Why won't the traffic just slow down!!!

SuperH said:
I thought that actually means be aware I am slowing down, not please will you slow down?
Click to expand...

This. It means I am about to slow down or stop.

handsignals.jpg
 
I have the book here and am reading through it - dont k ow how to post picture but the instructions say in order to ask a car to slow down you should wave your hand up and down 3 times.

The picture you have posted is for motorbikes to tell other people they are slowing down. Horses are rarely (shouldn't) going fast enough for that to be a signal in their repertoire....

Regardless - you are suppose to pass slow and wide no matter what the rider says!
 
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I would love to take down number plates, but alas, can't see them as I don't wear my glasses when riding!!
Only yesterday, motorbike passed a little too quickly for the big Crispy-Pancake to cope. Cue, sharp turn left and canter - now along side said motorbike, who STILL didn't slow down, let alone stop!! Luckily, Crispy-Pancake is unlikely to unseat, we just go for a 'ride' together!! I had a few words with him to man up - horse, not bike rider. Wish I had spoken to him, but I was a bit busy keeping half ton horse from finding another gear!! Horse then recovered and had a nice ride.

ETA - I sometimes find myself riding in the middle of the lanes to slow drivers down, it works, but you have to make sure you do have a good brave horse - perhaps nannying a youngster. I don't think I'll have the guts to do that if it was a more main road.
 
Ok so it sounds like people are a little confused about hand signals... if we don’t know there is little hope for the rest of the population.

Here is a couple of links with all the safety instructions - it confirms that waving your straight arm up and down is how to ask traffic to slow down. If you want traffic to stop - you hold up the pam of your hand (fingers up) to the driver!

http://www.equine-world.co.uk/riding_horses/road_safety.asp
http://www.horseroadsafety.org.au/riding-on-the-road

Hope that clears things up! :-)
 
I have to ride along main roads sometimes, although it is something I try to avoid if possible - but I find that 99.9% of traffic slows down and lorries give me a wide berth, or let me trot on until I can find somewhere to pull in and let them pass.

My horse has yellow and pink high viz legbands - one on each leg!_ and I wear a High Viz yellow waistcoat, so I am not completely lit up, but pretty visible. Is it just that I live in a different part of the country?
 
meandroger said:
I have the book here and am reading through it - dont k ow how to post picture but the instructions say in order to ask a car to slow down you should wave your hand up and down 3 times.

The picture you have posted is for motorbikes to tell other people they are slowing down. Horses are rarely (shouldn't) going fast enough for that to be a signal in their repertoire....

Regardless - you are suppose to pass slow and wide no matter what the rider says!
Click to expand...

I know. :p I couldn't find any specific hand signals for horse riders on the web version of the Highway code.
https://www.gov.uk/rules-about-animals-47-to-58/horse-riders-49-to-55

ETA - this is the signals to other road users section. No horses are in it.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consu.../@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_070566.pdf
 
Thanks MandR. It does seem that the hand signal situation isn't clear to everyone. If the same signal can mean 'I am about to slow' and 'I would like you to slow', then no wonder drivers are unaware of it's dual meaning. It should be in the online Highway code in both forms.
 
I didnt realise the two signals were soooo similar! Very annoying!

At least the highway code does state ALL horses should be passed slowly - we shouldn't have to signal. Except when asking traffic to stop if things arent going well or a combine harvester is passing (even I am scared of them! )
 
Aside from hand signals whilst riding, some drivers dont even use indicators when turning, surely drivers have a little bit of common sense upstairs to think "horses on rode, better i slow down and take care".

I have found it is the local drivers in the village who have got this, frustration and anger towards riders, rather than the outside road users, as one poster said about going on the motorway
 
Well, that's the point isn't it. If drivers don't have the nouse to slow down passing horses, they're unlikely to understand the recommended hand signals.
Whatever the Highway Code says, I think the signal most drivers understand is when you hold your arm up at a right angle with fingers pointing upwards.
 
Today i wish i was in a bent and buckled land rover, i had an idiot sitting on my tail, i was doing 50mph, with the roads as bad as they are, i would have slammed on brakes and laughed in HER face. Drivers are just so ignorant today
 
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