Why don't they grit the highway or drive slower ?

[Rroff]

There is part of the A30 I use a lot where it goes up over higher ground where for some reason you get fog either lying in a dense ~5 foot blanket over the ground or sitting ~6-7 feet above the ground - had one the other day where it was enveloping normal cars but in my pickup I could see over the top of it - would see the tops of vehicles coming up at like 80 MPH in the outside lane then **** themselves when another vehicle appeared with the visibility at their level probably 2 car lengths at best!

Despite doing 20 MPH under the speed limit in hindsight knocking another 10 off wouldn't have been unwarranted as occasionally a big bank would come up suddenly where I could barely see 1.5 vehicle lengths ahead but it was gone almost as quickly as I reacted.

 

[mattx2]

Despite doing 20 MPH under the speed limit in hindsight knocking another 10 off wouldn't have been unwarranted as occasionally a big bank would come up suddenly where I could barely see 1.5 vehicle lengths ahead but it was gone almost as quickly as I reacted.

Trouble is if you knock another 10 off you could end up getting rear ended by one of the idoits still doing 70+.

The standard of driving in the US is terrible and the UK isn't far behind. Self driving cars can't come soon enough

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Trouble is if you knock another 10 off you could end up getting rear ended by one of the idoits still doing 70+.

The standard of driving in the US is terrible and the UK isn't far behind. Self driving cars can't come soon enough

I doubt self driving cars would help much here.

 

[mattx2]

I doubt self driving cars would help much here.

In theory the cars would slow down to the actual stopping distance visibility. Also lidar/radar should be able to see a bit further. However in snow or ice they probably won't be much use

 

[muon]

That section of road is covered in a sheet of ice. UK drivers wouldn't magically avoid the same fate.

Highway code says stopping distances can increase 10x, who leaves that distance in cold weather?

Here is a completely avoidable pile up in England where visibility was poor and everyone knew it was poor and yet drove too quickly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-23970047

 

[Quartz]

Despite doing 20 MPH under the speed limit in hindsight knocking another 10 off wouldn't have been unwarranted as occasionally a big bank would come up suddenly where I could barely see 1.5 vehicle lengths ahead but it was gone almost as quickly as I reacted.

I remember finding myself in a bank of heavy fog outside Maidenhead - the link between the M4 and the M40 - and I had to slow to a crawl. That was over 25 years ago.

 

[ik9000]

I've been in some scary fog crazy going across the pennines. It is not fun when you go slow and other charlies don't. That was on a dual-single-dual oscillating national road without even a central barrier in places.

 

[Jean-F]

They do treat the roads but they have far more extreme weather and the standard of driving is just dire, people just don’t slow down in bad weather.

They also have some questionable road traffic rules relating to artics, they are bigger, can drive faster, no speed limiters and don’t need to have crash bars in the sides or rear like they do in Europe. It makes for some nasty crashes where death or serious injury could be avoided. 40 tons at 75mph is nuts.

Watch a few American dash cam compilations, particularly the snow themed ones, you’ll be shocked. They just drive far too quickly, far too close to the next car and far too aggressively.

Talking about crash bars on the sides of trailers reminded me of a time some years ago, when I was driving south along I.75 from Chattanooga to Macon GA.
As I was approaching an exit slip to Atlanta, I was coming up on an 18 wheeler in the extreme right side lane.
A guy in a car overtook me maybe 100 metres before I was about to overtake the truck, and moved to the centre lane, where I was, without cutting me off, and kept drifting to the right, presumably to take the Atlanta exit.
Christ knows why, maybe he should have gone to Specsavers, but it seemed as though the 18 wheeler was invisible to him.
He could have eased up, mildly inconveniencing me, but not enough to bother me, and moved behind the truck, to take the Atlanta exit, but for some inexplicable reason, he just kept drifting right, and went under the trailer, with the inevitable result.
I just winced and kept going, there was nothing that I could do.
My wife said, “Shall I call 911?”
I said, “No, they’re no doubt inundated with calls from others that have seen it.”

 

[agnes]

Can't comment on this specifically but my experience of driving in the US is that their general driving standards are dire

Lived in the US for 5 years or so. California, San Francisco. Can confirm. US driving standards are diabolical at best, they are not taught of different climates and how to act, that and it's all 'got mine' attitude which is horrible on their highways. It's basically a free for all. I felt safer riding a motorbike around India....

 

[rids57]

I used to live in Texas, regularly drove on the i35 and have had to cope with a few of those ice storms and honestly don't think we would cope any better in the UK. Their ice storms are pretty extreme, everything gets coated with solid ice, up to an inch thick and it happens fast. I remember coming out of the house one morning to get in my truck and discovered it (and everything else) was completely encased in a solid block of ice, so I turned around and went back to bed, no way was I going anywhere for a while. I remember it snowing in San Antonio and they just had no idea what to do, crashes everywhere because they had no idea how to drive in the snow, apparently it had been 15 years since they had seen any

 

[Haze]

There are many vids on YouTube, that show how they drive on motorways in the snow, some of them must be doing at least 60 mph....

 

[jpaul]

the guy who survived truck tipping off overpass - last night on news - was a first ?

Truck falls off overpass in Zoo Interchange | FOX6 News Milwaukee

I doubt self driving cars would help much here.

will be intereseting to see how Tesla/Musk cameras figure these incidents out .... connected cars, per the recent UK motorway auto-drive consultation, should update each other.

 

[200sols]

The standard of driving in the US is terrible and the UK isn't far behind. Self driving cars can't come soon enough

Nah. UK has some of the safest roads in the world, our driving standard is really not bad compared to the rest of the world.

 

[chaparral]

the guy who survived truck tipping off overpass - last night on news - was a first ?

Truck falls off overpass in Zoo Interchange | FOX6 News Milwaukee

which a truck went off an overpass -- and landed upright below

Looks like it landed upside down to me

 

[Reuben klang]

From being in the states a few times, the drivers (not all obviously) are shocking. I think, i'm purely guessing here, that's it's down to them being allowed to drive so young and that pretty much all the cars are automatic.

So its similar to driving dodgems. Coupled with various other things, like a general basic understanding of how roundabouts work etc and the need to just use traffic lights at what feels like every single junction. To me it seems like it's a stop and go system.

Anyway, i'm not saying we're perfect over here because theres a lot of drivers here who simply cannot drive or park either. Then we have the issue of snow which just multiples it 10 fold. Snow/winter tyres being the law like mainland europe would certainly help as well.

 

[Quartz]

The standard of driving in the US is terrible and the UK isn't far behind.

You must be kidding. Have you looked at the standards required by the driving tests?

 

[b0rn2sk8]

The standard of driving in the US is terrible and the UK isn't far behind. Self driving cars can't come soon enough

I really don’t agree, you just don’t get cars and lorries piling down the motorway at 70+mph in heavy snow here.

In the U.K. most people also just drive round on summer tyres all year, when the snow comes people in the main just slow down significantly. The thing is, they don’t teach you that when you learn to drive, it’s just something you do because it’s obvious.

Talking about crash bars on the sides of trailers reminded me of a time some years ago, when I was driving south along I.75 from Chattanooga to Macon GA.
As I was approaching an exit slip to Atlanta, I was coming up on an 18 wheeler in the extreme right side lane.
A guy in a car overtook me maybe 100 metres before I was about to overtake the truck, and moved to the centre lane, where I was, without cutting me off, and kept drifting to the right, presumably to take the Atlanta exit.
Christ knows why, maybe he should have gone to Specsavers, but it seemed as though the 18 wheeler was invisible to him.
He could have eased up, mildly inconveniencing me, but not enough to bother me, and moved behind the truck, to take the Atlanta exit, but for some inexplicable reason, he just kept drifting right, and went under the trailer, with the inevitable result.
I just winced and kept going, there was nothing that I could do.
My wife said, “Shall I call 911?”
I said, “No, they’re no doubt inundated with calls from others that have seen it.”

It’s an all too common occurrence over there and it’s wholly preventable. Crash bars are so cheap and have proven to save lives time and time again.

I think the highest profile incident in recent memory was the person who died in the first using Tesla Autopilot. If that crash happened in Europe, it may well have had a different outcome.

For those what don’t know, a ‘semi’ did a left turn in front of the car on an uncontrolled section of highway and the car didn’t ‘see it’ and the car went through the trailer, taking the roof off and the car came out the other side with enough force to then crash into something else. Pretty horrible incident but is something that would probally have been prevented here.

 

[TheVoice]

Nah. UK has some of the safest roads in the world, our driving standard is really not bad compared to the rest of the world.

Agreed, plus MOTs etc enforce some level of road worthiness compared to many (most?) states that don't do any testing at all.

 

[ik9000]

Agreed, plus MOTs etc enforce some level of road worthiness compared to many (most?) states that don't do any testing at all.

try driving in middle African countries, overtaking on blind bends, little observation of junction priority, etc etc. a bit like central london really (joke, it's far worse and the cars don't even all have headlights)

 

[arknor]

I've been in some scary fog crazy going across the pennines. It is not fun when you go slow and other charlies don't. That was on a dual-single-dual oscillating national road without even a central barrier in places.

we get some crazy fog on the tyne

I'm not even close to the river and can barely see houses on the other side of the street sometimes

the guy who survived truck tipping off overpass - last night on news - was a first ?

Truck falls off overpass in Zoo Interchange | FOX6 News Milwaukee


will be intereseting to see how Tesla/Musk cameras figure these incidents out .... connected cars, per the recent UK motorway auto-drive consultation, should update each other.

nokia or someone wanted to make 5g highways with interconnected cars sharing data