In my neck of the woods the roads are very narrow and the pavement, usually on one side, is even narrower than normal. So there I was walking down the pavement (sidewalk to our US friends) and some people were approaching me. I found myself on the edge of the pavement and just took one step into the gutter to get passed them. So just one foot width off the pavement, a matter of a few inches.

Unfortunately, at that very moment, an elderly guy (no disrespect to the elderly) came passed (faster than he should have been given that some builders had cordoned off some of the road) and his door mirror hit my left elbow. 

I wasn't hurt but if it has been a few mere inches closer I'd have been seriously injured. And nope, he didn't stop to see if I was okay, he just drove off, which is of course illegal.

I mean yes, I was responsible for putting a foot in the gutter, but to drive at speed passed an obstruction in the road faster than is sensible is just dumb. 

 

 

 

dang! martin - glad you're OK!  

Me thinks you should have stopped to look before stepping out onto the road, Martin.

In just over a month I'll be 88 and I know my driving skills aren't what they used to be.  Mostly some loss of peripheral vision due to glaucoma, diminished attention span, and loss of reaction time.  So I am extra careful when I drive.  I never exceed the speed limit and on the highway I drive slower than the posted limit.  75 and 80 miles an hour are just too fast for me.  My absolute limit is 65.   It irritates  my wife when I look both ways twice at an intersection.

One of these days I'm going to have to give it up.  But not quite yet.

Noel

self driving cars, when good enough (let not the perfect be the enemy of the good), will provide much freedom to millions of elderly and disabled people and could potentially eliminate drunk driving or medical emergency crashes.

12 minutes ago, birdguy said:

I never exceed the speed limit and on the highway I drive slower than the posted limit.  75 and 80 miles an hour are just too fast for me.

Driving under the speed limit on multilane highways is just as dangerous, if not more so than speeding for those around you. Although you will be perfectly fine, the cars behind are forced to make lane changes and sudden moves they wouldnt normally have to make with cars approaching from behind at or above the the speed limit. Cars that that dont move with the flow of traffic are hazards and although 10 miles an hour doesnt sound like much, it is when you only have limited time to change lanes in the congestion of city highway traffic.

38 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Me thinks you should have stopped to look before stepping out onto the road, Martin.

 

Correct. As I said, "I was responsible for putting a foot in the gutter", it was more the fact that he was driving excessively fast too close to pedestrians and failed to stop to see if I was okay. I judge others by my own example and if I were driving that close to pedestrians I'd do it slowly.

It was one of the those situations where the people approaching me were on me before I had time to think. So instinctively stepped slightly off the pavement. In hindsight I would have just stopped dead, right in front of them and not moved.

Edited November 10, 20214 yr by martin-w

40 minutes ago, sightseer said:

dang! martin - glad you're OK!  

 

Yep, no injuries thanks, thankfully door mirrors are designed to fold back if hit. 

13 minutes ago, Garys said:

Driving under the speed limit on multilane highways is just as dangerous, if not more so than speeding for those around you.

 

The lane on the left in the UK is for routine driving and the two lanes to the right are for overtaking slower traffic but not faster than the speed limit. 

Its only excessively slow traffic that's dangerous. If a person is a qualified driver and cant handle cars that are traveling slower, then they shouldn't  have passed the test.

There is no limit to how slow you can drive on UK motorways. Those towing caravans often can't drive at 70, many vehicles can't, and nobody should be forced to drive at a speed they aren't comfortable with. 

11 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

 Is there a neck of the woods in the UK where the roads are not narrow?  🙂  I've been US spoiled with our massive roads to accommodate the plethora of massive vehicles we drive from our US tax subsides oil.  My trips back to the UK a couple of years ago reminded me that a Hyundai Tucson is a big SUV by UK standards and that's the reason they are cheaper rentals (live and learn). 

Glad you weren't seriously hurt and live to tell about it ... did you get a license plate number for the hit and run?

Cheers, Rob.

 

🙂 I guess its relative Rob. You guys do everything bigger than we do.

I'm in the Channel islands of course, a small island where the roads are even narrower than in the UK.

In places like the Cotswolds, or Devon or Cornwall, rural areas, roads are often narrow and sometimes down to single car width but with places to reverse back and pass. Here on the other hand pretty much all roads are narrow, with driving on the pavement a common occurrence to let larger vehicles pass. 

I was in the town at the time, an old cobbled street, just about wide enough for two cars, but narrower due to builders working on a shop front.

I wasn't quick enough to get the number plate, he turned shortly afterwards. 

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

In my neck of the woods the roads are very narrow and the pavement, usually on one side, is even narrower than normal.

One of my late aunts lived in the orange groves about 5 miles west of Bowling Green, Florida in my mother's family farm house. The road out of BG started out as an average two-lane country road, but about half-way to the farm branched off the two-lane and from that point onwards was a single lane, bi-directional dirt road! It was not too bad in nice weather, but became a rutted and slippery, muddy nuisance during the rainy season...

Eventually Hardee County got around to paving that road, but it to this day remains a single lane, bi-directional road!

I'm delighted to read that you weren't seriously injured my friend! Beware of inattentive drivers.

26 minutes ago, Garys said:

Driving under the speed limit on multilane highways is just as dangerous, if not more so than speeding for those around you.

The posted speed limit is the MAXIMUM speed you can drive.  Not the speed you MUST drive.  There are signs I have seen that post the minimum speed too.  And I've seen signs n 4 lane highways that have a maximum speed for automobiles and a slower maximum speed for trucks.If everyone drove the posted 75 miles an hour you wouldn't need a passing lane.

If driving slower than the posted speed limit was dangerous don't you think you'd get cited for driving slower than the maximum speed?  Wouldn't there be a law against driving slower than the posted limit?

How many accidents are caused by someone driving slower than the posted limit on a four lane highway?

Can you cite any?

Noel

 

18 minutes ago, martin-w said:

 

The lane on the left in the UK is for routine driving and the two lanes to the right are for overtaking slower traffic but not faster than the speed limit. 

Its only excessively slow traffic that's dangerous. If a person is a qualified driver and cant handle cars that are traveling slower, then they shouldn't  have passed the test.

There is no limit to how slow you can drive on UK motorways. Those towing caravans often can't drive at 70, many vehicles can't, and nobody should be forced to drive at a speed they aren't comfortable with. 

What you said is very true, but not how it works in the real world where most drivers are tailgating to begin with. Obviuosly the standards of driving is different depending on your location. Open highway is no problem at any time usually but as you get close a city its a completey different kettle of fish and any body driving under the speed limit becomes a hazard. Most drivers can move in and out of traffic without issue but we have all seen far to many times the chain reaction that occurs in hyway traffic if only a single driver needs to hit the brakes.

Edited November 10, 20214 yr by Garys

I would argue that driving too slowly on a motorway can be almost as much of a hazard as driving too fast. For example, anyone doing 30 mph on a motorway should not be on it in the first place (unless they have a word not allowed good reason for doing so). I have also seen someone in the middle lane doing a steady 45mph. That really is not acceptable, and actually rather dangerous.

1 minute ago, Garys said:

most drivers are tailgating to begin with

 

I don't know what its like where you drive, but in the UK some drivers tailgate not all. Which is of course illegal. So no, I don't think we should force ALL drivers to drive smack on the speed limit because some nut jobs break the law.

And as I said, many vehicles can't drive at 70. Lorries above a certain weight were limited to 55, although that has been increased slightly. Caravans being towed, classic vehicles, all manner of vehicles have no choice but to drive slower than 70.