Drivers and their problems

Got to finish the chapter

Well go on then! I see that the centre of that alloy wheel shows he's guilty of multiple offences of many types every day but tell us the crack 24/7 Police Motorist Offence Excuses Squad said they 'couldn't take action' because: he's stationary in a traffic queue so it doesn't count; it could be only a pretend tablet which doesn't work; he's looking out the window at you so not interacting with the device; there's an 'r', 'a' or 'j' in the month; he doesn't remember using the tablet in the car; we in this Constabulary don't agree that it's an offence; we had a word with him and he apologises and says he won't do it again; he only looks at the tablet for a moment so it's only a momentary lapse of attention on the road; we're so busy on manpower-intensive operations to combat the cycling menace, that we have no time to waste on trivial non-offences etc etc

the scary thing is not only did the report state it was the second crash the individual had made in as many weeks/months, at no stage does it state and they no longer work in this role because theyre clearly unsafe to drive a vehicle on a busy airfield if they can become inattentive due to their emotional state of mind.

Quote:

The signage is said to be 40cm too close to the kerb

...because it's not nearly obstructive enough of the footway as it is now.

Hirsute wrote:

Genuinely remorseful https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmz74v9z3eo Failed to stop.

From the piece: "One witness said he did not think Rashid would have had any time to react." At 41mph, perhaps not. At the posted 30mph, then very much likely he would have had time to react.

Wrong sentence: he should have been jailed. 

Just like pushing a sore tooth, it's sometimes worth looking at these comments to see just how thick thick people are. Last night on the BBC NW England local news there was an item about Christmas traffic jams in Manchester- it was all being blamed on roadworks. We could see on screen briefly that at least some of the roadworks were for...wait for it!..a cycleway, although there was no mention of that in what was broadcast. Neither was there anybody saying to the complainants: well don't drive in you stupid *******, use public transport

No wonder they are up in arms, new cycle racks...

And of course, it was a "tragic accident" rather than a rather significant failing by a so-called professional driver.

I never thought the police use the term accident now? more the term RTC 🤔

Hirsute wrote:

Not sure which country

"Let the ball down " is a popular caption

Most likely the US. Those are standard at a Target store.

Hirsute wrote:

Good job the telescope was on a massive bollard plinth otherwise a few KSIs.

This kind of instant justice is even better than when a nearby police car turns on its flashing lights right after a driver goes through an [established] red light.

Read the Kent Online story regaring the poor cyclist death expecting the comments to be terrible. However, apart from the one above, most of them seem sensible and take apart the "....but cyclist" nonsense we usually see.

Most impressed by most posters. 

David9694 wrote:

Holdenhurst Road works spark anger from residents

He added it took him three hours to reverse out of his own driveway because no one would let him out.

I wonder where he was going, that he was happy to wait three hours to be able to drive there rather than walking or catching the bus?  Or - I dunno - "cycling"…

This is a major test on the seriousness of the Labour government with a massive majority: ignore the Tory hyper-junk press pretending to be in favour of 'The People' and go ahead with this abolition of the massive subsidy to drivers at the expense of everybody else.

David9694 wrote:

State of this 

Devon car ride horror after wife fetches husband from pub

Susan Rogers was overwhelmed by "irrational panic" after going the wrong way down a country lane

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/wife-blazing-row-drunk-husband...

Devon Live wrote:

The policeman … jumped over a garden gate and injured himself on a wheelie bin.

Did this incident take place in a 1970s sitcom? 

The big hashed area around the spaces is a big clue too.

What was supposed to be a 10-minute drive turned into a journey of an hour and 45 minutes

The Joy, The Joy!

Even more entitlement

Roads in Derbyshire's Peak District have been closed by police over "poor parking".

Both Winnats Pass and Rushup Edge, near Castleton, were shut by police on Sunday afternoon.

Hope Valley police teams said that 21 drivers who parked on the clearway through Winnats Pass on Saturday would be prosecuted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm72d22znpo

brooksby wrote:

David9694 wrote:

State of this 

Devon car ride horror after wife fetches husband from pub

Susan Rogers was overwhelmed by "irrational panic" after going the wrong way down a country lane

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/wife-blazing-row-drunk-husband...

Devon Live wrote:

The policeman … jumped over a garden gate and injured himself on a wheelie bin.

Did this incident take place in a 1970s sitcom? 

hawkinspeter wrote:

brooksby wrote:

David9694 wrote:

State of this 

Devon car ride horror after wife fetches husband from pub

Susan Rogers was overwhelmed by "irrational panic" after going the wrong way down a country lane

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/wife-blazing-row-drunk-husband...

Devon Live wrote:

The policeman … jumped over a garden gate and injured himself on a wheelie bin.

Did this incident take place in a 1970s sitcom? 

I guess Susan Rogers should be lucky that there wasn't a swan involved.

Pub bike wrote:

Rachel Reeves is mulling unfreezing the fuel duty escalator which could generate £3bn annually.

Here's an idea:

Charge fuel duty not just on volume of fuel but also based on engine size and/or fuel consumption in order to encourage motorists to buy less powerful and more efficient cars, and generate tax revenue to pay for government services such as child benefit.

To achieve this, at the filling station, ANPR is used for example to capture the registration plate, which is then used to look up the amount of fuel duty payable in a similar way to other road/vehicle pricing schemes such as LTNs, ULEZ and congestion charging.  This technology is becoming ubiquitous.

Filling stations would then make a regular fuel duty return to HMRC.

I doubt this would see an end to 6.3 V8 twin turbo 4x4 supercars being used for the school run and harrassing other road users, but it would help.

That seems over complicated as putting tax on the amount of fuel would automatically provide an incentive to drive less or use more efficient vehicles.

However, I can see an issue with the poorer demographic being penalised for not being able to afford to change to a more efficient vehicle. Maybe have an amount of fuel duty reclaimable for low incomes?

Whenever I see one of those with its jaunty spare wheel I think, "there goes a 'fun' person

Yes- he will describe himself as living an 'outdoor lifestyle'

hawkinspeter wrote:

However, I can see an issue with the poorer demographic being penalised for not being able to afford to change to a more efficient vehicle. Maybe have an amount of fuel duty reclaimable for low incomes?

A reclaim procedure would also overburden time poor as well money poor drivers.  It would also require HMRC to hire a load of new people to verify the claims.  Imagine having to send in or scan all the receipts and verify them individually to claim money back, and the opportunities for fraud.  SHould there be a unique code for each transaction verified between the vendor and HMRC that can then be use to validate the claim?  Way too complicated and vulnerable to fraud.  

That is why I suggested the idea of higher fuel duty for higher consumption using a technology solution provided by the vendor that is basically using off-the-shelf components..

Fuel duty on its own is a blunt instrument and just raising it will adversely impact e.g. care workers who have to do home visits and require a car for their job but can't really afford it.  That is a big political argument for never raising the duty because the duty is too blunt an instrument.  And those wealthy enough to afford electric cars forgo this problem altogether.  If the duty is means tested in some way so that luxury vehicles are targetted then that is a different story.

Pub bike wrote:

 That is a big political argument for never raising the duty

Not really - it's an argument for paying care workers properly so that they can afford it.

tbh I doubt she is really, I suspect theyre using it abit like the Tories did pre budgets, float an idea in the press, gauge the reaction, likely to be bad, waffle on about the hard choices, such that when the budget actually comes the thing theyre really going to tax then doesnt seem so bad, and youll be left with a well the choice was this or tax fuel more, we're choosing the best for the hard workers of the country, blah blah blah, etc.

David9694 wrote:

I did an arts thing 

The North Circular has been named the most polluted road in London, but for many people, it's known as home. Louis photographed the residents of the road, curious how they ended up in such an inhospitable and polluted environment. In 1952, the great London 'pea soup' Smog led to the clean air act four years later. This inspired the project to make invisible pollution visible. By hanging the photographic prints by the roadside, the image surfaces collected dangerous road dust, which were then photographed using an electron microscope to make clear the dangerous particles that are invisible to the naked eye. This particulate matter is 2.5-10 micrometres wide, so small that it slips past our bodies' defences; you can fit a thousand on the full stop at the end of this sentence. These particles penetrate deep into our respiratory and circulatory system, damaging our bodies. 

The work draws attention to the invisible and dangerous impact of our love for fossil fuel powered motor engines.

Unfortunately, most of the particulate pollution ends up getting washed off into our waterways and certainly the tyre particulates are terrible for the health of marine life. However, there seems to be a national policy to keep polluting our waterways with the regulator being utterly toothless (e.g. if a pollution spill is reported late by a water company, then the regulator cannot measure the scale of it and won't penalise the company for it).

I'll bet the sergeant had a difficult childhood.

David9694 wrote:

How much space has to be turned over to cars? Here's an example of where the NT should stop privileging cars. The car parking it does have should be for essential (e.g. blue badge) use only. Anything else should require to be booked and be expensive. Access should be by boat, bike and bus only. 

UPDATE: planning permission refused 

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornwall-planning-trelis...

Uproar over National Trust Trelissick plans as locals fear 'chaos' 

King Harry Ferry and Enterprise Boats are among those concerned about plans to put a new car park on ancient woodland and the effects it will have on the river crossing

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/national-trust-car-park-...

Notable that one of the big objections was that the pedestrian crossing would inconvenience drivers, and lead to them (through no fault of their own) experiencing road rage.