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Schools closed, transport at a standstill, councils running out of salt …. UK is a country of wimps ….. one day sprinkling of snow and we can’t cope. Austria, Switzerland, Norway have it worse than us … and for longer, yet their daily lives don’t get affected.
It’s not comparing like with like though. Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Canada etc. have to carry on during the snowy harsh winters because they last weeks and weeks and occur almost every year. When we get severe winter weather here, it doesn’t normally last more than a few days at a time so we have the luxury of being able to close things down and wait fot a thaw, which they don’t have.
During the 1950’s the Bristol Car Company were active in sports car racing and they made various versions of a model called the 450 including a very odd-looking LeMans racer, the 450LM.
However Bristol found they couldn’t afford to keep up with the likes of Jaguar and pulled out of motor sport. The 450LM cars were scrapped. Or were they? There is a story that one was saved by a very wealthy overseas businessman who kept the car in a secret location in London. When he came over to Britain about once a year, he is said to have taken the car out for a drive at night around the streets of London.
Since the car has never come to light in over 50 years this urban myth seems to be just that, a myth.
Possibly. I think maybe a lot of flights from Europe had been cancelled because of the weather yesterday but it’s odd that I didn’t see a single plane – high-flying, low-flying, big or small, fixed wing or helicopter whan normally I’d see perhaps 30 or 40 in 2 hours.
I think if a foreign firm already has its own employees it’s OK to send them over to do jobs here if it’s short-term. On the other hand, if they need to recruit people for such a contract, they should recruit local to the job.
Just popped by but I’m off again now. Au revoir!
Kind
Artistic
Over 50
No middle-age spread yet
Love catsAs a Train Driver for over 30 years, we were taught “Be able to stop in the distance I can see to be clear”.
Yes. As a train driver you’d be particularly well aware of kinetic energy and how it increases with the square of speed. Railways have speed limits and I think I’m right in saying that train drivers observe them without question.
If road accidents happen at lower speed the consequences are normally less serious. You can’t equate a car park bump to high-speed loss of control on a bend.
One stretch of dangeropus road I used to drive regularly had no speed limit, or rather the national 60 mph limit. It was unsafe to exceed 50 mph on that road and I kept to 50, but used to get tailgated by impatient drivers. Then they introduced a 40 mph limit on that road and most vehicles go slower although they don’t all obey the limit. Having a suitable limit for a stretch of road removes that ‘perhaps I should be going a bit faster’ feeling when being harassed by a tailgater.If you are driving, you should be concentrating. If you are increasing your speed to the extent you need to concentrate MORE, you are probably driving too fast for the conditions.
Saying that slow drivers are more dangerous than fast ones is one of those highway myths.
Another one, in the early days of motoring, was that it was safest to speed up when you come to a crossroads because there’s less chance of being hit! I don’t think anyone subscribes to that one any more!Apart from driving dangerously and carelessly, more accidents are caused by low speed being the factor as the driver is less alert. This has been proved but of course, they can’t can’t drain as much money from the motorist as they can from speeding.
I travel in Germany regularly, where motorways are unrestricted …. far less accidents there than here.Absolute twoddle!
I’ve been driving 35 years and have been an HGV driver. An inattentive slow driver might be a nuisance but they are safer than an inattentive fast driver. The police and road research institutions consistently say that excessive speed is the main cause but not the only cause of road accidents.
The dual-carriageway speed limit for LGV’s (large goods vehicles – i.e. lorries over 7.5 tonnes gross weight) is already 50 mph. So there’s no change there for drivers of heavy lorries.
LGV’s are fitted with speed limiters which prevent them from exceeding 56 mph, even on motorways, where the law permits them to do 60 mph!
Lowering speeds on very busy stretches of motorway or dual-carriageway is not just a safety measure – if traffic can all be kept moving at the same pace, it flows more smoothly efficiently.
