Who's in the right in this road scenario?

kissenger

kissenger

kissenger

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10 Apr 2008
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This happened to me today:

I'm on a side road trying to turn left onto a main road. There's traffic in both lanes on the main road and no one letting me in. A large delivery van then turns right into the side road I'm on, but instead of carrying on down the side road he uses it to do a u-turn, but he can't complete the u-turn because I'm still waiting at the give way, so he's blocking off both lanes. Then the next person to turn right off the main road has a go at me because she can't get through, saying I need to force my way out so that the van can move forward and stop blocking the lane she wants.

Who's in the right there? From my point of view, it's not up to me to accommodate the van doing the u-turn and if there's no opening then I shouldn't be going over the give way line. But I'm a new driver so I don't know.
 
You did the right thing - you shouldn't have to force yourself into oncoming traffic because of the actions of others.
 
I would edge out into the carriageway if there was space, so that you could complete the manoevre when traffic started to move to your left.

But I'm an old driver :)

There is really no wrong or right in this. Just assume that everyone uses some common sense in slow moving traffic and people do not drive ito you just because they 'are in the right' allegedly.
 
Your in the right, don't let people force or pressure you to do anything.

In the real world you do sort of need to force your way in but as your a new driver I wouldn't recommend it. Tt's something that you'll pick up overtime.
 
kissenger said:
Yeah, that's it. He was blocking the lanes on the side road, behind me.
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Ah, with you.

Yeah that's not your problem at all.

My driving instructor used to talk to me about this type of thing all the time. If someone else encourages you to do something against your instincts, ignore it. It's not your problem.

If someone tailgates you, don't spend all your time staring at the rear-view or try to speed. If they pile into the back of you, their problem not yours.

If you were spurning good opportunities to leave the side road, i.e. hesitating, then I could understand it. But you shouldn't feel like you need to force your way into traffic / accelerate into a risky, small gap just because someone else did something daft.
 
Thanks guys. Just as I thought. She kept sucking her teeth at me, which was really annoying, but I'm glad I kept my cool. I would have regretting getting in an argument with her.
 
Kaeo said:
More concerned that you felt the need to ask. :confused:
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Why is it concerning? kissenger has said they're a new driver, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask a question if you're unsure about a situation. It seems to me like they took the sensible option as they weren't sure it was safe, it might delay things for a couple of minutes but that's much better than causing an accident trying to accommodate someone doing an awkward manoeuver.
 
If there's space for them to turn right into your road, wouldn't you then be able to turn left out of it?

But sounds like you were the only one in the right imo, van shouldn't have tried to do a turn in the junction if he couldn't complete it, and other driver just sounds like an impatient cow.
 
R.C.Anderson said:
If there's space for them to turn right into your road, wouldn't you then be able to turn left out of it?
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You would think so, but no. There was traffic in front of me that wasn't moving and the woman (about 5 metres up the road -- it was a fairly wide junction) was only able to make her turn because someone let her go. So she made the turn and then was stuck as soon as she entered the lane because the van was blocking her way. Then she decided it was my fault because I was 'blocking' the van. Meanwhile, the traffic in front of me was still stationary.
 
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