| Ceri JC |
31-01-06 04:30 PM |
Wasn't a tractor after all...
This morning I was commuting through country lanes, all going well when I get to a long tailback of traffic, all doing just over 30. This was really long, about 200 cars or so. I did the usual filter/overtake hybrid, hopping down the queue a few vehicles at a time every time it was safe to do so. Due to the roads (unfamiliar, muddy, cold, few straights) and large amounts of traffic coming the other way, it took ages. All the while, I was thinking to myself, "Bloody farmers, why don't they pull in from time to time to let the rest of the traffic past?!" (This seems to be a favourite activity for farmers near my work- in some instance they do it in convoy with trailers too to ensure that nothing apart from a bike or supercar has any chance whatsoever of getting past).
However, lo and behold when I finally get to the front, it's not the camper van that I could see crawling along, the scooter in front of it that is causing the jam! White open face lid (sort of a nice "I care about safety, but not that much" contradiction) and a top box on some awful looking C90 clone. Needless to say, it was being ridden by an elderly lady on L-plates. :roll:
I'm used to scooters holding up traffic like this in towns, but it's comparatively rare out in the styx and even then, they tend to keep in to the left like a cyclist. This one was bang in the middle of the lane and with the campervan behind unwilling/unable to overtake, no one ('cept me! :twisted:) was able to.
Out of interest, had a traffic cop seen this, would they of pulled the person over for a chat about "obstructing the flow of traffic" and advising them to pull over from time to time, in future?
I know the tone of this post is fairly jovial, but vehicles that cause tailbacks like this are a serious problem. I've seen an ambulance on blue lights stuck in one (nowhere for the vehicles in front to pull over). They also cause rather nasty headons where (unforgivably, but understandably), people lose their temper and attempt dangerous overtakes to get past, resulting in a head-on with the stuff in the oncoming lane. :?
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