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Drivers on the Stocksbridge bypass

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Aggressive driving, intolerance and a lack of anticipation are far more dangerous than driving below the speed limit. On my daily commute I can knock 6 minutes off an hour-and-a-quarter’s commute each way if I really cane it.* If I was a ‘better’ driver I’m sure I could hurtle past the slower stuff every day, but I could never justify the associated risk and I don’t need that 6 minutes badly enough, so have learned to be patient, and tag along behind the slower cyclists, trucks and caravans until it’s safe to pass. I enjoy the drive much more this way, and arrive relaxed and ready.**

 

*I save much more than six minutes when I cane it, more like 30.

 

**I don't enjoy driving in and around Sheffield at all, it's a grim, depressing and painful chore, and I've only got my own stupid self to blame for not ditching the car and cycling to work during the gorgeous hot summer we've just had.

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**I don't enjoy driving in and around Sheffield at all, it's a grim, depressing and painful chore, and I've only got my own stupid self to blame for not ditching the car and cycling to work during the gorgeous hot summer we've just had.[/color]

 

I agree with city driving being a right pain - a means to an end, really. My daily commute takes me through the Hope Valley and out beyond Chapel-en-le-Frith (so it's too far for my old legs to cycle every day!), past some beautiful scenery and I do enjoy stopping on the way home to take in the views sometimes. Winter can be exciting for driving this route. I don't own a 4x4 but made it there and back every day except one last Winter (when police advice was not to drive on that day), even up Winnats Pass in several inches of fresh snow.

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Driving too close is a big one.

Lane hogging (ie not moving back to the left when you can).

Speeding

Failure to look properly.

A number of people on here demonstrate a lack of knowledge of the HC.

Doubt that I could give the stopping distances in metres (never understood why knowing the number was important though).

 

Don't think I can list twenty though, that's all I can think of.

 

Like you I could never work out why I’m a better driver/trainer because I can write the table down. But the relevance or otherwise of the table is an hour's workshop ...

How about:

Cutting corner or swan-necking on turning, cutting paint on roundabout

Non-compliance with road signs, road paint (turning right at a no right turn; failing to stop at stop sign; stopping on ped'crossing; failure to stop at a red or amber ...)

Insufficient/inappropriate over-use/use of lights and ancillary equipment

Inappropriate response/reaction to others' signals

Too brisk for the road, traffic, conditions (inappropriate speed)

Non-compliance with seatbelt, number plate

Illegally threaded tyres, under-inflated tyres

Bulbs awol

Aggressive disposition, signals given to others

Junction approach speed: aggressive, inefficient fuel-wise, with an apparent lack of road-reading ability

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One of my pet peeves about the driving on the bye-pass is the gap left between cars going down the hill to McDonalds roundabout in the rush hours. Gaps of one hundred yards are common with traffic jams stretching back to the bridge ,this traffic is moving at walking pace and could easily fill up the gaps and reduce the queue by a half.

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One of my pet peeves about the driving on the bye-pass is the gap left between cars going down the hill to McDonalds roundabout in the rush hours. Gaps of one hundred yards are common with traffic jams stretching back to the bridge ,this traffic is moving at walking pace and could easily fill up the gaps and reduce the queue by a half.

 

You could be right (100 yards?) but most drivers are very poor judges of distance. I wouldn’t know whether the queue would be half its length - you presumably are a maths genius with a speciality of “queuing theory” (it is an important branch of maths) - the queue happens as a function of the ability of drivers to arrive at a gap and to keep moving. Several cars arriving at the same time and the last few having to stop would perpetuate (and probably exacerbate/lengthen) the queue.

Having space and keeping moving is a positive from my angle.

Not arriving to go is a negative and stopping (at a roundabout) without needing to is a driving fault in every test I’ve sat through. So, having a closer concertina of cars arriving at the roundabout is not necessarily a good thing. It’s all relative, though, so you may be right.

As a progressive driver myself (relativities again) I’d still prefer a more relaxed (space to spare) style of driving to a thrusting, aggressive, “whet are you doing?” style any day of the week.

Edited by DT Ralge

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Like you I could never work out why I’m a better driver/trainer because I can write the table down. But the relevance or otherwise of the table is an hour's workshop ...

How about:

Cutting corner or swan-necking on turning, cutting paint on roundabout

Non-compliance with road signs, road paint (turning right at a no right turn; failing to stop at stop sign; stopping on ped'crossing; failure to stop at a red or amber ...)

Insufficient/inappropriate over-use/use of lights and ancillary equipment

Inappropriate response/reaction to others' signals

Too brisk for the road, traffic, conditions (inappropriate speed)

Non-compliance with seatbelt, number plate

Illegally threaded tyres, under-inflated tyres

Bulbs awol

Aggressive disposition, signals given to others

Junction approach speed: aggressive, inefficient fuel-wise, with an apparent lack of road-reading ability

 

Quite a few of those are simply illegal, so I guess I wasn't even thinking about ignoring "no turn/entry", not wearing a seatbelt, etc...

 

Oooh, thought of a new one, inappropriate response to blue light/siren. I see this regularly, instead of a considered, "what's best to get out of the way" people just stop.

I watched a car (in the rear view mirror) come to a halt in the right lane of penistone road, with the left lane clear. The ambulance had to change lanes twice to continue.

Personally I'd just driven off, lights went green as the ambulance approached, so I moved out of the way and to the left lane. 1 other driver (to my left) did the same. Everybody else, frozen, blocking the ambulance, despite the now green lights!

 

---------- Post added 25-09-2018 at 07:33 ----------

 

You could be right (100 yards?) but most drivers are very poor judges of distance. I wouldn’t know whether the queue would be half its length - you presumably are a maths genius with a speciality of “queuing theory” (it is an important branch of maths) - the queue happens as a function of the ability of drivers to arrive at a gap and to keep moving. Several cars arriving at the same time and the last few having to stop would perpetuate (and probably exacerbate/lengthen) the queue.

Having space and keeping moving is a positive from my angle.

Not arriving to go is a negative and stopping (at a roundabout) without needing to is a driving fault in every test I’ve sat through. So, having a closer concertina of cars arriving at the roundabout is not necessarily a good thing. It’s all relative, though, so you may be right.

As a progressive driver myself (relativities again) I’d still prefer a more relaxed (space to spare) style of driving to a thrusting, aggressive, “whet are you doing?” style any day of the week.

 

And ultimately a queue back to the bridge or a shorter, stationary queue, makes little difference. So long as that queue isn't blocking other junctions then how tightly you pack it won't alter how quickly it can exit over the roundabout at the front, which is the only thing that ultimately affects the length of the queue (that and how many cars join at the back of course).

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If you actually look at the accidents the main cluster is around the A629 and the A616 junction which suggests its just people not paying attention/ driving too fast to react.

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Quite a few of those are simply illegal, so I guess I wasn't even thinking about ignoring "no turn/entry", not wearing a seatbelt, etc...

 

Oooh, thought of a new one, inappropriate response to blue light/siren. I see this regularly, instead of a considered, "what's best to get out of the way" people just stop.

I watched a car (in the rear view mirror) come to a halt in the right lane of penistone road, with the left lane clear. The ambulance had to change lanes twice to continue.

Personally I'd just driven off, lights went green as the ambulance approached, so I moved out of the way and to the left lane. 1 other driver (to my left) did the same. Everybody else, frozen, blocking the ambulance, despite the now green lights!

 

---------- Post added 25-09-2018 at 07:33 ----------

 

 

And ultimately a queue back to the bridge or a shorter, stationary queue, makes little difference. So long as that queue isn't blocking other junctions then how tightly you pack it won't alter how quickly it can exit over the roundabout at the front, which is the only thing that ultimately affects the length of the queue (that and how many cars join at the back of course).

 

the saving is when the traffic starts to move again all those gaps need to be filled up.

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If you actually look at the accidents the main cluster is around the A629 and the A616 junction which suggests its just people not paying attention/ driving too fast to react.

 

Alot happen on the downhill junction simply from idiot drivers pulling out far too late and/or not accelerating away from the junction.

 

Had it happen to me several times, more than once I had to actually cross the double whites and swerve round a car that had pulled out as they'd left it so late.

The view/distance from that junction is pretty decent, but people dither around and waste time before making a move.

 

They don't think that the approaching cars will be doing 60, you can't just pull out in front of someone doing that speed and expect everything to be fine.

Edited by geared

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