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

It's also so you aren't at risk of catapulting forward if your foot slips
off the pedal after staying like this when waiting a long time at a
junction.


I don't drive automatics much - I far prefer being in control of when the
gear change takes place (even though I accept that automatics can achieve a
smoother change than I can), because automatics tend to favour low gear over
higher gear and wider throttle when accelerating gently out of a
roundabout - and the unexpected change of gear after I've selected the
amount of throttle is most unwelcome! [2]

But when I've driven them, I've always put the selector into neutral and
applied the handbrake at a junction, exactly as for a manual, so as to be
able to remain stationary without my foot on the footbrake, blinding the car
behind with my brakelights. [1] It's only recently that I've learned that
shifting into neutral is not advised with automatic, though I've never seen
it actually documented in any user manual for a car.


[1] As I was taught both for my normal and IAM tests: "footbrake to slow the
car down and bring to a stop; handbrake to *keep* it stopped; *never* sit at
lights with your foot on the footbrake". That was the advice in 1980 and
1990 respectively. And I curse drivers in front of me who don't do this,
especially when shuttling forward in a long queue of traffic and I start
seeing spots before my eyes after a few minutes.

[2] I had a very bad experience in an auto Ford Focus hire car on a trip
from work, which decided that it wouldn't go faster than 50 mph: I could
have 50 in any of 4th, 3rd or 2nd gear depending on how much throttle I gave
it, but it was very reluctant to stay in top gear and let me go any faster.