[Gary's bike channel]

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8713579/Fury-FIRE-ENGINE-gets-stuck-new-cycle-lane-Covid-friendly-traffic-measures.html

 

no, the fire engine is stuck because there is a car parked in the road, and then some more parked in the road on the other side. If those cars were on driveways, the fire engine could get through. On road parking creates problems for everyone, including the emergency services. No driveway or dedicated off road space= no car. Problem solved.  The ”stay at home mother” states with her three kids she can’t cycle as she has to do a big weekly shop. No you don’t. You don’t HAVE to do a big weekly shop. You choose to. If you go to the shop every two days, you could easily carry enough stuff back on a bicycle with panniers. If you have the kids with you, then use the bus and only buy enough for one to two days. The idea of needing a car just because you choose to buy enough items in one go for a week is stupid. People didn’t do a big weekly shop in the 50’s and 60’s, they walked with a pram or got on the bus or cycled to the highstreet, bought their items, and went home. Why is it suddenly different?

Topic

[Hirsute]

But if you put your hazards

But if you put your hazards on, that overrides the rule.

Saw someone at the w/e parked at the junction with a dual carriageway. No driver, just left the car just shy of the give way lines but hazards on !

[brooksby]

qwerty360 wrote:

One other point; The blue car in the background is parked at a T junction, which is forbidden per highway code parking rules, for the reason demonstrated by the fire engine; Large vehicles may need the full road to swing into a side road. Had that car not been their it would have been able to straighten up before reaching the barriers (given it wasn’t far off)

The HC says 

Rule 243

DO NOT stop or park: … opposite or within 10 metres (32 feet) of a junction, except in an authorised parking space.

I suspect it all comes back to that gremlin “Common Sense”.

They’d say they were fine because they were in ‘an authorised parking space’ whereas I’d suggest that they were being stupid parking that close to a junction in such tight streets at all…

 

[qwerty360]

Having watched the video, I

Having watched the video, I also expect the fire engine might have gotten through if with no margin of error.

For a non time critical call out it wasn’t worth trying it, risking damaging the planters, parked car and/or fire engine (no doubt if it has been safety critical something would have been shunted out of the way by the fire engine and the damage caused dealt with afterwards…).

Now they know and unlike other issues it can be fixed quickly and easily by the council (fairly sure it has already been fixed by moving the barriers slightly up the road…)

The white car was in a parking space. I expect previously the parking extended into where the barriers are, and given the barriers are the same width as a car, that suggests that previously a fire engine would have likely been blocked due to parking instead. (Which I expect leads to far bigger arguments if/when on a time critical callout the fire engine rams the obstructing car, vs than the fire department telling the council that they had to ram a planter to proceed and asking a replacement be moved…)

 

 

One other point; The blue car in the background is parked at a T junction, which is forbidden per highway code parking rules, for the reason demonstrated by the fire engine; Large vehicles may need the full road to swing into a side road. Had that car not been their it would have been able to straighten up before reaching the barriers (given it wasn’t far off)

[matthewn5]

Indeed! I’ve got the ‘Kitten

Indeed! I’ve got the ‘Kitten Block’ extension for Firefox that blocks links to the Daily Hate and Express websites, in case I accidentally click through a link. Highly recommended for all!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/kitten-block/

[David9694]

I wonder what would have

I wonder what would have happened if had’ve been a life and limb call-out. 

My guess is that in this case there was some welfare or safeguarding element involved. Or it’s one up from cat stuck up a tree. 

[OldRidgeback]

OnYerBike wrote:

To be fair, I do a big shop most weeks, and as often as not it’s the only time the car gets used the whole week. It’s not “suddenly” different from the 50’s and 60’s, but there has been half a century of gradual change. Whether you like it or not, I think it’s fair to say that trying to do “normal” grocery shopping on a high street is a terrible experience. 

You and me both – our battered old family saloon spends most of its time getting dirty in the street. We occasionally make family trips in it and I have to take elder son back to uni in a week or so along with a heap of clothes, his computer, books and his bike.

[Bentrider]

When I were a lad…my mum

When I were a lad…my mum always did a big weekly shop despite having no car. She walked to the shops, often pushing a large pram. A few essentials were carried home immediately. The rest was loaded into a cardboard box at the checkout and delivered by van later that day, although it was often waiting on the doorstep when she got home.

I acquired a bike trailer a couple of years ago and often use that to carry a large weekly shop.

[Hirsute]

Much easier now. I had to
Much easier now. I had to quarantine for a weekend, and got a slot for late on the monday.

[Hirsute]

And why would a fire crew
And why would a fire crew attend?
Being locked out isn’t an emergency.

[wycombewheeler]

OnYerBike wrote:

I would have agreed with you eight months ago, but good luck getting a delivery slot now…

I booked one for this weekend when I am away and can’t do the shopping. much better now than 4 months ago

[OnYerBike]

I would have agreed with you

I would have agreed with you eight months ago, but good luck getting a delivery slot now…

[quiff]

OnYerBike wrote:

this particular piece of “fury” appears to have resulted from the firecrew having to walk ~50m in order to help some thick plank who’d locked themselves out.

Am I the only one who wouldn’t even have considered calling a firecrew (rather than paying a locksmith a no doubt exorbitant sum of money) if they’d locked themselves out? I can’t decide if that makes me a responsible citizen or a spendthrift fool.     

[HoarseMann]

If her only reason for having

If her only reason for having a car is the weekly supermarket shop, she needs to work out how much she would save by shopping online and getting it delivered.

Bet she could switch from Aldi to Ocado and still make a huge saving.

[Sriracha]

It’s self-defeating. Houses
It’s self-defeating. Houses are worth what people will pay for them. The first household where both partners worked could outbid the others for the best house, and so on, so eventually all households have two earners. Now nobody can afford to buy a house unless both partners work, but they are the same houses. Add in childcare costs since there’s no one at home to raise the kids, and hope they get the same love and attention they’d have got from a parent. Progress.

[brooksby]

And how many of those

And how many of those conversions don’t bother with getting a ‘proper’ dropped kerb put in…

[Author]

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