Changing a car tyre on the hard shoulder.

[BoldonLad]

Never drive alongside a truck/coach/armoured personnel carrier, until your exit is clear and you can complete the pass in one go. These muppets that hold station alongside lorries have a strange desire to grow wings, sit on clouds, and play a harp.

Good advice, seldom heeded however, based on my motorway observations.

 

[Profpointy]

Never drive alongside a truck/coach/armoured personnel carrier, until your exit is clear and you can complete the pass in one go. These muppets that hold station alongside lorries have a strange desire to grow wings, sit on clouds, and play a harp.

well worth avoiding holding station alongside any vehicle, never mind trucks. If the driver just looks in their mirror but not doing a motorcycle style "lifesaver" they won't see you. I've heard, maybe wrongly, that some "advanced driving" training discourages looking round in favour of only using mirrors

 

[Drago]

Yeah, you heard wrongly.

 

[Profpointy]

Yeah, you heard wrongly.

I think I heard it on here from someone who had done "advanced" motorcycle and car training and that the lifesaver was apparently wrong in the car because you were supposed to use your mirrors. Assuming the claim wasn't just nonsense the trainer may have taken a mantra to an idiotic extreme - maybe "you should use your mirros to aways know what's there" (fair enough) - extrapolated to "you know what's there so don't look over your shoulder" which would be a ludicrous conclusion

 

[Drago]

I don't know about the Incompetence of Ageing Maniacs training, but lifesavers are taught in police fast driving. We were also taught to set out mirrors differently too, but even then there are inevitable blind spots.

 

[Profpointy]

I don't know about the Incompetence of Ageing Maniacs training, but lifesavers are taught in police fast driving. We were also taught to set out mirrors differently too, but even then there are inevitable blind spots.

Since learning to ride a motorbike many years back my systematic adopting of "lifesavers" in the car too, as well as being more systematic generally considerably improved my car driving. Very rare for me to be suprised by anything and can't really remember the last time I had to brake hard. There was definitley a before and after from the bike training. It was the specific training rather than bikes per se. Maybe car driving lessons had improved since I did my car test but bike was only 6 or 7 years later

 

[dfthe1]

I suspect there is some confusion around the official DVSA guidance:

On the move

• Blind spots on the move are on either side of your vehicle. Don’t look around to check for them – you’ll take your focus away from the road in front of you, with potentially dangerous consequences.
• Regular and sensible use of your mirrors will keep you up to date with what’s happening behind. But you’ll still need to check your blind spots to gather as much information as possible before you make certain manoeuvres. You should take a quick sideways glance before you

o change lanes
o join a motorway or dual carriageway from a slip road; or
o when traffic is merging from the left or the right.

• You should also recognise where other drivers’ blind spots will be and avoid remaining in them longer than necessary.

https://www.safedrivingforlife.info/blog/more-top-tips-how-deal-blind-spots

What it means is you don't need to look all the way behind -- glancing sideways is sufficient. But "don't look around to check for them" is ambiguous at best.

 

[Drago]

Unfortunately, the DVSA don't do high speed, pursuit or response driving. They only concern themselves with mundane motoring.

 

[mjr]

Unfortunately, the DVSA don't do high speed, pursuit or response driving. They only concern themselves with mundane motoring.

And they're not even very good at that, as you can see above, or on the roads most days in many places