me too Carol.
I don't think this is arrogance. It is just plain bad manners. I am old enough that when young I was taught my P's & Q's which meant that I had to be respectful towards other people and then especially my elders. Today that does not seem to exist!
apologies for name error to DAVID, donāt know which one! of course it was Mark Rās discussion, not Davidās!
yes I agree - donāt know if itās correct or not but think I was told by someone years ago, that it is French law specifically to indicate when overtaking and on roundabouts, but not law in other instances, because road markings and signposts are there to indicate correct positioning. Up here itās about giving way to all traffic coming from right, unless there is a solid white line at their junction. It frightens me when in my friends car, RHD, she drives straight along without pausing to even glance left, on the assumption that anything coming from that direction would be be aware itās her Junctions right of way anyway! at least 2 of them are actually on virtually blind bends, due to 1 being a short length tunnel under railway line! The other being obscured by field hedging! Of course Iām sitting in passenger seat on LHS of the car - first in line of fire as it is. Because of angles and visual obstructions I canāt turn my head sufficiently to see left anyway to tell her if there is something coming. The short tunnel is the worst one as neither direction can see if there is an oncoming vehicle from right or left or if both will reach the opening at same time! Not a journey I relish, but she is a good safe driver generally, in her car handling, if not her awareness at those times! She was a Taxi driver up in Lancashire for many years with no accident record. The fact she will drive after having a couple of drinks, is also concerning, not at night for me fortunately, because with so little traffic late after dark, in the country at least other car headlights in the lanes are visible from a distance.
Shirley, it was my original post.
To me it does not matter what the position of these people's visitors, it still does not allow you to park in the middle of a road! Would you stop in the outside lane of a motorway? At least on the hard shoulder you are not impeding the flow of traffic. (Yes, I know it is for emergencies only but I'm sure you get the point.)
These people blocked a road, nobody could pass them. Common courtesy would demand that they moved their cars, drove a circuit of 200 metres to arrive back in the same spot, by which time their passengers might be ready. They chose to ignore the queue of cars that had built up behind them when a friendly wave as they got into their cars would have diffused the temper of those behind.
The difference might be that UK drivers are the ones least certain because they are RHD on LHD roads. However, I do remember one very distinct difference between the very crowded SE of England and the part of Wales we lived in against my years in rural East Anglia. Where the traffic is really heavy people move into lanes opportunistically to turn left a right, in single lane roads just dart off at the last moment, the roundabout rules are a bit different and given the number of things people are doing, even in an automatic, signalling is the last thing they think about. Perhaps it would not enter my mind if this was Paris or another heavily populated area. Like our big city is Bergerac where if someone farts on one side they hear it on the other and 90% of people on the road are probably country hicks like yours truly. So perhaps I am being subjective, but it disturbs when people do not signal.
On the roundabouts, no difference by gender in my opinion. What gets me is undertaking because people go right round outside instead of doing it right and the people who dash out just in front of you from the feeder road to do that when you are just about to go right from the inside lane. It is not only dangerous but not even necessary.
because a lot, if not most, of drivers in French and or foreign registered cars do so Brian? More importantly, you and I both know, itās too easy (for others) to make assumptions about someone or something without thinking there may be a v good neurological or other reason behind a person doing or saying particular things.
As in Davidās original piece about the airport parking, it COULD have been that the passengers waited for, were last off plane, last to collect luggage, then had to go to the loo, facts unknown at time to those waiting! they may have expected their visitors to be out as quickly as Davidās were. Ok I concede he may well have been correct in making his point - but he equally could have given better consideration to the situation and the reasons others were stopped there for so long, instead of jumping down their throats, hooting as much - lets face it he obviously didnāt know and looked at it from HIS perspective only. Arrogance is a 2 way street and tolerance is in very short supply these days!
ouch Peter! Men can just as bad as well you know , especially at roundabouts when they just cut across others because they are in the wrong lane.
I Always used indicators in UK and here for overtaking and turning L or R, when necessary in f t, even if no other vehicle in sight, shame I forgot to putmy haazard lights on though before the other driver drove into me! My biggest bugbear was on motorways back in UK when youād often see single, some older and younger women drivers just hogging the centre lane. Women do seem to hate having to overtake lorriesor being the filling in the sandwich! I found driving on the autoroutes over here a pleasure, especially because there was less traffic than in UK. The M25 ring road and M20-M/A2 were a nightmare, especially sometimes when there were foreign registered lorry drivers on them.
The UKs clogged up roads must make it far more difficult to drive a LHD car, especially for overtaking, but where we live here itās simple because there is very little traffic and no real need to overtake.Having been back to the UK just recently I donāt know why we ever owned a carā¦its horrendously stressful!
Not if you adapt. One of the first things I did on arrival here years ago was to buy a LHD car. It is a little easier to overtake if you are in a hurry but John is right, technique is all & it is possible to drive anything in a safe manner with a little thought. I had no problems driving my 1944 DUKW or my armoured Half Track on UK roads although they are LHD & visibility of one's immediate surroundings are limited. The Dukw is like driving a 30 foot by 8 foot bath with a 10 foot bonnet. You just had to keep looking & thinking.
The reasons for changing my car was that it is easier to pay for fuel & of course I no longer felt like a tourist.
The Gengarmes do confiscate dodgy cars here - I have seen a few go through the auctions & RHD cars go really cheap!
In this case it is indoctrination. I went to Merton Abbey primary school between 8 and 11 which is on the site of Merton Place. Next door in the church, then Nelson Gardens inside the entrance there are two original cannon from Victory that were used at Trafalgar. They were originally on wood an iron mounts but after an attempt to steal them they were remounted in cast concrete. The original mounts were bequeathed to the school where they became a kind of high altar around which every detail of Nelson's life was recalled on every possible occasion. Talk about drummed in...
Brian, you really are full of useless information !
That means that Nelson coming from Burnham Thorpe was a nasty northerner too. Funny (well not really) about everywhere he lived. The house there long since demolished, Merton Place where he lived with Emma Hamilton demolished, Victory was badly damaged at Trafalgar and was not actually able to move under her own sail so was all but reconstructed at Gibraltar before taking Nelson home to Greenwich four months later. So nothing that was ever his really exists. Now if he had come from the south...
Yes, sorry Brian - I meant sons of Norfok not GS - I can't imagine anyone famous coming from Great Snoring....
Turkey man is a South Norfolk man so obviously the salt of the earth, not lke those nasty northerners who all talk funny...
It was meant to be provocative Liz. The intention is to get a reaction and maybe spark a debate, no more....
But no offence intended.
Having toured France over very many years and lived here for 5 its become the norm for me and don't even think about it many years ago LHD cars were exceptionally cheap in the UK so many of us young uns bought them .As for drunk drivers having spent 2 years in and out of hospital due to a drunk driver i am a little biased looking on the bright side i bought my first house from the compensation in 1969 so they aren't all bad
I have one RHD car and one LHD car and have done for the past nine years. I would prefer it if they were both LHD but there is no way that the RHD car can be considered to be more dangerous. I have several very good reasons for keeping the RHD car which make real sense to me and one of them is the safety of me and other road users!
Nope, not just. I am NOT picking on Brits, but why do they seem to think that indicating is an optional extra here in France?
Like Liz, I have a pretty clean record for coming up half a century. One speeding fine here and one accident that was not my fault but I was reversing when woman on phone drove into me instead of stopping, one other unreported bump in something like 1972. I have driven right and left in around 20 countries, but always tried to avoid RHD in LHD and vice versa. The year in Portugal we had one of each, which we had had in England, went with us to Wales and whilst I replaced my RHD there, within six months of moving here I replaced with a French car. One point I have learned, for breakdowns, servicing and so on the garages prefer it their way round - but OK that's them.
I used to use former RAF Little Snoring, at least the part of which is still an active airfield. I thought the turkey man was from Brooke?
er, Having driven cars in 6 countries in varying weather conditions for years in each one (including -50 in the far north of Ontario, where whiteoutsare common), I have never had a speeding ticket, or been accused of any traffic related offence or had an accident. I taught my three older children to drive in the US and they, now in their 40's, can claim a similar driving record in two countries. I know many, many women like me who can also change tyres, plugs, check our oil and other fluid levels... so Peter, I rather resent your perhaps deliberately provocative comment ....and yes, I am driving a legal french plated/insured RHD here only as it was the quickest answer to a replacement car. I fully intendto return to LHD as soon as possible.
Why is it that female car owners when choosing a vehicle never go for the optional extras like Indicators and Brakes etc ?