Here, if you got your licence in an auto, your licence was endorsed so that you
could only drive an auto. That's been set aside now as they've realised that
'driving' has less to do with the car than the context.
The British are better in one very specific area that makes all the difference
- lane discipline. You are not supposed to pass on the inside so they have this
concept on a motorway/freeway of fast/overtaking lane - cruise lane -
truck/slow/leaving lane. Works brilliantly. You do not sit in the outside lane
(right side) unless you are passing or at least going faster than the inner
lanes. Sit there at the limit or below and there's very soon someone behind you
flashing lights and leaning on the horn and you know exactly what they mean. It
allows much higher safe speeds on major roads and gets rid of the amateur
policepersons. You can cruise at 90mph and no-one seems to object - in fact, I
believe that they are considering raising the speed limit. Same in Europe in
general. Here we have the American style of people all over the place. Slows
everything down. I suspect it may be deliberate but it is just as dangerous to
have people lane hopping as travelling at 80mph instead of 7
0mph. One simple law - don't pass on the inside - fixes all that.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.soultheft.com
Author/Publisher:
The SLR Compendium:
revised edition -
http://blur.by/19Hb8or
The TLR Compendium
http://blur.by/1eDpqN7
On 18/11/2013, at 1:38 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Today, alas, no one learns to drive on a stick. All driver ed programs I'm
> aware of use automatics. It would be interesting to see a map of the US with
> transmission preferences delineated. I suspect that urban areas, especially
> those of the Los Angeles variety, would be overwhelmingly automatic, whereas
> areas with more topography would show more manual preferences. But that's
> just a guess.
>
> After all that, the short answer is this: 'Murkins are, as a rule, right lazy
> behind the wheel. Using a cell phone, putting on makeup, reading the
> newspaper, eating a bag of burgers and fries from Mickey D's are all
> accomplished with much less stress if one does not also have to shift gears
> all the same time. We also are not terribly accomplished drivers, as my
> recent trip to the UK pointed out. Drivers there are much more disciplined
> than drivers here. Not sure why, exactly, but they are. I only encountered a
> handful of putzes in our motoring around Scotland, and with one exception,
> they all were benign.
--
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