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No wonder they can't gauge a 1.5m overtaking clearance
I think I've found part of the answer as to why some motorists seem to think a gnat's dick is 1.5m clearance - they can't even judge the width of their own vehicle, never mind any clearance to the sides. What hope is there?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-59641534
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After I passed my driving test my Dad arranged for me to have some tuition from a mate of his who was an advanced police driver.
One of his exercises was to have me put cones out at the width I thought my car was and also to place cones himself and challenge me to drive through if I thought there was sufficient room.
He said that people not knowing the width of the vehicle they were driving was a secret weapon for the police and they brought many a chase to an end when the suspect car got stuck in an alley.
Excellent parenting from your dad and no doubt good tuition. As for police using the "alley trap" technique I recall from some trash TV that's also favoured by the crims - can't find video online but there was one where joyriders decamped from the car just after driving down a narrow alley - the police in the pursuing car found they didn't have room to open their doors ...
The Joy! The Joy!!
Stolen and modified from 'Heart of Darkness' and 'Apocalypse Now' to describe the view of The Filth coming to well-deserved grief
I must say that hiss was rather satisfying...
So the bollards have been doing their job by forming an immovable object to protect the residential area**.
But ...
Because some dicks can't judge the width of their car, the council area considering replacing the bollards (which are an instant deterrent and *work*), with cameras and FPN ...
Leave the bollards in, and natural selection will do the rest.
** Many years ago (must be close to 30 odd years), when I was a truck driver I once had to take a 7.5 tonner down the A2 (I think it was ... Somewhere near Woolwich anyway). At the time, there was a 7.5t weight and 7ft 6 width restriction in place, marked by steel poles.
It was a typical council job; crap tarmac had rutted from constant cars, vans and bin wagons.
So ... It was 7ft6 at the bottom, but after a couple of feet, the poles had bent inwards to such an extent that my 7ft trucklet wouldn't fit.
It made a bit of a bang when the headboard hit the poles ...
I was blocking the road for a good 10 mins before people had enough sense to let others back up so I could reverse out.
I was slightly ... Nay, horribly embarrassed by it at first, but then when I realised that none had the brains they were born with, I didn't care.
I used to live near this - just 6ft 6in wide. Most people took it very slowly, but there were plenty who barely seemed to slow. Mostly people just seemed to knock off wing (yes, wing) mirrors on the high bollards, but I did once see someone fully wedged in between the bollards.
Must have been before the 70s, or so I'm reliably informed.
Unless it was only Renault Scenic drivers.....
Liking your comment mostly coz you unashamedly said wing mirror!
at least the gap is wider than a car
unlike this opening which is narrower than the intended users
Got to stop those evil motor scooters!
(Wait - what do you mean, motor scooters are narrower than some bikes...? Someone needs to tell the council. And Sustrans).
Argh! Beetlejuice! Although they have improved since former times * (and I've great respect for a couple of their staff I've encountered who genuinely do seem to understand walking / cycling as practical transport, in depth) I'm still always a little nervous of what Sustrans might cook up, never mind give the nod to. It matters because they seem to be the most "powerful" organisation (outside fo the actual authorities) having to do with producing cycling infra on the ground. So they seem to be a de-facto "go to" if you've got a marginally "sympathetic" council / LA etc. Yeah - their "talk" is always good, but...
* CF "Notional Cycle Network" / "National Sign Network". Not a bad idea in itself of course but not everyone wants a windy trip through the bushes and round the estates.
To Sriracha's point it is telling that nearly everything on that video is a misjudgement on the offside. No wonder we get closed passed. I suspect a good % of drivers genuinely think that they are giving enough room.
On the video, they almost all seem to hit that first bollard on the offside. Mind you, none of them seem to slow down, either, so must be pretty confident that they think they know how wide their vehicles are...
Do you mean on the nearside?
There's some suggestion that this is because people are running up the dropped kerb in front of the nearside bollard. Whereas it doesn't happen on the other side of the road because they get guided into the gap by bouncing off the kerb. Which kind of says it all, really.
Nearside/offside - I always get confused of which is which... The passenger's side, in the UK.
Yeah - I always have to stop and think about it. It's not the most helpful nomenclature - near to who? Maybe it made more sense in an era of carriages, or something?
the nearside is the side nearest the kerb (counter intuitively) which is the passenger side whether in the UK or elsewhere.
Of course this seems quite confusing because if I take my car abroad, now the nearside will be the drivers side.
Ignoring the confusion when people park facing the wrong way
Thank you, Wycombe
Thats me learned gud. In my head nearside was the side nearest the driver. Thanks for the larning Wycombe - of course now something important has dribbled out of me 'ead......
In fairness that's what I thought too, until I googled it, and every site came back with the same definition.
Maybe it says something about our car-centric / self-centred society that we've all shifted our thinking from an observer's perspective to a driver's perspective.
Happy to help - the rule is simple:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/rules_and_equipment/4993924.stm
That mirrors what I see often, nearside tyres on or over the nearside lane markings on multilane roads, particularly with new wankpanzers
Gotta love teh headline -
Are bollards dragging themselves out of their footings, tooling themselves up with baseball bats and wandering around looking for unattended cars to vandalise?
No, motorists are trashing their own cars through negligence and incompetence. 3 cars written off in one weekend? So how many motorists successfully negotiated teh calming measures on that relatively busy road with no probs?
I can't shake the image of an enraged bollard treating a cowering Nissan Micra to a Glasgow Kiss....
Most bollards are now dressing in hoodies to avoid the danger of being caught on camera.
Should be made to wear hiviz
not these bollards
Maybe its the lack of my morning coffee but that looks like the start of the Doctor Who Episode Christmas to me. Those are evil space puddings arent they? When do they start eating unsuspecting revelers at midnight?
Once more the 'factual' BBC are on the ball - The width restriction on Woodmere Avenue in Watford was introduced a decade ago to deter larger vehicles from using the road but regular accidents have occurred in recent months since it was made even narrower.
If you look at the link hirsute provided you can see that the width hasn't changed in 13 years
The latest Streetview imagery is from March. The BBC report says it was reduced 'in recent months', which suggests after that point. And by only 6 inches, so it wouldn't necessarily be very evident comparing the side camera footage with Streetview.
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