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hayfield

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You would but maybe thirty seconds later. How many times have you seen someone shoving his way dangerously and inconsiderately through heavy traffic and gaining maybe three or four car lengths over the course of a mile or more.

 

BTW, does anyone know the proper medical name for the condition in which the male organs detach from the patient's body if they are overtaken while driving? It does seem to be a very common ailment.  

 

Emasculation?

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However, I'm sure that Alastair, Mick and others will concur that you should always drive at a speed so that you can stop safely in a distance that you can see to be clear.  eg Driving around a sharp bend at the nsl and finding a herd of cows straddling the road!  Can you stop before hitting them?  If not you were going too fast.  Ditto the roundabout scenario.

 

 

This is probably one of the biggest 'faults' one can identify with most drivers.  I mentioned very early on about the high degree of 'assumption' drivers of all types make.

 

Out on the roads today, believe it or not, with a couple of 'coppers' for students, in an LGV which doesn't possess much in the way of passive crash protection [for others]...approaching a well-known East Riding roundabout, intending to turn right [very right, rather than right].........the carriageway beyond the right entry road being 'blind' to us [all].....driver 'set-off'...luckily without the normal novice driver commitment of 'all or nothing'....when a BMW 2 seater came howling into view, turning right, across in front of us....at a very high speed considering the driver would not be able to see any more ahead than we could, to the right.

 

My driver did stop.....with a modicum of fuss......but I made the observation that BMW driver was failing to exercise due care & attention when negotiating the r/bout.....and that it was a pity there wasn't the usual [for this time of year] large tractor with incredibly large implement chugging out onto the roundabout....now that would have created an interesting prospect of extreme evasive action on the BMW driver's part......given his speed. [and he would not have wanted the three of us as witnesses!]....

 

The whole day's drive was one long continuous noting of the sheer ignorant driving on the part of others........the workers going home from the  Malton Bacon Factory are a good example of the above, without exception.

 

Overtaking at speeds in excess of the prevailing limit...on blind [to them] bends, without thought for others.....ignoring road markings, signs etc.

 

They all know they can, because there are no longer the Police presences that once existed....I guess its a case of the Police thinking, if there are no injuries, the insurance companies take care of property damage, so why not just leave things well alone?

 

All the Police can do, given their appalling resources, is conduct 'campaigns' targeting specific offences, now & again.....so specific, that all & sundry simply avoid, or temporarily slow down, in the one area of the campaign.

 

Meanwhile, everywhere else, it is the usual mayhem.

 

What seems to be forgotten when we talk about all the things that can go wrong...and are seen as 'unavoidable', etc.....is that...even on a driving test,we are all expected to cope with the mistakes of others...and cope, comfortably.

 

If we cannot cope comfortably as drivers/riders, with what someone else does wrong/incorrectly/maliciously, then we ourselves need to look at why we could not cope.

 

And the first thing we would need to do, is not refer to the other party as 'being to blame'. [for if we accept that, then we learn nothing from the situation, other than, all others are idiots].

 

We have to accept that, what they did was a fact-of-life...it happened.

 

So we have to look back at our own driving, to try and discover for ourselves,why we struggled to cope with what they did?

 

And the root causes will be simple, little things..like, perhaps not listening to that little voice 2 seconds beforehand which said 'lift off'....?

 

Or a simple thought distraction a second or so beforehand.?  Perhaps we went into what for us was a more restricted vision area, without losing a few precious MPH to give us that essential TIME to observe, and act on what we saw?

 

It is the latter which has led too many Police drivers to turn from hero to zero in half a second.

 

Never mind you and I?

 

For a split second, we may have suddenly made an assumption....?

 

Thus, we failed to cope with the numpty and what they did.......comfortably.

 

Or, we have run into the back of [or, been unable to cope with?] the car in front down the motorway slip road, that has suddenly locked up in a cloud of smoke? [why do drivers insist on rushing ever faster down a motorway slip road? They don't give themselves any sort of time to assess the traffic situation, and adjust their speed, up or down, accordingly..they just rush on, expecting others to keep out of their way.

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If Coach was helming off the starboard gunwhale and been close hauled as he reached the roundabout, as he entered, he'd ease the sheet and pull the rudder in a little to get off onto a reach to move off to port. It would be a  quick go about to starboard and then back to port to get back onto the correct tack to exit along his correct route.  

 

However, if he was reaching towards the roundabout, he may have just managed a run onto the roundabout before  going close hauled to get around, then back onto a reach to sail safely away.

 

We'll not go into a dead run where he'd have to gybe..................

 

Everybody understand that....or are still awake?

 

So'wester, Oilie, Mae West ......

I actually thought Coach's driving might be a bit more like this.....

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You would but maybe thirty seconds later. How many times have you seen someone shoving his way dangerously and inconsiderately through heavy traffic and gaining maybe three or four car lengths over the course of a mile or more.

 

BTW, does anyone know the proper medical name for the condition in which the male organs detach from the patient's body if they are overtaken while driving? It does seem to be a very common ailment.  

1st rule of overtaking:-   Is it necessary?

 

Stewart

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Should be obvious.

 

Do bear in mind that by law speedometers have to be factory set to read up to 10% fast, so by setting his cruise control to 75mph he could well be doing as little as 68mph in reality. Sat Navs are not encumbered by this, so I cruise at 70mph according to the sat nav, which corresponds to 74mph on my speedo.  Sometimes the obvious answer isn't the right(eous) one...

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Do bear in mind that by law speedometers have to be factory set to read up to 10% fast, so by setting his cruise control to 75mph he could well be doing as little as 68mph in reality. Sat Navs are not encumbered by this, so I cruise at 70mph according to the sat nav, which corresponds to 74mph on my speedo.  Sometimes the obvious answer isn't the right(eous) one...

It's all in the risk assessment......

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I cruise at about 73 to 75 to allow for speedo lag. It also helps you to pass other vehicles quicker and get out of the line of fire of the serious speeding/tailgating merchants. There is talk down my neck of the woods that Police forces are going to lower the threshold to 1mph over the limit before nicking, so maybe I'll be cruising at 70 soon.

Edited by Baby Deltic
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However, I'm sure that Alastair, Mick and others will concur that you should always drive at a speed so that you can stop safely in a distance that you can see to be clear.  eg Driving around a sharp bend at the nsl and finding a herd of cows straddling the road!  Can you stop before hitting them?  If not you were going too fast.  

 

 

 

And that's what happened to me sometime on 1984/85.

 

I learnt a few things in that incident.

 

Do not be distracted by passengers

Do not drive too fast round a blind corner

Do not drive a car with brakes that are less than 100% efficient

Do not drive too fast on a wet road

Do not drive too fast on a wet road covered in cowsh1t

Cows are hard and heavy.

Cows will break front windscreens

Cows will crush the bonnet of a Mk2 Escort

Farmers wives know lots of swear words.

 

The cow was bruised but otherwise unhurt.

The other 41 were out of breath from running away down the road.

 

I don't plan on doing it again soon.

 

Cheers,

Mick

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Some previous post have mentioned that tailgaters are more likely to be in a Audi these days, I hadn't noticed until today, 3 times I couldn't see their number plate, but the 4 rings, obvious, even the flies on them.

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How much does a trailer carrying six cows weigh, and what does a Land Rover Discovery weigh? No wonder it came acropper.

 

A Defender is around 2 tons and has a 3500kg towing limit

 

6 cows between 3 ton and 6 ton depending on breed and age

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A driver of an RAV4 became a cropper recently after trying to tow a trailer with a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow on it. The Rolls was a write off and he was trailering it to 'avoid the cost of insuring it'. The accident occurred only two miles from his starting point.

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Someone will be along in a minute to tell you it's not called road tax anymore... I've always called it that and always will.

Road Tax was abolished by Churchill as it was felt that no one group should be able to claim more right to the road than another.

 

What we pay is a fee to use a motorised vehicle on a public road, you pay £0 for a low emission vehicle so a bike would be £0 prior to tax disks being withdrawn it was estimated making cyclists display would cost £10,000 for no benefit.

 

Insurance-wise many cyclists are covered on their home insurance for public liability, others through cycling club membership (it's free with membership of British Cycling)

 

This subject has been discussed and locked many times, perhaps a separate discussion compared with the standard of qualified drivers?

 

 

On my way to work this morning I carefully made my way through a traffic jam to find an ambulance and two police cars blocking part if the entry to a roundabout before spotting a badly damaged motor scooter with L plate showing on its side a foot away from the island itself

 

My guess is, as this road rises and then drops to reveal the roundabout he's braked too hard for the conditions and skidded loosing control

 

He's had a days training before being allowed out on his own (same as myself although I had held a car licence for 10 years) it's better than the old system of buy a bike and figure it out yourself but is it enough?

 

Many training centres will sign off anyone who doesn't wobble too much, others will insist on another afternoon before sign off to be sure the new rider will be ok. Many people will ride on L plates with only re taking the days training every two years as legally required, not everyone will do further training and tests.

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Road Tax was abolished by Churchill as it was felt that no one group should be able to claim more right to the road than another.

 

What we pay is a fee to use a motorised vehicle on a public road, you pay £0 for a low emission vehicle so a bike would be £0 prior to tax disks being withdrawn it was estimated making cyclists display would cost £10,000 for no benefit.

That changed in the last budget. I thought it was a proportion, but apparently _all_ of England's VED will be ringfenced road tax.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/11727415/Budget-2015-Motorists-in-expensive-cars-hit-by-450-annual-tax-to-fund-new-roads.html

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I reckon those cows should get in touch with one of those no win, no fee types (Ambulance Chasers 4 U, or whatever they're called). Clearly they've been involved in an accident that wasn't their fault. They might even get some compensation before they reach the abbatoir. I think they should really milk it. Maybe we should moo've on....

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