That situation you describe Greenhey is standard practice here in Poland. Here it?s not the odd one, but most drivers that are just desperate, absolutely desperate to overtake any vehicle that?s in front of them and at any cost. Doesn?t matter how fast the car in front is, the one behind will want to overtake. Doesn?t matter if it?s town, city or next to a scholl. Add to that, the fact that most of their A-roads are flanked by huge trees and it?s not surprising the death rate is one of the highest in Europe - almost twice ours - yet only two thirds our population and far fewer drivers doing far lower mileages.
A couple of months ago I was held up in Gdansk for two hours following an accident on an A-road. As I passed the scene I saw it was clearly a fatal head-on collision, extremely unpleasant to witness. And what was the first thing the car behind did once we?d got by? Yep get right up my backside, indicators flashing, desperate to get passed. A couple of weeks ago their champion gold medalist swimmer killed her brother in an breath-takingly poor piece of driving. Overtaking three artics in a sponsored Chrysler 300C she ran out of road and buried it into a tree. Desipte days of public mourning, did it change peoples? perspectives towards their driving? Don?t make me laugh.
I find it depressing too, not that I care how many idiots kill themselves (I hope they all do), more that I?m probably gonna get tangled in their mess one day. I drive the same 200 mile round trip journey every weekend and always have to take some kind of avoiding action - either making space for an over-taking vehicle to cut in at the last second or moving into the gutter to avoid an oncoming one. I know attitudes will never change because the traffic cops can be bribed and there are no speed cameras. There?s no decorum here in driving, no sense of pride, no idea that a good drive might simply be cruising, listening to a top CD with an elbow resting on the door. Just vulgar, aggressive speed. And how many thousands of times do I catch up with the idiots who?ve overtaken 40 miles back as I approach the outskirts of my destination and traffic thickens.
There?s one question that absolutely every Polish man asks me when he sees that I drive a RHD car. "But how do you overtake?" And they all have the same answer when I ask the question why are your road death figures so appalling "Because the roads are bad"
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Nothing to write home about in the Philippines, see it 20 X day.
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A guy on the road rage programme currently on the BBC was just like this, to the point where he relied on his young son (11 ish)to say if it was safe to overtake or not!
It looked like completely reckless driving similar to what you saw, but he had an 'explanation'.
In some bizarre reverse logic argument he said he hated driving so much that he wanted to get it over and done with asap, so he drove very quickly and overtook everything he could, driving was a necessary chore which he hated. He set off for work three hours before he needed to and arrived 2.5 hours before his start time just so he could use quiet roads.
He never made the link that one of the reasons he may hate driving was due to the way he actually drove.
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When I first came here two years ago, I was so relieved to be free of speed cameras and regulations, I just felt compelled to drive like the rest of them. Of course I got caught after 70 miles and got 8 points. And yeah - it?s a very stressful way of driving.
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Nothing to write home about in the Philippines. I've got a bigger/newer/faster/imported car. I'm more important than you are because I'm a congressman/senior official/you're going too slow it's a democracy and I have the right to be in front.
No problem really, we all rub along quite well as long as we remember the pecking order (and the 9mm Glock in the glove box....)
It's only when someone bucks the system that you get accidents.
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I know attitudes will never change because the traffic cops can be bribed
I can see how fixing that one would help.
and there are no speed cameras.
Can't see how installing them would, though. Doesn't seem to help here.
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Makes you feel fortunate to live and drive in britain. Lots of posters come on here and bang on about abou poor driving in this country, and sometimes it is bad, but anyone who has driven in countries like Greece,Italy,anywhere in eastern europe or - god forbid - India (as i have) then you realise just how high the standard of driving is in the uk compared to some places.
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Indeed. Driving in Kosovo is particularly bad. Or fun, depending on your view...
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>>you realise just how high the standard of driving is in the uk
More "less low" than actually "high", I think.
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As in the Spanish phrase - "menos mal" - recommended for a wide range of situations.....
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> > anywhere in eastern europe
SWMBO hails from the Czech Republic where we have a friend who drives his Audi A8 W12 with the TV interlock disabled and a DVD or live broadcast playing. He sees no problem in this.
The same matey once drove me at night down a long straight unlit road absolutely flat out in his wife's ?koda Octavia 1.8 - about 200kph on the clock looking across from where I was sat - on dipped beam.
Holy shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... was that a push bike out from the kerb to avoid a pothole that we just missed by a fag paper? It was almost like a subliminal freeze frame in a movie in the way that it appeared and dissapeared. I used the F word but he just laughed and kept the loud pedal buried.
His driving is typical of the nouveau riche business men as they carve up the locals in their overloaded beat up ?koda 105s, old Ladas, and the odd Polski Fiat.
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"Can't see how installing them would, though. Doesn't seem to help here."
Well it doesn?t physically stop you speeding, but here as in UK, 4 hits and you?re banned.
It?s the reckless overtaking though, dunno how you?d stop that - hitting a tree maybe?
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It?s the reckless overtaking though, dunno how you?d stop that - hitting a tree maybe?
That's what I was talking about. But it's a long argument that we've done before. Then we did it again. And again.... ;-)
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There?s no decorum here in driving, no sense of pride, no idea that a good drive might simply be cruising, listening to a top CD with an elbow resting on the door. Just vulgar, aggressive >> speed.
Yeah, that's true. I hate it. Period :(
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I am the only Pole over here.
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"Yeah, that's true. I hate it."
On the other hand though, in Poland, I can leave work on Friday evening, go home and collect the family, drive from Warsaw to my wife?s home city, have supper then join our friends in a bar for a few drinks.
Try leaving London on a Friday evening to drive to Manchester and you?ll just have time to say hello to your mam and dad as you arrive at 1.30 am before collapsing into bed. Then you have to plan how much of your sunday will be wasted doing the return journey.
I?ll take my chances with the maniacs any time.
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Was in Poland at the weekend (Krakow) and have to say the driving wasn't quite as bad as I had expected. Couple of taxi rides and a long bus trip out of town and didn't see anything too bad - very good overtaking roads though, long and straight with light traffic.
Have certainly seen some suicidal manoeuvres in Hungary/Slovakia etc. Having a gigantic lorry overtaking on a blind bend is a very scary and ultimately pointless (for the lorry) exercise. Some very good biking roads though and look forward to trying them out one day.
German and Austrian plates are often seen closing/passing at high speed, and there is a definite mentality that says that executive cars must overtake lesser cars whatever the circumstances and however pointless. It does kind of work though, once you are used to it, and the "lesser" car drivers don't seem to take offence as they might in the UK. You wouldn't see a car slow down to impede a tailgater for example, and it is easier to accept for some reason - when in Rome and all that.
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Last night Leeds ring road. In my mirror I see a Punto Sporting closely followed by an A class with full lights on a good way back but 'making progress'. Reach roundabout Punto turns left, A class catches me in outside lane and floors it. We are approaching lights 200 m or so from roundabout which are changing to red. I start slowing, A class speeds up and goes through just after they have changed to red. I'm sat waiting for green when I notice lights in the rear view mirror and a 5 series BMW comes past at 70-80 (40 limit road) with no regard for the red light - five teenagers had just stepped on to the crossing who had the shock of their lives. How you wish for the boys in blue in a situation like that.
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Davey - given the overtake that was done by a marked 5 Series on me along an A-road by pushing past at 70 ish, creating a lane in the traffic past about 12 cars all doing 40, fairly bunched up, with no blues and twos, are you sure that the 5 Series wasn't itself the boys in blue?
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"I?ll take my chances with the maniacs any time."
Cool. Just don't become one. That disease is highly contagious, you know. Unless you're immune, of course.
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I am the only Pole over here.
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"Yeah, that's true. I hate it." On the other hand though, in Poland, I can leave work on Friday evening, go home and collect the family, drive from Warsaw to my wife?s home city, have supper then join our friends in a bar for a few drinks. Try leaving London on a Friday evening to drive to Manchester and you?ll just have time to say hello to your mam and dad as you arrive at 1.30 am before collapsing into bed. Then you have to plan how much of your sunday will be wasted doing the return journey. I?ll take my chances with the maniacs any time.
Are you saying that on crowded roads, that style of driving will significantly reduce journey times?
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Absolutely not, that style of driving will only get you killed - simply that a two hour journey in Poland will actually take you two hours.
I worked in London for 15 years and drove to Manchester about once a month on a Friday. That 200 mile 3 -hour journey never took less than five and regularly took seven and occasionally took eleven. In the end, I started using the shuttle.
I just think that given the choice between being able to make good progress albeit surrounded by maniacs on rubbish roads, or sitting stationary on the M6 watching my life go down the drain then I?d rather be here.
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Driving from Leeds to Rochdale this morning on the M62 saw the eastbound carriageway solid for the whole journey. Hopefully should have cleared up by midnight when I'm heading back.
Quite enjoy the M62 at night, it's very surreal.
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Well, I have not driven in Poland, so I cannot KNOW I'd prefer it there. But I THINK I would. Or even the Phillipines?
No chance at 78, of course (those with a "wrong" accent get no social services anyway, so I have to be here to provide them for the gaffer).
I really, really want to floor Toad until acceleration becomes infinitesimal, and see where the boost gauge tops out, just once before I snuff it. And to drive just once according to road conditions, instead of being persecuted by the anti-motoring measures brought in by the liberal anti-motoring cranks, administered by their mercenaries; and paying most of my attention to looking out for their manifestations.
DAMMIT, I've paid more than enough taxes.
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Let's be positive. Yes there is some really bad driving in the UK, but it is better than most of the places mentioned above. It is also better than Uganda, Georgia, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, India, and Swaziland. France, Spain, Italy, Germany,
Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg seem about on a par. Holland seemed a very orderly drive, with observance of the limits high, and no-one getting in the way by doing daft things. So things could be worse. At least in the UK there is the expectation that driving should be sensible, whilst in some of the above no-one seems to care.
Manchester to London seems to be better than v.v., but I prefer to dodge particular bits of motorway such as the Birmingham area: the new pay bit makes my previously favourite dodge even faster. I now avoid London completely: I'm never ever going to subsidise Red Ken.Isn't it hilarious that the congestion charge was so effective that he is making a loss?
For safety I liked Holland best; for letting it rip, Germany; and for good roads, good scenery, good food, and good shopping, France.
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Try Moscow, maybe you'll like it. Population: about 10 million. And while on the road, absolute freedom of movement. No lane discipline whatsoever. Explanation - no lanes at all, just huge & wide sea of black bitumen (though not necessarilly pot-holed). Blokes in Samaras, Moskvich and alikes always give way to those in 7-series, A8s, XJs etc. no matter what.
Plain, simple, efficient.
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I am the only Pole over here.
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For safety I liked Holland best
Sweden seems nice with their 2+1 roads. Soooooo calm.
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I am the only Pole over here.
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