Do you "still" enjoy driving?

I do NOT enjoy driving even with a nice comfortable SUV. The best part of what I find a very onerous process is the arrival at our destination.

Our latest experience last Friday was a five and a half hour trip travelling from Weymouth to North Buck. thinking how much five and a half hours workshop time would suit me much better compared to five and a half hours stuck behind a steering wheel !

Rik

Edited By Rik Shaw on 24/07/2022 10:23:43

A great deal depends on the road and who else is using it!

Cruising down an empty motorway soon gets tedious. Slow progress on a busy motorway is even worse. My expectations are low - motorways are designed to get us and goods efficiently from A to B. They're not meant to be entertaining; excitement on a motorway is always bad!

Quiet ordinary roads are much more enjoyable, very like a good video game, without crashes we hope. Unfortunately quiet roads are the exception where I live. They're littered with road-works and other traffic, lots of it. And a proportion of other traffic is anti-social: bad parking, lane hogging, queue-jumping, caravans, failing to make progress, push-bikes 'dominating the road', speed-merchants (a class wrongly convinced they are good drivers), drunks, mobile phone users, unwise motor-bikes, undertaking etc. Plus innocent troublemakers like Learners, breakdowns, speed limited lorries, heavy loads crawling up hills, tractors, lost and baffled drivers, horses and traction engines, plus children and pensioners trying to cross the road.

The route between me and my mother varies unpredictably. On a good day the journey is a pleasurable quick run, 15 to 20 minutes. On a bad day it's an irritating obstacle course. Worst time so far - nearly two hours.

Dave

I've a somewhat similar distance trip tomorrow (Monday), and from Weymouth; but both ways - to one of this forum's private sellers so at least it's workshop-related.

No, I don't enjoy driving very much, most of the time. It's the object of the journey that matters.

Even so there are times when it's pleasurable. For example, when I go away, rarely now, for a weekend at my NW Yorkshire-based caving-club sometimes I return via the Border Counties (Shropshire etc.) as although slower and probably longer than using the M6 / M5 it's far less monotonous and stressful - two aspects that can both be very tiring. It also passes through lovely scenery.

Similarly, my direct Fosse Way route to the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre is a lot more pleasant then via the motorways - the latter being probably the further anyway although with the advantage of bypassing Bath and Bristol. (Would I also now need pay a congestion-charge for crossing Bath on the Frome - Moreton route?)

' ' '

(Re the motorways... Any planners here please note: the Cheshire Plain would look even nicer without the rash of tacky advertising hoardings on old lorry trailers; and who the hell gave permission for those awful digital ad displays on poles in West Bromwich, and the wilfully eye-sore waste-incinerator in the Gloucestershire countryside?)

I used to enjoy driving until I became a Firefighter and attended many many road traffic collisions. It beggars belief the state a human body can get into and still remain alive..for a while anyway. I watched too many people die.

Far too many aggressive people on the roads with no idea what can happen to you when cars collide.

I actually consider driving beneath me now, I have to do it, but there's not an ounce of pleasure in it.

These days, I tend to agree with that quote from the excellent movie 'Repo Man'.

'The more you drive, the less intelligent you are'.

Edited By Gaunless on 24/07/2022 11:48:21

I have just driven 260 miles back from Cornwall on A roads but this also applies to M roads, how do people manage to constantly tailgate at say 80 mph and think that is OK? Will anyone on this forum admit to tail gating & explain the rationale behind it?

Tony

I still like driving on quiet roads but now have got very frightened of riding the bikes (a mental problem). I absolutely hate the M6, from Birmingham to Preston, and driving in Bath and Bristol.

For your routes Bath can be avoided by using a small toll bridge at Bathampton (connects the old A4 to A36) or by going through Keynsham using Avon Mill Lane.

I am not sure about Bath's congestion charges (I don't drive there) but Bristol will be enforcing pollution charges in the autumn.

JA

.

The rationale is easy … They are either trying to bully you, or taking advantage of your slipstream

Both perfectly reasonable on the racetrack … BUT

MichaelG.

I don’t buy either of those explanations, most likely stupid which seems prevalent these days! Thinking about it, bullying yes.

Tony

Edited By Tony Pratt 1 on 24/07/2022 14:40:26

I find easing off the throttle a little gets them to take the hint and I've recently fitted a rear facing dash cam which makes a big difference.

Martin P

Edited By martin perman on 24/07/2022 15:07:59

Hi, like Martin Perman, I have a rear facing dash cam and it's quite surprising the number that come racing up behind tailgate for a moment or two and then I guess they notice the camera and drop back a good bit, but otherwise I'll just slow down and down until they get the hint, many I see now-a-days are young girls rather than boys years ago.

Regards Nick.

Ah, something I've just remembered - has anybody mentioned electronic billboards like the ones by the M5 going through Brum?!!!

I think these are not only desparately annoying, but distracting and seriously likely to cause collisions. They shouldn't be allowed.

I think I'll copy this into the 'Whaddya Want Banned' thread.

.

If you think about it for a little longer, Tony … You might even buy the slipstreaming explanation

[ idiotic as such behaviour may be on the public roads ]

MichaelG.

If I had a car old enough to be able to understand the electrics I'd fit a push button to activate the brake lights without actually touching the brakes. In my view tailgating is more dangerous than speeding on the motorway. My boss used to do it all the time until I refused to travel with him. Perhaps the autonomous cars could be programmed to prevent getting too close, linked to speed. It would be easy to fit distance sensing and a hidden rear camera to an unmarked police car and catch endless offenders, but in my town they stick to catching people doing more than 40 on a dual carriageway which has no houses on it. There is no good reason for it being 40, hence they catch loads of people.

When I drive to the Yorkshire coast from Leicester other then a short stretch of A1 I can drive on the old A road route I drove on from the 60’s in much the same time as using mostly motorway. Going that way is much more satisfying than being constantly enclosed in other vehicles.

Duncan, my Volvo has what you suggest. In active cruise control you set a max speed and set distance to car in front.They slow down, I automatically slow down, they speed up, so do I. Its done by radar. Too clever for me but it saves you accidentally running into the back of someone.

There are lots of these old roads that run parallel to motorways and main dual carriage ways. Usually they just have local traffic until there is an accident on the motorway/truck road. They are easy to find on a proper map and some are now not even B roads. Ones that come quickly to mind (I live in the south of England) are the old Exeter to Oakhampton road, some of the A38 and A4. Just a warning, some of these routes are just as back as they used to be, such as the Lutterworth to Kettering old road. I have great memories of the Thrapston to Ware, through Huntingdon, road.

JA

.

A very old trick, used a lot in in club Rallying

Of course, if you’re comfortable with the pedals, it’s easy enough to left-foot brake just sufficiently to activate the lights and accelerate away from the #### for good measure

MichaelG

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/07/2022 20:43:02

Yes, but by the time you think of that you're usually already going as fast as you feel comfortable with.

At a Speed Awareness Course I was once at, the instructor(!) actually suggested diverting one of the rear screenwash squirters to spray the vehicle behind - but I guess you have to decide whether that's more important than a clean rear screen, so I doubt many would do it.

Edited By Mick B1 on 24/07/2022 20:58:28

“Needs must, when the Devil drives”

MichaelG.

.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1985-0119-309

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/07/2022 21:14:09

Well after riding not driving around 150 miles on my ridiciously powerful Ducati Multistrada. In the rain today. I did not really enjoy it & started to ask myself if it is time to pack in riding motorcycles. Maybe i should being an old fart with much less brain activity as i used to have , if any.

I think i should stick to driving my old Jaguar 5.0 R F-type. At least that has four huge wheels & a heater.

Steve.