Baa

The scenario: 6.30am and my pupil is driving along the A96 (a reasonably straight road with many overtaking opportunities) to Inverness. There are 5 cars evenly-spaced ahead of us, all cruising at a comfortable 55 – 60mph, and we have about 16 miles to go. Everyone seems happy and no-one seems bothered about overtaking. Ten minutes later, a car approaches us from behind, sits there for a minute or so, then progressively overtakes us and the cars ahead. This acted as a trigger for one of the cars ahead to decide that they too would overtake. Then another one, and another one, until there was just the initial leading car ahead of us. So, for 10 – 12 miles, everyone seemed quite happy with their speed, but as soon as one car overtook, four other drivers then decided that they wanted to go faster – especially pointless considering that they were, by that point, only a few miles from Inverness.

2^nd scenario: I am heading home from my lessons in Elgin, again in free-flowing traffic. Ahead is a 4-way roundabout with the road ahead being slightly to the right (about 1 o’clock if thought of as a clock face). The correct approach is to treat it simply as a ‘straight-ahead’ and approach in the left lane, with no signal. By doing that, traffic approaching from the opposite direction will be confident that they will not have to give way. The first few cars approach correctly, then one car approaches in the right lane, indicating right (the only exit on the right is a private road). Naturally, oncoming cars begin to slow, expecting him to turn right, but he carries on ahead. But then other cars ahead began to copy him, indicating right and moving to the right lane, even though all of them went straight ahead.

3^rd scenario: My pupil is in Inverness, approaching some traffic lights where I have asked him to turn right. He checks mirrors, indicates and moves into the lane (which an arrow indicates is for rights turns only). The lights are red and he has to stop behind three cars, none of which are indicating right. My pupil then cancelled his indicator.

 “Have you changed your mind? Are we going somewhere else?” I asked him.

“No.” He replies, puzzled.

“So why have you cancelled your indicator?”

“Because this lane only goes right and the cars ahead aren’t indicating.”

“Ok. Imagine you are a pedestrian about to cross that road there,” I said, pointing to the road we wanted to turn into, “and you look at these cars and see that they are not indicating right. Where do you think they are going?”

“Ahead.”

“So you might think it was safe to cross the road just as those cars started moving?”

“So why are the other they not indicating?” He asked, referring to the cars ahead of us.

“Because they are not good drivers.” (not exactly the words I used). 

It’s a sheep mentality. In every one of the above (real) situations, drivers were, initially, doing the right thing, then decided to copy someone else who, in these cases, was doing something wrong. For me, these situations are useful because they all provide learning opportunities and I can highlight the consequences of mindlessly copying what other drivers are doing.

Time to go; I’m getting hungry. I fancy mutton for dinner now.