Oooh, good! When will I be able to buy brown and blue wires on great big rolly things? I want some now, I don't want to wait 'till any new regulations come in!
Oh, yes, and the brown wire is earth, isn't it?! Same colour, anyway. I'll just trim this end (bzzzzzzzt!).
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a> The highway code is a "guide". If there are no other vehicles, and you a> takes the shortest route across the roundabout (not over), like doing a a> chicane, and not indicated, then you have not broken any law, as you are not a> reckless and driving dangerously.
a) Just because it is not illegal, that does not mean it is not stupid. People who assume there are no other vehicles around are an accident waiting to happen.
b) Watch the traffic at a roundabout in full daylight in busy condiftions and count how many vehicles indicate and change lane properly.
I used to have to cross near a roundabout where for whatever reason the council hadn't put a controlled crossing, so got a pretty good idea how many drivers have any clue about things like indicators.
Later they did put in a crossing, which gave me an ideal opportunity to learn how many drivers pay any attention to traffic lights.
Lifetime bans and car confiscation for the first serious or the second minor breach of the `guide' would make life better for everyone sane.
How many? Get real mate. The vast majority of women are not career women, they want to be old fashioned mums at home.
Not enough and not deep enough and not lateral enough.
The biggest problem we have in the UK is the land problem. It cascades into a multitude of sins. Free up the land and planning system and we all benefit. That is YOU too.
Jeez, you really are an old-time socialist, aren't you! Can't have these women going out to work, next thing you know they'll be expecting to be able to vote ... :-)
Which particular cereal packet did you get this particular nugget of wisdom from?? My dictionary says that common law is that "derived from custom and judicial precedent rather than statutes" - nowt to do with "common sense" ...
Full OED: OED> common law. OED> OED> [cf. L. jus commune, in Du Cange (where the OED> expression is used also of France and the Empire). Also F. OED> droit commun in sense 1.] OED> OED> 1. a. The general law of a community, as opposed to OED> local or personal customs, as of a caste, family, calling, OED> city, or district. Obs. OED> OED> 2. The unwritten law of England, administered by the King's OED> courts, which purports to be derived from ancient and OED> universal usage, and is embodied in the older commentaries OED> and the reports of adjudged cases. attrib. OED> OED> In this sense opposed to statute law; also used for the law OED> administered by the King's ordinary judges as distinguished OED> from the equity administered by the Chancery and other OED> courts of like jurisdiction, and from other systems OED> administered by special courts, as ecclesiastical and OED> admiralty law, and (in the Middle Ages) the law merchant. In OED> U.S.: the body of English legal doctrine which is the OED> foundation of the law administered in all the States settled OED> from England, and those formed by later settlement or OED> division from them.
Some independent statistic might help with perspective. The UK unequivicolly has one of the lowest rates of road traffic fatalities in the world.
This German website uses the OECD stats and breaks it down by road type, age and passenger miles.
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roads are by far the safest.
For example, motorways - UK has 2.1 fatalities per billion km - next lowest is Seden at 2.5 and no-one else is near. Incidentally, I never want to travel on a Turkish motorway (50).
Across all roads, the UK is 7.5, Sweden and Norway next with 8.3. Again, I'd give Turkey a miss (73).
This is from the late 90s but a quick trawl of the Internet shows that the rate is similar today.
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fatalities up to 2001. Pretty static for the four years to 91 at circa 3400 despite significant falls before then. Injuries dropping slowly (less steeply than in earlier years). Government figures show a rise in Q1 2003 for UK fatalities. Indeed the latest UK government figures show the fatality rate is stubbornly at this level.
Indeed, the overall casualty rate is pretty static also. Average is c
320k casualties in 1992 it was 310k, 306k in `93 in 2002 it was 302k in 2001 it was 313k.
Over the last 10 years the number of cameras has increased exponentially. "Cameras cut crashes". Hmmm, really. Perhaps in specific cases but at a national level?
IMHO, there is pretty much no case for putting cameras on motorways or extra-urban roads - the accident rates there are very, very low.
Looking at the outrageously high rates for London per 100k km (17+ - more than 2 times the national average, 3 times the welsh rate) I'd say stick all the cameras there and leave the rest of us alone! ;o)
The planners want us to have pillows (or is it cushions?) and 'gated' streets with a 20mph limit. I'm all for it and assumed everyone would be but they're not. My neighbour even said he opposed it because it would bring down the value of his property.
I don't think it's reasonable to say a "Minor Bump", (fender bender) can be turned into a catastrophic accident by any reasonably proportional increase in speed. Take the ACPO guidelines (7% + 3mph, is it?). It might, just, reasoning by chaos theory, but by the same token the extra speed might just make the difference in clearing the junction before "Reginald Mole - Husband" (remember him?) reverses out of his drive into the main road without looking.
I can see that someone who is in enough of a hurry to chose to break speed limits (his 1st priority is speed) might well find he then can't get back into the correct lane at roundabouts/junctions.
Far more people are just plain incompetant. For instance I notice that people who dither, or hesitate when the traffic moves off do not hesitate to drive through the red light if there hesitation has caused them to miss the green phase of the lights. It's the 5 or 6 cars behind them that get disadvantaged. I suppose they have to do this if they hesitate and dither everytime the car has to start moving or they'd never get anywhere.
I know several women who will drive round and round supermarket car parks until they find a pair of spaces "nose to tail" (Or worse, find a parking space that has free spaces *all around it*) . so they can drive in and through, so they don't have to reverse either in or out. Don't tell me they're competant to be on the road
The number of people who mis-manage joining a motorway amazes me. I frequently encounter people reversing back down the on - ramp because they've taken the wrong one. Instead of joining the motorway and coming off at the next exit and rejoining in the opposite direction.
IIRC the recent carnage on the motorway involving tank transporters was caused by incompetant driving within the speed limits.
The Great Heck incident was caused by bad driving not exceeding the speed limit. The recent level crossing incident on the main line (fruit pickers in a minibus) was caused by bad driving at low speed.
The Fatal accident on the Romney, Dymchurch, and Hythe miniature railway was caused by someone who drove slowly past the waiting cars at the level crossing into the path of a miniature train. A miniature train that probably had the mass of about 50 cars!
Ive seen an ambulance driven by a Ca 22 year old girl stationary at the end of a motorway slip road on the eastbound A58(M) at a point where it is in a deep cutting with limited visibility consulting a very large road map, with all the cars barrelling down the sliproad behind her accelerating to match the speed of the traffic on the motorway (50 mph, camera monitored) and screeching to a halt when they realised she's actually parked, like something out of a Tom/Jerry cartoon. Ambulance drivers are supposed to be "professionals" who have extra training and are even permitted to break speed limits. However, once again speeding not an issue.
Last week I came across a character joining the westbound A58(M) in Leeds from The Claypit Lane Gyratory. The 2 lane sliproad diverges into 2 single lanes seperated by double white lanes and cross hatching, the left lane diverts to the left to avoid a bridge stanchion and joins the motorway 150m further along. This guy had only driven down the left lane to the very last possibility before stopping and trying to cross about 8 feet of double white lines and force himself into the traffic on the right hand lane, speeding not an issue.
Hey, I could go on...
Enough?
It takes more than that otherwise they'd could do away with the driving test and just give licences to "responsible" people.
I strive to drive my car the way my mother used to use her sewing machine. Effectively, competantly, with precision. Oh, and legally as well. :-)
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