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moan of the week.

If you're in a vehicle capable of travelling at the speed limit, but being overtaken by lorries on the motorway, you shouldn't be on the motorway. You aren't being safe, your a dangerous liability and your causing congestion.

The other one that cracks me up is the twat thats doing 45 in a 60, so you overtake him, then you get to a 30mph limit and the fucker catches you up! They just do the same speed everywhere, regardless of the conditions or the speed limit, but seem to consider themselves safe because they're only doing 45mph.
 
I smoke a pipe and drive a 40!
On the plus side (!) I'm useless at texting.
Overtaking, which we have been known to do, albeit rarely, requires studying the topography, the speed on the vehicle to overtaken and guaging the gaps and accelerating accordingly.

I blame modern car design - too out of touch with the world around, too comfortable, too detached and too much dependency on satnavs.
 
I smoke a pipe and drive a 40!
On the plus side (!) I'm useless at texting.
Overtaking, which we have been known to do, albeit rarely, requires studying the topography, the speed on the vehicle to overtaken and guaging the gaps and accelerating accordingly.

I blame modern car design - too out of touch with the world around, too comfortable, too detached and too much dependency on satnavs.
totally agree, the more you detach the driver from the driving function, the more dangerous they become. I think a lot of modern 'driver aids' actually reduce safety
 
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I smoke a pipe and drive a 40!
On the plus side (!) I'm useless at texting.
Overtaking, which we have been known to do, albeit rarely, requires studying the topography, the speed on the vehicle to overtaken and guaging the gaps and accelerating accordingly.

I blame modern car design - too out of touch with the world around, too comfortable, too detached and too much dependency on satnavs.

Sorry Rodger, didn't mean to be disrespectful to pipe smokers :shifty: :lol:

I think you forgot windspeed and direction in your overtaking criteria list...

Well, it's in mine anyway :lol:
 
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None taken, Clive.

Wind speed and direction are factors to be taken into account as well. However I didn't want to over complicate the process that non-turbo'd LCs go through just to overtake!

When we first got the truck Corinne would point out something of interest and if I looked the truck would want to look too!
 
Comment from God’s waiting room, yes, I too get frustrated with these “slow coaches” we all do, but, if they are old or seem confused, cut them a bit of slack. I had two in particular customers at my stalls for a number of years, delightful people and not related but they knew each other. They would sometimes take a bit of time for us to serve them (we are very patient with all of our customers. I always think they are somebodies mum/ dad etc) and I happened to find out that this particular two had both served during the 2nd WW at Bletchley Park of the code breaking fame. So, I reasoned they had earned every right to take their time at my stall, ( and elsewhere) do as they pleased whenever they pleased. ( as long as they paid) For me, when I’m in a situation as mentioned I think of these two, it maybe another war hero in front, It always settles me down. Best regards, Bill Westley
I do pretty much that. Well only most of the time if I’m honest.
I too knew a lady that was at Bletchley, she taught the queen to drive, flew biplanes solo and rode around on a Steve McQueen style motorbike. She still had her Sargeant Majors voice as a little bird like figure in her nineties.
 
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Riding a motorbike has been so liberating. Traffic? What traffic.

Now, when you're in a limit such as the average speed cameras on the M1, there's Dolly who doesn't get the concept so looks at her speedo and thinks, hmm, I'd better be a needle's width under. As her speedo doesn't read bang on anyway, she's now doing something like 44 mph.

Now coming up alongside in his Audi we have Wayne. Wayne is a knob, He knows that the cameras aren't set at 50. He knows he can do 50+3 +10% in any case, so by the time you've added that in, he's cruising at somewhere around 60 mph easy. So now we have a speed differential of 16 mph. Put the rest of us in there who have our cruise control set at 52 on the speedo and no wonder it chaos.
Yet on the German derestricted Autobahns, it all works nicely. I often think, why don’t we in this country follow their lead? Maybe with a little additional test or instruction day to give an update. The ‘smart’ motorways Could easily be derestricted.
 
Yet on the German derestricted Autobahns, it all works nicely. I often think, why don’t we in this country follow their lead? Maybe with a little additional test or instruction day to give an update. The ‘smart’ motorways Could easily be derestricted.
And the construction of autobahns isn’t as good as our motorways. Often 2 lanes with no hardshoulder, short slip roads so joining traffic is going slow and no cats eyes can make night driving a nightmare.
One of the good things about the autobahn though is that in many places on 2 lane sections lorries aren’t allowed to overtake so traffic flow is better maintained.
Our motorways are up there with the best in Europe (contrary to urban myths) yet we have the lowest speed limit.
 
Better designed Andy, that's a fact.

We have a much more developed approach to signing, road markings, lane widths, approach and departure taper lengths, visibility sight-lines and so on, the rest of Europe has much lower specifications.

The Trans Europen Motorway (TEM) standards have huge gaps in the details, leaving it to the country it's passing through to complete the puzzle. IMO that's attrocious, and such a waste of a good opportunity to get it right the first time.
 
Our motorways are up there with the best in Europe (contrary to urban myths) yet we have the lowest speed limit.

Disregarding roadworks which are so well organized if you have to catch a ferry or flight 4 hours driving away it is advisable you set off a full day in advance :icon-rolleyes:
 
Having driven the length of Europe just before Christmas I'd have to say the French and Spanish motorways are far better than ours. Design standards may not be as good but a much higher standard of maintenance. I'm struggling to recall more than 1 set of roadworks the whole way.
 
Having driven the length of Europe just before Christmas I'd have to say the French and Spanish motorways are far better than ours. Design standards may not be as good but a much higher standard of maintenance. I'm struggling to recall more than 1 set of roadworks the whole way.
Agree with that Mark... I think the UK has a very good network regarding getting from A to B.. I can get on a dual carriage way/Mway 2mins from my house (Dover area) and never leave the same bit of tarmac till i reach the north of Scotland (if you get my drift) But the condition of our road network .. Road works, Potholes, and constant Jams is shocking...Signage in rural areas leaves you guessing half the time... Spain/ France. second to none to be honest...
 
If i remember, When i lived in Danmark .. HGV No overtaking on certain roads/ Not allowed out on Sundays and small LGV (small vans /Transits/ pickups etc that were work related had different No plates (yellow) so could only be driven for work related purposes.. So No private use weekends / evenings etc... Imagine trying to police that rule in this country..:lol:
 
Having driven the length of Europe just before Christmas I'd have to say the French and Spanish motorways are far better than ours. Design standards may not be as good but a much higher standard of maintenance. I'm struggling to recall more than 1 set of roadworks the whole way.
I guess you’ve never tried driving through Holland or Belgium. Germany can be pretty bad as well around cities, and they have a lot of roadworks.
I haven’t driven much in Spain so can’t really comment.
Also consider the cost of using French motorways. Driving from the south of France will cost you around £150-200 in tolls. The cost means less traffic=less wear=less roadworks.
The Paris periphique is truly horrendous, I’d take the M25 any day over it!
I write this bouncing down a well worn French motorway!
 
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Driving from Algeciras, Spain to St Malo, France cost me under 60euro on the motorway. From Marrakech to Dorset on motorways the difference is plainly obvious, 3 countries seem to have got it right, then you have the UK...……. Tolls go back into maintenance so its not all traffic volume.

Having spent over 20 years in the construction industry, mainly Trunk Road and Motorways and with a good stint on motorway maintenance contract, we have very good standards for the construction but a lack of maintenance means the finished results just aren't kept up to requirements. The maintenance contract I was on never had enough money from the government to keep up with the demand for work, everything was firefighting urgent issues not preventative.
 
Driving from Algeciras, Spain to St Malo, France cost me under 60euro on the motorway. From Marrakech to Dorset on motorways the difference is plainly obvious, 3 countries seem to have got it right, then you have the UK...……. Tolls go back into maintenance so its not all traffic volume.

Having spent over 20 years in the construction industry, mainly Trunk Road and Motorways and with a good stint on motorway maintenance contract, we have very good standards for the construction but a lack of maintenance means the finished results just aren't kept up to requirements. The maintenance contract I was on never had enough money from the government to keep up with the demand for work, everything was firefighting urgent issues not preventative.
For work we use the autopay sensor so I’m not sure what the cost of our frequent forays into Europe cost, but I know travelling from nice to Calais some years ago cost nearly 200euro. I drove from Brittany to Calais last August and spent a very small amount of time on the motorway because we were running late, the cost was about 40euros for a relatively short period, I was shocked at the cost. Compared with our VED it’s astronomical.

In general though, I would agree that the condition of our roads leaves a lot to be desired, and things like the (notso) smart motorways is just sticking a band aid on. Congestion is a feature of our cities being so close together relative to other countries. There’s very little clear space between them.

The condition and congestion though is a separate matter to my OP which was that our motorways are better constructed, lit and safer than most.
 
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Try getting out of my lane on to a main road with 40 mph limit with all the old farts half my 72 years of age nose to tail and I'm not looking forward to tagging on the end of the queue because I can't overtake for at least 10 miles until there's a dual carriageway. Even driving my 500 bhp Ultima was ruined as I could not overtake a 1/2 mile queue safely.

I have the occasional race with a kid around Birmingham. You can tell when they want to race at the lights, but they have no experience and I usually win in my 1.4 tsi Golf. I went round a roundabout so quickly that the puncture warning light cut in. The computer could not believe there could be that much difference in wheel rpm at that speed. The kid won that time as I had to stop to check the tyres and reset the computer. Racing old farts is much more difficult lol.
 
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