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

Other than having shockingly poor parking skills
I have no idea whether Parisians still do it as it must be twenty years since I was last in Paris. But their method of parking used to be to gently bump other cars backwards and forward to get in and out of small spaces.
 
I’d have to agree with the bit about driving in France, the majority of drivers in France appear to know what to do, and how best to do it, while I gain the impression that a lot of British drivers are not that sure of what’s going on around them, and in particular what’s behind them.

France has a higher death rate than the UK.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

Italy's death rate has dropped a lot since Iooked (at least 6 years ago).

The usa, by comparison, has a death rate double that of France, and four times that of the UK.
 
I have no idea whether Parisians still do it as it must be twenty years since I was last in Paris. But their method of parking used to be to gently bump other cars backwards and forward to get in and out of small spaces.

I’m told by my French acquaintances that’s still a thing in some cities if parking on the street and why Citroen designed their Cactus model with all those bump panels.
 
I took my car test in 1987 and this year my daughter will be taking hers. I'm also intending to take my motorcycle test this year. I don't recall the test in 1987 being particularly easy but it does seem to have got a lot harder now.
think I took my motorcycle tests in 1984 (was up to 100cc at 14 years old back then :)) and my bigger bike test in 1986 (unlimited cc at 16 years old ;):eek:)

I had a KM100 at 14 and RXS 100 at 15
and when I was 16 i had an x7 250, DR400 & MTX200

One my mates had a GPZ1100 at 16 in 1986 :D
 
Last edited:
While I e not actually been to France, don't they have 2 limits for roads depending on the weather?

Yes they do, and it would be well to remember that it’s not just advisory, they also have a lower limit for driving in fog, but I can’t remember what it is.
I’ve been caught on camera there once, couldn’t complain, I knew the limit, but in the eighties I was stopped for speeding by a motorcycle cop between Bordeaux and Toulouse.
When he saw my French name on my licence, he said, “Just watch your speed, I won’t ticket you, you’ve suffered enough by living in Angleterre!
 
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.




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.

Wasnt this the one where the driver was watching Harry Potter movie or was that another one?

I seem to remember that shortly after they updated the software/sensors to include the feature that you must have your hands on the steering wheel whist the car is in motion.
 
Wasnt this the one where the driver was watching Harry Potter movie or was that another one?

I seem to remember that shortly after they updated the software/sensors to include the feature that you must have your hands on the steering wheel whist the car is in motion.

Im not sure on the exact detail of what they were doing other than the driver was not watching the road for a significant period of time which is generally a feature of all of those crashes.

The car always had a ‘nag’ system for if it detected that you didn’t have your hands on the wheel. It used to be every min or two but it’s more like every 10 seconds now. People have sound ways of defeating the steering wheel sensor though which is just idiotic at best.

Anyway, that’s slightly off topic and I was more highlighting the fact that roads in the USA are just materially less safe which is based up by the stats.
 
From a few years ago...mad!

I can't find it from searching now but I watched a video I think another angle from this one a few years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bNLXmamC74

Guy like half a mile or so further up waving a high vis jacket trying to get people to stop and many just continued past him at 60-70+ MPH and slam into the accident (some did slow down and/or stop so not like they were already beyond stopping in time on the surface).
 
Last edited:
Is this a joke? French drivers are horrible, impatient and obnoxious. They have almost twice as many deaths on their roads as we do in the UK. They are not good drivers.

Honestly I have found that on motorways in France the driving is way better. People pull out to overtake and then move back across as soon as they are done. People drive in the inside lane most of the time.

Once you get to the peripherique however all bets are off. Its mental. I haven't driving in London rush hour that much but I imagine its not too dissimilar.
 
[..] Guy like half a mile or so further up waving a high vis jacket trying to get people to stop and many just continued past him at 60-70+ MPH and slam into the accident (some did slow down and/or stop so not like they were already beyond stopping in time on the surface).

I was reading about a bridge failure a couple of days ago. A big boat was mishandled in severe fog and collided with a bridge support, which caused a section of the bridge to collapse. Shortly afterwards, an alert passenger and driver approaching the bridge noticed that a large part of it was no longer there and stopped in time. Only just in time, but in time. The driver went down the road far enough to warn incoming drivers. He even took the risk of standing in the road to make it impossible for people to ignore him. Some swerved around him at speed and drove off the end of the bridge. And died. He saved some people, though, which proves that his warning was early enough to make stopping possible.

EDIT: Tasman bridge, in Australia.
 
Last edited:
I occasionally work up in Oklahoma and even tho their standards are nothing to be proud of, Okies joke about how bad Texan drivers are in comparison. Those "pile-ups" are amazingly insane, tho I guess for some there are white-out conditions (perhaps temporarily, catching some out). But you're supposed to stay home in such conditions, nevermind drive at 60+ MPH!!
 
From watching those pile up videos, it seems the best option is to head off the road and down the embankment! Sure will cost you $ to recover, but at least you're unlikely to be pancaked by an 18 wheeler!
 
Now I'm getting dozens of videos of these things recommended on YT

Wouldn't have been doing half the speed this person was doing in the conditions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3IiRKJIs0I but those reaction times were pretty incredible I doubt I'd have been able to both react and stop in time to not hit the Ford - but scary there are vehicles going even faster than the dashcam car.

I think I'd have been parking way down on the verge behind that sign / get off the junction there if it was me.
 
That’s crazy, I’m sure the camera makes conditions look worse than it is but some of those cars didn’t even look to have lights on.

Seriously lucky the truck stopped in time and then something smashed into the back of it a few seconds later.
 
How fast do you think that person was going? It's hard to tell on video, but look like 60-65 ish? It stopped very well all things considering.
 
Didn’t realise how bad it is currently in Texas, just looked at r/Austin. Not great if you lose your electricity and running water for days on end in those temps.
 
Didn’t realise how bad it is currently in Texas, just looked at r/Austin. Not great if you lose your electricity and running water for days on end in those temps.

Inadequate infrastructure - they can't generate and distribute enough electricity reliably enough. We'll probably be in the same boat here next year, although not as badly.

Cut costs, reduce reliability in the name of "green" and you get the inevitable results - a system barely able to cope with normal conditions is unable to cope with abnormal conditions.
 
Inadequate infrastructure - they can't generate and distribute enough electricity reliably enough. We'll probably be in the same boat here next year, although not as badly.

Cut costs, reduce reliability in the name of "green" and you get the inevitable results - a system barely able to cope with normal conditions is unable to cope with abnormal conditions.
^This the engineering insitutes were writing circa 2000 to the gov saying we needed to build nuclear stations asap to maintain supply security from 2015 onwards and they did the ostrich act. Short term career politicians are not suitable for putting in charge of decisions requiring running long-term strategy and whole-life perspective with growth redundancy and failover etc.
 
Didn’t realise how bad it is currently in Texas, just looked at r/Austin. Not great if you lose your electricity and running water for days on end in those temps.

It is crazy - was watching a video earlier from someone who has a few inches of snow where they work, looks like up to 2 feet in places - they are more used to the temperature being 20+C even at this time of year.
 
Back
Top Bottom