The dual carriageway thing: on my speed awareness course (yes I know ... ) one of the presenters said that as a test if you take a tennis ball and roll it across the road and it makes it across all lanes before it hits a kerb then it isn't a dual carriageway. Basically there has to be something in the middle that is raised and/or not tarmac.
@RustyNissanPrairie - get her to commentate on what's in the road ahead and to the sides as she's driving, if you notice things she doesn't then she needs to slow down particularly if they are major like speed signs, manoeuvring vehicles and the like. The commentary should be constant: open farm gate on left with fresh mud spilling on to road; hidden drive on right with mirror; etc.
one of the presenters said that as a test if you take a tennis ball and roll it across the road and it makes it across all lanes before it hits a kerb then it isn’t a dual carriageway
Bit of a dangerous way of checking though. 😀
She works in the charity sector in a managerial role and needs a car to visit multiple locations.
She’s a bit more open to discussion tonight so together we’re going to work on her driving and to try and get some of my Captain slow driving/cycle commuting observation skills instilled in her. Wish me luck!
How much pressure is she under to go from location to location? Is her job secure? Is she speeding outside of work?
I know with my job I'm given no or minimum time to go from client to client and any time I do take goes on my KPI's as a negative that are used to source quarterly redundancies.
This was causing me considerable stress ... so if I had an hours drive after the last meeting in optimal conditions I'd be pushed to accept a F2F meeting 1 hour after the other meeting officially finishes... even this hour is on my KPI's as negative... but the sensible 2 hours is double the time I can't book... so even assuming the meeting finishes on time I have to walk/run to and from cars and I'd be late before I even started off.
She’s a bit more open to discussion tonight so together we’re going to work on her driving and to try and get some of my Captain slow driving/cycle commuting observation skills instilled in her. Wish me luck!
Maybe pay an advanced driving instructor to do this instead of you? People are far less likely to engage on a bitter acrimonious row with a third party! You should never teach your partner to drive.
Mrs Daz has been done 4 times. She got up to 6 points, then they expired, then got a speed awareness course, then done again after that. She now religiously drives at the speed limit everywhere she goes. She was never a speedfreak, more just unobservant and distracted. She's both a classic case of how speed cameras do not distinguish between wilfully reckless and otherwise sensible drivers, and also that they work because ultimately it resulted in her making a big effort to confront and change her driving.
Personally I'd be up for blanket average speed cameras in urban areas and on countryside NSL roads which are used as racetracks. They should operate them like the congestion charge, if you break the limit, you automatically get charged a standard fine, with an automatic ban above a certain level with no exceptions. It's the only way.
On nine points she should be driving like Miss Daisy anyway. Last week I got caught doing 70 on a variable speed motorway (Northbound on the M5 between J17 and J17) which was reduced to 60 temporarily.
Seems like I was unlucky based on the 10%+2 model (68mph). The thing is I did not notice the temporary limit signals - think I was on a (hands free) call - no excuse.
The point is, even if she starts driving sensibly, she is on a knife edge and should really be acknowledging that. I thought I was driving sensibly at the time - certainly was not rushing anywhere and was going with the flow of the rest of the traffic.
I know have the pleasure of a Speed Awareness Course to look forward to.
Whats insurance like if you've got 9 points on your licence?
I'd have thought that anything more than a moped and you'd be looking at the equivalent to the GDP of Poland
"I know with my job I’m given no or minimum time to go from client to client and any time I do take goes on my KPI’s as a negative that are used to source quarterly redundancies.
This was causing me considerable stress … so if I had an hours drive after the last meeting in optimal conditions I’d be pushed to accept a F2F meeting 1 hour after the other meeting officially finishes… even this hour is on my KPI’s as negative… but the sensible 2 hours is double the time I can’t book… so even assuming the meeting finishes on time I have to walk/run to and from cars and I’d be late before I even started off."
itd be interesting to see their HSE case study on that*
*i understand that if you complain the company will simply say plenty other will do it if you wont....
i understand that if you complain the company will simply say plenty other will do it if you wont….
Essentially yes... but it's more subtle. It's not the "company" as such but individual managers who have their own KPI's and are also on the redundancy list...
99% of stuff (not just this) is theoretically a decision but more a Sophie's choice and it all comes down to keeping off the quarterly redundancy list for another quarter.
The two are not mentioned in the same breath... as it were though the KPI's drive the redundancy lists.
Anyway, the point is it forces a lot of people to do things they wouldn't choose to do.
Quite a lot of those border on sub-concious.... and the immediate not longer term.
I used to find myself literally in a panic the whole day trying to get from A-B ... for example... not considering the longer term because if I don't do this then there won't be a longer term.
I just decided enough was enough... this wasn't even driving but flying. I had a 8 hour flight that leaves 3x a week... in a airport in a dodgy part of the world and I was trying to get to the airport 3 hours before departure.
The Manager was telling me no... I only needed 45 mins... because if I miss the flight its at MY expense... and the meeting the next morning (which I'd be going to straight off the plane wasn't HIS meeting)... etc.
I just told him if he wanted me to stay to put in writing what time he required me to stay and that my expenses would be paid if I missed the flight.
He gave me loads of shit and said I was acting like a child... etc. so I just said fine, I'm off to the airport.
I probably will lose my job ... but with quarterly redundancies then I will anyway.
Seems like I was unlucky based on the 10%+2 model (68mph). The thing is I did not notice the temporary limit signals – think I was on a (hands free) call – no excuse.
you could always claim driving without due care and attention as a defence 😉
I don't understand why new cars cannot have their performance programmed depending upon who's driving by entering a code or something upon entering the car. So, for example, new drivers/the OP's wife have less acceleration and top speed is restricted to the limit on that piece of road (or a bloody annoying and loud beeper goes off whenever you exceed the speed limit).
I'm sure the ability to do that is available.
Because nobody would buy them. The Daily Mail would implode in a massive fit on Nanny State-ism, and a thriving industry would break out in disabling them.
We demand our right to kill ourselves!!!!
Surely it'd be better to allow a free-for-all Mad Max style automotive dystopia, say once a month, and let Darwinism run its course? Like Mad Sunday at the Isle of Man TT.
Think of all those kiddies waiting for organ donors?
A few years and the only people left alive would be little old ladies in battered Rover 25's
I don’t understand why new cars cannot have their performance programmed depending upon who’s driving by entering a code or something so that new drivers/the OP’s wife have less acceleration and top speed is restricted to the limit on that piece of road.
Entirely doable, I have a car with switchable maps and something called "valet mode" which cuts the boost/power to pretty much the minimum that will allow the car to move. Handy if you have to leave the car with a garage/friend and don't want them driving it like a dick.
Make her either do a motorbike course or an IAM driving course. Both will greatly improve her car driving observational skills. Half the rationale behind cameras / mobile patrols is to get people to wake up and observe what's going on around them. Whenever I've been done for speeding its because I've not been 100% switched on to the fact i'm in control of 1000kg of metal & effectively daydreaming, hence not seeing the 3m tall fluorescent check pattern van with the giant speed camera sign on the top.
I don’t understand why new cars cannot have their performance programmed depending upon who’s driving by entering a code or something upon entering the car.
That is a really stupid idea. It is not the power of the car that causes speeding, it is the person pressing the accelerator.
It is perfectly possible to drive dangerously quick in a car with 50hp as it is in a car with 350 hp. In fact I would say that the person in a 350hp car would probably be driving more safely.
More I read of OP, is it the stress of job/life with wife? Crisis management, if I drive quicker I can do more work when I get there? Stress / over work is very good at making you rush and doing nothing very well.
Hence why 9 points on the licence. It is perfectly possible to drive quickly and not get 9 points ! You only get 9 points when you are driving quickly and not paying attention.
The sooner we all have self driving cars the better.
Make her either do a motorbike course or an IAM driving course.
Make her ride a bicycle along the same roads she speeds along so she understand how vulnerable speeding vehicles make those not in a car feel.
This thread has probably gone on long enough for her to be banned by now?
Self-driving cars?
i love the assumption, which is just accepted unquestioningly, that that’s what people actually want.
What evidence is that being based on
Was anyone actually asked? Seems to me that it’s just being done ‘because we can’
Has anyone countenanced the idea that it might just be the next Sinclair C5?
Its going to take a pretty Herculean effort to overturn decades of advertising/brainwashing that what car YOU drive is some kind of personal expression.
Every time that any restrictions are floated on motorists, the Daily Mail goes into meltdown and it’s all Nanny State this, and ‘interfering in people’s lives’ that.
Then suddenly we’re all going to say ‘driverless cars? Fantastic! Sign me up’
especially when they look like rejects from some crap low-budget 70’s sci-fi programme
on my speed awareness course (yes I know … ) one of the presenters said that as a test if you take a tennis ball and roll it across the road and it makes it across all lanes before it hits a kerb then it isn’t a dual carriageway.
Wow, there must have been some incredibly stupid people in the room for the tutor to need to go that far to explain something so simple 😳
Essentially yes… but it’s more subtle. It’s not the “company” as such but individual managers who have their own KPI’s and are also on the redundancy list…
...............................................
He gave me loads of shit and said I was acting like a child… etc. so I just said fine, I’m off to the airport.
I probably will lose my job … but with quarterly redundancies then I will anyway.
Taken out of the context of a discussion on speeding and driving this really fuels my hatred of society. Not any particular individual but the structure and ethos of the whole thing, it's just not compatible with any kind of life I'd be willing to live. None of us signed up for this kind of misery did we?
@binners Yes, self-driving cars.
If you think it's all too sci-fi remember that the iPhone was only released 11 years ago, and now we all walk around with voice controlled computers in our pockets. Give it a generation and our current attitudes to cars will seem laughable.
If most cars were self driving:-
- You could watch TV, do some work or have some sleep on the way.
- No need to worry about drink or drug driving. (your own or anyone else).
- Traffic jams could be pretty much eradicated (cars could co-ordinate routes and speeds etc.). Road use could be much more efficient. Journey times could be more predictable.
- The car could go off and park elsewhere and then return when you want to leave. Take this thought a step further and cities could free up space that's currently wasted on parking and add extra housing, parks, etc.
- The car could take itself off for a service or to refuel.
- Fuel efficiency could be much better.
- Crashes could be largely eradicated.
- Car sharing could drastically reduce costs - think Uber but without drivers, and better availability. (Rich people could still have their own vehicles if they want.)
- And perhaps most importantly, the Habitual Speeding Wife and her like would be a thing of the past.
Ah.... I get it now. Other people should have self-driving cars, right?
good luck selling the rest of it. Worthy ideals about car sharing and saving the planet are what the motor industry relies on to flog it’s wares
oh.... hang on a minute....
Personally I'd love to have a self driving car, particularly if it can be cheaper, safer, more environmentally friendly etc. The likes of Google, Tesla, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes and Uber are already investing billions into it.
Yes, it will take a while for Daily Mail readers and the mainstream car industry to catch up, but thats nothing new.
Not any particular individual but the structure and ethos of the whole thing, it’s just not compatible with any kind of life I’d be willing to live.
Yup, I thought that too. Out of interest, what industry do you work in stevextc? As if my employer expected me to pick up the cost of missed flights caused by meeting/client overruns, I'd be timing my resignation to cause maximum irritation for them...
Catch up? Or fight for their market share, with decades of cultural conditioning on their side?
A large amount of people bought iPhones so they can watch grot on them, so I suppose one marketing approach could be ‘buy one of these, and you can rough up the prime suspect on your way to work!
remember....
I suppose one marketing approach could be ‘buy one of these, and you can rough up the prime suspect on your way to work!
Sex sells.
have you still got your landy ?
give her that for a week.
No chance - she is lacking in mechanical sympathy as well - the gearbox and clutch couldnt handle her! (and its in a million bits being rebuilt)
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More I read of OP, is it the stress of job/life with wife? Crisis management, if I drive quicker I can do more work when I get there? Stress / over work is very good at making you rush and doing nothing very well.
Hence why 9 points on the licence. It is perfectly possible to drive quickly and not get 9 points ! You only get 9 points when you are driving quickly and not paying attention.
That’s the first thing I thought.
Ive never had a point in 30+ years of driving and I do sometimes knowingly speed but with the crap at work I found I was rushing AND not paying attention. I’m amazed I didn’t either get points or have an accident as I wasn’t driving safely even when in the speed limit as I was completely in a constant panick
More I read of OP, is it the stress of job/life with wife? Crisis management, if I drive quicker I can do more work when I get there? Stress / over work is very good at making you rush and doing nothing very well.
she started her new dream job in January, but pretty much straight away there was mission creep and she's found herself project managing a large building renovation and office relocation (none of which are part of her job description/contract). But she is massively talented and capable and has cracked on with it regardless although she is stressed and has a lot of details on her mind. This coupled with our sofa like old autobox Volvo which runs away with itself easily are what lead to (potentially) this weeks speeding fine - if indeed she was speeding (but she knows she was)
That’s what the whole marketing team for driverless cars are up against Involver.
People who knowingly and willingly buy Land Rovers 😂
When driverless cars get more established I expect insurance for human-driven Land Rovers will go though the roof because of the much higher risk (particularly for habitual speeding drivers).
I look forward to the bit where the first cyclist to be run over by a driverless car - and you know it will happen - tries to work out who is liable. I suspect it'll gradually become apparent that cyclists and pedestrians are basically expendable as long as drivers (sic.) are safer.
Yeah, if only that firmware patch had been released two days earlier it would never have happened etc.
Self-driving cars?
i love the assumption, which is just accepted unquestioningly, that that’s what people actually want.
Henry Ford said if he asked people what they wanted they'd have said "a faster horse". When I talk to my children about driverless cars they think it is completely logical and inevitable, to the extent that that I doubt children born this year will sit their driving test unless they are real petrol head enthusiasts. Old gits who get a bit of power from racing around in their motor will take longer to convince.
Has anyone countenanced the idea that it might just be the next Sinclair C5?
Let me suggest that the C5 was bad timing and that the world is crying out for a modern equivalent. A single person electric vehicle (covered for the weather though) with a speed of c 30mph and a range of 40 miles, easy to park in a tiny space, obviously designed to overcome the safety / visibility issues of the C5. Forget the pedals - they were a way round the regs. If that could be achieved for < £2000, it would potentially save the human driven vehicle for another generation. I'm kind of surprised no major manufacturer has managed to come up with something credible.
I look forward to the bit where the first cyclist to be run over by a driverless car – and you know it will happen – tries to work out who is liable. I suspect it’ll gradually become apparent that cyclists and pedestrians are basically expendable as long as drivers (sic.) are safer.
You assume that cyclists and peds would not as a whole also be safer.
Poly, im totally with you on the single person electric vehicle idea.
Id need it to do 50mph for 70miles in hilly terrain though.
I suppose escalation is how we’ve ended up with a single person occupied bmw 750i though eh.
