between Buxton and Macclesfield but it's still a great ride and you don't have to blast off between cameras then slow down to keep your average speed down, just keep it around 50/55 on the straights and ride the whole length without using the brakes. Another bit of road I do this on is in Lincolnshire known as Bardney bends. Added into the mix here is some very sharp turns and 30 limits as well, makes you look ahead and assess the road properly.

 

Me2, my Dad invented a game that i still carry on today but i swear it is harder because there is less rolling resistance on newer cars. Anyway, about two miles from home if you come in one direction it is all downhill apart from our 30 foot long drive which is uphill. The rules are at 1 mile, no accelerator or brakes and you have to roll to a stop on our drive. This involves 4 90 degree or greater bends, a turn from a main road into a minor road and turn into our driveway.

 

That’s right mate, you should start to indicate left as you pass the junction before the one you’re taking.

And if you’re going straight on at a roundabout it doesn’t mean you’ve got priority right of way like everyone seems to think.

 

That's a good one Stinger. Reminds me of a trip with my Dad in Italy once, we had a regular run to make from a ski area downhill to a town somewhere with traffic lights and junctions,etc and he managed to get 99.9mpg out of his VW Scirroco in a similar way. It would never go to 100 though.

I always try to lift off when catching other traffic and judge it so I don't need to brake, but that's not from 1 mile back usually!

 

Well, it’s been a while since I was actually on an advanced course for either car or bike so I can’t comment on what’s being taught these days. You wouldn’t get marked down for indicating as you do but you certainly would if a signal was required and you didn’t give it.

 

The other thing I was going to add was it doesn’t matter how you are/were taught if you don’t keep to that standard it’s all been wasted. I did my initial advanced course in 1991 and I’d like to think I can still adopt the “system” even now. I worked with a lot of people over the years and wondered if they’d been on the same course as me cos I wouldn’t trust them with a warm scarf let alone drive me at high speed.

 

Apart from when on motorways in order to avoid the situation pointed out by littleade above, I have never bothered indicating after an overtaking manoeuvre on normal roads. Not sure what the point would be exactly? surely the bloke you've just passed knows that you're coming back onto the LH side of the road anyway - where else are you going to go?

The Highway Code is quite clear and advises you to give a signal when another road user could benefit - how does the overtaken driver benefit from you signalling in this case?

Advanced driving courses definitely discourage it. I was told not to "bother doing it" on the Bike Safe course and the IAM are quite clear about the "unnecessary use of indicators". I doubt that you'd fail the test but they will pick you up on "excessive and unnecessary use" of them.

Here's an extract from the basic course book: It suggests not using your indicators at all when overtaking!

 

This thread is a great insight to how peeps think and their individual road craft, some great tips here. My pet hate on the roads (there are a few) which does get me going is drivers/riders that drive/ride aggressively. It does not matere if it is joining a motorway from a slip road, moving into my lane on a single carraige road when there is a parked car in their lane, or pushing me down the road when I'm travelling at the correct speed limit. The last one is particularly anoying in a 30mph zone. Oh and not indicating on roundabouts or changing lanes.
Wessa

 

Oh my I'm confused, it don't take much though

 

Indicating to come off a roundabout is tricky and I struggle to balance signalling before manoeuvre and confusing joining traffic. The perspective of people waiting to join a roundabout is different to the perspective from on the roundabout. There is a risk that if someone joining the roundabout sees the indicator to exit that they will think the person on the roundabout is coming off on the exit before them and pull out, even if the person on the roundabout thinks it is obvious that they are passing the exit.

If I wait untill I am past the lane of joining traffic to indicate then I have often already started to turn towards the exit and it almost seems too late, ie. manoeuvring before signalling, but if I signal as I pass the previous exit the people joining may think I am coming off at the previous exit and pull out. Thinking about the consequences, it is probably best to error towards signalling too late than too early and have someone pull out.

 

Well, on your standard, 3,6,9, 12 o’clock roundabout with single lanes let’s take the example that you are joining it at 6 o’clock and leaving at 12 o’clock, nice and simple. Upon entering the island obviously no signal is required ( tho I have seen people indicate right as they join then left as they leave, WTF!!!!!) as in effect you are going straight on but the signal to leave should be applied as you are adjacent to 9 o’clock at the point where you are committed to passing that exit. Any traffic at that exit waiting to join has to give way to traffic already on the island and approaching from the right so theoretically they will wait until you have passed. If you signal early they may take the opportunity to set off putting both vehicles at risk of a collision but IMO only a fool pulls out in front of an indicating vehicle if there is the slightest chance they aren’t exiting the island.

Or is that just STBO (stating the bleeding obvious!)

 

4 pages in and almost 8 weeks and no on has mentioned Mini Roundabouts which surprises me. Why oh why do a large majority of drivers ( it is mainly cars ) approach a mini roundabout and decide the correct course of action is to stop then look to their right or even at the vehicle that is approaching the roundabout from the opposite direction. Just give way to anything that is in the roundabout immediately to your right!!! When two or even three of these idiots get to a mini roundabout its chaos, no one seems to want to enter the roundabout and often they are only going straight on so wouldn't have any impact ( no pun intended) with the traffic from the right. Why do people treat these any different to a grown up roundabout.
Motorways lane discipline - none. Are people embarrassed to be seen in the nearside lane? Why don't the people in charge of the matrices on the motorways remind people of this rather than putting superfluous drivel,like, " Don't forget to Service your Vehicle "
Anyway off out through town and onto the Motorway to raise my blood pressure.

 

Well, I came in to see what the feckin fuss was about, read the contents of this page, decided I am gonna use hazard lights on roundabouts! now I have a headache & am heading to a darkened room to think about puppies








Not the sorts of puppies on bikes & babes pages either ya feckin heathens!

 

the newest craze I had found lately is the roundabout rule.
you always give way to the right as were are in the UK.
well there is an increasing number of road users (cyclists,cars,vans,lorries,busses,motorcyclists) that all think its funny to pull out on to the roundabout as I am approaching their exit when Im clearly already on the roundabout.
the next driver that does it to me will have a very large vehicle rammed up their tailpipe so they would be able to lick my front number plate whilst sitting in the drivers seat.

 

its my favourite pet peeve, not indicating on roundabouts. In the car, if they arent indicating right i pull out, feck em, if they can be bothered to let me know they are coming i cant be bothered to wait for them. But my biggest one is leaving you waiting as they turn off into your road suddenly without indicating.
As far as indicating when overtaking, highway code says you should when pulling out though doesnt say to do so when pulling back in.
I must admit though, if i am on my own and i am going to overtake i tend to concentrate on getting the manoeuvre done and dont always indicate.