Drivers and their problems

Rendel Harris wrote:

Hmm...under "Special Reasons" (Section 6/3) it says:

...

I mean it seems silly to complain in detail when we're firmly in the territory in the UK of "you will have to live with this the rest of your life / nothing I can do will bring them back (so I will do nothing)" and "these things happen, poor drivers traumatised by innocently killing people"
... BUT this sounds like a charter for eg. "can't touch me, I'm neurodivergent"?

I guess this is where a more legalistic approach to road safety is likely to fall down (although this is also "choices"...). Nothing to stop stuff like "we cannot fairly punish them (we acknowledge they maybe had reduced agency) BUT at the same time we can't simply stop them driving (they have full agency on a good day AND perhaps they 'have to drive' to access support for their condition")?

Essentially a riff on the old "incompetence paradox"?

Bollard with a Claymore, perhaps?

hawkinspeter wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Drivers keep getting stuck on housing estate stairs thinking it’s a shortcut (Metro)

A bollard or two would fix that

You really do have to look at the photo, though, and wonder who would look at that and think they could drive their car through there… 

I would assume they're coming from the far end of that view and falling down the steps, rather than trying to drive up them, but even so...

David9694 wrote:

served-up by Facebook

Parking tickets are a war tactic the state uses to attack the working class.

FROM OAKLAND TO ETHIOPIA:

WE WILL FIGHT BACK! ( + QR code you probably don't want to scan )

Just wait 'till they learn about the motorised transport used to drive the cannon fodder to the front lines, or that police are enthusiastic users of black marias for carrying off uppity working class union members... or the machiavellian tactic of making driving aspirational, then allowing people to take overtime to save up to buy a vehicle to get into work sooner.

crazy that his own brief describes it as "his long suffering partner" also how come the two blokes he collected from the snooker club to assist in his driving home efforts werent being done for joint enterprise ?

From what I can make out before the story disappears behind the blocker, they're suggesting that the vast amounts of traffic queuing to get in to the LTN will back up and spill out onto the main road, where other traffic will be utterly incapable of avoiding them and simply plough into the stationary vehicles through no fault of their own. Or something.

hawkinspeter wrote:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/expensive-driveway-tax-could-introduced-9437985

Who wants a driveway tax?

We actually have one in my city since a few years ago. Our stormwater tax applies to all properties, residential or business, and is based on the impermeable area which includes buildings and concrete or asphalt driveways. Mine amounts to a bit over $60 (£45) quarterly for about 22% of my ~12000 ft² / 0.25 acre / 1100 m² property being impermeable. You can get discounts if you add significant water retention features.

We have a "combined sewer overflow" problem where a few times a year during heavy rain, an untreated combination of storm water and sewage goes into the major river that flows through town. The federal government (EPA) fines the city for each event. The tax is intended to fund fixing the system so that this doesn't happen any more, but I haven't seen much progress yet.

David9694 wrote:

"outside schools and hospitals is fine" for 20 mph, etc, drivers tell us

On the general point - would that be "slowing for 50 or 100 metres is really annoying but I can cope - it's just like having more speed cameras, you just need to know where to slow a bit before you can put your foot down again..."?

David9694 wrote:

Harefield man could be fined for parking on his own driveway

Resident, Natasha Harding, 37, added: “We have an area of wasted green space next to our flat – we approached the council to see if we could buy it and make it another parking space.

“We were instantly shut down by the council.”

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/24600024.harefield-man-fined-parking-dr...

 

"Wasted green space"?

I feel Joni Mitchell might have something to say.

The steepest hill in the UK would appear to be which ever one each commentator has been up(or down) or knows of..

Maybe they just forgot...

Simon Jenkins wrote:

A year ago my own unblemished driving career ended when I lost my driving licence for six months because of a series of ill-signed 20mph limits on roads in London and Wales. The result was a sequence of police exchanges and court hearings that beggared belief. The time-wasting and bureaucracy were Kafkaesque.

Presumably the time-wasting and bureaucracy were caused by his refusal to admit what he had done and to attempt to escape punishment, there are no police exchanges or court hearings if you just accept the ticket when you get it and pay it within the time limit. 

andystow wrote:

We actually have one in my city since a few years ago. Our stormwater tax applies to all properties, residential or business, and is based on the impermeable area which includes buildings and concrete or asphalt driveways. Mine amounts to a bit over $60 (£45) quarterly for about 22% of my ~12000 ft² / 0.25 acre / 1100 m² property being impermeable. You can get discounts if you add significant water retention features.

We have a "combined sewer overflow" problem where a few times a year during heavy rain, an untreated combination of storm water and sewage goes into the major river that flows through town. The federal government (EPA) fines the city for each event. The tax is intended to fund fixing the system so that this doesn't happen any more, but I haven't seen much progress yet.

Don't get me started on water companies pumping sewage into our waterways!

The comments in the daily echo are worth reading if you like that sort of thing. They manage to get in a dig at cyclists without any prompting.

David9694 wrote:

Imagine writing such a pathetic, victim-ey article in a national newspaper. 

"Unblemished driving career" - it's another "otherwise law abiding" driver, unfairly punished by a system which has no interest in road safety but just wants to trap some percentage of drivers! Plus people pointlessly messing with the speed limits - 30mph has been the norm forever. #waronthemotorist

David9694 wrote:

More notice needed for Remembrance Sunday road closures

To be fair the Germans didn't give everyone much notice they were done with the war in November. Could have saved everyone tooling up for the Big Push of spring 1919 if they had...

Nissan ploughs through Remembrance Day service in Halvergate...

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24714852.nissan-ploughs-remembrance-day-ser...

Sydney Road in Bath

Bristol Post wrote:

Mr Cooper said: “The problem is … that it’s a terrible scheme, based on the lie that Sydney Road is a rat run (it isn’t, it’s a perfectly serviceable and much needed city thoroughfare)…

So, you mean it's a rat run?

David9694 wrote:

Letter: A little lesson in  politeness for a town traffic warden would be appropriate?'

https://www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk/lifestyle/from-our-files-clifftop-f...

I don't subscribe, so can anyone reproduce whatever whingeing bollocks this is please?

I witnessed something that I would consider extremely rude from a traffic warden patrolling New Milton high street.

An elderly couple double parked outside Oxfam bookshop to drop off some thing, and before the gentleman had got to the boot of his car, a traffic warden ran over and started writing a ticket. The lady pointed out to the traffic warden that her husband was dropping some charity bags into the charity shop. The traffic warden’s response to this was: “I don’t care, you’re getting a ticket.”

Surely a better response would’ve been ‘I’m very sorry madam but you’re not allowed to park here, you will need to find a parking space somewhere else and carry your bags to the charity shop’. I went and helped the gentleman unload his bags and politely told the warden I thought his response wasn’t very nice, and that he could have asked them to move on rather than just issue a ticket, his response was: “I don’t care.”

I finished my shopping on the high street and when I got back to the car, the warden was still hanging around. I told him was still disappointed with his response, and the warden switched on his body cam and aggressively came over to me and started questioning me.

Don’t get me wrong, I know traffic wardens have a vital part to play in keeping the flow of traffic on our high street and they do a very valuable job.

But I do feel that sometimes they can be overzealous, and perhaps some public-facing retraining would be appropriate.

Name and address supplied

mdavidford wrote:

BBC arranging crashes for TV:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lkylk3e0go

Reminds me of this old one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qir4EEpawE

The boy has been issued a court summons and if he is found guilty of the offences, he could face a fine and points on his licence

He could, but he won't

hawkinspeter wrote:

Winifred's Lane bollards

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/watch-24-hours-chaos-after-9700693

They really should put up a sign like the sign that they put up.

David9694 wrote:

Tensions escalate over violations in Devon no-car zone

Swift action is being urged

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/tensions-escalate-over-violati...

I don't know if it was just on my computer but I got a virus warning when opening the comments on this piece. My machine is tied down harder then a very hard thing who has had additional hardness training but I would advise care.

However, please keep up the extremely good work.

wtjs can rest easy that normal service will be resumed soon

Fear not! Normal Service at Lancashire Constabulary, which is an absolute determination to do nothing about road traffic offences if they can get away with it, has been maintained throughout. For those who think that they are actually taking action but simply aren't telling me about it: here is NC09 AUV a couple of days ago with more conventionally attached ladders and no MOT for 4 months - first reported 30th September. That's nothing for Lancs! ND52 USU, no MOT since 26.10.24 which doesn't sound too bad, failed MOT 13.12.24 for numerous 'repair immediately' major defects which many people including the police feel still isn't too bad, is seen most nights parked all evening outside a notorious pub 150 yards from Garstang Police Station. Many people, including the police, also think that the police are too busy to deal with such matters and that the real problem is the villains wasting police time by reporting them. That's not going to change in the New Year, and the PCC describes all these as 'operational decisions of the police which we can't interfere with'