Car (or bike) Chat!

[Marco]

Many people don't care. It's an appliance to them.

Indeed, Edd. That's the problem, and also one of the reasons for the birth of these soulless electric 'means of conveyance', as car manufacturers simply cater for the latest trends, and design their vehicles accordingly in line with the requirements of the undiscerning masses, who are only too happy to accept what they're given

Marco.

[Marco]

If enough drivers (like yourself) avoid these smart motorways like the plague, traffic volume on them will be reduced and so congestion greatly reduced, which is the aim. Job done! Pretty smart, eh?

Ha - very good! Either way, I'll rarely experience their 'joys', as my lifestyle thankfully allows me to largely avoid them!

Marco.

[Marco]

My view on French roads: Most locals won't bother with the autoroutes for short journeys as they don't want to pays tolls, and the Peage is a pain in the arse. Makes their motorways much less clogged than ours. We on the other hand will jump on the motorway just to the next junction.

Who's "we"? Maybe you, not me. Unless it was an emergency, that's the last thing I'd do.

French roads are mostly a joy to drive on, but their motorways are often as soulless as any other, hence why when we go to France by car, or to Italy, we use the main roads instead (or sometimes secondary roads), even if it takes longer, as it least you get to see something - often rather lovely little towns, full of character and history, often missed by those otherwise in too much of a rush!

Marco.

[Filterlab]

Many people don't care. It's an appliance to them.

Good point.

I am a car person, but frankly my current car is just a tool. Cheap to run, cheap to tax, if it gets a scratch or dent then so what? All I use it for is to travel for work. It's just an appliance.

Next one will be a higher end car (Panamera), but I'm likely now to go for the e-Hydrid as the economy and tax benefits are huge, despite the incredible performance. After that I'll probably go full electric. The infrastructure will be sorted by then so long distances won't be a problem.

I've several clients who run Tesla's and other full electric cars already, and not one of them wants to go back to a fossil fuel burner. Eventually all cars will be electric, with fuel burners the preserve of classic car rallies and track days.

[Pigmy Pony]

Ha - very good! Either way, I'll rarely experience their 'joys', as my lifestyle allows me to largely avoid them!

Marco.

by avoiding them you're contributing to their success, so you're unwillingly supporting them!

[walpurgis]

by avoiding them you're contributing to their success, so you're unwillingly supporting them!

That occurred to me too.

[Marco]

by avoiding them you're contributing to their success, so you're unwillingly supporting them!

Lol - I don't care, as long as *I* am the one making the decision to use them or not! You can only control your initial decisions, not the subsequent consequences.

Marco.

[Marco]

I've several clients who run Tesla's and other full electric cars already, and not one of them wants to go back to a fossil fuel burner. Eventually all cars will be electric, with fuel burners the preserve of classic car rallies and track days.

Hopefully not in my driving lifetime (realistically the next 25 years). I'll certainly be holding onto whatever 'fossil fuel burner' I'm driving, as much as possible, until then!

Teslas, and other 'performance' electric cars are fine (if you like that sort of thing), but what I'm talking about is your 'average Joe's' glorified shopping trolley/city car, together with all the yawn-inducing near-identical SUVs, clogging up our roads, bought with zero imagination.

BOOORRRIINNGGG!!!

Marco.

[Pigmy Pony]

Who's "we"? Maybe you, not me.

French roads are mostly a joy to drive on, but their motorways are often as soulless as any other, hence why when we go to France by car, or to Italy, we use the main roads instead (or even sometimes secondary roads), even if it takes longer, as it least you get to see something - often rather lovely little towns, full of character and history

Marco.

When I say "we", I mean the average British motorist, not necessarily me, you, or any other pedant who might have seized upon that tiny little word

I too like driving in France, but have no issue with using the autoroutes. I've also used plenty of the lesser roads, but many of them are boring as shit (endless bloody miles of rapeseed fields punctuated by the occasional crumbling old neglected heap of a house with some wizened old dude sat out front. And legions of wind turbines is about as interesting as northern France gets, imo.

Of course all parts of France will have some things of interest, and they are usually signposted on the autoroutes!

[Beobloke]

I must admit that I am against so-called ‘smart’ motorways and particularly the removal of the hard shoulder, which seems preposterous. I despair of what’s going to become of the M27 down here once they finish ‘smartening’ it.

Before all this strange virus stuff happened in the world and Ursula was travelling the globe with work, I was a regular visitor to Heathrow to drop her off and collect her, so gained fair experience of the top of the M3, which was made ‘smart’ a year or two back.

On the first occasion after the upgrade, as I reached Farnborough, the overhead gantries said there was an incident in Lane 1 which was closed, so we all duly moved over and crawled along at the specified 50 mph. On arriving at the M25 junction a good 10 miles later, the restriction was lifted but nowhere had there been any sign of a blockage, a breakdown or a stranded vehicle.

The second time I came that way, same thing again. Closed lane, 50mph, we all moved out, nothing to be seen.

The third time I was getting wise to this so I stayed in the inside lane despite it being ‘closed’. The result? Yep, you guessed it - absolutely nothing to be seen.

If they’re all like this, then they don’t seem very ‘smart’ to me.