GrittyShaker

Yup. I watched a police car do this a few weeks ago, whilst I idled along in the inside lane, taking care not to undertake. If it were a different vehicle, then I'd have undertook almost immediately.

comqsat

I learned my lesson to be more observant when it comes to this. I was on the A1 in herts a few weeks ago - very early morning, few cars around but a BMW crawling in the outside lane, I undertook, next thing noticed was the blue flashing lights - luckily all I got was a lecture about safe driving, and lots of questions about my car !

GarethB

I followed to (marked) police cars along the A414 ages ago.
As we approached a roundabout with 2 exits they both moved into the right lane.
I moved into the left lane and carried on what was almost a straight ahead road for me.
Needless to say one of the police cars wasn't turning right and pulled me over for undertaking him.

I pointed out to him that he moved over to the right hand lane and I was just taking a different turning. Why was he in the right lane when the left was free?

Cue a mumbled, "well just you be careful next time"

Moron.

gaddafi

it's a really good example of where discretion could easily be used

there's no difficulty in spotting drivers who recklessly weave in and out of traffic to achieve sweet fa

or in differentiating them from people who undertake an outside lane, brain-in-neutral or obstructive moron

it is the person hogging the outside lane who should be pulled!

corgi_watkins

I hate to agree with you again, Pete, but that would be my point exactly.

The police ought to use discretion in these situations and make a judgement about the nature of the under-taking/outside lane blocking and take appropriate action.

I don't believe that, in general, people are being deliberately obstructive just ignorant of what they should be doing or oblivious to what is going on around them.

Yes, sometimes, you will come across someone who is deliberately trying to teach a some sort of lesson (in their little mind) but more often than not, in my experience, it is because they don't know any better either from a lack of observation or a lack of knowledge...

gaddafi

everyone does, eventually

Warks may be better than Sussex in the ignorance versus obstruction stakes

down here obstruction/bloody-mindedness rules

two examples recently:

following a new TT away from the lights on a dc - he was at the front of the queue and had successfully out-accelerated a Mondeo diesel

(smartyly dressed middle aged man driving, accompanied by similar age/appearance woman from what I later saw)

now there's empty road ahead, so does he pull over? no - continues to accelerate and stay in the outside lane for about a mile at which point we reach a scamera

now we brake to comply with the camera speed, but he's not going to pull over

sadly I can, and you can imagine the result of the little sprint post-camera

what's harder to fathom is why I then get the headlight flashing and the coffee beans

example 2 - the Sussex favourite - I catch up to a newish 3.0TDi Audi A6 - we're both approaching a roundabout with nothing on the other side - but for some reason he is in the outside lane (I'm in the inside)

he clocks me and as a result of looking at me in his mirror and flooring it, he a) nearly loses it on the roundabout and b) straightlines the roundabout from outer to inner (that understeer really is a bitch) which he then follows by lurching back out into the outside lane

I could undertake but instead move out behind him to make it obvious I'd like to go past

cue clouds of smoke and yawn-imducing progress up to about xmph, at which point he gives up, moves over, but only with plenty of fist clenching and shouting as I pass, then the light flashing

a fat, middle aged git at that

some people really do provoke things they shouldn't.....

I remember a while back when I mistakenly overtook a car that was waiting for another car to back out of a drive

this seemed to enrage the overtaken car's driver, who followed me up the road about an inch from my rear bumper with lights blazing and horn sounding

bad idea - I stopped my car in the middle of the road, leaving him with nowhere to go. he was bloody lucky I didn't need anew bumper on the day in question or he would have been paying for it

now I don't usually do this, but wandered up the road to his car (to the amusement of the trucker behind) to enquire what the big deal was

as you can imagine, doors were locked and he was just staring ahead and refusing to engage - another apology for a specimen of human kind

I tell you - they are everywhere

Nick Graves

It's invariably a fat, middle-aged git.

He probably wanted a BMW, but all the company would give him was a posh fuecking Volkswagen! And now he feels inadequate...

gaddafi

it fecking is!

I reckon they are all related - one bloody great extended family of obese, bald, bellends

corgi_watkins

Pete,

I suspect there's little difference to be honest in the obstruction v ignorance stakes between your neck of the woods and mine.

There are two reasons why it may appear different: I generally like to think the best of people and give them the benefit of the doubt and when I'm tooling around Warwickshire I tend to use the A and B roads to make progress so I see less of the obstruction...

On my travels (around 40K miles per year) I see loads of it but I stopped letting it get to me years ago.

An example last weekend... I was driving back from South Wales (been to see the WRC Rally of Wales). On the very wide (almost four abreast) Evesham by-pass every car I came up behind moved over to the left to make overtaking much easier with one exception, a diesel 7-Series driven by a fat middle aged man who did the opposite and pulled as close to the middle of the road as he could to try and prevent me from overtaking (or maybe he was )... didn't work... I'd already seen it was clear and passed him anyway... after I'd passed him he went back to his original position in the road...

Cheers,

Corgi.

gaddafi

hmmm

we differ a bit there