On 31/10/2011 11:04, Mortimer wrote:
"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.

You obviously still drive a manual transmission car. Putting the car
into neutral is to reduce wear on the bearings that would result if you
simply keep the clutch down. Neither that nor 'slipping the clutch'
apply when driving an automatic.

Colin Bignell