I was on my way home from a lesson this afternoon. I thought I’d timed my home journey well enough to avoid the usual problems on Trent Bridge when Forest supporters leave a match.
Then this happened. I can only assume that the prat was using a Mobility scooter because his f–cking brain didn’t work properly (which is almost a given if he supports Forest). How is he allowed out unsupervised behaving like this?
This man should be in secure accommodation for his own safety
You can see from the expressions of the other apes who’d been to the match that they were aware of what he was doing and though it funny. The idiot could have been killed.
His scooter has no registration plates and is not a road-going vehicle. He was riding the wrong way down what is effectively a dual carriageway in the outside lane. He has no mirrors, and was purposely not looking at any traffic (he’s a Forest supporter, so has an attitude problem to start with). He is a criminal – as any car driver would be if they did that. More worrying is that his mental state has not been recognised and the scooter taken away from him. He is clearly incapable of using it safely.
What annoys me is that the Police don’t do anything about these retards. The Council put up those stupid barriers after that thing in London close to a decade ago, but Forest supporters just walk either side of them, and completely ignore crossings and traffic lights.
This article was originally written in 2010. It was due an update.
Some time ago, a magazine printed an article which implied that driving examiners had been failing people for crossing their hands when steering. It seems that this came about because the then latest update to DT1 (16/03/2010) – a DSA (DVSA) internal guidance document – had added the following:
To ensure uniformity, when conducting car or vocational tests and ADI qualifying examinations, only assess the candidate’s ability to control the vehicle and do not consider it as a fault if, for example, they do not hold the steering wheel at ten to two or quarter to three or if they cross their hands when turning the steering wheel. The assessment should be based on whether the steering is smooth, safe and under control.
It is worth considering what the previous version (dated 28/04/2009) said on the same subject. I’d paste it, but I can’t – because nowhere in that document does it say anything about the method of steering!
I think what had become clear to DVSA is that a few examiners had been failing people for crossing their hands, not holding the wheel at ten to two, and so on, and there had been complaints made. DT1 now clarifies the issue. The paragraph quoted above pretty much states that this is what had been happening, so now there is uniformity.
I think the magazine should have clarified the situation, but in actual fact it gave the usual group of ADIs more anti-DVSA material. However, ‘crossing hands’ is something many ADIs just don’t understand, and I suspect this applies to the magazine editors too.
When someone who has never driven before starts to steer, almost invariably they keep a firm grip on the wheel when turning. Their hands might start at ten to two or a quarter to three (using the clock face to describe hand position), but by the time they have turned the wheel half a revolution or so one way or the other their arms are crossed, and they can’t go any further. Most turns at junctions require at least ¾ of a revolution of the steering wheel, so the pupil ends up going wide and panicking. Crossing hands in this way – with a fixed grip on the wheel – is obviously not ‘under control’, and it is why it is important to get them into a good steering routine right from the start.
That good routine usually begins with the ‘pull-push’ method – or as I often word it when prompting someone ‘shuffle those hands!’
‘Hand over hand’ steering is not the same thing as ‘crossing hands’, and it never has been. It is perfectly safe and correct for pupils to reach over past one hand when turning if they are in control. It is a natural extension of ‘pull-push’ in order to get faster movement. No one has ever said that hands must remain on either side of the steering wheel.
It’s a tricky and delicate issue. Many examiners were once ADIs, and it is obvious that misunderstandings will be carried over. That’s what DVSA addressed with the changes to DT1.
I mention this simply because I was reading a forum where someone made the comment:
I’ve noticed the xmnrs are a bit more relaxed with steering these days and the crossing of hands seems to be allowed providing car control has not been affected.
As I have explained, ‘crossing hands’ was never actually an issue. It was made into one by ADIs like this, and it is typical of how the magazine article was interpreted by a lot of instructors – even though nothing had actually changed. Any previous problems with test fails due to ‘crossing hands’ or not holding the wheel at ten to two was down to individual examiners not knowing what they were doing. It wasn’t a change in DVSA policy.
I must stress that all the examiners I know are perfectly capable. I respect them, and I have no issues with them at all. And if they record a problem with steering, then I am pretty certain there was something genuinely wrong and they weren’t just misinterpreting their own guidelines.
Why shouldn’t I turn the wheel when the car isn’t moving?
Moving the wheel when the car is stationary is called ‘dry steering’. The examiners do not mark you on it, so it doesn’t matter if you do it or not during your test.
Doing it unnecessarily is bad practice for various reasons:
it can damage your tyres
it can damage your steering mechanism
it can rip up the road if the surface is hot
However, doing it occasionally isn’t going to cause any serious harm.
Normally, your tyres are rolling as you turn the steering wheel and when you dry steer, they are scrunched over whatever they’re sitting on top of instead. You can feel the extra resistance.
Dry steering needlessly is something to avoid, but there is absolutely no way your car is going to spontaneously fall apart if you use it when you need to. It is perfectly OK to use it when you are doing the manoeuvres on your test. And if you’re ever boxed in when you’re parked somewhere, you’re simply going to have to do it.
Do you teach dry steering?
These days – for manoeuvres – yes. And I have no shame over it.
When I first qualified, I had many of the same pigeon-holed ideas that other newly qualified ADIs have. I purposely taught people not to dry steer, and back then I would have defended that.
Even so, teaching people to do the manoeuvres, with fine clutch control, continuous slow vehicle movement, and getting one turn or full lock on was sometimes problematic and led to variations in the finishing positions. But that came to a head one time with one particular pupil – Ida.
She simply could not get the reverse bay park right, because she couldn’t coordinate her hands and feet. We’d been trying it for weeks, and I had an idea which initially I intended just for her – dry steering. It worked, and she could now do it (notwithstanding her other problem of knowing which way to steer).
Over the next few months, I drifted into using it for everyone, and I have never looked back. But only for manoeuvres – I don’t like them practicing steering when we are stationary (I deal with that by taking control of the pedals in an empty car park and getting them just to focus on steering as I move the car slowly).
Is dry steering a driving fault?
No.
Can dry steering damage my car?
If you were doing it all day, potentially, yes. But in real life driving you are going to have to do it whether you like it or not sometimes.
Can you believe this one? It happened today on a lesson. We’d just driven through Bestwood Village and were heading towards Bulwell.
We stopped at the traffic lights at the junction with Hucknall Road, and it was tipping down with rain. Then, a motor hearse drove through the junction just before the lights changed to red. I was just commenting that the day was already depressing enough, when it was followed by a horse-drawn hearse, which went through the the lights when they were probably on red. Then, a second horse-drawn hearse went through – and the lights were definitely on red this time, since ours were now green.
But what happened next was unbelievable. The hearses were being followed by a large convoy of mourners, and they proceeded to go through the lights while they were on red. The blue car in front of us pulled out when our lights turned to green, but then, one of the convoy went through red lights in the other lane to deliberately stop anyone from turning. The blue car blocked the junction, through no fault of his own, and had to reverse back when the assholes on the other side – who could see clearly what had happened – started sounding their horns at him when the lights changed again their side.
The convoy continued, and even after our lights went green again, they still continued through the red! They were all driving with their hazard lights on, so any signals were absent, of course.
Once we turned off Moor Bridge, I told my pupil to stay left, because there was no way we were going the same way that they were (they were either heading for High Wood Cemetery or Bramcote Crematorium). But even then, another one of them deliberately moved into the left hand lane to stop anyone passing.
And when we got to the junction with the A6002 – where they were all going – a white Volkswagen Golf GTi was blocking the junction again so that the convoy could proceed unimpeded!
Nottingham Police still do not accept dashcam footage unless you send them the SD card by carrier pigeon (and at £80 a pop, they can stuff that), but just in case they fancy getting off their fat arses and following any of this up, the registration numbers and vehicle details of some of these twats were as follows:
SP60 ULH – Silver SEAT Altea
GN63 GXX – White Audi A1 Sport
BL06 OCO – Black Lexus IS 220D
DE04 LGK – Silver BMW 320D
YG20 KFT – White BMW 118D M Sport
OY17 XOS – Grey Audi Q3 SE TDi
CE66 COH – White BMW X5 XDrive 40D
FH68 CYJ – Grey Volkswagen Tiguan SEL TDi (this one blocked the left hand lane for a while)
KN53 JVG – Black Ford Fiesta (this was the twat who blocked Moor Bridge to start with)
BJ06 AUL – Grey Renault Megane
CH08 LAN – Blue Maserati Levante D V6
SA17 ULU – Grey Vauxhall Corsa SRi Ecoflex
RF66 WHT – White Volkswagen Golf GTi (this one was illegally blocking the A6002 junction)
These are just the ones I passed – cleverly having their hazard lights on to identify themselves on camera. At least nineteen of them went through illegally in the initial convoy, plus the two horse-drawn hearses. Some were complete pimpmobiles.
Funeral processions obviously happen. But funerals are also personal – and there is no way they should be inflicted on anyone else, and especially not like this. Standard protocol (unless you’re a complete prat) is that you drive normally to the gates of the cemetery, then you can do the solemn stuff once you’re off the road and not inconveniencing the rest of the world. You do not – unless you are one of the aforementioned prats (which these clearly were) – do what happened here.
Those involved in this pathetic show probably had numerous offences against their names already. If the police get to see this, they might get a few more. And deservedly so. It was a show of utter arrogance, created danger and inconvenience for everyone else – and all because they wanted to show some stupid clannish affinity with someone had died.
This one happened a couple of weeks ago. I was on my way to a lesson, and turned into Mabel Grove in West Bridgford.
Peugeot Boxer 335, reg CK17 WPN
Mabel Grove is a narrow road, and only one car can pass each way at the best of times. So when I take my pupils down it, I always make sure they understand the importance of checking down the road before they turn in.
I immediately saw a van was blocking the road completely. It turned out he was making a delivery to a house that is being refurbished (probably a student HMO). I didn’t know that – I assumed it was a courier dropping off a parcel – so I turned in and parked so he could move away again once he’d finished.
As it happened, the van was making a delivery of building materials. Ironically, there was space either side for him to park, but the driver (‘boss’) was the SIlverback Mountain Gorilla type of tosser, and he chose to just stop and block the road, with no thought for anyone else. He was accompanied by an apprentice or trainee tosser, who walked slowly after each package of material was delivered to collect another, whilst glancing up and down the road at the tailback he and his mate were causing.
The house owner (or landlord) would have been completely aware of the delivery, and should have cleared their driveway to make things even easier. But they didn’t.
They had a full van of building materials, and they took their time. I stress, while blocking a significant through route.
In the video, once I’ve stopped, I’ve switched to time lapse. It took them a full ten minutes to finish, and another five minutes for the queues to clear. They did not hurry one bit, and it was all coolly calculated to be inconvenient – especially after I got out after five minutes and told the apprentice tosser they were just taking the piss (which they were).
They worked deliberately slowly. The apprentice tosser looked at the traffic each time he slowly – very slowly – walked to and from the van, clearly highly impressed with the arrogance he and his Silverback Mountain senior were exhibiting. People were getting out of cars to remonstrate and take photos.
Once they’d finally done, they calmly and deliberately sparked up to hold things up a little longer (and after the apprentice tosser had told his Silverback Mountain senior what I had said), and waited a little longer before moving away. No hurry, just deliberate stupidity.
There are some very, very sad creatures who are classed as human in this world. These were two such.
The van was a Peugeot Boxer 335, registration number CK17 WPN. The two occupants were registered at Twycross Zoo as exhibits in the monkey cages.
Last week, I was going to a lesson in Clifton and caught this near miss on my dashcam.
When you consider what the blue car was, and the speed he shot off at across the mini-roundabouts once the taxi turned off, the FedEx driver was nearly involved in a very unpleasant situation.
Another recent one, this time on the A453 near Clifton.
Vauxhall Vivaro 2900 Sportiv, reg FE65 LYG
My pupil was travelling at the speed limit (in fact, I’d told him to watch his speed as the GPS nudged 41mph). Then this van sped past, and flew across three lanes in those weather conditions. It was a silver Vauxhall Vivaro 2900 Sportiv, registration number FE65 LYG. Since we were doing 40mph, what does it look like he was doing?
This happened recently on the Priory Roundabout in Bramcote. The twat in question was driving a blue Mercedes GLE 450 AMG, registration number LN20 KYS.
Blue Mercedes GLE 450 AMG, reg LN20 KYS
Note that they used the right-turn only lane, and then cut in. It was completely deliberate, because as the title says, they are an arrogant tosser (as well as an awful driver, and probably known to the police).
This one involves a van driver, so not so much an ‘arrogant’ tosser as a borderline human. More of an above average monkey, I guess.
Specially Fitted Transit, reg MV62 VUG
Driving through Mapperley on a lesson, and this dickhead emerged from The Wells Road into traffic from both directions. It was a Specially Fitted Transit, registration MV62 VUG.
And another one in the same location at Wilford Lane off Loughborough Road.
Astra Energy, reg DK13 RVP
This time, white Vauxhall Astra Energy, registration number DK13 RVP. Why not just get in the correct lane to start with, instead of forcing your way in later? And I love how these prats think a signal gives them overall priority.
The problem is, they do it because it’s a learner driving. I’m also worried when it happens, also because its a learner driving – and if they panic, anything could happen.
Nothing annoys me more than people cutting in, and all the more so when they are doing it purely to gain advantage by using the wrong lane, speeding, and putting people at risk.
Black Lexus NX 300H, reg FN67 EDK
The Junction with Wilford Lane off Loughborough Road is a common location for these arrogant prats. This one was a black Lexus NX 300H, registration numberFN67 EDK.
