Jun 5

There’s a road marking near my work that I think is dangerous, or rather, its presence mixed with British road users puts me in a safety-related quandary daily.

As you exit this roundabout onto a dual carriageway there’s an area in the left lane that is chevronned off - though it is surrounded by a dashed line. The interpretation is “please don’t drive on this bit of road, though it’s not actually illegal”.

It’s there because there’s a petrol station right by the roundabout, so you can give the people coming out of the petrol station a fighting chance to get out.

BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO.

My usual routine is to use the right lane, then as soon as I’m past the chevrons, pull left. I’m usually doing the speed limit or more, and AFAIK it’s still illegal to overtake on the left, but I still check my left mirror before pulling in.

Today I checked, and saw one or two cars and a motorbike. As I started to pull in, the motorbike screamed, pulled up onto its rear wheel, and came past me on the inside doing something like 70mph. On its back wheel.

Fortunately, I resisted the urge to “teach him a lesson” and only hooted at the moron rather than finishing my manoevre. He looked at me all put out that I sounded my horn so dangerously in the middle of a stunt manoevre of his.

I was too stunned to even take his number plate.

I hope when he dies he does it with an inanimate object not with another vehicle as the other person in the crash may feel guilty, never knowing what a public service they have done putting this idiot off the road for good.


8 comments so far...

  • stu Said on June 5th, 2006 at 13:37:

    Did he have a tassly white leather jacket with “Evel Knievel” written on it?

  • stu Said on June 5th, 2006 at 14:01:

    …and did I just _seriously_ show my age?

  • sweavo Said on June 5th, 2006 at 14:33:

    Heheh, no and yes, in that order!

    He had a white leather jacket with one of those transformer heads on.

  • 2wheeler Said on June 6th, 2006 at 14:28:

    it wasn’t me then

  • 2wheeler Said on June 6th, 2006 at 14:31:

    overtaking on left is dangerous driving (especially at a garage exit with roadmarkings to indicate) - expect to be banned if caught

  • sweavo Said on June 6th, 2006 at 16:42:

    um, especially ON YOUR BACK WHEEL ONLY!!

  • Lorri Said on June 7th, 2006 at 09:46:

    I failed my driving test for undertaking. I was so busy keeping my speed up to the limit (my instructor thought I might fail for going too slowly) that I didn’t even notice the member of CLOC doing 30mph in the centre lane.

  • 2wheeler Said on June 8th, 2006 at 10:37:

    > um, especially ON YOUR BACK WHEEL ONLY!!
    Says the unicyclist :-o

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