The No Subject Thread - The Bear and Badger

GooberTheHat

I despise those 40 in a 60, 40 in a 30 drivers.

GooberTheHat

Quoted because of page turn.

Escape wrote:

Indeed. You could be charged for driving without due care, but there's nothing under that law that strictly covers doing 60 across an open, bumpy moor with a 60 limit. I've only had one car (an old Citroen with knackered airbed suspension) that could do that without breaking the bones in my arse. It's also as fast as I've ever cared to go on a motocross bike.

There's a km-long straight near me with perfect visibility, a full pavement the whole way, and it was reduced from 40 to 30 some time ago. Of their own volition, the vast, vast majority of drivers would drive at around 50. I know this for sure, because that was the norm before mobiles frequented it, back when it was 40. Had it been 50 instead, it doesn't actually follow that 60 would've been the average. 50 just feels nice and safe and right for that road.

The main and only danger comes from overtaking, and the desire to do so's dramatically increased by the 30 limit. When our laws were introduced, cars had drum brakes and a lot less grip, but there were far fewer drivers on our roads, and that's the key. Traffic volume and lack of concentration are the real dangers, and cameras deal with neither. Volume's increased by roads such as the one I mention, because it's silly-low limit and mobile-camera rep have caused a sharp increase in tailbacks. If an overtaking accident does happen as a result of this, lots of people will say that it vindicates the use of cameras.

Our roads are becoming more dangerous by the year, but I feel that mobile cameras are every bit as likely to exacerbate this danger as to ameliorate it. I don't have a problem with fixed cameras in the proper places, such as near schools and heavily pedestrianised areas. Remember, I'm prone to a different outlook on this because of how rural my location is. It's common for me to overtake and get annoyed at others for their slowness between villages, at the same time as those same drivers getting away from me through those villages. There's a horrible one-speed-fits-all mentality with a lot of these country drivers. 30's the limit for the village I live in and I never top 25 (same speed as I reach down hills on my bike).

The Daddy

Our money is shit:

http://beliefpix.com/2017/10/canadian-2-dollar-coin-glows-in-the-dark/

Escape

GooberTheHat wrote:

Quoted because of page turn.

I've just edited, but aye. Those 60-30 40-40s! We get there just as fast.

What we need is for all cars to become KITTs that take over whenever their Michaels have had one too many at the country club again. Or for general Michaelage.

Skinny jeans? That's an autopilot.

mk64

Andy, are there figures on how head counts are allocated by department?

[Deleted User]

I honestly don’t know. Quite possibly. Although I think most forces are wary of publicising how many officers are actually operational because it would worry the public. If I get a spare minute (I’m pretty busy in my current post, working loads of extra hours but unable to claim OT for a lot of it) I’ll cobble together some local figures.

Bob wrote:

Christ I bet you all drive like Miss Daisy

I’ve been thinking a bit about this since I read it. I used to drive like a dick, to be honest. Twelve to fourteen years ago I exceeded the speed limit most journeys, and had a frankly disgusting attitude towards the care and attention I gave to driving. But I do wander what it is about the act of driving that makes it exempt from common sense/decency, and makes it cool to have a frankly callous disregard for the lives of others. Why do some people think it’s an insult to say that others drive carefully and considerately?

There are currently major roadworks on my route to work, as they make the whole route between where I live and Aberdeen a dual carriageway the whole way, a short twenty-five year’s after me first reading about it being an urgent necessity. As a result, it’s currently a 50 for 90% of the route. I set my speed limiter and pootle in. I get >50mpg at those speeds so, to be honest, I’m tempted to stick to that when the dualler finally opens.

Why do some people think that not slamming your foot to the floor (or even just driving within the boundaries of the law) is worthy of ridicule?

Escape

It depends on loads of factors, but as someone who raced cars for a short while, I know that with an alert driver most modern machines are capably safe far in excess of the majority of speed limits. But that's assuming an empty road, and the real danger isn't speed per se but unforeseen happenings.

I always slow down when a car's approaching, even though it shouldn't affect me, because I'm aware that it might swerve randomly (at worst), or possibly because an animal runs out. And the same whenever I'm somewhere that a walker might be, especially lanes. At blind corners there might be a cyclist ahead, and so on. So while I drive faster than most from A to B, if you looked at my speed graph you'd see lots of spikes. Faster through corners with visible exits than most, but slower through blinds.

And so I don't get annoyed by slowness itself, nor even perpetual slowness if that's what anyone favours, I get annoyed by those who hold me up at the same time as showing a lack of perception for possible dangers. Too many drivers have terrible awareness.

As a biker as well as a driver, I know that my senses are — for obvious reasons — sharper on a bike, but so many bikers are killed through no fault of their own, because you just can't assume that every driver hasn't seen you without riding everywhere at about 20. From biking and racing I'm also used to aiming at the vanishing point (sometimes I have to bring my eyes back a bit in case my peripheral vision's missed some brake lights or something ahead), and I routinely see things long before those in front of me begin to react. Again, that's not speed exactly, but when these people are driving slowly and still aren't entirely on the ball...

TL; DR: it's not slowness by itself, it's when slowness holds me up without benefiting the abilities of the slow driver. It's not slow versus fast, it's perceptive versus unalert. Right enough, it's better for neglectful drivers to be slow, but then like we say — they hit little villages and plough on! That's where the cameras should be, not on open roads with no peds.

Bob

@Andy - I think that's just youth. I used to be obsessed with over taking amd getting their fast.

I once got pulled by a police officer who told me if I was going to drive like Nigel mansell I outta wear my seat belt.

These days I drive a lot slower and take a lot less risks.

dynamiteReady

What was 'rippling adonis' in the Edge swear filter?

mk64

thanks Andy, i've not looked at information about public services for a while. I know from experience that an ambulance wont turn up now any time soon in london unless you've stopped breathing.

I know my local station shut down about ten years ago too.

Would be interested to know how many police there actually are in an area and of them how they're allocated. I might end up writing to my mp.

Moot_Geeza

Miss Daisy packed the driving in because she had a crash /pedantic hat.

[Deleted User]

mk64 wrote:

Would be interested to know how many police there actually are in an area and of them how they're allocated. I might end up writing to my mp.

Stick in an FOI request but, be advised, there have been disputes in the past as the federation says forces include those on long term absence and office-bound jobs as ‘frontline’.

@Escape That’s a particular subset of bad drivers, and I understand criticism of them. It’s criticism of good drivers obeying the law that I understand less.

Tempy

How else can you prove you've got massive, heaving, pulsating, testosterone filled sacks of barely contained manliness other than by sneering at people who don't want to die on the road?

Other than having a gun in your glovebox, just in case, of course.

WorKid

Oh I know this! Is it... Massive subwoofers in the boot?

Bob

Only if the question is "What devalues a part exchange more than almost anything else"

Moot_Geeza

A few years ago a woman was shouting in a Tesco Express about someone's parking that had annoyed her in some way. The offending car was green, presumably she gave more information, but I wasn't really listening. I turned to my wife and said "we've got a green car", and I wish I hadn't, because I've had those five words repeated to me close to a hundred times since, in various silly voices to emphasise my thickness. Our car at the time was green, but it wasn't a green [whatever]. This story pretty much sums up how much interest I have in cars. The only cars I've ever had any particular fondness for were one I had that changed colour when you submerged it in warm water, and one that was also a padlock. I can't drive, and I like to be chauffeured around slowly and carefully. I like my wife's driving, and I liked my dad's (the deliberate brakes dab for up-the-arsers in our Morris Traveller got old though). I once 'famously' got the train home from Brighton instead of getting back in my cousin's car, as he'd driven me to a funeral slaloming through the 70-85mph brigade on the motorway. 'Fuck that' has always been my stance on going fast in a car, and I've probably never been driven any distance without wearing a seatbelt if it's available. Speeding's not for me.

[Deleted User]

Haha

Tempy

I'm with Moot, I get tense very easily in cars.

[Deleted User]

I'm not a great passenger anymore, I'm fine with careful drivers but don't like drivers who are all over the place and especially in the wet.
Stems from an accident I was in while at University.

poprock

I love to drive. I also love to drive fast, when I feel it’s safe to do so. Open roads up in the Highlands on a clear day, early in the morning, and so on. No need to break any 60 limits, but I do enjoy pushing the car, carrying speed through the bends, and so on. I love track driving too. Open track days where I can push my own skills behind the wheel a bit, and maybe the odd time trial or hillclimb. I’m a bit nervous in actual races though – I’m just not rich enough to be comfortable with the risk/reward in a pack of cars.

On a day to day basis though, I drive well within the legal and sensible limits. Stick to the speed limits, especially in villages and cities. Nothing worse than people who speed through areas busy with pedestrians.

I will admit to a heavy right foot on long motorway journeys. I think that’s my worst habit behind the wheel.

Yossarian

I do fine as a passenger. I always ring the bell well in advance of my stop so the driver knows to let me off the bus.

Escape

You see, cars don't scare me, but buses do. They've bomb potential if you live in a major city, but mainly it's from the week that I spent using an ancient double-decker to get to college. Different driver every day, and none of them spoke more than a few words of English, so we couldn't warn them of local hazards. Proper Dukes.

I got a 50cc bike and ended up riding up to 80 miles per day to avoid that bus. All the weathers. (Not Carl.)

[Deleted User]

The odds of being bombed anywhere in this country are so small I wouldn't even consider it a factor in any aspect of my life.

Yossarian

Buses in cities are pretty safe, there aren't many hazards worth worrying about, and the bus is never going that fast anyway.

As for bomb potential, you quickly become inured to those types of thing. We've been through too many scares and life for the vast majority has carried on after enough actual incidents for this to be worth worrying about.

Escape

One of my old mates had a sister in London in the '90s (she and her fam are still there), and his Tube talk used to terrify me. Being trapped underground if just one nutter did something...

And that was long before 9/11.

Yossarian

When I hear 'trapped underground' in relation to the tube, I'm immediately thinking of getting irritated because my journey is being delayed rather than anything else.

Escape

That, too.

Yossarian

I am actually friends with a guy who was on the bus during 7/7, although I met him several years after the incident. He lost a leg (and a hand which was amazingly reattached with no long-term issues). It obviously affected him deeply at the time, but he's now living in Mexico with his husband and seems happy.

Paul the sparky

Yossarian wrote:

I am actually friends with a guy who was on the bus during 7/7, although I met him several years after the incident. He lost a leg (and a hand which was amazingly reattached with no long-term issues). It obviously affected him deeply at the time, but he's now living in Mexico with his husband and seems happy.

That's incredible. Thumbs up, science/medicine.

Yossarian

It is amazing.

He was fortunate in that the bomb on the bus went off as the bus was passing the British Medical Council HQ during a meeting between some of the top disaster-relief doctors in the world.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories