Driving, is it worth it?

H

homesickblues

Well-known member
I have been driving for over 45 years now, sometimes professionally, most of the time for work and occasionally for pleasure. I must say the general driving standards now seem to me to be hopeless. There seems no road sense, no driver curtesy and its just how fast people can get from A to B and no respect to other road users. Finding myself getting more and more frustrated. How do people keep themselves calm behind the wheel?
PS sorry for the rant- happened again today.
 
I drive a 55ft Artic, I try take charge of the road when in towns, blocking spaces where it's not very sensible for car drivers to be in. But yep no matter how I try, the idiots will get there, these are the idiots who are currently complaining about empty shelves in our supermarkets; and no doubt voted for Brexit.
 
I shouldn't complain, my pay has gone from £14 per hour to about £21 in less than 3 months. But the people above will be the first to complain when the price of the latest Christmas toy for their "little Paris" goes up by a quid.
 
This thread is already well into Grumpy Old Men territory, so I may as well add to it. The worst are those who combine the Chelsea tractor with a BMW (or similar) badge. They drive like tw*ts, never give way and never acknowledge when they've forced you onto the verge on narrow roads.
 
I’m wondering how long before autonomous cars are out . This will be when no one will really need to own or drive and taxis will take over .
need to watch iRobot again
 
SmallTown said:
They are almost already here! My car has a full self driving computer in it. I’m just not allowed the software yet
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I’d heard the newer Tesla’s won’t have steering wheels 2023 hit surely this date will be too early . I’m sure it will happen without the next 10 yrs ……hopefully anyway
 
The two biggest issues for me are inappropriate speed and the lack of lane discipline.
You have to be clairvoyant at times with regard to where some drivers are going and as for inappropriate speed. I lose count of may times I pull up alongside the driver who overtook me at 60 in a 30 zone only to encounter the same set of lights that I reached safely.
 
Try driving in a city, no lane discipline, wacky races at every traffic light, people holding back on a green light to do a hot rod smokin tyre start at the last minute, then ad on just eat cyclists with no lights , in black and on the wrong side of the road.
After ten it’s taxis vs coke heads and drunk drivers, ffs
 
Middlesbrough123 said:
I’d heard the newer Tesla’s won’t have steering wheels 2023 hit surely this date will be too early . I’m sure it will happen without the next 10 yrs ……hopefully anyway
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They have already removed the gear selector from the new model s (kind of)

It now is supposed to know whether you want to go backwards or forwards.
 
Personally I don’t mind people making mistakes.

It’s the nob heads who think they’re Lewis Hamilton that **** me off.
 
I last drove in 1994.
Since then its been feet, cycle, bus, tram, plane, tube and taxi.

Given the inherent bias prioritising the private motor-car [since the 1960s], mobility continues to be made more and more difficult. [town planning - building football stadiums on the edge of town on ring roads - out-of-town shopping centres - creaking privatised bus and rail services and a chronic lack of alternative infrastructure - covering the country in tarmac and concrete].

There are viable alternatives, but no political will to lead from the top.

Only when the whole transport system hits the buffers with a bang will anything change.

Look out for the "freedom to drive and do what we want with our cars" fanatics and demonstrations.

Then it will be "we pay road tax" - but of course no-one pays "road tax" - Churchill abolished "road tax" in 1937 because the country couldnt keep up with the cost of new road building to accommodate the growth in the use of the motor car [in the 1930`s!!!]. From then on, the treasury has subsidised road vehicles by using money from general taxation.

Then we get into an "you`re anti-car" "I need my car for work" etc. But we have to change our whole attitude ....Im not holding my breath.

Here`s some figures from the RAC:
Q1) How many vehicles are there in Great Britain?

A1) At the end of March 2021, there were 38.6 million licensed vehicles in Great Britain, a 0.8 per cent increase compared to the end of March 2020. This increase in licensed vehicles follows four consecutive quarters of year on year decline.

Cars make up the majority of licensed vehicles. In Great Britain, there were 31.7 million cars (82.1 per cent), 4.26 million LGVs (11 per cent), 0.48 million HGVs (1.2 per cent), 1.27 million motorcycles (3.3 per cent), 0.14 million buses & coaches (0.4 per cent) and 0.77 million other vehicles (2 per cent) licensed at the end of March 2021.

The total number of licensed vehicles has increased in all but two years (1991 & 2020) since the end of the Second World War.

Source: Vehicle Licensing Statistics: 2021 Quarter 1 (January – March)


Heres some interesting statistics:
www.statista.com

Number of cars in the UK 2000-2016 | Statista

How many cars are there in the UK? This graph shows the total number of cars on the road in the UK 2000-2016. In 2016, the number of cars on the road in the UK nearly reached 32 million.
www.statista.com www.statista.com
​

Number of licensed cars in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2000 and 2019 ​

1630879363745.png

Personally I cant see things getting any better until they get a lot worse.​
 
homesickblues said:
I have been driving for over 45 years now, sometimes professionally, most of the time for work and occasionally for pleasure. I must say the general driving standards now seem to me to be hopeless. There seems no road sense, no driver curtesy and its just how fast people can get from A to B and no respect to other road users. Finding myself getting more and more frustrated. How do people keep themselves calm behind the wheel?
PS sorry for the rant- happened again today.
Click to expand...
Stopped driving 12 years ago . No regrets. Have occasionally hired one but thats it. Live near work or work from home. Trains and buses are wonderful things. I live in a country where the trains and buses are coordinated and cheap. i.e the train stations and the bus stations are at the same place. Not hard to do.
 
I think that’s the future if we’re meant to be more efficient, not a car each but shared ownership or basically funding Tesla/Uber taxis and automated .
 
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