Driving standards

[Guest]

47 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Thats a rather tasty Estelle!

 

 

I once looked at a nice Estelle when they were completely worthless, but then bought a garbage Sierra because I'm an idiot.

[peanuts]

8 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

I once looked at a nice Estelle when they were completely worthless, but then bought a garbage Sierra because I'm an idiot.

Had a couple of skodas a 120l & a 130l .the later gained the alloy  8 port head from the 136 twin 40s l & lowered stiffened springs .surprised a few hot hatches and stuck to the road especially after a foot long length of rail was bolted under the front bonnet .great fun on a twisty moorland road .

[johnofwessex]

1 hour ago, chiefpenguin said:

I'm not condoning what the taxi driver did but he may have come accross scaffolders before - you don't mess with scaffolders - they are a breed of their own (possibly closely related to Fork Lif Truck Drivers !)

 

I am told that we dont rea;;y need the SAS, just send in the scaffolders

[Pete the Elaner]

1 hour ago, peanuts said:

has the highway code changed in regards to right turns ? 

one of our company vans was hit yesterday just between the passenger door and the front wing by an idiot turning right onto the road he was just coming upto the give way line on .managed to push the fully loaded renault traffic 3feet sideways and wreck the skoda Octavia he was driving but he wasnt speeding and is insisting the bump was not his fault . we have the whole thing on cctv so he doesent have a leg to stand on .

 

Am I interpreting this correctly?

The Skoda driver cut the corner but claimed it your van's fault for being too close to the give way line (but on their side of the road).

[62613]

40 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Am I interpreting this correctly?

The Skoda driver cut the corner but claimed it your van's fault for being too close to the give way line (but on their side of the road).

Happens all the time near our house. We have a situation where two residential streets go into a sort of approach road from the main through road. It forms the stalk of a 'T' with them both. I have, on a number of occasions, watched cars turning right onto the stalk either completely on the wrong side of the road (with no cars coming the other way - can no - one turn right properly?), swerving to get back into the correct lane when they see me approaching either junction, beckoning me out when I'm turning right at either junction, or looking nonplussed when I just exercise my right of way when turning right.

[Pete the Elaner]

12 minutes ago, 62613 said:

Happens all the time near our house. We have a situation where two residential streets go into a sort of approach road from the main through road. It forms the stalk of a 'T' with them both. I have, on a number of occasions, watched cars turning right onto the stalk either completely on the wrong side of the road (with no cars coming the other way - can no - one turn right properly?), swerving to get back into the correct lane when they see me approaching either junction, beckoning me out when I'm turning right at either junction, or looking nonplussed when I just exercise my right of way when turning right.

 

Cutting corners happens all the time, but for a driver to do it then claiming they were not at fault is rather outrageous.

[peanuts]

1 hour ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Am I interpreting this correctly?

The Skoda driver cut the corner but claimed it your van's fault for being too close to the give way line (but on their side of the road).

yup our van was approaching the give way line when the skoda  cut the corner would not have been able to see our van due to a high hedge untill to late but is notorious for cars cutting there 

[Enterprisingwestern]

4 hours ago, peanuts said:

we have the whole thing on cctv so he doesent have a leg to stand on .

 

I hope he does, he'll be walking to work now!

 

Mike.

[jcredfer]

4 hours ago, peanuts said:

yup our van was approaching the give way line when the skoda  cut the corner would not have been able to see our van due to a high hedge untill to late but is notorious for cars cutting there 

 

Umm...  cutting a corner on a blind bend.  Needs his Licence revoked, as an ever present danger to other road users and locking up for long enough for him to think and work it out.

 

[62613]

5 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

Cutting corners happens all the time, but for a driver to do it then claiming they were not at fault is rather outrageous.

Agreed, but should it happen all the time?

Edited February 11 by 62613

[cctransuk]

11 hours ago, 62613 said:

Agreed, but should it happen all the time?

 

Nope - but that is life!😠

 

CJI.

[johnofwessex]

12 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

Umm...  cutting a corner on a blind bend.  Needs his Licence revoked, as an ever present danger to other road users and locking up for long enough for him to think and work it out.

 

 

Pity it was a Van and not a Telehandler............

[Pete the Elaner]

16 hours ago, 62613 said:

Agreed, but should it happen all the time?

 

No, but a lot of things happen which shouldn't.

Avoiding an accident is much less hassle than allowing someone else to cause it, then going through the hassle of dealing with a repair.

[Nick C]

In a lot of places it's difficult, if not impossible, to avoid cutting the corner - especially with the number of parked cars around on many residential roads these days (illegal itself so close to a junction, of course, but as @cctransuk says, such is life...). The important thing is to do so slowly and safely so there's no risk of collision.

 

There's a lot of "It's my right of way" type attitude (often when it isn't...), but sometimes it's better to wait for the other car to go first anyway, then you've got more room to manoeuvre...

[kevinlms]

4 minutes ago, Nick C said:

In a lot of places it's difficult, if not impossible, to avoid cutting the corner - especially with the number of parked cars around on many residential roads these days (illegal itself so close to a junction, of course, but as @cctransuk says, such is life...). The important thing is to do so slowly and safely so there's no risk of collision.

 

Isn't parking so close to an intersection/junction enforced in the UK? It seems so blatant in UK videos.

[Nick C]

5 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Isn't parking so close to an intersection/junction enforced in the UK? It seems so blatant in UK videos.

It doesn't seem to be enforced at all, at least not on residential streets. The Highway code says not to park within 10m of a junction, but that doesn't seem to stop people...

 

And on a related one - We saw a delivery van while out for our walk at lunchtime, who had just stopped in the middle of the road, between two lines of parked cars. There was a suitable gap he could have parked in no more than two car lengths in front of him, or a church car park a similar distance behind.

Edited February 12 by Nick C

[Reorte]

7 minutes ago, Nick C said:

It doesn't seem to be enforced at all, at least not on residential streets. The Highway code says not to park within 10m of a junction, but that doesn't seem to stop people...

It says "do not" rather than "must not" (rule 243), which suggests it's bad practice rather than strictly banned. Failing to follow what's in the Highway Code when it doesn't say must or must not could be interpreted as something along the lines of careless driving, but isn't a specific offence.

 

Any time it uses "must" it's referring to the law, anything else is describing good practice, but the Highway Code isn't the law in its own right.

[Tankerman]

3 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Isn't parking so close to an intersection/junction enforced in the UK? It seems so blatant in UK videos.

 

There's no chance of enforcing illegal car parking, even if your home is burgled there's no investigation, the most you will get is a Crime Number so that you can make an insurance claim.

[Coldgunner]

Had someone flash me yesterday. Going along the parkway at 70mph, I was being overtaken and essentially parrallel with another car. Car almost matches my speed and position to try to merge but had to abort as I can't move over.

 

Its their job to slot into my lane I'm under no obligation to slow down. Not my fault they suck at merging (wasn't even that busy), if they just eased off the throttle or even just accelerated harder they'd have been fine.

[Pete the Elaner]

16 minutes ago, Nick C said:

And on a related one - We saw a delivery van while out for our walk at lunchtime, who had just stopped in the middle of the road, between two lines of parked cars. There was a suitable gap he could have parked in no more than two car lengths in front of him, or a church car park a similar distance behind.

 

A lot of parking is lazy, thoughtless & dangerous.

Near where I used to live, there was a turning with a post office outside which people regularly parked. It is easier to explain with a picture:

The post office is right on a corner. Vehicles parked directly outside make the view virtually non-existent, so there is a layby about 20m away. I was amazed there is a car actually using it in the photo, because most people cannot be bothered to walk for 10-20 seconds to use it. Most people park where the van is. I used to take a route about 1/2 mile longer instead of chancing my luck by sticking my bonnet out of this junction to see if it was safe to pull out.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Thorrington,+Colchester/@51.8402937,1.0386447,84m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x47d911e1d16ccfb1:0xf7d5dae59eeb39e9!8m2!3d51.84049!4d1.026629!16zL20vMGJjZnEx?entry=ttu

[Pete the Elaner]

4 minutes ago, Coldgunner said:

Had someone flash me yesterday. Going along the parkway at 70mph, I was being overtaken and essentially parrallel with another car. Car almost matches my speed and position to try to merge but had to abort as I can't move over.

 

Its their job to slot into my lane I'm under no obligation to slow down. Not my fault they suck at merging (wasn't even that busy), if they just eased off the throttle or even just accelerated harder they'd have been fine.

 

It is really not that difficult to adjust your speed when entering a dual carriageway either. I am surprised they were doing 70 though. Many seem to limit themselves to 50 then find they need to find an extra 10mph from somewhere.

I would rather accelerate more sharply initially, which gives me time to adjust my speed (usually down) to merge safely. It is one of the few times that accelerating hard is a good thing.

[Coldgunner]

I tend to drop down a gear to give me the legs to accelerate hard if I need to pick up some pace. I have a feeling that learning your power curves are not taught so much these days, seems to be all about economical driving.

 

Also, dropping a gear and giving it some welly is fun!

[Reorte]

When merging with a 70 mph road I'll be heading for 70 (assuming the road I'm joining is free-flowing), but trying to spot gaps well before I reach the dashed line, which may well entail easing off before I reach 70. It's obviously a bit easier if you're descending rather than going uphill (where you can see the main road earlier), but there's usually plenty of time at most junctions whichever way they go.

 

People who expect others to pull over does annoy me. I'm happy to pull over if there's easy space to do so but it shouldn't be expected - in the same way as when I'm joining I think it's good practice to see merging traffic approaching well before the merge point.

[Guest]

Back when I used to frequent this junction I had all of 38hp.

Nice sharp bend to prevent you taking a run-up at it and minimal space to accelerate into two lanes of busy 70mph+ traffic.

It was a brand new junction too.

[Pete the Elaner]

31 minutes ago, Reorte said:

When merging with a 70 mph road I'll be heading for 70 (assuming the road I'm joining is free-flowing), but trying to spot gaps well before I reach the dashed line, which may well entail easing off before I reach 70. It's obviously a bit easier if you're descending rather than going uphill (where you can see the main road earlier), but there's usually plenty of time at most junctions whichever way they go.

 

People who expect others to pull over does annoy me. I'm happy to pull over if there's easy space to do so but it shouldn't be expected - in the same way as when I'm joining I think it's good practice to see merging traffic approaching well before the merge point.

 

I completely agree.

I always consider junctions below the main carriageway to be upside down. I had not considered visibility but a loaded HGV benefits from a bit of gravity assistance. When you exit the road, you don't really want gravity trying to make you go faster either.

 

Isn't it a lot easier to adjust your speed if you've built it up quickly then ease back if necessary rather than try to add some speed because you under-estimated how fast the traffic is flowing?
I do try to give joining traffic a bit of space by pulling over but, as you pointed out, this is not always possible.