Around here I am sure you could be correct, I think stats show it as being one of the most dangerous counties to drive in.
My wife runs a business that caters for older people, many who come by car but cannot even see our door bell.
Driving "standards" slipping...
- Thread starter GrumpyGregry
- Start date
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Around here I am sure you could be correct, I think stats show it as being one of the most dangerous counties to drive in.
My wife runs a business that caters for older people, many who come by car but cannot even see our door bell.
OP
OP
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
This evening...
Driving towards a roundabout on an NSL DC. Luton van in left hand lane, and ahead of me signalling left. I am in right hand lane intending to take second exit.
I give way at roundabout to traffic already on it. The Luton enters the roundabout left hand indicator blinking. I enter the roundabout but for some reason my 6th sense is telling me to hold off the gas. Glad I did.
Luton, left hand indicator still blinking passes first exit, crosses in front of me and passes second exit, leaves roundabout at third exit, driver blissfully unaware that they are driving like a twunt.
A little later I pass a short queue of cars stopped at traffic lights. 3 of the 5 blissful drivers I pass are using handheld mobile phones.
Driving towards a roundabout on an NSL DC. Luton van in left hand lane, and ahead of me signalling left. I am in right hand lane intending to take second exit.
I give way at roundabout to traffic already on it. The Luton enters the roundabout left hand indicator blinking. I enter the roundabout but for some reason my 6th sense is telling me to hold off the gas. Glad I did.
Luton, left hand indicator still blinking passes first exit, crosses in front of me and passes second exit, leaves roundabout at third exit, driver blissfully unaware that they are driving like a twunt.
A little later I pass a short queue of cars stopped at traffic lights. 3 of the 5 blissful drivers I pass are using handheld mobile phones.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
There are mistakes.
And there is deliberately driving outside the bounds of the predictability that keeps us all safe.
That's spot on, and then there's wifully driving agressively / smidgaf which is a grade worse again.
OP
OP
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
Special exemption in Crawley. The Highway Code does not apply within the Borough boundaries at night when it is raining hard there.
OP
OP
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
If they behave like chumps, and are genetically incapable of driving to the required standards, then their vehicles and licences should be taken away.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Agreed! And they should be forcibly prevented from obtaining bicycles.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Hold on. Hitler got his licence in 1941!
Profpointy
Legendary Member
Suprising he bothered doing a test by then. Surely he'd be allocated a driver in his position and would have been far too busy to take lessons
OP
OP
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
I would not disagree.
OP
OP
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
But he didn't pass a test then did he?
Profpointy
Legendary Member
A pal of mine got his licence in the war. Because there were other priorities at the time, they abandoned driving tests and I gather you just had to tick boxes on a form - so he duly ticked the lot and had a licence to drive pretty much anything.
Dayvo
just passin' through
- Location
- 59° 50′ 5.55″ N, 10° 47′ 41.89″ E
A mate of mine from Dublin had two successive provisional licences in the 80s, but there was such a queue to get a test booked that seeing as he'd been 'driving' for two years, he was automatically given a full licence.
Today he is still a terrible driver.
Today he is still a terrible driver.
Undy
Regular
- Location
- Just over the next hill
Hi Guys, I hope you do not mind me commenting on your thread. I work as a civilian for the Police in the Criminal Justice department, in particular Roads Policing. I deal with offenders all day every day and investigate crashes. As for are standards dropping the answer is yes and no. For the average driver doing ten thousand miles a year the chances of being involved in a bump are 200:1 and this ratio drops significantly as the mileage increases but for drivers who do further training (usually insisted upon by the companies or cpc) the incident rates are declining. For those involved in collisions, the fatality rate rose last year!!!
The field of driver psychology is very interesting, we have bias's that get us into a certain way of thinking and we do not realize or question them until someone points them out. For example, if I was to ask you to score your driving on a scale of one to ten, with one being rubbish and ten excellent, 95% of people would answer 7. But shouldn't most drivers be a 5 as that's the average, are 95% of people above average? And if I am better than other drivers its okay for me to take extra risks because I can handle it! In reality we are not a fixed number as we have all had moments of brilliance behind the wheel scoring ten and we have ALL had moments we would rather forget and scored one.
As for police presence on the roads it is decreasing due to budget cuts which means we are relying more and more on enforcement cameras (speed, traffic lights, vehicle excise duty and ANPR) and the conviction rate is higher than ever because cameras operate 24 hours a day.
I hope you don't mind me jumping into your discussion.
The field of driver psychology is very interesting, we have bias's that get us into a certain way of thinking and we do not realize or question them until someone points them out. For example, if I was to ask you to score your driving on a scale of one to ten, with one being rubbish and ten excellent, 95% of people would answer 7. But shouldn't most drivers be a 5 as that's the average, are 95% of people above average? And if I am better than other drivers its okay for me to take extra risks because I can handle it! In reality we are not a fixed number as we have all had moments of brilliance behind the wheel scoring ten and we have ALL had moments we would rather forget and scored one.
As for police presence on the roads it is decreasing due to budget cuts which means we are relying more and more on enforcement cameras (speed, traffic lights, vehicle excise duty and ANPR) and the conviction rate is higher than ever because cameras operate 24 hours a day.
I hope you don't mind me jumping into your discussion.
