driving-discussion Archives — Learning2Drive.uk

Using handbrake (parking brake)

When do you use your handbrake (aka parking brake)?

For me, it’s pretty much any time I stop. Obviously when parked but also on active roads, but it seems there are many who don’t. So I’ve asked on social media and it seems many feel it may slow down their moving away when lights change for example.

If I’m going to be stopped for more than a second or two I’ll generally apply my handbrake.

Why?

It’s about control of the car, if I am nudged by another car it’s less likely I’m pushed into another car. If I’m nudged, I don’t need to worry about feet slipping of the pedals, particularly if still in gear.

Secondary to above, sitting on the clutch trying to balance the biting point with gas input can’t be good for the clutch. This goes beyond mechanical sympathy when stopped on a hill, in traffic or at a junction.

Watch next time how many cars roll back and forth as the drivers tries to balance clutch and gas. Think about how much control of the car that driver actually has.

It has to be easier to just apply handbrake.

Speed of moving off

I’ve seen a few comments online about ut being faster to move off if not using the handbrake. I don’t believe this to be accurate based on my own driving.

Sure, I have to use a hand to release brake at the same time as I move away but that’s not different to when I start off from parked.

The most significant impact on move away speed is simply paying attention to what is going in.

Busy traffic, should we still follow traffic light rules ?

Something of a rhetorical question as far as I’m concerned. Of course we should still adhere to rules of traffic lights when traffic is bad and backing up. Maybe even more important than when the roads are quiet.

In this video, you’ll see 2 cars blatantly go sailing straight through red lights. I guess they had lost patience with the queue that was building.

I have two issues with this….

risk blocking entrance from right (also light controlled)
when lights for cars are red, the crossing will be green for pedestrians and push bikes

So, at best you have a clear run on the other side of the junction and nothing bad happens, as it the case in this (rather boring) video. However it would be very easy for someone on a push bike to see the green in his favour and continue into the road at speed without looking. Splat.

A less disastrous impact would be blocking up traffic from the right, causing the traffic jam to spread around surrounding roads. The only thing you’d achieve in this situation is slowing down other roads for no real benefit.

Cars ignore red light because traqffic is heavy

Of course if you had gone through the lights and ended up jamming up the roads you make it very difficult for traffic to manoeuvre should emergency services need access (in this case, blue light cars did come past shortly after this video).

You’ll see in the video the car(s) that ignored the lights got no further on their journeys than they would have done had they followed the rules of the road.

This is an aspect of city driving I really hate. When it’s perhaps more important people follow the rules of the road, more people seem to ignore the rules of the road in a futile attempt to get ahead and avoid the inevitable delay.

Motorbike sails through red light

So obviously the motorbike rider shouldn’t have gone through here, but I’m sharing this more as a reminder to look our for motorbikes.

I take pride in knowing what’s going on around me, but I missed this guy until he went past.

Perhaps because the Audi in front had been needlessly aggressive forcing a merge earlier to get in front and I was still annoyed at that.

Thankfully I had spotted the plan of Audi driver in time and was able to ease off to create space for a safer merge.

Maybe I’m more aware of it (thinking about motorbikes) at the moment as I’m hoping to start motorbike training soon.

Lessons: don’t let getting annoyed at other drivers impact your driving! Deep breath, let it go.

When being considerate, isn’t

Causing delays by trying to be reduce delays

Sometimes you might see a driver stop to let someone out of junction or complete a manoeuvre. On the face of it this is considerate driving, helping others complete their journey.

Stopping 50 mph traffic to let someone in from a junction for example is probably not such a great idea. While that’s not what happens in this video, it is someone I have witnessed on a few occasions.

Here is an example of someone trying to be considerate at the lights by letting someone turn across the flow of traffic. By doing so he holds up a number of cars, including several who end up having to wait for the next cycling of the lights.

Had he not stopped, all those behind him would have got through the lights and the right turner would’ve been held up by what, 20 seconds?

Next time you are thinking of being considerate, think about are you being considerate to others around you?

If traffic if moving slowly, no-one should complain if you let someone in from a junction. Stopping moving traffic to let someone go? Maybe think again.

Pay attention at roadworks

The roadworks at this roundabout have been going on a while now, with cones/lanes etc changing as they go.

This is a good reason in my opinion to stick to the 30 limit (or lower) to give yourself time to read the signs through the roadworks.

I’m undecided if this Audi was just trying to get ahead or if they missed/ignored the sign saying the left lane was left turn only.

Having been watching him in the mirrors for the last half mile I had a feeling I would need to keep an eye on him. Good job I did, meant I could react to him getting lanes wrong and leave space….

So by keeping alert and frequently looking at mirrors all around I could anticipate the Audi drivers action/lack of observation and avoid a crash.

Keep checking your mirrors as you drive folks, you could save yourself a lot of problems caused by mistakes / aggression of other drivers.

Keep scanning your surroundings, even more so at roadworks.

Aggressive driving to save 30 seconds

How much would you risk to save a few seconds in joining a motorway?

How much can someone need to save themselves 30 seconds in their journey? Apparently the driver of the big car in this video feels aggressive driving to save time is appropriate when entering a motorway.

It seems to me that seeing 2 cars ahead of you and forcing your way past to get to the motorway a few seconds sooner must mean you value your time very highly.

This part of the M1 is 4 lanes, so he wouldn’t have had a problem getting ahead if he wanted to without being reckless. I guess he feels he can do a lot in the 5 or 10 seconds he saved by forcing his way passed other cars like this.

I guess there are people for who aggressive driving like this is worth the risk to save that little bit of time.

Risky manoeuvre on motorway sliproad to get ahead

Rex Group van runs red light

It may have been a while since you had someone sit with you in the car giving you instruction, but perhaps you recall being told to look into roads that join traffic light controlled junctions as well as looking at the red-amber-green?

This video is a fine example of why you want to watch other roads as well as lights. In case someone (this time, a Rex Group van driver) runs the light because they are in a hurry or distracted (phone? fiddling with radio? tired? simply lost concentration?).

Illegal right turn into traffic

What’s wrong?

Crosses across all lanes to make turn (at least he signalled!)
Because driver left it late (s)he didn’t see the straight ahead only sign on the lights
Goes through Amber light rather than stopping
Ends up turning into traffic joining the road

Impressive amount of wrongness!

What could he have done differently?

Leaving it until very close to the junction to try and get over to the right to turn means he didn’t have time to see the straight over (no right turn) sign on the lights. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t see it rather than chosing to ignore it.

He could have moved over while traffic was flowing which would have given him proper visibility of signage. If he knows the area, we would know there is a roundabout less than half a mile down the road which would perhaps have been a better place to turn around!

So in short, don’t panic, don’t be impatient. Seems most mistakes I see are due to being in a hurry / panic.

Red lights don’t matter, apparently

I’m not sure what the driver was thinking here, lights on red, could so easily have clobbered the pedestrians crossing the road.

Maybe the driver was fiddling with the stereo / GPS / phone ….

Driver of big Audi doesn’t want to queue

Not only is he impatient enough that he feels he is entitled to go past people queuing (arguably correct to use both lanes), but he also felt the need to push past those in the right hand queue of cars waiting to merge.