Driving in the U.K

[Sussexscots]

Having just ridden both to and from Germany via France, Belgium and Lux.. it pains me to say this but f**k me the driving in the U.K. is shockingly s**t. Not just s**t driving standards but slow as hell and people dithering about, even the belgiums which aren't exactly great don't seem as bad as us lot. Anytime there's a problem on our roads all the wanky people with an opinion just start chatting s**t about the speeds being too high, have a laugh we barely move! And the measures the government take to improve things is to slow everyone down even more and put f**king cameras everywhere. And those f**king gantry s**t jobs which cause everyone to jump on the brakes for usually no reason and rear end each other.

Germany is an absolute dream to drive in, great roads of which lots have no speed limits yet they're some of the safest in Europe.

All we seem to do is blame everything on speed in the uk and it's just led to lots of people driving like a c**t. A self riotious c**t at that.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Agree UK driving is more aggressive and less courteous than in France [from personal experience].

But for sheer lunacy and risk-taking you need to visit Kenya and Uganda - scary ... bit like stock-car racing sometimes

 

[vegster]

To be fair it pretty much is. Drive at 75 - 80mph on a motorway in good, clear conditions and you'd be unlucky to get pulled by the police - in my experience. Similarly, cameras seemed to be calibrated to trigger at higher speeds than that. Trouble is, if the max was set at 80mph, the norm would become 90-ish and so on.

(This is only my view - if you get a ticket for doing over 70mph, don't blame me!)

I think speedometers are pre set to slightly over estimate a speed. My Toyota featured a digital display and on occasions I would use a sat nav, at 70mph on the speedo the sat nav would read 67 mph.

Remember, rozzers would normally never prosecute you unless you were more than 10% over whatever the current limit was.

 

[DumLum]

Not seen the slip road coyboys in my countless trips from home in Fav, but there is a culture up from here and round the 25 for disregarding speed and lane signs on the grounds they are bogus. The number of times I have seen lane closure warnings on the gantry that don't manifest as a lane closure is indicative of system failure. This is a version of the boy who cried wolf, except it is the bloody road safety managers who are crying wolf, and then randomly becoming the wolf themselves when they fire off the flasher when a mug like me fails to take note of the ludicrous and needless sudden 40 limit. I may be mixing my metaphors up a bit here....

Yes, I am bitter.

I'm quite a good boy on the m25 and follow the speed limits but they do my head in. They sometimes reduce the speed 5 miles away from any issue with hardly any traffic on the road (yes M25...I'm usually on it after 8pm.) I actally become a hazard doing 40mph in the 2nd lane like I have been told to because as you say everybody is used to them crying Wolf or knows the hazard is probably miles away. Lorries flying past me at 60mph are the norm in this situation.

The scariest sign I have ever seen and I've only seen it twice is 'ONCOMING VECHILE' I drop down to 15mph as it becomes the new limit yet unbelievably most people carry on doing 70mph.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Bit of road rage from the OP there.

 

[GT49er]

Really don't think company cars are the problem. Besides, didn't many company stop providing cars as a perk and replace it with a car allowance? Those that are on the road are during the week are probably there out of necessity for their work!

As for improving driving, test everyone every ten years (ie when your photo ID is renewed and make sure everyone has a photo id card and not the old paper one). However, won't happen as not a vote winner. Maybe for serial offenders, fit black boxes to their cars and bump up their premiums. More dashcams will mean more people get exposed for their bad driving. Also the Police are supposedly getting better at accepting footage.

Oi! Lay off paper licences! I'm damn proud of my (completely clean) one, and frankly I'm rather pissed off that I'll have to get a photo one in a couple of years.

 

[Brok]

I am the best driver ever. Fact.
Anyone that drives faster than me is an idiot. Fact.
Anyone that drives slower than me is an idiot. Fact
Nobody else on the road knows what they're doing. Fact.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I'm quite a good boy on the m25 and follow the speed limits but they do my head in. They sometimes reduce the speed 5 miles away from any issue with hardly any traffic on the road (yes M25...I'm usually on it after 8pm.) I actally become a hazard doing 40mph in the 2nd lane like I have been told to because as you say everybody is used to them crying Wolf or knows the hazard is probably miles away. Lorries flying past me at 60mph are the norm in this situation.

The scariest sign I have ever seen and I've only seen it twice is 'ONCOMING VECHILE' I drop down to 15mph as it becomes the new limit yet unbelievably most people carry on doing 70mph.

Experiences shared. I remember also the 'oncoming vehicle' on M25 thing. Went on for 10 miles. No...there wasn't an oncoming vehicle. It may have been a wasp. I have also crept round at 40 while massive lorries thundered past. Hopefully I won't be ruing the day (no ticket yet, a week after the event) but if I do get my collar felt, I'll have to come quietly, none of that 'you'll never take me alive, copper' bollocks.