Rose tinted specs? Not at all, obviously I prefer driving over there & had become disillusioned with it over here, hence the move, but I wasn’t prepared for it to feel so dangerous over here, the first time I was overtaken I nearly jumped on the anchors when the bloke came back in, he was that close I couldn’t see any ground between us. To me that is just dangerous & totally unnessecary
Yes we have our fair share of muppets over there, a lot of them are convinced that their truck is a big evil machine that will kill them at the first opportunity, they can’t reverse to save their life etc etc, in terms of driving skills I would say the European & especially the British driver are far better than our Trans-Atlantic brethren, but they very seldom cut up another truck & they always leave plenty of space when they overtake, not that I’m overtaken often
I haven’t even put my logs & receipts in to the tax preparer yet, the small matter of being out of the country getting in the way of that at the moment, but I’ll be back soon & will enjoying getting that cheque
newmercman:
‘… I fail to see how even the poorest government can be held responsible for people not leaving enough room when overtaking …’
It’s a subtle argument, but I see it in the ‘Bigger Picture’ & how their general pee-take (including their lack of applying their Highway Code with their enforcement agencies) causes a lot of drivers use their vehicle to display disaffection with life in UK. I’m suggesting that it’s society venting its frustration. As long as the next man remains in his car then he isn’t considered to be an equal - so number one gets the green light to endeavour coming first for a change - having gotten fed up being shafted.
Maybe consider the ‘no-gap’ thing to be a ‘no-one’s beating me’ reaction by drivers after we have experienced being beaten, stripped & raped as a society.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister diverts our attention from this shambles with apologies about kids in Australia as his cronies busily conive to import immigrants in a busted flush to rebrand us the European version of America?
So the answer to the thread question ‘Why?’ is because we as a nation don’t come first anymore.
newmercman:
'… Happy Keith, I bet bedtime stories were a riot for your kids
It’s ironic you suggest that - and was perhaps why he’d prefer read himself asleep with his Kids Highway Code
He passed his car test two weeks ago first time, bless him - on the same day that I was in court as a prosecution witness for a crash that I saw when working
speed limiters are for sure a cause of great frustration for us but you just to have to be aware of it and drive accordingly, i ran back from sydney to melbourne yesterday, the whole 900 kms is 2 lane motorway bar about 20kms of it, and theres times you come up behind someone going a couple kms slower than you, pull out and go for it only to realise the blokes only missed a gear and hes now back up to full steam and youre stuck out there and hes not going to slow his own progress just because youre nearly along side him, so what do i do?
i drop back and pull back in behind him again and wait for an incline and let it go (me empty)
although i have to accept its a bit different in australia in that we’re governed to 100 (101 in my case woooooooo) and theres an awful lot less traffic on the interstate highways than the UK trunk roads
Before we set off in a morning, we all know that the truck is limited, it shouldn’t come as any great surprise even for the newer drivers.
Probably lacking is the skill to read the roads especially as most drivers are car drivers who upgraded, older drivers probably drove a small truck as their first vehicle, except for Carryfast who was born in the seat of a B Double, strange he remembers the 50’s and 60’s on the M1 especially as I gleaned information from another post that he is the same age as me
However back to reading the roads, both in my track riding and my subsequent bike test I was asked, “Do you drive a lorry?” The reason was that I look too far ahead for the instructors, it isn’t a fault, but they had to reel me in and get me to look closer to home.
I think the best terms for these situations was one someone called ‘cruise control races’. Same thing happens over here , it’s like once they flip it on there’s no way in hell they’re going to knock it off, even for a few seconds.
It’s been thirty six years since i drove a lorry in the UK but i agree with the others that drivers helped each other back then, remember loaded going up hill on a single carriageway road and a faster lorry caught you up, when it was clear you’d wave him on or give a couple of flashes of your nearside turn signal.
You allways gave the lorry overtaking the headights to pull back in and he allways gave a tailight thank you, yes, i think i’ll keep my rose tinted glasses on
Wheel Nut:
Before we set off in a morning, we all know that the truck is limited, it shouldn’t come as any great surprise even for the newer drivers.
Probably lacking is the skill to read the roads especially as most drivers are car drivers who upgraded, older drivers probably drove a small truck as their first vehicle, except for Carryfast who was born in the seat of a B Double, strange he remembers the 50’s and 60’s on the M1 especially as I gleaned information from another post that he is the same age as me
However back to reading the roads, both in my track riding and my subsequent bike test I was asked, “Do you drive a lorry?” The reason was that I look too far ahead for the instructors, it isn’t a fault, but they had to reel me in and get me to look closer to home.
No wheelnut unluckily for me I never used a 45 footer drawbar trailer let alone a doubles roadtrain and probably never will under Brit regs.You’re right I’m too young to have driven anything during the 1960’s but get it into context and you’d see that what I meant was that the old generation (to me and probably you) used the flashing idea in the context of not lighting up the road or trees to cooperate in overtaking on the motorway in daylight or at night without taking anyone with them as they returned to the inside lane and I used the same idea when I eventually started in 1980.But what is,or should be, indisputable is that it was a lot easier to overtake and return to the inside lane leaving a good safe gap with an unlimited wagon and with a 15 mph speed differential rather than a 1 or 2 mph one.
Wheel Nut:
Before we set off in a morning, we all know that the truck is limited, it shouldn’t come as any great surprise even for the newer drivers.
Probably lacking is the skill to read the roads especially as most drivers are car drivers who upgraded, older drivers probably drove a small truck as their first vehicle, except for Carryfast who was born in the seat of a B Double, strange he remembers the 50’s and 60’s on the M1 especially as I gleaned information from another post that he is the same age as me
However back to reading the roads, both in my track riding and my subsequent bike test I was asked, “Do you drive a lorry?” The reason was that I look too far ahead for the instructors, it isn’t a fault, but they had to reel me in and get me to look closer to home.
I got pulled over on my test, and asked to do a start, and a slow ride.
He said ‘It’s not that there’s a problem, it’s just that you haven’t stopped yet’
