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PostPosted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 13:59 
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As with most things, it's down to education. If people understand the basics of how a thing works, be it a system or an object they can then apply their initiative. But of course a government that spends all its time removing any suggestion that you would know what you are doing in any situation, would abhor the use of initiative. It is a key reason why they hate the car. Imagine, people get in it when they want, go where they want, how they want without any government control.

Which is also why driving 'education' is so poor. People no longer know who has the right of way when two cars meet opposite on a crossing. Reversing from a minor road into a major is an offence for very sound reasons, but is seen all too often. Modern driving instruction says brakes today are better than years ago (except when the government wants to lie about stopping distances) so no need to change down through the 'box as you approach a junction. But surely this puts a driver 'out of control' of their vehicle and what would be the harm of being in the correct gear for your speed anyway?

On top of which, how does courtesy on the road work? I think we are all aware of a range of gestures to show our feelings about someone else's bad driving, but how do you accept the blame for yours? I've pulled out the odd time when I shouldn't, but how do I say mea culpa with hand gestures? It's a small repertoire


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 20:13 
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LightningBoz wrote:
Imagine, people get in it when they want, go where they want, how they want without
any government control.
It is a key reason why they hate the car.



:shock: :shock: That would never do - it's against Nu Labia's principles.:roll:

LightningBoz wrote:
As with most things, it's down to education. If people understand the basics of how a thing works, be it a system or an object they can then apply their initiative. But of course a government that spends all its time removing any suggestion that you would know what you are doing in any situation, would abhor the use of initiative.Which is also why driving 'education' is so poor.


I suspect that a lot of engineering bods on here ,like me, were taught in the old days that first learn how something works, or work it out. Then if it goes faulty you can then work out what is not doing what it should do and then put that right.
Unfortunately this government has forgotten this principle, and also got rid of the experts in road safety , so without having the capacity to see how it should work, or the technical ability to work it out are totaly lost.
One of the reasons ( and on other posts on this site there are a lot of discussions on the test) is that the driving test has now (IMHO) has become a production line effort to enable people to pass the test, not learn to drive. Added to which there are few "advanced educators " (i.e traffic cops ) left to pull them up and help them.

LightningBoz wrote:
People no longer know who has the right of way when
two cars meet opposite on a crossing. Reversing from
a minor road into a major is an offence for very sound
reasons, but is seen all too often.


Right of way - it's a matter of common sense, not as is now of loosing face. Like havong right of way, but only having to reverse back a yard, as oppossed to the other party backing up ten yards.
Dangerous reversing - poor education + lack of enforcement .

LightningBoz wrote:
Modern driving instruction
says brakes today are better than years ago (except when the government wants
to lie about stopping distances) so no need to change down through the 'box as
you approach a junction. But surely this puts a driver 'out of control' of their
vehicle and what would be the harm of being in the correct gear for your speed anyway?


No need to change down through the box - but being in the right gear for the conditions means that in addition to being able to stop in a hurry, you are also able to drive out ( if needed) of trouble.
LightningBoz wrote:
I think we are all aware of a range of gestures to show our feelings about someone
else's bad driving, but how do you accept the blame for yours? I've pulled out the odd time
when I shouldn't, but how do I say mea culpa with hand gestures? It's a small repertoire


Have never worked out any sort of apologistic gesture, believe that anticipation should negate that. Think that general concencus on here is that the only HAND signals are those contained in highway code. Anything else could lead to a misunderstanding or road rage.

BTW -

:welcome:

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Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 03:15 
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I'm 61 now ......"going on 62" as the song does. :) and I'd like to share with you my Sunday.

My wife was working, so, I took out the jag around 3.00pm to pick her up.

Leaving her workplace I made a 3/4 right turn around a traffic island, only to come across a nice young lady at the 180 degree point holding her mobile phone in her right hand, completely oblivious of my presence who pulled out straight across my path as I braked to avoid her driver side door!

A little later, on a dual carriageway...... a nice young man with girlfriend in a 230 open top Merc wanted to race me. Several times. I declined.

After all....... a 4 ltr XJ8 is NO match in "S" mode...... right?
:roll:


Ah! What a blessing......wisdom is. :)


Old gits be buggered .............. just try it on a track buddy!


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 09:15 
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LightningBoz wrote:
Reversing from a minor road into a major is an offence for very sound reasons, but is seen all too often.


Your right of course but I have a question. I think reversing into any main road is a no-no because you can't see as well as if you were entering the main road forwards. But I have noticed that at times you have no other option...

If you try and pull up just past your driveway, or on a main road to reverse into a side road, more often than not some idiot following too closely is stuck so close up your rear that you can't pull up to reverse into the place you have just gone a few meters past. Ya know?

Now with this in mind, people that have to do this often, to reverse into their driveway every day, just give up and drive straight in forwards knowing that they will have to reverse into the main road to get back out but what else can you do when you know some fool is going to make life hard for you.

Don't know if I explained myself very well here?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 09:24 
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LightningBoz wrote:
Reversing from a minor road into a major is an offence for very sound reasons, but is seen all too often.

No, it is not a specific offence. For obvious reasons it usually makes sense to avoid doing it, but as mentioned above there are circumstances under which it is unavoidable.

Neither is reversing out of a driveway, garage or parking space an offence.

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Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 16:08 
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Draco wrote:
I'm 61 now ......"going on 62" as the song does. :) and I'd like to share with you my Sunday.

My wife was working, so, I took out the jag around 3.00pm to pick her up.

Leaving her workplace I made a 3/4 right turn around a traffic island, only to come across a nice young lady at the 180 degree point holding her mobile phone in her right hand, completely oblivious of my presence who pulled out straight across my path as I braked to avoid her driver side door!

A little later, on a dual carriageway...... a nice young man with girlfriend in a 230 open top Merc wanted to race me. Several times. I declined.

After all....... a 4 ltr XJ8 is NO match in "S" mode...... right?
:roll:


Ah! What a blessing......wisdom is. :)


Old gits be buggered .............. just try it on a track buddy!


Don't want too many days like that my friend.

Of course what we have is different personalities on the road which is like trying to get dogs, cats and mice all working together at times. I find the beauty of having something very quick, and being mature, is that you just tend not to bother if someone wants to challenge you on the road.

I've had it with my motorbike, where some goof in his top of the range car thinks he can race me. What the fool doesn't seem to understand is that firstly, I don't have to prove anything (especially on public roads) and secondly, unless he's got a 0 to 60 of about 3 seconds he doesn't stand a chance anyway.

There are times when I can hear a guy in front racing the socks off his engine, thinking he's holding me off, when in fact I'm not even close to my power band.

Some twazock in a BMW Z4 M3 with triple overhead underhang tried it the other day. I could have gone past him at any time quite effortlessly but I didn't want to ruin his day, the poor thing. I would rather have someone like that in front of me anyway, to be honest.

I've never owned a nice big car but I suspect you get to$$ers who envy you and act worse towards you, than other drivers, just because you have done well for yourself...

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 18:24 
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Draco wrote:
.....only to come across a nice young lady at the 180 degree point holding her mobile phone in her right hand, completely oblivious of my presence who pulled out straight across my path as I braked to avoid her driver side door!


Young men and cars can be a bad enough combination, but young ladies and cars :roll:
Minimal situational awareness, pretty little heads filled with Big Brother, Heat Magazine's latest goss, that last text message they got from the guy in accounts, making an appointment to have their nails done and....bloody hell I'm driving a car :shock: :shock:

Yes I know that'll get me into trouble from our sensible lady colleagues, but I give young ladies in Clios, Fiestas and small Peugots a wide berth as the chance of them doing something without looking or thinking are fair to moderate.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 02:24 
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Indeed so, to all your comments Gents....

It's long been my experience that once a little wisdom is learned, that the "faster" driver is by far the most predictable in his/her actions.

The slow driver it seems is......ALWAYS unpredictable! Signaling, positioning, manouvreing......all to C*%"^! and is a: "Guess what I'm going to do next" situation......... :roll:

Of course, sometimes we ALL find ourselves trying to find, in that unfamiliar territory, an address that only the locals know of..... :)
In this situation, the only thing "I" can say is: be guided by the car, if it's a Micra, beware! If it's something more substantial then they are just lost in a strange area, so be more forgiving.

:D Isn't "driving" GREAT!.................


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 01:09 
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http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&l ... &z=19&om=1

You might actually like this wee picture... The main road is a one way road, going from bottom to top. The bit at the left hand side is a small car parking area, at an angle... It would be near enough impossible to reverse park safely into these spaces, the road is usually too busy, but it is reasonably safe to reverse out of the spaces, and it leaves you in the right direction to drive away, whereas to get into a reasonable position to reverse park into the bays, you'd probably have to drive the wrong way in a one way street... Now, its absolutely AWFUL road design, but still... One time it wouldn't be good to not reverse into a major road...

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