Does that mean your ram every one of the road if there a bit slow at tescos carpark? as usual :-)

Volvo-cam!

Oh and there is no apex on normal roads wheel4hummer!

Quote from wheel4hummer :

I highly doubt that.

I highly Agree with shotglass, I was cheeky the other day to direct my new driver mother down a road similar to this http://www.transportcafe.co.uk/image3/lane2.jpg came across a van and had to pull off onto a grass verge to let him through, and the speed limit is 60mph along these blind narrow lanes xD

also pretty much half of germanys autobahns look something like this:
http://www.strassen.nrw.de/_img/illu_200604020254.jpg

Quote from DeKo :

200 hours? thats a complete joke. 10 lessons (what, 15 - 20 hours?) costs about 190 quid, so 200 hours would cost a stupid amount.

I hope to only take about 10 lessons, i can drive fine, been out with my dad all the time basically, all i need is the instructor actually teaching me how to pass the test. Not even sure if 10 will be needed.

My lessons were all an hour long at £22 each time, this was the only on road expereince I had, wasn't out with family members or anything as they couldn't teach me what I allready knew. (Probarly pick up some bad habbits from driving with them which will make it harder for the driving instructor.)

Quote from wheel4hummer :

I have my driving test on monday. I am afraid of failing it, because my instructor yells at me if the car isnt perfectly centered in the lane. Does anyone have an suggestions on how to stay centered in the lane? It is hard to tell how far the car is to one side of the lane. It's not like I'm touching the lines, I just get close to them.

It's just something you get used to IMO, I just used the middle line on my right (As it's on the right side) And stayed a steady amount away from that and never got to close. I guess you could try the opposite. Sounds to me though that your driving instructor is being cruel to be kind, if he didn't shout then it could become a habbit and lose you marks in your test.

Quote from DeKo :

here its similar, we get a provisional 3 months before we turn 17 which allows us to go out in a car with L plates on with a driver who has been driving for at least a year, iirc.

Don't knwo about the provisional time but I got mine when I was 15 as I was on a scooter when I turned 16, also, it's no way a year, it's more like 7.

Quote from andy29 :

200? Two... hundred? Please say that's a typo. That would take a hell of a long time too if you have even two lessons a week.

I took 32 lessons, £50 a time, two hours each, except the first ten were half that.

Whatever you might do in LFS, in real life you have the responsibility for other people too - just be careful and enjoy it

Sorry, it's no typo, it doesn't you or me but it will be a real pain in the ass for those who are affected when/if it becomes a law.

I could only have 1 a week, my instructor was fully booked every week (Why I had to wait over a month to get my lessons started) but at how good she was at her job I can see why she was so busy.

I wouldn't have minded £25 for 10 lessons right enough, as that's all I had, but I think some instructors these days seem to hold people back to gain more money out of them when they are doing such deals to make sure they are the ones benefitting, heard of alot of that lately. Think I got lucky.

Quote :

cheating with third party

Third party isn't cheating, it's the only realistic option in the first year as I have it too. So I'm pretty pissed at paying £2000 for insurance which DOESN'T COVER MY DAMN CAR! But I'm going fully comp in October wahoo!

Quote from TiJay :

Third party isn't cheating, it's the only realistic option in the first year as I have it too. So I'm pretty pissed at paying £2000 for insurance which DOESN'T COVER MY DAMN CAR! But I'm going fully comp in October wahoo!

Lets hope nothing happens to you before October!

Quote from JTbo :

Here are few pics how our roads look like:

That is what all of the two-lane roads near where I live look like. If I had a digital camera, I'd take pictures. And, the roads are too busy to run a tape measure across. I will try measuring the lanes on google earth, if I can find some two-lane roads that aren't covered by trees.

EDIT: According to my measurements on google earth, all two-lane roads seem to have ~3m lanes, "secondary" roads have ~3.5m lanes, and highways have ~4m lanes. Of course, there is the occasional lane that is like ~2.8m wide. But, there aren't any lanes that appear to be more then 4.5m wide. When comparing two-lane roads, the US roads are only like ~0.5m wider. Is this a huge difference?

Quote from wheel4hummer :

That is what all of the two-lane roads near where I live look like. If I had a digital camera, I'd take pictures. And, the roads are too busy to run a tape measure across. I will try measuring the lanes on google earth, if I can find some two-lane roads that aren't covered by trees.

EDIT: According to my measurements on google earth, all two-lane roads seem to have ~3m lanes, "secondary" roads have ~3.5m lanes, and highways have ~4m lanes. Of course, there is the occasional lane that is like ~2.8m wide. But, there aren't any lanes that appear to be more then 4.5m wide. When comparing two-lane roads, the US roads are only like ~0.5m wider. Is this a huge difference?

That is not huge, but surely 0.5m is a difference that certainly feels and counts

Quote from JTbo :

How wide are main roads in US ? How about other countries?

Here are few pics how our roads look like:


big_road_lot_of_traffic

road_over_water

Volvo truck


I travel a lot so I take lot of pics around country too, tomorrow need to drive 900km up to north, that place is around 1500 miles from north pole :P

I'd say our roads are similar to those, except that our winding country roads tend to have a hedgerow, ditch, wall, or something, where the line at the edge of the road is in your pictures. I measured a country road (60mph limit) I drive on pretty much daily at just under 6 metres across (with google earth) - edge of tarmac to edge of tarmac. Mostly lined by banks, bushes, and trees. To give an idea, if two lorries or buses meet in different directions, they have to slow RIGHT down.

Newer, "safer" A-road type bypasses tend to be much wider, and straighter.

I found a nice website with lots of pictures of UK roads whilst searching for a few examples.
http://www.uk-roads.co.uk/gallery/

Quote from z3r0c00l :

Well done! Six lessons is well below par for the uk.

I passed first and second time .

Rember kids, the speed on a rounderbout is the same as the roads on which it is placed. You also get 4 different corners for the price of one. Brilliant.

And the reason American's will be like "6 lessons what the hell?" is because they don't know what country roads/alpine roads look like, nor rounderbouts, speed cameras, car insurance costing more than a car, successfully sustaining the national speed limit when you only have 1 litre of engine in the bonnet, motorbikes putting knees down on corners around you, and of course the ever present hazard known as the vauxhall nova/metro 1.1...

edit:

and mopeds... confidence inversely proportional to their 49cc engine size and 3bhp....

congrats and oi dont take the piss outta vauxhall nova's i own 1 lol

Quote from wheel4hummer :

According to my measurements on google earth, all two-lane roads seem to have ~3m lanes, "secondary" roads have ~3.5m lanes, and highways have ~4m lanes. Of course, there is the occasional lane that is like ~2.8m wide. But, there aren't any lanes that appear to be more then 4.5m wide. When comparing two-lane roads, the US roads are only like ~0.5m wider. Is this a huge difference?

from what i found autobahn lanes seem to be 3.5m (keep in mind that these are used at speeds of 160+ making them much thiner in effect) and autobahn construction site lanes are often as slim as 2m at speeds of ~80 (which is a type of lane i doubt exists at all in the us)

half a metre is a lot especially if youre traveling at speeds above 180 with trucks going 80 in the lane next to you

Quote from mcgas001 :

congrats and oi dont take the piss outta vauxhall nova's i own 1 lol

Are all Nova owners chavs?

Quote from Shotglass :

from what i found autobahn lanes seem to be 3.5m (keep in mind that these are used at speeds of 160+ making them much thiner in effect) and autobahn construction site lanes are often as slim as 2m at speeds of ~80 (which is a type of lane i doubt exists at all in the us)

half a metre is a lot especially if youre traveling at speeds above 180 with trucks going 80 in the lane next to you

Well lane size is proportional to average penis size of the country.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Well lane size is proportional to average penis size of the country.

inverse ... inverse ...

its a well known fact that car size is inversely proportional to penis size and bigger cars obviously need wider lanes
theres a reason why the us is suv hell

UK has some really different roads, only one lane and still limit is 65mph or something like that :o

I wonder what kind of roads there is in Portugal as their speedlimit system is quite different to other countries.

Today I arrived to bridge @ 100kph as that was the limit, well there was truck coming along bridge too and it was indeed quite narrow and truck was driving almost middle of that bridge, he turned to side as I was almost where his front bumper was, didn't even scratch anything, but there was really not much space for error, lot less than 10cm total, luckily I know where my wheels are and how much space my car needs so I could put it right next to railing. Maybe I should be more careful in future and at least lift foot from throttle in such situations, but I saw there was space

Also I pushed some reindeers out from my way as those were just standing on road, stupid animal that is, they don't even blink if you honk your horn 1 meter from them, only solution is to just push them with car, then they run away or attack against car, but then it is easy to run over then also so not a real problem (WWF might get angry though)

JTbo - 60 MPH on those rediculously windy roads, 30/40 MPH (depending on how Sane the county is) through a village, 70 MPH on a motorway.

The people who break the speedlimits aren't the ones to worry about, it's the people who hold to the speedlimit exactly round tight blind bends!

Quote from Jakg :

JTbo - 60 MPH on those rediculously windy roads, 30/40 MPH (depending on how Sane the county is) through a village, 70 MPH on a motorway.

The people who break the speedlimits aren't the ones to worry about, it's the people who hold to the speedlimit exactly round tight blind bends!

Says the person that has held a licence for years aye Jack :P

All people go on about is the speed and things like that. Its those that brake lower than the speed limit (say from 60 down to 30) that cause the most danger, sudden braking, as opposed to gradually bringing it down.

And remember, even if youre the best driver in the world, whats stopping the guy behind from going into the back of you at a traffic light?

Quote from Jakg :

JTbo - 60 MPH on those rediculously windy roads, 30/40 MPH (depending on how Sane the county is) through a village, 70 MPH on a motorway.

The people who break the speedlimits aren't the ones to worry about, it's the people who hold to the speedlimit exactly round tight blind bends!

And even more need to worry those who are driving lower speed than limit, completely blindfolded or so it does seems when looking how they do drive.

But police is only interested from what speed one drives, very annoying.

100kph area I need to overtake quite many, lower speeds I have feeling that I'm moving chicain, specially at city even I would drive 10kph over limit I'm slower than most and my speedo has tested and has error of 0kph.

I drive mostly less than 10kph over limit as I like to travel relaxed and my opinion is that everyone should drive only at limit speed to show goverment how silly our speed limits are, everything would stop working then and it would be big expense too.

Speed doesn't kill, it's the sudden stop that kills

As far as I am concerned, the "national speed limit" signs, white background with a black diagonal line mean, go as fast as you can LMAO.

What's with all this bragging about passing driving tests with only a few lessons? I passed mine first time with no lessons at all in a near flawless run, but you don't hear me bragging about it. Well, until that last sentence there, admittedly.

As for lane widths, US lanes are a hell of a lot wider than UK/European roads. Put it this way - an American SUV comfortably fits within it's lanes in the US, but I've seen large American Ford SUVs over here (there used to be a guy in the vicinity of where I used to live that imported and sold American cars, trucks and SUVs), and it was pretty much up against the lane markings on either side, with no room for maneouvre within the lane. A Hummer over here won't physically fit in most lanes and would have the same difficulties as an HGV when it comes to negotiating small roundabouts, etc. I think I recall reading that the road infrastructure in the US is on average 30% larger than the rest of the world - this includes lanes, parking spaces, junctions, etc. But don't quote me on that.

Lane position while cornering, you shouldn't be taking the racing line. Cornering on public roads has nothing to do with corning on a race track. It might be fun, and let you take the corner a bit quicker or give your passengers a smoother ride by blending out the corner, but it won't win any points towards getting from A to B quickly and safely. For Americans driving on the right hand side of the road, you should hang to the right on a left hand bend, and vice versa. It's all about visibility around the corner/junction. If you can't judge where the offside of your car is, you need a smaller car.

Edit @ Dan above: those signs used to mean exactly that.

Still do for me, well, on the bike anyway, I tend to drive like a grandma in the car for some reason...........

Quote from jamesrowe :

Says the person that has held a licence for years aye Jack :P

...says the person that has held a license for years aye James? :P

2 Years is it now?

You don't have to have a license to know the speed limits, but it would handy vice versa!

Quote from ans7812 :

i passed my road test with no lessons at all, big whoop.

good ol yanks putting people down again.... come on there was no need for that.

Well done for passing your test!