Driving standards

[SM42]

Dual carriageway ( has a central reservation)  is 70mph unless otherwise signed. 

 

On my route to work tonight I will turn off a 40mph dual carriageway onto a signed  30mph side road. 

 

I will then join another unsigned dual carriageway without passing another speed limit sign. The road has streetlights. 

The opposite carriageway is signed 40mph. 

 

What is the limit on my side? 

 

In theory 30mph, but as you approach a roundabout a 30mph terminal sign appears,indicating that maybe it was more than 30mph before this sign. 

 

In car cameras are no help. They give up if it doesn't see a sign after a minute or so. 

 

Confused? You will be. 

 

Most seem to think the limit is around 60 anyway.

 

The big problem is the probability of not being caught nowadays. 

 

Technology cannot fully replace the mk1 eyeball of a police officer and there are far too few of those looking after traffic matters nowadays.

 

I'm pretty sure the national debt and Birmigham City Council's financial problems could be helped by more enforcement of the rules of the road. 

 

Tomorrow, around 6am I will be in the Birmingham Grand Prix. 

 

No plod about that time. It's shift change.

 

Andy

[Deeps]

59 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Erm... Isn't that the test?

Not exactly. When I specified an ‘examiner’ it was the only term I could think of for someone (other than my wife) who could certify that you were a safe driver without having to go through the whole of the test procedures again, which I would find extremely stressful. They could identify certain bad habits picked up over the years and suggest ways of amending your driving style for the better. These ‘bad habits’ would have resulted in a fail during a full driving test but in my utopian world I would learn the lesson and be free to carry on as normal. Just my opinion.

 

I have actually undergone such an assessment when recovering from surgery to my shoulder; an examiner accompanied me for a drive around Plymouth to check that I could safely drive a car with a weakened arm. It was only a few years ago and I was assessed as being an above average driver (which quite surprised me!).

 

Anyway, having reached a certain age, and keen to ensure that I am not a danger to other road users, it probably wouldn’t take much to persuade me that a full test might well be advisable on a regular basis.

[Reorte]

33 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Dual carriageway ( has a central reservation)  is 70mph unless otherwise signed. 

 

On my route to work tonight I will turn off a 40mph dual carriageway onto a signed  30mph side road. 

 

I will then join another unsigned dual carriageway without passing another speed limit sign. The road has streetlights. 

The opposite carriageway is signed 40mph. 

 

What is the limit on my side? 

 

In theory 30mph, but as you approach a roundabout a 30mph terminal sign appears,indicating that maybe it was more than 30mph before this sign.

There should be small NSL repeaters every now and then if it's streetlit but 70 (or anything other than 30 for that matter), e.g. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7004713,-2.3325213,3a,42.2y,147.59h,83.64t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_4jDKWAxCpBi-FRzIH4ppQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?ucbcb=1&entry=ttu

[johnofwessex]

I live in Frome and we have had two fatal accidents on the bypass, both caused by men over 40, and high on drugs, so don't blame the youngsters for everyone.

 

What we do have though is increasingly powerful vehicles that are not a good fit for the current road system that was built for horses and carts coupled with cheap technology that allows them to be reigned in to some extent.

 

What I do think though is that we need to ask some serious questions about the sort of vehicles we allow on our roads in terms of speed, acceleration & size. 

[Reorte]

42 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

I live in Frome and we have had two fatal accidents on the bypass, both caused by men over 40, and high on drugs, so don't blame the youngsters for everyone.

 

What we do have though is increasingly powerful vehicles that are not a good fit for the current road system that was built for horses and carts coupled with cheap technology that allows them to be reigned in to some extent.

 

What I do think though is that we need to ask some serious questions about the sort of vehicles we allow on our roads in terms of speed, acceleration & size. 

I'm guessing that the bypass wasn't built for horses and carts!

[johnofwessex]

36 minutes ago, Reorte said:

I'm guessing that the bypass wasn't built for horses and carts!

 

No, for practitioners of the solitary vice

[PhilJ W]

I had a call from the insurance company about the accident I had in January. The other drivers behavior was suspicious at the time and now he's putting in a massive claim for personal injury. Fortunately there was an independent witness and I was able to give them details that they were unaware of. It was obviously a crash for cash scam but I didn't have a dash cam but the circumstances are so obvious.

[GrumpyPenguin]

On 17/04/2024 at 11:48, hayfield said:

Secondly bigger heavier cars and lorries cause more damage than smaller cars and lorries, again the problem could be in our own hands in that these heavier vehicles perhaps should be paying more into the pot to cover the damage they cause

 

HGV's alkready pay Road Fund Licence by weight.

The more an HGV weighs (vehicle & load) then the more fuel it uses - for every £60 worth of diesel used approx' £40 goesd to HMG in various taxes.

So, HGV's certainly pay a huge ammount towards the roads.

 

We could of course have smaller &/or lighter trucks but that would mean more roadspace required, more drivers & of course the cost of moving our goods around would increase & we are certainly not going to accept that.

[GrumpyPenguin]

On 17/04/2024 at 18:49, woodenhead said:

The numbers of Range Rovers / Land Rovers and similar large SUV I see on the road and in shopping centre car parks in the middle of a city are ridiculous.

Believe it or not some of us do require something like a RR.

 

Personally I require the following on one vehicle ;

Ability to seat between 1 > 5 in resonable comfort.

Ability to carry as much as a small van (with the rear seats down).

Ability to legally town a 2.5ton Box Trailer.

 

Not much choice really, unless I run more than one vehicle.

[Reorte]

15 minutes ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

We could of course have smaller &/or lighter trucks but that would mean more roadspace required, more drivers & of course the cost of moving our goods around would increase & we are certainly not going to accept that.

I bought some screws from a shop about fifteen minutes' walk away. The address on the box was about thirty minutes' walk away. Couldn't help wondering just what the route they were transported from the latter to the former was...

[PhilJ W]

Remember that road tax and fuel duty now goes into the general taxation pot (and if it goes into road repairs it has to pay consultants first).

[Coldgunner]

1 hour ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

HGV's alkready pay Road Fund Licence by weight.

The more an HGV weighs (vehicle & load) then the more fuel it uses - for every £60 worth of diesel used approx' £40 goesd to HMG in various taxes.

So, HGV's certainly pay a huge ammount towards the roads.

 

We could of course have smaller &/or lighter trucks but that would mean more roadspace required, more drivers & of course the cost of moving our goods around would increase & we are certainly not going to accept that.

I wonder if the Japanese are onto something with their Kei cars.

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Coldgunner said:

I wonder if the Japanese are onto something with their Kei cars.

 

I'm kind of trying to come up with an excuse to get one of these...

https://www.advantage4vans.com/vehicle-details/used-honda-n-van-model-g-works-specification-658cc-automatic-for-sale-u3685/

[admiles]

21 hours ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

Not In my experience it doesn’t and the Police don’t seem interested in the data even after a fatal accident.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

The points I refer to aren't those dished out by the police/courts and put onto a driving license. They're the ones the insurance companies "app" will add using data from the black box. Gain too many and your insurance gets revoked.

[GrumpyPenguin]

31 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

I'm kind of trying to come up with an excuse to get one of these...

https://www.advantage4vans.com/vehicle-details/used-honda-n-van-model-g-works-specification-658cc-automatic-for-sale-u3685/

Wonder what the Encap rating is ?

 

Whatever it is I'll stick to my Range Rover thanks.

[GrumpyPenguin]

29 minutes ago, admiles said:

 

The points I refer to aren't those dished out by the police/courts and put onto a driving license. They're the ones the insurance companies "app" will add using data from the black box. Gain too many and your insurance gets revoked.

I often wonder about the logic of these "black boxes" - you could have an excellent driver with a well maintained car (premium brand tyres ect) that "does not hang about" who scores bady but has un unblemished claims record, on the otjher hand a poor driver with a borderline MOT car (missmatched budget tyres ect) that dodders around and has a claim or two in the distant past.

[big jim]

18 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

had a call from the insurance company about the accident I had in January. The other drivers behavior was suspicious at the time and now he's putting in a massive claim for personal injury. Fortunately there was an independent witness and I was able to give them details that they were unaware of. It was obviously a crash for cash scam but I didn't have a dash cam but the circumstances are so obvious.

we had that about 15 years back, a crash for cash scam, they tried to claim for a bad neck and back but unfortunately for the other person they didn’t bank on me finding a photo of them an owners club website doing a cartwheel and running up a mountainside 2 days after the crash! 
 

he’d claimed he’d been to his GP who said he had whiplash etc but on the same forum had said the week previous that he didn’t have a GP since moving house some 3 years previous! 
 

I sent the pics and a screenshot of the GP thread to my insurance company who forwarded them to their solicitor and surprise surprise I didn’t hear a thing back

 

after they got convinced of dangerous driving in the crown court and ended up having the book thrown at them I went through aslef and sued them back, it hadn’t crossed my mind at the time but as he tried it on with me I thought I’d do it back to him especially as he put my then 5 yr old kid and 9 month pregnant wife in hospital, we all got compensation from his insurance, the joys of being in a good union! 
 

 

 

Edited April 19 by big jim

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

I bought some screws from a shop about fifteen minutes' walk away. The address on the box was about thirty minutes' walk away. Couldn't help wondering just what the route they were transported from the latter to the former was...

The head office address might have been on the packaging, but doesn't meant that the screws were made there - even if SOME screws are made there.

These days, it's probably some factory in China or perhaps Taiwan!

 

But I agree the distance travelled was probably VASTLY more than the most direct route.

 

Nothing has changed since the old RCH days, things often went in roundabout routes then, to send stuff over the same company, not necessarily the shortest route.

[Coldgunner]

1 hour ago, 30801 said:

 

I'm kind of trying to come up with an excuse to get one of these...

https://www.advantage4vans.com/vehicle-details/used-honda-n-van-model-g-works-specification-658cc-automatic-for-sale-u3685/

I think the Honda S660 looks pretty neat, like a Civic after a hot wash

[Steadfast]

I'm convinced the general road using population are getting more selfish or less understanding of the rules of the road.

 

Pet peev this week, people not giving way when the obstruction is their side. My 45 minute drive to work one day this week seem to have disproptionate percentage of this sort of behaviour, you know, one of those days it feels they're all out to get you! Best one was a 7.5 tonner just charging past parked cars forcing me and others on the pavement to take avoiding action, luckily with drop curbs so no damage occured!

 

Jo

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Steadfast said:

Pet peev this week, people not giving way when the obstruction is their side.

 

That came up in a local Facebook group only for someone to declare that wasn't a thing and priority is given to who got there first 🙄

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Coldgunner said:

I think the Honda S660 looks pretty neat, like a Civic after a hot wash

 

Sure, it's nice. But is it 4x4 kei tipper-truck nice?

[Coldgunner]

3 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

Sure, it's nice. But is it 4x4 kei tipper-truck nice?

 

Can I have both?

[johnofwessex]

4 hours ago, big jim said:

we had that about 15 years back, a crash for cash scam, they tried to claim for a bad neck and back but unfortunately for the other person they didn’t bank on me finding a photo of them an owners club website doing a cartwheel and running up a mountainside 2 days after the crash! 
 

he’d claimed he’d been to his GP who said he had whiplash etc but on the same forum had said the week previous that he didn’t have a GP since moving house some 3 years previous! 
 

I sent the pics and a screenshot of the GP thread to my insurance company who forwarded them to their solicitor and surprise surprise I didn’t hear a thing back

 

after they got convinced of dangerous driving in the crown court and ended up having the book thrown at them I went through aslef and sued them back, it hadn’t crossed my mind at the time but as he tried it on with me I thought I’d do it back to him especially as he put my then 5 yr old kid and 9 month pregnant wife in hospital, we all got compensation from his insurance, the joys of being in a good union! 
 

 

 

 

Do ASLEF provide Hitmen?

[johnofwessex]

A candidate for a Hospital Order surely