Bloody Traffic!

I'm off work today and drove swmbo around to do a bit of shopping. It was unbelievably traumatic. The roads in this area are now just jammed with traffic and where the majority of drivers are "normal", about 30% are raving lunatics and shouldn't be allowed within 100 feet of a car never mind behind the wheel. Most town centre roads have cars parked on both sides reducing them to one lane and no one wants to give way! I must have had three people do u turns right in front of me today with no signals at all. One woman did a twenty point turn in a Discovery that appeared to have no power steering. But the most frightening thing of the day happened as we were waiting to turn right at a set of traffic lights. There was a power cut and the lights were off, cars were creeping out slowly but everything was moving ok. I was in the middle lane but traffic was backed up going in the opposite direction and there was a car next to me facing the other way. If I had opened my window I could have touched the car. Seemingly out of nowhere I was aware of a scooter travelling towards me probably doing about 40-45mph. He had made a little manoeuvre to avoid a car trying to pull out and was on the verge of being out of control. He somehow got between me and the other car to my right and was still accelerating as he went past! I seriously thought he'd got me but he somehow missed.

I worry all the time about the Xm because of the size of it. I am thinking about using the Bx for normal transport and using the Xm purely for leisure driving. So in effect a role reversal. I would hate for some dick'ead to write it off for me after spending so much time trying to improve it.

I live in the country and holiday in the north of Scotland and Brittany. Do you know why that is?

I do mostly city driving (Bristol) and tend to end up in a lot of streets with cars parked both sides,
barely wide enough to get an XM thru.

I find the best strategy is just to be chilled and hang back, look ahead, let people thru tight gaps, watch out for morons in tiny cars who want to overtake you when you pull in to let the bus with a huge queue of cars behind 100 yards ahead of you thru, the XM is a large car for the modern city and other strategies WILL result in even more regular mirror damage and probably other stuff than can otherwise be expected.

Talking of motorbikes, I totally lost the nosecone on the S1 when clipped from behind while turning right by a motocyclist in the cycle lane trying to undertake me extremely fast, he clipped the front n/s of th nosecone, carried on without stopping, nosecone ended up approx 5m away sort of diagonally on the n/s.

I still say no to congestion charging AND controlled parking, they will kill this city. I can get around OK even in rush hour unless all the surrounding motorway traffic has been diverted thru the city, in which case it can be pretty dire. However I usually find a way that involves a minimum of sitting in traffic, even if it means more miles.

I do a hell of a lot of city driving (I work in the city centre), and agree it can be a bit traumatic in an XM sometimes due to the sheer size of it. Its not that I'm not confident in my own abilities, more I'm fearful of my pride and joy being damaged by the impatience and wrecklessness of the other drivers I seem to encounter on a daily basis!

You just have to relax though as Tim says. If buses etc can get through then you can too. There are plenty of morons though who don't appreciate the space needed by a car the size of an XM, just because their Micra / 106 / Paxo would squeeze through that gap...

Ciarán

This post has been edited by Ciaran on November 22, 2008 02:31 am

I have to admit that I'm usually not worried about driving 'round town.
This is probably due to the following:

- I've driven a DS and a CX while living in The Hague;
- the Avensis I've driven is half an inch longer and inbly an inch less wide;
- I'm a fairly relaxed driver who can't be bothered (figures if you like a diesel auto )

I'm more worried when, on the narrow road like the one we live at, I am approached by a lorry that takes up 2/3's of the road, and doesn't even decelerate slightly.

The last time I was in Holland the traffic was worse than it is here, but that was a few years ago now, don't know if that is still the case. Its made worse by people driving on the wrong side of the road.

The busiest road here used to be the M25 but I dont know if that still is the case, I reckon there is more traffic on the M6, or its certainly there for longer, at least the M25 is quieter in the evenings. The M1 seems to be the quietest motorway at off peak times so I sometimes use that instad of the M6, a longer trip but less harrassing.

Peter.N,

The worst part about town driving is people not knowing how large (or small!!) their car really is. People drive in the middle of the road to avoid clashing mirrors when really they are two metres away from the parked cars.

People tend to be very inconsiderate, never thinking about whats going on around them.

Its the same in carparks. Just last week i was sat waiting for ages while a girl in a 206 tried to reverse out of a space so i could park there. She took about 10 goes at getting it out of the space, so much so that i nearly got out of the car and offered to do it for her! Eventually with a lot of people watching her out of the space she went. It didnt take me any time to get the Xm in the same space, it was tight but its purely because she thought her car was massive!

I seem to have a habbit of parking really close to thing. Probably because im so used to doing it at home. It does help to know the dimensions when in tight spots though. So many people dont seem to change their driving style, wheatear they are driving a Matiz or a big car.

I dont use the Xm as much around town, i use my other car usually, but when i do i dont have any problems. If you know the size of the car then all you need to worry about is other people!

I drive a battered works van - I don't seem to have too many problems!

I know a number of you had CXs, how did you find them to park, especially the Safari. In spite of its nearly 17' length I found mine easier to park than the XM because the rear visibility was so good and that lovely divari steering of course, it was usually coming out of a parking space that stoved the front wing in!

I had a Berline CX, which is not particularly easy to park, especially when it has a tow bar (which mine had).
The XM also with a tow bar) takes some getting used to, but it's doable. In fact, that's one of the things I tried when I test-drove it, and I found it easier than I had expected.
But that's me. When I was younger, I learnt to park DS's and CX's alongside busy roads (sometimes flanked by canals, which can be somewhat unnerving) in crammed cities like The Hague and Amsterdam. My son-in-law is a driving instructor, and he says I park neater than he does.
My wife hates it, but then again she would hate parking in a Smart.
I'm going to try to cure that with a rear-view camera in the bumper, which displays what it sees on the radio display.

And yes, I'd say that, on average, traffic is worse in the Netherlands than it is in most of the UK. The English call the M25 the biggest car park in Europe, but except for that one particular day on which a trailer (with 20 Merc A's on its back) did a moose test on the counterclockwise ring near the A1's exit, thus blocking all counterclockwise lanes from guardrail so guardrail, I never found it 'exceptionally busy'. It certainly doesn't beat trying (and failing) to get around Amsterdam on a Tuesday morning.

If I go up north, I usually take the A1. Less frantic and less busy than the M1 I think... and of course, what with us having friends who live 10 miles from the A1(M) in Beds, it's a natural choice

The only thing that worries me whenever I drive in England is the lorry drivers. They do go quicker than on the Continent, and they do not seem to have a concept of centrifugal force, considering the brisk way in which they change lanes.

But that's nothing compared to Romania (where I drove for a week last summer). The roads are worse than a field track, and the Romanians in their Dacia 1300's really, really drive like there's no tomorrow.

This post has been edited by peterh on November 22, 2008 09:48 pm

Wow, that sounds really cool; quite sad I missed that one.!! Best thing for them really...



Andrew

Peterh wrote "and the Romanians in their Dacia 1300's really, really drive like there's no tomorrow."
... and there are lots of them in this country now and according to the newspapers many don't have an MOT cert, road fund (that's a laugh) licence or insurance.!

Derek

This post has been edited by DerekW on November 23, 2008 12:59 am

The main thing with parking the Xm is the length of the front over hang, giving it a wide ark at the front when swinging into parking bays. That and the fact the bonnet is very long and invisible can make parking in tight spaces a challenge for some people. My mum wont drive the Xm as she finds it too difficult to park. Im pleased to say its mirrors are all unmarked and fully working!

My hatch has a tow bar, it gives some comfort when reversing up to things. Not that ive ever touched anything with it, yet! It did save the bumper when someone in a fiesta knocked into the back of the Xm in traffic. It split the fiestas bumper but as it was only just a touch it didn’t do any structural damage to the Xm, which is always the worry when a tow bar is fitted.

Infact I want to remove the tow bar, as it looks unsightly, its just what to do with the electrics, as id like to have it so it can easily be fitted back on if its ever needed.

Having had the Xm 6 years im quite used to the size of it and where the extremes of the car are. Having never marked it once im hoping my record for parking it will stay clean!

Even with my seemingly odd habit of parking close to things, I find the Xm still overhangs most parking bays.

Ive never seen such good parking as I did in Amsterdam! Some of the spaces are so tight its unreal. There were quite a few cars wedged end to end up to metal posts and not a single mark on the bumpers despite the fat they obviously parked there every day. Also when I went about 5 years ago there were quite a few older Citroens running around, I think i spotted at least 4 Ds models a Dyane or two and a few 2Cvs.

This post has been edited by Citroenmad on November 23, 2008 01:28 am

Yep -- sure do ---

Because you haven't been out on the canal yet !!


Mike.

That does actually appeal to me

Peter.