Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: raywilb on 28 April 2017, 16:00:56
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where I live there are lots of 20mph speed limits. its hard to adhere to them. even without touching the accelerator the mig even in 1st gear wants to do more . its bad enough trying to stick to 30. at the moment there is a purge on too.
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Theres loads of them in East London now, Hackney, Bow, Mile End ect, pretty much all side roads now are 20mph zones, as you say can be quiet difficult if your in Auto Pilot mode, take your mind of the ball for 2 mins and youve got a fine and some points in the post.
Can be quiet deceiving if you venture off the main roads.
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There are quite a few round here too.Apparently they're there to protect pedestrians-mainly children-so do you drive along watching the speedo and run down said pedestrian/child or do you watch where you're going and exceed the speed limit?
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I must say that there is nothing hard in keeping your stead rolling at 15 / 20 mph.
All it takes is you for you to remember that you do not want to hit a child, and that is the priority, above everything else ;)
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Introduced after pressure from parents of children living on the street concerned usually. The hazard is all the parked cars on both sides of the roads and kids can run out from between them. Its often the case that there are places such as drives or garages where the cars could be parked, but the owners cant be arsed.
The owners also happen to be the same parents who brought the pressure in the first place.
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Well Im all for not running down children but what they doing in the streets they should be at school, and if there too young for scbool then ghey should be at home being looked after by someone.
So I run the risk of hitting a child at 3 am in the morning.
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Well Im all for not running down children but what they doing in the streets they should be at school, and if there too young for scbool then ghey should be at home being looked after by someone.
So I run the risk of hitting a child at 3 am in the morning.
That's when they're on their way home from the pub, so be careful! :)
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Well Im all for not running down children but what they doing in the streets they should be at school, and if there too young for scbool then ghey should be at home being looked after by someone.
So I run the risk of hitting a child at 3 am in the morning.
That's when they're on their way home from the pub, so be careful! :)
There too young for the Pub, so probably recovering from the crack cocaine. ::)
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After a few kids have been mown down, the message will surely get through that roads are dangerous places, built for cars, not kids/pedestrians.
Shouldn't the schools be teaching them that? :P
Ron.
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Children shouldn't be on the road, Money would be better spent educating the parents into how to look after children.
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One day I set off and a kid went in front of me so I shouted "get off the road" and a parent (and I use that term loosley) told me I was a miserable get (maybe I am ;D)
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I fully support most 20mph zones.
Yes of course idiot parents should have some responsibility for taking care of their kids and teaching road sense. How often have we seen Mum walking into the road pushing a pram in front of her ?
However, when I learned to drive I was always taught to drive at a speed that enabled me to stop in the event of the unexpected. And, right or wrong, a kid running into the road is the unexpected.
I live on a 20 mph road, with a school nearby, and 40 or so mph is not unusual. Not just young boy racers, mumsy in her 4x4, Dad in his lux mobile, and where I live farmer jones who doesn't know what day it is. It's not as though anyone is actually in a hurry, it's habit, impatience, the vrooom factor, and the fact that modern cars isolate the driver from the outside world so much. If I had my way, it wouldn't just be 20 mph zones, there would be a speed camera on every one of them. ::)
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All it takes is you for you to remember that you do not want to hit a child, and that is the priority, above everything else ;)
See, I disagree. Evolution of any species has always been survival of the fittest, but because we dumb down to stupid people, we have ended up with the society we have.
And we need a clear message, if *ANYONE* steps out in front of a moving vehicle - car, train or otherwise - its NOT the drivers fault, despite the pressures of society.
Roads are dangerous places, and before little Johnny lets go of thick mummy's hand, he needs to fully understand the Green Cross Code, as being "naughty" will not result in 30s on the naughty step or other such 'dangle berries'.
I knew how to cross the road safely at the age of 3, any when I started school at 4, although the main gate was on a 30mph road, the road alongside the school was 60mph. NOBODY ever got run over.
So put the responsibility back on parents/teaching staff, not the bloody motorist.... ....but shoot the motorists being reckless
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Children shouldn't be on the road, Money would be better spent educating the parents into not breeding like rabbits...
Indeed...
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All it takes is you for you to remember that you do not want to hit a child, and that is the priority, above everything else ;)
See, I disagree. Evolution of any species has always been survival of the fittest, but because we dumb down to stupid people, we have ended up with the society we have.
And we need a clear message, if *ANYONE* steps out in front of a moving vehicle - car, train or otherwise - its NOT the drivers fault, despite the pressures of society.
Roads are dangerous places, and before little Johnny lets go of thick mummy's hand, he needs to fully understand the Green Cross Code, as being "naughty" will not result in 30s on the naughty step or other such 'dangle berries'.
I knew how to cross the road safely at the age of 3, any when I started school at 4, although the main gate was on a 30mph road, the road alongside the school was 60mph. NOBODY ever got run over.
So put the responsibility back on parents/teaching staff, not the bloody motorist.... ....but shoot the motorists being reckless
Shock, horror :o :o :o How dare you disagree with me :o :o :o Mind you everyone does!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;)
Seriously. I know what you are saying TB, but even when I was taught road safety at school 60 years ago, when there were far, far fewer cars around, children, including me, forgot all about what the parents and school had taught us (no changes there!!) and ran out into roads for footballs, balloons, or just because we wanted to.
Children today are the same; I know from my experiences with my children and now grandchildren that you can teach and teach children again and again and still they will not do as they are told. They will, from time to time, run into the road or simply cross when they think there is enough time to do so, and the accident happens.
As responsible motorists when driving around town that is what we must remember, and stick to those 20 mph zones because they are there for a reason. Do 150 mph on the motorway if you like and are brave enough, but around town stick to speed limits. It is the law anyway, and when we take ownership of our licence we are agreeing to obey the laws of the land :y
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There are plans to make the entire inner city in Nottingham a 20mph zone
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There are vacancies about to be advertised for persons, male or female, to carry red flags in front of all horseless carriages.....
Ron.
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There are plans to make the entire inner city in Nottingham a 20mph zone
I think more and more large towns and cities will be going down that route.
As for London that I can speak for, you are very lucky if you can average 20 mph when travelling across it! ::) ::) :D ;)
As for red flags Ron, I do not think they are necessary now; congestion is so bad that traffic is naturally slowing down to red flag speeds. Two years ago I went back to driving almost the whole length of the M6; it was really just a giant car park and took me the whole day (12 hours) to travel what I regularly travelled in the 1980's in about 3 hours at most! :o :o ;)
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There are plans to make the entire inner city in Nottingham a 20mph zone
Well I guess that's an improvement on the shitholes like Oxford, who have been hell bent on banning all vehicles apart from dirty, smokey buses from the city centre for years.
And they can't work out why businesses are moving out....
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when there were far, far fewer cars around, children, including me, forgot all about what the parents and school had taught us (no changes there!!) and ran out into roads for footballs, balloons, or just because we wanted to.
Children today are the same; I know from my experiences with my children and now grandchildren that you can teach and teach children again and again and still they will not do as they are told. They will, from time to time, run into the road or simply cross when they think there is enough time to do so, and the accident happens.
I don't think its so much the extra traffic (if anything, that slows things), its the way we molly coddle our little bastids in cotton wool, putting them in the car to drive them to school 800yrds away, and drop them off right by the gate (ignoring the keep clear markings), and shielding them from learning things are dangerous.
I also think the quality of drivers has plummeted. I think most of us "of a certain age" couldn't afford a car, so took to the roads on motorbikes. I think newly qualified drivers lack that complete awareness that motorcyclists usually have. And far too many distractions whilst driving, such as updating their arsebook, twaatter, and drinking their hot Costa.
As for speed limits, I'm all for sensible ones. For the most part, I'm against long stretches of 50mph where it should be NSL, and I'm mostly against 20mph limits, that are purely in place because those that should be on the cull list like the sound of their own voice.
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when there were far, far fewer cars around, children, including me, forgot all about what the parents and school had taught us (no changes there!!) and ran out into roads for footballs, balloons, or just because we wanted to.
Children today are the same; I know from my experiences with my children and now grandchildren that you can teach and teach children again and again and still they will not do as they are told. They will, from time to time, run into the road or simply cross when they think there is enough time to do so, and the accident happens.
I don't think its so much the extra traffic (if anything, that slows things), its the way we molly coddle our little bastids in cotton wool, putting them in the car to drive them to school 800yrds away, and drop them off right by the gate (ignoring the keep clear markings), and shielding them from learning things are dangerous.
I also think the quality of drivers has plummeted. I think most of us "of a certain age" couldn't afford a car, so took to the roads on motorbikes. I think newly qualified drivers lack that complete awareness that motorcyclists usually have. And far too many distractions whilst driving, such as updating their arsebook, twaatter, and drinking their hot Costa.
As for speed limits, I'm all for sensible ones. For the most part, I'm against long stretches of 50mph where it should be NSL, and I'm mostly against 20mph limits, that are purely in place because those that should be on the cull list like the sound of their own voice.
Now TB that is very true, an angers me. My mum, and I with my kids, walked half a mile to the school and back, twice a day, without any need for a car. There is a whole generation now that know nothing but having a car on the drive and going everywhere in it; and society wonders why we have fat kids (and adults)!! It is so noticeable when the children have school holidays; the "rush hour" is almost non-existent! ::) ::) ::)
As for driving a motorbike; now that is something I would question. I have never driven a motorbike but consider myself, with one million miles under my seat, a good driver, with added input from police training. I think though the difference is now that youngsters think it a right to have a licence, and when they get one believe they are the best drivers in the World, zooming around in racing hatchbacks. In my day we scrapped together money (in my case £15) for the humblest little car I could afford and knew I was lucky to have a licence, along with understanding getting the licence was just the start of learning to drive to the standard more mature and wiser drivers met. I was a novice, and knew it. How many teenagers think that now? The ones I know certainly don't. They think they are God's gift to the roads, and they are the only ones who really know how to drive. That is why so many under 25 year old's have accidents.
If the test really reflected all the needs of a good driver, including attitude, in the 21st century there would be less of a problem. But I understand there is some talk about including Sat Nav operation withing learning to drive and the test. What!!! :o :o :o For goodness sake, what is that all about?! ::) ::) ::)
That is the wrong approach and is not what is required!
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I think too many of the current generation of snowflakes are brought up so everything is centered around them (especially if an only child) and therefore society and the world owes them everything too. When things go wrong where they wander into the road with headphones in listening to the latest c-rap and are glued to their arsebook smart screen, it is naturally the motorist at fault that has the audacity to invade their personal space as they run them down and it is obviously the motorists fault as they cross that bit of road, between two parked vans, everyday without looking and that ignorant motorist should know that and avoid them, no excuses. ::) ::) ::) :o :o :o
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I don't think its so much the extra traffic (if anything, that slows things), its the way we molly coddle our little bastids in cotton wool, putting them in the car to drive them to school 800yrds away, and drop them off right by the gate (ignoring the keep clear markings), and shielding them from learning things are dangerous.
Very true. Most of my H&S knowledge came from "experimentation" on the building site we used to play on, on the way home from school. :y
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When we first moved onto the street we used to live on it was just an ordinary street of terraced houses with cars parked parallel to the kerb and vehicles driving up and down between them with a 30mph limit.Someone then decided it would be turned into a "pedestrian friendly zone".So they ripped up the road surface and the pavements and block paved the lot with bricks using a line of different colour bricks to show where the "pavement"began/ended.Then at staggered intervals the put in flower beds/trees and decreed that cars would then park either nose or tail in to the kerb and reduced the limit to 20mph.In order to hold to that limit or less I for one had to ride the brakes nearly the length of the road.For most though the speed increased as they treated it as a slalom course and although no one was ever hit there were more near misses after the 20 limit was imposed than there was at 30!Total absence of cameras or police to enforce the new limit of course.
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Use a higher gear to keep the revs on the floor. Irrespective of the limit, if you've to ride the brakes to keep a speed then you don't have proper control of the vehicle coupled with a failure to read the road conditions.
Rant over.
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What gear do you pick on an auto while running downhill?
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Starting out on a motorbike DOES teach you good roadcraft (sorry lizzie), because you are ever aware of how vulnerable you are, not only due to the actions of other drivers, but es[ecially road and weather conditions. You learn quicly for instance, that in freezing onditions the road will be treacherous on bends and under trees - without the dashboard display telling you!
The school run is ludicrous - let the little accidents walk! We had to.
The impossible 20 mph limit shows how out of touch with reality politicians/concillors are, in their chauffeur-driven cars. They imposed it simply to be "seen to be doing" something positive, out of "concern" for safety and therefore can sit back smugly, believing that they have done something wonderful. Delusional crap.
Ron.
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What gear do you pick on an auto while running downhill?
1
Selected manually and cover the brake, only pressing when actually needed.
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As youngsters most people started on motorbikes and quickly learn't good road sense and how to read conditions or ended up on one of TB's lists. ::) ::) ::) As an apprentice in every first year there was one killed including in ours. :'(
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I agree with BigRon on this one, that you learn road craft pretty damn quick in a motorbike. My first "car" was a Reliant that i could drive on my bike licence, (as long as it weighted less than 8cwt). That was very handy as it had the same gearbox configuration as my Dads Mk1 Viva that i passed my car test in.
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ah,I get you now.I should've used a higher gear whilst being in 1st :D Maybe I should've reversed[as the lowest gear]down the street and avoided using the brakes altogether? ;D
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What gear do you pick on an auto while running downhill?
I don't. It does. Back off the throttle, and it will be fine.
Here's a little test for you all: the next time you use a motorway, limit your use of the brakes to the exit slip-road. It isn't difficult to achieve that whilst still travelling at the prevailing traffic speed.
Most of the 20mph limits around here are past schools, or similar establishments, on residential roads, and are consequently hard to argue with. As are most 30mph limits in my opinion. I think the 'problem' is that 40 and 50mph limits are poorly considered, and inconsistently applied. And there should be no need for them to vary several times in a couple of miles: pick one(doesn't matter which) and stick with it.
I think raising the motorway limit to 90mph is overdue, but it should be variable, just like long stretches of the M25 have been for years. But traffic flow is what we need to be aiming for: a rush-hour motorway with four full lanes of traffic moving at 45mph is working. What we should be doing is improving the on and off slip-roads, and the junctions they lead to so that they have as little affect on the rest of the traffic as possible. Much of this could be done at little cost with the intelligent application of altered road markings. Unfortunately, all this is contrary to current traffic policy, which is slow it down and split it up.
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It does work Nick, this variable speed thing at peak hours....but not always !!!!! Have you been around Heathrow in the peak hours. Its the lane changers who cause problems. For some reason, they think 60mph in the third lane is faster than 60mph in the 2nd or 4th lane, albeit all traffic is flowing at the same speed. Until, that is, when numpty changes lane, and on go the brakelights, and a knock on effect behind, then slowing everything down, till way back, when you have to queue!!!!! >:(
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Here's a little test for you all: the next time you use a motorway, limit your use of the brakes to the exit slip-road. It isn't difficult to achieve that whilst still travelling at the prevailing traffic speed.
Easy in the Westfield. Lift off at the bottom of the slip road and it'll have stalled before you get to the roundabout at the top. ;D
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I was on the M4 eastbound going past Newport in the variable speed limit zone the other evening. The traffic was light and the limit was 50mph.
Then as I approached the Brynglas Tunnels, the limit changed to 30mph and then quickly again to 20mph. Everyone slammed on their brakes, not wanting to get caught by the cameras and how an accident didn't happen I don't know! :o :-\
Then going through the tunnels most of us were doing 20mph, but there were a few clever dicks who decided that the limit didn't apply to them and were weaving in and out of the traffic. ::)
Coming out of the tunnel the gantry sign had the 2 outside lanes closed, so everyone moved over, but there was no accident or workmen and a bit further on the limit upped to 50mph and then 60mph to the end of the variable speed limit zone. ::)
What the hell? ??? Faulty system? Operator pressed the wrong buttons?
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Revenue generation.
Ron.
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I was on the M4 eastbound going past Newport in the variable speed limit zone the other evening. The traffic was light and the limit was 50mph.
Then as I approached the Brynglas Tunnels, the limit changed to 30mph and then quickly again to 20mph. Everyone slammed on their brakes, not wanting to get caught by the cameras and how an accident didn't happen I don't know! :o :-\
Then going through the tunnels most of us were doing 20mph, but there were a few clever dicks who decided that the limit didn't apply to them and were weaving in and out of the traffic. ::)
Coming out of the tunnel the gantry sign had the 2 outside lanes closed, so everyone moved over, but there was no accident or workmen and a bit further on the limit upped to 50mph and then 60mph to the end of the variable speed limit zone. ::)
What the hell? ??? Faulty system? Operator pressed the wrong buttons?
This is very possibly the basis upon which they are very seriously considering spending billions on a bypass to the tunnel.