Drivers and their problems

The big hashed area around the spaces is a big clue too.

What was supposed to be a 10-minute drive turned into a journey of an hour and 45 minutes

The Joy, The Joy!

Even more entitlement

Roads in Derbyshire's Peak District have been closed by police over "poor parking".

Both Winnats Pass and Rushup Edge, near Castleton, were shut by police on Sunday afternoon.

Hope Valley police teams said that 21 drivers who parked on the clearway through Winnats Pass on Saturday would be prosecuted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm72d22znpo

chrisonabike wrote:

BBC reheats the "roundabout with painted designs" story (featured on road.cc a while back)

I'm pretty sure this is at least the third time the BBC have had a story on this - not sure why they keep forgetting that they've covered it.

brooksby wrote:

David9694 wrote:

State of this 

Devon car ride horror after wife fetches husband from pub

Susan Rogers was overwhelmed by "irrational panic" after going the wrong way down a country lane

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/wife-blazing-row-drunk-husband...

Devon Live wrote:

The policeman … jumped over a garden gate and injured himself on a wheelie bin.

Did this incident take place in a 1970s sitcom? 

hawkinspeter wrote:

brooksby wrote:

David9694 wrote:

State of this 

Devon car ride horror after wife fetches husband from pub

Susan Rogers was overwhelmed by "irrational panic" after going the wrong way down a country lane

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/wife-blazing-row-drunk-husband...

Devon Live wrote:

The policeman … jumped over a garden gate and injured himself on a wheelie bin.

Did this incident take place in a 1970s sitcom? 

I guess Susan Rogers should be lucky that there wasn't a swan involved.

Episode #57: Apparently this is now a scandal to match the Post Office Horizon shenanigans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn042065g0zo

Councillor Dolt wrote:

They [the residents from him he has allegedly received "many emails"] believe a serious accident is only a matter of time.

It says in the BBC article that the roundabout has been open in its current configuration since September 2024 and a linked article states that there have been no incidents of any kind in the six months it's been open, during which time presumably hundreds of thousands of vehicles have passed through the junction and tens of thousands of pedestrians have managed to cross safely. What's the statute of limitation on "a matter of time"?

Pub bike wrote:

Rachel Reeves is mulling unfreezing the fuel duty escalator which could generate £3bn annually.

Here's an idea:

Charge fuel duty not just on volume of fuel but also based on engine size and/or fuel consumption in order to encourage motorists to buy less powerful and more efficient cars, and generate tax revenue to pay for government services such as child benefit.

To achieve this, at the filling station, ANPR is used for example to capture the registration plate, which is then used to look up the amount of fuel duty payable in a similar way to other road/vehicle pricing schemes such as LTNs, ULEZ and congestion charging.  This technology is becoming ubiquitous.

Filling stations would then make a regular fuel duty return to HMRC.

I doubt this would see an end to 6.3 V8 twin turbo 4x4 supercars being used for the school run and harrassing other road users, but it would help.

That seems over complicated as putting tax on the amount of fuel would automatically provide an incentive to drive less or use more efficient vehicles.

However, I can see an issue with the poorer demographic being penalised for not being able to afford to change to a more efficient vehicle. Maybe have an amount of fuel duty reclaimable for low incomes?

Whenever I see one of those with its jaunty spare wheel I think, "there goes a 'fun' person

Yes- he will describe himself as living an 'outdoor lifestyle'

hawkinspeter wrote:

However, I can see an issue with the poorer demographic being penalised for not being able to afford to change to a more efficient vehicle. Maybe have an amount of fuel duty reclaimable for low incomes?

A reclaim procedure would also overburden time poor as well money poor drivers.  It would also require HMRC to hire a load of new people to verify the claims.  Imagine having to send in or scan all the receipts and verify them individually to claim money back, and the opportunities for fraud.  SHould there be a unique code for each transaction verified between the vendor and HMRC that can then be use to validate the claim?  Way too complicated and vulnerable to fraud.  

That is why I suggested the idea of higher fuel duty for higher consumption using a technology solution provided by the vendor that is basically using off-the-shelf components..

Fuel duty on its own is a blunt instrument and just raising it will adversely impact e.g. care workers who have to do home visits and require a car for their job but can't really afford it.  That is a big political argument for never raising the duty because the duty is too blunt an instrument.  And those wealthy enough to afford electric cars forgo this problem altogether.  If the duty is means tested in some way so that luxury vehicles are targetted then that is a different story.

Pub bike wrote:

 That is a big political argument for never raising the duty

Not really - it's an argument for paying care workers properly so that they can afford it.

tbh I doubt she is really, I suspect theyre using it abit like the Tories did pre budgets, float an idea in the press, gauge the reaction, likely to be bad, waffle on about the hard choices, such that when the budget actually comes the thing theyre really going to tax then doesnt seem so bad, and youll be left with a well the choice was this or tax fuel more, we're choosing the best for the hard workers of the country, blah blah blah, etc.

David9694 wrote:

I did an arts thing 

The North Circular has been named the most polluted road in London, but for many people, it's known as home. Louis photographed the residents of the road, curious how they ended up in such an inhospitable and polluted environment. In 1952, the great London 'pea soup' Smog led to the clean air act four years later. This inspired the project to make invisible pollution visible. By hanging the photographic prints by the roadside, the image surfaces collected dangerous road dust, which were then photographed using an electron microscope to make clear the dangerous particles that are invisible to the naked eye. This particulate matter is 2.5-10 micrometres wide, so small that it slips past our bodies' defences; you can fit a thousand on the full stop at the end of this sentence. These particles penetrate deep into our respiratory and circulatory system, damaging our bodies. 

The work draws attention to the invisible and dangerous impact of our love for fossil fuel powered motor engines.

Unfortunately, most of the particulate pollution ends up getting washed off into our waterways and certainly the tyre particulates are terrible for the health of marine life. However, there seems to be a national policy to keep polluting our waterways with the regulator being utterly toothless (e.g. if a pollution spill is reported late by a water company, then the regulator cannot measure the scale of it and won't penalise the company for it).

I'll bet the sergeant had a difficult childhood.

David9694 wrote:

How much space has to be turned over to cars? Here's an example of where the NT should stop privileging cars. The car parking it does have should be for essential (e.g. blue badge) use only. Anything else should require to be booked and be expensive. Access should be by boat, bike and bus only. 

UPDATE: planning permission refused 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwall-planning-trelis...

Uproar over National Trust Trelissick plans as locals fear 'chaos' 

King Harry Ferry and Enterprise Boats are among those concerned about plans to put a new car park on ancient woodland and the effects it will have on the river crossing

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/national-trust-car-park-...

Notable that one of the big objections was that the pedestrian crossing would inconvenience drivers, and lead to them (through no fault of their own) experiencing road rage.

These sort of studies should be done in advance of products being allowed to be sold. Instead folk are used as laboratory animals (but this is better than using other blameless animals).

And it was the cyclist's fault

we do have lawyers involved in this who think our chances are pretty good

There are always lawyers involved on both sides who think the chances are pretty good, especially on the side with the most money

David9694 wrote:

Where do drivers think that tyre or brake disc that started on 8mm and is now 3 mm has gone?? 

 

My guess is most don't even know what those things are, they take their cars to a garage, pay the bill and drive away to watch some more cat videos.

David9694 wrote:

Hirsute wrote:

And it was the cyclist's fault

 

The 25 mph cyclist made me do it. 

Then once the driver matches the 25 MPH speed, the cyclist is holding him up!

levestane wrote:

David9694 wrote:

Where do drivers think that tyre or brake disc that started on 8mm and is now 3 mm has gone?? 

My guess is most don't even know what those things are, they take their cars to a garage, pay the bill and drive away to watch while watching some more cat videos.