h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have started noticing a profusion of vehicles in London displaying a sticker stating 'vehicle limited to 70mph'.
Now why would the vehicle need a sticker like that when the National Speed Limit is 70mph anyway.

Another is 'Baby on Board' signs. What is the point of that?
Surely most drivers are already driving responsibly. Are they going to be more reckless if there is no Baby on Board?
Is it for the benefit of other drivers or to say that the driver of that vehicle is likely to be driving erratically because of the child?

Lastly, the sign 'How was my driving? Call *******'.
Has anyone ever actually let anyone know about their driving, either in praise or criticism?

Just curious, especially as a non-driver. Would like to hear especially from a driver's perspective.

Also any other peculiarities etc. seen on vehicles that may need explaining or seem incongruous.



And don't drink and drive. You'll spill it!

MMF

I always thought the Baby on Board signs were a bit daft until I had my grandchildren in the car. I noticed i didn't accelerate away so hard and I braked far earlier and more gently than I usually would. I now tend to give cars with those signs a bit of space and I'm a bit more patient with them.

Those 'How's my driving' stickers are really useful. I often find myself following a badly driven lorry, so all I have to do is whip out my mobile and call.

I wish I could send a text instead.

Oh. Hang on......

PP.

So is it more of a warning to other drivers that the driver will be more cautious, rather than asking other drivers to respect that vehicle and drive a little more cautiously?

MMF

The Baby on Board sign alerts the emergency services to the fact that somewhere amongst the crushed metal there may be a baby. As far as I know that was the original point of them although I strongly suspect nobody uses them that way.

Never had one myself.

I always forget to call the number when a lorry or van driver has wound me up with poor driving. But in any case, what's annoyed me is usually that they've been driving as though they wanted to hitch themselves to my rear bumper. Unless they actually overtake me, I don't get sight of the 'How's my driving?' sticker.

Haven't seen a vehicle restricted to 70mph, only '58mph on single carriageway roads' - do other countries have a higher speed limit? If so then I can see why an alert might be useful (although I'd have though kmph would be better in continental Europe).

Mol

A lot of stretches of Autobahn in Germany have no speed limit at all. The same for a lot of the Isle of Man. But I think the vast majority of places have maximum limits in or around 70mph-90mph.

I seriously doubt that emergency services waste time looking for a sticker that alerts them to the fact that there is a baby which may or may not be in a car at the time of an accident. There are much more visible clues than that.

The 56 MPH thing is, I suspect, a fuel saving measure. 56 mph is often quoted in fuel economy charts.

I reckon that the most useful lorry sticker would be 'Don't forget that as soon as we reach the bottom of a hill, I will pull out to overtake another large heavy vehicle. Please have patience for the next mile and a half'.

PP.

French motorways have an 80mph max speed in GOOD weather condition 70mph in poor

So is the 70mph a London-centric thing?
I've only noticed it recently but, since noticing it, it seems quite a few vehicles have it.

I'm familiar with the 56mph (70kph) sticker, and 50mph on caravans etc but this confused me.
And I still can't get my head around the 'BOB' one. Is it to warn re. the driver about the vehicle and to anticipate erratic or slow behaviour, or to advise the vehicle behind 'Hey! Look! There's a kid on board, watch your driving'?

Maybe pedestrians should have them.

'Caution. Pushing buggy. Will behave erratically and stop suddenly'.
'Warning. Disabled. Restricted to 1mph. Slower on gradients' .
'Texting. No hand signals'.

MMF

I've been trying to find one that says
"Baby I'm Bored"

No luck so far...

But if somebody made them they'd be a best seller.


~jwf~

A favorite one: The closer you tailgate, the slower I drive! --- If you're not going to allow adequate safe stopping room, I will!

my mum used to work for South Yorkshire Fire Brigade and the firefighters used to complain a lot when they came back from a RTA where there had been a BoB sticker, had searched like mad to rescue the child only to realise it wasn't in the car at the time.

I think the BoB is intended to serve two purposes:

a) to alert other drivers to the fact that the driver of that vehicle may be driving extra carefully (and not always extra safely...)

and

ii) to request other drivers to keep distance, etc, and not put their child at risk

and

3) (for there must always be three points) to (at least in Germany) show the name of their child (I get a bit when I see stickers on the backs of people carriers announcing that Florian / Pascal / Tobias are "on Tour")

Personally I think that a lot of people who have a BoB sticker use it as an indication that they think everyone else should drive carefully to preserve their Precious Offspring while they, themselves, drive like... well, Audi drivers*.

* For as any fule kno Audi Drivers are the new BMW Drivers

Agree entirely about Audi drivers I was successful at an interview on Monday and they offered me a choice of Audi, BMW and Mercedes hot hatches as a company car. I declined and asked for a Vauxhall

Back on topic, I hate when I see someone driving like a lunatic with a BoB sign.

The worst ones are 'Cyclists - Stay Back' stickers. So if you're cycling along by a parked lorry, are you expected to stay back forever?
The first time I saw them was when I was doing the London to Brighton bike ride on the back of a London bus, shortly before the bus driver decided to drive right into a stationary cyclist waiting for traffic lights to change, knocking him onto the road.
Fortunately Transport for London has asked for these offending stickers to be removed: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2014/jun/26/cyclist-stay-back-stickers

Now all we have to do is get rid of all the unneccesary 'Cyclists Dismount' signs, or at least put up some 'Motorists, get out of your car and walk you lazy ' and/or 'Pedestrians, Take Your Shoes Off' signs to even things up.

<BB<

Why were you doing the London to Brighton bike ride on a bus?

I was on a bike, looking at dozens of buses. When the London to Brighton bike ride was held, they didn't close the roads, so we shared them with buses driven by aggressive bus drivers who felt that because they had 'cyclists - stay back' stickers on them, they had the right to mow down any cyclist in their way.

<BB<

Perhaps I don't get around much, but I haven't noticed much of this sort of thing. Perhaps it hasn't got here yet. Tractors here in Germany have 25 kmh signs on the back for obvious reasons. Foreign (as in Eastern European or Turkish) trucks sometimes have stickers with 80 kmh on them, but are usually driving faster than that anyway.

Baby on Board stickers - it never occurred to me that they could have a serious use. I thought it was just people who'd bought the stickers (or been given them) in the euphoria of becoming a parent. A bit twee, but, horses for courses.

As for German motorways, the speed limit is 130 kmh or none at all, as has been said.

A395372

Carlin on Baby on Board signs: [NSFW: language, of course] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r01qkBQClKg

"I'm supposed to alter my driving habits because some woman forgot to put her diaphragm in. Isn't that really nice?"


They indeed were originally intended as a caution to other drivers, to indicate that while you normally drive like a maniac, do not continue to do so around MY vehicle because I'm carrying "precious cargo".

Yeah, I'm not a fan.



As to Maximum speed signs on cars, over here I occasionally see such decals on rental moving vans to indicate that they are not safe at higher speeds.

Every time I see an "Elderly housing" sign, I worry that the elderly houses are likely to collapse and send debris across the road .

"Yield" signs express the fervent hopes of the farmers whose fields are next to the signs.

"Slow children" signs are obviously designed by people who have no children. Many children are so fast that their parents can hardly keep up with them.

And I've been waiting for years for a glimpse of a Triffid at a 'plant crossing' sign! No luck yet!