London Roads.

[The Duke]

The issue with the people that drive at 25mph everywhere is you can’t judge what you don’t expect, so they catch you off guard.

[Bob Williams]

Oh I see Nolan, now you have my understanding and my sympathy. Giving our Postie a cuppa every morning, does not stop him blocking the road out of the Close by parking his van across both lanes while he empties the Collection Box.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[blacklion1725]

Duke if you kept your helmet when you got demobbed I’d put it on mate !

I would have women drivers in 4x4s at the top of my list by a country mile – both sides of the road are solely for them, they by default get 2 parking spaces per car, can’t/won’t reverse and don’t think indicators were ever invented.

At school run time they go in to overdrive and think parking their tanks on the pavement/zigzags close to where kids cross is fine because their little cherubs are OK, never mind none of the other poor little sods can see if it is safe to cross.

Grrrrrrr……

 

[Richard]

PlaneMan wrote:

And car transporters seemingly abandoned in the road for hours at a time which block one lane of 2 main roads. And people ask me why I have a helmet camera!

Ah yes, car transporters.

A few days ago there was a really static traffic jam on the main road. So much so that I received phone calls and went to investigate. A long, non articulated car transporter was trying to get into and out of a drive that faced onto the main road. Now this road has 1 lane going north/1 lane going south. The truck had several feet of its back end in the front ‘yard’ of the house, with its front wheel on the 3 foot high grass bank on the other side of the road. He must have done a 100 point turn to get in and out – in the middle of the evening peek traffic time. That last bit was not  hard, it starts about 17:15 and ends about 19:50, it was longer that evening. Interestingly today, about a week later, the police were visiting the place. Initially a police car with all flashing lights was parked across their drive, half in and half out of the entrance, more congestion. Later on when I came back from picking up my daughter the front ‘yard’ space, (it is not a drive or a garden) was full of cars many of them marked police cars and another police car was parked in a side road. Someone appeared to be being ‘processed’ in the front garden.

[Bob Williams]

Richard that kind of thing happens in Louth on a regular basis. Not car transporters: thankfully, all the car dealers are out of town, but massive foreign Artic’s delivering plants and flowers. The lower streets of Louth lie in a deep Wolds valley, and the lowest point is actually below sea level, where the River Lud runs through the town, which is Georgian. Streets are tight and every route up and down into Louth is a named ” —- gate”. It is a mad place to drive around, with a crazy one-way system designed by a drunk after midnight. It took me at least 5 years to find my way around its nooks and crannies. If just one stupid driver decides to park in the wrong place, it takes a very short time to block every route in and out. If one of those artic’s takes a wrong turning, that’s it. I have been known to switch off and lock the car, to go for a cuppa at one of our many cafes, tea rooms and restaurants and come back when I see the traffic moving.

The strange thing is that the average local driver is an impatient swine at the best of times, but when this happens, no one gets annoyed, unless they are strangers. Every local is used to this. Twice a week, there is a procession by the local Fire department, taking the Engine around all the Town streets. A Parking Enforcer sits in the front seat to photograph and book any cars illegally parked and blocking the route.

I love Louth, it is a weird, unusual, very different place and the people are the same. Probably why it suits me so well…  :wacko: :yahoo:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

The school my older  kids went to when they was small was at an end of a closed narrow road lined with house, I’d never live on that road.

It was a five min walk from mine, and i had neighbours that drove. Getting in and out of that road at in/out time could take an hour instead of a ten mins walk.

I could never understand their laziness. With the advent of the larger cars we have now, I’d hate to see it today.

[Bob Williams]

Steve, tying that together with Oldphart drivers: one of the Oldpharts I mentioned, gets his car out to go to the village shop. Out of the Close, turn left, 50 yards, turn right, almost opposite the right turn on the main A157 road from Louth to Mablethorpe. Comes back by turning around the old water pump and right again, between 2 blind bends. If we hear a car or truck horn and his car is missing, we know who it is. One day it will end in tears….

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

Would be funny if not so dangerous!

[Richard]

After some comments here I started to think about a few rules of the road as practised by very many people.

1. The indicator rule, If you have a faulty indicator bulb use the indicator on the other side to cover up the problem. Use it at all times whichever direction you want to go.
2. Roundabout rules. This gets complex. One local town has built a number of roundabouts with multiple entry lanes dedicated to different exit directions. Generally left lane goes left, right lane turns right and centre lane goes straight on. To assist there is usually one exit lane from the roundabout. The roundabouts are also provided with three lanes and this is where the fun starts. Reps, builders, office workers, and mums with kids and even some truck drivers will not only use any of the three lanes as though they own them, they also believe that three lanes will go into one exit. The constant sounds of tortured tyres and motor horns must keep the locals on their toes and awake.
3. While I hate the drivers who only use the left lane on a roundabout whichever outlet they want, they can usually be spotted in advance, so avoiding action can be taken. This covers, some elderly folk, drivers of any age who are lost and simply dithering round, mums with kids who like the nearside lane ’cause its safer’ and so on. Age is no badge for this stupidity.
4. Then there is the rep. They always use the right hand lane wherever they are heading and will always make their left turns almost too late requiring them to cut across however many lanes of traffic they carve up. This applies equally to roundabouts, dual carriageways and even motorways. Any complaints about their manoeuvring are always ‘the fault of the other jerks who should have got out of their way’.
5. .Speed limits are only set to confuse rather than inform. Some think they indicate the maximum permitted speed in good visibility with dry road surfaces,. Others mainly reps, delivery vans and rip off builder types with unroadworthy transit pickups regard them as minimum sustained speed settings to be exceeded at all times. The clapped out ‘builders’ transits are only used until  caught and being unregistered to the driver they do not care who sees them. In this case they are often ‘in transit’ to illegally dump rubbish or getting away as fast as possible from a ‘drop’. Fog, rain, ice or snow make no different to their speeds, though trees and other road hazards , e.g slower moving vehicles often apply the emergency brakes on such machines and very quickly. It appears to be located at the front of the vehicle behind the bumper (if any) and only takes effect when the vehicle get distorted.

Anyone recognise any of the above ‘players’?

[The Duke]

When lost alway get in the right lane of a round about, that way you can go round pick your exit and take it the second, sometimes 3rd time. Kids enjoy it to.

It’s usually “quiet time” in the car when dad’s lost.

I do find it funny when lost or reversing i’ll, and many others, will mute the audio. If the audio is that off putting shouldn’t I keep it off always lol.

 

I see you don’t like builders in transits Richard. You’d hate my side of the family then. It’s exactly what they ha e done for 40 years. I don’t recall fly flipping or ripping people off, though we, rather they, do alot of setting work right after gypsies have fleeced people. Sadly usually OAPs.

The large majority of van drivers are honest folk that work hard, very hard, alot for not a great deal of pay, like delivery drivers and young labours. They may not be educated jobs but they are vital for the community /country to keep turning.

I once knew a man they ran the local haven camp, he was an arse hole, if he deemed you below him, he was just ignorant and obnoxious to them. I don’t it when people see themselves better than others.

Not nice at all.

[Richard]

Steve, I think you know the type of ‘operator’ I meant. An honest trader does none of the things I listed and does have their name and contact details for all to see. They want contacts as contacts lead to more business

The sort I referred to does not want any contacts or follow up. They are the fleecers and rip off merchants.

Richard

[blacklion1725]

Bit more to worry about on London roads today unfortunately. At least three victims murdered – murderer also dead which I suppose is a small blessing. Those who govern us have some big decisions to make.

[Bob Williams]

The events in Central London today were a truly awful reminder that we have enemies who have no human feelings whatsoever and will kill the innocent without compunction, in order to prove their loyalty to their twisted “cause”. What is the betting that the attackers turn out to have been born here and follow the teachings of some fundamentalist, brain-twisting evil barsteward?

Please note that the above words do not carry any reference to race or creed.

My thoughts and my sympathy are with the families of the dead and injured, whatever their race or creed.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

I’m afraid there’s little you can do about people using vehicles as weapons against people on the street.

[Ed P]

Bollards help to separate vehicles from pedestrians and provide some refuge. They can even be made to be easily removed if that is an issue.

[Richard]

About the only separators that can be easily installed and removed are those either concrete, or water filled plastic barriers. Others, e.g. bollards do need potentially difficult civil works especially on bridges where service tend to fill the pavement substrate. There are still considerable cost and logistics issues with them. Are there enough spares waiting at the moment and how long would it take to put them in place. As it will apparently be a long term need the barriers could be made a feature and be planted out with suitable trees and plants assuming a suitable design of barrier was made available.

[Ed P]

Water filled 35 gallon barrels make quick and dirty bollards that are easily removed if required. Cost, in bulk, less than £10 each. If the authorities ensure they can be used for advertising space they can even be self-funding!

[The Duke]

We can’t cover the whole country in bollards. Because one man, (maybe more), was a fruit cake.

From the way the press covered it yesterday, I thought we’d had a 9/11! If his intentions was to cause mass fear, the media defo made sure it worked. The coverage was watching ott.

Shouldn’t give this stuff such air time, report it and move on, show some British ‘stiff upper lip’, but that won’t fill 24/7 news channels.

There was just no point to it.

If he was a real terrorist that wanted to do harm to heads of state, why didn’t he casually walk up to the building, then stab any copper that may get in his way, instead of announcing his arrival trying to drive into the place.

Anyone that has been there would know your not diving a car into the building. So I can’t see this being a credible sophisticated terror cell work.

I don’t understand what the point was to do it there, as unless he was a total idiot he was never driving or even walking into that place.  There is so many better ways and places to create mass death and injury that what he did.

Its not like he is striking fear on to Westminster, if anything it will make them feel safer to know the security barrier set up works. Not that they wouldn’t know that, I doubt you could breach them in a tank.

All seems rather pointless. Or it would if the media didn’t treat it as 9/11.

I was sad for the victims, confused about the motives, and annoyed at the media.

[Richard]

Sorry Steve, I pretty much agree with you on this one. The ‘news’ coverage was more or less a few sound bites on loop tape. The greatest damage was almost certainly done by the wild speculation aided by the constant repetition. OK some nutter showed he was nuts. He was known and sadly not stopped in time, hopefully his friends and fellow travellers will be ‘taken out of service’. That is all there is to the matter.

Tear jerking interviews with the friends and family of those killed or injured are what the nut jobs hope to produce to stir up fear, their greatest friend is fear. My hope is that those families get quite dignity and support not publicly used, (abused) as adverts for the depraved.

[JayCeeDee]

They have found a simple move that doesn’t require planning, weapons smuggling, bomb making or any of the “usual suspects” of a terror attack and strikes at the heart of the General Public they are attempting to terrorise. It can be scaled up or down with simplicity. If all you have is untrained amateurs that have been radicalised, then simplicity is their best friend. It can be instantly organised and executed. Therein lies the heart of these tragedies. Nice and Berlin and now London.

When you have “Amateur Hour” ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, instant amateur radicals become their public face and willing resource, and they can be anybody. Literally.

Having lived through the IRA bombing campaign in London, giving blood for the victims of the Old Bailey attack, shutting the business down for hours on end with bomb scares and explosions in Kensington, Steve’s right. Get on with life, feel sorrow for the victims, but move on. If we let them disrupt our lives, they are half way to their goal because we let them.

If any of this post seems at all blasé, it isn’t meant to be.

 

[Author]

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