[Rolebama]

A few months ago, a Government Dept decided that of the 22 million license holders on UK roads, 5.5 million were too lacking in intelligence, and shouldn't be allowed to drive. This was decided by a Poll in which they asked 3 basic questions to a cross section of drivers. The questions were relevant to fuel consumption, road speed and tyre pressures. Apparently 25% of drivers got these questions wrong. They were along the lines of: If your car does 40mpg, how much fuel would you need to drive 380 miles? (This question was allegedly based on Police provided figures relevant to the amount of people that run out of fuel on motorways). The next question was relevant to road speed and braking, and it revealed that too many motorists think that the stopping distance from any speed is 'about 60 feet' with no increase for higher speeds, and that driving at a constant speed of 30mph for an hour would mean they travelled anything from 18 to 100 miles. The third question was relevant to tyre pressures. This revealed that although the average handbook shows pressures in psi and Bar, there are those amongst us that will try to put that relevant figure in kg per sq m, and vice versa. Hence driving with incredibly over or under-inflated tyres. Try them on your friends.

[tenpinn]

lol i would have to think of how many miles per gallon i would need but do you really need to know if you just refuel when there is 1/4 fuel left?

[Rolebama]

When I worked as an AA Patrol, I attended a breakdown at Scratchwood Services. The car had 'broken down' just past the petrol pumps, by the 5-barred gate towards the Northbound M1 slip. When I opened the bonnet, it was obvious that the owner/driver/member had dismantled the carb and dizzy. It took just seconds to discover he had run out of petrol. His wife was SOOOOO impressed at this news. Apparently they had been there for about six hours with him 'tinkering' before giving up and calling in. On another occasion, I went out to a hired Escort with a faulty fuel gauge. The driver had completed a round trip of about 450 miles with the gauge reading 'half'. It had read 'half' when she had collected the car. When I arrived, the Police were there threatening to arrest her for abusive behaviour as they had tried to explain to her she was probably just out of petrol, and she had got 'very' excited about this slur on her ability to read a fuel gauge. I must have attended thousands of 'out of fuels' on M1, M3, M4, M25, M40, M41 and A1(M) over the years.

[tenpinn]

i admit i have ran out of fuel before when i used my moped, just grateful it was outside a petrol station and was able to wheel my bike in, i think the problem was that the fuel gauge was so small on it that there wasn't much difference between being able to-do 10 miles and having no fuel.