Drivers and their problems

brooksby wrote:

Isn't there a lot of fuss about how they moved the line over the Cumberland Basin, too, so that cars coming from south Bristol over the basin and then along the Portway toward the motorway will all be charged.  Means, I suspect, an increase in traffic using the A369 to get to the motorway...

Yeah, I was thinking of the Cumberland Basin when I wrote the Portway. There's also some concerns about when the Plimsoll Bridge is in use and vehicles are diverted into Bristol.

I'd much rather they just covered the whole of Bristol - why should we continue to put up with health issues caused by old, polluting vehicles?

hawkinspeter wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Isn't there a lot of fuss about how they moved the line over the Cumberland Basin, too, so that cars coming from south Bristol over the basin and then along the Portway toward the motorway will all be charged.  Means, I suspect, an increase in traffic using the A369 to get to the motorway...

Yeah, I was thinking of the Cumberland Basin when I wrote the Portway. There's also some concerns about when the Plimsoll Bridge is in use and vehicles are diverted into Bristol.

I'd much rather they just covered the whole of Bristol - why should we continue to put up with health issues caused by old, polluting vehicles?

This. Well of course, Bristol City Council doesn't actually cover the whole of Bristol, but... 

hawkinspeter wrote:

David9694 wrote:

Bristol Clean Air Zone drivers to be given six week 'offer' to avoid fines

The  "trial system" gives you 7 days to pay the fee, after which it turns into the much bigger fine.

The long term intention is that you have to pay in advance - perhaps the admin is simpler that way? 

Expect the usual driver bullshit on this soon. I'll say it again, you could hand-write "Petrol £1.30 a litre: this way⛽️" on a bit of old cardboard and drivers would know about it. 

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-clean-air-zone-d...

It bugs me that this has taken so long to get implemented. Bristol's air pollution has been above legal limits for years now and the CAZ has been kicked down the road until now which is particularly bad timing in terms of the cost-of-living crisis and recession. There's lots of accusations that the CAZ is just a money generator which to be fair, it is, but in reality motorists have been getting away with dumping polluted air around the city and not paying for the privilege.

I wonder how Bristol City Council will keep all the clean air in?   

Yes, but as I have discovered when putting this forward to people, they just say "Yeah, well that's not [insert town/city/village] here"

brooksby wrote:

I wonder how Bristol City Council will keep all the clean air in?   

That's what the hot air balloon festival is for

My office window looks down on one of the roads along the edge of the zone (literally - the maps reckon that the zone ends on the other side of the road!) so it will be interesting to see how much difference the CAZ makes to volumes of motor traffic.

hirsute wrote:

I watched this in disbelief

How are these people allowed to drive ?

https://youtu.be/7yfnYz76KEE

Rufford Ford DEEP FLOOD | part 137

I don't understand how anyone would try and drive through there in anything less than an old-skool Land Rover with a sealed engine compartment and a high level air intake thing...

Simon E wrote:

This morning a fuckwit crashed into the back of a parked van and the car flipped onto its roof. On a residential street in Shrewsbury. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

Naturally, it's an Audi.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/shrewsbury/2022/12/14/car...

Clearly it hit a slight patch of ice and fell onto its back in a comedy 1940s cartoon style...

Nothing to do with the driver 

I would hazard that most people do not understand car engineering and also have never bathed with Archemides - though the sight of a cruise ship staying afloat should give people some pause for thought.

Copy pasted my post from the other Clevedon thread as it's an older discussion and I'm lazy.

I spent New Years Eve in Clevedon and had a look at the almost finished new cycle lane (and suggested to a drunk guy who asked us to look after his clothes that going swimming alone after midnight wasn't a good idea).

It's not as good as the mock up picture as there is no 'door zone' protection for about half of it but at least the cars only parking one way means you'll glance off the door instead of impaling yourself on it. There's a lot of places to lock your bike but the lane begins and ends on the sea front so it seems a tad pointless as you still have to get there on the road.

The work is ongoing but we had no problems driving into the Moon and Sixpence car park. All the locals we spoke to still hate it though.

I had a little chuckle at the cyclist ignoring the new lane and going the wrong way up the one way street.

Most important of all, the full English was great.

David9694 wrote:

More from Clevedon: 

Government called upon to intervene over controversial seafront changes

A highways consultant has highlighted a series of safety concerns regarding the changes to Clevedon seafront

... concerns that pedestrians will face walking into the path of cyclists when using the crossings across the lane and that people getting out of cars using the ‘narrow pedestrian strips’ could also come into conflict with riders.

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/government-called-upon...

Shouldn't they have looked into all that before the council did the work, if they are so concerned about the council wasting money??

and

"Hundreds of people gathered on Clevedon seafront to protest against changes to the road network" - and yet I count thirteen people and a dog on their photo 

Its not like there are only a few idiots, that is part 137!!!!

Watching these vids is like a guilty pleasure of mine. I'd been wondering about going there one time to see if I can clear it on the bike 🤣

Locally this has been a thing for decades and decades. People used to go down with  a picnic to watch. Going through a watersplash was a traditional part of a family day out on the way back, if there was one around. Isn't that the same everywhere?

Rufford was just very deep sometimes, and got deep very quickly after rain as it was part of a waterdupply for a mill, hence Rufford Mill Ford.

Now it has been closed permanently - too many hoons and Youtubers - and will not be reopened until Notts County have a way of taming it in place. Though the banks were recently reprofiled by the landowner to stop the water building up.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/life-next-rufford-ford-dangerous-789...

There no shortage of other fords, however - at least a couple of thousand. https://www.wetroads.co.uk/

I am disgusted, I am absolutely disgusted.

I don't pay for the telegraph but it's not paywalled for me
Here is the "best" bit:

If only speed limits were the end of it. But they’re not. Blundering into ever-expanding low-traffic neighbourhoods (fine), congestion zones (fine) or emissions zones (fine); bus lanes that suddenly rear out of the side of the road (fine); yellow box junctions set up like fiendish games of chance (fine) – it can all seem like a confusing, infuriating lottery in reverse. Instead of low odds you’ll win, there are high odds you’ll lose. Single streets – like Lansdowne Drive in Hackney – have earned councils more than £1m in just a few months."

I cant find the link to it now but there was some weird spokesman for one of those driving associations who claimed speed limits were unfair or something, as drivers naturally knew the correct "safe" speed to drive at.

But there you go if papers like the Mirror are headlining articles "UKs greediest speed cameras catching out most Brits..." https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uks-greediest-speed-cameras-catchi... is it anyone wonder speeding motorists dont think they're doing anything wrong

Seventyone wrote:

I don't pay for the telegraph but it's not paywalled for me Here is the "best" bit: If only speed limits were the end of it. But they’re not. Blundering into ever-expanding low-traffic neighbourhoods (fine), congestion zones (fine) or emissions zones (fine); bus lanes that suddenly rear out of the side of the road (fine); yellow box junctions set up like fiendish games of chance (fine)

I agree - all those things are fine.