One of my pet hates is having to stop at pedestrian-controlled crossings where said pedestrian has pressed the button 'automatically', and crossed whilst the lights are still on green. In due course, the lights turn red, and cars are then obliged to stop at the now-deserted crossing.

Whilst being sorely tempted, I have so far resisted driving through the red lights when it is clearly obvious that no-one is there to use the crossing. Have others also resisted?! Read more

now before i start i am not saying that this would have prevented this incident.

after watching one of the news channels coverage of the terrible events on the m40 yesterday i wonder how many more incidents like this are going to occur until the government realises we need more traffic patrols and less money making flashing things. i mean really, some one getting shot whilst riding along a motorway, welcome to the 21st century Britain.


Subject line altered to reflect discussion point - PU
Read more

I?ve often heard that to start a car?s engine requires more fuel than leaving it running at a set of traffic lights for a short while? Is this true?

If you have a warm engine, why does it need ?extra? fuel to start it?

If this is true, how long would you need to be waiting at the lights before it becomes more economical to turn the engine off and re-start when the lights go green?

For the purpose of this question, please ignore the fact that you will lose air con whilst the engine is turned off.
Read more

Moving house on Saturday I did several trips round the M25 passing through the variable speed limits that are in place between the M3 and M40.

I am not entirely sure how the speed limits are determined, but there were no incidents on the road, just lowered limits of varying rates.

I understand that the theory is that although obviously cars are travelling faster at NSL, due to the effects of braking, distance between vehicles, etc., you can end up getting MORE traffic flowing through at a LOWER speed limit.

However, when driving through, traffic flows well at 60 and somewhat well at 50, and becomes stop-start at 40mph.

It was quite frustrating to be in the 40mph limit, to be stop-start, and suddenly for the traffic to start flowing well, without any junctions in between, only to see the reason for it - that the gantry ahead has gone up to 60mph, causing cars to travel faster.

When you are on the road, it just seems that the Highways Agency are managing things badly, the 40mph speed limits can surely not serve a useful purpose, and they are holding everybody up.

In the case above where the limit went from 40 to 60, this was shortly after the M4 turnoff (going North), so it might be that the traffic flow before the junction was that much greater, and after the turn-off (say two gantries later), improved flow means they can turn the speeds up.

Still, I'm not convinced that 40 can be faster than 50. And are these limits governed automatically?

Does anybody know?

I also think that if these limits really do improve flow, it would make sense to use SPECS cameras, as that would do a better job of keeping speeds steady, and if this ultimately makes people's journeys shorter, it's a good thing (though the problem with this is the ridiculous 10% overstate that are legally permitted on speedometers - my Volvo seems to be perfectly calibrated, but generally most cars are not).
Read more

Hi john,

Can I pick your brains on this one. Have you ever heard of an omega 2.5 td pump being used in a bmw 525td? What we did [foolishly] was by a replacement omega engine 2.5 td from a 97 model and shoved it into a bmw 525td 95 model [engine and all]. All the connectors were the same and we thought it would work. Not so, we were then told by the local injection pump reconditioner that they are different. Is this true ? and have you ever heard of anyone doing this conversion to make their bmw run?
We are now stuck with an unusable bmw 525 td in good nick but....hope to get it working.
Many thanks

{Post reformatted to remove the overdose of >>>> symbols - DD} Read more