Car driver rant #318

[mjr]

This is a whole separate discussion. Reality shows that there is a large portion of the driving population that certainly should not have a licence, let alone be let loose in what is potentially a killing machine in the wrong hands.....

So don't criticise that large portion of incompetents for at least showing the minimal self-awareness of not driving through red lights and potentially onto a crossing that you almost certainly can't see from however many cars back, then!

 

[Andy_R]

Were you wearing hi viz? I think not.

If you’d listened to the advice about wearing helmets and helmet cams you’d be sitting pretty now!

Drago? Pretty?? WTF have you been smoking?

 

[Levo-Lon]

Drago? Pretty?? WTF have you been smoking?

Its his mum silly

 

[swee'pea99]

Its his mum silly

His mum? Drago has a mother? I always assumed he'd been hewn from the living rock...

 

[Vantage]

I'd have thought Drago would have used his rippling muscles to tear the roof off the car and have a stern word with the offender.

 

[Dirk]

I'd have thought Drago would have used his rippling muscles to tear the roof off the car and have a stern word with the offender.

I thought he would've head butted the car to a stop.....

 

[Drago]

Alas, being so early in the morning id left both my RPG and AR15 at home.

 

[gbb]

Walking the dog this morning. Returning to Schloss Drago along the footpath through the village, when an ambulance comes along towards me at speed, strobes and wailers going.

The road is narrowed a little bit at that point, and the cars coming up behind me decided they needed to get out of the way of ambo, and the best way to do that was to drive up onto the footpath. The same bit of footpath I was stood on.

Now, lacking the ability to sprint to high speed in a fraction of a second, or to levitate, or to walk through solid walls, I was a bit buggered for going anywhere, and the BMW driving brain donor side swiped me out the way, leaving me trapped against the wall at the side of the footpath. Fortunately, neither I nor the dog were injured, but I'm still a bit shaken up.

Reg number duly taken and will be passed to the Five-O, not that I suspect there's much they can do with no corroboration.

Not sure where or when i saw / read it but i always assumed driving onto the pavement to get out the way of an ambulance was a no no. You drive as fast as prudent till you find somewhere appropriate. But i may be wrong. But it is what many do.

 

[mybike]

As a driver myself it never fails to amaze, annoy and ashame me how road users react to the approach of one of the emergency service vehicles.

The usual scenario is that the vehicle is still a long way away and the best course of action would be for everyone to continue the journey normally, thereby clearing the road and allowing the emergency vehicle to pass them at an appropriate point once they catch up (if indeed they don't head in a different direction before then).
The typical reaction is for everyone to panic and start trying to swap lanes to 'clear' the lane they are in and in the process blocking any and every other alternative route the emergency vehicle could have used to pass the traffic queue. The one lane that does get cleared is typically in front of Mr Jonny

Far too many times seen the panicking sheep stop, thus forcing the car at a pinch point to stop in the worst possibly position for the ambulance.

Yes, one should not commit an offence in order to help Ambo, and Ambo (and Dibble and Trumpton) are trained not to pressure people into doing so, although it doubtless happens.

The training does always seem to take, I've been sitting a signalled junction with sirens behind. I've also carefully pulled to the left while still moving to give room only to have the driver gesticulate at me because he couln't get through the gap that was at least half as wide again as his vehicle.

 

[Time Waster]

I once got taught that it's the emergency service's responsibility to safely pass you and you should drive normally, in a predictable way. Only when there is a safe and legal point for you to pull over to stop should you do so.

I think that is a paraphrase of the instructor at a driving safety course I did at 17 years old. RoSPA course IIRC with the instructor being an off duty advanced police driving instructor at the next town (where the local constabulary had their training facilities and major station perhaps hq I can't remember now).

Anyway I don't see how placing ourselves or others at risk to allow emergency services to pass by is good advice. The Ambo driver is the skilled and trained driver. I very much doubt the idiot driving through a red light will be as highly trained. Certainly not trained for getting to emergencies safely. Trust the Ambo driver to do his / her job.

 

[gbb]

Given I read somewhere that buses in a town somewhere were going to be equipped with the ability to change traffic lights in their favour to aid their progresd...I'm surprised emergency vehicles don't already have this ability.
Must look up where I heard this....

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

Given I read somewhere that buses in a town somewhere were going to be equipped with the ability to change traffic lights in their favour to aid their progresd...I'm surprised emergency vehicles don't already have this ability.
Must look up where I heard this....

Swansea? On the BBC website I think...

Edit: It is Swansea, but I saw it on the independent.co.uk website

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-buses-change-green-first-cymru-a8240081.html

 

[mjr]

Given I read somewhere that buses in a town somewhere were going to be equipped with the ability to change traffic lights in their favour to aid their progresd...I'm surprised emergency vehicles don't already have this ability.
Must look up where I heard this....

Some emergency vehicles can change (preempt) some lights. Sometimes it's remote control of networked lights (such as where King's Lynn Police Station's yard launches vehicles out onto the corner of a traffic-lit T junction) and I understand some US lights have cameras detecting the flashing light bars, but I don't know if we have any of those in the UK.

There are also things like mechanical bus gates that some emergency vehicles have transponders to activate - but I doubt that system is used for traffic light preemption because it seems to require the vehicle to get closer than they would if cars in front where queuing.

I suspect emergency vehicle preemption would often trigger the all-red stage that's programmed into all lights I remember (I sometimes get sent consultation diagrams and suggest reordering stages so that cycleway users don't get delayed as much - but that's often ignored) and thereby make it safe for them to drive wrong-side up the oncoming lane as soon as it cleared. An obvious exception being if the emergency vehicle is approaching from a one-way street.