Driving standards

[Guest]

You'd hope so. Depends how far the queue goes, and a bit more drawing attention to the fact that there's a stationary vehicle in front of them won't hurt. After all you could argue why have brake lights at all?

 

I'm considering some sort of Raspberry Pi mashup that makes a Facebook post when I apply the brakes.

Save them the bother of looking up.

[nabit]

Apologies if this has been covered before, a few schools in town have 20 when lights flash limits around them BUT i have seen these lights on at night time, weekends and even school holidays so which limit do you abide by as the 20 is designed for specific times of the day monday to friday?

[Horsetan]

....a few schools in town have 20 when lights flash limits around them BUT i have seen these lights on at night time, weekends and even school holidays so which limit do you abide by as the 20 is designed for specific times of the day monday to friday?

 

I wonder if that's a timing fault? There's a double-amber flashing signal for a school near my office which has a short-circuit, so the topmost amber is permanently lit even when the signal is out of operating hours.

[newbryford]

Apologies if this has been covered before, a few schools in town have 20 when lights flash limits around them BUT i have seen these lights on at night time, weekends and even school holidays so which limit do you abide by as the 20 is designed for specific times of the day monday to friday?

 

They are usually accompanied by "advisory" 20mph signs that have no defined end of school 20mph zone, so aren't actually speed limits.

Being on all the time also devalues their effectiveness.

 

There are plenty (especially in Scotland) of school zones with "proper" 20mph when flashing and defined 30mph/end of 20 zone are much better IMO.

[kevinlms]

Brake lights are to indicate that you are slowing down not stopped. Like indicators are intended to show other road users that you are about to change direction not that you already are changing direction..

I would disagree with that. Brake lights are there, both to indicate that a vehicle is slowing down and/or is stationary.

 

A vehicle without any brake lights on could be doing anything, from moving off, sitting there with handbrake on/parked/broken down or they are simply not working.

 

Today, I followed an old Nissan camper van (which crawled away from each set of lights) in Melbourne's CBD for several blocks, without the brake lights coming on once. When able to, I pulled up alongside & told them that the brake lights weren't working. Just got a knowing nod. So NFI if they knew and are going to get fixed or just hoping someone will run up their backside, so they can collect.

 

I keep well back from these idiots & let someone else hit them!

[kevinlms]

They are usually accompanied by "advisory" 20mph signs that have no defined end of school 20mph zone, so aren't actually speed limits.

Being on all the time also devalues their effectiveness.

 

There are plenty (especially in Scotland) of school zones with "proper" 20mph when flashing and defined 30mph/end of 20 zone are much better IMO.

In that case, Australia follows the Scottish model, there is a defined end to these school zones. Also the speed limit is an absolute, with no margin allowed. Learners going for their test, have been known to fail for going 1kmh over the school zone speed limit - usually 40kmh, but can be higher - it depends on the normal speed limit.

[298]

Brake lights are to indicate that you are slowing down not stopped. Like indicators are intended to show other road users that you are about to change direction not that you already are changing direction..

Electric cars have a higher retardation rate when you lift off and benefit from a different burn & coast driving technique to save energy, my Zoe is set up more like a normal car but the Leaf has different presets and really can utilise a "one pedal" technique to regenerate electricity. It's something I was warned about as slowly coasting up to a red light doesn't fit in with 2017 road useage, but TBH isn't a problem when it's quiet. It's therefore a bit of a myth that electric cars contribute to brake dust pollution, and there are Leafs with six figure mileages on that are still on the original pads.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Brake lights are to indicate that you are slowing down not stopped. Like indicators are intended to show other road users that you are about to change direction not that you already are changing direction..

 

Although the reverse applies if you drive a car from a certain European country, of course assuming the latter are used at all.

 

Mike.

[StuAllen]

My car is an automatic but has a brake hold function that I hadn't seen before. When you stop at lights or in traffic you just press the brake pedal harder, you then get Hold icon on the dashboard, the car is then held on the brakes until you pull away. No need to keep your foot on the brake but the brakes and brake lights remain on.     

[Jonboy]

Apologies if this has been covered before, a few schools in town have 20 when lights flash limits around them BUT i have seen these lights on at night time, weekends and even school holidays so which limit do you abide by as the 20 is designed for specific times of the day monday to friday?

My sister used to be lollipop lady, the lights she had to protect her had a reed switch and timer, she waved a magnet underneath and the lights started flashing for a hour.

[jjb1970]

I must admit I've been driving a BMW 520d M Sport for the last week. Luckily I didn't have to do their 'drive like an @rsehole' induction. Looking forward to getting my VW Passat back.

 

I've been shopping around for my next car and was hugely disappointed when I visited the BMW showroom. The 5 Series was quite nicely appointed but nothing special, the 4 Series gran coupe  really felt rather cheap and nasty inside and felt more like a Korean econobox than a supposedly premium product. Given that one of the big selling points of German cars has always been the tactile touch point quality (if not the mechanical and electrical quality) I really expected much more. The new Passat beat both of them in terms of general feel. The Mercedes Benz C and E Classes are expensive but they also feel expensive and very plush, the E Series especially feels special and has made every other car I've looked at feel cheap, by contrast the BMWs I looked at just felt over priced.

[Horsetan]

I've been shopping around for my next car and was hugely disappointed when I visited the BMW showroom. The 5 Series was quite nicely appointed but nothing special, the 4 Series gran coupe  really felt rather cheap and nasty inside and felt more like a Korean econobox than a supposedly premium product. Given that one of the big selling points of German cars has always been the tactile touch point quality (if not the mechanical and electrical quality) I really expected much more. The new Passat beat both of them in terms of general feel.

I'm not sure when the quality started going downhill, but I suspect it began round about the time of the wildly-popular E46 3-Series, which was built in several plants worldwide. I have driven my colleague's 2002 320i saloon, and it doesn't feel like it has lasted particularly well over the years. The gearchange in particular is quite rubbery as it goes into each of the gates.

 

... The Mercedes Benz C and E Classes are expensive but they also feel expensive and very plush, the E Series especially feels special and has made every other car I've looked at feel cheap...

 

Mercedes have been pulling out all the stops to put the Daimler-Chrysler years behind them, a period where quality really did suffer - if you've ever had a W202/203 C-Class, or a W210 E-Class, you'll probably have experienced premature rust - something that Mercedes cars just didn't suffer from before.

[chris p bacon]

The driver is ......elderly......I think that spatial awareness of the width of the car is not a strong point, look at the scrapes down the passenger side door and rear panel, that's not my truck.

 

 

I think he just drove along the road and completely misjudged his road position. He was returning from picking up the car at a local garage after having a drivers side mirror fitted which had been knocked off the previous week. 

As an update on this.

 

I've called in a couple of times to see how the driver is but had no luck finding anyone in.  I eventually spoke to his son this evening who was very grateful for me calling in as he still had no idea what had actually happened. His Father (the driver) was still a little confused and extremely sore but is generally ok. It seems the son had tried many times to stop his Father from driving without success and hopes this will finally stop him.  

It seems that after the ambulance took 1 hour and 20 minutes to arrive after the 999 call things didn't improve. At 2pm they then took him off to Bedford A&E, when there they popped him in a wheelchair and left him in the A&E queue. Only when the son arrived at 4.30pm when the Police got hold of him, did they realise that he was still there. Turns out they had been calling him for an hour but as he has poor hearing he had no idea and they didn't bother checking if the old man facing the wall was the one they wanted. After treatment he was discharged that night.

 I had put his age at mid 70's but seems he's actually 86!

 

As annoying as it is to lose a reliable truck, it's only metal. All my neighbour and I have been concerned about is the health of the driver as I'm sure when he set out that day, he didn't intend to end up in A&E.

As for the various pillocks posting on a local Farcebook page, seems I wasn't far from the truth when I said the ones who didn't stop were heading off to post an "OMG guess what I just saw" post, I don't do FB but I've been shown a few coments where someone saw it but was "too busy" to stop and others have chipped in with ""I know, but I hope the drivers ok" ....F..em...useless waste of space.

[jjb1970]

This sadly sounds all too typical, both of individual and corporate behaviours. At least you can take comfort from having done the right thing and it sounds like some good will come out of the incident if the old chap finally accepts that he shouldn’t be driving. I went through the same thing with my grandfather who refused to accept the advice of everybody that it was time for him to stop driving for the sake of both his own safety and that of others. I upset him particularly because I was quite blunt in telling him that if he killed himself it would be sad but not tragic given that he was of an age where death wasn’t far away whatever he might do (he was also in his 80’s) but that wasn’t true for other road users and pedestrians he was likely to kill. I know that sounds blunt but he was an absolute menace and personally I was far more worried about the other people he was likely to end up killing.

[nabit]

 

This sadly sounds all too typical, both of individual and corporate behaviours. At least you can take comfort from having done the right thing and it sounds like some good will come out of the incident if the old chap finally accepts that he shouldn’t be driving. I went through the same thing with my grandfather who refused to accept the advice of everybody that it was time for him to stop driving for the sake of both his own safety and that of others. I upset him particularly because I was quite blunt in telling him that if he killed himself it would be sad but not tragic given that he was of an age where death wasn’t far away whatever he might do (he was also in his 80’s) but that wasn’t true for other road users and pedestrians he was likely to kill. I know that sounds blunt but he was an absolute menace and personally I was far more worried about the other people he was likely to end up killing.

 

Very similar to what we went through with my farther, number of strokes and TIA,s but insisted he was still ok to drive. Luckily dr had a chat with him one day and he stopped driving

[New Haven Neil]

Here on Fraggle Rock it is an offence NOT to stop at an accident you have witnessed, or if you are first on the scene.

[PhilJ W]

When my dad was told by the doctor to stop driving he handed his car keys to me and signed ownership of his car over to me. This was only two weeks before he died.

[nabit]

Dad still holds a driving license BUT cannot phyically get into the car now as he cannot weight bear, unfortunatly also a diagnosis of dementia and he got upset recently when we sorted car insurance out for mam and had to tell him he wasnt on the policy...not a good day

[Loconuts]

I would be happy to give up driving if I could, too many idiots on the roads these days with a me first attitude. When I had my Landy I was treated with respect from other drivers, I wonder why?

[chris p bacon]

 When I had my Landy I was treated with respect from other drivers, I wonder why?

I thinks that's not so much respect, but they think that no matter how bad things are,  they don't drive one of those....

[TheQ]

I would be happy to give up driving if I could, too many idiots on the roads these days with a me first attitude. When I had my Landy I was treated with respect from other drivers, I wonder why?

Because in reply to "The car in front is a Toyota",

there is a sticker for Landrovers,    "The Car underneath is a Toyota".

 

 or the other one I like " Remember your car is my crumple Zone"

 

1.5 tons of landrover directly connected to my heavy galvanzied  steel bumper and bull bar does tend to keep them away, along with the rock sliders..

 

PS I'm collecting 1/2 a ton of sand and cement later so that will be 2 tons bearing down on them if they pull out on me...

Edited May 16, 2017 by TheQ

[Horsetan]

Here on Fraggle Rock it is an offence NOT to stop at an accident you have witnessed, or if you are first on the scene.

 

I think there is a similar principle in France.

[chris p bacon]

I think there is a similar principle in France.

Isn't it "The Good Samaritan" law.

 

IIRC some Journo's fell foul of it when Dodi & Diana crashed as they took pictures but didn't attempt to help.

Edited May 16, 2017 by chris p bacon

[nabit]

Using rmweb as a snapshot of the UK there are lots of us with situations involving elderly relatives and driving, some of us are lucky that license surrendered or vehicle sold,signed over but some have flat refusal to listen ,believe that their driving standards have become dangerous to themselves and others. Do we need a change in the law that once we reach a certain age mandatory health checks and some sort of retest carried out. what is the situation in the US, AUS or elsewhere?

[Arthur]

Things here have changed a little.

 

My late father in law was living alone, about 80 miles from us, and becoming increasingly confused. My wife had a couple of calls from his neighbours worried about his driving. Pulling out of his drive onto a side road erratically, weaving down the road etc. Despite my wife imploring him he wouldn't give up his car, 'don't take my freedom away from me'. The DVLA wouldn't/couldn't take his license from him without his doctors intervention and his GP wouldn't as it would 'damage the doctor/patient' relationship.

 

To our surprise, a couple of weeks later he casually dropped into a phone conversation that he'd given up driving and was selling his car.

 

A month or so later he came to live with us. On clearing out his house my wife found a letter from the local police. We never found out what had happened in detail but essentially he'd had a low speed bump in a supermarket car park and a stern caution from an officer at the scene and a follow up letter did the job. He was shortly afterwards diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

 

That was twelve years back.

 

Very recently a friend and neighbour was also diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He is nothing like as confused as my father in law was but his GP immediately had the DVLA suspend his licence pending further investigation. He still cannot drive.

 

So GPs, or certainly this one, are far more likely to be proactive.

 

.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Arthur