Graham Butcher

Question, what is an LSP?

How did you get the Traffic sign Recognition working, I'd like to enable it on mine.

Interesting in that the article also references the plans in Oxford for similar and Bicester in Oxfordshire, confirming my post.

OK, say its £4, then ULEZ £12.50, and if you drive into central London and another £15 congestion charge, it is all becoming a cash grab and just London. There are similar schemes being planned in other locations as well. So a person who drives a non-compliant car, pays £12.50, then if they have to cross the river they pay again and then maybe a congestion charge, so at best they may have to pay £16.50 or £27.50 a day. And they will say it's all part of cleaner air for London, so use the underground instead and there the air is actually hazardous to health with air quality many times worse than it is on the roads.

Rule 8 At a junction. When you are crossing or waiting to cross the road, other traffic should give way. Look out for traffic turning into the road, especially from behind you, and cross at a place where drivers can see you. If you have started crossing and traffic wants to turn into the road, you have priority and they should give way (see Rules H2 and 170) I believe to be particularly dangerous as you may be turning left from a major road into a turning with limited vision due to bushes or a building preventing you from seeing if there people waiting to cross or indeed crossing. You stop as soon as you see them, only to have someone shunt you into the pedestrians because your back end is still on the major road. This is why I say that the rules have not been properly thought through. All too often, I come across zebra crossings located less than cars length from such junctions and is an accident waiting to happen.

I didn't mean it was open season on them, clearly even on motorways you give way to them crossing. Even though they shouldn't be on motorways. That does not give them the right to use road as if they own it, they have to consider other users, ie, drivers

No rabbit hole I assure you, I worked on design projects for one just outside Bicester years ago and Sadig Khan is the chair of the organisation pushing them and also the low emmision zones. In 2025 he will be making Blackwall Tunnel and the new Woolwich tunnels into toll tunnels at a proposed £7.50 fee, we're you aware of that?

Well that is daft and crackers, a rule decided upon by people who don't clearly know anything about infrastructures etc. That is why we have things like zebra, and pelican crossings etc to give pedestrians a safe route to cross the roads, which are the domain of road vehicles. The only logical conclusion to make a such a daft rule, is that regardless of what vehicles we have be it an ICE or EV, they want to get us out of cars altogether and develop 15-minute cities. 😲

And yet, when the situation is reversed and cars only have limited or even in some cases no access to the roads, the law and order seems to break down rather rapidly. The Photo shows a shopping area in Debden, where there is now a massive area devoted to the public and pedestrians and since this happened the area is now a massive black spot for anti-social behaviour and is getting extra police attention as a result. Much the same thing has happened in Chelmsford where the high street has been pedestrianised and we have a problem with the same thing, and a man was recently beaten up for half an hour before the emergency services arrived to save him, despite the police station only being 500 yards away, these areas become black spots and no-go areas when the shops close because there almost no reason for anyone to venture down there, so little chance of such behaviour been seen and reported.

@skomaz Agreed, all bus lanes manage to do is to double the traffic jams in length, which then also spill out onto other roads which join the road with the bus lane and in many cases actually manage to push the jams onto other roads that are away from the road with the bus lanes. Instead of fixing the issues in the first that caused the bus lanes to be introduced, 🙄 A lot of problems are introduced when they build new housing estates and don't provide extra roads to feed them, so all that extra traffic has to use the same old roads that were already overcrowded, the same as they attach the sewers of these estates onto the old network and then wonder why when it rains heavy that there is flooding. Maybe it comes back to poor education standards so people aren't able to do the critical thinking any longer?

No I don't, but maybe it is the tyres have a different compound to racing tyres and may also be down to tyre temperature etc.

Agreed, no problem with 20mph zones with schools etc, but those should only when schools are in use. We have managed with 30mph for decades without major problems. I think it is all about lack of education. It needs to be part of the education process and also parental responsibility to teach children road safety. It was when I went to school but sadly no longer seems to be the case.

The point is that whereas the 20mph limits were only in on some roads, its now on all roads that were 30mph. Here in Chelmsford there are many roads that have become 20mph since the pandemic and loads of new ones without any consultation. The end result is now massive congestion where wasn't any before and ambulances on 999 calls are struggling to get through to both the patient and back to hospital. So any improvements on fatal accidents I suspect are than countered by delays in getting people to life saving medical care.

It only affects roads that used to be 30mph, but what is going to be next step, someone walking in front of you waving a red flag?

Tyres are fitted, and the overall impression is the car is both quieter and smoother now and what I have also noticed is the that lane assist is also far noticeable in its attempt to steer away from a white line if you cross it without signalling, as there is really no point in doing so if there is nobody behind you, which kind of suggests that there is far more grip on the road with new tyres then there is when the tyres are almost down to the legal limit for normal driving. Yet the reverse seems to be true for racing, as tyres seem to get better grip on slicks once the tyres have got some heat in them.

Surely the education is a good thing, so many parents these days have zero idea where or what their children are doing as long as they aren't under their feet that seems to be the only thing they care about. There is a balance to be made, cars don't normally drive on the footpaths, pedestrians should also understand that once they put a foot onto the road, they are placing themselves in danger and children should be taught that roads is not the place to play and that they need to respect the space allocated to the various users. Not all cars have ACC or indeed any form of CC at all, and IIRC, early versions of CC could not be set below 40 or 30mph.

While this is maybe not strictly to do with EV cars, it is related I feel in so many ways and forms a part of the overall bigger picture and there are links to the data etc in the video which don't make themselves apparent if viewing the video though the forum so I'll try and post them below. The reason for posting the link to this video is that I'd appreciate people's genuine opinion on the topics raised by this. If you are one of these types of people who answer is likely to be along the lines "I don't watch these videos, or not wasting my time, then please don't bother replying, but I think the majority of us are interested in most things related to cars and driving would watch the video have some opinions, and I'd like to see your thoughts raised in the video on the attached links. https://mapping.wirral.gov.uk/WM9/Map... ttps://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/hub... https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/20m... https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/20m... https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/20m... https://mapping.wirral.gov.uk/WM9/Map... https://www.wirral.gov.uk/20mph https://www.wirralintelligenceservice... https://petitions.senedd.wales/petiti...

No, but they can make charge point operators provide these facilities in areas where residents don't have the ability to home charge, either because of the type of building they are in or an inadequate electricity supply to the estate/road etc. This can be done in the same fashion as many supermarkets etc get permission to build, i.e., in exchange for the permission, you have to do something in return for the local community. Instead of providing community halls etc, provide safe and secure charging lots on some land donated by the authorities.

Who said that we don't learn something new everyday? I had never heard of the five-nines availability so I Googled it. I would have called that kind of availability 24/7/365.

Be careful about holding Mr Musk up as a shining example of a public-spirited person determined to drive costs down so that everyone can have access to his charging system and also an affordable car, have you all forgotten about past history and how people have started down similar paths only then to expose their ultimate aim and expose themselves capable of some despicable things? I'm not for a single moment suggesting that is what Mr Musk's intentions are, but all the same I'm cautious, as some of the things he has done don't quite seem to be logical.

This is another problem, the need for subscriptions, cards, apps etc, why the hell can they not be treated just like any petrol filling station, open to all and able to pay electronically or with cash instead of having virtually closed/restricted access unless you have the required car/app/subscription to allow you to access the energy at a fair and standard rate for all.🤔

Its not just down to user mentality, a lot has to be borne by the authorities, starting with some locally available charge points, either fast or slow, in local areas where users, unable to home charge can go to and leave their car charging (if slow destination types) in a secure facility with 24/7 security on site. This change is being forced through by them, and so they cannot just stand by and watch people struggle.

Yeah, I know that tyres in that condition or at their best dry grip, hence why F1 and most racing cars perform far better on slicks once they have put heat in the tyres and that's why they keep them heated on the grid until they are ready for the off. As you're located in France, you should have better weather than we do so you will more chances of making full use of the grip, but here it literally can be raining for a few minutes and then back to sunshine again. It's those unexpected rain showers that catch most drivers out, and they suddenly discover that they are not as skilful as they first thought.

@toot What made me check the tread depth was that I have began to feel that the tyres were transmitting more road vibrations and rumblings into the cars' interior, which is something I have long noticed was something that occurs around the 2mm mark, so I suspect that is down to the lack of flex in the remaining tread to absorb the road imperfections. While I can accept that tyres have come a long way in their grip levels on dry roads, there is no substitute for tread depth to enable water to be channelled quickly and safely away to reduce chances of aquaplaning especially where surface water forms into puddles or as we often get storms that see the road become like a river.

@EnterName Thank you for this information, I did know that once the 3mm mark was reached performance was degraded, but did not know by how much, I feel much happier that I am having new tyres fitted tomorrow before I have to go to Heathrow Sunday to pick up my wife and sister-in-law on their return from Madeira.