Road rage incident learner driver

beauf wrote: »

Buses used to have a semi automatic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-automatic_transmission

Indeed they were, he was on them early 70s....

He drove them and then they went full auto.

beauf wrote: »

..maybe you should practice somewhere quiet...anticipation etc. You knew there was likely to be an issue, hill, learner, you left 2-3 spaces. That's a long way back unless they rolled back at speed. If they did that they would have caused damage.



So you drove up behind a L plater practicing hill starts. That puts a slightly different perspective on it.



Not really I said it was a bit redundant destroying the horn after they've run into to you. Best to avoid an accident than watch it happen.

Lol. You're being ridiculous now.

As the car first began to roll back, I wasn't overly worried. I expected the driver to apply the brakes, same as probably 99% of drivers (even learner drivers) would do in that case.

By the time I realised that they weren't braking, and sounded the first horn, they were back maybe half a car length or more. By the time it became obvious that they still wouldn't be braking, they were back more than a full car length. That left me less than two lengths to try move forwards and to the left, out of the way (I don't know about your car, but my wheels don't turn a full 90 degrees to the left, to allow me to move just sideways). And I'd have been doing so while they were still rolling backwards, so the space between us would have been getting tighter from both directions.

Again, I had no space to go backwards, and no space to go right.

So, what's your alternative here?

Sound the horn the split second the car in front started rolling back, instead of having a little patience and giving the benefit of the doubt, that they'd apply the brakes in the way that 99% of people would? That would make me as bad and impatient as the fella who blew the horn in the situation described at the beginning of this thread.

Head straight across the cycle lane and onto the footpath the split second the car started to roll back? And then in 99% of cases end up looking like a right over-reacting eejit when the driver in front applies the brakes anyway, the way that 99% of drivers would?

Leave more car lengths between myself and the learner driver in front? How many? 5, 10, 20? But then if they still didn't apply the brakes, they'd be picking up more speed all the time before finally hitting me, and maybe doing the damage you mention.

I "drove up behind a L-plater practicing hill starts"????? What was I supposed to have done? Turned around and gone a different way? Or pulled in to the side of the road and waited until they were through the lights, and out of sight?

Or even if I did....there's a roundabout about a mile and a half further out that road, that the County Council says is the busiest roundabout in Co. Wexford. What if I caught up with them again there? Should I again turn round and go a different way, or pull in to the side of the road until they got through, just in case they were practicing roundabouts too?

Finally, "best to avoid an accident rather than watch it happen"....I left a few car lengths space in order to minimise the chances of anything happening in case a learner driver did happen to roll back a bit while doing a hill start. I used the horn exactly as it's intended when it first became clear they weren't braking. And in the circumstances I've outlined, with so little space left in front to try move out of the way to the left, and nowhere to go to either the right or behind, pray tell what more you would have done to avoid this particular bump.

Will be waiting eagerly to see if you can possibly be any more ridiculous.

Good man. Don't quote the bit where I pointed out that the less than two car lengths is also being shortened by their car rolling backwards. So effectively, the space available to move into the left is less than one car length.

On your other point - congratulations on being even more ridiculous.