Let's Drive: London To Norwich

[grendel]

25 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

I know this will strike a chord with a few members here. If you want to learn and understand defensive driving, ride a motor bike.

I can only agree with that, riding a motorbike you learn to read the hazards, not just from the car ahead, but for maybe the next 10 or more cars ahead, and the road surface, drain covers etc, and junctions, up to as far as you can see.

[Meantime]

On ‎06‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 20:28, LondonRascal said:

The problem when joining the M11 from the A406 is that so few bother to stick to the 50MPH speed limit, either those who are joining from the A406 be it from where I joined coming from the Walthamstow area, or those coming over from the Redbridge area.

As the single lane joins with the other two, everyone is already well over 50 MPH - therefore if you were to stick to your guns and hold 50 MPH here until the beginning of the Motorway at the National Speed Limit sign then two things will happen:  Firstly everyone will fly past undertaking you and secondly you are going to hold up others in lane 3 who are used to ignoring the speed limit here, but unable to move out and undertake you for lane 2 and 1 are already doing that.

I found a video to better explain this:

 

Robin, if you pause that video at 1min12secs you will see two M11 signs signifying the start of the M11 and you will also see two 50mph signs signifying the speed limit for that stretch of the M11. That speed limit stays in force until you hit the national speed limit signs after the two M11 slips have merged. The same is also true for the M11 slip coming from the Redbridge direction. You will also notice that the centre lines up to just beyond the national speed limit sign are actually longer with short gaps which signifies they are hazard warning lines. In this case the hazard being traffic merging and adjusting speed and trying to get into the correct lane.

You should not feel you have to speed because other traffic is.

I have had a similar situation for totally different reasons. I had to travel from home to Crawley a journey of about 60 miles with the space saver wheel fitted which is rated at a maximum speed of 50mph. My journey involved using the M25 from Dartford to J7. It was an interesting journey when you have cruise control set to 50mph and are constantly tail gated by lorries who want to achieve their maximum speed limit. There are also places where the M25 looses a lane at a junction and regains it again after the junction meaning that for a period of time you are stranded in lane 2 at 50mph with merging traffic speeding past you and trouble trying to get back into lane 1. It is all part and parcel of driving that you have to get used too. 

[grendel]

yes streetview shows the overhead gantry and the M11 sign, this is the start of the M11 here, and from the other slip lane too.

[grendel]

also clear instructions for those in the two lanes you are joining.

there are no fewer than 5 sets of slow commands on those lanes before the two slips combine

[grendel]

32 minutes ago, EastCoastIPA said:

I have had a similar situation for totally different reasons. I had to travel from home to Crawley a journey of about 60 miles with the space saver wheel fitted which is rated at a maximum speed of 50mph. My journey involved using the M25 from Dartford to J7. It was an interesting journey when you have cruise control set to 50mph and are constantly tail gated by lorries who want to achieve their maximum speed limit. There are also places where the M25 looses a lane at a junction and regains it again after the junction meaning that for a period of time you are stranded in lane 2 at 50mph with merging traffic speeding past you and trouble trying to get back into lane 1. It is all part and parcel of driving that you have to get used too. 

on that stretch I would think the amazing part was managing to actually get up to 50mph.

the ones that annoy me are the drivers that think it is acceptable to drive in the third lane out (out of 4) on the motorway and doing 50mph, technically you cant undertake them, and the traffic is all backed up trying to use the one lane to pass them, I have been known in this situation to move into the slow lane (lane 1) and undertake two lanes away (at least avoiding any irrational sudden lane changes on their part. I believe it is driving like this that the new minimum speed laws are set to catch.

I suppose that is a better reaction than driving almost level in the slow lane, moving out to lane 4, overtaking and then pulling back to the slow lane obviously in front of them.

[rightsaidfred]

Sorry Robin I was talking about the preceding stretch as you was talking about the A406 and that was what you were referring to with undertaking and speeding as has been said once you take the slip road you are entering the M11 and being on the outside lane all you need to worry about is maintaining your speed till the limit changes or you can move over to your left.

Fred

[unclemike]

welcome to the real world of driving robin

[LondonRascal]

3 hours ago, chameleon said:

welcome to the real world of driving robin

Indeed and this is what is lacking a lot of time with learning to drive - you are not even talked to about how others may behave. I know they have a set curriculum to teach and this has to be standard be it learning in London or Inverness and yes we do have one of the most complex and difficult driving tests (of you include theory and hazard perception test too) but it leaves a lot to be desired so far as real world verses driving instructing goes. 

I wonder how people would feel if every ten years their licence needed renewal - only in order to do it you had to take a refresher course - or if you got 6 points in 2 years you lost your licence as per a new driver does. It might focus people’s attention a bit more. 

I really think given time when we get truly autonomous cars that the date will be set when all manual controlled cars will be banned and once everything is automated pulling out at junctions will not be hard - the cars will simple talk to each other and be ‘polite’ by default. 

Of course by then will we actually bother owning a car when we could just use an Uber like App and be driven where we needed to go without any human intervention in the process.