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Since becoming a gentleman of leisure a while ago, I was obliged last week to make a journey on the motorway in rush hour.
What a load of nutters! What a circus of death! I could smell their stress inside my car, I had to close the windows.
Bumper to bumper, hurtling along. They were all under deadlines, I retreated to the slow lane.
Not so long ago I was part of this circus, the ring master. I suppose adrenaline and endorphines increase their ability to drive, to react quickly.
I was out of there.
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Its the same on some of the A roads i have to drive from time to time, you cannot afford to give anybody an inch and it is true dog eat dog to the death. When was the last time you saw someone using the 2 second rule on a dual carraigeway in rush hour? Its frightening sometimes and you need a core of steel to cope with it, and an attitude of 'i dont care if i die today' which i have LOL to be able to brave it. But so many cars all trying to get to one place at one time with not enough road to do it on does that im afraid.
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The slow lane is often the fast lane in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The lorries keep going at a fairly constant speed while the reps keep accelerating and braking and average a lower speed-while using more fuel!
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This is very true as you approach Jct 21a, M6, to attack the M62. I always enjoyed the sense of satisfaction as I rolled off at Jct 22, having joined the lorries, constantly moving, while the other lanes jerked along. Well you've got have something to brighten the day if you're going to Warrington.
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Well you've got have something to brighten the day if you're going to Warrington.
Like an accident?
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Thats a good point unthrottled when i was younger and i'd be in the back of my parents car and someone hare past us at 140 and my mum would say 'he wont get there any quicker' i always thought 'what a stupid thing to say'. he's going twice as fast as us, he'll get there in half the time. But now, grown up (sort of) as a driver i get what they mean. In congested traffic ive had people fly past me doing 100+ and they're in front of me at the roundabout after the next slip road 10 miles up, they got nowhere quicker.
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Not as good as when they hit a red light and have to stop. By the time you get there, it's changed to green, and you fly past them from a 20mph rolling start!
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Reading the road ahead and adjusting speed to the traffic lights to avoid stopping if possible was one thing my driving instructor was VERY keen on drilling into me yet something which few other drivers seem to do.
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I would imagine anyone with the sense to sign into HonestJohn is a safe and considerate driver but do we all walk at the same speed ? Obviously not so why should we all drive at the same speed. How many times have we seen a person haul themselves out of a car, pick up their walking stick(s) and toddle off to shops. Are they good drivers because they drive at speed limits ? What about reaction time ?
I freely admit I overtake people then they catch me up at lights etc but it's not because I'm in an especial hurry, I just enjoy driving more quickly that some. Have we forgotten that driving is suposed to be enjoyable not just a means from A to B. I don't agree with people who say such and such a car is no fun because any car is fun to drive if you do it properly.
Sorry but I could go on for hours about this. Having lived on the Isle of Man where we had no speed limits it does make me laugh when people say 100mph on motorway is dangerous. Try 160 from Kates Cottage to Brandish corner on what is basically a UK B road. Great fun on a motorbike, which is admittedly far easier to drive than a car.
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Have we forgotten that driving is suposed to be enjoyable not just a means from A to B.
People on here havent, but unfortunatley the increasingly sterile, overly controlled repressive nature of motoring in Britain has led to us all being told a car is purely a means of getting from one place to another, heaven forbid anybody enjoys driving their car, deary me. Driving isnt supposed to be fun, its a very serious bad unwanted horrible activity which only causes people to die, as Brake would have us believe. Alot of people on the roads now only drive for the neccessity of it and have no interest in driving or in cars and do not have the ability to think for themselves. The ever increasing attitude of the anti-motoring lobby that cars are merely tin boxes 'in the way' and are 'clutter' which ruin the look of their precious towns, the desires of militant cyclists to have every city pedestrianised to make it better for them and only them (and they claim motorists only care about themselves?!). The dirty secret that cars are useful and motoring the backbone of our country and economy is swept under the carpet, the fact motorists prop the Government up with billions in motoring taxation revenue but get nothing more than a punch in the face, a 'dont drive here' notice and told that cyclists and pedestrians apparently have more rights to the roads that we pay for does bring a negative depressing attitude to those of us who still exist who like cars.
The vicious war against the motorist is still ongoing, and as such its politically incorrect to state you might like cars or enjoy driving. Sad state of affairs really.
Edited by jamie745 on 29/07/2011 at 02:28
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it does make me laugh when people say 100mph on motorway is dangerous.
Who did? But it's traffic density that can make high speed driving dangerous-which you don't have on the back roads in the IOM. Any idiot can drive fast on a road with no one else on it!
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haha, of course, but with cars in line to left and walkers to the right ? love it !
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I never really go above the speed limits due to a fear of secret speed traps hiding in bushes...
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Well in that case George you have absolute guaranteed 0% chance of ever being in/causing/contributing to an accident.
How does that make you feel? Warm and cuddly inside?
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Does speed cause more accidents? We'll never know. However, does speed add to the damage when an accident occurs? I think it might. So perhaps speed limits should be regarded as damage limitation rather than accident prevention.
100 mph is seldom going to be considered to be injurous to life or limb. The sudden deceleration which follows it might though.
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My biggest gripe is not about fast/slow or 'good' driving per se, but people who drive without imagination or any science.
That is, constructing a scenario inside your head about what might happen in your total driving environment & how your driving reflects that. This is probably what the Police driving manual (.. whatever it's called..) or other good system is teaching, ultimately.
I see drivers under the speed limit to whom I give a very wide, metaphorical, berth to. I see distracted or uninterested drivers that I'm pretty certain aren't looking any further than the end of their bonnet. The same, of course, applies to the poor fast drivers.
Perhaps the root problem is lack of enjoyment. If you don't actually enjoy (in the sense of getting pleasure from a job well done) driving, you'll not be much interested in really appyling any 'science' or yourself to it.
Edited by woodbines on 29/07/2011 at 15:55
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Could put my smarty pants hat on and say there is no "slow or fast" lanes!
You want bad driving , ha, come over here to Floriduh, you havent a clue. On my yearly trip back to the UK driving standards are way above here, so think yourselves lucky.
BUT the reason for bad driving mainly, is the F you attitude. I'm in my little tin tank and screw you jack!
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Slow driving: Driving at a significantly slower speed than would normally be accepted as a safe and legal speed for a stretch of road in given conditions.
e.g 35 mph on a clear single carriageway A road in good weather in a normal car.
Bad driving: Driving that is dangerous, agressive, anti-social, illegal or detrimental to a vehicle's wellbeing.
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And then we have the downright weird drivers (usually wearing hats) who drive at a steady 40mph everywhere (town, country, motorway, Tesco carpark) usually weaving slightly.
They may be looking for Specsavers ....
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Or the old lady, barely visible over the steering wheel of her Jazz, who tried to drive headlong into us earlier at the garden centre, on the wrong side of the road. Menace!
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I prefer slow to:
drunk
using a mobile phone
Racing on roads.
Aggressive.
Selfish
and asleep (yes I have seen someone fall asleep on the M6: they were weaving slightly and then jumped from Lan1 to 3.. and then woke up....
I followed as I was too scared that if I passed they would hit me.. They stopped at the next services.
Edited by madf on 29/07/2011 at 17:14
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Slow could be interpreted as selfish...
I didn't think that 60mpg arose from nothing!
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Most of the time slow drivers are not good drivers, there's a road I drive most days, a B road admittedly, but perfectly drivable at 40-50mph, yet nearly every time I'm on it, you will be in a queue behind someone bumbling along at 30, and who slows down to sub 20 mph speeds for the corners, you know things are bad when tractors are catching you up.
On another road yesterday, A road this time, behind a guy in an Ibiza who never went above 40 and was deep in an animated conversation with his passenger, he was weaving all over the road, if I wasn't on the bike, I'd have found it difficult to get by him.
Wasn't an age thing, this guy would have been mid 30's max.
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