Rolling car

[meic]

Maybe vehicles could be equipped with chocks to put behind the wheels

I understand some modern vehicles do have a device to stop them slipping back

Is it too much to expect people driving in a hilly city to use the handbrake?
Stupid question, yes that would be too much to expect

Not sure if using the handbrake is even taught to new drivers now

Possibly the driver had no controls for the handbrake. I once drove a Renault with a fully automatic handbrake and I could not prevent it from rolling back on starting (it was on a serious slope). It was a matter of getting your foot from footbrake to accelerator as quickly as possible because it released the handbrake before you had got the load on the engine.

[Vorpal]

There is a trick to letting the clutch out just enough to 'hold' a car on the slope, then transferring the foot from brake to accelerator.

It's not especially good for the clutch, but it prevents roll back.

Of course, younger drivers mostly won't know this, because it's not in the cirriculum at driving schools.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Just look at brake lights on cars when stopped at traffic lights.................

[mjr]

The A road might be, the side road - not so much

The OP is travelling along the main road, so I don't understand why low traffic levels on the side road mean you wouldn't use the substandard route.

It was response to this:

The shared-use path was upgraded a couple of years ago and the council announced that they had no intention of making any sort of changes to priorities, as that might hold up the traffic...

OK, but why does low traffic levels matter to that either?

And you did follow "It's not as if the road looks like a major bottleneck for local traffic" immediately with "The farcility is not one I'd be using..." so hopefully you can see why I thought that you wouldn't be using it because there's low traffic on the side road.

[Mick F]

Hi,
Just look at brake lights on cars when stopped at traffic lights.................

That is my hobby horse!

Read the HC Rule 114
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/lightin ... ments.html

[Cyril Haearn]

Hi,
Just look at brake lights on cars when stopped at traffic lights.................

That is my hobby horse!

Read the HC Rule 114
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/lightin ... ments.html

Sorry Mick
"should", not "must"

[AlaninWales]

Hi,
Just look at brake lights on cars when stopped at traffic lights.................

That is my hobby horse!

Read the HC Rule 114
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/lightin ... ments.html

Apparently on some automatics, the stop-start technology will restart the engine if the driver takes their foot off the brake pedal - choice of either running the engine with brake lights off or dazzling the driver behind to keep the engine stopped whilst waiting .

[meic]

There is a trick to letting the clutch out just enough to 'hold' a car on the slope, then transferring the foot from brake to accelerator.

It's not especially good for the clutch, but it prevents roll back.

Of course, younger drivers mostly won't know this, because it's not in the cirriculum at driving schools.

How much engine power will the ECU supply to stop it stalling?
For somebody like myself who always uses the handbrake, it was a dilemma trying to set off on this thing from the steep drive (with a garage door behind). I know that the owner hit the door a few times at first and also hated the automatic handbrake.

[[XAP]Bob]

The OP is travelling along the main road, so I don't understand why low traffic levels on the side road mean you wouldn't use the substandard route.

It was response to this:

The shared-use path was upgraded a couple of years ago and the council announced that they had no intention of making any sort of changes to priorities, as that might hold up the traffic...

OK, but why does low traffic levels matter to that either?

And you did follow "It's not as if the road looks like a major bottleneck for local traffic" immediately with "The farcility is not one I'd be using..." so hopefully you can see why I thought that you wouldn't be using it because there's low traffic on the side road.

Because holding up traffic on a low traffic road at a junction with a high traffic road is a no-op, it's already held up by the traffic on the high traffic road.

And no - I can't see why you didn't just follow my teleporting train of thought...

[Vorpal]

How much engine power will the ECU supply to stop it stalling?
For somebody like myself who always uses the handbrake, it was a dilemma trying to set off on this thing from the steep drive (with a garage door behind). I know that the owner hit the door a few times at first and also hated the automatic handbrake.

The idea is to let the clutch out to the point just before the engine stalls. I imagine it would be possible to find a hill steep enough that this wouldn't work, but I've done it on some pretty steep hills.

I'm not sure how an ECU will respond to the combination of brake and clutch release, and I haven't tried it with any cars built in the last 5 years, either, however, they must have considered that someone might do this.

It was something I practised a bit to get the hang of; when I was a kid we had a farm truck on which the hand brake had probably not functioned since sometime in the 1960s.

Using the handbrake is not a thing in the USA. When I learned to drive, no one ever told me to put the hand brake on at lights. Most people there call it a 'parking brake' because that's basically what it is on automatics. I had to learn to use a hand brake (properly ) to get a British driving licence.

[Cyril Haearn]

Hi,
Just look at brake lights on cars when stopped at traffic lights.................

That is my hobby horse!

Read the HC Rule 114
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/lightin ... ments.html

Apparently on some automatics, the stop-start technology will restart the engine if the driver takes their foot off the brake pedal - choice of either running the engine with brake lights off or dazzling the driver behind to keep the engine stopped whilst waiting .

One could just switch off the engine

[brooksby]

Some background, for non-locals:

The main road - A369 - is, as mjr pointed out, the main road for people coming from Portishead and surrounds into Bristol. Its not a big road, but during 'rush hour' its pretty much nose to tail (or, vehicles travelling a couple of car lengths apart at 50 mph), so its not exactly a friendly environment to cycle on. I use the shared-use path along the side, going toward Bristol. I used to stay on the road coming back (its more downhill), but have gradually lost my nerve, and got sick of people shouting at me during the summer, to get back on the [removed]-ing cycle path.

The side road just goes out into the countryside/lanes, getting smaller and smaller. Its not a convenient through road, so clearly the woman in the car lives down there somewhere. Which makes her a local, which means she knows that the pavement there is a cycle route. The side road rises up toward the main road, hence why (I imagine) she was having issues with the car rolling away.

The whole episode ticked me off, honestly, and the more because she somehow thought that she'd taught me a lesson about leaving sufficient space when passing behind 'stationary' cars. The fact that she appeared not to be in sufficient control of her vehicle even when it was 'stationary' seemed to pass right over her head, as did the necessity to look both ways. I wonder if she'd have set off on such a rant if her car had rolled back into a kid on a scooter, or a pushchair?

[mjr]

I used to stay on the road coming back (its more downhill), but have gradually lost my nerve, and got sick of people shouting at me during the summer, to get back on the [removed]-ing cycle path.

I know what you mean about getting sick of it, but I used to get that on the nearby A370 and there's no [removed]-ing cycle path on it. I didn't ride the A369 enough to suffer it there - only for occasional Business West events at Abbots Leigh.

It's depressing and there's a complete leadership vacuum at North Somerset Council about transport - they seem very much reactive rather than proactive.

[thirdcrank]

Surely, nobody is suggesting that riding the clutch is good driving? Apart from anything else, there's a real risk of the vehicle running backwards, just as happened here.

[Cyril Haearn]

Vehicles could/should be fitted with an automatic parking brake that applies as soon as one stops. Plenty of motons are afraid of starting, they crawl forward at the lights, grrr

I love my clutch, when maneuvering I do not touch the gas, move off and into second gear with left foot only