perlmonger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
perlmonger) wrote2005-09-06 06:27 pm
perlmonger) wrote2005-09-06 06:27 pm
madness
I've just been reading (on cix:bikers if anyone cares) that the UK Official Line on learning to drive now is that using engine braking or even, Pry Mincer forfend, changing down to get more engine braking is bad, wrong and generally verboten.
I can just see all these new, approved drivers coming down a hill in Wales or the Highlands or the Pennines or anywhere not in Lincolnshire or East Anglia happily controlling their speed in 5th with their brakes until the magic smoke exits from their poor overstressed brakepads and they end up performing a graceful loop over a drystone wall followed by a plummet to a reservoir 500 feet below.
Still, their clutchplates won't wear out, so that's ok...
I can just see all these new, approved drivers coming down a hill in Wales or the Highlands or the Pennines or anywhere not in Lincolnshire or East Anglia happily controlling their speed in 5th with their brakes until the magic smoke exits from their poor overstressed brakepads and they end up performing a graceful loop over a drystone wall followed by a plummet to a reservoir 500 feet below.
Still, their clutchplates won't wear out, so that's ok...
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And will they reprogram all the automatically controlled manual gearboxes that do a rather neat double-declutch as you slow down...
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/me winds back upon observing that he's about to go into his standard everything-must-be-easy government-imposed-march-of-the-morons rant
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It's rather fun watching the LCD monitor on the dash showing just how and where the power is flowing...
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I still use the engine braking myself...
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Even driving a slushbox, I automatically (sorry) drop into 2 or low or whatever they call the thing when going downhill. I've more respect for my brakelinings and my neck not to.
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The recommendation has ALWAYS been to use the brake control to reduce speed mainly because unlike engine braking, the brake control causes the brake lights on the back to communicate your intent to the cars behind. But that doesn't mean that engine braking is outlawed or that even police drivers won't use it (any more than they will rigidly follow the 10-2 hand position and push/pull on the steering wheel at all times). Any advanced driver will tell you that common sense, rather than a rule book, comes into play in just about every circumstances.
I think this is just another instances of guidelines being written explicitly to avoid any legal repercussions that might arise from suggesting that "common sense" be followed. As usual, it gets left up to the court of law to determine if the guidelines were deviated sufficiently into the area of common sense to conclude whether any law was actually broken.
Pretty much how things have been for years.
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The same applies to morons who gaily drift across traffic before a junction and, finally, start signalling when there's no possible remaining doubt about where they are going.
But, hey! I don't suppose learners are taught clear, unabiguous signalling these days. That might require thought.
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(One could hope that Darwin's law would eliminate the worst offenders except that, sadly, the worst offenders almost always end up taking a few innocent lives with their final driving error.)
Natasha pointed out to me yesterday that she just has a couple of years to go before she's authorised to get behind the wheel of a vehicle. And Jordan will be there in much less time. Start fearing for the future of the human race in the vicinity of Sammamish...