Get on with it!
Discussion
Decisiveness V Hesitancy
Those of us who take more of an interest or pride in our driving tend to think further ahead and make driving plans as we go. Those plans often involve other road users and I've previously written about how we can pick out clues about what other drivers are going to do, and develop our driving plans as a result of those predictions.
The trouble is, I'm finding that I'm increasingly guilty of expecting too much of other drivers in these circumstances. By "too much", I don't mean that I'm expecting other drivers to be using the limit point to assess the speed of corners, planning ahead for multi-vehicle overtakes or balancing a car under acceleration out of a bend.
No - by "expecting too much", I mean I'm too often guilty of expecting other drivers to approach a junction with a little prior thought about how the junction works and who has priority. Or if its safe, expecting the vehicle in front to accelerate up to somehere near the speed limit for the road. Or to at least give some thought to overtaking a tractor and trailer travelling at 20mph on a national speed limit road.
But unfortunately, an increasing number of drivers seem to be becoming more and more hesitant. And that tendency is making it increasingly difficult to correctly predict what other drivers are going to do.
For example, I was following a Landrover Freelander the other day, through a fairly busy built-up area, towards some roadworks. The local authority were refreshing the road surface and a little further ahead, the top 3 or 4 inches of tarmac had been removed, leaving a few slightly exposed manhole covers and a small drop from the old surface onto the shaved surface.
At the drop was the usual battered "RAMP" sign and having driven over the same works the previous day, I knew there was no need to slow from the 25mph or so we were travelling at.
The Freelander driver, however, had different ideas.
He stopped.
And then - ever so slowly - crept forward in first gear at around 5mph through the whole length of the roadworks before stopping again at the "up" ramp (3 or 4 inches high) which he then crept up before driving off again as normal.
Now, last time I looked, cars were fitted with tyres and suspension more than capable of dealing with a shaved road surface. Freelanders in particular have higher ground clearance and a level of off road ability which would have made these works virtually unnoticable. So why the hesitancy?
Get on with it!
A good driver should be able to strike a balance between cautiousness - where appropriate - and decisiveness - again, where appropriate. Unfortunately, decisiveness seems to be a rapidly dying ability amongst the British driving public.
Lets look at a few examples:
When you're approaching a set of traffic lights showing green, it's always correct to have a plan to stop in your mind, because if there's one other absolute certainty in life (apart from death and taxes), its that a green light will at some point become red.
But there seems to be an awful lot of "defeatist" drivers who approach a green light as though it's already turned red. They slow down, take a lower gear, slow down some more, increase their gap from the car in front, and then the inevitable happens - the lights go red and they roll to a stop.
Get on with it!
Surely it's better to keep up with the traffic in front? If you do, you'll present a picture of a single line of traffic to the induction loop in the road surface and the lights are far more likely to remain green until they recognise a gap in the traffic. There's no guarantee, of course, and you should always be ready to stop, but don't be a defeatist on the approach to traffic lights!
Whilst we're on the subject of lines of traffic, there are an awful lot of drivers who seem to struggle with stopping in traffic. They stop short, you stop behind them, they then start to creep forward a few feet, stop again, creep forward again, stop, creep. And if you don't follow suit you end up looking like you're the one who's stopped three or four car lengths short. The ones who do it on uphill stretches are the worst. They sit balancing their clutches sometimes for minutes at a time, creeping slowly forwards...
Get on with it!
Roll down to a nice smooth stop in traffic - once. Leave two or three feet between your car and the one in front and then handbrake-neutral. Its far more mechanically sympathetic and allows the car to make full use of stop-start if its fitted.
And - still in traffic - it seems there are many drivers who stop in traffic and are then suddenly caught completely by surprise when the traffic starts to move again. The car in front moves off, at which point they seem to physically jump with surprise, look down to check where first gear is (has it moved from last time), apply some throttle, balance the clutch, look down to see if the handbrake has moved - it hasn't - release the handbrake and then set off five or more seconds after the car in front has gone.
Get on with it!
Just look a little further ahead - when the vehicles ahead are starting to move, take first gear and wait with your hand ready on the handbrake. If you're first at the lights, look at what the other traffic is doing and see if you can get a view of the opposing lights to give you a clue when your lights will go green.
Slow-moving vehicles are a fact of life - particularly in rural areas - but theree seems to be an entire breed of drivers these days who are completely averse to even considering overtaking even the slowest tractor on the best sighted roads. Not only do they not look for an opportunity to overtake, they also seem incapable of leaving a reasonable gap between their vehicle and the slow-mover to allow other drivers to overtake if its safe.
Get on with it!
Position for a view, keep a flexible gear and overtake when its safe. If you really don't want to overtake, drop back, leave a reasonable gap, and let those behind have a go.
This is all staring to sound like a bit of a rant. It isn't.
Hesitancy is something we've all suffered from when we started learning to drive, but decisiveness should develop as your driving experience increases, and as long as you retain the correct level of cautiousness in your thought processes, decisiveness should be a key component in a good drivers armoury of skills and abilities.
Those of us who take more of an interest or pride in our driving tend to think further ahead and make driving plans as we go. Those plans often involve other road users and I've previously written about how we can pick out clues about what other drivers are going to do, and develop our driving plans as a result of those predictions.
The trouble is, I'm finding that I'm increasingly guilty of expecting too much of other drivers in these circumstances. By "too much", I don't mean that I'm expecting other drivers to be using the limit point to assess the speed of corners, planning ahead for multi-vehicle overtakes or balancing a car under acceleration out of a bend.
No - by "expecting too much", I mean I'm too often guilty of expecting other drivers to approach a junction with a little prior thought about how the junction works and who has priority. Or if its safe, expecting the vehicle in front to accelerate up to somehere near the speed limit for the road. Or to at least give some thought to overtaking a tractor and trailer travelling at 20mph on a national speed limit road.
But unfortunately, an increasing number of drivers seem to be becoming more and more hesitant. And that tendency is making it increasingly difficult to correctly predict what other drivers are going to do.
For example, I was following a Landrover Freelander the other day, through a fairly busy built-up area, towards some roadworks. The local authority were refreshing the road surface and a little further ahead, the top 3 or 4 inches of tarmac had been removed, leaving a few slightly exposed manhole covers and a small drop from the old surface onto the shaved surface.
At the drop was the usual battered "RAMP" sign and having driven over the same works the previous day, I knew there was no need to slow from the 25mph or so we were travelling at.
The Freelander driver, however, had different ideas.
He stopped.
And then - ever so slowly - crept forward in first gear at around 5mph through the whole length of the roadworks before stopping again at the "up" ramp (3 or 4 inches high) which he then crept up before driving off again as normal.
Now, last time I looked, cars were fitted with tyres and suspension more than capable of dealing with a shaved road surface. Freelanders in particular have higher ground clearance and a level of off road ability which would have made these works virtually unnoticable. So why the hesitancy?
Get on with it!
A good driver should be able to strike a balance between cautiousness - where appropriate - and decisiveness - again, where appropriate. Unfortunately, decisiveness seems to be a rapidly dying ability amongst the British driving public.
Lets look at a few examples:
When you're approaching a set of traffic lights showing green, it's always correct to have a plan to stop in your mind, because if there's one other absolute certainty in life (apart from death and taxes), its that a green light will at some point become red.
But there seems to be an awful lot of "defeatist" drivers who approach a green light as though it's already turned red. They slow down, take a lower gear, slow down some more, increase their gap from the car in front, and then the inevitable happens - the lights go red and they roll to a stop.
Get on with it!
Surely it's better to keep up with the traffic in front? If you do, you'll present a picture of a single line of traffic to the induction loop in the road surface and the lights are far more likely to remain green until they recognise a gap in the traffic. There's no guarantee, of course, and you should always be ready to stop, but don't be a defeatist on the approach to traffic lights!
Whilst we're on the subject of lines of traffic, there are an awful lot of drivers who seem to struggle with stopping in traffic. They stop short, you stop behind them, they then start to creep forward a few feet, stop again, creep forward again, stop, creep. And if you don't follow suit you end up looking like you're the one who's stopped three or four car lengths short. The ones who do it on uphill stretches are the worst. They sit balancing their clutches sometimes for minutes at a time, creeping slowly forwards...
Get on with it!
Roll down to a nice smooth stop in traffic - once. Leave two or three feet between your car and the one in front and then handbrake-neutral. Its far more mechanically sympathetic and allows the car to make full use of stop-start if its fitted.
And - still in traffic - it seems there are many drivers who stop in traffic and are then suddenly caught completely by surprise when the traffic starts to move again. The car in front moves off, at which point they seem to physically jump with surprise, look down to check where first gear is (has it moved from last time), apply some throttle, balance the clutch, look down to see if the handbrake has moved - it hasn't - release the handbrake and then set off five or more seconds after the car in front has gone.
Get on with it!
Just look a little further ahead - when the vehicles ahead are starting to move, take first gear and wait with your hand ready on the handbrake. If you're first at the lights, look at what the other traffic is doing and see if you can get a view of the opposing lights to give you a clue when your lights will go green.
Slow-moving vehicles are a fact of life - particularly in rural areas - but theree seems to be an entire breed of drivers these days who are completely averse to even considering overtaking even the slowest tractor on the best sighted roads. Not only do they not look for an opportunity to overtake, they also seem incapable of leaving a reasonable gap between their vehicle and the slow-mover to allow other drivers to overtake if its safe.
Get on with it!
Position for a view, keep a flexible gear and overtake when its safe. If you really don't want to overtake, drop back, leave a reasonable gap, and let those behind have a go.
This is all staring to sound like a bit of a rant. It isn't.
Hesitancy is something we've all suffered from when we started learning to drive, but decisiveness should develop as your driving experience increases, and as long as you retain the correct level of cautiousness in your thought processes, decisiveness should be a key component in a good drivers armoury of skills and abilities.
I wasn't trying to start a debate on how close you should stop behind the vehicle in front. I wrote it in that way because it read a little snappier than "stop a suitable distance from the vehicle in front - far enough back so that you can see the rear tyres of the vehicle in front on the road surface. For larger vehicles a slightly longer gap is appropriate".
But of course, I put 2-3 feet in the original post by mistake.
My apologies.
For those who take my posts literally, I don't mean I stare unblinkingly at the car in front until its gone, but I don't look right and decide to go until I can see that the vehicle in front is well on its way.
But of course, I put 2-3 feet in the original post by mistake.
My apologies.
Jonsv8 said:
Queuing at a roundabout and the car in front starts to go and then stops, if you tried to follow you've much less margin for error.
This is a very common cause of rear-end shunts. So much so that when I'm second in the queue at a roundabout, I never take my eyes off the car in front until I'm certain they've set off.For those who take my posts literally, I don't mean I stare unblinkingly at the car in front until its gone, but I don't look right and decide to go until I can see that the vehicle in front is well on its way.
Gary C said:
I agree, but you don't know what he was carrying !
I must admit to the same crime when carrying our wedding cake to the hotel, I crawled so slowly as the wrath of the wife would be far worse than a few pissed off drivers. I did apologise though
Yes, I should have taken into account the fact that he was driving with a champagne tower on the passenger seat:I must admit to the same crime when carrying our wedding cake to the hotel, I crawled so slowly as the wrath of the wife would be far worse than a few pissed off drivers. I did apologise though
Letting people out of a side street when traffic is heavy. I'm all for a christian attitude when travelling in slow-moving or stop-start driving and some give-and-take is essential to allow traffic to keep flowing, but...
How often does the car in front let one out, then two, then three, then every man and his dog.
Get on with it!
Let one out - two at the most, but remember that the more you let out, the more you're inconveniencing the vehicles behind, and the less likely those vehicles behind you are going to be willing to extend a courtesy to other vehicles in the blocked junction once the traffic starts moving.
Blakewater said:
I see a lot of people who are indecisive about overtaking but then go for it when the ideal moment has passed. They'll be, "Shall I, shan't I?" until they're three quarters of the way down the straight, then close to the next bend they'll choose to go and end up on the wrong side of double white lines with only luck preventing a head on collision with something going the opposite way.
Or decide to start their overtake just after you've assessed them and decided they've had long enough to go and they're definitely not going to overtake.And you're now halfway into a two-vehicle overtake...
Blakewater said:
If you read the BRAKE advice on country road driving, the general principle is sound but they finish by saying overtaking should be avoided at all costs.
http://www.brake.org.uk/news/15-facts-a-resources/...
Wow!http://www.brake.org.uk/news/15-facts-a-resources/...
So much utter tripe dressed up as sound road safety advice.
I might send them a free book...
When I'm driving at a set pace and I catch up with a slower vehicle, my policy is to position for a view, keep a flexible gear and take any obvious overtakes which present themselves to me. No need to be pushy or aggressive, but sit in the right place, in the right gear, and sooner or later an overtaking opportunity will present itself to you - sometimes it'll be giftwrapped with a big bow on it and a little card saying "TAKE ME".
In these circumstances, it'd be rude not to, wouldn't it?
In these circumstances, it'd be rude not to, wouldn't it?
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