It started with the Iranian Secret Police but it has now gone further. It turns out people in Holland are now reading this drivel. Holland is a great country - having been there I can testify personally to that fact. However Holland suffers with a road traffic problem which is pretty unique and almost unheard of - Hill Starts. I am not making this up - given that the country is pretty flat it is nigh on impossible for the average Dutch learner driver to find a slope big enough to practice a hill start. When I visited Den Helder - right in the north of the country I witnessed a day long parade of learner drivers from up to an hour's drive away waiting to drive up the approach ramp to the sea wall. It was obviously a pretty big sea wall - about three metres high and the ramp was not that long but just enough to meet the need.
The problem doesn't end there - once they have passed their tests the average Dutch driver never does a hill start in normal day to day driving. Eventually they settle down get married have kids and decide to go on holiday. They are big fans of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, British Rock and the Monarchy so head to Britain. The drive from Holland to Calais/Ostende is pretty flat and then they arrive at Dover or Folkestone. Getting out of either town involves going up a hill - these poor Dutch guys start at the bottom in fourth gear and halfway up their engines sound knackered. Luckily the council has put a lay by there for just this emergency. The hapless Dutch drivers are thinking - "great my first holiday abroad and the car has broken down two miles from the ferry!". In the lay by, I am reliably informed, there is an RAC phone on which it tells them in Dutch to try changing down gears when going up hills.
The problem doesn't end there - once they have passed their tests the average Dutch driver never does a hill start in normal day to day driving. Eventually they settle down get married have kids and decide to go on holiday. They are big fans of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, British Rock and the Monarchy so head to Britain. The drive from Holland to Calais/Ostende is pretty flat and then they arrive at Dover or Folkestone. Getting out of either town involves going up a hill - these poor Dutch guys start at the bottom in fourth gear and halfway up their engines sound knackered. Luckily the council has put a lay by there for just this emergency. The hapless Dutch drivers are thinking - "great my first holiday abroad and the car has broken down two miles from the ferry!". In the lay by, I am reliably informed, there is an RAC phone on which it tells them in Dutch to try changing down gears when going up hills.
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