Invisible Defender

[L19MUD]

I am in Delhi this week and it makes the UK standard of driving look amazing. For reasons totally unknown to anyone they tend to drive down the carriageways drifting about between two lanes without ever just sitting between the lines.

 

The state of the HGV's would make a VOSA tester cry!! 

[cackshifter]

If you think its bad on a tractor try a horse. People generally pass way too close and fast. I guess its because they are so important they cannot tolerate the slightest delay unless of course they are the cause of it. Or sit with a learner. People forget they once had to learn.Probably just as well I have no access to weapons.

[Davo]

3 hours ago, Ozzy50 said:

You should try driving a tractor on UK roads , some of the overtakes I’ve been subjected to would make you scream , I’ve had to force myself to stop getting so animated about it , deffo time for a dash cam . Personally I think it’s long overdue that everyone takes a re test  every 5 or 10 years , I have been driving tractors on the road for 26 years , cars for 25 , motorbikes for 25 and wagons for 21 years and the standard of driving has fallen massively, no doubt helped by the complete lack of police cars on the road , drivers just hammer it between speed cameras , no worries about being caught drink or drug driving as long as you don’t flash a camera ! My time spent as a motorcycle instructor is definitely what keeps me alive on the road ,treat everyone as if they are trying to kill you ! What other licence can you get at 17 that is valid until you die without a single re test or even a check up ? Crazy . 

And no I don’t think I’m perfect either 

I had to admit how sloppy my driving was when I started working as a car driving instructor. I was never taught very well in the first place and it just went downhill from there. However, once I had to learn properly and then actually teach properly it made a very welcome improvement. I haven't taught for a few years now but I still nag myself! So if that's been the case for me, it supports recurrent training for everybody. But can you imagine trying to sell that to the public . . . 

[FridgeFreezer]

It never ceases to amaze me how people will cut up tractors, diggers, trucks, towing vehicles, etc.,  people seem to forget that the big stuff has a big stopping distance and no crumple zones!

[landroversforever]

I think the biggest trouble is that everyone is so absorbed in themselves and trying to make their progress. A good friend of mine farms so I've spent many a day sat in the tractor with him... people just don't seem to understand that there's a a hell of a lot of weight in a loaded modern tractor and trailer. Overtaking in stupid places to then pull into the gap left for stopping because the traffic isn't actually going much, if any, faster. Same applies to people pulling in front of lorries etc as they're pulling up at junctions. Drivers just don't seem to have a clue about long/wide/heavy vehicles and just assume everything drives like their little tin box, 40+ Tonnes of truck takes a lot longer to stop than 1 Tonne of bean can.

One driver the other year got payback from mate + boss.... tractor and grain trailer followed by the combine... car overtakes the combine at a stupid place and ends up in the gap between the two thanks to a car coming the other way. Thanks to the great views of the combine and the CBs the idiot was kept between the two for about 2-3miles.... past where everyone normally turns off  

[elbekko]

13 hours ago, Daan said:

I have to say, the driving standards in the UK are the best I have ever seen in any country. 

Here, there you go, right in your face from a man that knows. 

 

Daan

I'll second this, except from maybe Sweden. But that's just because they're all been brainwashed into thinking a car is more dangerous than a gun pointed to the face.

And yeah, my big blue Range Rover was also invisible. It's better in the Merc now, but the main thing that helps are damn good brakes and tyres...

[mmgemini]

Even my Defender is invisable however I think you have missed the UK driving situation. People are no longer taught to drive. They are taught to pass the driving test.

 

[Dave W]

1 hour ago, mmgemini said:

Even my Defender is invisable however I think you have missed the UK driving situation. People are no longer taught to drive. They are taught to pass the driving test.

 

That's always been the case, didn't your driving examiner say something like "congratulations, you've passed, now you can learn how to drive" ? Mine did and that was over 30 years ago so not sure when you took your test if you think it was ever any different.

[mmgemini]

9 minutes ago, Dave W said:

That's always been the case, didn't your driving examiner say something like "congratulations, you've passed, now you can learn how to drive" ? Mine did and that was over 30 years ago so not sure when you took your test if you think it was ever any different.

No David he didn't because I was taught by a professional driver not a driving instructor. Also I took my test in a Bristol  being a 75 seater. The examiner being the traffic commisoner

 

[Maverik]

Funny you talk about yellow trucks, I swore the Camel Disco has some kind of car magnet, number of time I got cut up in that thing and just generally had people drive at me... pretty demoralising really.

[Dave W]

38 minutes ago, mmgemini said:

No David he didn't because I was taught by a professional driver not a driving instructor. Also I took my test in a Bristol  being a 75 seater. The examiner being the traffic commisoner

 

You see, you're generalising again, you have no idea who my instructors were or who my examiner was but you feel free to sit yourself on a pedestal. Are you seriously suggesting that when you passed your test you had nothing more to learn about driving on the UK roads and, presumably, have therefore learnt nothing since ? That would be, to me, a depressing state of affairs, a bit like passing a maths exam and being told, that's it, you now know everything about maths you can ever learn. Maybe my examiner was just being honest so that I wouldn't walk away from the exam feeling like I knew everything.

I have no idea what a 75 seat Bristol is, I'm guessing it's a bus of some sort rather than a plane ?

[Cynic-al]

I have the same problem in my pickup. There's one junction I go past every day on a dead straight 60mph road which goes up and over a flyover. At the bottom of the flyover is a junction and every day people pulled out infront of me when I'm doing 60 and they don't get to 30 until they're at the top of the flyover as they can't waste fuel. On occasion I've had to swerve around the wrong side of the turning bollards to miss them they've left it that close. There were that may accidents caused by people not looking or thinking or caring the council decided to make it safer they changed the speed limit on the main road from 60 to 40. Pandering to the dumb - should be natural selection. 

I think driving in this country is miserable now and people just seem so dumb, they don't seen anything beyond their windscreen and have no ability to plan or judge or react. 

[Mo Murphy]

Complacency is our biggest enemy. We don't use our mirrors as much as we should, we don't look far enough ahead and we don't leave a big enough gap between us and the car in front.

Unless we consciously maintain our focus these are the first things to slip.

See if you can assess yourself honestly 😉

Mo (no expert and guilty at one time or another of all of the above)

[Anderzander]

Riding a motorbike helps.

[Scotts90]

Being of the biking fraternity, it definitely increases your awareness and observations. I got "lifesaver" drummed into me 20-odd years ago when doing the bike test and still do it to this day, in the car, in the van or on the bike.

My biggest pet peeve is those who don't notice Emergency Vehicles...you know the ones with the blinding lights and deafening sirens that were designed to draw attention? The amount of A-holes who have overtaken me as I have pulled in to allow a clear path for the Ambulance/engine/cops (always with a shaking head of disapproval) astounds me.

[neil110]

Getting back to the original videos, what sort of damage did your 90 sustain in the collision with the Ka?

On the subject of riding a bike I remember travelling, quite slowly as luck would have it, on the M1 one morning after a night shift. Heading North out of London, came to the junction with the M25 and because I was knackered I was simply sitting in a position in lane 1 behind a car and in front of a van. Then the Audi appeared on my left hand side and wanting to join the M1. The fact that I was already occupying the section of motorway he wished to use was of no relevance to him, not even when I started banging on the window right next to his head. Just kept forcing his way into the lane. 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by neil110

[Shackleton]

8 hours ago, Anderzander said:

Riding a motorbike helps.

100%. Actually 500%, they say a motorcyclist needs to be 5x more alert. How that's arrived at though??

Given the mood on this one I probably shouldn't venture to say, but living across the road from a school campus I'd happily debate it as the place where driving etiquette, logic, common courtesy and safety concern are abandoned most often. You want to see humans reduced to their most primitive form... well I was going to say park outside a school at pickup/drop off. Prob not a good idea 

edit; just saw your accident Simon, wasn't expecting that. Glad [it seems] no one was hurt.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Shackleton

[Escape]

I can only agree driving standards are appalling. Everywhere it would seem. When we started our regular visits to UK about 10 years ago, I was always pleasantly surprised by most driver's road manners. I was usually towing a trailer, so could appreciate the lack of idiot behavior even more. Recently, things seem to have gotten considerably worse. Not quite as bad as in Belgium or France (in my view), but certainly enough to become both annoyed and worried. Or maybe I'm becoming more and more of a grumpy old barsteward.

When driving my Esprit, the fear of other drivers doing something dangerous and unavoidable is what keeps my speed down. 'Cause they're bound to win, despite Darwins best efforts...

[Shackleton]

2 minutes ago, Escape said:

I can only agree driving standards are appalling. Everywhere it would seem.

Except Ireland right Fil? 

[FridgeFreezer]

8 hours ago, neil110 said:

Getting back to the original videos, what sort of damage did your 90 sustain in the collision with the Ka?

I'm guessing along the lines of...

Quote

Have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you?” “How much?” said Arthur. “None at all,” said Mr. Prosser,”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  

 

And I second that driving around schools (by the parents) is about the worst. My mum's house is near a private school and she's seen SUV's drive up the road on the pavement so the little darlings don't have to walk 200yds from the large, free, public car-park at the end of the road!

[Shackleton]

8 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

[the parents]....drive up the road on the pavement so the little darlings don't have to walk 200yds from the large, free, public car-park at the end of the road!

Every day of the week pal, perpetrated by many. I'm actually not going to get started because it's a bone of contention.

[Peaklander]

Conversely I find that (when they see me) oncoming drivers are very quick to stop and let me through narrower spots. Its not as if a Defender is wider than most cars but it seems bigger. Maybe that's why they stop. It's quite a nice experience really.

As far as general driving standards my biggest hate is the car behind being too close to my bumper. I recently drove in deepish snow, in the dark, across from the Winnats Pass to Sparrowpit and the car behind was so close to me that I got out at Sparrowpit and walked behind and told him. To be fair he was very apologetic and seemed to understand what a muppet he was. Hopefully it was helpful in the longer term.

[Escape]

1 hour ago, Shackleton said:

Except Ireland right Fil? 

Unfortunately, not...

I had a lot more worries from oncoming traffic crossing into my lane around turn in the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains then in Snowdonia and South Wales. Not to mention slow tourists holding me back. Worst was a Merc deciding to come to a full stop in the right hand lane just before a blind turn, so he could take some pictures. 

[mmgemini]

20 hours ago, Mo Murphy said:

Complacency is our biggest enemy. We don't use our mirrors as much as we should, we don't look far enough ahead and we don't leave a big enough gap between us and the car in front.

Unless we consciously maintain our focus these are the first things to slip.

See if you can assess yourself honestly 😉

Mo (no expert and guilty at one time or another of all of the above)

Agreed about the mirrors. It seems to me signal manouver instead of mirror signal manouver

[neil110]

Speaking of bulldozers and lack of damage thereto as a result of an impact from another vehicle. Many moons ago when I wore green for a living. We had a Centurion ARV suffer an electrical failure on the Range road near Hohne. The crew were just demounting and preparing to put warning triangles out when it was hit, from behind, by a Mercedes travelling at quite some speed. You can probably imagine that the merc did not fare well when it hit this.