drive safely

Rroff · 30 Sep 2019 at 21:45

I had fun and games coming back the other night after the downpour - I drove a lot slower than I usually do due to the conditions but one particular puddle was much deeper than it usually is and than I'd anticipated - proper kicked me around would have been ideal to go slower still.

DereksDontRun · 30 Sep 2019 at 22:34

it's not just cheap tyres, but also proper pressures (at least occassionally checked).
About 5 years ago I bought a used MX5 from a dealer, picked it up on Nov 5 and was a fun drive home in the dark & wet with fireworks. It just felt skittish... a couple days later it was tipping it down, going around a 2 lane roundabout in rush-hour traffic to suddenly have the rear drifting out - was a decent brown-trouser moment. Decided to check the tyres and they were all decent make and tread - but all 12-15psi over the recommended. For some surprise, it was dramatically safer as soon as I reset the pressure.

jpaul · 30 Sep 2019 at 22:45

Rroff said:
one particular puddle was much deeper than it usually is and than I'd anticipated

maybe you know the road, but you never know what lies beneath .. so I'd steer around ?

some good undulating country roads in the fens ... where usually I ride the crown of the road to avoid pot-holes
... but you occasionaly get the someone who wants to overtake, in their, PCP indestructable car .. I'll pull over when it's safe to do so.

Rroff · 30 Sep 2019 at 23:06

jpaul said:
maybe you know the road, but you never know what lies beneath .. so I'd steer around ?

some good undulating country roads in the fens ... where usually I ride the crown of the road to avoid pot-holes
... but you occasionaly get the someone who wants to overtake, in their, PCP indestructable car .. I'll pull over when it's safe to do so.

Yeah some good advice - I was a little more complacent than I was happy with in hindsight as this vehicle has all weather/all terrain/extra wet grip tyres and handles worse with ease but still no point in doing it for the sake of it - I avoided most of the rest of the puddles or slowed down a lot more before them when there was traffic the other way.

Donnie Fisher · 30 Sep 2019 at 23:23

I always figured in an understeer situation take feet off pedals and it will auto correct,

Yes, all though its also possible in some cases to keep the wheels turned in the direction you want to go and feed in some power/drive which will try and increase the forces that are pulling the front of the vehicle round the corner better.

But more that anything ... just back off the speed in the bad weather and things are a whole lot easier to content with.

theone8181 · 1 Oct 2019 at 07:53

Donnie Fisher said:
Yes, all though its also possible in some cases to keep the wheels turned in the direction you want to go and feed in some power/drive which will try and increase the forces that are pulling the front of the vehicle round the corner better.

But more that anything ... just back off the speed in the bad weather and things are a whole lot easier to content with.

Surely thats impossible, if you're understeering (assuming a front wheel drive car) more power will do nothing. If its a real wheel drive car, you just go faster in the direction the nose in pointing (which may not be the same direction the wheels are pointing in).

chris4652009 · 1 Oct 2019 at 08:02

vanpeebles said:
This, people drive even more mental when the weather is bad. Zero understanding that they are in a flimsy metal box, with four patches of rubber keeping them on the road.

That's exactly why the UK grinds to a halt once the snow and ice hits us, some people just cant drive to the conditions

DereksDontRun · 1 Oct 2019 at 08:02

theone8181 said:
Surely thats impossible, if you're understeering (assuming a front wheel drive car) more power will do nothing. If its a real wheel drive car, you just go faster in the direction the nose in pointing (which may not be the same direction the wheels are pointing in).

I've seen it on touring cars - someone sliding towards a corner, only to have the front pulled around by carefully applying power to the front wheels. Admitedly, that's probably a lockup (or a love-tap) and not a skid caused by understeer.

vanpeebles · 1 Oct 2019 at 08:07

chris4652009 said:
That's exactly why the UK grinds to a halt once the snow and ice hits us, some people just cant drive to the conditions

Yep, I don't understand why this has turned into a tyre thread too, you can have the best tyres in the world and still drive like a total chump. We need to call out bad drivers, point fingers and take their licenses away permanently. Not say oh I crashed because it was wet, or it was icy, was the weathers fault.

Drumroll · 1 Oct 2019 at 08:32

Sure, but how bad drivers get the qualifications to drive is beyond me.
Also uninsured, banned, disqualified drivers should be put behind bars, but usually just the advice from police or the sugarcoating from the court.
Few weeks ago a learning driver from Cambridge area, was in the news. The day before her test, got scared when a car supposedly tailgate her them overtook quite close. Her mum shouting scared made her lost control of the car and fast turning the steering wheel (only works on fast and furious), the car was resting on its roof. The same afternoon, after suffered a concussion (her words, not mine), she decided to take her last lesson with her instructor.
The following day she passed her test and was proud to say with just 3 minor penalties.
Now, someone who's scared so easily, sure isn't ready for the jungle out there. After suffered a concussion, you shouldn't be driving on the same day and the next day, until be seen by a doctor. But hey, another qualified driver for Cambridge, which may try to allow extra distance from a car coming from the opposite direction, without invading her lane, and such overcompensation may cause her to run over a cyclist or hit parked cars.
Also the amount of people driving new cars, but using their phones like a giro-birdy, on speakers, holding the phone, when most cars have Bluetooth, can't understand.

Parky · 1 Oct 2019 at 09:10

I think I hit a new level today, it was pouring down this morning as I was setting off to work, lots of standing water and spray. I get to the roundabout to jump on the M65 and a car comes off to go up the sliproad just in front off me, no lights on, not in the correct lane and going way to fast. I sat behind him and thought that his car looked a bit odd in all the spray, we joined the motorway and suddenly he's weaving a little in his lane. I decide to overtake as I wasn't comfortable sat behind him and on the way past noticed that his front driver's side tyre was pretty much flat.

Only he didn't stop, he just kept going. He'd slowed down a little but I could still see him in mirror a for a few miles before he dropped out of sight.

robj20 · 1 Oct 2019 at 09:20

I'm one of those people that checks my tyres at least once a month, I'm forever cleaning my windscreen and wipers.
Anything I can do to aid visibility when the weather is rubbish.
The amount of people that just don't do basic stuff with their cars is scary.

jpaul · 1 Oct 2019 at 10:10

I guess you mean pressure , as opposed to just a visual walkaround, which, I started doing at least once a week after missing a puncture ..
wishlist - pressure monitoring on next car.

- Finding a free airline these days, much harder than cheap fuel

Michael Marini said:
The following day she passed her test and was proud to say with just 3 minor penalties.

hopefully now off the road with the increased premium, and, the Cambourne one, is prosecuted.

robj20 · 1 Oct 2019 at 10:15

jpaul said:
I guess you mean pressure , as opposed to just a visual walkaround, which, I started doing at least once a week after missing a puncture ..
wishlist - pressure monitoring on next car.

- Finding a free airline these days, much harder than cheap fuel

hopefully now off the road with the increased premium, and, the Cambourne one, is prosecuted.

No just a visual of the tyres and brakes a bit less often.
Tyre pressures show on my dash.

theone8181 · 1 Oct 2019 at 13:00

robj20 said:
No just a visual of the tyres and brakes a bit less often.
Tyre pressures show on my dash.

Whats scary is my car just has the abs sensor type warning i.e. no monitoring of tyre pressures. It report low pressure, so i looked at all tyres and seeing they looked fine carried on. When i went to check the pressures at the weekend, i thought my compressor was broken as it showed 0bar on one of the rear tyres. I couldn't tell just from looking as it wasn't bulging at all. This was a 265/35/19. When i had the same on my 911, on the rear that was completely and obviously flat. The car didn't even feel that different, just a little more skittish round corners, and they aren't runflat tyres.

Semple · 1 Oct 2019 at 13:29

vanpeebles said:
Yep, I don't understand why this has turned into a tyre thread too, you can have the best tyres in the world and still drive like a total chump. We need to call out bad drivers, point fingers and take their licenses away permanently. Not say oh I crashed because it was wet, or it was icy, was the weathers fault.

Yep this is my opinion too.

It's a surprisingly high figure of the cost to the UK economy for shutting a motorway for each hour.

Someone's who's caused a pile up because not paying attention, not leaving a large enough gap, speeding etc, should also have a lengthy ban.

People need to realise that you have to pay attention to the roads 100% of the time, and that causing a motorway closure for several hours has a serious knock-on effect.

grudas · 1 Oct 2019 at 14:12

Semple said:
Yep this is my opinion too.

It's a surprisingly high figure of the cost to the UK economy for shutting a motorway for each hour.

Someone's who's caused a pile up because not paying attention, not leaving a large enough gap, speeding etc, should also have a lengthy ban.

People need to realise that you have to pay attention to the roads 100% of the time, and that causing a motorway closure for several hours has a serious knock-on effect.

and how would they prove this? not paying attention, gap etc how would someone prove this and then go as far as banning the driver? the reality is that accidents happen but making sure you have the best tyres you can to help you stop/avoid/slowdown when poo hits the fan is a good idea.

jpaul · 1 Oct 2019 at 14:24

Soon all cars will be like the Tesla Model3 - telemetry+video under legal request will tell the police everything, and protect the insurance premiums of the innocent.

... wonder if the traction control on teslas can easily establish how much grip is available in the wet

bazzabear · 1 Oct 2019 at 14:27

jpaul said:
I guess you mean pressure , as opposed to just a visual walkaround, which, I started doing at least once a week after missing a puncture ..
wishlist - pressure monitoring on next car.

- Finding a free airline these days, much harder than cheap fuel

hopefully now off the road with the increased premium, and, the Cambourne one, is prosecuted.

Getting your own tyre pump, powered by the cars lighter socket, costs about £10 and means you can do it whenever you like.

And it's well worth checking pressures as well as just having a look at the tyre. A tyre can look fully inflated and by at less than half the correct PSI easily. Especially on the rear of a front heavy car.

Rroff · 6 Oct 2019 at 01:37

jpaul said:
maybe you know the road, but you never know what lies beneath .. so I'd steer around ?

some good undulating country roads in the fens ... where usually I ride the crown of the road to avoid pot-holes
... but you occasionaly get the someone who wants to overtake, in their, PCP indestructable car .. I'll pull over when it's safe to do so.

That little splash possibly saved me a potential accident - coming home tonight the weather was atrocious and that puddle was much worse, much worse - I approached it a lot more cautiously because of before and avoided most of it (though it was almost across the road) if I'd been as complacent tonight it would have been far more dramatic at the least.