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Sorry but the French are c r a p drivers


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LOL -

well we just couldn't overtake and just had to drive behind for miles until they turned off to go and sleep it off ! (or kill themselves or somebody else, we will never know).

I think honestly it just depends on where you are - rural UK and the big motorways - or rural France and the peripherique - are v. different matters. All our European friends visiting the UK always said just how much nicer, patient, polite, etc, UK drivers are.

Grass - other side - greener - and all that! Ever been on a French motorway at the beginning of school holidays - people overtaking from all sides without signaling or even looking, regular stops fuelled by booze, cars barely drivable filled to the brim with kitchen sinks, screamibng kids and mother-in-laws!

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Well, you can only speak as you find and generally I find the French much better than the stereotype view of we British.

Motorway discipline (i.e. non-hogging of the middle lane) is far better, though in truth there isn't anywhere near the volume of traffic.

Speed adherence through villages etc is verging on obsessive, though with good reason given the number of mobile speed traps around just now.

However ............... there is one category of driver which scares the **** out of me.   Women drivers, 25-35-ish, school run, country lanes around here, 08.45 - 09.15.  Probably worse on their way back from dropping off the kids.  Terrifying.

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[quote user="Gardian"]Motorway discipline (i.e. non-hogging of the middle lane) is far better[/quote]Now that's a trick I'd like to see on the almost exclusively 2 lane French motorways [:D]

I wholeheartedly agree that if there is one single factor which discriminates between the UK and French driving experience it is the lack of aggression.

The bumper sitting phenomenon doesn't really bother me although I know it does unnerve many.

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Where there are three lanes or in some cases four,  particularly around Paris, the hogging of the middle lanes is no worse than in the UK, but perhaps for good reason, as in Italy where its actually enforced, it seems the "rule of the road" adopted by many French drivers is for the inside lane of three to be left for HGVs and slow traffic and the cars then fight it out in the other lanes with a minimum speed requirement of 90kph.  Whereas in Germany where they DO have rules, you stay in the middle lane at your peril[Www]. 
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Quote Guardian

« However ............... there is one category of driver which scares the **** out of me. Women drivers, 25-35-ish, school run, country lanes around here, 08.45 - 09.15. Probably worse on their way back from dropping off the kids. Terrifying. »

Women drivers collecting kids from school are just as bad in the UK. Most of them couldn’t imagine parking 100 yards away from the school and actually walking to collect their children. No, they all have to park one on top of the other as close to the exit as possible. Then when they drive away, their minds are certainly not on their driving ! And the number of these drivers that don’t make sure the children in the back are belted up is unbelieveable.

The choice between driving in France and the UK ? France wins hands down. You just need to keep your wits about you when you come to a place that has a priorité à droite !

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For me, the core problem with UK driving is that despite traffic volumes expanding exponentially every few years since 1960 (in relativ e terms of vehicle miles per annum), the "Rules of the Road" have for far too many years been still based on the Highway Code - which dates back to the early 1930s - and the old 1948 RTA.

OK there has been the odd amendment: very odd in too many cases: like Paul Channon when Sec. of State for Transport de-criminalising driving without insurance etc.

In France and Spain, however there exists a clear Civil Code, where various driving offences are absolutely categorised: rather than relying on woolly offences which blur around the edges.

Driving too close to the vehicle in front: cutting in too quickly after overtaking: lane weaving: etc.

The French police and those naughty unmarked white Citroëns and the unmarked CRS vans would reap a bumper harvest on the M25, and etc!

Hogging the middle lane on motorways/autoroutes........hmmm.................

Here, I fear there is a thin dividing line between good driving and effective insanity!

Those who believe they are paragons of driving virtue and seek never to hog the middle lane, progress the while in a series of swerves in an out between the traffic stream: over-reliant on modern brake, tyre and suspension technology, which tends to lull the unwitting automobile pilot into a wholly false sense of security. Mainly 'cos they do the same thing when it's streaming wet.............

Perhaps worse, they fail to "Manage" the traffic and road effectively: since they drive, only fixated on the bumper in front and never succeed in working out that if a car in the middle lane is in process of overtaking a stream of slow moving traffic in the left hand lane and doesn't wish to box itself in, because much faster traffic is zooming up on the far right lane, then it is logical to continue in the middle lane. If the other guys want to overtake, then join the stream of Chelsea Tractors, Beemas and Mercs in the outside lane at 90+ mph!

Of course, these paragons driving method would be to dive left first of all (Mustn't hog the middle lane!): and when they suddenly realised - too late! - that they have boxed themselves in, they simply slam the old RH clicker on and immediately swerve right, causing the approaching line of traffic to jump on their brakes and nearly have a nice nose-to-tail pile up! Neatly forgetting the nice bit about not doing anything which would cause approaching traffic to slacken speed or swerve......................................................................

Good driving techniques?

Not in a million years!

Multi-lane motorways were very rare when I started driving: in fact the first, the M1 opened I'd passed my driving test! By a few months that is.

Thus I drove, in the main on the old three lane arterial roads: which meant having to learn the co-relationship between speed and distance, for overtaking: and road management: or suffer a head-on and die!

Simple as that really.

I had one of these mobile dipsticks scream up behind me in his merc when we returned from la belle week before last: you know, lights flashing, tailgaiting me, fists being waved in anger: and then swerves right; causing an approaching car to slam on its anchors; and then swerved so rapidly in front of me, he nearly hit my offside front wing. The fist waving continued; to the detriment of his car control, as his one-handed steering technique caused him to wobble like a drunk between two lanes.

It then dawned on this automotive genius, that he had most successfully boxed himself in, as he slammed on his brakes to avoid neatly parking his car under the chassis of a huge Hungarian Juggernaut!

[:D]

No problem for Matey.

No indication naturally; just swerve to the right nearly causing yet another nose to tail collision behind him: and then howl off in the far right lane at an illegal speed into the far distance..................

I really do wonder what passes for their braincell.

 

 

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[quote user="Callie"]« However ............... there is one category of driver which scares the **** out of me. Women drivers, 25-35-ish, school run, country lanes around here, 08.45 - 09.15. Probably worse on their way back from dropping off the kids. Terrifying. [/quote]

Fortunately most will be in a position to avoid said hazard.

Quite agree about Gemany Ron, now they do know a bit about lane discipline!  Again predominantly 2 lane Autobahns but even on the restricted sections you can maintain a much higher average speed then is possible in 3 or 4 lanes in UK.

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Why are French road casualties so much worse than the UK? I find that the French are terrible tailgaters on non-motorways. How often am I unable to see the number plate of the car behind. They also overtake with what appears to be a a fatalistic view of life (if it's time to go it's time to go). I imagine emptier roads make overtaking more accessible in France.
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The way to deal with tailgaters on minor roads is simple.

When it is impossible for them to overtake, slow down safely to a stop. Get out of the vehicle, open the boot/tailgate and, with a hand-gesture, ask them if they would like to get inside.
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Ah!

My own method, Gary, tried and perfected over many may years is simpler still.

Simply bring the left foot over and kiss the brake pedal, not enough to actually apply the brakes you understand, but sufficient to glim up the brake lights!

You, meantime, of course, continue at unabated speed so there is no chance of the following vehicle smashing into you.

This is particularly efficacious:

If the road is streaming wet:

If the moment of brake light glim up can be carefully judged to be the time when the tailgater has, impatiently just entered that "acceleration to within a whisker of your read bumper phase" we all know and love:

If I am driving Mrs Gluey's large Volvo Estate, replete with towbar manufactured from redundant railway line and support girders from obsolete battleship bits.

The rear mirror view of the tailgater suffering instantaneous aquaplaning and sliding all over the rue is most entertaining!

[6]

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[quote user="ErnieY"]

[quote user="Callie"]« However ............... there is one category of driver which scares the **** out of me. Women drivers, 25-35-ish, school run, country lanes around here, 08.45 - 09.15. Probably worse on their way back from dropping off the kids. Terrifying. [/quote]

Fortunately most will be in a position to avoid said hazard.[/quote]

Please note that this was Guardian's quote, not mine !  I lifted it because I agree with it, but cannot use the "Quote" facility with Safari. [8-)] I've had to go to Camino to  do this posting !

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My method, Gluey , is a little different.

Drop down a couple of gears, being prepared for a quick launch.  Put the rear fogs on and at the same time accelerate away.  Hilariious to watch the diminishing dot in the rear-view mirror as one p*ss*s off into the distance.  I don't mind tailgating if these people would actually overtake but they don't, they just sit there dangerously close to the back of your car.  And often this is only on the straight bits - get to anything like a 3rd gear bend and you lose 'em - I think mainly because they take these in top.[:-))]

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Perhaps my most extreme bette noire, JE, are drivers who sit right on my tail with headlights and spot lights blazing away so I can't see.......

In the good old days, it was developed courtesy for following drivers to extinguish their heads and drive on their tail lights and on the car in front's headlights.

I'm sure you remember, JE, in the good old days rally cars used a large chrome Lucas wide-beam foglight, screwed on the rear bumper for reversing: trying to turn a car around on a yellow road deep in the rural bit at 3.00AM and no moon and deep drainage ditches either side could be a mite tricky without some glims on the scene!

Tailgaters on heads used to get quite a wake up call when one stuck the rally lights on!

 

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[quote user="Bugbear"]The way to deal with tailgaters on minor roads is simple.

When it is impossible for them to overtake, slow down safely to a stop. Get out of the vehicle, open the boot/tailgate and, with a hand-gesture, ask them if they would like to get inside.[/quote]

How many teeth have you lost so far then Gary?? 

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Loved all the comments....great fun to read about how you all cope with 'strange' driving techniques.

Motorway driving - totally agree with gluestick about staying in middle lane for long distances.  I do this myself when driving on motorways in UK.  It is far too easy to get oneself stuck behind a lorry or artic on the inside lane that's not going quite as fast as you thought it was and then finding it extremely difficult to get back into middle lane to overtake.   So I tend to sit in the middle, pull into the outside lane to overtake something in middle lane that's motoring along quite happily at about 65mph or less, and then swing back into middle lane.  I much prefer this way of driving motorways, you do have to look ahead and behind you - but it's much, much smoother, more fuel efficient, and less wearing on the brakes.  And it stops me from getting bored - keeps me alert and 'reading the road'.

As for 'kiss the brake'....my father (police officer, police driver and later driving instructor) - used to fix a 'special button' on his cars....from the A40, to the Morris Oxford, to the Alfa Sud - and many others in between.......This 'special button' was a simple switch that turned on the rear brake lights whenever father decided the time was right !!!!  And if he pre-warned us kids sitting in the back we would turn and see the results on the following driver !!!!  (Mind you - he didn't do this very often, and was always careful about exactly when to hit the button).

Then MOTs came in and put a stop to his fun !!!

Chessie

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[quote user="Gluestick"]

Perhaps my most extreme bette noire, JE, are drivers who sit right on my tail with headlights and spot lights blazing away so I can't see.......

[/quote]Of course they never use their rearview mirrors themselves so have no idea what the fuss is about...

I agree about motorway manners being better here but what is it with these people who insist on going back into the slow lane when there's something else to overtake a hundred metres away?  They nip in and out like the proverbial snake - surely more dangerous than staying in the fast lane and overtaking everybody in one go?  I also tend to be a middle lane motorist on UK roads, but this only works if you have the good manners to stick to the speed of the traffic and keep up.  It's the people who do this but seem to have their cruise control set on 65 mph who really get my goat.

Ah but then I guess we are all better drivers than all those other idiots out there....[Www]

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With all this talk about lane hogging or changing etc. surely the bottom line is that is that you should always be in the correct lane for the circumstances. The same goes for speed of course.

What is woefully lacking in too many drivers, on both sides of the channel, is awareness and hazard perception, these are the real dangers which can never be effectively addressed or improved by speed cameras.

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One habit I do like which most decent French drivers use, when overtaking and occupying an outside lane on a péage or autoroute, is to leave the lefthand indicator flashing for as long as they are overtaking: at least everyone else knows what their basic intention is.

I find this particularly useful on the three lane bits, when perhaps a gaggle of vehicles are overtaking a stream of slower moving traffic.

Of course, coming from Essex, it is a delight to see drivers actually using indicators!

For the basic Essex driver, those yellow flashing lights are the things you employ when illegally double parking the ol' 4X4 outside the nearest off license, 'cos you're too damned idle to park up the road and walk ten yards........................

And usually at night: facing the wrong way with the headlights blazing: and since they are on dip, blinding all oncoming traffic!

[:-))]

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Cooperlola said "  but what is it with these people who insist on going back into the slow lane when there's something else to overtake a hundred metres away?  They nip in and out like the proverbial snake - surely more dangerous than staying in the fast lane and overtaking everybody in one go? 

Because that is the way they are taught to drive.  Its politeness and consideration for other road users by giving way to others who may want to pass them. OK its done excessively in some cases but surely that is better than the selfish centre lane hogging "because I cannot be arsed to move over cos I'm doing 69mph in my Volvo/ Rover 75 so you will have to go round me" tossers you see on UK motorways at the weekends when the inside lane is empty.

EDIT There is no SLOW lane on any motorway except AFAIK in Italy where there are minimum speed limits.  In the UK and in France there is a lane for normal progress and one or two for overtaking. so if you are not overtaking you shouldn't be in it!!

Some of the posters on here would not last five minutes on German Autobahns with their selfish aggressive attitudes, try staying in the centre or fast lane over there!!.

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Amazing to read some of these posts....

I can just imagine a French forum with a topic such as "Sorry but the English are c r a p drivers".

"Why is is when you're on a clear road and getting ready to overtake one of those cars with the driver sitting on the wrong side, he suddenly brakes for no reason forcing to you aquaplane and slide all over the rue.  They are a real menace sometimes - why the gendarmes don't do something about it before they kill someone, I don't know........"

 [Www]

 

 

 

 

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Now this doesn't happen very often but I have to agree totally with Ron ...........[:)]

Dropping back in, after an overtake, is much better than staying out for the next one in the distance. It is also 'cleaner' shall we say, when 'making a bit of progress' [:D]

I am always amazed when I see drivers happily driving alongside HGVs (meat in the sandwich) for long periods rather than, (a), waiting until their exit is clear before passing and (b), accelerating quickly past the danger rather than creeping past within the speed limit.

Down the outside of HGVs into roundabouts is in the same category.

Good lane disipline is king IMB.

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[quote user="splishsplash"][quote user="Bugbear"]The way to deal with tailgaters on minor roads is simple.

When it is impossible for them to overtake, slow down safely to a stop. Get out of the vehicle, open the boot/tailgate and, with a hand-gesture, ask them if they would like to get inside.[/quote]

How many teeth have you lost so far then Gary?? 

[/quote]

The only teeth I have lost splishsplash were at the hands of the 'SS butcher' of a dentist we had at school.

.

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Hi Folks,

You think that driving in France is erratic ... I have survived in Naples for 10 months - you just have to laugh.  If anybody wants an unused indicator bulb for any vehicle then go to a Neopolitan scrapyard!! Creating 4 lanes from 2 is the norm and honking at the lights, girls, mates or life..........

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