Driving standards

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, spikey said:

I was overtaken by a muppet in a car.

 

Amphibian drivers are a thing - vide Mr Toad.

[hayfield]

 

I have just taken my sister back to Milton Keynes and I have come to the conclusion that there are quite a few drivers oblivious to what's going on around them and rarely if ever check their mirrors. They just plod along in the second or third lane irrespective of whether there are any motor vehicles using them. A great pity the motorway cameras are not used for prevention. 

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

A great pity the motorway cameras are not used for prevention. 

Cameras can't be used for prevention.  Idiots don't stop being idiots because they're on TV.   Cameras could be used for evidence though and selecting the worst offenders for prosecution wouldn't require the level of training it takes to produce police officers who can't reasonably be spared from other more pressing tasks.  Watching such footage all day would be a dreadful mind-numbing job, but I don't doubt it could be automated using artificial intelligence techniques.  Whether there would be public acceptance of such use of CCTV would be another matter altogether  - I would anticipate howls of protest over "intrusive surveillance" by "the police state", akin to the "The Bag must go!" campaign against Barbara Castle when she first brought in the breathalyser.

 

I'm afraid the holiday season has always brought out inconsiderate "bank holiday drivers" who haven't much ability but at least don't cause many problems the rest of the year as they don't have much experience of driving in normal circumstances.  They tended to be much more of a hazard when Xmas used to come with a lot of snow and ice. 

 

None of the bad behaviour will be an issue when driverless cars become the universal reality.

[F-UnitMad]

59 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Watching such footage all day would be a dreadful mind-numbing job,

Fit machine guns to the cameras and it'd be the best job in the world.

 

(that's a joke, by the way, but I expect there will still be someone who takes offence.     )

[PhilJ W]

I followed such a driver (in a SUV)  out of Tesco's this afternoon. Pootling along at not much more than 20mph. Comes to a speed camera (30mph zone) and suddenly brakes. Comes to a junction and turns right but doesn't indicate until making the manoeuvre. Then pulls into a dead end road less than a mile from the store they had just left. I was wondering if the driver was licenced or drunk going by the way the car was driven.

[johnofwessex]

3 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Fit machine guns to the cameras and it'd be the best job in the world.

 

(that's a joke, by the way, but I expect there will still be someone who takes offence.     )

 

Given the dangers posed by some drivers to both the public & the Police attempting to stop them I find it suprising that Traffic Officers are not only not armed but even when they are armed  do not draw weapons during a stop, neither are weapons used to encourage drivers who have declined to stop to comply with the request.

 

If some drivers had a knife or gun instead they would potentially face being shot by the Police and quite rightly so.

 

It is worth pointing out that statistically you are about 5 times more likley to be killed by a vehicle when on the pavement than you are to die in a terrorist attack but I never see the local boy racers dragged out of their cars by PC Twitchy Fingers with his trusy machine gun.

[F-UnitMad]

2 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

It is worth pointing out that statistically you are about 5 times more likley to be killed by a vehicle when on the pavement than you are to die in a terrorist attack

Another idea I've heard of to improve road safety is to remove seatbelts and airbags from vehicles, and replace them with a long steel spike in the steering wheel boss, set with a hair trigger to shoot up in the event of any bump.

Making the inside of a car as dangerous as the outside might focus the driver's attention.

[rockershovel]

One thing I have noticed over the past year or so, is a greatly increased tendency to queue across roundabouts... 

[Nick C]

4 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

None of the bad behaviour will be an issue when driverless cars become the universal reality.

Oh don't worry, they'll find some other way to cause issue! 

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

... but doesn't indicate until making the manoeuvre....

This seems to be getting more common, especially annoying when you're waiting to pull out of said junction! 

[Titan]

1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said:

Another idea I've heard of to improve road safety is to remove seatbelts and airbags from vehicles, and replace them with a long steel spike in the steering wheel boss, set with a hair trigger to shoot up in the event of any bump.

Making the inside of a car as dangerous as the outside might focus the driver's attention.

 

Wonderful justice if it is the other drivers fault...

[F-UnitMad]

4 minutes ago, Titan said:

 

Wonderful justice if it is the other drivers fault...

Every single driver would be paying attention....

[Titan]

56 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Every single driver would be paying attention....

And if a tree falls in front of you?

[F-UnitMad]

1 hour ago, Titan said:

And if a tree falls in front of you?

Oh, I hate it when that happens..!!!

 

Honestly, anyone would think the spike suggestion was a serious proposal...  

[leopardml2341]

Make the spike an icicle; it would survive easily enough amongst all the snowflakes.

[kevinlms]

9 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

None of the bad behaviour will be an issue when driverless cars become the universal reality.

A long way off, further than many like to think. The self-driving vehicles have to be proven to be BETTER than real drivers. How mind boggling boring would it be to have to sit in the drivers seat, just to monitor the self drive, which is where we are at. No sitting in the back working on a lap top or watching Youtube.

 

Will they ever be at the stage where unlicenced, drunk or underage people will be able to just hop in and go to a destination? Then there is the time taken for the fleet change. Most vehicles will never be retrofitted, as this would be prohibitively expensive.

[SamThomas]

9 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Oh, I hate it when that happens..!!!

 

Honestly, anyone would think the spike suggestion was a serious proposal...  

Jeremy C;ackson proposed that idea some years ago, so it must be workable !

[SamThomas]

19 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

I have just taken my sister back to Milton Keynes and I have come to the conclusion that there are quite a few drivers oblivious to what's going on around them and rarely if ever check their mirrors. They just plod along in the second or third lane irrespective of whether there are any motor vehicles using them. A great pity the motorway cameras are not used for prevention. 

That's fine by me - I can then plod along at the speed limit unhindered in lane 1 as it's clear becaiuse of all the vehicles stacked up behind the lane hoggers.

[hayfield]

Just now, SamThomas said:

That's fine by me - I can then plod along at the speed limit unhindered in lane 1 as it's clear becaiuse of all the vehicles stacked up behind the lane hoggers.

 

Quite often that's a good place to be, undertaking by default as the other lanes slow down, but as soon as you start weaving it becomes illegal.  

[SamThomas]

14 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

Quite often that's a good place to be, undertaking by default as the other lanes slow down, but as soon as you start weaving it becomes illegal.  

Agreed, but I have no need to weave because I can stay in the nice & clear lane 1.

[hayfield]

14 minutes ago, SamThomas said:

Agreed, but I have no need to weave because I can stay in the nice & clear lane 1.

 

[Compound2632]

Having been up and down the M40 weekly throughout the autumn, I've become a bit frustrated with the 67 mph in the middle lane types, especially in light traffic. If one overtakes them from the inside lane, returning directly to the inside lane, they sometimes take the hint. But if they don't I've been sorely tempted to slow down, let them drift past me, and repeat the overtaking manoeuvre - driving in circles round them. I've not yet succumbed to the temptation though. 

[Michael Hodgson]

The problem is not proving they are better than real drivers.  The problem is that they are having to co-exist in the same road space with real drivers, whose behaviour is unpredictable and erratic.  The unlicenced, under age or drunk will be stranded in the middle of nowhere without assistance or supervision when they are struck by an uninsured "real driver" going the wrong way down the motorway in a stolen vehicle, probably also unlicenced, under age and drunk. 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, SamThomas said:

Jeremy C;ackson proposed that idea some years ago, so it must be workable !

He did have one fitted to his car but the installers (deliberately?) installed it in the middle of the drivers seat.

[Jol Wilkinson]

3 hours ago, SamThomas said:

That's fine by me - I can then plod along at the speed limit unhindered in lane 1 as it's clear becaiuse of all the vehicles stacked up behind the lane hoggers.

Tempting but a bad risk. The 2nd/3rd lane dawdler is probably sufficiently disconnected from reality to decide to change lanes without checking the mirrors or signalling.

 

We were behind two such in the 2nd lane on the anti clockwise M25 approaching  the Potters Bar interchange on Christmas day morning. With a few hundred yards they drifted into the nearside lane and took the exit. At the roundabout they moved into the middle of the two lanes , stopped and then departed turning left with no signal. It looked as though they were travelling "en convoi", with the lead driver being a complete moron.

[5944]

20 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Fit machine guns to the cameras and it'd be the best job in the world.

 

(that's a joke, by the way, but I expect there will still be someone who takes offence.     )

Don't be daft. Then you'd end up with a car drifting along the motorway with no one in control. 

 

Vaporise them instead!