Done a 6 week road trip in Europe (Sept-Oct this year) drove from Calais to Santander we went through northern France and down to Switzerland back across southern france to Andorra and then onto Spain and Portugal and back to northern Spain and Santander where we got the ferry back to Portsmouth...6 weeks of driving and almost 3,000 miles and the worst drive in the whole trip was from bloody Portsmouth to Hastings particularly along the A27....so busy compared to what I had gotten used to the previous six weeks (that said it was in the rush hour on the night England played Poland, so maybe everyone was in a mad rush to get home).
Don't know if anyone knows the Kippings Cross roundabout on the A21 going southbound (the Matfield turn)? Its got 3 exits, and two lanes, and it drives me crazy when people get in the right hand lane, and go straight over, thereby cutting everyone up who is going straight over from the left hand lane.
Im not actually sure on the correct procedure, but I would have thought with 2 lanes, it should be left hand lane for left turn and straight over, and right hand lane for the right turn. Am I correct, or shall I stop getting annoyed?!
I went on a Speed Awareness course this morning, 8am in Penge on a Sunday morning! Well better than 3 points. It was four hours long and I thought it would be a nightmare. Actually it was excellent and the time literally flew by. Ok it was helped by a truly wonderful instructor who was interesting, amusing, charming and hugely informative. I really felt I learnt a lot and for now at least I think I will keep more of an eye on my speed. As an urban driver I genuinely do try to keep my speed down all the time but on bigger roads and motorways I regularly speed, not excessively or I wouldn't have got the option to do the course. Far more serious incidents on urban roads and that little bit over the 30 limit really does make a difference. This course should be part of the Driving Test and every driver should be made to do it at least once. It's not a pass/fail course, it's about education and I certainly feel educated. I've been driving for 30 years btw.
Don't know if anyone knows the Kippings Cross roundabout on the A21 going southbound (the Matfield turn)? Its got 3 exits, and two lanes, and it drives me crazy when people get in the right hand lane, and go straight over, thereby cutting everyone up who is going straight over from the left hand lane.
Im not actually sure on the correct procedure, but I would have thought with 2 lanes, it should be left hand lane for left turn and straight over, and right hand lane for the right turn. Am I correct, or shall I stop getting annoyed?!
Where's that thread we had on here where someone was absolutely adamant that you signal right when going straight over a roundabout and despite the Highway Code saying he was wrong, the OP was still adamant. That was a classic CL thread
Depends how big the roundabout is, what the view is like from each junction and when you took your test. The Highway Code has changed a lot over the last 30 years.
Dual carriageway roundabouts should be treated quite differently from mini ones.
Where's that thread we had on here where someone was absolutely adamant that you signal right when going straight over a roundabout and despite the Highway Code saying he was wrong, the OP was still adamant. That was a classic CL thread
Depends how big the roundabout is, what the view is like from each junction and when you took your test. The Highway Code has changed a lot over the last 30 years.
Dual carriageway roundabouts should be treated quite differently from mini ones.
I think you've got that slightly skewered there Riviera. The only circumstance where you don't need to indicate left to leave a roundabout is on one of the tiny mini roundabouts that's painted on the road, and only if there's no time/space to offer an effective indication. In that circumstance you could potentially still be indicating right while leaving the roundabout, but it's solely down to the physical size of the roundabout, nothing to do with the view or when you took your test.
see some appaling shit drivers at night picking my Mrs up from works. Stopping on the exceleration lane and turning onto the motor way like its just another road. Driving 15 MPH everywhere .
defo related to the amount of bugus driving licences out there.
Where's that thread we had on here where someone was absolutely adamant that you signal right when going straight over a roundabout and despite the Highway Code saying he was wrong, the OP was still adamant. That was a classic CL thread
Depends how big the roundabout is, what the view is like from each junction and when you took your test. The Highway Code has changed a lot over the last 30 years.
Dual carriageway roundabouts should be treated quite differently from mini ones.
I think you've got that slightly skewered there Riviera. The only circumstance where you don't need to indicate left to leave a roundabout is on one of the tiny mini roundabouts that's painted on the road, and only if there's no time/space to offer an effective indication. In that circumstance you could potentially still be indicating right while leaving the roundabout, but it's solely down to the physical size of the roundabout, nothing to do with the view or when you took your test.
Me skewered? I don't know what you're on about. When did I mention not indicating left?
Maybe I should have pointed out that my nemesis was a white guy... didn't really see the relevance though...
Riviera makes a great point about driving tests. How many people reading this was specifically trained on motorway driving? Could be why so many people haven't got a clue about which lane they should be in!
If you are driving on the main Czech motorway and some sales manager warrior type gets up your ass, don't be tempted to give him the finger, otherwise this may happen.
The female victims were ok, although you can see they wouldn't have been, one second later where the trees are. The guy is currently doing 5 years. He works, or worked for South African Breweries, I know people who know him.
As that copper in the clip says, that was bang out of order!
Me skewered? I don't know what you're on about. When did I mention not indicating left?
Apologies if I got the wrong end of the stick then. I thought you were specifically commenting on JohnnyBoyUK's post about signalling right when going straight over at a roundabout Hence my ramblings about always signalling left.
Maybe I should have pointed out that my nemesis was a white guy... didn't really see the relevance though...
Riviera makes a great point about driving tests. How many people reading this was specifically trained on motorway driving? Could be why so many people haven't got a clue about which lane they should be in!
A mate drove us up to Nottingham and back recently and was sat in the 3rd or 4th lane the entire time, regardless of whether there was anything in 1 or 2. Didn't want to say anything as he was doing us a favour but it was pretty annoying.
Maybe I should have pointed out that my nemesis was a white guy... didn't really see the relevance though...
Riviera makes a great point about driving tests. How many people reading this was specifically trained on motorway driving? Could be why so many people haven't got a clue about which lane they should be in!
I suppose there's pass plus which includes motorway driving, but it ought to be included I reckon. Having said that, how long should it take to open your eyes and work out how the hell you're supposed to do it? 5 minutes? I do 20k miles a year and the things I've seen... enough to make me blow a blood vessel. Daily.
I was in the car and the wife phoned to tell me the police had said be careful as someone was driving the wrong way on the A2. I said to 'someone?, there are hundreds of them!'
You jest, but I nearly got hit by some foreigner who'd managed to turn onto the A2 down the wrong carriageway between Dover and Canterbury. I was doing well over 80 in my direction when I saw his headlights heading towards me. The potential for a 150mph head on crash certainly tests your nerves...
I was driving the other day in an 80Kmh zone and I saw a car RIGHT behind another vehicle, probably no more than 2 metres behind.
I pulled level on the inside lane and looked across and the female driver was TEXTING with no hands on the wheel and - the coup de grace - had THREE SMALL CHILDREN STANDING UP on the rear passenger seat - totally unsecured.
I tried to take her registration number but lost her in the traffic, it actually really shook me up that someone could be so stupid - and this was in broad daylight on a very busy road.
I spent some time in Saudi Arabia a few years back, and this was very much the norm. I remember pulling up at one set of lights to see a kid lying across the dashboard in the car next to me! Saw more fatals in my year or so there than I have done in the rest of my, ahem, mutter, 20ish, ahem years...
Learner drivers are already taught how to drive on national speed limit roads and dual carriageway A roads that are tantamount to Motorways. This has to be demonstrated in the basic UK driving test as it stands already. I would agree though that in many cases this is probably not enough training, as evidenced by the OP. (I've witnessed exactly the same thing at that A2 kidbrook junction). The theory test was overhauled/reinvented, so hopefully in the future we might see some kind of post test motorway test appearing one day.
Driving here is dreadful. There's no proper driving test, and that goes for many developing countries. Five minutes around a car park and a computerised theory test where everyone copies each other and you've got a licence.
Maybe I should have pointed out that my nemesis was a white guy... didn't really see the relevance though...
Riviera makes a great point about driving tests. How many people reading this was specifically trained on motorway driving? Could be why so many people haven't got a clue about which lane they should be in!
I suppose there's pass plus which includes motorway driving, but it ought to be included I reckon. Having said that, how long should it take to open your eyes and work out how the hell you're supposed to do it? 5 minutes? I do 20k miles a year and the things I've seen... enough to make me blow a blood vessel. Daily.
Every time I leave "two chevrons" between me and the car in front on a motorway, at least one car decides to pull into my lane and fill it!!
Been driving up to Scotland and back this year quite a lot. A brief synopsis of the average drive up.
1. A2 - Everyone trying to get somewhere faster than is safely achievable, "death by foreign lorry driver" a distinct factor - 10% chance of horrible death.
2. M25 - Ditto above, just a tad faster - 40% chance of death/maiming.
3. M40/42 - Calms down up to Oxford then the natural inbuilt "Twat Alert" starts to go off the closer you get to Brum - 10% chance of death/maiming.
4. M6 (excluding toll) - I have always envisaged death on the motorway as a 100 mph down in flames sort of thing, not death by boredom at 5mph through Brum BUT by Manchester/Liverpool the flash car and/or number plate 120mph Norvern monkey brigade are out in force. Watch your back/front/side, bandit country - 30% chance of death/maiming.
5. M6 (top stretch into Dingle Land after Preston/Blackpool) - Calming down at this point, caravan and wide load hazard still a wild card but inbreeding has dulled the road maiming spirit of the locals into the Lakes - 5% chance of death/maiming/arse raping.
6. A74(M) - Nice drive combined to nice scenery, beware road works with little warning or purpose - 2% chance of death.
7. M8 - Despite a common misconception that all Jocks are of the red wigged homicidal maniac variety, nice driving although you could not get more merging roadways/turn offs to places with strange names in Glasgow if you tried. Possibility of death by taking the wrong turn off raises the score here - 5% chance of death.
A special mention to lorry drivers over all the route "you are a bunch of cn&ts"
Soapy - that has properly made me laugh out loud. Thanks for livening up a train commute home that has involved 40 minutes of delays, screaming babies, a woman talking so loudly on her phone I can hear her over Slayer at full volume on my mp3 player and a bloke sitting opposite me who smells like Shane McGowan crawled up his arsehole and died in there. 50% chance of death from bleeding as I gnaw my own fists off.
Comments
Im not actually sure on the correct procedure, but I would have thought with 2 lanes, it should be left hand lane for left turn and straight over, and right hand lane for the right turn. Am I correct, or shall I stop getting annoyed?!
Dual carriageway roundabouts should be treated quite differently from mini ones.
The only circumstance where you don't need to indicate left to leave a roundabout is on one of the tiny mini roundabouts that's painted on the road, and only if there's no time/space to offer an effective indication. In that circumstance you could potentially still be indicating right while leaving the roundabout, but it's solely down to the physical size of the roundabout, nothing to do with the view or when you took your test.
defo related to the amount of bugus driving licences out there.
Riviera makes a great point about driving tests. How many people reading this was specifically trained on motorway driving? Could be why so many people haven't got a clue about which lane they should be in!
Apologies if I got the wrong end of the stick then.
I thought you were specifically commenting on JohnnyBoyUK's post about signalling right when going straight over at a roundabout Hence my ramblings about always signalling left.
I would agree though that in many cases this is probably not enough training, as evidenced by the OP. (I've witnessed exactly the same thing at that A2 kidbrook junction).
The theory test was overhauled/reinvented, so hopefully in the future we might see some kind of post test motorway test appearing one day.
1. A2 - Everyone trying to get somewhere faster than is safely achievable, "death by foreign lorry driver" a distinct factor - 10% chance of horrible death.
2. M25 - Ditto above, just a tad faster - 40% chance of death/maiming.
3. M40/42 - Calms down up to Oxford then the natural inbuilt "Twat Alert" starts to go off the closer you get to Brum - 10% chance of death/maiming.
4. M6 (excluding toll) - I have always envisaged death on the motorway as a 100 mph down in flames sort of thing, not death by boredom at 5mph through Brum BUT by Manchester/Liverpool the flash car and/or number plate 120mph Norvern monkey brigade are out in force. Watch your back/front/side, bandit country - 30% chance of death/maiming.
5. M6 (top stretch into Dingle Land after Preston/Blackpool) - Calming down at this point, caravan and wide load hazard still a wild card but inbreeding has dulled the road maiming spirit of the locals into the Lakes - 5% chance of death/maiming/arse raping.
6. A74(M) - Nice drive combined to nice scenery, beware road works with little warning or purpose - 2% chance of death.
7. M8 - Despite a common misconception that all Jocks are of the red wigged homicidal maniac variety, nice driving although you could not get more merging roadways/turn offs to places with strange names in Glasgow if you tried. Possibility of death by taking the wrong turn off raises the score here - 5% chance of death.
A special mention to lorry drivers over all the route "you are a bunch of cn&ts"