Standard of driving in the UK going downhill.

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I've had it before where I was travelling over a mile up an empty lane 2 whilst lane 1 was queuing. Then some moron just pulled out into L2 and crawled with the cars in L1, preventing myself & the drivers behind me from using the road correctly.



Taxi drivers are NOT professional drivers. Please stop lumping them in that category.



It's ridiculous everywhere now. As you said it's not just amber-gambling now, it's flat out solid reds. We had a vehicle re-ended last week (single deck bus) because the idiot behind 'thought the bus was gonna go through as it only just turned amber'. Bus was 4-5 lengths from the light at 20mph...

My dad taught me to drive, & his mantra was;
“ Drives two cars ahead & treat everyone as an idiot”
( It works... most of the time).
Due to inflation... this is now five cars.

Perhaps a set of advance warning lights... to warn you what is happening @ the ‘real set’ up ahead.
 
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Soldato
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I'm not a fan of certain layouts where the markings for the lane are on the road, if you're new to the area and it's busy it's practically impossible to see them.
 
Soldato
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My dad taught me to drive, & his mantra was;
“ Drives two cars ahead & treat everyone as an idiot”
( It works... most of the time).
Due to inflation... this is now five cars.

Perhaps a set of advance warning lights... to warn you what is happening @ the ‘real set’ up ahead.

As a PCV driver you're taught to be 12-15secs ahead, or as far as you can see if that isn't possible.

In regards to the advanced lights, unfortunately too many would see it as a race challenge. I'd much prefer a rising bollard/wedge barrier powered by a high power pneumatic ram for instant deployment

Goes red, up they pop

ZGXdrTa.jpg
 
Soldato
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I’ve found since I started using the speed limiter on my car, and therefore sitting calmly and perfectly at a steady speed, I’ve noticed just how much people speed. I’ll be sat at 30mph on a wide, three lane road in a city and people go tearing past more often than not.

Something else that annoys me is when people don’t understand dual carriageways can be single lanes, so think a NSL road is 60, instead of the 70 we could be legally doing :p
 
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40 years of relatively clean driving;

A few years ago, part of my job involved me driving ambulances
( purely off duty only).
Yet I have driven light goods & vans before... so not a complete novice.

I had to take a simple test... drive to the required standard.
Failed... mainly due to reversing, use of the auto box & a comment on visual awareness, Relating to cyclists.
(Never have liked autos...ever)

But... failed miserably on the five Highway Code questions at the start.
( Braking distances & a sign I didn’t even recognise)

Now... For that theory test.
 
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Caporegime
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I’ve found since I started using the speed limiter on my car, and therefore sitting calmly and perfectly at a steady speed, I’ve noticed just how much people speed. I’ll be sat at 30mph on a wide, three lane road in a city and people go tearing past more often than not.

Something else that annoys me is when people don’t understand dual carriageways can be single lanes, so think a NSL road is 60, instead of the 70 we could be legally doing :p

can be deceptive. my car needs to do 33mph to be actually doing 30mph as per the gps.
 
Caporegime
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I believe standards have got worse. The one that gets me is mini roundabouts. People literally don't understand them. They also straight line them without even lifting.


Depends where you are, some councils just shaped them in every T junction even where there is no way in hell you can "go round" as no matter what you do to the paint the road is still only a t junction
 
Soldato
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Speedo’s are allowed a +10% error...

Cruise at an indicated 77mph on a Motorway... should be just bang on the button.

It’s rather bold to assume the ‘error’ is the same through the speed range. Mine isn’t. It’s 3mph out at 30 and 3mph out at 70.

It would probably be bang on with a slightly larger wheel/tyre combo.
 
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It’s rather bold to assume the ‘error’ is the same through the speed range. Mine isn’t. It’s 3mph out at 30 and 3mph out at 70.

It would probably be bang on with a slightly larger wheel/tyre combo.

I think legally... they allow for a 10% error, & modern digital speedos, are probably a lot more accurate though. ( Seems like 5% error)
I’m so used to analogue...
( But don’t quote me on that)
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=speedo+error+margin&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

Depends where you are, some councils just shaped them in every T junction even where there is no way in hell you can "go round" as no matter what you do to the paint the road is still only a t
junction

And lots of people forget the golden rule...
Give way to the right.
Amazes me when traffic lights fail... people just go to pieces.
 
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Caporegime
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I think legally... they allow for a 10% error, & modern digital speedos, are probably a lot more accurate though. ( Seems like 5% error)
I’m so used to analogue...
( But don’t quote me on that)
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=speedo+error+margin&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari


How accurate is the GPS though?

Or are you alowed good accuracy at low speeds? I know ow if you go above a certain speed civilian GPS will give you an error as it think you've made a guided missile
 
Caporegime
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How accurate is the GPS though?

Or are you alowed good accuracy at low speeds? I know ow if you go above a certain speed civilian GPS will give you an error as it think you've made a guided missile

how many cars go faster than a guided missile on UK roads? :p (Ill give you a clue, "slow" guided missiles go about 500mph)
 
Caporegime
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how many cars go faster than a guided missile on UK roads? :p (Ill give you a clue, "slow" guided missiles go about 500mph)


Well yeah but I have no idea what the limit or artifical inaccuracy is on acheap gps speedometer.


You know your car one is inaccurate to someone degree but trying to determine that against another unknown doesn't give you the most reliable result
 
Caporegime
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Well yeah but I have no idea what the limit or artifical inaccuracy is on acheap gps speedometer.


You know your car one is inaccurate to someone degree but trying to determine that against another unknown doesn't give you the most reliable result

0.5 to 2% seems to be the answer. One guy has studied lots of public gps deives as part of his job and on average said they are 1.5% out. So yeah far comment on the gps accuracy. In every car I have used though the gps always shows slower than my car speedo says.
 
Man of Honour
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Not entirely relevant to this thread but had an interesting one last night - on approach to a corner there was roadworks, lane closing and temporary traffic light warning signs, coming around the corner about a quarter of a mile ahead, very dark and unlit road, was a single highway agency type vehicle stopped with its flashing orange lights on, so I slowed down and catching some movement in my lane in the dark stuck my high beams on - only as I got close to the vehicle was is apparent the person had got back into the driver seat and I'm guessing wanting to move off - at which point they flashed their headlights at me and gave me some aggressive hand gestures presumably because my high beams were still on. Would have to check the dashcam footage but don't think they were wearing a high-viz even.

Not sure what else I was supposed to do in that situation... or would they rather I ran them down in the dark...

EDIT: This is the kind of brain dead stuff that seems to happen more and more though - if you are doing work like that in the road either plan it around daylight if possible or organise it better so you don't have some random person operating in the dark!
 
Caporegime
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0.5 to 2% seems to be the answer. One guy has studied lots of public gps deives as part of his job and on average said they are 1.5% out. So yeah far comment on the gps accuracy. In every car I have used though the gps always shows slower than my car speedo says.


Yeah I'd expect the car to always be more cautious and over estimate.
 
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