An outbreak of common sense at last

[Dustydog]

Not that long ago paraffin oil lamps were the only red rear lamp ,on 100 mph trains.🤪

 

[Paullus1959]

Yeah but who's going to teach the youngsters how to operate buttons and flick switches? 🤔

Certainly not driving instructors it would seem. My eldest Grandson is currently learning how to drive. His instructor has a car with keyless ignition. His parents bought him a car with an ignition key. When he stalled it he hadn't got a clue what to do as there was no button to push!

Look at the recent updates to Tesla models, and some others now have indicators on the wheel spokes which means you have to chase the rim to find them which can be a problem in A finding them and secondly working out which one to touch when the wheel is inverted.

Again it seems that function is giving way to gimmicks which in no way assist with road safety.

And I thought I was the only one to moan about the size of indicators on some cars especially small cars. In some cases when on a roundabout you cannot see the indicator until the car is nearly on top of you.

It isn't just small cars though, many larger models have almost invisible indicators. Remember the VW Passat with its circular brake lights with the orange indicator in the middle which as good as disappeared when the brakes were applied.

Has anyone ever followed an Audi in particular with it's rear fog lights on. They are like laser beams and very uncomfortable to anyone following and they mask both brakes and indicators. A very poor design.
And, there you go, some of these design weaknesses are exacerbated by poor driver habits. Why switch on rear fog lights when it gets foggy when there is already a vehicle behind you?

As a professional driver and driver trainer I always put the indicator on before braking so that the risk of the indicators being masked by the brakes is reduced. Actually being aware of the shortcomings of a vehicle can help reduce the effect of those shortcomings but, that would involve a bit of learning and common sense which as already said is in short supply these days.

 

[Buckman]

As a professional driver and driver trainer I always put the indicator on before braking so that the risk of the indicators being masked by the brakes is reduced. Actually being aware of the shortcomings of a vehicle can help reduce the effect of those shortcomings but, that would involve a bit of learning and common sense which as already said is in short supply these days.

Spot on as many numpties brake and then indicate. When I did my advanced driving test, the trainer had done his training course at Hendon police driver training grounds back in the sixties.

 

[Dustydog]

I guess you used one of these ? As I had on my Austin A35 van , mid dash mounted and non self cancelling.

 

[Paullus1959]

I guess you used one of these ? As I had on my Austin A35 van , mid dash mounted and non self cancelling.

My wife's Morris 1000 Traveller was also fitted with trafficators🙂

 

[Paullus1959]

Spot on as many numpties brake and then indicate. When I did my advanced driving test, the trainer had done his training course at Hendon police driver training grounds back in the sixties.

I did my Defensive Driver and VIP Protection Driver Instructors course at Hendon back in 2002. A colleague of mine was an Ex-Metpol instructor at Hendon in the seventies. He was part of the team that trained Lady Diana Spencer on her advanced driving course. Lady Di was the only member of the Royal Family, except for our late Queen who always had her own driver, who I didn't have the opportunity to drive for when they visited Staffordshire.
Sorry, reminiscing about very fond memories.

 

[GaryB]

One of my cars is American, built in 1957, the rear indicators are the brake lights, so if you are braking and turning one of the brake lights flashes on and off to dictate direction turning, these are legal in the UK if the car was built before 1965, some old British cars were similar.

While some consider this confusing, the number of people who have told me at petrol stations that my lights are faulty does suggest they are certainly noticeable! At the front the (white) side lights used to flash as indicators but I've changed the bulbs and fitted switch-back LED's that flash orange instead of white when indicating, there are too many roundabouts here and flashing white indicators just don't get seen by others!