Long distance driving

Bletchleyite · 16 Sep 2019

Mod - split from here.

Bald Rick said:
I know, but being tight they stay in the various bunkhouses and come back the next day, or drive up with a few friends to share the cost! (Speaking for myself, in the latter case).

I know not everyone thinks the same way (there are enough climbers who drive overnight to Italy from the UK, which is just downright dangerous and makes a great case for tachographs on cars) but personally I have Scotland from the SE in the "too far to drive in one go" bracket and would therefore only consider rail or air (or coach if I was feeling particularly cheap). I'd only drive with a stopover.

Even sharing driving it's too far, you need a decent break away from the vehicle when driving that far.

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Bald Rick · 16 Sep 2019

Bletchleyite said:
I know not everyone thinks the same way (there are enough climbers who drive overnight to Italy from the UK, which is just downright dangerous and makes a great case for tachographs on cars) but personally I have Scotland from the SE in the "too far to drive in one go" bracket and would therefore only consider rail or air (or coach if I was feeling particularly cheap). I'd only drive with a stopover.

Even sharing driving it's too far, you need a decent break away from the vehicle when driving that far.

Everyone’s different as you say. I regularly do Hertfordshire to the Highlands in the car; takes about 7-8 hours*, leave home at 0500 to miss the traffic south of the M62, be on the hills at lunch. Two or three days up there, leave around 1600, home for midnight. Easy. It’s the same sort of time a professional long distance driver would do. It’s much better if you share the driving though.

* depends on which part of the highlands, obviously. If you’re heading past Ft Bill / Inverness it’s more of a stretch.

MrEd · 16 Sep 2019

Bald Rick said:
Everyone’s different as you say. I regularly do Hertfordshire to the Highlands in the car; takes about 7-8 hours*, leave home at 0500 to miss the traffic south of the M62, be on the hills at lunch. Two or three days up there, leave around 1600, home for midnight. Easy. It’s the same sort of time a professional long distance driver would do. It’s much better if you share the driving though.

* depends on which part of the highlands, obviously. If you’re heading past Ft Bill / Inverness it’s more of a stretch.

Wow, that’s impressive. Which part of the Highlands do you go to, just out of interest? Presumably somewhere not that far north of Glasgow like the Trossachs, or maybe Perthshire/Argyll? I certainly would not attempt to drive from my current home in Cambridge to Lochalsh/Skye (my favourite area) in a day without an overnight stop, as the drive would be 10-11 hours plus, but admittedly that’s quite a remote area and a long way north.

Bald Rick · 16 Sep 2019

MrEd said:
Wow, that’s impressive. Which part of the Highlands do you go to, just out of interest? Presumably somewhere not that far north of Glasgow like the Trossachs, or maybe Perthshire/Argyll? I certainly would not attempt to drive from my current home in Cambridge to Lochalsh/Skye (my favourite area) in a day without an overnight stop, as the drive would be 10-11 hours plus, but admittedly that’s quite a remote area and a long way north.

Different part every time. Last few times have been Glencoe / Fort Bill / Tulloch area, all journeys done with at least 2 Munros en route. The longest day was Inverie (ferry) - Mallaig - Glencoe (2 Munros) - home. Split the driving, have a snooze whilst one of the others has a go.

pitdiver · 17 Sep 2019

A friend of mine who lives in Kirkwall often drives from there to his parents house in Windsor without a break. Sooner him than me and considering he works for an airline so I assume he could get reduced fares I think he must be slightly insane.

Bletchleyite · 17 Sep 2019

pitdiver said:
A friend of mine who lives in Kirkwall often drives from there to his parents house in Windsor without a break. Sooner him than me and considering he works for an airline so I assume he could get reduced fares I think he must be slightly insane.

I think you mistyped "a dangerous idiot who will hopefully get his comeuppance before he kills someone else".

People like that really do make the case for tachographs to be mandatory in cars.

BigCj34 · 17 Sep 2019

pitdiver said:
A friend of mine who lives in Kirkwall often drives from there to his parents house in Windsor without a break. Sooner him than me and considering he works for an airline so I assume he could get reduced fares I think he must be slightly insane.

If it's just him driving surely it's greener to fly (presumably not the reason he drives!). Surely he'd be less exhausted even if he got the overnight ferry then train.

matchmaker · 17 Sep 2019

pitdiver said:
A friend of mine who lives in Kirkwall often drives from there to his parents house in Windsor without a break. Sooner him than me and considering he works for an airline so I assume he could get reduced fares I think he must be slightly insane.

Does he have an amphibious car?

Bletchleyite · 17 Sep 2019

BigCj34 said:
If it's just him driving surely it's greener to fly (presumably not the reason he drives!)

Probably about the same depending what he drives - an aircraft is generally seen as being roughly equivalent per seat to an average car with one person in overall emissions terms.

paul1609 · 17 Sep 2019

Bletchleyite said:
I think you mistyped "a dangerous idiot who will hopefully get his comeuppance before he kills someone else".

People like that really do make the case for tachographs to be mandatory in cars.

I probably wouldn't attempt Scrabster to Windsor but Aberdeen to Windsor is a sub 9 hours drivingtime journey and easily achieved in a day
safely.

Bletchleyite · 17 Sep 2019

paul1609 said:
I probably wouldn't attempt Scrabster to Windsor but Aberdeen to Windsor is a sub 9 hours drivingtime journey and easily achieved in a day
safely.

Not without a decent break (e.g. a good hour for lunch - well, a minimum of 45 minutes as a coach driver would have to have), which the OP alluded to was not being taken. Unless he just meant without an overnight break.

It'd be way too much for me, though. Inverness to Bletchley by train in pretty much one go was a bit much, and that was without the attentiveness necessary to drive it! For me an absolute maximum of about 5 hours in a day, whatever the breaks.

paul1609 · 17 Sep 2019

I used to allow 10 hours for my Romney Marsh to Faslane drives that would allow enough time for a short walk somewhere in the North pennines as a break.

Meerkat · 17 Sep 2019

I find there is a big difference if it is a holiday drive. I have done Surrey to the Austrian border in a (long) day, and Scotland in a day (a long day because I was taking an interesting route).
If you are going on holiday and to exciting places then it isn’t as tiring.
Also makes a huge difference if you can avoid the traffic by leaving really early - it’s amazing how much more tiring even fast traffic can be. The M6 toll road is as good as a break as you have an open road in front of you!

BRX · 17 Sep 2019

I've never really understood why anyone would volunteer to spend several hours staring at the dull, repetitive and depressing landscape of the motorway network.

Bald Rick · 17 Sep 2019

BRX said:
I've never really understood why anyone would volunteer to spend several hours staring at the dull, repetitive and depressing landscape of the motorway network.

North of Lancaster the landscape gets really interesting - it’s a pleasure to drive!

Anyway we’re rather off topic, for which I take a majority of the blame. My point is / was that for many people, driving to Scotland from the South East in a day (or part thereof) is a viable alternative to the sleeper. Indeed for many people it is the preferred method of doing the journey, particularly if you are not travelling alone and/or need a car up there (which most, if not all, walkers / climbers do). Indeed driving in most parts of the Highlands is positively enjoyable - generally decently roads, fantastic scenery and little traffic. I don’t see the change to the sleeper offer making much of a dent in that market - it’s clearly aimed at higher end tourists.

route:oxford · 17 Sep 2019

BRX said:
I've never really understood why anyone would volunteer to spend several hours staring at the dull, repetitive and depressing landscape of the motorway network.

Because it's generally really easy.

Bridge of Allan is a straight 6h15m to Heathrow. Join the M9 at the Keir Roundabout, then you have a continuous motorway until you hit the roundabout at T5.

I don't bother stopping. I don't even use the Birmingham bypass these days - on average it generally saves less than a minute or two for £7

PeterC · 18 Sep 2019

Six hours without a break? For me only with underwear by Tena!

Bletchleyite · 18 Sep 2019

PeterC said:
Six hours without a break? For me only with underwear by Tena!

Some people do seem to have an iron bladder! Me definitely not, a long drive is a game of service station hopscotch - tea, bog, tea, bog....

ComUtoR · 19 Sep 2019

Considering this is a Railway forum; a little insight from a Driver.

I regularly do a 2hr drive to a friends house from Kent to Hampshire. I used to always take a break at the halfway point but nowadays I just drive the 77 miles non-stop. TBH its a breeze. Even when I pushed it after a long weekend on the devils liquid, I've never been tired (other than a couple of really extremes).

As a Driver (choo choos) I am allowed to work 6hrs without a break. That's 6hrs in a train, with thousands of passengers on the most monotonous routes up/down with barely a break for the loo or any real respite.

We can work 4hrs 15 minutes as a solid block of driving. Typically its around an hour, 8 minutes to change ends, another hour, change ends, another hour etc etc. I think my longest single trip in a train is around 2hrs 20mins.

In a car, I am quite relaxed. It can be boring but I got music, air con and I can pull over at a service station for as long as I want. There are little to no signals or any routes to consider and if I feel tired I can change lanes and drop my speed a little. As a Train Driver I am concentrating to almost breaking point. Signals, stations, passengers, routes, gradients, multiple changes in speeds etc. etc. I regularly drive my train for much longer periods that I drive a car. In a typical 9hrs day (book on to book off) I can easily, physically drive, 6/7hrs worth of driving.

You have to have a high degree of self management at all times. Get a decent sleep and take a break when you need to if your in a car and manage your rest periods, meal breaks etc when in a train. I find it much harder to get up at 0300, head to work and drive a train than take a long trip in a car.

I used to be a 'White van man' and I was on the road for up to 12hrs a day. Stop/start all day. Different style of driving but in terms of hours in a day where you are driving; but it can still be quite high.

Motorway driving is boring and monotonous but very manageable. A little bit of planning goes a long way.

gg1 · 19 Sep 2019

BRX said:
I've never really understood why anyone would volunteer to spend several hours staring at the dull, repetitive and depressing landscape of the motorway network.

Compared to a train:

I get a comfortable seat with plenty of legroom.
The internal temperature is set exactly to my liking.
I know with absolute certainty I won't be sat next to someone with BO, or a snotty sniffer, or someone with annoying sound leaking headphones, or a drunk, or someone with stinky food etc etc
The view from a train window, assuming I'm lucky enough to be sat next to one, is frequently just as uninspiring.
A car takes me door to door.

ashkeba · 19 Sep 2019

gg1 said:
[...]
The internal temperature is set exactly to my liking.
I know with absolute certainty I won't be sat next to someone with BO, or a snotty sniffer, or someone with annoying sound leaking headphones, or a drunk, or someone with stinky food etc etc.

You never carry passengers when driving? Not even relatives? :lol:

gg1 · 19 Sep 2019

ashkeba said:
You never carry passengers when driving? Not even relatives?

I do, but they don't tend to have any of the amnoying habits I mentioned (with the exception of the occasional drunk sibling)

EssexGonzo · 19 Sep 2019

gg1 said:
Compared to a train:

I get a comfortable seat with plenty of legroom.
The internal temperature is set exactly to my liking.
I know with absolute certainty I won't be sat next to someone with BO, or a snotty sniffer, or someone with annoying sound leaking headphones, or a drunk, or someone with stinky food etc etc
The view from a train window, assuming I'm lucky enough to be sat next to one, is frequently just as uninspiring.
A car takes me door to door.

Exactly.

I regularly drive long distances in the UK and Europe and have done for years. When the kids were young, it was the cheapest and hassle free way to do it.

Nowadays, my bladder is a useful safety device. I drink a lot of water in the car, thereby guaranteeing a break every couple of hours. Actually works really well.

A note about fatigue and concentration: modern cars are so much less stressful to drive with adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, auto emergency breaking and many more decent auto gearboxes. 200 miles on the M1 really is not a chore, especially as I can't really exceed 75mph nowadays because of the always-on smart motorway camera. Which is far more relaxing that the old fashioned 90 in the outside lane.

And my music, at my volume, tops everything off!

telstarbox · 19 Sep 2019

Does cruise control still work well at lower speeds e.g. when you have long stretches of 50mph through roadworks?

EssexGonzo · 19 Sep 2019

telstarbox said:
Does cruise control still work well at lower speeds e.g. when you have long stretches of 50mph through roadworks?

Roadworks is a perfect place to use it.

Adaptive cruise control - becoming more widely available - not only maintains a fixed speed but it will also match the speed of the car in front using radar and/or other sensors. It will slow down and stop in traffic without intervention and will restart when the traffic ahead moves once you've pressed a button to confirm it is safe to do so. Combined with lane keeping assistance it takes a lot of the stress out of driving in traffic. I can go for 100 miles without having to touch the brake or accelerator knowing that I won't rear-end the car in front or go faster than the speed I've set. Within reason, I cannot crash into a car from behind.

This stuff really does make driving easier.

As opposed to the "dumb" cruise control where you need to keep your wits about you when other cars are about as it will only slow down when you make it!

Clip · 19 Sep 2019

telstarbox said:
Does cruise control still work well at lower speeds e.g. when you have long stretches of 50mph through roadworks?

Yes - you just set it to 50.

I do enjoy a long drive but last time i went to Helensburgh we got caught in a massive traffic jam somewhere near Preston and by the time we got there i was a wreck and bed was all i could do - not even pleasantries to my friends

alex17595 · 19 Sep 2019

I drove to Switzerland last week, stopping 3 times for fuel and once for a toilet stop and 3hrs for the ferry. Around 18hrs overall.

It didn't find it very difficult at all, I do drive probably a thousand miles a week for work anyway.

Meerkat · 19 Sep 2019

Three

alex17595 said:
I drove to Switzerland last week, stopping 3 times for fuel and once for a toilet stop and 3hrs for the ferry. Around 18hrs overall.

It didn't find it very difficult at all, I do drive probably a thousand miles a week for work anyway.

Three fuel stops?! You driving a V8 and going the autobahn way?
Was in a glacier in Switzerland at lunchtime a few years back and decided to drive straight home as the weather forecast was poor, went up the West side of Germany to go faster on the autobahn and then right across the top of France to catch the 11pm ferry.
Apart from toll booth gymnastics (driving solo in rhd car) the Autoroute was unbelievably easy (If unbelievably boring).
Smoother than being on rails so barely had to steer, and very little traffic.
Was a real shock hitting the M20 and having to actually grip the wheel on what is a buckaroo in comparison.

Cowley · 19 Sep 2019

Meerkat said:
Three

Apart from toll booth gymnastics (driving solo in rhd car)

A few years ago while driving down to Italy we reached a toll booth late at night and with Mrs C asleep in the passenger seat I lunged for the window, misjudged it, head butted the interior mirror and cracked the windscreen...

bramling · 19 Sep 2019

telstarbox said:
Does cruise control still work well at lower speeds e.g. when you have long stretches of 50mph through roadworks?

Yes it’s the perfect application for it, or at least it is when the road isn’t full of prats in front who can’t keep their speed constant. <sigh>

Long distance driving

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