"Nightjar" wrote in message
...
On 31/10/2011 05:24, Neil Williams wrote:
Amber doesn't just mean stop, as if it did we would be the same as
everywhere else and go straight to green.

There is a fairly good case for us doing just that these days. The red and
amber sequence had some merit in the days when everyone put the vehicle in
neutral and applied the handbrake when stopped at lights, but it it is
increasingly irrelevant to modern driving and removing it could reduce
accidents caused by drivers starting off before the green.

Do you mean that people are being taught nowadays *not* to put the car into
neutral and apply the handbrake whenever they are stationary? Or is that
just due to bad habits?

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I *always* put the car into neutral and apply
the handbrake when I'm stopped at lights or a junction, and I never ever
ever keep my foot on the footbrake because the brake lights would dazzle the
driver behind, especially at night.

And I certainly never try to hold the car on an uphill by slipping the
clutch while applying a bit of power - I've got too much sympathy for my
clutch plates, and I know that it's all too easy for your clutch foot to
move slightly after a long wait, which would either make you roll back into
the car behind or shoot forward into the car in front.