Drivers and their problems

mdavidford wrote:

Well here's an unusual celebrity edition for the collection.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgxj1jy71zo

I saw that!  Hilarious! 

David9694 wrote:

Its closure has been leading to major detours, causing one mother to spend up to two hours on the school run - a journey that should take more than 10 or 15 minutes.

It sounds like it still does.

Hirsute wrote:

“The thing is, they’re not working seven days a week, 24 hours a day, so why do they need no parking seven days a week?”

Probably because they don't want to waste the first couple of hours of each working day getting the cars that have been left there ignoring the restrictions removed.

Spangly Shiny wrote:

A woman has been arrested after admitting to assaulting two members of the public in Taunton.

What flavour of English is this?

Nowt wrong with that. One assumes you're taking issue with the prepositional clause "in Taunton" being at the end of the sentence, rather than "A woman has been arrested in Taunton after admitting to assaulting two members of the public" or "A woman in Taunton has been arrested after admitting to assaulting two members of the public" but if she committed the assault in Taunton but was arrested elsewhere the order is quite in order.

But you can park from 1801 to 0659 each day, so there could still be cars in the way.

It;s the "admitting to assaulting", the "to" is redundant.

David9694 wrote:

A "normal" 10-15 drive is an admission of the short distances so many cars are used for. 

Depends where. My driving commute to work is 15 minutes, but not many others would consider cycling the nine miles each way even if there were a nice safe, flat route. There's no traffic where I live, though.

A 15 minute driving commute in Chicago or London rush hour is probably under four miles, which a lot more people might consider cycling.

Ah - reading comprehension fail on my part (partly due to confusing quote - the '24 hours a day' bit was irrelevant) - I'd thought the restrictions were continuous, but work was only 7am-6pm.

So basically they're complaining that it's restricted every day but they're not working every day? But they may not know ahead of time which days they are going to be working, so it's simpler all round to say it's suspended every day, rather than chopping and changing at short notice.

andystow wrote:

A 15 minute driving commute in Chicago or London rush hour is probably under four miles, which a lot more people might consider cycling.

Yup.  Apparently average speeds are around 11 - 13 mph in inner London, about 20mph in outer London.

While we appreciate there will be unavoidable delays while the work is undertaken, once the work is complete the bridge will continue to be used and cherished for years to come

Nope- there'll be another crazed nutter driver along soon. We had a canal bridge repaired near here, and pretty much as soon as the big red and white plastic/ water barriers protecting the new stone bridge walls were removed, somebody knocked one of them into the canal again.

David9694 wrote:

Toni Schiavone said "I understand, but I refuse to pay."

Sounds like Mr Schiavone (famous ancient Welsh clan, the Schiavones) understands English perfectly well, and should have had no trouble deciphering the parking ticket.

stonojnr wrote:

Its that time of year again, the annual Network Rail most hit railway bridge by HGVs list, a mere 1532 this past year, so only 1 every 6 hours. And it's Stutney Road bridge near Ely that takes the top prize 18 hits, so roughly 1 every 3 weeks. https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/britains-most-struck-bridg...

Looks like they've got hi-viz, so maybe some kind of bridge helmet is needed?

David9694 wrote:

But you've still managed to scrape together a bunch of money in 2024/25 to have yet another go at Clevedon sea front because a few drivers didn't like it. 

I read somewhere (may have been on this very site?) that the parking charges will raise just enough money to pay for the changes that drivers want made to the seafront.  Unintended consequences and all that…

hawkinspeter wrote:

stonojnr wrote:

Its that time of year again, the annual Network Rail most hit railway bridge by HGVs list, a mere 1532 this past year, so only 1 every 6 hours. And it's Stutney Road bridge near Ely that takes the top prize 18 hits, so roughly 1 every 3 weeks. https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/britains-most-struck-bridg...

Looks like they've got hi-viz, so maybe some kind of bridge helmet is needed?

And a couple of small plastic bollards will stop the lorries going anywhere near the bridge. 

Alternatively, we're looking at this the wrong way, roads are for cars and lorries. Bridges have no right to be anywhere near roads, they don't pay road tax after all, and so if a bridge gets hit, it only has itself to blame

What about the tortoise though?

To be fair, they never said it was a good example...

David9694 wrote:

"low income drivers" 

Genuine question, possibly something road.cc could look into: how do the costs of using public transport (buses, tube, hire bikes) compare with the costs of owning and driving a car in That There London?  I mean, London has arguably the best public transport system in all of England - as an occasional tourist, I honestly can't imagine why someone would own a car when they lived there.

"the mum said there needed to be better signs to warn drivers of some of the potential hazards"

Errrr.... High hedges, narrow road, bends. And that's just fron that one photo. Why would any competent driver need a sign to tell them that they need to moderate their speed and use the horn ?

mdavidford wrote:

What about the tortoise though?

"Would passengers taking the 17.35 to Newcastle please bring it back."

brooksby wrote:

Genuine question, possibly something road.cc could look into: how do the costs of using public transport (buses, tube, hire bikes) compare with the costs of owning and driving a car in That There London?  I mean, London has arguably the best public transport system in all of England - as an occasional tourist, I honestly can't imagine why someone would own a car when they lived there.

Seconded - not a Londoner and never lived there so have no idea. But ... I used to visit and ... it's quite big. In fact, more like a series of towns / cities stuck together. And apparently public transport on the edges / just outside can be sketchy (made even worse by contrast with the centre I imagine).

chrisonabike wrote:

 "Would passengers taking the 17.35 to Newcastle please bring it back."

Peter Cook's Scotland Yard detective on the Great Train Robbery: "I think I should make one thing clear from the outset, when you speak of train robbery, this involved no loss of train. It was merely the contents of the train which were pilfered, we haven't lost an actual train since 1943, I think it was, the year of the great snows, when we mislaid a small one."

David9694 wrote:

How to catch the bus. There's also one about getting off it. If I was going to France or Gernany I guess there'd be no shame in reading up on how to use the RER and the U-Bahn. I guess this is a great way of removing obstacles to public transport use - one of the better things the internet has done -  but isn't using buses a life skill like brushing your teeth or tying your shoe laces??

https://youtu.be/5-yvQBZEhx8?si=foIco7ss8ljVBA8h

I've never found a bus system that didn't have a learning curve. I've ridden buses in at least:

• London (probably the easiest)
• Glasgow
• Chicago
• Washington, DC
• Seattle, WA
• Portland, OR
• Peoria, IL
• Denver, CO

I gave up in Dublin and walked everywhere, but I did find the train there easy to figure out.

It's (usually) easy to find a schedule and routes, but with an unfamiliar system it's often not obvious to figure out:

• Do I need to buy a ticket in advance? Day pass?
• Where do I buy it?
• Can I buy it as I board?
• Can I pay cash on board? How much do I need?
• Do I have to pay again if I transfer?

And yes, my expectation used to be that if I was waiting at a bus stop, the bus would stop. That doesn't always work.

HoarseMann wrote:

Heavy traffic "forces" driver to break the law...

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/24631810.colchester-woman-forced-bre...

Her journey of 0.5 miles is a 10 min walk, 3 min cycle or 4 min drive! (Colchester Institute to Rawstorn Rd).

Her home wasn't "inaccessible", AFAICS, it just meant she might have had to wait while traffic (of which she was a part!) cleared.  God forbid she have to wait like everyone else…

David9694 wrote:

“Some drivers will inevitably end up being very surprised when a notice of intended prosecution letter arrives on their doormat when they felt they had managed to slow down enough after spotting a police car in the distance.”

"But officer, I slowed down when I was passing your car…"