I drove a normal car yesterday

[brynpoeth]

If we are going to continue driving cars then ultimately automatic gearboxes will be the norm.
Not sure the timescale but self driving cars will be the only ones available. Like trains and modern signalling system , it will enable more cars to be on a given stretch of road. Just get in a car tell it where you want to go and just sit back Lots of technical problems to overcome first but it'll will happen. It should end road rage and tail gating

I predict your predictions are wrong, cannae offer alternatives mind
Besides, a hundred years ago grandad used to drink too much at the Blue Lion, he jumped on his horse who took him safely home without fail, simples

[Bonefishblues]

One of the advanced driving thought experiments is to drive with a large bowl of water sitting on your lap.
Drive smoothly and gently, and you stay dry.

Richard Balantine(sp?), of Richard's Bicycle Book fame, proposed that drivers should sit in a glass bubble sticking out of the front of their vehicles with a long spike sticking out of the steering wheel!

Mick also made that suggestion earlier.

I've done a couple of driving courses which included a tennis ball in a dish on the bonnet - very hard to keep it it in, especially when being timed. Oddly, I was better on a course on a skid pan with bald tyres and virtually zero grip.

[Cugel]

One of the advanced driving thought experiments is to drive with a large bowl of water sitting on your lap.
Drive smoothly and gently, and you stay dry.

Richard Balantine(sp?), of Richard's Bicycle Book fame, proposed that drivers should sit in a glass bubble sticking out of the front of their vehicles with a long spike sticking out of the steering wheel!

Mick also made that suggestion earlier.

I've done a couple of driving courses which included a tennis ball in a dish on the bonnet - very hard to keep it it in, especially when being timed. Oddly, I was better on a course on a skid pan with bald tyres and virtually zero grip.

It used to be an egg, as they make a mess o' the bonnet, which is worse than running over a pedestrian in the mind of many owners of a pride&joy.

Why would there be a need to time a driving skills course with the tennis ball (or egg)? Is this just another "I'm in a car so I must go as fast as possible because .... everyone does it!" ???

To the spike et al I would add a lock of the doors follwed by a compulsory half hour lecture by a hologram of the UC, should a driving rule be broke or even if the driver is over-vigorous with a foot pedal.

Cugel

[merseymouth]

Hi MickF, Sorry but you are wrong about gear-box failures in modern cars!
Between Dual Density Flywheels and "Sham" Auto Boxes the list of current transmission failures is way too long. A proper Fluid Flywheel Auto box may be old technology, but it will outlast the Semi-Auto Transmission being foisted of ignorant consumers.
The modern auto box car that is worth looking at is the Kia Picanto, small but perfectly formed, very relaxing drive.
The only really complicated gearbox that I know of is the old Pre-Selector Boxes, real box of tricks! IGICB MM

[Bonefishblues]

Richard Balantine(sp?), of Richard's Bicycle Book fame, proposed that drivers should sit in a glass bubble sticking out of the front of their vehicles with a long spike sticking out of the steering wheel!

Mick also made that suggestion earlier.

I've done a couple of driving courses which included a tennis ball in a dish on the bonnet - very hard to keep it it in, especially when being timed. Oddly, I was better on a course on a skid pan with bald tyres and virtually zero grip.

It used to be an egg, as they make a mess o' the bonnet, which is worse than running over a pedestrian in the mind of many owners of a pride&joy.

Why would there be a need to time a driving skills course with the tennis ball (or egg)? Is this just another "I'm in a car so I must go as fast as possible because .... everyone does it!" ???

To the spike et al I would add a lock of the doors follwed by a compulsory half hour lecture by a hologram of the UC, should a driving rule be broke or even if the driver is over-vigorous with a foot pedal.

Cugel

Because faster smoothly is more skilful than crawl along at tickover, so it accelerates (see what I did there) the learning.

[thirdcrank]

My own claim to fame is that about fifty years ago I drove around for an hour with a Pye Pocketphone transmitter on the roof without its falling off. It was the hour between 0500 and 0600 on a Sunday so no dashing about in those carefree days. The main point is that I didn't know it was up there. Anything like trying to balance a goldfish bowl full of piranhas on your head is a distraction from the job in hand, in this case driving safely. Anybody unsure of how smoothly they drive need only buy a dashcam of the type with the sensors: you get tracks along your footage recording heavy use of the pedals.

[Lance Dopestrong]

Flipping 'eck, I just caught the last days of the Burndept radios - you must be one hundred and eleventy twenty years old if you had the Pye Pocketphone!

[thirdcrank]

We were issued with them in July 1968. As I said, the incident was about 50 years ago. FWIW, I'm 74 and I have been drawing my pension almost 22 years.


For anybody remotely interested and wondering what I'm wittering on about, here's a pic. The officer is holding the transmitter bit.

Pocketfone.jpg (9.24 KiB) Viewed 173 times

[Lance Dopestrong]

50, been 10-11 over 2 years.

[Mick F]

Black Cat time.
Black Catting, is saying that my black cat is blacker than your black cat.

I've been drawing my Service Pension since leaving the RN in early April 1996.
That's just a tad over 23years.
Four years more, and I'll have been a Service Veteran longer than I was actually serving.

[Cugel]

Black Cat time.
Black Catting, is saying that my black cat is blacker than your black cat.

I've been drawing my Service Pension since leaving the RN in early April 1996.
That's just a tad over 23years.
Four years more, and I'll have been a Service Veteran longer than I was actually serving.

I have reported you all to The Millenials and their agent The News Papper Boomer-Catcher & Persecution Division! They will have your pensions transformed into a Save The Millenials fund, which will soon by raided by Sir Pipsqueak so he can have another party in the South of France.

I left my own name off the list of reportees, though but .... so I should be all right.

Cugel, another sponging lily of the field part-way from me cradle to me grave.

[Lance Dopestrong]

Black Cat time.
Black Catting, is saying that my black cat is blacker than your black cat.

I've been drawing my Service Pension since leaving the RN in early April 1996.
That's just a tad over 23years.
Four years more, and I'll have been a Service Veteran longer than I was actually serving.

That's the name of the game - screw the pension for longer than you paid into it.

[francovendee]

If we are going to continue driving cars then ultimately automatic gearboxes will be the norm.
Not sure the timescale but self driving cars will be the only ones available. Like trains and modern signalling system , it will enable more cars to be on a given stretch of road. Just get in a car tell it where you want to go and just sit back Lots of technical problems to overcome first but it'll will happen. It should end road rage and tail gating

I predict your predictions are wrong, cannae offer alternatives mind
Besides, a hundred years ago grandad used to drink too much at the Blue Lion, he jumped on his horse who took him safely home without fail, simples

Maybe we should swap the cars for horses Not sure it would be safer for cyclists though. I've been on a narrow path and met a horse rider coming the other way. As usual I stopped to let them pass. No attempt to keep the horse away from me and not a word or nod from the rider. To cap it all the horse let off a fart as it passed me. Was this it's comment on cyclists?

[brynpoeth]

Indeed, cows and doubtless horses emit a lot of CO2

[merseymouth]

Hi there, When it comes to long time pension drip?
A chap I knew years ago was a Mr Ted Rimmer, served in WW1, wounded & survived, after demob joined Liverpool City Police.
If I remember correctly on retirement at 52 he got his pension which he lived to enjoy for 53 years! Lovely man, worth a chat with.
Top that? TTFN MM