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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: The 4 X 4 Phenomenon
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I don't know the answer but i think that they are selfish polluters of them planet who are depriving their kids of the joys of walking to school woith friends.
It would have taken well over an hour for our kids to walk to any of their schools.
So why not choose a school closer to home?
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
Many schools discourage cycling
Our kids' primary school encourages it - we're in the inner city. Traffic is bad, but more and more people are using push bikes for commuting as well as school. My kids are small enough to be on the pavement, or on the road only with me, at the mo...I'll worry, of course, as they get older.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
quote:
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I don't know the answer but i think that they are selfish polluters of them planet who are depriving their kids of the joys of walking to school woith friends.
It would have taken well over an hour for our kids to walk to any of their schools.
So why not choose a school closer to home?
I may be wrong, but I believe in the US children who attend public school (in the US sense) always attend their local public school. In rural areas this may be hours away, even in less rural areas there may not be pavements - US cities are generally not built for pedestrians.
In the UK, catchment areas can work oddly - when I was going to secondary school, I was initially placed at a school that was actually further away than the school I ended up at because they worked out distances as the crow flies. In reality of course, transport doesn't work like this!
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Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
People seem to think they can justify having a 4x4 for bad weather. Well, yes, if you have a "real" 4x, like a Landrover you know how to drive off road. So one of our friends, who has and who does, has helped transport people round the parish in bad weather. On the other hand, we live at the bottom of a steep hill, and quite enjoy seeing trendy 4x4s come down backwards in the snow. Another, ex army friend, got back from Somerset in a 2 wheel drive car when a number of 4 wheel drive cars got abandoned. It really depends on your driving skills.
And it's not just in the big cities that people drive their children short distances - our neighbour opposite used to drive her and her children to see her mother, who lives all of about 150 yards away in the next street.
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I consider myself honour bound to report the goodness of an urban 4X4 driver in Dulwich. We had rounded a corner to go to the library, to meet a problem. To the left, a string of parked cars, constraining us, by the Highway Code, to wait for oncoming vehicles. Behind us, a stream of vehicles which had come, like us, from the traffic lights. On the right, the oncoming traffic held up by the lights, including vans, and impossible to drive past. The first time the lights were green, the whole stream continued to fill up the space on the right again. The second time, one of the reviled vehicles stopped at the other end of the line of parked cars, and let us all flow past. Hooray.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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argona
Shipmate
# 14037
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Posted
Clearly an EAST Dulwich driver! Damn, I've blown my crossword clue.
Posts: 327 | From: Oriental dill patch? (4,7) | Registered: Aug 2008
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luvanddaisies
the'fun'in'fundie'™
# 5761
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Rowen:
Mine is covered in mud, small scratches and similar! Theirs'? Pristine! Never used out o town, I bet.
quote:
Originally posted by Arabella Purity Winterbottom:
Rowan has nailed the essential distinguishing marks of a 4x4 used for its intended purpose.
Dirt. Having grown up in the country, the 4x4s I'm familiar with are rugged from rough use (my favourite cousin took the front doors off his, so he could get in and out quickly on the farm). The pristine behemoths that clog up city roads are just silly status symbols.
Might be worth checking the provenance of the mud... - yeah, it's a ten year old article, but the fact that one could ever buy spray-on mud is still pretty ridiculous.
When I was learning to drive, my driving instructor told me that I should be extra attentive around 4x4 drivers in the city (I live in London), and they often do stupid things, drive as though nobody else matters, and forget the size of their vehicle. Sage advice.
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)
Posts: 3711 | From: all at sea. | Registered: Apr 2004
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
quote:
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I don't know the answer but i think that they are selfish polluters of them planet who are depriving their kids of the joys of walking to school woith friends.
It would have taken well over an hour for our kids to walk to any of their schools.
So why not choose a school closer to home?
Spike, I grew up outside London. My first secondary school was 7 miles away and no local bus. I walked home after my GCSEs a couple of times (bloody parents) and that took a couple of hours. That was down a main A road with a decent pavement for the most part (scary numbers of lorry drivers making offers too). I caught the school bus to get to school, but if I'd taken an exam in the morning I didn't always want to wait around for four hours for the school bus home.
My second secondary school (we moved house between fifth and sixth forms) was 14 miles away. To get there I had to catch two school buses, one to take me to the nearest route. Commercial bus routes were on a weekly basis to that village (Monday to one market, Wednesday and Saturday to another.) From school I could catch a commercial bus to the town with the middle school and Monday market, the school my next sister down attended, 7 miles away. I did catch the bus and walk that 7 miles home a couple of times during my A levels, but that one really didn't feel safe - narrow lanes with no pavements, a number of lorries travelling to and from the farms and businesses on the route. Someone out jogging from one of the nearby villages was hit by a passing lorry, survived but was on the critical list for a very long time.
When we moved my youngest sister was still at primary school and she was bussed 7 miles in a different direction to the only village primary school still open.
These were the local schools for all of us and the normal catchment areas, no special travel arrangements.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
quote:
Originally posted by betjemaniac:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
quote:
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I don't know the answer but i think that they are selfish polluters of them planet who are depriving their kids of the joys of walking to school woith friends.
It would have taken well over an hour for our kids to walk to any of their schools.
Send them to neighbourhoo0d schools.
If I had children, it would take them an hour and a half to walk to the nearest secondary school from my house....
Not everyone lives in an urban area.
Bus?
Bzzz, incorrect answer. There're two buses a day that go in the opposite direction - 1.25 hours and 16 miles to the nearest city via nowhere else with a secondary school. If I wanted to pay for their education then my theoretical children could attend a number of excellent fee-paying day schools through travelling by bus.
The one local high school (and there is no choice, it is the one that you go to) is nine miles in the opposite direction to the bus.
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And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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Eirenist
Shipmate
# 13343
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Posted
Some of the ones used round here, in tame suburban Hertfordshire, have blackened windows. Why? They can't all belong to underworld Mr Bigs, and it's impossible to see round them in Waitrose car park!
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'I think I think, therefore I think I am'
Posts: 486 | From: Darkest Metroland | Registered: Jan 2008
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
I think it is sun screening. Our Focus has that, and it means that kids in the back are shaded from the sun without the need for things stuck on the windows.
Except for the one you accidentally dent, of course. That is owned by Harry "slice you open and use you as a settee" Giles.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Spike
Mostly Harmless
# 36
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
quote:
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I don't know the answer but i think that they are selfish polluters of them planet who are depriving their kids of the joys of walking to school woith friends.
It would have taken well over an hour for our kids to walk to any of their schools.
So why not choose a school closer to home?
Spike, I grew up outside London. My first secondary school was 7 miles away and no local bus. I walked home after my GCSEs a couple of times (bloody parents) and that took a couple of hours. That was down a main A road with a decent pavement for the most part (scary numbers of lorry drivers making offers too). I caught the school bus to get to school, but if I'd taken an exam in the morning I didn't always want to wait around for four hours for the school bus home.
My second secondary school (we moved house between fifth and sixth forms) was 14 miles away. To get there I had to catch two school buses, one to take me to the nearest route. Commercial bus routes were on a weekly basis to that village (Monday to one market, Wednesday and Saturday to another.) From school I could catch a commercial bus to the town with the middle school and Monday market, the school my next sister down attended, 7 miles away. I did catch the bus and walk that 7 miles home a couple of times during my A levels, but that one really didn't feel safe - narrow lanes with no pavements, a number of lorries travelling to and from the farms and businesses on the route. Someone out jogging from one of the nearby villages was hit by a passing lorry, survived but was on the critical list for a very long time.
When we moved my youngest sister was still at primary school and she was bussed 7 miles in a different direction to the only village primary school still open.
These were the local schools for all of us and the normal catchment areas, no special travel arrangements.
OK, fair enough. It still doesn't address the OP though. If it's necessary to use a car, why use a bloody great tank instead of a "normal" car?
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"May you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead" - Irish blessing
Posts: 12860 | From: The Valley of Crocuses | Registered: May 2001
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Oh, I'm not defending 4x4s, was just pointing out that not everyone can bus or walk to school.
When I lived in that area as an adult I drove a Ford Fiesta followed by a Nissan Micra and coped with hills with marked gradients, snow, ice, floods, mud and lanes next to farms that were extensions of the farmyard. My daughter has nightmare memories of me wading into floods to check if I could drive through them. Over the top of my wellington boots was too high.
Neither can I stand the damn things being driven like tanks around here. When I was cycling to one job locally using the back roads I used to regularly encounter a Hummer that filled the entire double track lane. It caused far more hold ups on that lane than I did on a bike. I could and did pull over out of the way into the side tracks if the road was busy, but could be passed by normal cars if the opposite side of the road was clear. This Hummer just blocked the road for all other vehicles, except me on a bike.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
I don't have - and I don't think anyone else has - a problem with people who need to drive their children to school. If it is a 7 mile journey, and there are no buses, it might be the right choice.
If you also happen to live on a farm where a 4x4 makes sense, then have a 4x4 and drive the kids to school in it.
The problem is mothers who use 4x4s to drive their kids half a mile along ordinary roads to school, because they are too scared to let them out of a bubble. It is those people who don't need to drive their kids to school, and those people who have completely the wrong sort of car for their needs. They are the dickheads.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by argona:
Clearly an EAST Dulwich driver! Damn, I've blown my crossword clue.
Hah hah - like it. But is there any room to put a 4X4 in the streets of East Dulwich? And you've reminded me I meant to drive over for folk music this evening and totally forgot.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
quote:
Originally posted by Rowen:
Mine is covered in mud, small scratches and similar! Theirs'? Pristine! Never used out o town, I bet.
quote:
Originally posted by Arabella Purity Winterbottom:
Rowan has nailed the essential distinguishing marks of a 4x4 used for its intended purpose.
Dirt. Having grown up in the country, the 4x4s I'm familiar with are rugged from rough use (my favourite cousin took the front doors off his, so he could get in and out quickly on the farm). The pristine behemoths that clog up city roads are just silly status symbols.
Might be worth checking the provenance of the mud... - yeah, it's a ten year old article, but the fact that one could ever buy spray-on mud is still pretty ridiculous.
When I was learning to drive, my driving instructor told me that I should be extra attentive around 4x4 drivers in the city (I live in London), and they often do stupid things, drive as though nobody else matters, and forget the size of their vehicle. Sage advice.
The impression I get of their knowledge of the size of their vehicles is that they think they are larger than they actually are.
Saw some really bad parking in several spaces today at a garden centre.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
Penny S: The impression I get of their knowledge of the size of their vehicles is that they think they are larger than they actually are.
Only their vehicles? ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
[ 13. September 2015, 20:36: Message edited by: LeRoc ]
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Mere Nick
Shipmate
# 11827
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
quote:
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I don't know the answer but i think that they are selfish polluters of them planet who are depriving their kids of the joys of walking to school woith friends.
It would have taken well over an hour for our kids to walk to any of their schools.
So why not choose a school closer to home?
They always went to the closest school. Even then, with the curvy and hilly roads, or along roads where I've driven over 90mph, no, I would not have our daughters do that walk.
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"Well that's it, boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher's done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting's my reward."
Delmar O'Donnell
Posts: 2797 | From: West Carolina | Registered: Sep 2006
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Is driving at over 90mph legal or safe? If not, then you're the problem. Stop it.
People who go on about how dangerous the roads are but drive like fucking cretins boil my piss.
[ 13. September 2015, 20:55: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Eirenist
Shipmate
# 13343
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Posted
Thanks shipmates. As well as air pollution and traffic congestion, these vehicles clearly generate a great deal of unChristian feeling.
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'I think I think, therefore I think I am'
Posts: 486 | From: Darkest Metroland | Registered: Jan 2008
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
When I lived in that area as an adult I drove a Ford Fiesta followed by a Nissan Micra .
If the Micra was following the Fiesta all the time, you should have either called the police or undone the tow-rope. ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
[ 16. September 2015, 16:14: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:
Penny S: The impression I get of their knowledge of the size of their vehicles is that they think they are larger than they actually are.
Only their vehicles?
I'd the impression the size of a4x4 was to compensate for a particular lack elsewhere...
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I have definitely noticed a change in the last 30 years. It used to be that dad drove the car (or the best car (if there were two) to work. There it stayed all day, not being used. Meanwhile, mum and the kids had to manage all the shopping and getting to and from school with either no car at all, or a cheap, rusty old banger. More recently, though, either the family has spent more of their budget on a decent car for mum and the kids to use, or else dad has been willing for them to have the best car instead of him.
I live in an area where the only way in and out is via narrow lanes. We always joke that the largest cars have the smallest children in them. The very largest cars have only one child, of course.
The idea about car sharing with other parents, to save petrol costs and number of cars clogging up the lanes, has gone out of fashion. Partly, maybe, due to child protection concerns? Go back a generation, and my dad used to boast that he could get the whole school football team in the back of his estate car! Only one car needed to get them all to the match.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
I did wonder if sexism was a factor for some of the resentment about 4x4 drivers; the idea that there is something Not Right about women being allowed to drive big fancy cars... I am not a fan of big fancy cars myself, but if they are available to buy, why is it more of a crime against the environment to buy one for a woman to use?
Also, leo has either forgotten what it was like being a child or had an idyllic bully-free childhood:
quote:
...depriving their kids of the joys of walking to school with friends.
I had to go to and from school on the bus. I used to walk into town after school and spend half an hour hanging round at the bus stop there to avoid going home on the school bus, because otherwise you had the school bullies' undivided attention for what seemed like a lifetime. Hell on wheels.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Mere Nick
Shipmate
# 11827
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Is driving at over 90mph legal or safe? If not, then you're the problem. Stop it.
People who go on about how dangerous the roads are but drive like fucking cretins boil my piss.
I was 16 and, therefore, dying was what other folks did. It would be impossible to drive on the road at 90mph anymore. 9 mph is hard enough. Still too dangerous.
Only if the roads were 20 mph streets, or maybe just 35 mph and not very curvy or hilly would I've ever considered it.
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"Well that's it, boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher's done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting's my reward."
Delmar O'Donnell
Posts: 2797 | From: West Carolina | Registered: Sep 2006
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:
Penny S: The impression I get of their knowledge of the size of their vehicles is that they think they are larger than they actually are.
Only their vehicles?
I'd the impression the size of a4x4 was to compensate for a particular lack elsewhere...
Very much so - the drivers may have big bums, but if they have big boobs, they are no longer the attraction they were 15 to 20 years before. The 4WD has to serve as a substitute.
Karl, quite a bit of road here where driving at 90 mph (or 150 kph as we know it) is both legal and safe. It was both when I was a young driver over a much wider area than now.
[ 18. September 2015, 01:13: Message edited by: Gee D ]
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Plenty of bits are. I was just opining that if a section of road that one might legally walk or cycle on is made dangerous by 90mph motor traffic, then that 90mph traffic is definitely not safe, and should therefore not really be legal either.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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mr cheesy
Shipmate
# 3330
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Posted
Where is it both legal and safe to drive at 90 mph?
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arse
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
mr cheesy: Where is it both legal and safe to drive at 90 mph?
German motorways (Autobahn). I've done it sometimes.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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mr cheesy
Shipmate
# 3330
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
German motorways (Autobahn). I've done it sometimes.
It is hard to describe the German autobahns as safe.
Gee D is in Australia. The implication from the above post appears to be that there are roads in Australia where 90 mph is safe and legal.
Outside of Germany, I don't think there are any roads anywhere with a legal limit above 90 mph. And driving at that speed is never safe.
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arse
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eirenist:
Thanks shipmates. As well as air pollution and traffic congestion, these vehicles clearly generate a great deal of unChristian feeling.
They generate a good deal of unChristian driving too, within and without.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
mr cheesy, thee are some highways in the Northern Territory where there is no legal limit, and more where the limit is 130 kph. I would not travel at that sort of speed at night, dawn or dusk, but in the rest of the day and on those roads, well surfaced with little traffic and few curves, where those speeds are quite safe. You must bear in mind that traffic densities are much lower than in Europe.
Indeed, in the late 60s/early 70s, there were similarly empty roads not far from Sydney where such speeds were legal* and at most times and in the then usual traffic conditions also safe.
* There was no limit, but if you were travelling at a speed in excess of 100 kph, the burden was on you if required to satisfy a court that it was safe.
[ 18. September 2015, 11:27: Message edited by: Gee D ]
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Mere Nick
Shipmate
# 11827
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
Where is it both legal and safe to drive at 90 mph?
The speed limit on the particular road is 45. Like I said, I was 16 and invincible.
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"Well that's it, boys. I've been redeemed. The preacher's done warshed away all my sins and transgressions. It's the straight and narrow from here on out, and heaven everlasting's my reward."
Delmar O'Donnell
Posts: 2797 | From: West Carolina | Registered: Sep 2006
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mr cheesy
Shipmate
# 3330
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gee D:
I would not travel at that sort of speed at night, dawn or dusk, but in the rest of the day and on those roads, well surfaced with little traffic and few curves, where those speeds are quite safe.
Bullshit
Those who travel at high speeds on public highways are living in la-la land about their own reactions at that speed. Nobody safely drives at over 90 mph without specialist training.
[ 18. September 2015, 13:01: Message edited by: mr cheesy ]
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arse
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Not got much experience of driving on Australian roads but I have been on some where you can see pretty much forever and you can see when the sides of the road are empty too. Not that I think that driving at 90 is a good idea anywhere, but if there was anywhere it might be less of a bad idea than other places, those roads might be it if there is nothign else in sight.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
Outside of Germany, I don't think there are any roads anywhere with a legal limit above 90 mph. And driving at that speed is never safe.
There are no speed limits on most roads in the Isle of Man. You can, if you wish, bomb along the coastal road at 120mph, ricochet off the cliff face and plummet into the Irish Sea, all without breaking the law.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
That article contains no data on accidents on the Stuart Highway after the alteration. Of course, if you are travelling at 100 kph when you have your accident, you are more likely to die than if your speed was a tenth that. The argument I'm positing is that on places like the Stuart Highway, and those where I drove, there was ample vision, no entering traffic for the next 20 km and so forth. Not the same as driving down Brompton Rd at 10 am on a wet Saturday.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Rowen
Shipmate
# 1194
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Posted
The highways in my part of Australia are either 100 or 90 kms an hour. I don't see many crashes but then I don't see much traffic.... I live in an isolated art of the nation. We have numerous examples of dead kangaroos and wombats however, but when they crash into cars, cars usually win and keep on going.
The majority of folk, out here in the back of nowhere, drive 4 x 4.
The majority of our roads are unsurfaced and on the Alps, amidst snow and mud.
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"May I live this day… compassionate of heart" (John O’Donoghue)...
Posts: 4897 | From: Somewhere cold in Victoria, Australia | Registered: Aug 2001
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Dave W.
Shipmate
# 8765
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
German motorways (Autobahn). I've done it sometimes.
It is hard to describe the German autobahns as safe.
Is there something specific in that document that leads you to this conclusion? I didn't see anything that would preclude the description "safe". According to the international comparisons here, German autobahns seem fairly safe on the basis of persons killed per billion vehicle-kilometers basis, despite some stretches with average speeds measured at 88 mph (with 30% faster than 93 mph and 15% faster than 106 mph.)
Posts: 2059 | From: the hub of the solar system | Registered: Nov 2004
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
The UK only introduced speed limits on the motorways in 1965 as a temporary trial measure and 1967 permanently. I have travelled legally at 120mph-140mph in the UK, on the M1 in the back of a car driven by my father. I was a preschooler and only remember this because it was incredibly scary. (Also German motorways as a teenager, but that wasn't so frightening.)
My father had only just given up motor-racing. (He has trophies from Le Mans and various races at Brands Hatch and Silverstone.) He pointed out that travelling at 120mph you travel 2 miles in a minute. To stand a chance of doing something sensible you do need to be able to see several seconds ahead. 7.5 seconds isn't long, but at that speed you are covering a quarter of a mile, having to see, negotiate and react to all the other stuff that's happening in that stretch of road, particularly on the UK.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
My parents live very close to the German border. It's a bit of a tradition there when an 18 year old boy gets his driver's licence that his father lends him his car to do a stretch on the Autobahn.
To get it out of his system.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
My parents live very close to the German border. It's a bit of a tradition there when an 18 year old boy gets his driver's licence that his father lends him his car to do a stretch on the Autobahn.
To get it out of his system.
Hmmmm!
OH often does 100/110 mph on the Autobahn. He let Boogielet1 do it once. That didn't do either of our systems any good!
[ 19. September 2015, 14:03: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
I'm convinced that the cause of many of the accidents on UK motorways are caused by poor lane discipline and lack of proper training as much as anything else.
It is a nonsense that a person can take and pass a driving test in the UK without ever having driven on a motorway or dual carriageway and then be let loose on, say, the M4/M5/M48 interchange without any experience. Its also crazy that many people pass a test without ever having driven in fog, snow or at night.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
I'm convinced that the cause of many of the accidents on UK motorways are caused by poor lane discipline and lack of proper training as much as anything else.
Poor rules too. Far better in countries where overtaking is allowed on both sides.
I know many people hate them, but I love the new 'smart' motorways where everyone is forced to do the same speed - they feel much safer and less stressful.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
I am currently doing advanced driving training. One of the core things I am learning is to look ahead, and to make sure that I can stop on my side of the road, in control, within the distance I can see.
While I also have to stay within the speed limit, there are times when I could do this at over the speed limit, and it would then be safe.
A lot of the problem is when people don't follow the first of these. Even if the limit is 70, if you can't see far enough to do more than 50, you shouldn't do more than 50.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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MarsmanTJ
Shipmate
# 8689
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Posted
One of the schools I was working in briefly had their first car accident. It was a mother who hit her own child (fortunately fairly slowly!) in a 4x4, it escapes my memory what 4x4 it was. Because after her child got out of the car, she assumed where the child was and the massive blind spots on her car she couldn't see her 8 year old son. Fortunately the car behind her had a Paediatrician in it who rushed the 8 year old to hospital and the only damage done was severe bruising. It was enough to make me say that no-one should EVER drive a 4x4 on the school-run, since seeing Primary/Elementary age kids is hard enough, let alone with blind spots big enough to drive a truck through...
Posts: 238 | Registered: Oct 2004
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