...select a lower gear before you reach a long downhill slope. This will help to control your speed.....
https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/general-rules-159-to-161
Learners should be reading that (others should be re-reading it).
...select a lower gear before you reach a long downhill slope. This will help to control your speed.....
Vorpal wrote:661-Pete wrote:News to me. Blimey! So I've been doing it all wrong, ever since I took my driving test some 45 years ago?! I had to google. From this site:Vorpal wrote:Drivers currently are taught to rely on their brakes. I had to take a UK driving test about 10 years ago, and I was in the habit of downshifting. I was told by a driving instructor in no uncertain terms that I must not do that.Engine braking during normal driving: Years ago it was considered ideal when slowing down or coming to a stop in a car, to use engine braking as the primary source of slowing or stopping. During a driving test for example, the driving examiner wouldn't be too impressed by a driver constantly using the gears as a means to slow down as the brake is the preferred method in modern driving.
The issue with engine braking and using the gears to slow the vehicle is that one of the drivers hands spends a good deal of time on the gear stick, where it would be better placed on the steering wheel. A certain amount of a drivers attention will be devoted to these downward gear shifts that would otherwise be better placed on the road ahead.
One thing I noted: this website is clearly aimed at British drivers, but this passage appears to have been written by an American writer (in the UK we talk of the 'gear lever' not the 'gear stick', and 'gear changes' not 'gear shifts'). I wonder whether this trend to rely on brakes is America-driven, seeing as almost all cars in the USA are automatics and engine braking is virtually unheard-of?
Another point: almost all cars nowadays have disk brakes on all four wheels. This was not so when I took the test: many cars back then had disks only on the front wheels, and drum brakes on the rear - and some (my old banger amongst them) had drum brakes all around. Now drum brakes are more prone to 'fading' during prolonged braking such as a long downhill (I've had experience of this!). So engine braking would certainly have been de rigeur in those times.
And another thought. In my old-banger days (again) brake linings were all made of asbestos. Now, even though the full dangers of asbestos were not as well known then as they are now, it was certainly regarded even then as a Bad Thing to pump too many clouds of asbestos straight into the atmosphere. So don't use the brakes too much! Nowadays of course, brake pads are made of something else (what?) so it's no longer an issue.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge of cars than I have, can confirm or correct these thoughts?
An American would never refer to a driving examiner. Drivers take driving tests in the USA, usually from a police officer. And the phrasing otherwise sounds British to me. Maybe it could be written by an Australian?
Brake pads thes days are made of composites or ceramics. Many of the composites are metallic, but there are also non-metallic composites. No asbestos, anymore
Disk brakes get more air circulation, so they are less prone to overheating. Drum bakes are more likely to experience fade, though modern brakes are less prone to that than older designs. Modern self-adjusting brakes, if correctly adjusted should compensate for the expansion of the drum. They can't compensate if the shoes get hot enough to glaze, but modern materials are less prone to that, and it is certainly possible to buy brake blocks that withstand very high temperatures without affecting function.
hondated wrote:Vorpal just as a matter of interest do they still get you to change down to the crawler gear on the test now then.
SA_SA_SA wrote:Highway code rule 160...select a lower gear before you reach a long downhill slope. This will help to control your speed.....
https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/general-rules-159-to-161
Learners should be reading that (others should be re-reading it).
SA_SA_SA wrote:661-Pete wrote:....I wonder whether this trend to rely on brakes is America-driven, seeing as almost all cars in the USA are automatics and engine braking is virtually unheard-of?
But automatics have low gear slots (eg 1,2) just for that:
it caught Dave Gorman out in America; he thought automatic meant low gear was selected automatically down steep hills (so didn't move the lever to such a low gear slot) and glazed the (fading) brakes whilst wondering why they weren't working so well as he descended...
Heltor Chasca wrote: ... The weight restriction sign banning such large vehicles on this road had been mowed down by a car weeks earlier and the council hadn't replaced it. ...
Police are continuing to investigate why the truck was on Lansdown Lane in Bath, where residents have long complained about lorries and other vehicles using it to skip around the centre of the city. The road has a width restriction but no weight limit.
thirdcrank wrote:Heltor Chasca wrote: ... The weight restriction sign banning such large vehicles on this road had been mowed down by a car weeks earlier and the council hadn't replaced it. ...
Are you sure about this? I'm interested because it would partly explain what I've been getting at above. OTOH, the streetview image to which I linked above showing width restriction signs but no weight restriction signs is dated August 2012. Also, signs of that type tend to be installed in pairs, as is the case with the width restriction signs here and one would normally remain in place if a crash knocked down the other.
from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... crash.htmlResidents described hearing the frantic sounding of a horn just before the crash and police said early witness reports suggest the driver of the 32-tonne lorry lost control after taking evasive action to avoid an earlier accident.
Yes.mark a. wrote:The Institute of Advanced Motorists also advise (at least they did a few years ago) the old "gears are for go, brakes are for slow" rule. Using the gears to slow down means you're using wrenching the clutch, unless you're double-declutching / rev-matching / heel-toeing, which most people don't know how to do. Brake pads are cheaper to replace than a clutch. There's also the issue of doing too many things at once, so the IAM technique means you've got hands on the steering wheel and one foot on the brake, not having to juggle gear levers, steering wheel, clutch and brake (and accelerator if rev-matching).
The IAM also wants you in the most suitable gear at all times. Most of the time these two rules align: brake to the desired speed, release the brake, then change down to the correct gear. The rules don't quite match on steep downhills, where you also want to be in a low gear - here IIRC they recommend that you can brake and change gear at the same time. Once you're in the low gear you're sorted.
My knowledge only applies to cars. I have no idea how HGVs do it, so relevance to this horrible crash is limited. I'm just replying to the side-topic of modern driving techniques and standards.
Another local resident described the tragedy as an ‘accident waiting to happen’, claiming he had warned the authorities that lorries had been a problem on the narrow thoroughfare as long ago as last April.
He said the problem had been exacerbated by construction work at the primary school.
Minutes from a council meeting in April show he asked: ‘Who will be held accountable if a child is killed or seriously injured?’ (My emphasis)
We have a Fiat 500. Two cylinders, 875cc Turbo. Goes like a rocket!
One thing I've found when driving it, there is little or no engine braking available.