Viewing Thread:
"Driving"

Why is it that on the way to work, when you're already running a few minutes late, a stupid old fool with a fast car decides that the sign with the black line through it means 'drive as slow as you can'?

It really makes me think that people over 70 should have a compulsory eye and reaction test if they want to continue to drive. Just the other day I was coming home late at night and got stuck behind some old woman that kept slowing down to 20 every time another car came past, because she obviously couldn't take the glare from the headlights!

Perhaps these people learnt to drive during the war (no driving test if you had to drive a tank or other vehicle in the war, they just let everyone go out on the road afterwards. No I know all those people that drove tanks in the war helped us and I'm greatful for their duty, but I don't really want to be on the same road as someone who drives their car like a tank and has no understanding of the traffic signs, let alone be able to actually see them.

One of the few pleasures in life is getting from a 40mph zone to a national speed limit zone and sticking the car in 5th as you take the corners at 55-60mph. This is especially true when I come home from a hard day's work. I'm not a careless driver, I always slow down in towns and watch my speed all the time, but the problem of old people not being able to drive properly is a big one, especially in the country towns.

The worst thing is when old people have brand new cars, fast cars too. They drive big powerful beasts that are capable of 0-60 in no time at all, but what do they do? Yes, poodle along at 30mph all day with a mile long queue of traffic behind them. That should be reason enough for the police to take them off the road and examine them, but no, the police are more keen on catching people who go 5mph over the speed limit (and I'm not arguing that speeding is a good thing, either).

One day there will be roads for people like that and other roads for the rest of us, so we can actually enjoy driving again. Bah!

pb wrote:
> heh, do I look like a 16 year old with too much time and his dad's car
> keys
****
Neither am I, I was in the back seat and it was either "come with or walk twelve miles home" You see my dilema(sp?)?. Only enjoyed it cos we nearly died like, seven times.

Darkus wrote:
> Mystique wrote:
>
> All the Novas,GTIs, and other bod boy cars
>
> Its a sad, sad day when people think that novas are bad boy cars...
****
I don't think they're bad boys, they do.

Slow old people are annoying, but it seems that nobody remebers how to negotiate roundabouts. In the past week there have been 4 cars which have forced us to slow down because they were in the outside lane in the roundabout when they should have been in the inside.

Up to and including 12 o'clock position-outside lane
Past 12 o'clock position-inside lane

Its not rocket science.

Or†ega wrote:
> Thing with Germany though, they all drive around in BMW's and Mercs.
> I went to Cologne a few years back and was amazed at the amount of
> those cars on the road. There were as Common as a Ford/Vauxhall
> here.

True - a BMW is Klaus' ride of choice. While they may be the domain of rich new media idiots, pimps and drug dealers in the UK, you can't deny that they're half decent cars.

Goatboy wrote:
> Probably, not too sure.
> But still, a Citroen...

My cousins got a sporty 1.6 Saxo. Faster than my 2.0 turbo diesel Astra...

Jonman wrote:

> And the fact that anyone driving a souped-up Nova would get laughed
> off the road. German's are trained from birth to differentiate a
> decent car from a pensioner's car with a big exhaust and a bass tube.

Thing with Germany though, they all drive around in BMW's and Mercs. I went to Cologne a few years back and was amazed at the amount of those cars on the road. There were as Common as a Ford/Vauxhall here.

Oh, and Germans actually have decent roads unlike us.

I suppose thats one thing you can thank Hitler for...

Mystique wrote:
> Sounds like you drive on the "Circuit"
> Ever been on it on a Sunday night? Ohhh man scary drivin.
> Bloody excellent.
>
> All the Novas,GTIs, and other bod boy cars meet up at the traffic
> lights outside Broad Marsh carpark and show off, racing round in front
> of the ice stadium and back to Broad Marsh. You'll come close to death
> at least seven times on the five min drive.

heh, do I look like a 16 year old with too much time and his dad's car keys? That kind of thing goes on around here, on the sea front. Donuts, water pistol fights through sunroofs and all that. I'm not a wideboy racer type.

Of course, if my car had any power whatsoever at least I could get some speed out of it, as it is I have enough trouble passing trucks on the motorway, dammit.

My bus driver today needed a bit of road rage rammed into the old sod, far too courteous and the only way I will forgive his speed is if he tells me he broke his leg. I was late to lecture because of him, oh well it wasn't as if anyone had done anything by the time I had got there anyway.

I spent some time living in Germany, and they seem to have the right idea mostly. Speed limits are set on roads where they're necessary, and 99%people drive at more or less 10 kmh higher than the limit (not necessarily a bad thing - at least everyone's driving at the same speed). Once you get out on the autobahns, there's limits where they're necessary (at busy intersections, or accident black spots), and no speed limit on sections of the road that can support it. So you can belt down the motorway at 220 kmh, then slow down where it's necessary.

The thing that makes it work is that the vast majority of drivers obey the limits.

And the fact that anyone driving a souped-up Nova would get laughed off the road. German's are trained from birth to differentiate a decent car from a pensioner's car with a big exhaust and a bass tube.

It's time for the Government to call for a driving test for all retired persons in the UK. The roads aren't safe with all of them there.