Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners

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Wed 13 Nov 2024 15:11
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Orb>>.

There is a corner close by on traffic lights with a 12" concrete filled metal post strategically placed to protect pedestrians waiting to cross. Seemed to be knocked askew frequently and so Essex highways leave it askew now. But people are coming around way too fast and as a result are swinging further out often with poor results such as violently correcting, hitting the post and ending up on the footpath .

Doh!

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Wed 13 Nov 2024 17:46
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Engineer Andy

At least they didn't end up in someone's front room! Round my way, some numpty took the 90deg bend in a nearby village too fast and ended up demolishing one part of the local pub!

Also seen a similar incident at a local mini roundabout, where a car turned left but took it way too fast, as the road is quite narrow, bashing into the car coming up to the roundabout.

Pedestrians often need to be very careful in such areas to avoid being involved in an accident themselves, including drivers cutting the inside corner or pedestrians stepping out to cross, only to find a vehicle turning towards them that didn't signal, just as often as the pedestrian themselves didn't look before crossing.

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Thu 14 Nov 2024 08:28
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - FoxyJukebox
Yes-zooming round blind corners on the right hand side of the road to avoid pot holes??
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Thu 14 Nov 2024 09:36
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Andrew-T

Some may learn if we get any black ice this winter ....

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Fri 15 Nov 2024 11:55
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Engineer Andy

Some may learn if we get any black ice this winter ....

A cold snap supposedly approaching next week in at least some parts of the UK. First below zero (night time) temperatures of the season...

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Fri 15 Nov 2024 13:24
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Gibbo_Wirral

People just going around corners is my pet hate. They can't seem to do it without crossing the white line or cutting the junction.

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Fri 15 Nov 2024 14:28
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - davecooper

My son did an advanced driving course for his job many years ago. There were a few of them on the course and the instructor commented that some of them were going round corners like they were driving round a 50 pence piece, correcting the steering angle in a few big chunks rather than changing steering angle smoothly. He told them that If they didn't get this basic bit of driving sorted then they would fail the course.

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Fri 15 Nov 2024 16:08
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - madf

My morning walk is often a 1 mile walk uphill to the moors. A twisty road just wide enough for two cars, 2 meter hedges and no straight longer than 100 meters.

Treacherous in snow and ice: Accidents since we lived here: Citroen C1 on its roof at 6am, Car through farmer's steel gate.. Range Rover Discovery with nose two meters up a tree..(yes really) and a BMW hit a Range Rover - as both refuse to give way.

I wear a thick jerkin so I can fling myself into the hawthorn when a car comes fast round one of the many blind corners,, BMW and Mercedes drivers appear worst.

Fortunately too twisty and narrow for arctics,

Some very considerate drivers and some utter m****s..

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Fri 15 Nov 2024 22:35
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - bathtub tom

Fortunately too twisty and narrow for arctics,

Just as well you've a thick coat to keep you warm!

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Tue 19 Nov 2024 14:47
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Sofa Spud

Near us there is a sharp bend on an A road. Not long ago some new chevron signs with day-glo yellow borders were installed. Soon afterwards, a speeding car left the road, ending up in a field, having taken out one of the chevron signs. Although this bend isn't a blind bend in the conventional sense, the driver involved obviously didn't see the bend or the chevron signs!

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Sat 28 Dec 2024 23:18
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - argybargy
At our previous address in Wales we would drive to the nearest town, Holywell, up a steep, twisting single carriageway, about a mile and a half in length, which featured at least two blind bends. Approaching the first of those on one occasion I was suddenly confronted by a car driving downhill at breakneck speed, exiting the blind bend on the wrong side of the road and rocking as the driver wrestled with the wheel in a desperate attempt not to flip over. He missed us by inches, probably the nearest I (but maybe not he) have come to oblivion.
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Sun 29 Dec 2024 00:13
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - edlithgow

VERY tempted to do the "You people dont know you are born" routine, but maybe things have got worse in The Yook, and they might have got better in Taiwan since I stopped driving. I had some impression they were improving, as did other expats, but its hard to factor out habituation.

Certainly when I started there was no comparison. Completely different scale of awfulness, objectively confirmed by the relative fatality rates.

Heres a quote from this discussion, long ago and far, far away...

tw.forumosa.com/t/confidence-to-drive-a-car/65737/...4

"Deuce Dropper’s multi-commended post above provides wide, but by no means complete, coverage of the landscape of license that constitutes the awfulness. (here relative to AUSTRALIA, a driving paradise)

I’d add my personal choice for the piesay de resistance: They routinely take a racing line on mountain roads: i.e. Many Taiwanese drivers, and not just boy-ricers, often drive quite fast on the wrong side of the road around blind corners.

Of course y’all are entirely free to find that a bit of a stress reliever, and it moves the traffic along efficiently, which is why they do it. (I’ve asked them.)

But its still f***ing awful."

Edited by edlithgow on 29/12/2024 at 00:24

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Sun 29 Dec 2024 10:34
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Sofa Spud

There have always been people who drive too fast along wincing roads. I can remember as a teenager being in the back of a car driven by one of our schoolteachers who happily 'used the full width of the road" on blind right-hand bends. As far as I know he didn't have any accidents so I guess he must have been good at last-minute swerving!

"Using the full width of the road" was a thing among so-called performance drivers in the 1970's. That's a bad habit at the best of times but on blind corners it's clearly dangerous!

When I did my HGV course, also in the 70's, the emphasis was to stay on your own side of the white line at all times unless you physically couldn't do so because of the size of the vehicle.

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Sun 29 Dec 2024 11:55
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - RT

There have always been people who drive too fast along wincing roads. I can remember as a teenager being in the back of a car driven by one of our schoolteachers who happily 'used the full width of the road" on blind right-hand bends. As far as I know he didn't have any accidents so I guess he must have been good at last-minute swerving!

"Using the full width of the road" was a thing among so-called performance drivers in the 1970's. That's a bad habit at the best of times but on blind corners it's clearly dangerous!

When I did my HGV course, also in the 70's, the emphasis was to stay on your own side of the white line at all times unless you physically couldn't do so because of the size of the vehicle.

Using the full width of the road works fine where you have good visibility of the road ahead - but not on a blind bend.

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Mon 30 Dec 2024 12:23
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Sofa Spud

Using the full width of the road works fine where you have good visibility of the road ahead - but not on a blind bend.

Until you forget and commit yourself to using the full width of the road when there's something coming the other way! Using the full width of the road is basically a bad driving habit that will catch you out one day.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 30/12/2024 at 12:24

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Mon 30 Dec 2024 12:36
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - RT

Using the full width of the road works fine where you have good visibility of the road ahead - but not on a blind bend.

Until you forget and commit yourself to using the full width of the road when there's something coming the other way! Using the full width of the road is basically a bad driving habit that will catch you out one day.

If they have good visibility, a pre-requisite of my statement, then a good driver won't use the other side of the road if there's something coming towards them.

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Sun 29 Dec 2024 17:30
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Manatee

"Using the full width of the road" was a thing among so-called performance drivers in the 1970's. That's a bad habit at the best of times but on blind corners it's clearly dangerous!

Being on the wrong side of the road, or up the middle, at a blind bend is clearly dangerous. For 2 reasons, 1, you might simply cause a collision with oncoming traffic that has nowhere to go and 2, less obviously, surprising somebody by being on the 'wrong' side pf the road can result in an unpredictable reaction - e.g. the oncoming driver swerving right as you move back to the left.

Hanging out a bit for a left hander to get an early view is acknowledged good practice because it gives advantage, provided it can be done safely.

Straightening bends is a bit more controversial because seeing oncoming traffic on the wrong side can cause oncoming drivers to attempt avoiding action, so you need to see a clear road a long way ahead to make it safe. But it can reduce risk and as far as I know is not illegal, although "causing a collision" would be:) I know the IAM doesn't advocate it because I tried it!

Just my opinion/belief of course - things change.

There is a possibly apocryphal story of a group of police motorcyclists, possibly in training, straightening a bend when an oncoming driver saw them on the wrong side of the road. Confused, the driver parked his car on the centreline and left it up to them. I can't remember what supposedly happened. I think I might have done the same!

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Sun 29 Dec 2024 19:01
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - focussed

"Hanging out a bit for a left hander to get an early view"

And

"Straightening bends is a bit more controversial "

" I know the IAM doesn't advocate it because I tried it!"

It was part of IAM training for the motorcycle test in the mid nineties, "hanging out a bit on a left hander" often meant being over the white line to the right in the other lane.

OK if it's done to gain longer range vision on a left-hand bend.

And if you didn't use it when required to make progress on the test you would probably fail, depending on the circumstances.

I understand it is not approved of nowadays.

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Sun 29 Dec 2024 19:48
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - gordonbennet

Blind corners are one thing, but straightening bends, and roundabouts, where the road in all directions is clear is what i've done for years in all types of vehicles.

Similarly good observation allows you to maintain progress through junctions and can help through adjusting speed early at the few remaining sets of traffic lights they haven't timed (deliberately?) to hinder progress...for the last point i offer Leicester in evidence, probably the most frustrating urban area its my misfortune to have to drive in, with Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire main routes a test of one's will power not to explode.

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Mon 30 Dec 2024 10:59
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - madf

.for the last point i offer Leicester in evidence, probably the most frustrating urban area its my misfortune to have to drive in, with Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire main routes a test of one's will power not to explode.

Which is why I have given up on driving as an enjoyment; drive a EV and take care not to stress about what is on the road.. Being an elderly OAP of course, time deadlines rarely exist...

Cars are now whit goods: anyone driving n the wrong side of the road and causing an accident should lose their car automatically (to be resold) and their licence.

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Mon 30 Dec 2024 11:38
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - gordonbennet
Which is why I have given up on driving as an enjoyment; drive a EV and take care not to stress about what is on the road.. Being an elderly OAP of course, time deadlines rarely exist...

Agreed, for a long time now i've avoided going anywhere in our cars, my work miles in trucks is a different thing i have my work head on plus it generates a decent income, but the worsening already poor standards of driving out there, including disappointingly more and more truck and bus drivers, has finally made my decision for me to retire in the autumn of next year, at least from full time i might do the odd weekend shift to keep my hand in when not so many trucks are on the road.

This could be part of the reason why i've run Landcruisers (or Hilux) for so many years, very truck like in construction and driving, for some reason the antics of so many out there doesn't bother one the same as when in a car, there must be some mentality thing going on there.

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Mon 30 Dec 2024 13:51
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Brit_in_Germany

Using the full width of the road is my preferred technique for ascending or descending alpine roads for clockwise hairpin bends. This assumes, of course, that you have managed to assess the absence of traffic in the opposite direction. As it effectively gives you the racing line, the degree of braking is less and you have returned to your side of the road before the apex, so the risk of a collision is low.

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Mon 30 Dec 2024 14:00
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - Sparrow

Not far from here a couple of years ago in heavy rain a BMW hit a stretch of standing water going somewhat too fast and aquaplaned through a garden wall and demolished the front of a cottage. The couple inside were shocked but physically unhurt, fortunately, but they had to move out for several months while they house was rebuilt. It now sports sn Armco barrier where the garden wall used to be.

The police decided not to prosecute as there was no evidence the driver was exceeding the speed limit!

Sparrow

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Mon 30 Dec 2024 15:40
Current pet hate - people going too fast round blind corners - RT

Not far from here a couple of years ago in heavy rain a BMW hit a stretch of standing water going somewhat too fast and aquaplaned through a garden wall and demolished the front of a cottage. The couple inside were shocked but physically unhurt, fortunately, but they had to move out for several months while they house was rebuilt. It now sports sn Armco barrier where the garden wall used to be.

The police decided not to prosecute as there was no evidence the driver was exceeding the speed limit!

Sparrow

I'm surprised the driver wasn't prosecuted for driving without due care and attention - we must all drive to the conditions and sometimes a speed below the maxumum is safe and prudent.

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