Evolving driving standards and habits.,

[cyberknight]

Wednesday 9th
Circa 04:30

‘Trust HQ’/Diabetes Centre car-park
Pinderfields General Hospital
Wakefield

It’ll be someone on nights; 19:00 - 07:30

I know there’s unlikely to be any pedestrians about at that time, but…


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get similar from lorries who park in the lay byes on the shared ped/cycle path coming home from work on late shift .Sometimes they literally block the entire path forcing me onto a dual carriage way against the traffic flow and its pretty busy even at that time .

 

[Jameshow]

I think we all agree and know that is right, but you do get those idiotic 'point makers' who in their desire to show everyone how to do it 'right' , get it absolutely 'wrong'. I suspect telling them as such will have no impact on their habits, however well intended. As usual, what is needed is a few police cars on the road...i suspect the 'point makers' actually risk getting a careless driving ticket for their troubles.

I do sometimes make a point if it when a middle lane hoggers has been sitting in the middle lane for miles and miles on a quiet motorway and you have to legally go across 3 lanes overtake and then back 3 lanes, because someone is on thier phone or deep in conversation or eating MCD.

 

[Solocle]

I do sometimes make a point if it when a middle lane hoggers has been sitting in the middle lane for miles and miles on a quiet motorway and you have to legally go across 3 lanes overtake and then back 3 lanes, because someone is on thier phone or deep in conversation or eating MCD.

If you've got the patience you can orbit them
I tend to just get on with my day.

 

[gbb]

If you've got the patience you can orbit them
I tend to just get on with my day.

It's a mix of emotions of course. Some days I will make a point as Jameshow states.. some days I just think 'another moron' and just get on with my day as you say.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Pinderfields General Hospital
Wakefield

I was there recently, was the worst hospital to find I've been to. There seemed to be no signs saying "Hospital this way" until I could actually see the buildings which seemed useless to me

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

@wiggydiggy

I’m sure there are signs on the major roads approaching the site
There are 2 adjacent hospitals too

Pinderfields
Fieldhead; psychiatric

 

[T4tomo]

As long as traffic is reasonably light, I will normally use cruise control on the motorway, its mildly irking then if someone overtakes me, pulls back into the lane I'm in, in front of me, and then slows down causing me to either brake or adjust the cruise speed down. surely they overtook because they wanted to travel faster??

 

[Solocle]

As long as traffic is reasonably light, I will normally use cruise control on the motorway, its mildly irking then if someone overtakes me, pulls back into the lane I'm in, in front of me, and then slows down causing me to either brake or adjust the cruise speed down. surely they overtook because they wanted to travel faster??

Or pull out to overtake them
What I do notice is people who slow down up hills and speed up down hills, rather than adjusting their throttle application.

While without cruise control my speed will vary a little, it's unavoidable, and I will generally go faster when I'm in an overtaking lane, as I don't like hanging out there and overtaking with a 0.1 mph speed differential. But if someone ahead is going above my desired cruising speed, I'm going to try and judge that.

 

[mustang1]

I think we all agree and know that is right, but you do get those idiotic 'point makers' who in their desire to show everyone how to do it 'right' , get it absolutely 'wrong'. I suspect telling them as such will have no impact on their habits, however well intended. As usual, what is needed is a few police cars on the road...i suspect the 'point makers' actually risk getting a careless driving ticket for their troubles.

Ha! I had one of those point-makers yesterday. The guy was zipping into the left lane and then straight out into the right lane. Funny thing is he was making his point quickly going well over the national speed limit! A double moron.

 

[mustang1]

It is the responsibility of the merging driver to adjust their speed to fit into a gap in the traffic already on the road.

Most of us will try to move over to lane 2 if there is room, but drivers in lane 1 should not be altering speed to accommodate those entering the road.

Note what the Highway Code says:

Rule 259​

Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should

• give priority to traffic already on the motorway
• check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane
• not cross solid white lines that separate lanes or use the hard shoulder
• stay on the slip road if it continues as an extra lane on the motorway
• remain in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before considering overtaking.

I agree with both @nickyboy and @Alex321 . Yes, technically the law is right there in theory but it was written in an era when there were far less cars. We get those who push in from the slip road because they're peanuts, and we get those on lane 1 who could make room but choose to be peanuts. In the end, the lane 1 driver and the slip road driver have to figure things out within a few seconds. Most of the time it works fine for me but there have been some events that could have been smoother.

 

[mustang1]

As long as traffic is reasonably light, I will normally use cruise control on the motorway, its mildly irking then if someone overtakes me, pulls back into the lane I'm in, in front of me, and then slows down causing me to either brake or adjust the cruise speed down. surely they overtook because they wanted to travel faster??

There be some cyclists who do that too!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

As long as traffic is reasonably light, I will normally use cruise control on the motorway, its mildly irking then if someone overtakes me, pulls back into the lane I'm in, in front of me, and then slows down causing me to either brake or adjust the cruise speed down. surely they overtook because they wanted to travel faster?? be in front.

EFA
I don't get it either, but in general, people's perception of speed, and in particular its control is pretty poor. I spend a lot of time on cruise on roads that merit it, and the number of times I cruise up, pull R to overtake and find myself left out there as my speed is (unconsciously, I'm sure) matched is very high. Often I will knock off the cruse, pull back in behind, put cruise back on again and find myself running up behind them. All very odd.

The other thing I see are 'followers', who are only happy when there is a car ahead of then, who barrel up to sit behind a car (not necessarily up its chuff) say in L2 and there they sit, seemingly happily, not overtaking, even when L3 is clear. Then when one moves to L1, off they go, and do the exact same thing again, but not overtaking the next car up the road they are magnetically attracted to. What's also really very odd is that if you speed up or reduce speed, so will they, as if attached by some invisible force.

 

[antnee]

Well, I admit it some time since i drove, everyday doing about 1000's a week but I always used the adage which told to me when I first started driving having learnt in central London some 50 odd years ago "if you treat all other drivers as idiots, you should be ok". Though motorways are basically a free for all these days and as I don't have to be anywhere in a hurry try and use other routes, I'm on the bike when I can.

 

[nickyboy]

I agree with both @nickyboy and @Alex321 . Yes, technically the law is right there in theory but it was written in an era when there were far less cars. We get those who push in from the slip road because they're peanuts, and we get those on lane 1 who could make room but choose to be peanuts. In the end, the lane 1 driver and the slip road driver have to figure things out within a few seconds. Most of the time it works fine for me but there have been some events that could have been smoother.

This
We have all been in a situation entering from a sliproad (and some are worryingly short), accelerate up to speed of traffic in Lane 1, indicate and find drivers oblivious and no space to filter in......all while the end of the sliproad approaches. So you have no option but to brake and slow down, making it harder to filter in
So my point is that the behaviour of some Lane 1 drivers makes the act of filtering really tricky and dangerous and the idea that you just get up to Lane 1 speed and filter in cannot be achieved in some instances as a result

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I've just been to Ringways Airport, to drop SWMBO & daughter off
Even though we were on the M62, by 05:10, & given the light traffic of the time, the amount of 'lane 2 sitters' was quite surprising
I was behind one car, at a constant distance (400yards 'ish') for almost 4 miles, just pootling along
Why?!?!?!

Plus, the number of 'Lemmings' (aka 'Cock-Wombles') heading at (I'd reckon) 75MPH+ into fog, that gave 50yards visibility at points was worrying