Learners allowed on motorways from 2018

My Mrs once chased a lorry similarly but when she caught him at the lights he pointed out he was gritting!

That happened the other way round to us quite recently (I am pleased to say) and my immediate investigations found a blown fuse that then lead onto it being a failed loom in the tailgate hinge (LED stop lamp feed fractured next to an earth cable). I re-wired the loom at the hinge by replacing the heavy / stiff cables with multiple more flexible ones. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

I'm like her though ... I can smell if someone in front is smoking a cigar or weed.

Quite but at least you gave everyone a chance in case it was going to.

I did similar with a black cab. I was following it down a dual carriageway (at about 50) and could smell burning clutch / brake lining. We stopped at some lights and I saw smoke coming up from his n/s rear wheel. I manage to jump out and let him know, he thanked me (people are often slightly shocked / confused / surprised at such moments) and he pulled over at the first opportunity.

It's much easier to get to tell people of such things when you are on a motorbike but it's often not so easy to get them to wind the window down to hear what you are trying to say to help them for fear you are going to attack them or summat! ;-(

Cheers, T i m

I think you are right (in general).

;-)

Cheers, T i m

En el artículo , newshound escribió:

I sometimes wish the matrix signs would change from nanny-state messages like "don't phone and drive" or "speed kills" to "don't hog the f****ng middle lane"

En el artículo , Steve Walker escribió:

I like that.

Drivers not used to the road would probably subconsciously note "SLOW" and not think much of it, but "SLOWER" is sufficiently different for them to take notice while conveying the same message.

No, in fact AFAIK, none of it *has* to be done with instructors and years ago it was probably even less so (because of the cost).

Yup, you still get that here but I'm not sure how much (I don't seem to see L plates on private cars as much as I used)?

I never drove in any of our family cars as a kid as they were my Dads 'company' cars (not his company etc) so I'm not sure it was allowed.

The first car I actually drove (officially, on the road [1]), after my instructors Triumph Toledo (I went from Lambretta Scooter to Messerschmitt KR200 to Morris Minor Van etc) was *my* first car (van) but I have accompanied a few other learner drivers (and motorcycle riders) since.

The last was with our daughter where we did as you suggest and gave her chance to practice what she learned on her lessons inbetween.

I had to play that by ear ... mostly just being there as a 'qualified person' and tried not to advise much outside the obvious and general 'good driving' tips for fear of contradicting what her instructor was telling her. This is because I believe there is still a fair difference between learning to drive for the test and being able to drive efficiently ITRW.

Cheers, T i m

....

I caught the end of one of those endless NZ police programs last week. A driver had been pulled over because his poor driving had been reported earlier in the day... they had a quiet word with him about driving standards. Sounded like an automatic procedure.

I like the idea of a bad driving hotline - 3 (say) adverse reports and you get pulled over. After this Saturday on the M25, it seems *such* a good idea.....

In general, people are lazy, people are selfish, and people are stupid.

No amount of messages will change that.

Chris

'Overtaking' on motorways is more blurred. What about if you're in the middle lane (yeah I know...) then discover that there is a long free path in lane 1. Then exploit the clear lane 1, but passes slower cars in the middle lane?

Often happens when approaching a junction, because many escapes lane 1 to the middle lane thinking that lane 1 will be full of joining cars. But actally not as bad, you can still get ahead in lane 1 since middle lane get fuller from the escaping cars :)

There is of course the risk that a car in the middle lane tries to pull in, but not a problem if he indicates, then I always oblige.

On 13/08/17 09:47, Peter Hill wrote: ....

About as nasty-looking as the entry slip from Mill Road onto the W-bound A11 (70+mph typical speeds) https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.1714692,0.2811576,807m/data=!3m1!1e3 A viciously approach sharp bend, restricted view, and no real slip road. >

I learned to drive many years ago in Lowestoft.... my introduction to motorway driving was the M11/M25 on Christmas Eve. A bit of a shock.

If your intention was to get into lane one anyway, and there was a bit of traffic generally, I'd not worry if I happened to undertake those sitting in lane two.

Yup. ;-)

Nearly as bad as the car cutting across from lane three off to the slip road ...

Cheers, T i m

on the M25 last Sunday, a car did just that, going over the white lines and kicking up dust, narrowly missing the car nearest the junction, just behind me was a Police car and he saw the incident and hared off after him/her. Result :)

Result indeed!

However, how many times do we see such things and say 'where are the Police when we need them ...'?

The answer of course is they are dealing with something that might be considered more important ... than the major RTA that was just avoided by luck or the fast reactions of others.

I think I might have just clipped said crosshatching's once or twice in my life when nearly missing an exit but *only* ever from lane one and only after checking there was no other traffic already in that slip lane.

I have though done a few extra miles going up to the next junction and back (and you can nearly guarantee those junctions are busy). ;-(

Cheers, T i m

uk.rec.driving

In message , T i m writes

You're right!

I'm normally using Demon's Turnpike, but I have Thunderbird running in parallel. Although I haven't seen any posts in uk.rec.motoring for a couple of years, it was still in my list of Turnpike subscribed NGs, and active. If I do a search for it in 'All Newsgroups', there it is - but only via AIOE.

If I look for it in the AIOE account in Thunderbird, it's not there. That's just weird!

However, I see that Nick Finnigan has pointed out uk.rec.driving. I've subscribed to it, but unfortunately it's just full of spamcrap/trollcrap. No point in going there.

Which is probably why people post such car related stuff here?

It's like uk.d-i-y where is has become a more general free-for-all but with some regularly posting anything to do with doing-it-yourself.

Cheers, T i m

I think it would be far less dangerous as all drivers then have to stay alert and make proper use of their F'in mirrors. Instead of going to bloody sleep in the middle lane.

Years ago I was on an empty M1 (cup final day) approaching junction just after Watford Gap services. I was doing 95mph in nearside lane. There was a car doing 60mph in the middle lane. I flashed him. No response, I used my mirror signalled and moved to middle lane. Flashed him again. No response so I slowed down to 70mph so I didn't startle the driver when I passed him and again checked mirror signalled and pulled out in offside lane. As I drew level with the car there was an almighty flash from behind me that lit the bridge up in daylight with bright sun. I looked round to see a white with red stripe XJS going up the off ramp on it's front wheels. I really don't have a clue where he came from as I checked my mirror repeatedly. I assume he had given it maximum wellie out of the services. There was no response from guy in car I was alongside.

A high level brake light is an auxiliary lamp and can't get you a big fine or even pulled over.

Whereas having either of the proper brake lights failed should get a fine. Even if 2 are still showing a centrally placed auxiliary brake light is not in the right place.

Saw about 3 out last week on quite recent cars. I had cars with brake/tail failure warning lamp 30 years ago, it was "X" reg Bluebird. Worked the opposite way when a trailer was on, lit if the lamps worked.

In message , T i m writes

Indeed. There are a lot of political/legal posts in uk.d-i-y. [I try to refrain participating, but occasionally I yield to temptation.] Why we do this is a mystery, as we already have three good UK NGs designed for the purpose. The problem with persistent off-topic posts (even by otherwise bona fide on-topic regulars) is that they attract spammers and trollers, who then deliberately add to the problem by cross-posting to totally unrelated NGs. This is a sure recipe for rendering a NG unusable

- hence the reason there is no longer available any usable motoring/driving NG.