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Been a while since I hit the A41 / M25 at rush hour but the standard of driving is simply appalling. The sheer aggression of some people (overtaking at 50 mph in a 30 limit), passing on the wrong side of pedestrian refuges, tailgating, red light jumping, ignoring people waiting at zebra crossings, texting... you name it, it's happening with astonishing frequency.
The police could make a killing by sticking a camera van or two on the bridges on the A41 - the radar on my car shows the speed of the car in front and the average was 90mph, with the odd car at 110mph.
Only four more weeks of driving this bloody road.
Where I live its a definite "yes". I see an accident on the way to work most days, usually either shunts due to dickheads looking down at their phones or pricks who can't follow lines and arrows around a roundabout.
I've started to look into getting a dash cam as I fear I'll need it soon.
As per the [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/car-park-etiquette ]car parking thread[/url] it seems like people are just generally getting more selfish arseholeish - and cars + congestion + stressful commutes seem to bring out the worst.
A1 actually seems to be improving at the moment, only issues seem to be when people panic as it's either raining, foggy, misty or anything out of the ordinary. Then it just slows it all down
I've noticed that traffic lights are now red plus one.
That means after the light has turned red one more car is allowed through. Saw a motorbike do it yesterday with his go pro on. If he got knocked off I bet he wishes he didn't have all that in criminal ongoing evidence on him.
I don't know if it is European drivers driving like ****s or our very own home grown arse holes.
More cars on the roads, phones and toys in cars make it easier to be distracted . Cars are more capable of travelling fast and people get frustrated if they can't use all that extra power.
Plus idiots who speed, don't forget them
I've noticed that traffic lights are now red plus one.
That means after the light has turned red one more car is allowed through.
Yep, I bet the same drivers moan that "cyclists always jump red lights". 👿
I've actually had someone honking their horn at me because I had the audacity to stop at an amber light.
I've noticed that traffic lights are now red plus one.
Drive through Wolverhampton. The lights/signs/markings are purely advisory
Perhaps it's because I've mellowed and I make a very conscious effort not to let bad driving frustrate me, but in my experience driving standards are not getting worse at all. There are - and always will be - idiots (and I've made my own mistakes over the years), but overall I find myself less annoyed by other road users than I used to be. Granted I don't have to drive round city centres at rush hour, which could make my blood boil 🙂
More cars on the roads
So more idiots per mile.
If you don't drive in high population areas,it can come as a bit of a shocker.
Oh,and then there are all the old folk that really should have stopped driving years ago.
And of course we're all getting older so more likely to moan on about driving standards, ideally whilst towing a caravan at 45mph in the middle lane of the motorway 😀
Amber is the new green, red is the new amber. On my commute home there's a junction with several no right turn signs so to go right you need to do a left, 100 yards to a roundabout then back on yourself. Probably 2 or 3 days a week some muppet decides that the signs don't apply to them and turns right. No particular type of vehicle either, anything from white van man to corporate exec mobile.
There is definitely a seasonal uptick in the number of selfish loonies on the roads - or maybe it seems that way to me as we live in a very touristy area. OTOH I've have had some very pleasant feedback from bike hire customers recently on how patient and friendly motorists are in the Highlands and Islands - and that's coming from those who live in countries we'd more often associate with a better driver:cyclist relationship.
Absolutely yes. I can only attribute it to a 'can't beat them so will join them' phenomenon. When I started driving around the A406 into NE London a couple of years ago I was staggered at the sheer amount of criminal driving.
I doubt the police would catch even half of the perpetrators if they could even be bothered to try.
Undertaking at (very high) speed, cutting into gaps that literally don't exist, aggression, bullying - all day every day.
Far too many cyclist on the road nowadays, so annoying. I routinely egg my child on to throw rubbish at them. Make them think twice about cycling to work!
how patient and friendly motorists are in the Highlands and Islands
We did a three day road bike tour from Lairg up to Cape Wrath and back via Tongue (for those unfamiliar with Scottish geography, most of that is the arse-end of nowhere).
We barely saw any cars at all.
But still, as we rode along an otherwise completely empty road where we hadn't seen a car for a good hour, we had some wee wifey drive up close behind and then sit on the horn, shouting at us to get out the way, rather than overtaking like a sane person. 😕
what we need is a new type of traffic light, that fires those stinger spikes up across the width of the road when the light goes red (with RF disable for blue lighters), and then retracts on green.
😈
I think Graham S has hit the nail on the head
As per the car parking thread it seems like people are just generally getting more selfish arseholeish - and cars + congestion + stressful commutes seem to bring out the worst.
Plus a element of this
More cars on the roads, phones and toys in cars make it easier to be distracted . Cars are more capable of travelling fast and people get frustrated if they can't use all that extra power.Plus idiots who speed, don't forget them
But what gets me is the slow speed manoeuvres, especially in car parks etc. Some of the stuff I've witnessed is unreal. If I drove like some of these idiots during my test, there's no way I'd of passed!
My neighbour is a prime example, the other day whilst stood in front of her car - well, about 6ft away emptying my own. She courteously informs me to 'be careful' as her car always rolls forward first, whenever she wants to go in reverse!
I like that spike idea.
In Netherlands they stuck speed humps at every lights, so instead of Red=Stop, Green=Go, Yellow=Go very fast, it's Red=Stop, Green=Go, Yellow=Knacker your suspension.
Retracting spikes should make it a more comfy ride if you're in the back of an ambulance.
Round here, it seems that even 2 years after turning a crossroads (a straight thru road and 2 T-junctions) in to a 4 way stop, that the previous rules still apply. And that 30kmh sign is just a decoration, just like the 4-way stop signs.
And my street (that was one of those T-junction bits) which is one-way, and has been for at least a decade, is actually allowed to be 2-way if you're just "quickly nipping half way down the street" to save driving round (it's a 4x 100m square block). PS it is 2-way for bikes.
Is driving getting worse?
Mine certainly is.
No, it's the cars! They are spontaneously crashing, the drivers are merely victims.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/14569030.Woman_injured_after_car_flips_upside_down/
"A WOMAN has been injured after [i]her car flipped and landed on its roof.[/i]"
"A car was reported to have crashed and rolled 150 metres down a steep bank."
Bring on self driving cars we are simply not fit for purpose when it comes to driving.
Even then self-driving cars are getting into accidents because they follow the rules and are "not aggressive enough"
Last month, as one of Google's self-driving cars approached a crosswalk, it did what it was supposed to do when it slowed to allow a pedestrian to cross, prompting its "safety driver" to apply the brakes. The pedestrian was fine, but not so much Google's car, which was hit from behind by a human-driven sedan.Google's fleet of autonomous test cars is programmed to follow the letter of the law. But it can be tough to get around if you are a stickler for the rules.
One Google car, in a test in 2009, couldn’t get through a four-way stop because its sensors kept waiting for other (human) drivers to stop completely and let it go. The human drivers kept inching forward, looking for the advantage — paralyzing Google's robot.
..
"The real problem is that the car is too safe," said Donald Norman, director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, who studies autonomous vehicles.
"They have to learn to be aggressive in the right amount, and the right amount depends on the culture."
[i]*sigh*[/i]
I don't know if it is European drivers driving like **** or our very own home grown arse holes.
WTF? where does this crap come from?
WTF? where does this crap come from?
Planet jambaland...
I drive around North, West and South Yorkshire, A1/M1/M62/M18 and all areas in between.
Roughly 1400 miles a week, and to be honest I don't witness hardly anything like you lot are describing.
Maybe I don't let it bother me as much, or maybe a its a regional thing, not sure. But for the mileage I do, you would think I would be seeing a LOT of crashes/ near misses/ aggressive drivers/ red light jumpers/ road rage etc etc..
But it's a rarity I see anything even similar.
What am I doing wrong ?
Yes, there are 4.5 million more cars on UK roads than there was in 2000 but more than that Cars are bigger than they used to be - each new model is bigger than the last one, the little VW Fox is actually bigger than the first VW Golf.
We should have invested in better infastructure by now, I don't enjoy driving to work, I really dislike it, I like the school run even less - but there aren't any viable alternatives for me - the road between my House and my Sons school are Mad Maxesq and the crossing points are leathal. In other countries I've visited there would be a walking path, or a cycle path (ideally both) linking the two away from the half alseep or hyper agressive drivers, but there isn't - the trains don't go anywhere near I need to go, nor do the buses.
As a country, we've crammed more into existing infastructure for too long, yeah some clever people can manage to ease the pressure now and again, a few designated left turns at roundabouts, a clever junction here and there and a short cut to save you the full lap of the largest, busiest roundabout in Europe - but they only seem to work for a few years before demands catches up with supply.
Our never wavering need to protect house prices doesn't help, we could take a few fields and build 1000 new homes on them, a school, some shops make a new junction on the A road or motorway to feed it some walking paths and a cycle nextwork to the nearest town/city or heaven forbit a train line and we'd spread the load, even reduce it - but no, that might effect house prices, so we'll cram a couple of dozen into the gaps between the existing ones, chuck 10 more on the site of an old petrol station or something next to a already busy road - more conjestion, more polution, more stress and pressure.
Well, at least Cardiff is trying to build some new little suburbs, they're not exactly where I'd put them, but they're not bad.
What am I doing wrong ?
Simple, it's the same thing as the old [i]"1 in 6 people are gay. If you have 5 straight friends then it is probably you"[/i] 😀
What am I doing wrong ?
Nothing. But do that kind of mileage this side of the Pennines and you will see all the tomfoolery mentioned.
FFS so now they're considering making auto cars just as much of a **** as everyone else on the roads?"They have to learn to be aggressive in the right amount, and the right amount depends on the culture."
awesome!
race to the bottom.
🙄
This from New Scientist back in May this year SUMMARY: As a society devoted to car worship we accept 1.2million deaths globally per year as the price worth paying for freedom, flexibility, and a major driver of our economy. So, we are stuck with bad driving for as long as we continue to let people hold the wheel, but hopefully that won't be for much longer! [end of summary].
"AUTONOMOUS cars are just around the corner. Cities across the world are rolling out pilots of driverless vehicles, and soon motorists in Germany will be able to relax on the autobahn as their cars drive them from Munich to Berlin.
In other words, we are on the brink of a transport revolution as potentially radical as the one that began in 1908 with the Model T Ford. By 1931 the automobile’s transformative power was so clear that Aldous Huxley imagined the people of his Brave New World worshipping Henry Ford as the creator of their dystopian society.
Huxley was on to something. The Ford revolution changed Western society. It fuelled urban sprawl and led to the remodelling of cities to prioritise the motorist; urban freeways and motorways carved up the suburbs.
Car worship, as we know, has also led to rampant air pollution and gridlock. It almost single-handedly created the oil industry: before mass car ownership, petrol (gasoline) was a worthless by-product of kerosene lamp oil. Now it feeds vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Highways are a death trap: an estimated 1.25 million people die every year in vehicle accidents, the vast majority a result of human error.
But this was and is considered a price worth paying. Cars equate to personal freedom and convenience, and keep the economy moving.
Today we have a chance to rid ourselves of the bad while keeping the good. Autonomous cars could be everything that human-controlled cars are not: safe, smart, cheap and clean...."
FFS so now they're considering making auto cars just as much of a **** as everyone else on the roads?
Yep. And in a way it is inevitable.
Take a current driver, stick them in an autonomous car, and they will soon be moaning that the stupid thing stops at amber lights, only does 70 on the motorway, won't enter box junctions, won't squeeze past cyclists, stops at stop signs, gives way at junctions etc etc
I reckon standards of behaviour in general are on a downward slope - in or out of cars.
Still we can always blame Thatcher.
Unfortunately, unless people are given autonomous and made to scrap their non autonomous ones, the only people that will actually buy them, if they actually afford them, are the people who are not the problem.
Are boy racers gonna swap their kevved up corsa for an autonomous car? Are the Jeremy Clarkson wanna be's gonna swap their scoobies or evo's? Are parcel couriers going to swap their vans for something that just doesn't go as fast as a pressured driver? I very much doubt it.
Autonomous car may be just around the corner, but nobody's gonna be buying them!
What we need at the moment is more police on the road and better education. I'd even say that 10 yearly re tests or at least a competence test, should be mandatory.
I'd even say that 10 yearly re tests or at least a competence test, should be mandatory.
Yep.
In industry if you had to operate machinery that caused over 21,000 serious injuries and over 1,700 deaths every year then any sensible Health & Safety policy would require you to be regularly tested and re-certified.
That reminds me, my CSCS card has expired!!
Autonomous car may be just around the corner, but nobody's gonna be buying them!
I'm a slow old bloke and I wouldn't. I'm very suspicious of automatic transmission!
Yes to regular retests though. Bring it on.
I reckon standards of behaviour in general are on a downward slope - in or out of cars.
I dont think they are really, just some bits stick out a bit more. How many people do you see just completely ignore red lights as if they were not there, and I dont mean go through a few seconds late? Very very few. How many cars just overtake a stationary queue in the oncoming lane, none id bet. Go to other countries and these rules of the road just dont exist in drivers minds.
Im of the opinion that people are sheep, whether they know it or not. People follow the rules because everyone else does, but if someone breaks one then others follow. Say someone drives through a 30mph village at 40, then a number of other people will instantly do that too. Everyone cruising along a busy dual carriageway, someone blasts through at 95, plenty of others take this as a invite to do the same. You can see it happen, people just switch to following the pattern of someone else without realising.
Poor etiquette can be changed by surrounding them in people doing things a better way, I dont see why it cant change driving also. If you want to change how those people act, you need to make sure YOU act the right way. No speeding, always indicating, smooth driving with no aggression. If you do it, get your family to do it, get friends to do it, it will reduce their stress and pass on to others.
There will still always be the odd one or two, but they need to be swamped out by better driving. But ignore one rule (i.e. No speeding regardless of how 'safe' it is) and others see another person who doesn't care and it just spreads into other actions.
Autonomous car may be just around the corner, but nobody's gonna be buying them!
I'll buy one as soon as I can reasonably afford one... I get up in the morning dreading going to work... I love doing my job, just hate the stress of driving to get there.
I have noticed over the years of commuting by bike that the default at a junction appears to have gone from an acceptable 'stop at junction and then check' to 'keep going and slam brakes on if any bike/car happens to be in the way'.
Still standard have obviously dropped - tricky to do much with a car with a skinny latte in one hand and your iPhone in the other...
Littlenose - Thats what I mean though, you're probably not the problem. You probably drive by the rules as it is.
The nob heads on the road aren't going to be buying something that will slow them down!
agreed ads678, I can't see the nobs buying one either... but if it means that I'm not having to interact with the aggressiveness out there then the autonomous car is a good thing for me.
The rise of autonomous cars will speed up everyone's journeys as it will all but eliminate accidents, rubber necking, ghost queues etc.
The biggest change will be when it's all controlled centrally so we remove the need for signalised junctions etc as the central control will slow speeds and create gaps accordingly such that cars can pass between each other.
Agree that initially it will take a while to pick up though, especially with those that think they save significant time by blasting between traffic lights, cutting people up to get one car in front.
I'd love to see more rigorous testing (including mandatory time on the roads on a pushbike, unless you have a disability), regular re-testing, and limits on the power of the vehicles you can drive according to your licence (as they do with motorbikes).
Too many people see driving as a right, but don't take the responsibilities seriously.
I don't know if it is European drivers driving like **** or our very own home grown arse holes.
WTF? where does this crap come from?
The driving I've seen I'm Malta , Spain and especially Italy makes us look like we've all done our Advanced Driving Courses.
I can't imagine they suddenly become better drivers just because they are in the U.K.
[quote=ads678 ]Unfortunately, unless people are given autonomous and made to scrap their non autonomous ones, the only people that will actually buy them, if they actually afford them, are the people who are not the problem.
I think the majority of bad drivers are simply careless - not that interested in driving and easily distracted. Such drivers will be early adopters, as they can then spend more of their time texting their mates or applying make-up without getting distracted by less important stuff like driving.
For the rest a combination of legislation and insurance costs will probably do it. No need to force people to scrap cars, simply introduce new driving test requirements - once a driving licence is no longer seen as a right because you don't need one to get around in a car then such changes will become far more politically acceptable. Meanwhile there will be an assumption of liability on the human operated car in any collision, resulting in vastly increased costs for drivers.
Absolutely it is!
The government should insist that everybody resits their test every 5 years and if you fail, tough sh1t!
People on their mobiles drifting between lanes.....doing 40mph on the motorway because they are on their phones.
Bad driving in the rain.....the usual concertina effect because people are driving too close.
People driving FAR too fast for the traffic conditions.....
Although a women in the passenger side of a lorry did pass us topless the other month! 🙂
The list goes on and on....
There never used to be so much red light jumping in edinburgh, basically red light means floor it and squeeze into the box junction. it causes more problems than it solves as the box junctions fill up with cars and no one can get through, making everyone want to jump lights to get home... it's OK on the bike as can squeeze through but infuriating in the car.
Also I seem to be the only car on the road sticking to 20,30 or 40 limits these days!
Why would you buy an autonomous car? I think it will be more like a service, like Uber except without the driver.
That said, i think full autonomy, where you could just get in an unmanned car without a licence (or drunk!) is a lot further away than people think. Engineering a car that is autonomous 100% of the time is a huge jump from 99%.
But you don't need full autonomy to get a lot of the safety benefits. Driver assist and systems that actively intervene to prevent accidents are already being rolled out. They are now required by the EURO NCAP tests to get full marks. There's a lot more of this stuff on the way.
I fear this might actually make driving worse though, even if it doesn't result in an accident.
I think there's plenty of room for improvement, but:
[url= https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-road-fatalities ]latest statistics give lowest death rate ever from UK roads[/url]
Would suggest that driving isn't actually getting worse in a way which matters.
TBH the worst habit I've noticed only emerging recently is the "flashing lights at oncoming overtaking traffic even when the overtake is perfectly safe" (mostly seen it when other vehicles have been overtaking me on the bike, where I'm unlikely to be under-cautious, but also had it done to me when I've been driving and cycling) - which is annoying but not dangerous.
[quote=HoratioHufnagel ]That said, i think full autonomy, where you could just get in an unmanned car without a licence (or drunk!) is a lot further away than people think. Engineering a car that is autonomous 100% of the time is a huge jump from 99%.
Which bits do you think are in the 1%? Because I'm fairly sure the cars Google et al are trialling are 100%. Certainly the sooner we can get past the idea that autonomous cars have to be 100% safe the better and the safer our roads will be - it seems much higher standards are expected of them than of current drivers.
Been a while since I hit the A41 / M25 at rush hour but the standard of driving is simply appalling.
I used to drive it everyday. The A41 has always been a motorway in disguise (the Tring bypass used to be the A41(M), hence the hard shoulder) and the M25 was - well - the M25. I used to liftshare and we had a **** of the day award, which was frequently won by a small group of enthusiastic motorists who enjoyed making progress. A gentleman in a Mini Cooper S-Works was the standout - as said before on here, when he goes I just hope no-one else is hurt.
I can't comment on what it's like now as it's been seven years since I drove it and four years since I left the area. However if you think the A41 is bad, give the A12 a go one day. The lane lottery adds extra spice. 😉
But back to your point, yes - there's several bridges there that would make great speed camera spots. I believe the M25 is now speed camera'd all around that area now too.
Certainly the sooner we can get past the idea that autonomous cars have to be 100% safe the better and the safer our roads will be - it seems much higher standards are expected of them than of current drivers.
I would disagree with this - it is far more practicable to make an autonomous vehicle drive well all the time than it is to make a human do so, and to test the autonomous vehicle to ensure that this is the case - the software and the car will be the same once tested, whereas all you can realistically expect to test a human for is the ability to operate a car in a prescriptive, safe, manner, that realistically will not correspond to how they will operate the car following becoming qualified as their confidence (and to a differing extent, skill level) increases.
Edit - obviously not with the 100% safe part, but you should expect to get far better safety from an autonomous vehicle.
[quote=philjunior ]Edit - obviously not with the 100% safe part, but you should expect to get far better safety from an autonomous vehicle.
Yeah - I think you're missing my point - that there is a reluctance to let autonomous cars onto the roads until they meet some arbitrary safety standard which is far higher than that achieved by current drivers (and yes, I'm inculding myself in that). If ones at the current level were released for public use today the roads would be safer.
Have a friend high up in the car industry working on this stuff - autonomous cars still at least 15-20 years away. Problem is not the cars, they could be autonomous now if the system was built from scratch, it's the existing infrastructure, legal and liability aspects plus other traffic on the road that's the challenge.
The reason driving is getting worse is because of the police/government/safety brigade etc being completely obsessed about speeding rather than 'safe driving'. Since the roads are now mostly policed by cameras, so long as people don't speed then they can get away with drink driving, tailgating, middle lane hogging, aggressive maneuvers, texting, you name it.
To make matters worse, because of the above a huge percentage of the driving population now seem to drive well below the speed limit, just to be sure it would seem. Lost track of the amount of times I've followed someone in a perfectly good car holding everyone else up at 40mph on a clear, safe NSL road. It's no wonder people behind get frustrated and might be tempted to take a risk.
What would make driving safer is more police on the road rather than cameras, having to attend attending compulsory further driver training say every 5-10 years, and a focus on 'bad driving' and courtesy on the road rather than speeding.
[quote=agent007 ]Problem is not the cars, they could be autonomous now if the system was built from scratch, it's the existing infrastructure, legal and liability aspects plus other traffic on the road that's the challenge.
Except they can already cope with the infrastructure and other traffic - it's just the legal stuff which is resulting in thousands of needless deaths and injuries for the next 15-20 years. They could have coped with a system built from scratch 15-20 years ago. I've seen nothing to suggest that the current vehicles being tested aren't already much safer than human drivers even on our current roads.
To make matters worse, because of the above a huge percentage of the driving population now seem to drive well below the speed limit, just to be sure it would seem. Lost track of the amount of times I've followed someone in a perfectly good car holding everyone else up at 40mph on a clear, safe NSL road. It's no wonder people behind get frustrated and might be tempted to take a risk.
I'm not sure there's anything new in that, or that it's anything to do with people being worried about being caught speeding. As often reported on here, typically you'll find such drivers continuing at 40 when they enter a 30 limit.
Roads will only be safer when normal non autonomous cars are banned. If we have a mix of autonomous and non autonomous cars then the nobbers in the normal cars will be driving like nobs trying to get past because they will only be driving at the speed limit!!
Also will I be able to get one as big as my Smax so I can fit bikes and camping gear and then get it to drive me to the south of France while I sit sipping Taittinger and eating pork pies?
And motorbike nobbers. Will we be able to get rid of motorbike nobbers as well? Will there be autonomous motorbikes that don't ride 2" from your arse end revving the tits off it then screaming past on country lanes.
Will all non autonomous motor vehicles only be allowed on private land or race tracks?
I'm 40 now and really can't believe that I'll ever pilot an autonomous vehicle on a fully automated highway.
[quote=ads678 ]Also will I be able to get one as big as my Smax so I can fit bikes and camping gear and then get it to drive me to the south of France while I sit sipping Taittinger and eating pork pies?
No, they will only make small ones, because that's all the technology can cope with - in any case, a well designed one will have sensors to automatically eject anybody with poor culinary tastes.
😀 It'll need a big spring.....
What about autonomous bikes too?
Lost track of the amount of times I've followed someone in a perfectly good car holding everyone else up at 40mph on a clear, safe NSL road.
Over-caution would equally be caught by regular re-tests.
Though I reckon some of those people literally don't know what the correct speed limit is on NSL roads.
Travelling along the dual carriageway bits of the A69 I regularly see people slowing down to 60 at the speed cameras. Conversely I see people on the A68 who speed up from 60 to 70 every time there are two lanes.
Folks on here who have done speed awareness courses, regularly offer anecdotes about other participants with basic misunderstandings about speed limits or other road rules.
I've seen it, quite a few times aswell.How many cars just overtake a stationary queue in the oncoming lane, none id bet.
this is like the "cyclists are a menace" thing. Public somewhere was asked what police should prioritise and pavement cycling was high up the list despite the fact that chances of being hit/inconvenienced by one is pretty slim, but cycling are an outgroup. Boyracers/nobs are you're chosen out-sub-group. There are hundreds of thousands of road incidents that happen everyday that are caused by carelessness of otherwise normal drivers just like you. Autonomous cars, bring them on.The nob heads on the road aren't going to be buying something that will slow them down!
How many cars just overtake a stationary queue in the oncoming lane, none id bet.
I assume you've never driven in the middle east.
Autonomous car may be just around the corner, but nobody's gonna be buying them!
I'll buy one as soon as I can reasonably afford one... I get up in the morning dreading going to work... I love doing my job, just hate the stress of driving to get there.
Yes, but he said buy them, not use them. Why have one on your drive, and pay for the parking during the day, when you could just send it on its way to pick someone else up and pay far less?
nothing to do with cutting police forces and their budget then? Cameras are pretty cheap and it's an easy metric. Was car A travelling over the signed limit? yes/no if yes send out a fine if no go to car B.Since the roads are now mostly policed by cameras, so long as people don't speed then they can get away with drink driving, tailgating, middle lane hogging, aggressive maneuvers, texting, you name it.
Policing the roads is more complex and needs, you know, police, they are expensive and there's currently not enough of them about.
Agree, because of the focus on speed, half the population seem to now think as long as they stick to the speed limit then that makes them a good, safe law abiding motorist. Nothing further from the truth of course.
Some people are safer driving at 80 than other folk driving at 40 on the same stretch of NSL road. I'd far rather get into a car driven sometimes over the speed limit by a well trained, skilled, observant and courteous driver than I would get into a car with someone driving well under the speed limit who seems seems to possess none of the above.
Well, that was prophetic... someone just ran into the back of the car on the M25. Yes, it was a white Audi (company car). Partly caused by the overhead gantry signs coming on at 40mph, so the traffic in front jumped on the brakes.
Fortunately it looks like his car came out of it worse - stranded at the side of the road with broken headlights and dripping radiator fluid. 16-reg too...
Bollocks.
Today police camera van parked in central reservation cars who saw it imediately braked hard, then accelerated hard after they had gone past it by a distance.
Old biddy screaming abuse at me in her meriva, because i overtook a parked car,and encroached into her lane,yet she was parked up with plenty of room to get past.
and a white vw transporter, who sounded his horn because i stopped on a red light, he then drove like a vw nutter to the next red after overtaking me closely.
Yes is the answer.
I drive for a living and see the most ridiculous stuff all day, every day. I try and follow the rules as much as possible and the amount of abuse I get for it is unreal. Driving a van at 50 on a NSL single carriageway is the usual one. Even got punishment passed by a truck in the car last week for doing 50 on a dual carriageway. I was doing 50 as I'd just had to change a tyre due to a puncture for the space saver with it's big yellow 50mph/80ph max sticker. See loads of people with then on doing 80+ and they've usually been on a while as they're dirty.
At least the phone-gazers are easy to spot, wandering all over the place as they do.
Bring on the regular testing, that'll make a difference. I've managed to do three tests in the last few years (C1, C1+E, C) and it's good to refresh things. More police would help but it's so hard to get banned currently that failing a test would be a better deterrent IMO.
Even got punishment passed by a truck in the car last week for doing 50 on a dual carriageway.
That's harsh in your case but to be fair the majority of time the people who do 50 on a dual carriageway and get passed by trucks genuinely don't seem to have a clue what they're doing and probably shouldn't be on the road any more. VW polo on the A14 doing approx 55mph last week with a truck doing 56mph trying to get past it in the right hand lane. Took about 3 miles to complete the overtake. Not sure who's more selfish or ignorant in that case, the car or the truck driver. Both idiots IMO.
I'd say yes. I got rid of my car nearly 15 years ago, and rent a van about once a year. It's been a noticeable decline, and driving a few weeks back, I was chiding myself for being terrible and out or practice at first, but after about half an hour realised basically no one around me was driving with particular care or attention.
Motorway driving in particular seems to elude British drivers, who are great at:
Falling asleep in the middle lane.
The fifteen minute overtake.
Because the roads are packed out all the time, all the little errors are amplified to problems. Yes please to retests and I'll have a proper full on Google car yes please
Especially when googlecarbrain gets smart enough to see your journey request and say 'no you selfish lazy ****er get the bus or walk' 😀
Antics from Today
Range Rover little thing driven by a wannabe WAG blatantly saw me on the roundabout and pulled out regardless forcing me to slam on.
NSL country road I didn't know, just following Sat Nav, I'm doing 40 - 45 as its narrow, downhill, windy get overtook by a Vivaro and forced onto the grass as another van was coming the other way. The other van had to swerve towards the stone wall.
50 mph on the motorway in heavy traffic, no one going any faster, some guy right up my back bumper screaming at me to get a move on. Guess the fact I'd actually left a decent gap between myself and the car in front upset him. Yes I was in lane 1 at the time.
Forgot about the 55mph hypermilers, didn't realise how f*****g annoying they are until I started driving limited trucks. They drop to 50, you pull out and start overtaking. They realise they're not doing 55 so speed up and then you're stuck. If you lift off and drop behind they drop back to 50 and it all starts again 👿
If you stay at 50 you get yelled at by your boss for running late so all trucks go at 56 everywhere doing multi-mile overtaking. My record is 2 miles on a motorway (at night!) but you hear and see ones going on for a good 5 or 6 minutes, especially lorry vs lorry 😆
My record is 2 miles on a motorway (at night!) but you hear and see ones going on for a good 5 or 6 minutes, especially lorry vs lorry
Yes what the hell is the point of this - truck overtaking truck overtakes on dual carriageway? Goes on for miles sometimes and royally pisses off and delays everyone else behind in the process - all to acheive an extra 0.5mph!!!
[quote=agent007 ]VW polo on the A14 doing approx 55mph last week with a truck doing 56mph trying to get past it in the right hand lane. Took about 3 miles to complete the overtake. Not sure who's more selfish or ignorant in that case, the car or the truck driver.
That's quite easy. It's perfectly legal, and not really at all unreasonable to drive at 55mph on a DC. Doing a quick calc, if it really was 3 minutes, then if we're allowing a 2s gap when the truck pulls out and 2s gap when it pulls back in that's 100m, so a total of 120m in 3 minutes including the vehicle lengths is just under 1.5mph. In reality I doubt that big gaps were left, so it's likely the differential was <1mph. If the truck had stayed behind the car for the whole length of the A14 that's 2 minutes it would have lost.
Trucks have about 14 gears each coveting a very small range. They need to keep at a constant speed or end up going up and down the gears which is a real pain. Cut them some slack
That's fine Charlie - just as easy for them to stick to 55 as bouncing of the limiter at 56.
The thing is, I tend to like to "make progress" when driving, but I'd not be at all bothered about being stuck behind somebody doing 59mph on a single carriageway road.
IMO they should "pick" on drivers who've been given points or involved in any crash (unless demonstrably not at fault). 2 options, no idea which is more practicable but cost irrelevant as I'd make them or their insurer pay:
1) mandatory retest
or
2) fitting of a black box accelerometer thingy like some insurers supposedly offer to teenagers. Too much sharp acceleration/deceleration/swerving = loss of licence for a period.