Driving standards

[PhilJ W]

16 minutes ago, peanuts said:

sounds like my current Kia rio chronically under geared fantastic nipping around on A roads through the gears but screaming its bits off on the motorway at 70  in fith gear badly needs another cog for cruising 

 

I have a Hyundai that seems to be very high geared, it struggles on hills when I'm carrying more than one passenger. Also the fourth and fifth gears are of very similar ratios barely 50 rpm per 10 mph. In top gear at 30 mph the revs are only 1500.

[Nick C]

On 07/12/2019 at 13:36, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

It is also a good idea in those situations to wear reflective clothing and carry a torch and not leave it up to the motorist to avoid the pedestrian?

 

Mike.

You've clearly not been to the Basingstoke school of cycling, where the following appears to be required:

1. remove or cover all reflective items on the bike. Under no circumstances carry anything that might emit a light (except the phone screen, while texting)
2. wear all black/dark colours
3. cycle the wrong way down one-way streets, or on the wrong side of two-way roads
4. weave into the middle of the road unpredictably
5. cycle on the pavements, but be sure to obey rule 4
6. cross any side street without looking or slowing

[polybear]

7.  Traffic Lights are only for cars.

8.  Protest about how dangerous it is for cyclists, yet don't wear a cycle helmet....

[Reorte]

Most of those cyclist stereotypes have a grounding in reality but IME the number of cyclists doing things like carrying on straight through reds has declined considerably in the last few years. Used to be the case that I was surprised if a cyclist stopped at them at all, now a lot seem to.

[Coldgunner]

My 2.0 TDI MK5 golf is quite happy at 20mph in 3rd. Labours a little if shifted to fourth and second is not quite right. I was taught to treat gears as such:-

 

1st - 0-10

2nd - 10-20

3rd - 20-30

4th - 30-40

5th - 40-50

6th - 50+

 

 

Although your gear ratios may differ, but that's what my instructor taught me. If I'm on a bit of a fun hoon I'll do 1st up to 15/20, 2nd up to 30 and 3rd up to 60 if the situation is suitable. I skip gears a lot so I'll sometimes do 1, 2, 3, 6 or whatever. But that's just when having the aforementioned hooning. Never abuse my car when its still cold though. Pretty good at throttling off at bang on 60/70.

[PhilJ W]

19 minutes ago, Coldgunner said:

My 2.0 TDI MK5 golf is quite happy at 20mph in 3rd. Labours a little if shifted to fourth and second is not quite right. I was taught to treat gears as such:-

 

1st - 0-10

2nd - 10-20

3rd - 20-30

4th - 30-40

5th - 40-50

6th - 50+

 

 

Although your gear ratios may differ, but that's what my instructor taught me. If I'm on a bit of a fun hoon I'll do 1st up to 15/20, 2nd up to 30 and 3rd up to 60 if the situation is suitable. I skip gears a lot so I'll sometimes do 1, 2, 3, 6 or whatever. But that's just when having the aforementioned hooning. Never abuse my car when its still cold though. Pretty good at throttling off at bang on 60/70.

I was taught the same except when I passed my test, 52 years ago many cars still had only three gears including my first car (Ford 100E). Not that it mattered so much as the car was barely capable of 60mph.

[steve1]

Cretin of the day award.

 

I was slowing down to turn right into a car wash, WITH THE INDICATORS ON, when this moron in a SUV came up fast from behind and overtook me! What sort of self abuser is so stupid as to even attempt such a manoeuvre???

 

steve

[Nick C]

5 hours ago, Reorte said:

Most of those cyclist stereotypes have a grounding in reality but IME the number of cyclists doing things like carrying on straight through reds has declined considerably in the last few years. Used to be the case that I was surprised if a cyclist stopped at them at all, now a lot seem to.

The ones I listed aren't stereotypes round here. One last week doing four of those six at once, I only saw him by the glint of headlights off his spokes...

[PhilJ W]

Not only cyclists but pedestrians do not seem to like making themselves visible at night. Is it only me that thinks that the new LED streetlights make those wearing dark clothing even less visible?

[Hobby]

I was wondering if it was just me regarding those LED streetlights! I don;t know if its just that we've got used to the orange-ish colour of the old ones but it does seem to me that the LED ones don't give as good coverage of light... But no doubt they'll be "greener"...

[Enterprisingwestern]

21 minutes ago, Hobby said:

I was wondering if it was just me regarding those LED streetlights! I don;t know if its just that we've got used to the orange-ish colour of the old ones but it does seem to me that the LED ones don't give as good coverage of light... But no doubt they'll be "greener"...

 

Like many things nowadays, practicality is dying on the cross of environmental friendliness.

 

Mike.

[30801]

31 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Like many things nowadays, practicality is dying on the cross of environmental friendliness.

 

Sodium lights are orange because that's what colour they are. LEDs can be any colour you like so if there was a benefit to them being orange they'd be orange.

[PaulCheffus]

2 hours ago, Hobby said:

I was wondering if it was just me regarding those LED streetlights! I don;t know if its just that we've got used to the orange-ish colour of the old ones but it does seem to me that the LED ones don't give as good coverage of light... But no doubt they'll be "greener"...

 

Hi

 

The country lane I live down is now very dimly lit since they changed them to LEDs. I've also noticed several that have been replaced in the two villages have already died. I thought LEDs were supposed to have a long life this is in less than three years. 

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[chris p bacon]

21 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

 

Hi

 

The country lane I live down is now very dimly lit since they changed them to LEDs. I've also noticed several that have been replaced in the two villages have already died. I thought LEDs were supposed to have a long life this is in less than three years. 

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

I know some authorities have looked at how much light pollution there was and when renewing have reduced the amount of lighting. It's likely that what is now provided is sufficient for its purpose.

Re the failures, it is probably not the lamp but the fitting which is corroding and fails.

[Compound2632]

9 minutes ago, chris p bacon said:

 

I know some authorities have looked at how much light pollution there was and when renewing have reduced the amount of lighting. It's likely that what is now provided is sufficient for its purpose.

 

 

I've been sleeping much better since an LED downlighter replaced the 360 degree sodium glare outside our house. As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any change in the nocturnal accident or crime rates on our suburban street, although I fear for the impact on crime rates in sub-Saharan Africa.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Compound2632

[chris p bacon]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I've been sleeping much better since an LED downlighter replaced the 360 degree sodium glare outside our house. As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any change in the nocturnal accident or crime rates on our suburban street.

 

Exactly the same for me. There is a street light outside our house that is so tall that when sodium lit it shone into the house and we didn't need to put the lights on upstairs. Now it has been changed for an LED the lighting is more 'directional' and just lights the path and road and not everywhere else.

[Mark Saunders]

8 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

 

Hi

 

The country lane I live down is now very dimly lit since they changed them to LEDs. I've also noticed several that have been replaced in the two villages have already died. I thought LEDs were supposed to have a long life this is in less than three years. 

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

Cheap imports, I have a kitchen with eight LED downlighters, with a five year guarantee. In the irst eight months I am now up to a 75% failure rate! 

[PaulCheffus]

33 minutes ago, chris p bacon said:

 

I know some authorities have looked at how much light pollution there was and when renewing have reduced the amount of lighting. It's likely that what is now provided is sufficient for its purpose.

Re the failures, it is probably not the lamp but the fitting which is corroding and fails.

Hi

 

Good point regarding the light fitting, however these were replaced at the same time.

 

I would suggest it isn't sufficient as it makes it very dark when walking down the lane. In addition I have lived there for twenty years and until recently there had been no incidents of burglaries. Now there have been several in the last eighteen months. Coincidence?

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Reorte]

52 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

Good point regarding the light fitting, however these were replaced at the same time.

 

I would suggest it isn't sufficient as it makes it very dark when walking down the lane. In addition I have lived there for twenty years and until recently there had been no incidents of burglaries. Now there have been several in the last eighteen months. Coincidence?

Does lighting deter burglars or just help them see what they're doing?

[PaulCheffus]

30 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Does lighting deter burglars or just help them see what they're doing?

Hi

 

According  to the Police (my wife went to a drop in session run by them last week) it’s a deterrent as they don’t like being seen.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[30801]

18 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

According  to the Police (my wife went to a drop in session run by them last week) it’s a deterrent as they don’t like being seen.

 

Surely daylight temperature lighting helps too as you can at least correctly identify the colour of hoodie they're wearing.

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

 

Exactly the same for me. There is a street light outside our house that is so tall that when sodium lit it shone into the house and we didn't need to put the lights on upstairs. Now it has been changed for an LED the lighting is more 'directional' and just lights the path and road and not everywhere else.

Regarding sodium street lights, I can't help remembering the 'One Foot in the Grave' episode, where someone hits the street light and it's bent in such a way, that it's INSIDE the bedroom and still working at full brightness!

[TheQ]

18 hours ago, Coldgunner said:

My 2.0 TDI MK5 golf is quite happy at 20mph in 3rd. Labours a little if shifted to fourth and second is not quite right. I was taught to treat gears as such:-

 

1st - 0-10

2nd - 10-20

3rd - 20-30

4th - 30-40

5th - 40-50

6th - 50+

 

 

Although your gear ratios may differ, but that's what my instructor taught me. If I'm on a bit of a fun hoon I'll do 1st up to 15/20, 2nd up to 30 and 3rd up to 60 if the situation is suitable. I skip gears a lot so I'll sometimes do 1, 2, 3, 6 or whatever. But that's just when having the aforementioned hooning. Never abuse my car when its still cold though. Pretty good at throttling off at bang on 60/70.

You are somewhat younger than many on here, most of us can remember when cars only had 4 gears if not 3. 

1st was up to about 10mph

2nd about 20

3rd got you to 30  or 50 if overtaking.

4th was for 40- 70.. gently poodling around town you could drop to 30

 

in my landrover  

             High range                                                                        Low range

1st gets you rolling,                                                            1st low range... has it moved yet..?

2nd gets you to 10                                                              2nd have we reached 5mph?

3rd gets you to 20  -30                                                        3rd Coor... 15mph

4th is a minimum of 20  really  25, up to 50                    4th   30mph..... eventually

5th  40 to the book figure for flat out is 95,                     5th  engine screaming at about 60..

 

Country lanes don't have street lights, my nearest is about 4 miles away on my route to work, when i hit the first town..

 

 

[caradoc]

15 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Not only cyclists but pedestrians do not seem to like making themselves visible at night. Is it only me that thinks that the new LED streetlights make those wearing dark clothing even less visible?

 

When cycling, even though I am never out after dark, I always wear bright clothing in the interest of my own safety, but I am constantly surprised at the number of cyclists who seem to want to be invisible ! On the other hand, unless out on an unlit road, without pavements, I do not see any need for pedestrians to wear hi-vis clothing. 

 

[SM42]

22 minutes ago, caradoc said:

 

When cycling, even though I am never out after dark, I always wear bright clothing in the interest of my own safety, but I am constantly surprised at the number of cyclists who seem to want to be invisible ! On the other hand, unless out on an unlit road, without pavements, I do not see any need for pedestrians to wear hi-vis clothing. 

 

 

 

I find it strange too that if they do have lights then they have to be the smallest possible (especially at the back)

 

I much prefer a big red lamp to a single 0.5 mm LED.

 

And talking of LEDs, the street lamp opposite SM42 towers has been converted to LED. Now I have to stand to one side of the front door when I get home at night so that I can get some light  to see the key hole from  the  sodium lamp that's about 20yds further away. The LED lamp has a nice pool of light under it about 20ft across but then almost  total darkness if not for that sodium job nearby.

 

Congratulations. The gas lamp has been re-invented. Game of Kick-can nurky anyone

 

Andy