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DT Ralge

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About DT Ralge

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    Sheffield
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    Junior Rugby Coach

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  1. Have you found that they are super-busy and can't offer lessons anytime soon?
  2. Refer to https://www.bluelightaware.org.uk/#watch, perhaps
  3. “Most of the episode” had nothing to do with the “German sketch” at all - the brilliance of this episode is that most of it prepares us for a Basil who has totally lost it. Your “was about as PC as ...” suggests you’ve never seen it. As for its offensiveness, we could do with understanding that the German bit was written to highlight the absurdity and stupidity of a “little Englander” approach to the world as well as to ridicule our ra-ra never-let-go obsession with 1939-45, in sharp contrast with, say, the French and Germans.
  4. You may or may not be right about "teaching to pass" - but that's quite a sweeping statement on ADI competence levels. That's based on your personal knowledge of just how many ADI's? From where I'm stood, I can take an informed view. Maybe you can, too. I note, though, that on the subject of "joining dual-carriageways" you have backed away from answering my "what would you teach?" question.
  5. "we need better drivers" - I agree. To prove that your view of joining such a road is not just macho, gung-ho and simplistic, you'll be able to put in writing what you would tell a novice driver to do on this slip-road. It is, after all, just a short drive from the DVSA test centre. - what speed to get to before merging, if there is an optimum speed. - does this vary and how would you know? - what gear would you recommend to be in for flexibility and responsiveness prior to merging? - how would you guide the pupil through his/her lack of vision on the carriageway until quite late on? - how much time do you have at the end to merge at the speed you recommend. Is it sometimes better to have a little more time than a minimum and to be able to respond flexibly to the road and traffic conditions? How would you know? - how would would you advise your novice when following another vehicle up the slip road ( a car, a van, a truck) - what is their speed limit or acceleration pattern/power?
  6. Once you hand over the job of interpreting data generated by vehicle telematics to a commercial operator like an insurance company, there’s bound to be issues. In the business and transport world the same harsh interpretation of the data can be made by a transport/fleet safety manager. Broadly speaking, though, telematics data give a good and accurate overview of the relativity of driving styles for further investigation and training. Insurance companies don’t respond with training, sadly Driving standards have dropped, I’m sure, but I’d be hard-pressed to find any reliable and valid data to support that empirical observation. Human nature is to push against barriers and bend rules. Take away traffic cars, you are right, you remove the stick and drivers get away with more rule-bending and rule-breaking - it becomes almost the norm for drivers to ignore amber/red “STOP” lights, for instance. The solution is to have more cops and that is being addressed to get back to the level of 2010. Cameras are a necessity because you could never put enough PC’s on the beat to cover all the bases. ANPR is a massive asset in fighting crime of all sorts - crim’s use vehicles. Societally, driving standards could do with being raised up. That’s down to drivers taking responsibility and wanting to improve their driving skills and knowledge, not the Police. That is almost totally lacking - very, very few drivers present themselves voluntarily for further driver training. The Police diversionary schemes’ training has addressed this for years as has company driver training but these interventions tend to be a once-in-blue-moon event and they are no substitute for continuous driver self-awareness and development.
  7. To answer your opening question, yes, they will. we seem hell-bent on technological solutions having given up on solving the real issue (the driver). My take on technology: give me 10 bits of kit and technological wizardry and 10 drivers and I’ll give you 100 ways they’ll still **** it up. And this is broadly true because, at the drop of a hat, drivers become over-reliant on technology without researching or truly understanding the limitations of the technology. For example: - ABS - on-board tyre pressure monitoring - tyre tread - parking sensors - reversing cameras - cruise control - ...
  8. I’m not sure that we are agreeing or not. Driver attention levels clearly vary, sometimes by road type. But there isn’t, unfortunately, an easy, clear split between “heavily congested” and “open road” when it comes to driver attention levels. Motorways are thought of as boring and monotonous and allow a lower level of focus to be “normal”, let's say but not exactly healthy. Fatigue and low-level focus have obvious potential for being contributory factors in crashes but they are hard to pin down because drivers on report are coy with the truth. Drivers are equally prone to lower level of focus on all-too-familiar roads close to home and work - many crashes happen with 5 miles of home and/or work. They are equally slow or unable to spot the danger on rural trunk roads, at junctions; they take chances that don’t always work out for them.
  9. I have never liked the use of the HC stopping distance table. It may or may not be out of date as you suggest. In training sessions, I lay out an argument that at the 20, 30 and 40mph end of the table, the advances in braking systems and the resultant shortening of braking distances are most likely wholly lost in the longer reaction speeds suggested by my own observations, recent research by Direct Line and a very powerful first-hand account of a fatal crash inquest. (The HC allows for just 0.66 seconds reaction time.) 20,30 and 40 zones are precisely the road (speed) contexts where the bulk of vulnerables die that represent more than half of the total death toll.
  10. Quite right. But our focus on speed alone misses the point in my view and the authorities are at long last realising it. “At long last” because the Germans have been doing this for a very long time - over here, they are only now trialling speed/space technology I.e. to fine drivers who they perceive to be tailgating. This is good in my view because speed on its own doesn’t kill. Running out of space is a lot worse. One negative about their approach, though, from my standpoint is that they are using the word “tailgating”. Most drivers would not think of themselves as “tailgating”. Many/most drivers in my book are guilty of driving too close.
  11. Most (70% in round figures) injury collisions occur in urban areas. Most road deaths (60%-ish) occur on rural roads so, therefore, not that “local”. Driver behaviour is, indeed, a huge factor. Behaviour is derived from stuff like attitude, beliefs, knowledge, emotions, values, external and internal pressures and drivers ...
  12. Speed, indeed, does not kill. Impact speed does, though, and every single mph over any given speed makes a massive and disproportionate difference to the force of any resultant coming-together. When you quote percentages, be wary of inferring irrefutable fact. The more complex truth is that the Police Stats19 report (from where KSI stats are derived) allows them to select from a wide range (78?) of contributory factors. Their summary on page4 allows them to rank up to 6 of their selected contributory factors. Your reporting simple percentages above is misleading, only tells part of the story and is plain simplistic and wrong. German Autobahns are not an advert for good outcomes from high speed on their unlimited sections. Check here (https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Verkehrsunfaelle/_inhalt.html)
  13. NSL is not 70, actually. It varies for the vehicle and for the type of road but I’m sure you know that ...
  14. I couldn't agree more. I'm glad someone else can see past what could be just a media frenzy. Without a truly in-depth analysis of the 38 fatalities (in 5 years of "smart" relative to the 450+ total motorway death toll) i.e. a laying out of all the where's, how, how long for and the why's, no-one will know the true level of relative safety across the network. I repeat myself, I know, when I ask why there is no clamour to do something about all the dual-carriageways with no hard shoulder together with: much shorter lines of vision; lay-bys hidden around a corner; roads crossing (in places); desperately short on- and off-ramps on occasions (and even GiveWay lines). Why is there no clamour, furthermore, to get drivers to make smarter, safer choices and decisions?
  15. On the broad assumption that a car is driven in top gear at both 60 and 70mph, what do we do as drivers (without a downward slope and a tailwind) to get the vehicle to and keep it at 70 rather than lose speed and drop back to 60.? Do we inject more pedal power, fruit juice, air, water or magic dust into the engine?
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