One thing I have found lately is large vans parked near T junction corners. It makes it an absolute nightmare to navigate out. By the time you can see anything you are already committed. It makes it very dangerous to exit those junctions.
I had same can’t see anything,low loader truck with sides said I could see around back would mean some 12 to 14feet long. In the end he looked for me. I did swear at him to move the fu. Ing truck. Wasn’t parked there when we got back.
In some cases its useful to stop short of the give way line and look up the pavement gap to see past the van, that way you can creep out with confidence as you have information of any traffic coming or know it is clear and double check its clear once level with the van to see past it. Cleghorn street emerging onto city road in dundee, that usually has a van parked to the right, thats how i emerge is to look up the gap of the pavement rather than go to the give way line. Think outside the box and use all available info. At least once a day a horn is used because so many on auto pilot just go to the give way line, cant see that well and just emerge and hope for the best.
Here in NZ vehicles are not permitted to park within 6 metres of an intersection for this reason. I personally don't think 6 metres is sufficient, but if the road controlling authority deemed it necessary they will paint yellow lines further around the corner to improve visibility and improve safety. I also think that due to the limited visibility in the case of this intersection the authority would have made it a stop sign rather than a give way.
Good video. Raising awareness is important. T-Junctions are very dangerous. That's why the new highway code encourages cyclists to sail straight past cars signalling to turn into them and for pedestrians to cross as they like because drivers will stop... Wait...
My motorbike instructor taught me, if you have parked vehicles either side, make an imaginary give way line in line with the road side of those parked cars, move forward to that then visibility increases. Yes its annoying that people dont care to park thinking of others but just a problem that we need to deal with as road users.
@@ChrisCaaa so the answer is to keep causing the law abiding citizens more delays and pain and leave those that break the law and cause the most serious issues for others and for the severity of crashes to carry on? And you don't see why that's wrong?
My dad was an advanced driving instructor when he left the army in the 70s, and in the late 80s he became a builder (had a psssion for both things). He taught me to drive and i worked for him too for many years, so i saw both sides as we woupd talk about bad driving we had seen on the roads and useful advanced skills and knowledge to know, but also a van man with stress, making simple mistakes because he was urgent to get on with the job and something thst day has required us to make a trip to the merchants or something like that. Therecis an attitude from the past as well, driving an older rusty van, although you shouldnt, forcing your way out is more possible because most drivers see an old rusty van and dont want to scrstch their nice car on it, and from the van drivers point of view, what has it cost the other driver, a few seconds to slow down even though it was their priority. The people likely to emerge badly are folk that have little care for others, drive because they need to rarher than want to. Also comparing turning right at a T junction or cross roads vs a roundabout, with a T juncrion or cross roads, you need to look both ways to make sure its clear, a lazy selfish driver might just glance and miss something. Where as a roundabout you look right, good drivers look all around but the lazy selfish drivers only need to look right to see if its clear. So actually, T junctions are a more complicated junction than roundabouts i feel.
Driving attitude is my thing as well, if we have a good attitude on the road we can avoid almost everything Have I always been a driver with a good attitude? No, far from it. People that watch other driving instructors on UA-cam will know I had a terrible attitude - “It’s my lane, you aren’t moving into it”, “it’s my right o’ way” (yes, wrong in more ways than one) and another one from my was “I’m coming through regardless”. How awful was I back then? Thankfully I realised my errors and started a journey of self correction and this has been further helped by communities of like minded individuals on UA-cam to which, I believe yours will grow into a larger and good community for everyone. It is already well on its way there 👍 As for the video, I believe we should have more STOP junctions than standard give way. It doesn’t stop drivers (no pun intended) from rolling through without stopping but it should highlight how difficult the junction is. Only open junctions with a good view both directions should be give way, anything closed, even only closed from one direction should be a STOP. That said, many drivers look without looking and get into a habitual “glance left, glance right, nothing seen so gonna go” mentality. I think that is what the van driver did. Will they learn? Probably for a few days and then it will drift back into “Nothing has come along for a few days so it will be clear as always”…another attitude that doesn’t belong behind the wheel Take care out there
@@smilerbob superb comment. I’m like you - didn’t have the best attitude when I was younger. I agree with more stop signs 100%. And I absolutely agree a good attitude makes up for almost any gap in knowledge, understanding etc
I can hear the exasperation in your voice. Keep doing what you do. Much better to be part of the solution than part of the problem. I think a good visualisation of 1600 people is the entire student population of a particularly large secondary school. (Average secondary school population in the UK is 1054.) It's not a small number. If one person gets murdered, it's headline news for days and there is much hand-wringing about what could have been done to prevent it (justifiably so). 1600 times that number killed on the roads every year? Usually it's barely a blip on local news media.
The Asda where I used to live was a nightmare. Most people turned left towards the main road on exit, so cars entering cut the corner. I lived to the right, so often had to brake and pull up short at the junction, despite indicating I was turning right, to allow them past. It was wide enough for them to enter properly, but people are that lazy.
I have a completely blind turn out of our driveway onto a single-track lane - one which many drivers use as a shortcut, and often drive far too quickly. Pulling out, I will have entirely blocked the lane before I can see whether or not it's clear. No-one seems to want to give any kind of warning if they see me edging forwards, so I not only drop the window and switch off the fan, but also sound the horn before emerging, not that anyone responds. It doesn't help that the driver's window opens directly into the prevailing wind and rain - and I wear glasses, which will mean something to those who also do.
People often think of the purpose of their journey rather than the journey itself. ‘The ends justify the means’ type thinking. So learners are fair game to them - an obstacle to be overcome no matter the risk, similar to how large vehicles can also be treated.
Statistics are an abstract concept, one less death on the roads next year compared to this year might seem insignificant to most people, but if that one person is your mother or father, son or daughter, partner or you, suddenly the numbers are a bit more significant. Anything we can do to reduce these numbers is worth considering.
@@brianjthomson17 yes with learners I experience this lack of patience and a junction like the one in the video, I’m sure you’ll agree should not be rushed.
The number of people who take the most ridiculous risks at the simplest of junctions is horrendous. I think it's part of a general attitude of complacency on our roads that's almost reached epidemic proportions.
I see complacency a lot when I'm out. The "one car in front" mentality is laughable. It gets them nowhere. However some of that may be due to the car I'm driving and I do try to factor that is as well. It triggers the boy racers, so..... On that junction you showed here, I wouldn't have opened the window just as I'd not thought of it really, but would crawl out and keep looking for sure. Thanks for the info 👍🏻😄 Another channel promoting safer driving and challenging us as drivers is good to see. I have to agree that poor parking is often a big issue now at T-junctions when they are parked near the corners.
Hi D I UK, there are two T junctions at two different locations very close to where I have lived or am living now, they both have one thing in common, they are both rising thresholds requiring extra throttle to pull away they are also similar in that both have obscured views left and right, this is particularly bad when there are pedestrians on the scene, I simply have ton wait until they move away!, it is the right view that is the worst and it is not possible to see what is coming until over the threshold and exposing the front of the vehicle on streets that are too narrow for traffic to pass safely. I think I have been lucky in so far as I have used these junctions repeatedly for the last fifty years without incident!, my strategy has always been to be ready to go and go quickly as soon as a gap is clear!. It has always intrigued me that these two junctions are about the worst I know of anywhere on my normal routes in this region!. Some other similar junctions have had traffic lights installed presumably because they have been the site of a number of collisions. I do agree that it is mostly the attitudes of drivers that lead to so called 'accidents', it is the way these attitudes are formed and sustained that intrigues me the most, it appears that we all create a pattern of expectations and those expectations inform our decisions, thus those of us who expect and anticipate problems are more capable of dealing with the dynamic situations that do occur, while those who have less confidence in their own competence have a tendency to just hope for the best!. I would like to think that the weaker of the two strategies could be corrected but so much better to get good effective teaching to begin with, here the instructors need to be aware of the natural caution that new drivers endure and spend as long as needed to make sure that while some sense of caution is retained it never compromises observation and decision making. I get the distinct feeling that both you and Ashley Neal do this consistently with all your pupils but there are many who seem to think that as long as they convey the basic information needed to pass the driving test real driving skill will simply come in due course!. The problem here is that too many people learn to hide their deficiencies and act as if they know what they are doing just by following what they believe tom be the 'rules', I must say at this point that I could very easily be one who does just that at times, one indicator is my emotional reaction when another driver fails to do what I think they should do!, stress and anger being symptoms of cognitive delusion. Cheers, Richard
The number of all vehicles on UK roads has increased steadily, but the number of vans has shot up, doubling from 2.3 million in 1998 to 4.6 million in 2023. And, unlike most cars, most vans spend more of their time being driven rather than being parked. In the last 25 years, van traffic has seen the fastest growth (in percentage terms) of any motor vehicle, increasing 90 per cent to 57.5 billion vehicle miles in 2022. So, while there are more vehicles of all types on the roads, the kinds of vehicles has shifted notably. Has this had an influence on the number of deaths/serious injury incidents? Not saying all van drivers are dangers, but vans typically have limited visibility, and are often driven by people on a busy schedule but (unlike trucks) without specialist training.
@@broadsword6650 that’s a really good point thank you for that. I must admit I moved house recently and hired a Luton van, which one I was driving it I was amazed you can do on a B licence! I have my HGV licenses so have experience that made it fine, but as you say with no extra training I could be driving that around.
@@JamesSimpkinsADI When I moved house years ago I was (just) too young to drive the van we hired (I think it might have been a hire company rule) but my wife, who is slightly older, could drive it ... despite having much less experience than me, and being barely tall enough to reach the pedals! 😅
I was thinking the answer was going to be level crossings. There may be less incidents, thankfully, but the consequences of an accident can be tragic in most cases. Are level crossings classed as junctions? Are traffic light controlled level crossings classed as junctions? There must be so few new drivers who have encountered these crossings during their tuition or driving tests.
@@RogeyRD250DX interesting thought, I suppose technically they are but it is not 2 roads coming together so perhaps not. But I agree I mean most of my students we drive over them on lessons but they never actually deal with them. And it only takes a lapse in concentration to become as deadly as you say
It’s difficult to educate existing drivers and their long term bad habits. This has to come from the ground up and with a long term fix by making the standards of learning and testing much much higher, focusing on safety and road regulations rather than basic driving skills and government regulated pass rates. As an example, there are so many drivers that genuinely believe the first to enter a roundabout has priority. Such basic rule book errors.
So, so many people just take the approach of "I can't see anything, so there must be nothing there". This attitude is nothing short of moronic - so stop it. It is so, so easy to creep forwards until you can see or until someone toots politely to tell you they're there and you haven't seen them. It makes me so angry when people just assume its clear - and yes, traffic approaching a blind junction can take account of other peoples restricted view, but at the end of the day - it is the vehicle thats emerging that has the responsibility to do so safely.
Keep up the good work mate 😎
Yourself and creators like Ashely promoting road saftey, making the roads a better place
All the best 😊
@panther9450 thank you so much
🚗💨
I like your reasoned arguments, please up the good work. Ray, always willing to learn, from the UK 🌞
One thing I have found lately is large vans parked near T junction corners. It makes it an absolute nightmare to navigate out. By the time you can see anything you are already committed. It makes it very dangerous to exit those junctions.
I had same can’t see anything,low loader truck with sides said I could see around back would mean some 12 to 14feet long. In the end he looked for me. I did swear at him to move the fu. Ing truck. Wasn’t parked there when we got back.
@@TheRatlord74 I’ve seen that so often at the junction in the video, and agree makes it so difficult
In some cases its useful to stop short of the give way line and look up the pavement gap to see past the van, that way you can creep out with confidence as you have information of any traffic coming or know it is clear and double check its clear once level with the van to see past it.
Cleghorn street emerging onto city road in dundee, that usually has a van parked to the right, thats how i emerge is to look up the gap of the pavement rather than go to the give way line. Think outside the box and use all available info.
At least once a day a horn is used because so many on auto pilot just go to the give way line, cant see that well and just emerge and hope for the best.
@@douglasreid699 unfortunately that is not always possible.
Here in NZ vehicles are not permitted to park within 6 metres of an intersection for this reason. I personally don't think 6 metres is sufficient, but if the road controlling authority deemed it necessary they will paint yellow lines further around the corner to improve visibility and improve safety.
I also think that due to the limited visibility in the case of this intersection the authority would have made it a stop sign rather than a give way.
Good video. Raising awareness is important.
T-Junctions are very dangerous. That's why the new highway code encourages cyclists to sail straight past cars signalling to turn into them and for pedestrians to cross as they like because drivers will stop... Wait...
Agreed. As if having priority somehow makes you safer.
Often worse when you then have cars parked on the yellow lines either side of the junction forcing you out way onto the road to even see.
My motorbike instructor taught me, if you have parked vehicles either side, make an imaginary give way line in line with the road side of those parked cars, move forward to that then visibility increases.
Yes its annoying that people dont care to park thinking of others but just a problem that we need to deal with as road users.
More 20mph limits would really help, seeing the negative response to them had me tearing my hair out.
Nothing to do with 20 mph limits. Just very poor driving. Oh by the way I live in wales and the 20 mph limit has made things worse.
The problem with continuously lowering speed limits to mitigate against stupidity, is that the stupid don't take notice of them anyway.
@@studisco2327True, but for the majority of people who do obey the 20mph limit accidents are not as bad or avoided all together.
@@ChrisCaaa so the answer is to keep causing the law abiding citizens more delays and pain and leave those that break the law and cause the most serious issues for others and for the severity of crashes to carry on? And you don't see why that's wrong?
My dad was an advanced driving instructor when he left the army in the 70s, and in the late 80s he became a builder (had a psssion for both things).
He taught me to drive and i worked for him too for many years, so i saw both sides as we woupd talk about bad driving we had seen on the roads and useful advanced skills and knowledge to know, but also a van man with stress, making simple mistakes because he was urgent to get on with the job and something thst day has required us to make a trip to the merchants or something like that.
Therecis an attitude from the past as well, driving an older rusty van, although you shouldnt, forcing your way out is more possible because most drivers see an old rusty van and dont want to scrstch their nice car on it, and from the van drivers point of view, what has it cost the other driver, a few seconds to slow down even though it was their priority.
The people likely to emerge badly are folk that have little care for others, drive because they need to rarher than want to.
Also comparing turning right at a T junction or cross roads vs a roundabout, with a T juncrion or cross roads, you need to look both ways to make sure its clear, a lazy selfish driver might just glance and miss something. Where as a roundabout you look right, good drivers look all around but the lazy selfish drivers only need to look right to see if its clear.
So actually, T junctions are a more complicated junction than roundabouts i feel.
Well done continue the right job we appreciate your efforts and they're really helpful. ❤
Driving attitude is my thing as well, if we have a good attitude on the road we can avoid almost everything
Have I always been a driver with a good attitude? No, far from it. People that watch other driving instructors on UA-cam will know I had a terrible attitude - “It’s my lane, you aren’t moving into it”, “it’s my right o’ way” (yes, wrong in more ways than one) and another one from my was “I’m coming through regardless”. How awful was I back then?
Thankfully I realised my errors and started a journey of self correction and this has been further helped by communities of like minded individuals on UA-cam to which, I believe yours will grow into a larger and good community for everyone. It is already well on its way there 👍
As for the video, I believe we should have more STOP junctions than standard give way. It doesn’t stop drivers (no pun intended) from rolling through without stopping but it should highlight how difficult the junction is. Only open junctions with a good view both directions should be give way, anything closed, even only closed from one direction should be a STOP.
That said, many drivers look without looking and get into a habitual “glance left, glance right, nothing seen so gonna go” mentality. I think that is what the van driver did. Will they learn? Probably for a few days and then it will drift back into “Nothing has come along for a few days so it will be clear as always”…another attitude that doesn’t belong behind the wheel
Take care out there
@@smilerbob superb comment. I’m like you - didn’t have the best attitude when I was younger. I agree with more stop signs 100%. And I absolutely agree a good attitude makes up for almost any gap in knowledge, understanding etc
Complacent is the right word! This is why retraining should be a thing.
I can hear the exasperation in your voice. Keep doing what you do. Much better to be part of the solution than part of the problem.
I think a good visualisation of 1600 people is the entire student population of a particularly large secondary school. (Average secondary school population in the UK is 1054.) It's not a small number. If one person gets murdered, it's headline news for days and there is much hand-wringing about what could have been done to prevent it (justifiably so). 1600 times that number killed on the roads every year? Usually it's barely a blip on local news media.
@@Enjay001 it’s too big a number definitely. 🙁
The Asda where I used to live was a nightmare. Most people turned left towards the main road on exit, so cars entering cut the corner. I lived to the right, so often had to brake and pull up short at the junction, despite indicating I was turning right, to allow them past. It was wide enough for them to enter properly, but people are that lazy.
Lean well forward, peep and creep and never assume that speed limits are observed by all.
I have a completely blind turn out of our driveway onto a single-track lane - one which many drivers use as a shortcut, and often drive far too quickly. Pulling out, I will have entirely blocked the lane before I can see whether or not it's clear. No-one seems to want to give any kind of warning if they see me edging forwards, so I not only drop the window and switch off the fan, but also sound the horn before emerging, not that anyone responds. It doesn't help that the driver's window opens directly into the prevailing wind and rain - and I wear glasses, which will mean something to those who also do.
People often think of the purpose of their journey rather than the journey itself.
‘The ends justify the means’ type thinking.
So learners are fair game to them - an obstacle to be overcome no matter the risk, similar to how large vehicles can also be treated.
Nice video
Statistics are an abstract concept, one less death on the roads next year compared to this year might seem insignificant to most people, but if that one person is your mother or father, son or daughter, partner or you, suddenly the numbers are a bit more significant. Anything we can do to reduce these numbers is worth considering.
I hate waiting at junctions trying to get out because I've been beeped at a fair few times to hurry up all because people have no patience nowadays
@@brianjthomson17 yes with learners I experience this lack of patience and a junction like the one in the video, I’m sure you’ll agree should not be rushed.
The number of people who take the most ridiculous risks at the simplest of junctions is horrendous. I think it's part of a general attitude of complacency on our roads that's almost reached epidemic proportions.
I see complacency a lot when I'm out. The "one car in front" mentality is laughable. It gets them nowhere. However some of that may be due to the car I'm driving and I do try to factor that is as well. It triggers the boy racers, so..... On that junction you showed here, I wouldn't have opened the window just as I'd not thought of it really, but would crawl out and keep looking for sure. Thanks for the info 👍🏻😄 Another channel promoting safer driving and challenging us as drivers is good to see. I have to agree that poor parking is often a big issue now at T-junctions when they are parked near the corners.
As with everything you cover, it’s, largely speaking, all common sense. It’s the amount of it that seems to be in question nowadays.
Appreciate you and van in similar circumstances ( him higher up) maybe the sun was in his eyes , no excuses though.
All comes down to awareness and planning. Sadly lacking in the me, me, me society.
Hi D I UK, there are two T junctions at two different locations very close to where I have lived or am living now, they both have one thing in common, they are both rising thresholds requiring extra throttle to pull away they are also similar in that both have obscured views left and right, this is particularly bad when there are pedestrians on the scene, I simply have ton wait until they move away!, it is the right view that is the worst and it is not possible to see what is coming until over the threshold and exposing the front of the vehicle on streets that are too narrow for traffic to pass safely. I think I have been lucky in so far as I have used these junctions repeatedly for the last fifty years without incident!, my strategy has always been to be ready to go and go quickly as soon as a gap is clear!.
It has always intrigued me that these two junctions are about the worst I know of anywhere on my normal routes in this region!. Some other similar junctions have had traffic lights installed presumably because they have been the site of a number of collisions.
I do agree that it is mostly the attitudes of drivers that lead to so called 'accidents', it is the way these attitudes are formed and sustained that intrigues me the most, it appears that we all create a pattern of expectations and those expectations inform our decisions, thus those of us who expect and anticipate problems are more capable of dealing with the dynamic situations that do occur, while those who have less confidence in their own competence have a tendency to just hope for the best!.
I would like to think that the weaker of the two strategies could be corrected but so much better to get good effective teaching to begin with, here the instructors need to be aware of the natural caution that new drivers endure and spend as long as needed to make sure that while some sense of caution is retained it never compromises observation and decision making.
I get the distinct feeling that both you and Ashley Neal do this consistently with all your pupils but there are many who seem to think that as long as they convey the basic information needed to pass the driving test real driving skill will simply come in due course!. The problem here is that too many people learn to hide their deficiencies and act as if they know what they are doing just by following what they believe tom be the 'rules', I must say at this point that I could very easily be one who does just that at times, one indicator is my emotional reaction when another driver fails to do what I think they should do!, stress and anger being symptoms of cognitive delusion.
Cheers, Richard
The number of all vehicles on UK roads has increased steadily, but the number of vans has shot up, doubling from 2.3 million in 1998 to 4.6 million in 2023. And, unlike most cars, most vans spend more of their time being driven rather than being parked. In the last 25 years, van traffic has seen the fastest growth (in percentage terms) of any motor vehicle, increasing 90 per cent to 57.5 billion vehicle miles in 2022.
So, while there are more vehicles of all types on the roads, the kinds of vehicles has shifted notably.
Has this had an influence on the number of deaths/serious injury incidents? Not saying all van drivers are dangers, but vans typically have limited visibility, and are often driven by people on a busy schedule but (unlike trucks) without specialist training.
@@broadsword6650 that’s a really good point thank you for that. I must admit I moved house recently and hired a Luton van, which one I was driving it I was amazed you can do on a B licence! I have my HGV licenses so have experience that made it fine, but as you say with no extra training I could be driving that around.
@@JamesSimpkinsADI When I moved house years ago I was (just) too young to drive the van we hired (I think it might have been a hire company rule) but my wife, who is slightly older, could drive it ... despite having much less experience than me, and being barely tall enough to reach the pedals! 😅
I was thinking the answer was going to be level crossings. There may be less incidents, thankfully, but the consequences of an accident can be tragic in most cases. Are level crossings classed as junctions? Are traffic light controlled level crossings classed as junctions?
There must be so few new drivers who have encountered these crossings during their tuition or driving tests.
@@RogeyRD250DX interesting thought, I suppose technically they are but it is not 2 roads coming together so perhaps not. But I agree I mean most of my students we drive over them on lessons but they never actually deal with them. And it only takes a lapse in concentration to become as deadly as you say
It’s difficult to educate existing drivers and their long term bad habits. This has to come from the ground up and with a long term fix by making the standards of learning and testing much much higher, focusing on safety and road regulations rather than basic driving skills and government regulated pass rates. As an example, there are so many drivers that genuinely believe the first to enter a roundabout has priority. Such basic rule book errors.
Those statistics are only ones that are reported...
So, so many people just take the approach of "I can't see anything, so there must be nothing there".
This attitude is nothing short of moronic - so stop it.
It is so, so easy to creep forwards until you can see or until someone toots politely to tell you they're there and you haven't seen them. It makes me so angry when people just assume its clear - and yes, traffic approaching a blind junction can take account of other peoples restricted view, but at the end of the day - it is the vehicle thats emerging that has the responsibility to do so safely.
@@studisco2327 absolutely, it’s a frightening attitude that I simply cannot get my head around
But road all 20mph 😅