Safe Speed Forums

Yes indeedy, well done m8.

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Dave

can someone explain the compexity of the manouvre to me please?

the way i see it is thus:

im at the start of the sliproad, left hand lane and im looking at the motorway to judge the speed and density of the traffic. i then look at the inside lane to repeat plus look for a gap. as i am doing this, i am steadity accelerating to 4th gear/around 60MPH. once i spot a gap, i match my speed to it and go for it. once this is completed, i will consider overtaking if necessary.

at no point do i match the speed of a truck and sit beside him til the slip road runs out and i am still there
neither do i cut across someones nose and effectively join L2 from the sliproad without looking to see if anything is overtaking L1
i dont run along the slip road til the last second, pull into L1 regardless and slam my anchors on.

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

I think the 'complexities' arise when people make mistakes. But people always will make mistakes. Good policy could improve the situation, but there will always be mistakes.

Looking from a different layer, some drivers are plain incompetent and some drivers have bad attitudes. Exactly the same applies. There will always be incomptents and there will always be bad attitudes.

The test for the rest of us is how safely we can mitigate the mistakes of others.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Your absolutley right about being lenient toward mistake makers, but frustration takes over when your faced with it everyday, year in, and year out.

I think both of these problems can be overcome to a certain extent..

Motorway training & testing to lesson the incompetence, and more stringent rule enforcing to calm the aggressive attitudes...

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Dave

I tell you what I do. I drive with as much anticipation as possible (of course! ). Most of the mistakes of others are perfectly predictable. I take early action whenever I can to ensure that those mistakes amount to nothing (or at the very least don't affect me).

I've held back countless thousands of times waiting for the comedy show ahead to clear.

But here's the important part - when you have neutralised someone else's bad driving once more - DON'T think 'look at that prat' instead give yourself a pat on the back for turning it into nothing at all.

It's better psychology. It helps you to drive (even) better (by positive reinforcement). It helps you feel better. It helps develop your own anticipation skills. I could go on, but you get the idea.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

......And does absolutely nothing to make the quoted prats realize their error and try better next time.

I agree that sometime it would feel so great to "teach them a lesson" but does that really ever work? Or does it just get you into dangerous and uncomftable situations? Not that I'm in anyway advocating it but the days of just being able to knock someone out are over - knives and guns are everyday fact of life. Do you really want to take that chance?

Don't get me wrong I know how it feels to get wound up by the shocking antics of others, but its far better to stay calm and negotiate the hazard.

I never said anything about teaching them a lesson, I had cameras on sliproads in mind so that people 'know' big brother is watching and a prosecution will follow in the post for your earlier bad driving should you choose to drive like said prat.

More police patrols as opposed to Traffic officers (plastic policemen) would be another option but it looks like the government want more of these TO's so we're snookered on that one.

Your thinking along the same line as me BOSS, I truly believe that some of todays driving standards are due to the lack of policing..

During Truckersworld's drivers lobby meeting with the transport ministers, we did discuss greater usage of police patrols, even if that meant retraining and increasing the powers of the complete waste of space that is the Highway Officers.

Think about it, how often do you see a police patrol car on the motorway now???

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Dave

If you think you can 'teach them a lesson' you're in cloud cookoo land. I'm sorry if it sounds harsh, but it's true.

Think what it means in practice. Driving closer to a prat perhaps? Does that sound smart? Scaring a prat with a horn blast? Who knows how a prat will react to even greater pressure?

Perhaps you would like to describe an example of how you would make a prat 'realise his error'? Perhaps you'll be shocked about the increase in risk involved when you actually write it down?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Personally i don't want "prat" there at all, but so long as they are there, to sit on our hands and do nothing except tolerate it is ridiculous.

Surely we should at least try to rehabilitate in the form of further training, or remove them altogether with greater vigour of police enforcment..

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Dave

There are two levels here.

Firstly as road users we can campaign for better policy. We should. We're entitled to better driving standards and better roads policing.

Secondly, as drivers, we cannot educate or change anything. We can only strive to drive as safely as possible and ensure that we are as safe as we can be from the mistakes of others.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Agreed..

I'm exercising level 2 when and where i can, whilst working very hard on level 1..

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Dave

A lot more often than you see a police patrol car anywhere else, despite the fact that motorways are the safest roads.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

... and a lot less than you see a scam van

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Will

As Paul said, there’s nothing other drivers can do except hang back. Attempting to teach the ‘prats’ a lesson could backfire, your actions could be interpreted by them as being equally prattish and the situation will only escalate - road rage ensues.


No-one disagrees with that; automated unattended enforcement does nothing of the sort. Hammer, clock……

Smeggy - totally agree - let pratt carry on their merry way - last thing they need is to be up set - then they are dangerous - they act without thinking - (actually they drive without thinking, but thats another story) --let them get out of the way , but problem is that now the trucks are classing all car drivers in this league - once we got a nice flash to join L1 - we did , getting in the gap and out as fast as possible--now nothing - get in at your peril - and i find this as a car driver , even going into the hard shoulder with indicator flashing --as a van driver in a large Transit - different story .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Smeggy - Botach,

I agree with you both, nobody wants to be waving fists at each other, how UN-professional would that look...

But we're, or at least i'm not talking about teaching them a lesson with revenge attacks of aggressive driving..
I'm talking about setting up more and better training systems, revising the Highway Code to be more clear and precise with the rules it's relaying, and then backing it all up with greater policing.

I personally think this all achievable if enough people shout into the ears of those that can implement the changes.
I just don't think it's right or fair that the many should have to keep putting up with the errors of the few.

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Dave

Shaky - how many ,(and how much chaos) do we need - to my mind driving is about co operation /courtesy( and other things ) and remembering that we the motorist face a common enemy - HMG - pull together, show it we are big enough to worry it and we win - fight amongst ourselves, we are divided.
Problem is that there is no way that driving standards amongst those who just get in a car and "go down the shops" will be improved with the present regime - this lot want to punish, punish ,punish - no mention of pride in anything .No pride anticipating that plonker is about to turn right without signalling till the last minute , the ancient is about to step on the brakes and stop to let Mrs Ancient get out at the bus stop.All we see is shouting/screaming and road rage - if someone comes out of a road junction , fails to accelerate, because he's misjudged the space - you flash lights to warn him of your presence -- you get a finger, not an apology and a touch of acceleration.

And where is trafpol to educate the miscreants - probably still down the station getting a PC lecture from a boy wonder with pips .
I always get worried when trafpols are my age (as PCs) and the inspectors look like they aint started shaving

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

I hear what your saying, and again agree with most.

But, and there's always a but.

Mum taking the kids to school, or the lazy git that takes the car down the shops i can deal with, usually the cretins that can't drive in this catagory are not going very far very fast.

Picture this, spotty faced 17 year old passes his test on Monday morning, on Monday afternoon he's getting on the M1 to visit his holiday romance, the nearest he's got to driving on a motorway before this point is what he's let pass before his eyes from the highway code book.
I've been driving 20 years, 13 of them as a pro HGV, and even to this day theres times when i'm genuinely scared to death by some of the appalling displays of driving, how's he going to react with some of this happening around him??
Surely all must agree that EVERYBODY should have basic motorway tuition before the magic ticket is issued..

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Dave