Cease worriting.
Don't spoil his fun. If Rattle hasn't got something in a category somewhere between theoretical and imaginary to get worked up about he isn't living.
Jalopy making any new noises Rattolo? Get your ears syringed before checking. Some noises betokening very serious trouble are almost inaudible, so very subtle that they sound to the inexperienced ear just like a perfectly healthy example of the same car....
BOO!
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When I did my advanced biking course, my instructor made the point that when a light ahead is green, you know what the next colour is - so are you ready for it changing. Especially if you can see that its been green for some time.
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You won't get busted by a gatso, unless you cross the line when the light is red. If you stopped over the line on amber and then remain stationary, the camera will not be tripped.
The sensor loops are about 18" after the stopline and you will them cut into the road and the grooves filled with tar.
I don't think you would get a ticked it you overstepped the line with your front wheels but didn't cross the junction, but that's only a guess.
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As any images captured by the camera in this instance would more than likely reveal that your vehicle was stationary I can't see that you have anything to worry about.
A foot over the line is hardly enough to warrant any form of prosecution...:-)
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when a light ahead is green, you know what the next colour is - so are you ready for it changing.
Quite. You know the thing's going to turn another colour and try and stop you sooner or later, so if you have any sense at all you accelerate to beat it to the draw. With due care of course.
Those drivers who continue rigidly at the same speed, or slow down to a panic-stricken mimse thus causing several people to be stopped by the traffic light, are beneath contempt. Unfortunately they are very numerous. Is it any wonder that people with sense and red blood become increasingly misanthropic as they age?
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BOO!
Thanks Lud, that's the best laugh I've had all week!
FWIW, speedcamera.co.uk says the traffic light cameras only go "live" 0.6 seconds after the red light comes on. So you'd have to roll over both sets of sensors in the road surface after this time for it to trigger.
In my job I drive around Birmingham city centre every day in a 9 year old lorry with almost half a million on the clock, in all weathers and frequently fully loaded. Couple this with 10 years previous experience in minicab driving and a bit of local knowledge of junction layouts, light sequences and timing and so on, and I must go through non-camera'd lights late enough to fulfil the camera trigger conditions a couple of times every week.
When approaching a green light there is a "point of no return" some distance before the stop line, after which you keep going no matter what colour the lights are as you cross. The exact location of this point varies depending on my speed, my load, which junction it is, the weather, how new my tyres are and half a dozen other factors. I haven't even had anything approaching a close call yet.
Dave TD
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>> there is a "point of no return" some distance before the stop line, after which you keep going no matter what colour the lights are as you cross. The exact location of this point varies depending on my speed, etc
Yes. Spot on.
Takes a while to learn how to get it right 999 times out of 1000 though, especially if you think very heavy braking is a bad idea in urban traffic. Takes a lot of practice and early on, quite a few slightly hairy moments.
Edited by Lud on 07/06/2009 at 00:30
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When I did my advanced biking course...
I got taught the same when learning to drive with BSM. Assume if a light has been green for a while it will be changing before you get to it.
As for Gatso's catching people... they are speed cameras. Gatso's are not used as traffic light cameras. But some traffic light cameras are also speed cameras when the lights are on green.
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Once I skipped an amber-just-changing-to-red light at a crossroads where two one-way sidestreets came out onto a one-way main road. I was turning right onto the main road just as the lights controlling the traffic facing me were turing green allowing them to only turn left, ie to join in behind me. (I hope I've explained that clearly enough!) Unfortunately (for me) waiting at the red facing me was a police car, and sure enough he pulled me over pretty sharpish.
The copper lectured me on how as a cab driver I should know the sequence and timings at that junction, and how I should have known there wasn't enough time to get through. I told him I was planning to use precisely the same reason as my excuse (!) to show that there was enough time, and he agreed with me and let me go...
Edited by Dave_TD {P} on 07/06/2009 at 00:22
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>>>.When approaching a green light there is a "point of no return" some distance before the stop line, after which you keep going no matter what colour the lights are as you cross. The exact location of this point varies depending on my speed, my load, which junction it is, the weather, how new my tyres are and half a dozen other factors. I haven't even had anything approaching a close call yet.
<<<
I read this thread composing your reply Dave:)
It's exactly what I do even in my 1 year old all singing, all dancing, lorry:)
My main thought is how much do I want pick the load up by hand and re-palletise 26 pallets?!
Whatever you do and how you approach it don't dither, just do it.
Lud has the right approach:)
Pat
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pda - much due respect to heavy drivers but, I ask, (tongue in cheek!) how do we 'palletise'?
Must put a halt to the creep of Americanisms into our fair language. Sod the traffic lights.
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You don't want to know, trust me!
It's hard work when thousands of cases of tinned baked beans have deposited themselves on the floor of the trailer and need putting back on 26 pallets!
The motto in lorry driving is 'you moved them off the pallet. so you put them back on it'!
But not half as hard as in my dim and distant past, when 26 tonnes of rebars of steel could also move at the change of a traffic light!
They only go one way, and that is forward through the cab.
Pat
Edited by pda on 07/06/2009 at 19:36
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"As for Gatso's catching people... they are speed cameras. Gatso's are not used as traffic light cameras."
- We have Gatsometer Gatso RLC 36 traffic light cameras in Nottingham, they were the first red light cameras in the UK. Gatsometer is a manufacturer and Gatso is a model prefix.
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Pat....I have an old photo from the 50s of an old Foden or similar.
The load of steel bars has shot forward and removed the cab down to dashboard level.
I liberated some photos from a waste bin at Police Headquarters in the 60s.
All show the aftermath of accidents which I assume were fatal, due to there being pictures taken.. Just shows how weak vehicles were in those days.
Ted
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Having had one of our drivers lose three 1000kg IBC's (1 metre cube liquid tanks) through his side curtain on a roundabout a couple of weeks ago (no lasting harm done, thankfully, just a bit of clearing up and a small spot in the local rag) I am all too aware of the dangers of a shifting load.
It brings to mind the old public safety film of an unbelted rear passenger taking on the appearance of an elephant hurtling through to the front seats and beyond in a collision. I doubt the bulkhead or cab of my lorry would pose much of an obstacle to a few tonnes of weight if the laws of physics were in their favour.
Dave TD
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Historically, large, heavy, solid loads like steel have been very badly restrained on trucks because the philosophy used was badly wrong.
Typically, very strong and rigid restraints, like chains, for example, were used to restrain such loads. The reasoning, such as it was, was that the chains were strong and you need strong restraints for such loads - or, even worse!, the steel is big and heavy, and isn't going anywhere!
In some senses they were right, once the steel was moving, deflecting it from its chosen path isn't easy!
It's wrong to restrain loads with very stiff devices like chains, because as soon as the load shifts a little, or settles a little against the wooden floor of the truck, the chains lose all of their tension, and the load is then only partially restrained! Then, as the load shists and suddenly takes up the slack the impact loading breaks the restraint, and the load is free!
An ex-colleauge worked on this problem, and he identified that the use of a strong but compliant restraint is required. As restraints like webbing aren't as strong as chains, more are needed to provide the required strength, but, these restraints are robust against small shifts and settling.
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