Drivers and their problems

Was reminding myself just the other day how often the road are blocked for maintenance / utility work or building. Or when someone crashed. It's somewhere, every day in Edinburgh.

But "wasting space on bus lanes / bonkers cycle infra" and "restricting our right to drive".

Mind you as rich_cb pointed out elsewhere, motor vehicles are such a space- inefficient mode that it takes very little to bring flow down to a glacial speed. That's not what the car ads showed us!

She could cycle between sites.

Diversions are based on large vehicles, so why would any cyclist (or pedestrian) use this 14 mile one ?

hirsute wrote:

Grimsby teenager sentenced over 100mph police chase ending in crash

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-64809523

However:

At Grimsby Crown Court, he admitted dangerous driving and was jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years.

And only a two year driving ban?! With another useless "extended retest" meaning: see if you can go a couple of hours without doing anything naughty.

It would be like taking away the right to own knives from an armed robber, but then giving them back if they can pass a culinary knife skills test. Or at least cut up a few veggies without stabbing any bystanders.

If only someone would organise a 'Drivesafe Day', to raise awareness of how to use a motor vehicle safely.

Apparently "Drivers of the country’s diesel vehicles have every right to feel hard done by as they’re paying a huge premium for the fuel, which in no way reflects its lower wholesale cost."

That may well be true - but they can console themselves that they're (probably) getting a subsidy from me for their driving.  I pay tax but don't own a car and very rarely take buses or drive.  I believe some other folks here are even less car-associated - diesel vehicle drivers are getting a big leg-up from them!

The same 'road tax' guff in the comments 🤦🏻....I had an instance last week, approaching a horse and rider coming in the opposite direction, car coming up behind them...I was expecting the motorist to wait behind whilst I passed, but driver decided she couldn't wait so did an accelerated close pass on the horse and forcing me to stop...not sure wether they saw my slowing down for the horse as the green light for them to go...

hirsute wrote:

He said the strangest thing he'd seen on patrol was a driver doing dumbbell exercises in a lorry behind the wheel on the M20 .

Couple of years back I was following a Porsche Boxster in slow traffic through Richmond Park. He was meandering a bit and I thought ah, obvious 'phone driver...when I overtook him he was leaning forwards, steering with his forearms and using those spring hand strengthener things, one in each hand.

Three offences, and the phone one is a £200 fine on its own.

The police must try a bit harder there...

Good user name change there.

They're a rum lot in Somerset.

Well it certainly helped them connect with nature.

David9694 wrote:

Sinister' notes stuck on car windscreens as resident tells people to move

Mysterious amounts of energy devoted to the whole affair! And another classic quote;

"There are too many cars and not enough street. But the main thing is ..." (goes on to ignore the main thing they just mentioned eg. too many cars).

£2500 for cyclist https://road.cc/content/news/cyclist-guilty-riding-carelessly-killing-mo...

Only a 12 month ban for Martindale for a life.

David9694 wrote:

“If they think someone from outside the Stockport area should know where Heaton Lane is, on a sign 100 yards away from the junction in question, on a dark rainy morning? The answer is "no".

Luckily for those of us born outside of greater Manchester, we don't need to rely on encyclopedic knowledge of every road in the land, and can instead rely on universally used signs

TrollsandPBUsWelcome wrote:

A laundry delivery driver faces having 81 penalty points put on his licence after being caught speeding 22 times on the same stretch of road in less than three weeks.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/driver-speeding-a40-westway-london...

he tried to have all the occurances treated as a single offence, but that wouldn't wash with the judge.

But if a speeding offence is 3 points, does this mean the driver is already on 15 before these 22 are taken into account?

Jogle wrote:

Not great for an L plate: Learner driver, 43, with 63 points to his name and a 20-year-old who already has 30 are among 77,000 with points on their provisional licences

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-11830229/Learner-driver...

Who the hell is insuring these dickheads? Who is sitting in the car with them whilst they rack up these offenses?

Why is this country so desensitised to appalling driving standards that kill and maim thousands
😡

Nimbys run out of straws to clutch at.

"That's not what the car ads showed us!"

Nonsense, I learnt last night at the cinema that if you get an electric (and it has to be electric) Kia *, then the traffic parts, allowing you an unfettered trip.

For some reason, they also included a cropped shot of an ebike going along - maybe that was some sort of test like the one with the gorilla.

* actually it might not be a Kia, I was laughing too much at the absurd scene of no traffic that I failed to take in the actual make !

Ewe might think so but it looked rammed

It isn't true.
In the last year there has been a significant change in the relative price of diesel. This solely due to shift in the supply / demand equation for diesel. Europe is structurally in deficit of diesel but long gasoline. This gap in supply has been filled with imported Russian diesel. Since the Ukraine war started the market has shunned Russian diesel causing a marked shift in diesel prices.

hirsute wrote:

She could cycle between sites.

I'm not sure... apparently her Mum lives about 4 miles away:

'I also care for my mum who lives in Huyton, about four or four miles from where I live. She is 82 years old and has an underlying blood condition. She has to attend hospital regularly for blood tests.

Oh, and she works about 4 miles away from home too. A pleasant 4 mile ride with a good portion through a park. No motorist could be subjected to such punishment! 

wycombewheeler wrote:

David9694 wrote:

“If they think someone from outside the Stockport area should know where Heaton Lane is, on a sign 100 yards away from the junction in question, on a dark rainy morning? The answer is "no".

Luckily for those of us born outside of greater Manchester, we don't need to rely on encyclopedic knowledge of every road in the land, and can instead rely on universally used signs

I get being pissed off that you got caught out. I even get making the odd mistake and missing a sign.

I do not get why people have to blame everything but themselves and continue to whine to the local press.

Chalk it up to experience and do better next time.

I do have a smidge of sympathy for the laundry driver. Yes, he should have been aware but that is going to have a far more disproportionate impact on him than the arseholes getting away with murder daily.

He did various excess speeds, so I assumed that the points varied with the band for the offence. Also a goods vehicle, so might get 6 for doing 41 in a 30 (band b ).