Forcing your way out

[Albie]

Of a junction! Is that something any of you guys do or is that considered unreasonable! I forced my way out of a junction this morning and I held up some traffic in the process.

I know i forced some cars to stop for me so I have been thinking is that behaviour reasonable or is it deemed inconsiderate and poor form!

I had been waiting for minutes for a break in the traffic before I did this but I welcome your comments on this please!

[jcochrane]

Unfortuntely StressedDave is right. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do however much it goes against the grain.

What I see more of these days are people who just will not wait at all and pull out, with out a pause, regardless of traffic conditions and even when a gap is coming up they could easily and safely take.

I suppose the question might be how long do you wait before resulting to this course of action and raises the question what do we do to help those waiting in the side road?

[Silk]

Of a junction! Is that something any of you guys do or is that considered unreasonable! I forced my way out of a junction this morning and I held up some traffic in the process.

I'm assuming you're talking about situations such as turning right into a busy stretch of road and holding up the stream from your right, then waiting for a gap to appear in the traffic coming from the left?

Sometimes you have no choice. I think as long as you're sensible about it and don't do it in such a way as to force other traffic to take evasive action, then it's fine. Bearing in mind that to wait for ages for a gap to appear in both directions at the same time is also likely to inconvenience traffic behind you. The traffic you hold up on the main road will only be inconvenienced for a few seconds as they can soon close the gap once you've gone through it.

I realise you're not supposed to force other road users to change speed or direction, but I fail to see how that's possible as your very presence on the road more often than not forces other road users to do other than they would if you were not there, if you see what I mean.

[Albie]

silk - that was exactly what i was doing, trying to turn right but couldn't get out without forcing my way out!

Thanks for your replies, good to know you guys do this as well.

[Carbon Based]

... raises the question what do we do to help those waiting in the side road?

I seem to have heard a saying along the lines of "courtesy causes confusion" somewhere on my travels.

But I'd also go to suggest that an absence of a reasonable degree of courtesy causes frustration, leading to either gridlock or recklessness. It doesn't help anyone to have traffic stationary unnecessarily.

In typical city traffic, there are generally a lot of vehicles who could claim that piece of space as "theirs" so one person going against the flow to help another can cause a lot of problems.

On the other hand, letting someone out occasionally does help keep the blood pressure down a little.

[fungus]

I seem to have heard a saying along the lines of "courtesy causes confusion" somewhere on my travels.

Misplaced courtesy causes confusion, like the driver who stops to let someone out of a side road when when there is only themseves and a following driver on the road. Following driver wonders what the hell is going on.

[WhoseGeneration]

Of a junction! Is that something any of you guys do or is that considered unreasonable! I forced my way out of a junction this morning and I held up some traffic in the process.

I know i forced some cars to stop for me so I have been thinking is that behaviour reasonable or is it deemed inconsiderate and poor form!

I had been waiting for minutes for a break in the traffic before I did this but I welcome your comments on this please!

You haven't fully described the situation, regarding the road type, speed of main road traffic and whether you were wanting to turn left or right, these all being factors to consider.