Blocking junctions in queued traffic
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 6:28 pm
Here's a scenario I've had a few times but got tooted at for yesterday morning in commuter-traffic.
So you're in a stop-start (or slow crawl) queue of traffic along "main" road, and there's a minor road turning off this road. When you get to the point where you can't progress further without blocking the junction, I tend to hold back before the "T" in order to keep it clear, only progressing when I can then clear the junction entirely.
Occasionally this means you end up waiting a little while if there's a steady stream of drivers emerging, I've even seen people go completely offside past a few cars to save their few minutes wait to reach a turn-right.
But..yesterday morning...I was getting tooted at by a van that was probably inches from my back bumper. I could see they were positioning to go round my offside, but were so close they'd have needed to reverse first. Anyhow, it turned out they wanted to turn left into said junction. In my defence they were so close I couldn't see any of their lights or indicators, and the toots had an air of impatience about them.
So I got thinking afterwards, that had I moved forward to allow them through, I would have ended up blocking the entry for anyone coming from the other direction and wanting to turn right - thus causing an onward blockage.
I'm not sure how I could have handled this better... what might others have done?
So you're in a stop-start (or slow crawl) queue of traffic along "main" road, and there's a minor road turning off this road. When you get to the point where you can't progress further without blocking the junction, I tend to hold back before the "T" in order to keep it clear, only progressing when I can then clear the junction entirely.
Occasionally this means you end up waiting a little while if there's a steady stream of drivers emerging, I've even seen people go completely offside past a few cars to save their few minutes wait to reach a turn-right.
But..yesterday morning...I was getting tooted at by a van that was probably inches from my back bumper. I could see they were positioning to go round my offside, but were so close they'd have needed to reverse first. Anyhow, it turned out they wanted to turn left into said junction. In my defence they were so close I couldn't see any of their lights or indicators, and the toots had an air of impatience about them.
So I got thinking afterwards, that had I moved forward to allow them through, I would have ended up blocking the entry for anyone coming from the other direction and wanting to turn right - thus causing an onward blockage.
I'm not sure how I could have handled this better... what might others have done?