Newslink May

Regional News
There’s a bit more mirror
needed on the new
‘Go Left’ TV advert
John Lomas
Editor, MSA GB North West
I started to write a piece about Highways
England’s new information film last
month, between sending off my April
copy and receiving the April Newslink,
which it transpired carried an article
about the Go Left film.
Have you seen the film? It instructs
drivers how to respond if a problem
occurs while you are driving on a
motorway.
If you have seen it, how well have you
observed its contents?
(If you don’t know which film I am
referring to, it can be found here:
https://tinyurl.com/HA-Go-Left)
The full version shown on the
Highways England YouTube channel
shows multiple mirror checks before
signals and lane changes, BUT the
versions I have seen on TV during ad
breaks have been cropped so badly that
the driver is shown signalling then
checking his mirrors, thus giving quite
the wrong impression.
I wonder if Highways England had
editorial control or are they unaware of
the editing that is being carried out on
their film.
Rainbow Zebra
You may recall that a couple of months
ago I reported on a new Zebra crossing
near my home, with rainbow colours
painted on it.
I didn’t at that time mention the units
placed high up on the poles (see photos
above right).
I believe the higher ones may be solar
power units, though I haven’t noticed the
purplish/blue colour that I have seen on
the lower faces of these, when I have
seen other solar units on rural traffic
signs.
The beacons have the, now quite
common, ring of flashing LEDs around
them.
The upper light, which can be seen on
the other side of the road, is a white,
night-time floodlight to illuminate the
crossing and anyone using it, but the
lower ones still show that purplish/blue
colour after dark.
I suppose it is possible that these are
grid connected and feed power to the
grid during daylight as well as storing
power for night-time use.
If you have any ideas about the
purpose of those lower units, please let’s
us know.
CONTACT
To comment on this article, or provide
updates, contact John at
johnstardriving@hotmail.com
It’s great to be back – but watch, it could all change!
Karen MacLeod
MSA GB Scotland
Hi, I hope this Newslink finds everyone
well. It’s good to see people are back at
work at last. I’m sure there have been
some teething problems but I hope
everything has gone okay.
In Scotland we went back a little later
than England and Wales. I booked my
car into the dealership for a health check
before I started back as the last thing I
need is to interrupt lessons to get it fixed.
With the lack of income in recent
months this was obviously a cost I could
have done without, so it was good to
learn that my local dealership was
offering a zero per cent interest rate on
repairs to be paid over several months.
It came back with a few advisory
notes which got me thinking it’s time for
a change. I have been on a course to
teach in electric vehicles and would
really like to try one for myself. The only
thing is – they are all automatic! So from
an instructor point of view unless I want
to only teach automatic this is a no-go
area for me. Have any other instructors
thought the same? The electric vehicle
range is evolving very quickly and advice
I received from a certain National
Chairman was that if it wasn’t for Brexit
and Covid we could be a lot further
forward with this subject.
One thing at the moment is if you pass
your test in an automatic you can’t drive
a manual car. In some other EU
countries (which we are no longer
members of) if you pass in an automatic
you could then go to a driver trainer to
have some training and then they can
sign off that you can drive a manual car.
In a discussion I was having today
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NEWSLINK n MAY 2021