What's your driving story today?

goz83

So i'm on my way to my sisters at 5pm this bank holiday monday to pick her up for a movie. I'm driving up the Donaghmede road toward the shopping centre and away from the Donaghmede roundabout. ( for those who don't know, there are 2 lanes. Right lane to turn right into estate, or go straight and a left lane to turn left into a different estate, no straight through). When cars are turning right, the car behind will usually undertake ( if the car turning right is stationary)if going straight. There are 2 cars in front of me in the right lane. I am going straight. The lead car indicates right and the car directly behind it indicates into the left lane. There was no contra flow traffic, allowing the lead car to turn right, without delay. What now became the lead car had indicated back into the right (straight ahead lane) as I had increased speed and the nose of my people carrier was level with the other driver. Her moving into the left lane, under the circumstances made me believe she was turning left. She beeped her horn as she swerved back into the left lane and beeped twice again as she pulled in behind me, flashing her lights. I had 2 kids in the car, so was not driving in any way dangerously and was well below the limit, doing about 25kph as I passed her.

The lights ahead had just turned red and I was seeing red because of her stupid behaviour. Did i do something wrong here that I can't see? I don't think I did something wrong. I think she just made a stupid mistake and got annoyed when I overtook her. Once i stopped the car, told the kids to close their eyes and gave the driver the extended finger salute, she stopped beeping and flashing and all was well. That's my driving story today, what's yours?

Chris_Heilong

Do you mean this stretch of road coming up to the lights?

TherapyBoy

Being familiar with that bit of road I'd have given her some leeway & space to pull back into the right hand lane. The fact that she was in the right hand lane and only indicated & moved after the lead car had indicated to turn would have led me to believe that she might be continuing straight on & would want to pull back into the correct lane. The question I'd ask is why did you increase speed?

paddyland

Two observations I would make.

First, I have driven here, and am familiar with that rotten piece of road. I would be aware of the likelihood of a driver doing that very thing, and I would not leave myself level with another car that might do that. I would fall back or press on ahead, knowing that other drivers seldom if ever pay enough attention to anything else around them. I have generally copped these likely situations well before the other driver, and do not leave myself in line for the conflict. You really do have to always think ahead when driving.

Secondly, that is a rotten piece of road design anyway, and it would help if Irish road designers weren't so rotten at their job, but that's a whole other topic of conversation.

TherapyBoy

Agreed. The road is badly laid out.

goz83

TherapyBoy wrote: »

Being familiar with that bit of road I'd have given her some leeway & space to pull back into the right hand lane. The fact that she was in the right hand lane and only indicated & moved after the lead car had indicated to turn would have led me to believe that she might be continuing straight on & would want to pull back into the correct lane. The question I'd ask is why did you increase speed?

Was trying to keep the post shorter than it was. The offending car that moved into the left lane did not maintain speed and had slowed a little, making me think it would be going left. I have driven this road many, many times and usually know when someone is going to drive back into the right lane, but this driver made a balls of it altogether. I increased speed, because I was well under the limit and didn't want to get stuck at the lights either. The other driver was driving like someone who was talking on a mobile, but afaik, she was just day dreaming.

paddyland wrote: »

Two observations I would make.

First, I have driven here, and am familiar with that rotten piece of road. I would be aware of the likelihood of a driver doing that very thing, and I would not leave myself level with another car that might do that. I would fall back or press on ahead, knowing that other drivers seldom if ever pay enough attention to anything else around them. I have generally copped these likely situations well before the other driver, and do not leave myself in line for the conflict. You really do have to always think ahead when driving.

Secondly, that is a rotten piece of road design anyway, and it would help if Irish road designers weren't so rotten at their job, but that's a whole other topic of conversation.

This is actually the first time this has happened to me on this road. As mentioned already, i have driven this road many times. I always give plenty of room to cars on the left who decide that they are in the wrong lane at the last possible moment, unless they are slowing down, to take a left turn. Oh, and her left indicator was still on right up until she turned in her right indicator and almost redecorated the passenger side of my car.

Don't get me started on the roundabout there :mad:

visual

OP obeyed the rules of the road and she didn't.
Once she indicated and moved into left only lane, she should have turned left even if her original intention was to go straight on.

Her decision to compound the bad driving by attempting to force another driver to give way then beeping the horn and flashing the lights can only be described as road rage.

Scartbeg

Coming out of the village yesterday evening, still in 50km/h zone, I see a car tearing up behind me. I'm about to turn right 150m down the road so I put on my indicator to give him due notice.

The ignorant f*cker carries on and overtakes me, so of course I blast him off the road. I would have gone after him to get his reg but he was driving well over the limit (and had kids with me).

Will definitely be asking for a dashcam for Christmas!

RustyNut

visual wrote: »

OP obeyed the rules of the road and she didn't.
Once she indicated and moved into left only lane, she should have turned left even if her original intention was to go straight on.

Her decision to compound the bad driving by attempting to force another driver to give way then beeping the horn and flashing the lights can only be described as road rage.

I agree with every thing you say, however the situation could have been avoided by the op waiting untill they passed the left turn before overtaking the weaving car.

You see all sorts of creative driving along that stretch of road. You are better off never assuming anything, even if some bint has a left indicator on doesn't mean they will go left.

The OP was never at fault but could have avoided it, these are the things we learn from.