[David9694]

A new catch-all Tea Shop thread for those miscellaneous new stories that don’t quite fit with parking, crashing into buildings or trapped/prisoners in their homes. 

Topic

[Mr Blackbird]

Come to think of it, quite a
Come to think of it, quite a lot of 1970s disaster movies would need updating.
Posiden Adventure 2026. The stricken liner remains upright, but the lifts fail. Passengers on the lower decks are faced with a walk up four or more flights of stairs to safety. This escape route doesn’t pass any self serve buffets, so there is no opportunity for escapees to refuel. The slimmest passenger, played by Shelley Winters, bravely makes a peril-fraught solo climb up the stairs to summon help.

[wtjs]

I think the days when the UK
I think the days when the UK could mock US obesity levels are over! Partly due to the Lip Service Only attitude to exercise and Active Travel, we are now the Fat Man of Western Europe.

[Mr Blackbird]

If it was today, the shark
If it was today, the shark wouldn’t dare attack most of the bathers to avoid spiking its cholesterol levels.

[David9694]

‘Horrendous’ driving ends in

‘Horrendous’ driving ends in police finding banned motorist with 87 points

There had been a chase

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/horrendous-driving-ends-police-finding-10717382

what’s the record for the number of penalty points? 

[wtjs]

No, the Met thought it was
No, the Met thought it was something to do with an offence against a cyclist, so they followed Standard Operating Procedures and binned it.

[mdavidford]

Presumably the Met didn’t

Presumably the Met didn’t respond because Staffs police had failed to include two minutes of footage either side of the incident. 

[wtjs]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/news/content/ar-AA1SKPvt?ocid=sapphireappshare
Various forces prosecuting each other and even themselves for not replying to demands for information about who was driving at the time of an offence

[David9694]

Man slams Asda pharmacy in

• Man slams Asda pharmacy in Brighton Marina over flu jabs

The 68-year-old said he spent hours (hours, I tells ya) trekking (I imagine the chalky South Downs were pretty slippery in places) from his home in Burgess Hill through rainy ?️ and windy ? conditions to the Brighton Marina Asda pharmacy to get his free over 65s flu jab on Thursday morning.

He added: “I lost two and a half hours of my time and then I still didn’t have any injection, in the midst of the pre-Christmas run up as well.

“What if I had been a little old lady who had to take the bus there?”

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/25712154.man-slams-asda-pharmacy-brighton-marina-flu-jabs/

(The above-mentioned little old lady would have come on the train and then got a bus and taken 45 minutes to cover the 13 miles.)

 

[David9694]

Brighton man’s concerns over

Brighton man’s concerns over bus lane fines on Richmond Terrace

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/25708738.brighton-mans-concerns-bus-lane-fines-richmond-terrace/

Plucky motorist Felix here has convinced the Adjudicator that there just weren’t enough signs for ‘Brighton man’ in, er, Brighton to know the bus lane was there.  But that wasn’t enough for him – funny though how this is held up as some amazing precedent affecting hundreds of others, but that driver crashes are just individual incidents that can’t be helped (and that go on happening week after week).

[chrisonabike]

David9694 wrote:

David9694 wrote:

. If the USA “can’t afford transit”, how come countries which are poorer than a single medium sized state can afford better infrastructure than us?!

There are undoubtedly multiple books-worth on how US (or UK) transport got to be how it is. Actually probably entire areas of study.

UK and US are significantly different but they do seem to share a nervousness about or even aversion to rail in recent decades *. (EDIT as well as the massive lobbying by the motor and related industries to get that money / space instead…).

Lots of history and reasons there also ** but I think a big factor is “but we can then literally be trapped in our homes by a union!”

This fear is shared both by government and individuals. So better to keep pouring money into holes in the ground with road infra rather than somehow find the billions up front for a rail line – the road transport is more flexible.

And individuals nod – we don’t fear getting trapped by poor service or extortionate rail fares (as they bump along knackered roads and pay off the car… ) And luckily the fuel tax subsidy is always there to be frozen yet again when we get restive about paying the full costs of driving.

* And FWIW one of the best shorter distance intra-urban transport modes eg tram. Presumably because it is not just competing with motoring but taking up significant space on the streets!

** Here’s one “why are the railways inefficient now” view (albeit by an economist not rail historian / specialist) https://dieterhelm.co.uk/regulation-utilities-infrastructure/why-are-uk-railways-so-bad/

[bensynnock]

I watched Jaws again
I watched Jaws again yesterday and I was impressed at the number of Americans getting off the ferry to Amity with their bikes. If that was today they’d turn up at the dock with all their trucks and the ferry company would say ‘we’re going to need a bigger boat’.

[David9694]

Italy has a GDP Per Capita of

Italy has a GDP Per Capita of around $35,000. Missouri has a GDP per capita of over $57,000. If the USA “can’t afford transit”, how come countries which are poorer than a single medium sized state can afford better infrastructure than us?!

[pockstone]

If only there were some other
If only there were some other way…https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/20/emergency-car-repair-family-expense

[Backladder]

quiff wrote:

Maybe this is just me, but I tend to be able to pay more attention to what’s on the high street when I’m on foot, than when I’m concentrating on driving.     

We’ve seen plenty of examples on here to show that many drivers are just looking through the window of the chip shop and drooling rather than watching the road as they should.

[Jogle]

quiff wrote:

quiff wrote:

[quote=Jogle]We already have 1,700 free parking spaces but we’re too lazy to walk and so we also want the pedestrianised road too https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgjjj0jgv2o.amp%5B/quote%5D

“Because cars can’t come up the high street, it means people don’t see the town.”

Maybe this is just me, but I tend to be able to pay more attention to what’s on the high street when I’m on foot, than when I’m concentrating on driving.     

I thought that the only way to truly see a town was through a phone screen

[Author]

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