The Night Mail

[SM42]

The speed reminder function is one of those seems like a good idea things. 

 

Ping = 30mph, but by then it's too late, you're already heading towards 35mph.  

 

Really needs a 25mph facility. 

 

Andy

[SM42]

1 minute ago, br2975 said:

Oh well, that's it finalised - after two very thorough tests, I need hearing aids !

.

A certain pachyderm had best knock harder on his next visit to the Welsh metrollops.

 

Alternatively,  a good excuse to leave him on the doorstep. 

 

Andy

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, pH said:

Gleniffer Braes?

Spot on!

[Winslow Boy]

25 minutes ago, br2975 said:

Oh well, that's it finalised - after two very thorough tests, I need hearing aids !

.

A certain pachyderm had best knock harder on his next visit to the Welsh metrollops.

You mean he knocks. Something tells me that he's not that sort of pachyderm.

[polybear]

34 minutes ago, SM42 said:

The speed reminder function is one of those seems like a good idea things. 

 

Ping = 30mph, but by then it's too late, you're already heading towards 35mph.  

 

Really needs a 25mph facility. 

 

Andy

 

Cars in Kuwait are fitted with repeating ping announcers as soon as you exceed 120km/h (about 75mph); the only problem is you can't disable them (ask me how I know.....).  If I lived out there for any length of time I'd be certain to spend a Sunday morning searching for it with a pair of side cutters.

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Cars in Kuwait are fitted with repeating ping announcers as soon as you exceed 120km/h (about 75mph); the only problem is you can't disable them (ask me how I know.....).  If I lived out there for any length of time I'd be certain to spend a Sunday morning searching for it with a pair of side cutters.

Me too.  I don't claim to be a great driver but like to think I do at least concentrate on what I'm doing.  One of the saddest things about the prevalence of speed cameras (and replacement of traffic police with them) is that far more people now drive to a round-numbered limit instead of the conditions.  There are roads around here reduced from NSL to 40mph when in good, clear conditions, 50-60 was safe.  A few people tried it - and probably quite a bit more than 50-60 judging by where the cars ended up - in poor conditions and found their limits in an expensive way.  30 years ago I rode motorbikes on many 60-limited Scottish roads at 70+ because when the weather was good, visibility was almost measured in miles.  When there was traffic around, I happily rode with it.  I've never once had a speeding ticket, not that in itself it means anything because I am forever following people who seem to drive about 10mph less than every speed limit, presumably convinced this makes them "a safe driver".

[Winslow Boy]

8 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Me too.  I don't claim to be a great driver but like to think I do at least concentrate on what I'm doing.  One of the saddest things about the prevalence of speed cameras (and replacement of traffic police with them) is that far more people now drive to a round-numbered limit instead of the conditions.  There are roads around here reduced from NSL to 40mph when in good, clear conditions, 50-60 was safe.  A few people tried it - and probably quite a bit more than 50-60 judging by where the cars ended up - in poor conditions and found their limits in an expensive way.  30 years ago I rode motorbikes on many 60-limited Scottish roads at 70+ because when the weather was good, visibility was almost measured in miles.  When there was traffic around, I happily rode with it.  I've never once had a speeding ticket, not that in itself it means anything because I am forever following people who seem to drive about 10mph less than every speed limit, presumably convinced this makes them "a safe driver".

I believe the EU has mandated that all new cars are to be fitted with mandatory speed warnings from this year.

 

Round here it's like the dodgems. Bus lanes are used to overtake 'slow' ie staying within the speed limit and multilane roads where they haven't had bus lanes installed, see previous comment, are indie race tracks. Whilst traffic lights, well they're there to add colour to the traffic scene aren't they? Least that's what they believe here.

 

And on that note I'm signing off to try and get some shut eye now that it's cooled down a bit.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

I Whilst traffic lights, well they're there to add colour to the traffic scene aren't they? Least that's what they believe here.

 

 

Around Boston (Mass.) some of the traffic lights are strung horizontally over the junctions. Too bad if you happen to be color blind. Mind you in Boston green means GO, amber means GO FASTER and red doesn't mean a damn thing.

[pH]

34 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Around Boston (Mass.) some of the traffic lights are strung horizontally over the junctions. Too bad if you happen to be color blind. Mind you in Boston green means GO, amber means GO FASTER and red doesn't mean a damn thing.

Horizontal traffic lights are not too uncommon. I’ve seen them in the Canadian Prairie provinces. Here’s one in Edmonton, Alberta:
 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XG8MjDsifxjZRxPs7?g_st=im

 

Apparently the arrangement means they can be attached more securely to the horizontal arm above the road - a consideration in areas subject to high winds. I presume the same thing applies in the US Plains states, though I’ve not checked.

 

About non-standard traffic lights  - here’s a vertical one with the normal sequence of lights reversed:
 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/upside-down-traffic-signal

and the reason for the arrangement.

 

Being driven in Atlanta, it appeared that a light going red meant “Only 3 more cars can pass this light”, and everyone understood that.

Edited August 1 by pH

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[enz]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Around Boston (Mass.) some of the traffic lights are strung horizontally over the junctions. Too bad if you happen to be color blind. Mind you in Boston green means GO, amber means GO FASTER and red doesn't mean a damn thing.

 

Round here red does have a meaning - "driver is to tailgate the car in front because it was obviously going too slow when the light was yellow".

 

However, just thinking of it, I suppose it's understandable that some drivers don't speed up on yellow - most of the lights are on the left (and we drive on the left) so for these drivers their view  may be obscured by ornaments, car air fresheners, etc hanging down from the rear view mirror and the cellphone in it's holder rising from the dashboard, together providing a solid visual bar in the windscreen. This is presumably to help the driver's mental health - it stops the driver seeing disturbing things like the traffic lights changing colour or the cyclist they are about to run over.

 

(And either I've misspelt the word 'colour' or this spell-checker thinks I'm writing American! Apparently I can have col our, though, but I don't know what that would mean.)

Edited August 1 by enz

[SM42]

Vehicles travelling below the limit are the reason  limits are reduced. 

 

If the 85th percentile drive a 60mph road at 50mph, then it is concluded by the powers that be that 50mph is what most drivers consider safe for the road and reduce the limit to the "safe" speed.

 

In Brum

 

A red light means 3 more and a bus please. 

 

Road markings are there to make the road look pretty. 

 

The right turn lane at lights is a facility provided to overtake the queue going straight on. 

 

A bus lane is a stretch of road empty  for 80% of the day while you sit in traffic.

 

Traffic lights are set up to stop moving traffic, who must then wait for a time out or for something moving to be stopped on another side of the junction  ( if of course people do stop)

 

The right hand lane is for turning right in 5 miles time. 

 

It is a Brum Highway Code rule that any emergency service vehicle encountered in blue light mode ( with or without siren) shall be reacted to by an emergency stop, regardless of whether this vehicle is behind or indeed going the other way 2 lanes away on a dual carriageway 

 

All after market navigation  systems must be placed on the windscreen directly in front of the driver so they can see it without taking their eyes off the road they now can't see.

 

Andy

( commutet to Birmingham and who really enjoyed it during lockdown)

[polybear]

6 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

I believe the EU has mandated that all new cars are to be fitted with mandatory speed warnings from this year.

 

I hope they don't go doing something silly like the ECU checking the circuit when the ignition is turned on and if the circuit isn't complete then putting an MOT-fail fault light on the dash.....

 

Or, even more spiteful, burying it so far inside the dash that you can't get to it with side cutters...

 

4 hours ago, pH said:

About non-standard traffic lights  - here’s a vertical one with the normal sequence of lights reversed:
 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/upside-down-traffic-signal

and the reason for the arrangement.

 

 

And the reason was back in 1928....

 

1 hour ago, enz said:

 

Round here red does have a meaning - "driver is to tailgate the car in front because it was obviously going too slow when the light was yellow".

 

 

I know of at least one set of traffic lights (on a roundabout) where, when the green light illuminates, the wise would count to two before going - otherwise there's a fair chance you'd get hit by someone jumping the red.....

 

16 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Traffic lights are set up to stop moving traffic, who must then wait for a time out or for something moving to be stopped on another side of the junction  ( if of course people do stop)

 

 

And to give people a chance to check their emails in a safe manner....

 

(In Kuwait I once saw a Driver with a Laptop on her lap.....)

[SM42]

45 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

(In Kuwait I once saw a Driver with a Laptop on her lap.....)

 

Seems the perfect place for it. 

 

Andy

[pH]

30 minutes ago, polybear said:

I know of at least one set of traffic lights (on a roundabout) where, when the green light illuminates, the wise would count to two before going - otherwise there's a fair chance you'd get hit by someone jumping the red.....

Here, in driving lessons, you are actually advised to count to two after a light goes green before entering an intersection. The majority of accidents at intersections occur in those two seconds.

[enz]

28 minutes ago, pH said:

Here, in driving lessons, you are actually advised to count to two after a light goes green before entering an intersection. The majority of accidents at intersections occur in those two seconds.

Whereas here they had to alter the light sequence at some of the lights so that all routes show red for a second or two - expecting people to count before entry to the intersection would be asking far too much. This does confuse some visitors from other parts of the country as they wonder why no traffic is entering... .

 

(Conversely, the lights on the end of my street can have such a short cycle on one route (mine, of course) that by the time you'd have counted to two, they may have changed to yellow! I consider it good going when two cars can enter on green.)

[Winslow Boy]

I can remember and this is a good few years back, having a conversation with a highway engineer. He said that they designed the light sequence of traffic lights to actually speed up if they detected a car exceeding the speed limit. As I said this was a quite some time ago so how they did this I'm not certain. Of course now a day's things have got 'easier' to achieve this. 

 

One of things I've noticed is that there is a range of between six and twenty six seconds before the lights at pedestrian crossings change. The ideal is to wait for no traffic to be within fifty or so metres.

[PhilJ W]

10 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

I believe the EU has mandated that all new cars are to be fitted with mandatory speed warnings from this year.

Well that doesn't affect us as we are no longer in the EU.

[PhilJ W]

Fruit salad tree?

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tree-of-40-fruit

[Hroth]

23 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Well that doesn't affect us as we are no longer in the EU.

 

We'll still get cars that give speed warnings because no manufacturer in their right mind would do a software version specifically for the UK. We'll just get the standard euro-compliant package.

 

[Happy Hippo]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

We'll still get cars that give speed warnings because no manufacturer in their right mind would do a software version specifically for the UK. We'll just get the standard euro-compliant package.

 

And UK manufactures have to be EU compliant to sell their cars on the mainland.

[jamie92208]

18 hours ago, br2975 said:

Oh well, that's it finalised - after two very thorough tests, I need hearing aids !

.

A certain pachyderm had best knock harder on his next visit to the Welsh metrollops.

In a way you are lucky Brian. was told by the boss and no 1 son that I needed a hearing test.  I duly went for one and was told that my hearing was fine.  I am now bei g loudly accused of not listening g to a certain female voice on several occasions. 

 

Seriously I hope that the aids work out for you. 

 

Jamie

[Canal Digger]

Talking of car windscreens being cluttered/ obscured so distracting the driver (was that here?):

I saw a taxi in town with the following mounted on the screen with suckers etc:

• Mobile Phone.
• A Tomtom set up to use as a Sat Nav.
• Another Mobile set up to receive requests from customers via Social Media (Fb etc).
• Another Mobile set up to receive personal Social Media.
• A Tablet set up so that driver could see what other drivers were doing workwise(??).
• On the passenger seat a laptop for ...
• Mounted on top of the dash was the Faremeter.
• Mounted on the roof the 'TAXI' sign/ light.

All of the were powered by separate chargers, cascaded [via 4:1 adaptors] into the single cigar lighter socket

• A CB Radio/ RT Phone type thing under the dash, passenger side
• The Heating/ Ventilation control display above the Rear-view Mirror.
• A scribble notepad on a screen mounted sucker, with the pen on another

No I didn't use that taxi, I walked

[J. S. Bach]

8 hours ago, enz said:

Whereas here they had to alter the light sequence at some of the lights so that all routes show red for a second or two - expecting people to count before entry to the intersection would be asking far too much. This does confuse some visitors from other parts of the country as they wonder why no traffic is entering... .

Called "Clearance Time" over here and very common. At least two of the lights that I pass going into Chester have it. It may even have use requirements in the MUTCD.

 

 

Edited August 1 by J. S. Bach
To add some information

[Oldddudders]

Some days, as we know, work better than others. Last night I booked my local train to Paris for this morning on the Trainline. This morning, after Alison dropped me at the station, I found it was cancelled. In fairness, both SNCF and Trainline emailed me an hour before to warn me, but I was too busy setting the house up for a fortnight away to be reading emails! As I was booked on the 12.12 Eurostar this was a bit of a pain. So I had to swiftly book a ticket (ticket office not open, machine not working) online for the next service to Le Mans, and then a TGV to Paris, costing an extra 52 euros. But I got to Paris in plenty of time, the Metro Ligne 4 was emptier than usual, and the Eurostar ran perfectly, so all well until I got to Paddington.

 

I tend to interrogate Real Time Trains en route to London to see how onward trains to Torbay are running, and it didn’t look good. The 13.03 to Penzance was cancelled, and the train to form the 14.03 was running well-late, so I decided the 14.36, a sort of semi-fast service to Paignton, might be best, and Sherry could meet me at Torre. Except the up service to form that then ran 20-odd late from Westbury - suspected points failure - and terminated at Reading 30-something late. But, by simply reading the departure board at Paddington, I learned the 14.36 would start from Reading and was advised to catch the first service to there, which was the 14.32 to Cheltenham. Reading was very well organised, and we didn’t even have to hurry to make the connection. But then more passengers were coming out on the 14.45 from Paddington - why? So we are some 17 late from Reading despite GWR’s and Reading’s best efforts. It transpires that the 15.03 Paddington - Penzance is also starting from Reading, so the entire service to the SW is in poor order. 

 

Having been up since 04.30 BST I think I will sleep quite well tonight!