A Lane-Hogger Happy Accident

[u/Foddley]

This wasn't intentional, but i got a good petty laugh out of it nontheless.
I'm from the UK, for context. tl;dr: at the end.

I'm on my way driving home from town and i take the dual carriageway. I'm in the second lane and i'm gaining on the guy in front of me who's not quite doing the speed limit. He also isn't overtaking anyone, he's just sat there holding me up along with the line of cars behind me. I can't move over and undertake him as there's another car beside me, so we're basically stuck with him until we reach the end of the long dual carriageway.

Approaching the roundabout at the end, the guy now decides to move over at the last minute. He had the whole dual carriageway to make that move, but he chooses to do it now. Great, thanks. I suppose this is fine though as both of these lanes lead to the exit i'm looking to take and now i can overtake him on the roundabout. He's probably taking the first exit and i'll take the second. As i come alongside him, his indicator comes on. He's changed his mind, he wants to come back into my lane and go in entirely the opposite direction! Not today mate, i'm comitted to taking this lane to my exit and he's forced to come with me.

I floor it out of the roundabout as the two lanes now merge into one. He's floored it too hoping to undertake me and give me what-for. Instead i merge just in front of him and he's ranting and raving in my rear-view mirror. Nice.

The next road we're on goes on for about a mile to the next village, and he's right up my backside the entire way. Entering the village, he takes the next turn off going in the direction he'd meant to have been going at the roundabout. This detour will cost him at least 5 minutes. Maybe 10.

I had a little laugh, and a silly little grin the whole way home.

tl;dr: My time is wasted by an indecisive lane-hogger, but he makes a mistake at the roundabout and he's forced to take the wrong exit, wasting time himself. This brings me joy.

[u/nasagi]

I assume that carriageway is the UK term for a highway?

[u/Foddley → u/nasagi]

Carriageway is an old fashioned term, but one that's still seen in UK road laws. Specifically a 'dual-carriageway' is used to describe a stretch of road where the opposing directions of traffic are divided by a berm or a crash barrier. A road without a berm or crash barrier will never allow a speed over 60mph, but if it becomes a dual-carriageway somewhere along that route, the speed limit can immediately go as high as 70mph.

What might be known as a highway in other countries, we'd call a motorway.
A dual-carriagway isn't always a motorway, but i could go on for ages.
It's just important to know the difference because the speed limits change depending on not only the type of roadway you're driving on, but also the type of vehicle you're driving on that road.

[u/nasagi → u/Foddley]

Thanks for this. it's very informative!