"My Right Of Way!"

[Horse]

"My right if way" is a lovely idea. Especially if it brings you into potential conflict with someone who is either bolshier than you or driving a bigger, heavier, vehicle.

I happened across this set of photos. Apologies for the low res, they were on an old web site.

You probably don't need the 'commentary' that accompanied them, it was in a 'what happens next?' format.

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[Horse]

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[The Spin Doctor]

Had a not dissimilar situation develop ahead of me not long ago when out on the bike. Car went head-to-head with a truck (delivering scaffolding if I remember right) in a residential street with parked cars on both sides. The car driver deliberately passed a place he could pull in. The truck couldn't go backwards as there were several cars behind it - as the road's on a curve just there, they were clearly visible to me, at least.

I pulled in nearside and left room for the car ahead to reverse.

Of course, the driver behind me then overtook and joined the fun ahead. At this point I simply turned round and looped around the block. I could see it would be a while whilst they sorted themselves out.

[Horse]

A few of years ago I saw someone in a queue, getting irate and tooting because the bus ahead hadn't moved forward as a gap opened up ....

I went past and left him to it. Bus wasn't going anywhere: no driver, hazard lights on ...

[Taff]

the village that we used to live in only had country lanes going to it and if you met the bus coming through the lanes they could be right gits and sometimes down right bullys.

There was one occasion that I met the bus in the lane, but instead of pulling into a passing place he kept on coming expecting me to reverse back quite some way. no chance.

I stopped practically bumper to bumper, handbrake on, engine off and started scrolling through the news on my phone.
He started shouting at me saying that he wasn'tlegally allowed to reverse the 10 yards back to the passing place blah blah, should have thought about that as you come passed it then.

after a while he relented and went backwards

[Mr. Dazzle]

I know I'm going to ask a naive question but be gentle with me...

Is there such a thing as 'right of way', the road markings tell the road user on a side road to give way but I was always under the impression that there was no such thing as 'right of way'.

That's what I seem to remember being taught. AFAIK there is no right of way, only priority which must be given can't be taken.

Its all very lovey dovey when written in the learner books.

[Horse]

IIRC right of way relates to obstruction etc. Priority is for stop and give way lines.

[iansoady]

Youngsters may not have seen this little ditty:

“Here lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way –
He was right, dead right, as he sped along,
But he’s just as dead as if he were wrong.”

[dayglo jim]

I tried to find it on YouTube but it was a Mercedes stand off in Bray, both drivers seemed to be of a mindset 'well I'm a Mercedes driver so it must be my right of way' (I would imagine Bray has a higher concentration of drivers with big German cars). Just confirmed a stereotype to me.