(Was) most gorgeous thing (Now) driving standards

Taken from a US site

Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are often used in combination with alcohol.5

In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.1

http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

Therefore to increase your survivability on the road, drink and smoke weed, because the other 82% killed were not on drugs
and 69% were stone cold sober..

Government statistics can be read both ways..

… And as to all this speed kills crap, so 70 mph is there to stop it, I don’t see millions of dead Germans littering their roads.

I wish they’d tell us what this lethal speed was, so we could accelerate through it quickly and continue safely.

DeeGee

Tony.
Try driving around here, the are more tractors than cars. They can be done by the Police for driving without due consideration for other road users. If you can find a Police car in the first place.
I find the best place to find a Police Car, is when you are driving right on the speed limit, and he is hoping you havn’t seen him in your rear view mirror, and go over the limit.BINGO, whoopie doo, there, right behind you is the Fuzz:rolleyes:
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Just up the road from me is a Gatso camera, the speed limit is 30 mph, fair enough, but why do most drivers slow down to 20 mph?.

Raise the 30 at night in front of schools say 12am to 6.00 am and reduce to 20 during school hours.

As for no indication right turners, I along with about 10 cars followed two tractors for miles, on the only long clear straight I mirror, signal indicated, pulled out passed the first when the second swung straight across the road without looking or indicating straight in front of me to go up woodland fire lane, I swerved, and luckily there was a gravel feed into the lane, I passed him under his forks and on gravel…
He realised he was in the wrong, and had stopped blocking the lane, I could see it in his face, but didn’t stop.. Words failed me…

I would prosecute all tractor drivers that refuse to pull over to allow the build up of traffic to pass, the law is there for a reason, sadly few do it

The concept car is an American Buick , in USA an old mans car !! The Jaguars are British & over here an old mans car …..

I didnt know this untill I got a Jaguar …….lol !!!

And of course your last comment applies equally to company cars!!

If it’s the one Road Traffic Law I would change it would be an offence of Tailgating, whenever I get behind an HGV or box van, I always try and see if there is a shadow of the vehicle I am behind, and if there are shadows in front of that, indicating the fact that you are aware that there is not only the vehicle in front of you, but also there is one in front of that one.The times I see some idiot overtake me, with oncoming traffic, passing myself and an HGV, suddenly realising there are two HGVs to overtake, and then expects the HGV to brake hard to let them in, mostly with only seconds to spare.

Just up the road from me is a Gatso camera, the speed limit is 30 mph, fair enough, but why do most drivers slow down to 20 mph?.

White van man, he/they drive like mad men, perhaps if THEY owned the vehicle, they may set themselves a better standard of driving.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

None of us are perfect when it comes to driving and a little more tolerance would go a long way.

Exactly. As I suggested somewhere above frustration and impatience on the road can be killers.

And perhaps you are fortunate in your daily commute but I sense that there is less tolerance and less consideration than there was in earlier years. Perhaps the volume of traffic has exacerbated the problem. Are people in more of a hurry? – they seem to be. Leaving more time for the journey than you think you need helps, I am sure.

I’ve never had any advanced driver training but it’s surprising how much you can pick up sitting behind a police class 1 driver for 17 or 18 years.

Can you see properly throught the wire grille? 😀

I recall being taught mirror, signal, manouvre. It seems now that mirrors are a waste of time as nobody uses them and on the odd occasion somebody indicates their finger catches the stalk as they start the turn. That’s apart from BMWs, which don’t have indicators.

Mine has. What I have to put up with is morons who think it’s hilarious to cut you up or not let you into the traffic.

For 40-odd years I’ve worked on the premise that 95% of drivers are complete morons and the other 5% are homicidal maniacs. It’s unfair on the small percentage of good drivers but it means I’m rarely surprised.

95% + 5% = 100%. It is indeed a very small percentage that’s left.

I drive 90 miles a day, commuting to and form work and by and large the driving is OK. The motorway is so busy that everyone is doing roughly the same speed anyway. Occasionally, someone leaves it too late to get to their exit or tries to squeeze into a tiny gap but on the whole the standards aren’t too bad. When traffic is moving freely, I find tailgating isn’t a problem either. The worse standards are in towns where people generally drive too fast or have poor lane discipline. It is always worse at the weekends or during holidays when those that don’t drive as much come out to play.
None of us are perfect when it comes to driving and a little more tolerance would go a long way.

For 40-odd years I’ve worked on the premise that 95% of drivers are complete morons and the other 5% are homicidal maniacs. It’s unfair on the small percentage of good drivers but it means I’m rarely surprised.

If you are driving, you must be in one of those categories then?! :diablo:

Guess the thread title ought to be changed as the subject has changed! 😀

Yes – I share those sentiments and BMWs are not the only cars no longer fitted with indicators. And they are all the same cars which have no off-switch for the front fog lights.

I’ve never had any advanced driver training but it’s surprising how much you can pick up sitting behind a police class 1 driver for 17 or 18 years.

I recall being taught mirror, signal, manouvre. It seems now that mirrors are a waste of time as nobody uses them and on the odd occasion somebody indicates their finger catches the stalk as they start the turn. That’s apart from BMWs, which don’t have indicators.

For 40-odd years I’ve worked on the premise that 95% of drivers are complete morons and the other 5% are homicidal maniacs. It’s unfair on the small percentage of good drivers but it means I’m rarely surprised.

In the Police A.V. drivers coarse, you are told to do a running verbal commentary, you tell the Instructor sitting next to you EVERYTHING YOU SEE, most drivers are only looking a few hundred yards in front of their bonnet, the way the Police A.D.C. teaches you to drive, so you are looking ahead, as far as you can possibly see, you tell him of all the traffic you can see, front, rear, anything aproaching, from the side,You are also driving as fast as the car will go at, your senses are honed, so well,, that after two weeks, I found out I was able to drive faster, more safely, on any roads, than prior to taking the training. It is way above the A.D. civvie course of driving, and you never forget it.And we travelled all over the Country on all sorts of roads and conditions.You have to be aware all the time, and anticipate other drivers actions all around you.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Cannot commend these comments enough. The commentary my A.D.C. gave me was extraordinary, I wish I had a tape of it. Additional points would be the condition and type of road, visible repairs, hedges, animals in fields, feet under parked cars and weather conditions. Who checks their rear view mirror every six seconds? Any distraction in the car, smoking, drinking, talking even listening to the radio is a reduction in the efficiency of the driving process.

.You have to be aware all the time, and anticipate other drivers actions all around you.

Lincoln .7

That single sentence sums up the key to good driving and my experience over about 40 years of driving between 30,000 and 60,000 miles a year is that the majority are not and do not and it has steadily got worse, not better.

@ CH: I should hope so. 🙂

But I am afraid the number of people who actually use their mirrors before overtaking is minimal. The chances of them seeing an indicator, if they haven’t already spotted the car itself, is negligible.

Which brings me back to tailgating. If you so far up the car in fronts backside, he/she just isn’t going to see you indicate. I drop back, if I consider myself too close. priot to overrtaking whatever is in front of me, if it’s an HGV. I move to the inner side of the road, then the outside, so I can see if the road in front is clear, if so, I check rear mirror, if the is anything behind I indicate my intention to overtake the HGV/Car etc in front, and also flash my headlights, then overtake, I have only had one accident in my life, and that was when I was stationary, at Mkt Deeping roundabout, when we had a report of a stolen car come through, It had passed us two or three minutes earlier, so we set off in pursuite, towards Stamford, there is a long straight, prior to the Uffington railway crossing, and were doing well over 100 mph in the old Austin 3 ltr twin headlight car, There was, in the distance, (Found out later it was a brand new estate) travelling in the same direction, as we started to overtake him, without any indication whatsoever he turned right, we “T” boned him, and both cars were write offs, turns out it was the Crossing keeper turning up for work in the signal box.
!. No way did he look in his rearview mirror, and 2. He never indicated, even though he must have heard the “Blues and twos”.
No injuries to anyone, but both cars were scrap.
In the Police A.V. drivers coarse, you are told to do a running verbal commentary, you tell the Instructor sitting next to you EVERYTHING YOU SEE, most drivers are only looking a few hundred yards in front of their bonnet, the way the Police A.D.C. teaches you to drive, so you are looking ahead, as far as you can possibly see, you tell him of all the traffic you can see, front, rear, anything aproaching, from the side,You are also driving as fast as the car will go at, your senses are honed, so well,, that after two weeks, I found out I was able to drive faster, more safely, on any roads, than prior to taking the training. It is way above the A.D. civvie course of driving, and you never forget it.And we travelled all over the Country on all sorts of roads and conditions.You have to be aware all the time, and anticipate other drivers actions all around you.
Food for a lot more here, but if your driving is O.K. then I see no reason why there should be a limit on Motorways, providing drivers drive according to the prevailing conditions.
Just my opinion.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

That represents one of the key driving hazards. Impatience. Remember there is no minimum speed limit, however frustrating it can be and I admit to the weakness as well.

Moggy – mirrors? Rear window covered in rain or misted up and wing mirrors facing the wrong way or hanging off on the wires!!:diablo:

The thing that fecks me off no end are the drivers that dawdle along the bypass (which is a 70 limit) doing about 50. Especially at night.

My favourites are the ones who drive at 40mph everywhere, speed limits, conditions or other road users mean nothing to these characters, they end up as a menace in town and out on the open road as well.

Before anyone says it age is not a criteria, I used to at times utter the immortal words “dozy old bu##er” at some driver oblivious to any one else, I am now finding that the “dozy etc” are considerably younger than me, I feel age merely exaggerates bad driving, doesn’t cause it.

@ CH: I should hope so. 🙂

But I am afraid the number of people who actually use their mirrors before overtaking is minimal. The chances of them seeing an indicator, if they haven’t already spotted the car itself, is negligible.

What Newforest quotes is contrary to present day IAM practice. The teaching now is that every signal should be a considered action, not an habitual one.

Moggy

Always indicate, the one tme you forget to, might be the time you really should have indicated. 😉

IAM member.

I have seen you!;)