• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

What Do Road Ghosts Do When There's No Traffic?

What do road ghosts do when there's no traffic?

  • Simply wait, hoping they will be seen.

    Votes: 6 20.7%
  • They are merely projected from one's psyche

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Much the same thing as video cassette waiting to be played

    Votes: 10 34.5%
  • They're off poltergoosting or appearing in a photo somewhere

    Votes: 3 10.3%
  • Busy at the day-job in another dimension

    Votes: 9 31.0%

  • Total voters
    29
If there's such a thing as ghosts which exist independently of whether or not people see them, a road ghost could be traipsing along its preferred route forever, occasionally livening up the journeys of the passers-by whose paths it crosses.
 
According to this survey, 1/3 of Londoners report having seen a ghost whilst behind the wheel. So one must assume they are just doing their thing, whatever that may be.

This is how many motorists think they’ve seen a ghost while driving on 'haunted roads'
Fancy yourself as a ghost hunter?

Then forget about exploring old haunted houses and get on the open road.

For a real scare, you need to get behind the wheel and check out some of England and Scotland’s spookiest highways.

A new survey by Selectcarleasing shows that one third of Londoners say they’ve encountered a spectre while behind the wheel.

Folks in Scotland and North West England are also convinced there are more ‘dead’ things on the tarmac than just roadkill.


https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/how-many-motorists-think-theyve-17659688
 
What Do Road Ghosts Do When There's No Traffic?


Among the arrows in their quivers of mischief are:

a) Setting the motorway signs to reduce traffic speed progressively for no reason whatsoever.

b) Cones. Just...cones.

c) Erasing tarmac markings so that, when you arrive at the four-lane roundabout, you’re always in the wrong lane for your turn.

d) Ensuring magically that there’s only one Costa on your 600-mile trip, and that one’s half a mile from your home. Just close enough to remind you that you fancy a cappuccino, but don’t want to break your journey already; then to leave you in the throes of caffeine deprivation for 599½ miles.

maximus otter
 
Sounds like a specialized form of highway hypnosis. Somebody needs to do a study or it and publish a report!

When driving late at night and especially when tired I've seen all sorts of weirdness. It's what happens when you're trying to concentrate over the demands of a fatigued body for sleep.
OTOH I've never encountered a ghost or Black Dog when cycling. One assumes it's because there's a longer time available for weighing up what's seen, there's fresh air to keep you awake, the lighting might not be as good, etc.
 
What about if there's no road? As in an old route being left abandoned when a new route or bypass opens up.
Does the ghost still haunt the disused road?

Yup, there are plenty of anecdotes about ghosts travelling along long-unseen roads and paths.

The idea is eloquently expressed in Rudyard Kipling's 1910 poem The Way Through the Woods -

They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate.
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods . . . .
But there is no road through the woods.
 
Not a ghost story but a few years back I was on a narrow road crossing from one valley to
the next over a high remote moor in the Scottish borders, now I am well used to being on my
own many miles from anywhere but on this road even though I could see a mate on another
bike a few hundred yards behind, I was struck by a very strong feeling of loneliness or isolation,
never had it before or since it was so strange to me I mentioned it to my mate when we stopped,
he did not coment maybe he felt it to.
 
Not a ghost story but a few years back I was on a narrow road crossing from one valley to
the next over a high remote moor in the Scottish borders, now I am well used to being on my
own many miles from anywhere but on this road even though I could see a mate on another
bike a few hundred yards behind, I was struck by a very strong feeling of loneliness or isolation,
never had it before or since it was so strange to me I mentioned it to my mate when we stopped,
he did not coment maybe he felt it to.


Reminds me of a road I used to travel on every day when I worked at a place I no longer work at and lived in a house I no longer live in. Long story short the route was mostly countryside, and this particular road ended at a T-junction where I needed to turn left on my way back home.

On dark winter nights, for reasons unknown to me, I simply hated looking right at that junction, when I was checking for traffic. I really don't know why but looking in that direction, at that junction, just gave me a very uneasy feeling.

In the mornings, going the other direction, even when it was dark, wasn't a problem, weirdly enough.
 
Not a ghost story but a few years back I was on a narrow road crossing from one valley to
the next over a high remote moor in the Scottish borders, now I am well used to being on my
own many miles from anywhere but on this road even though I could see a mate on another
bike a few hundred yards behind, I was struck by a very strong feeling of loneliness or isolation,
never had it before or since it was so strange to me I mentioned it to my mate when we stopped,
he did not coment maybe he felt it to.
Reminds me of a road I used to travel on every day when I worked at a place I no longer work at and lived in a house I no longer live in. Long story short the route was mostly countryside, and this particular road ended at a T-junction where I needed to turn left on my way back home.

On dark winter nights, for reasons unknown to me, I simply hated looking right at that junction, when I was checking for traffic. I really don't know why but looking in that direction, at that junction, just gave me a very uneasy feeling.

In the mornings, going the other direction, even when it was dark, wasn't a problem, weirdly enough.

We have threads on places that creep you out or summat.
 
If we consider a famous case- say the Roman soldiers marching through what is now a cellar- if one were to stay there, how long would it be before they saw anything; a day, a week, six months and would some people see (and hear) something every day and others never see/hear anything?
Also, would they only appear at the right time ie. the time that they were originally marching there- for eg 4pm, or could you see them at say 10am or any time of the day or night?
 
What about if there's no road? As in an old route being left abandoned when a new route or bypass opens up.
Does the ghost still haunt the disused road?
Yes because this is why we have sightings of soldiers marching across a field but you can only see above their knees for example, as the field has been built up over the years and (their) road is buried under 6' of soil, but to them it's there as it was- also walking through walls etc.
 
Yes because this is why we have sightings of soldiers marching across a field but you can only see above their knees for example, as the field has been built up over the years and (their) road is buried under 6' of soil, but to them it's there as it was- also walking through walls etc.
Does this imply there might be hordes of subterranean ghosts, doomed to wander byways now buried under 7' of soil, with no-one but the moles to witness them?
 
Does this imply there might be hordes of subterranean ghosts, doomed to wander byways now buried under 7' of soil, with no-one but the moles to witness them?
Where do the Roman soldiers (to keep with that example) go to once they've past through the cellar walls?
 
North of Bury there’s a place called Shuttleworth rumour there says a army not sure who they were marched over a cliff in thick fog and on the anniversary the locals hear the screams of men and horses as they fall to their deaths
 
Where do road ghosts figure in the new Highway Code?
 
I imagine ghosts are technically liable if they are the cause of an accident, but how are they held accountable?
That should be clearly addressed in any Highway Code.
They really shouldn't be allowed to get away with causing a mess. It's not fair.
 
Back
Top