Busy road. Drivers anxious to press on. Someone cruising at 50mph in a 60mph limit.

Must get by. Must get by.

Risky overtake manoeuvre. Success - two cars further forward. Now just a lorry and traffic lights to contend with.

What a plonker!!!

I find drving on A roads far more dangerous than the motorway.

That's the reality. Motorways are our safest roads.

One of the things that make ordinary single carriageways (A,B or unclassified) dangerous is people lacking the patience to wait when confronted with slower traffic.

Having lived just off the A69 for 20 years, I am sadly not surprised that a number of people think it is fine for a car to stop and give way for a vehicle waiting on a side road. We see multipe crashes and deaths on the road - and the nearby A68 - as a result of people not knowing how to drive on an A road.

As has been said it may be 'very polite' to stop and let someone pull out from a side road, but having had an articulated lorry plough into the back of my stationary car because of someone in front of me doing this, I am not a fan. Yes the lorry driver should have anticipated someone stopping on an A road to give way to a vehicle on a side road or some other event, but as has been said if they don't keep up to speed people behind them get frustrated and because they don't know the road overtake at inappropriate places, which also leads to crashes.

I appreciate that it can be an inconvenience sitting on the side road waiting to get onto the A road - I regularly have to wait 2 ot 3 minutes to get onto the A69 - but I build this eventuallity into the time I allow for a journey.

I know I sound like an old f*** but most drivers have no idea about something as simple as what the speed limit on the A69 is - it varies between 30 and 70 but is well signalled - so you regularly get people chugging along at 50mph in a 60 or 70 stretch. This frustrates other drives, who if they don't know the road will try and overtake at inappropriate places. It doesn't take much miscalculation to cause an accident when their is a head on combined speed of 120mph. I find drving on A roads far more dangerous than the motorway.

When I was describing how sometimes you can let people out - it would only be where both parties can see eachother and other road traffic and make a reasonable determination of the impact.

Often I do this by flashing my lights to a vehicle on my local dual carriageway wanting to come out from a side turning - but only if no-one is either overtaking me, nearby behind my car and I'm far enough back where I either don't need to slow at all or I'm far enough back to just back off my speed a bit (say from 60 to 50) to give them a chance to slip on and gain speed or to cross over to the other carriageway - but giving me the option of overtaking them .

Doing so in heavy but fast-moving traffic, especially on a single-lane national speed limit road is far more dangerous and I'd be more cautious, possibly not letting them out. As I sadi, many people don't bother looking in their mirrors or around to notice other road traffic.

I'd certainly never back off more than 10mph unless we all were travelling sloly (40 or less) and would do so over a long period, not just braking at the last minute as some people do (especially with a vehicle, particaqlrly an HGV, close behind).

As you say, often people decide to overtake in dangerous places which means someone being let out on a single lane carriageway can be VERY dangerous indeed.