Overtaking
Posted: Tue 23 September, 2008 Filed under: Driving, Thoughts, Weirdness 3 Comments »Why is it that whenever you’re overtaken on a motorway or dual-carriageway, it’s never by a sports car, or anything that looks like it should be overtaking everything? Instead it’s always the Minis, or Ford Mondeos.
Just, why?
What Car? – Answered
Posted: Sat 20 September, 2008 Filed under: BMW Drivers, Driving Leave a comment »Pretty much everyone guessed the correct answer about which car had made such a complete hash of a motorway junction.
Unshockingly, it was a BMW driver.
What Car?
Posted: Tue 16 September, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving 5 Comments »Travelling in to work this morning, I was on the A14 where it splits into the A14 and the A11 (heading towards Cambridge and the M11)
At this point, there are big signs telling you which lane to be in, and the inner carriageway of the A14 then splits off to become the A11 – and then that becomes two carriageways. It sounds complicated, but really isn’t.
Anyway, this morning, the car I was travelling behind was in the outside lane of the A14. At the last possible second, this bell-end swooped across both lanes of the A14, over the cross-marked meridian, and over the two lanes of the A11. No signalling, no warning, just an obvious “Oh fuck! This isn’t where I wanted to be!” – the driver had also been on the phone (hand-held – I could see them using it) which probably explains it.
Now – today’s question is…
What make of car was this person driving?
No prizes for correct answers.
Newsworthy?
Posted: Wed 10 September, 2008 Filed under: Driving, Thoughts Leave a comment »I’m not quite sure why this story of a woman who failed her driving test because she drove through a puddle and splashed a pedestrian is deemed so newsworthy – unless most people don’t know that splashing someone by driving through a puddle can be deemed a criminal act under “Driving without due care and attention”.
I’ve always known about this one though.
Mind you, having been through a fair number of driving tests myself, I know that if the examiner deems a problem severe enough, that’s it, you’ve failed the test. I failed twice for stalling the car at a road junction. Despite the driver in this case saying “And if I’d swerved to avoid the puddle I might have caused an accident.”, I’m sure the examiner would say “If you had to swerve to avoid the puddle, you didn’t see it in time.”. And if the alternative is to cause an accident, then the examiner would have been more likely to mark it as a minor mistake.
As always, the context is key here. Personally, I suspect that the rest of the road was clear when this driver went through the puddle – thus meaning she could have gone round it. Because she didn’t, she wasn’t paying attention and wasn’t properly assessing the risks of the road in front. Ergo, a fail. And if she was going so fast as to splash the water seriously, she should’ve slowed down to minimise that splash. As always, if a situation can be avoided safely, it should be – regardless of whether it’s a cyclist, oncoming traffic, or puddles in the road. That’s just standard defensive driving.
I’m not convinced, personally, of the feasibility of stopping and giving the pedestrian your details – I can understand it if the person has been completely soaked, but it’s one of those things where there are differing degrees of getting soaked.
Do I think it right that this person failed her test? Yes. Do I think it was a harsh reason to fail? Possibly.
Knowing the Junctions
Posted: Thu 4 September, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts 2 Comments »Whenever I’m driving, and listen to the traffic reports, they usually cause me a problem.
You see, I just don’t know the junction numbers for the roads I’m using, so I just don’t know whether the reported issues will affect me or not. I’m OK with direction (i.e. north/south-bound etc.) but if I hear a report telling me that junctions 25-28 of the A[xx] are jammed, I’ve no flaming clue where that is.
I know last year this very nearly caused me a problem – coming home from a concert in London, the signs were all reporting “Road closed after Junction 9 – diversions in place”. I had (and if I’m honest, still have) no idea whether I turned off at Junction 8,9, 11 or 52 – so the signs were effectively useless for me.
Is this just me? Have I not been driving enough yet to know the junctions off by heart? Or would it not be easier to see “After the Cambridge A11 turnoff” instead of, for example “After Junction 9” ?
Delayed [Update]
Posted: Fri 15 August, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts 2 Comments »Following on from yesterday’s post and my further comments about it in the same post, I had a look at the distances involved etc. today.
[Mr X] drove for no less than five and a half miles on the wrong side of the A14. At 6am. Now that takes some dedication – or at least dedicated stupidity.
In my opinion, it’s actually pretty hard (and particularly on the section of road in question) to get on to the wrong side of the dual carriageway. Even the roundabout turnoff to get on the off sliproad (in order to get on to the wrong carriageway) would involve an extremely sharp angle off the roundabout – unless you go down the proper ‘on ramp’ sliproad, then decide to do a bloody great U-turn to get on and go the wrong way. Either way, it’s (again) a pretty dedicated manoeuvre.
Looking at the site of the accident this morning, it’s also interesting (in an academic way) to see that there was only one set of skid-marks on the road – and that they were leading up to the crash site by the truck that was going the correct way up the road.
I’m no expert on these things – and make no claim to be – but all the same, the entire incident smacks to me of some pretty major dedication to the cause of driving on the wrong side of the road.
Mind you,in mitigation there’s also this twunt from yesterday’s news who did the same kind of thing having decided he wasn’t going to pay a toll at the Severn Road Bridge. At that point, words fail me.