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from the youtube-dashcam-accidents-guaranteed-for-years-to-com dept.
Sunday Times Driving reports under 50% of surveyed UK drivers know what a roundabout sign looks like, and only 68% knew what the speed bump sign means.
The survey was conducted by the Institute of Advanced Motorists, with 1,000 participants.
Only 32% of drivers knew you should allow at least a two-second time gap to the vehicle ahead when driving on a dry open road. It appears many motorists are conflating this with two car lengths in distance, as 53% of those surveyed responded with that answer.
[...] Younger motorists were the most likely to answer incorrectly, with 17 to 39 year-olds having the lowest correct answer percentage rates in 14 of the 23 questions, but older drivers didn't do very well either.
The Sunday Times article has an embedded googleforms survey, so you can test your knowledge of UK road rules.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday October 22 2018, @04:17PM (2 children)
But pulling these two out as the first examples of driver crappiness struck me as odd. These signs are just making sure you're notified in advance of things that you should already be able to notice and properly react to on your own.
At least, in my corner of the U.S. speed bumps are usually painted yellow and/or generally not on major streets where you'd get surprised by them. You shouldn't be tearing around parking lots at a speed that hitting a speedbump unawares would do much damage to your car in the first place.
Is it 2 seconds now? I was taught 4 circa 2002.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:57AM (1 child)
It was two seconds 50 years ago, then went to 3 and later 4 seconds when the various Nanny States decided that people were too stupid to use their brain and increase the value for low visibility/wet/etc conditions. It's like speed limits are fixed values, so if it's a wet night in poor conditions you'd normally slow down. But, speed cameras don't work like that, so no problems we'll lower speed limit for the worst case. Then in broad daylight at 6am on a summer weekend when there is visibility for miles and the road is grippy, the revenue camera can book you for doing the road's 'natural' speed of 50 when the sign and camera are set to 35.
They worked out that more than 2 seconds is basically impossible to achieve in the crowded high traffic roads that is common these days. So they brought it down to 2 seconds. Meanwhile, clowns decide that half a car length at 70 mph is more than enough - and besides it saves fuel to sit right up someone's arse in their slipstream.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:33PM
For example, if you expect drivers to leave a 4 second gap then your yellow lights should never be shorter than 4 seconds.