Drivers and their problems

essexian wrote:

David9694 wrote:

Absurd - EV owner has no guarantee of a parking space anywhere near their home.

I've never understood why people should be allowed to own a car unless they have a private, off road space to keep it on. Roads should be for making progress upon and not storing ones several tons of metal..... and yes, I do have private parking for six cars on my property. 

I'm in favour of on street parking for visiting e.g. shops, but not for long term storage. banning overnight parking seems the perfect way to accomodate this. With no cars remaining on the road all the time, there should be ample space for people to park in most places to meet the needs of shopping, picking up kids, visiting friends etc. and very little need for parking controls.

Hirsute wrote:

A bit tangential but I love this one

"Man who kept his boat besides his house was ordered from the city to put up a fence to hide the boat from view. So he built the fence and hired someone to paint it."

Good thing he didn't paint a bike shed on that...

Superb! Maybe in the same style somebody should start offering trompe l'oeil bike shed painting, disguise it as a parked SUV and no problems from the council.

David9694 wrote:

'Common sense not fixed speed limits are needed on our roads'

But as Mark Twain pithily observed (along with many others), "Common sense ain't that common." One could of course argue that common sense would dictate that it is foolish to give virtually every citizen, whatever their level of intelligence or coordination, the right to pilot a tonne of lethal machinery easily capable of exceeding 100 mph in a more or less uncontrolled environment shared with unprotected human beings, with minimal education and testing and no follow-up training, tests or checks…

"unprotected human beings with minimal education . . . ", that is a bit harsh on the pedestrians.

ChrisA wrote:

"unprotected human beings with minimal education . . . ", that is a bit harsh on the pedestrians.

Point taken, comma inserted!

ChrisA wrote:

"unprotected human beings with minimal education . . . ", that is a bit harsh on the pedestrians.

most drivers would have assumed he was talking about cyclists

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.

"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 ?

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.

David9694 wrote:

...but isn't using buses a life skill like brushing your teeth or tying your shoe laces??

Exactly like it, in that you have to be taught; if "everyone" uses electric toothbrushes or slip-on shoes you probably won't!

Presumably "I have to drive the kids everywhere" at least in part because that's simply what everyone else does (and your kids will be the butt of jokes / abuse / social isolation if you don't.  Assuming they still spend some time not online?

This was linked.

The cars have to be very long, but Wokingham is one of them...

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/drivers-cars-too-lon...

David9694 wrote:

Drivers failing tests for stopping at red light due to little-known law

A quirk of the Highway Code is to blame for the failure, which has gone viral on YouTube and social media apps.

Ah - our sometime commentator "Nigel" was only half-right!  Clearly you not only can go through a red light if it isn't yet "established", but you also should if it's been permanently establish in the wrong place!

David9694 wrote:

OK this article and the post it's based on is probably nonsense, although I have occasionally seen it happen in my locality.

Drivers failing tests for stopping at red light due to little-known law

A quirk of the Highway Code is to blame for the failure, which has gone viral on YouTube and social media apps.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/drivers-failing-test...

Here's the video referenced, from a year ago.