Driving standards

[Horsetan]

Going off on a tangent slightly, but back to the letter of the thread title, Driving Standards, if any of you are in Blackpool on Sunday (06 Sept), there's the Bus Driver of the Year competition taking place along the promenade - feel free to pop by and watch some of the industry's best drivers showing how to do it... and possibly how not to as well   For the bus enthusiasts amongst you, there's usually a good variety of vehicles from various operators up and down the country.  Feel free to say hello if you see me, I'm competitor number 88.

That sounds like fun. Will that include a slalom stage?

[45156]

I was involved in a cracker today.  I was approaching a mini-roundabout with a clown in a German vehicle which wasn't a VW or an Audi on my tail.  The four roads off this one are not at 90 degrees to each other, and to turn right involves a turn of less than 270 degrees as would be normal - more like 200 degrees - it is, though, the last exit.

 

So there I am with my right turn signal going, negotiating the roundabout as normal, when this comedian cuts to the right of the island, slams the hammer down, blasts his horn, and overtakes me on the wrong side of the island.  Luckily I saw him, otherwise as I did the move correctly I would have gone into his side. 

[Baby Deltic]

I had a taxi w***er shoot past behind me as I was reversing out of a parking space. I had looked over both shoulders and checked call mirrors to make sure it was all clear before starting the manoeuvre, but you can't be looking in all directions at once. These impatient morons who zoom past would be the first to start bleating if they took the side of their car out on a reversing vehicle.

Edited September 5, 2015 by Baby Deltic

[legomanbiffo]

This may help

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=YPLAC

 

Enjoy...........

 

Cheers,

Mick

I nearly wet myself reading some of the posts on there, excellent! Plenty of that goes on where I live, in fact the way the (so-called) policing works it's virtually encouraged. The main drag falls under the jurisdiction of the Police who you never see, despite daily obstructions of roads and pavements caused by illegal and / or highly inconsiderate parking. However, if you choose to park completely legally in the nearby Council car parks and walk for 30 seconds to the shops, you fall under the scrutiny of the highly visible and financially motivated Council car parking attendant who'll ticket you as soon as look at you. It's so 'arse about face', it's unbelievable (yet sadly typical of the political mismanagement in this once great country of ours).

 

Rant over.

[Chubber]

I nearly wet myself reading some of the posts on there, excellent! Plenty of that goes on where I live, in fact the way the (so-called) policing works it's virtually encouraged. The main drag falls under the jurisdiction of the Police who you never see, despite daily obstructions of roads and pavements caused by illegal and / or highly inconsiderate parking. However, if you choose to park completely legally in the nearby Council car parks and walk for 30 seconds to the shops, you fall under the scrutiny of the highly visible and financially motivated Council car parking attendant who'll ticket you as soon as look at you. It's so 'arse about face', it's unbelievable (yet sadly typical of the political mismanagement in this once great country of ours).

 

Rant over.

 

By Sir Reginald Goatley-Prodding IAM, JP Rtd, MFH

 

Why don't you simply have one's chauffeur drive slowly around the town until such time as one's haircut and purchase of prophylactics has been completed? 

 

Anyway, the thin blue line is better employed in detecting and prosecuting tinkers and poachers. Why do you need to go to town, doesn't your cook and housekeeper perform daily errands on your behalf?  Hedonism, sheer seekers after pleasure, beer and skittles...

 

When I have occasion to visit the town, I park at the Golf Club or the Conservative Club and call a taxi. I was once forced to park in the car park of Waitrose Department Store when the High Street was being resurfaced, and some charming Polish chappies washed my car for me. I imagine their fathers' flew Spitfires for us in the last War. I thought they all went home again after V.J. Day when we stopped their Active Service Allowance and put them back on the Locally Employed Foreign Services Rate.

 

Wait until Nasser and his Gippo chums start to kick off and we lose the Anglo-Iran Oil concessions, we'll see who can still afford to run their Austin Sevens then, eh?  At least we still have New Zealand lamb and Fern Leaf butter.....

 

RM G_P

Edited September 5, 2015 by Chubber

[Horsetan]

....Wait until Nasser and his Gippo chums start to kick off ....

Sixty years later, they're still kicking off.

[skipepsi]

Passed today on a 50 limit road, the A61 by an Audi RV8? my problem braking sharply to avoid contact with his rear as he chopped me while braking sharply to avoid the bollards in his way.... Fortunately my braking distance to the car I was following allowed enough room for him. Our car is a C4 Picasso so fat and tall yet he didn't see the refuge and still overtook, had I hit the accelerator when the noise started instead of the brake he would have clipped our car and rolled on down the road.

[kevinlms]

By Sir Reginald Goatley-Prodding IAM, JP Rtd, MFH

 

Why don't you simply have one's chauffeur drive slowly around the town until such time as one's haircut and purchase of prophylactics has been completed? 

 

Anyway, the thin blue line is better employed in detecting and prosecuting tinkers and poachers. Why do you need to go to town, doesn't your cook and housekeeper perform daily errands on your behalf?  Hedonism, sheer seekers after pleasure, beer and skittles...

 

Exactly so, because then any tickets etc. go against them & not you! If they want to spend their exorbitant wages on such trifles, its up to them. Since you're retired, if they don't pay the fines then other magistrates, will do the honourable thing & sentence them.

[cheesysmith]

There was a good one today. Was a passenger on a bus, coming along a normal two lane road (one each direction) and passing a parked car. As he was passing the parked car, so his nose was blocking the other lane due to swinging between the car and the traffic island. At this point a little red French chav wagon come flying out of a side road just in front of the bus. He obviously only looked to his left, as nowt was coming. Next thing he was there blaring away on his horn at the bus. Luckly his brakes were also good, because if he didn`t jump on his brakes and stop, he would have ended up impailed in the front of the bus.

 

what a plonker.

[kevinlms]

There was a good one today. Was a passenger on a bus, coming along a normal two lane road (one each direction) and passing a parked car. As he was passing the parked car, so his nose was blocking the other lane due to swinging between the car and the traffic island. At this point a little red French chav wagon come flying out of a side road just in front of the bus. He obviously only looked to his left, as nowt was coming. Next thing he was there blaring away on his horn at the bus. Luckly his brakes were also good, because if he didn`t jump on his brakes and stop, he would have ended up impailed in the front of the bus.

 

what a plonker.

Conversely I had a bus driver do something similar to me, years ago. I was passing a car & caravan, when this bus pulled out in front of me, turning left, leaving me looking at his grill. Obviously, he'd looked to the right, saw nothing coming & kept going.

Luckily, I was able to brake hard & come back in behind the caravan, which I did, but ended up sideways, facing the road, the bus had come out of.

 

I certainly learnt a lesson in NEVER turning left, without looking where I'm going, unlike what the bus driver did!

[PhilJ W]

Its when they pull out of a side road without looking in the direction that traffic would normally come from that annoys me. On all occasions its been possible for me to stop, mainly because experience has taught me to observe any driver waiting to pull out from a side turning. As in most cases they seem oblivious to my presence, I've often had a good view of the back of their head as they pull out. I still hanker sometimes for the old Suzuki SJ I once had, fitted with hefty bull bars. If I was driving that I wouldn't bother to brake when they pull out in front of me.

[Mark Saunders]

Treat all other Drivers as lunatics and you should stand a better chance of survival!

 

Mark Saunders

[Baby Deltic]

Treat all other Drivers as lunatics and you should stand a better chance of survival!

 

Mark Saunders

Indeed. The ABC of driving.

[br2975]

This is back in the early 80s to early 90s. And when I got comments from a friend in Traffic I was surprised.

Possibly relevant to the Gene Hunt ( Ashes to ashes) era, but police officers are currently policing in 2015.

Edited September 6, 2015 by br2975

[Horsetan]

Going off on a tangent slightly, but back to the letter of the thread title, Driving Standards, if any of you are in Blackpool on Sunday (06 Sept), there's the Bus Driver of the Year competition taking place along the promenade - feel free to pop by and watch some of the industry's best drivers showing how to do it... and possibly how not to as well   For the bus enthusiasts amongst you, there's usually a good variety of vehicles from various operators up and down the country.  Feel free to say hello if you see me, I'm competitor number 88.

So, er, who won the competition?

[Catkins]

I had a couple of good ones last week.

To set the scene - I'm double manning a 32 Tonne tipper, and we are delivering "compost" to farmers fields.

The first one, as we reversed into a field we had a car squeeze past our front, with barely enough space for him, yet he could of waited for a minute.

The second one, driving back from a field between Lutterworth and Mkt. Harborough, we got overtaken by a boy racer in a VW Polo as we were approaching a left hander. The driver had obviously decided that he wasn't going to follow the traffic at 50mph, so he passed a van that was behind me and then continued to overtake me - having got my wagon up to 50mph I wasn't to keen to slow it down - he completed his overtake thanks to the driver of the Ford Connect coming towards us deciding that an emergency stop would be a good idea, an idea I liked as well!

 

Just so you know, 32 tonnes does not stop on a 10p piece!!

[leopardml2341]

[quote name="Catkins" post="2011355" timestamp="1441573140"

 

Just so you know, 32 tonnes does not stop on a 10p piece!!

 

There's inflation for you, it would've been a sixpence when I were a lad

[Torn-on-the-platform]

I like the direction that this thread has taken.

 

I recently drove from Scunthorpe to Dartmoor and for various reasons, I did so during the small hours, leaving Scunthorpe just before 11pm. Some interesting driving was spotted on the A42 (a road that I particularly like as it bans lorries from overtaking during peak periods). It was almost entirely empty. I was in the left hand lane, coming up behind a car sat in the right hand lane, doing a little below the speed limit. As I have made clear in previous posts, I am a firm believer in lane discipline, so, not wanting to undertake, I pulled into the right hand lane, hoping that this car would get the message. It did not and I was forced to slow down. A quick flash of the headlights and they moved over to let me past. Once past, it moved back into the right hand lane! I can't really understand it. My dad hypothesised that they may be avoiding the left lane as it is more heavily used and therefore offers a rougher ride. I feel that this would be a very weak excuse as the difference in ride would surely not be that great.

 

A more general observation is the driving seen on country roads, particularly in national parks. I'm not talking about particularly blind and windy roads, I refer mainly to the main trunk routes through the parks. I have driven on Dartmoor and across the Peaks in the last couple of weeks and found myself regularly stuck behind cars doing 10-20 mph below the speed limit, but when overtaking is possible, they are suddenly back up to speed. They then often speed off into the distance when going through villages where the speed limit becomes 30mph. I find that these speed limits are often very appropriate (40mph on Dartmoor and 50mph in the Peaks are perfect for the types of roads), so it becomes very frustrating.

 

Another frustration is the post-Wiggins breed of cyclist. I think that cycling is a great hobby and should be encouraged in these times of increasing obesity. The only reason that I don't cycle is that I was never very confident on a bike. There are however a lot of 'all the gear, no idea' types who are a danger to themselves and others. The Peaks were full of this sort yesterday. Dartmoor only seems to encourage the hardiest, most experienced cyclists so they rarely cause a problem - the problem there is more likely the type of driver outlined above who is unable to overtake them. Experienced cyclists will pull into the middle of the lane going around corners to make themselves difficult to overtake. This, I understand because, as mentioned higher up this page, you must assume that all drivers are maniacs to be on the safe side. When you're cycling two or three abreast on a major route, just so that you can have a chat, that is unacceptable. Just to reiterate, this isn't a dig at cyclists, only those who aren't very road-savvy!

Edited September 6, 2015 by Torn-on-the-platform

[coachmann]

We often say, we were out driving and another car did something stupid. But make a mental count of all the cars you see even on a 15 minute journey and only one driver of a car has upset you. It kinda puts things into perspective..... 

[newbryford]

We often say, we were out driving and another car did something stupid. But make a mental count of all the cars you see even on a 15 minute journey and only one driver of a car has upset you. It kinda puts things into perspective..... 

 

Remembering bad drivers is just like remembering good golf shots - there's relatively few of them compared to the good drivers/bad golf shots....................

 

Cheers,

mick

[JDW]

@Horsetan - yes, there was a slalom stage, no cones wereseriously harmed you'll be glad to know, thoughI'm told a few were slightl bruised...

 

... ahhh, just looked up to see the DRS depot at Carlisle go past the window...

 

I once had a car pull out from a side road on me too, without looking to his left. Unfortunately for his brand new MG ZR, I was passing the junction, between two rows of parked cars, coming from his left with a bus. Saw him, saw what was about to happen, but was too close to the junction and had nowhere to go or time to avoid the crunching noise... :-o

[Horsetan]

@Horsetan - yes, there was a slalom stage, no cones were seriously harmed you'll be glad to know, though I'm told a few were slightly bruised...

 

Who won the competition?

[Mallard60022]

Many years ago I thought I'd have a go at becoming a Driving Instructor as I was self employed at the time and needed some extra income. I though I was a reasonable driver until I had to train for that.

In the early 90s I started working alongside/with Sussex Traffic Division as a Civilian. I had to take their Advanced Driver Test(s) to remain doing the job I was doing; I though I was a reasonable driver until I did those annually. For about ten years I was probably a better driver than a lot of people because of that. Since then I've gone back to being almost as crap as everyone else other than perhaps having just a little bit more understanding about what to look for to help avoid problems.

How some ****** ever get a licence is a complete mystery to me.

Q

[JDW]

Who won the competition?

A guy by the name of William Bradford from Stagecoach London - see BDoY.co.uk or the BDoY Facebook page if you want to find out more - as the 2014 winner, I was disappointed to finish 26th (out of 119) this year, after a couple of silly mistakes.

[New Haven Neil]

Many years ago I thought I'd have a go at becoming a Driving Instructor as I was self employed at the time and needed some extra income. I though I was a reasonable driver until I had to train for that.

In the early 90s I started working alongside/with Sussex Traffic Division as a Civilian. I had to take their Advanced Driver Test(s) to remain doing the job I was doing; I though I was a reasonable driver until I did those annually. For about ten years I was probably a better driver than a lot of people because of that. Since then I've gone back to being almost as crap as everyone else other than perhaps having just a little bit more understanding about what to look for to help avoid problems.

How some ****** ever get a licence is a complete mystery to me.

Q

 

Ah, we used to have an operational unmarked car in my last job - yes, it is amazing how bad drivers we are, when you have to up the level!  We weren't allowed to use the blues and twos unfortunately.  Temptation on occasions when presented with the kind of driving being discussed, though!