Entertainment For Lively Minds
Reasons Why I Hate Cars
Posted by Klaus Joynson on 10 August 2009 - 12:31am.
I'm going to add to this thread ad infinitum, so long as I escape death under the wheels of a four by four-wheeling git on the phone to his bank manager/drug dealer.
Anyway, No. 1:
You can't pose for a photo on Abbey Road without getting run over by gits in cars who feel they have a far greater need to get to some unspecified destination, which they've already been to twice that day.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5996009/Iconic-Beatles-ze...
And I'm not asking for contributions to this thread. I can feed it perfectly well by myself.
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No. 2
So-called 'Road Calming'.
Not speed humps, which I think is eminently sensible, but road narrowing. How this works on cars, I do not know. But if you happen to be riding a bicycle, it is the equivalent of 'run over me, please'.
Road humps
The ones that cover the width of the road are little more than apain, but the small ones they call "speed pillows" are lethal. There have been many occasions when cars have wanted to straddle one of these things, rather than slow down, and nearly had me off the bike.
No. 3
Your local shop.
Hey, we've all got one. That's where they sell that essential bog roll/ pack of fags/ loaf of bread/ electricity card meter refill in the middle of the night that is essential to most people. Most of these places are close to the centre of towns or cities, and usually there's another, identical place within 500m of it.
Yet there will always be about five cars parked on the double yellow lines outside it.
What, you couldn't walk to it? You thought you would get mugged on the way? You think parking your hideously expensive car on the double yellow lines outside would draw attention away from you?
I hope the car insurance which you're paying through the nose for is slowly bankrupting you. And you would rather sleep in a cardboard box in order to pay for it makes you feel happy.
To get to any shop
with a disabled passenger who requires a wheelchair it always helps if the same knobheads would park in the correct spot instead of in a disabled bay because that is nearer the ATM and it looks like it might rain. If I win the lottery I might just hire a car-thrashing hitman to sort out these twots. Spleen vented (thank you).
Parking in the disabled spaces outside the Leisure Centre
This is something I observe often locally. Presumably because to avoid too much exertion on the way to the gym?
No. 4
The Country Road
Getting away from it all. What could be better?
There's a field on your right and a beautiful farmhouse on your left. It's the perfect English scene of old.
Except for the complete Cameron coming down the blind curve behind you on your right, doing 90mph in the sportscar he got for Christmas (which he thinks he can't get away with on the motorways). And you realise, in the tiny split second you have for the rest of your life, that the pavement you're on is actually a part of the road.
Yerrrrssssss.... but someone lives in that beautiful farmhouse
and, due to the lack of public transport, they need to drive to get anywhere.
Nothing against Farmer Giles
It's the twonks who take their high-powered sportscars into 'the country' in order to blast it down the country lanes, because they think there isn't any police and/or traffic cameras, that I object to.
Sure they don't live there?
Farmer Giles has sons with sports cars sometimes :-)
It's the boy-racers...
that drive like knobheads - those that can afford high-powered sports car drivers are, generally, OK -apart from some footballers.
You want to try
living 4 miles from Castle Combe circuit on many Saturdays each year.
The only consolation is that they seem to have a dedicated Darwinian urge to thinning their own numbers. Mrs Fox was riding one of the dobbins last weekend and actually heard the bang when the last one bought it.
No. 5
The way drivers coming upon roundabouts think cyclists already on them, somehow 'don't count'. This has happened to me so much I actually stop and let them carry on their way, even if they have stopped at the dotted white lines.
Honestly, my heart can't take it anymore.
Double points
What to you mean they don't count?!
It's extra points for a cyclist! Much harder to hit than a pedestrian.
Quadruple if
it's a pregnant nun riding it
Reasons Why I Love Cars
Are too numerous and obviously practical to list e.g. I also love and live in the countryside but need to drive to work as the bus only offers me a service twice a week (unlike my job hich is a 5 daya week commitment) and a 25 mile bike ride each way doesn't fit with my life.
I also love the sound my cars 3.0 litre engine makes in a tunnel.
You don't 'need' to drive to work...
...you 'choose' to live 25 miles away! It is a choice you have every right to make, but don't deceive yourself that it is anything else.
Eh?
Are you saying that in order to reduce the proliferation of cars on the road, those of us who have grafted and made the bloody effort to get out of town should move back in?
Especially if you have grafted
and wish to spend some of your money on a car. You should be ashamed of yourself and made to live in a city. That'll learn you.
Thanks for the clarification Merv
I didn't realise. When my last job folded and the only alternative I could find was with a 160 mile daily commute, I mistaken thought I needed to take it.
Choices? I could have stayed at home, claimed benefit, or waited for the nice bank manager to ask for the house back. Or sold up and moved within walking distance. Of course that would have ruined the kids prep for the exams they were about to take, and the wife would have lost her job. And removed the whole family from all their friends and relatives.And we couldn't have sold the house anyway because the market had collapsed, but yes I'll stop deceiving myself.....
I work through an agency...
I go where the work is. Sometimes a week at a time. Sometimes six months. I need a car. I need to drive to work. Also, public transport is so poor in this country that I'd actually rather drive... It helps me keep away from other people. (Who I resent being crammed in with, if lucky enough to get a seat...)
I was unable to drive recently & the journey to work by train (my only option) was almost as much as a day's pay. Absurd!
Cars aren't bad - some drivers are. Most of us are just doing our best to keep body & soul together.
Adman wrote...
... "Cars aren't bad - some drivers are." Excellent point.
Cars don't kill people. It's the fucking idiots behind the wheel that kill people.
I'll remember when I'm planning next weeks
18 sales calls that I don't need to drive to work. And laugh.
Oh yeas, and my doctor wife will remind her patients that she shouldn't make housecalls so the lazy malingerers can get off their *rses and take the bus to the surgery. Who cares who they infect and with what en route.
Not always our choice.
It would be nice to think that we could all chose who we work for and therefore where we work but we can't. When you have two workers in the house it's very likely that one of them will have to travel. If we moved house every time my wife's company moves their office then we would be in our third house in 8 years by now and I would have further to travel!
Hey, I'm not making any judgments
I'm just always taken by people's arguments about 'needing' a car. We all make choices based on the fact that we have unfettered access to personal transport and the assumption that it will always be that way. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's just interesting to me that most people don't see how lucky we are compared to earlier generations.
My grandparents, like most people at the time, couldn't afford a car in their 20s, so they arranged their lives accordingly. They quite simply could not have taken a job 160 miles away unless they moved home. Now, that choice is available to most people.
It's a bit like when people try to get out of driving bans by claiming they need a car for work. If it's that important to you, why didn't you obey the rules of the road a bit better? Driving is a privillege, not a right. That's why we need a licence to do it.
Bang on
Couldn't agree more.
My grandparents had no car
They found work in their village.
My parents didn't have a car until my dad got a job as a travelling salesman with a company car. In a town several miles away from where we were housed by the council. The world has f**king changed. For the better. Don't be talking to me about privilege. My grandparents saw the freedoms we had and felt only pleasure that the sacrifices they made had paid off. Yes it's up to our generation to be responsible
with that freedom, but I'm damned if I'm going to wring my hands over it.
I never said you should
but I do think it is fascinating how defensive people get about their cars in the face of the merest hint that they should consider anything other than their own convenience when using them.
And as for privilege, I just used that word to differentiate from a legal right - i.e. we have a right to, for instance, free speech, but we drive under licence - part of the conditions of which are that we stick to the rules of the road.
No judgements? You sure?
Your post suggests we could all choose not to drive if we wanted to, and to think otherwise is dellusional. Seems to be a judgement to me.
Yep, pretty sure
I would stand by the suggestion that we could choose not to drive, but even if that's what I said, I certainly never came close to saying one way or the other whether people should make that choice.
My point, such as it is, is only that the debate on car usage for most people seems to begin and end with "well, I need a car to get to work". Obviously that is an immediate reality for most people, but usually because they have chosen to live so far from where they work. As it happens, that is a choice I am planning to make next year when I return to the UK and no longer want to live in a town/city.
And delusional is probably going a bit far, but I do think people deceive themselves. It's not surprising, though as we Brits love our cars and would say anything to defend them.
Anyway, maybe I'll keep my semantic pedantry to myself in future.
Ummm, not so much. I live
Ummm, not so much.
I live c.25 miles from work. Why do I live here? because it's the closest i can get to work and still afford the housing. It wasn't a lifestyle choice, it was an economic one.
Your assertion that "we could choose not to drive" frankly doesn't work - at least, not here in the USA.
But, in your own words...
...it's still a choice. Just because there are good reasons for making a psrticular choice, doesn't mean there weren't alternatives.
That was all I was trying to say, really. I'm starting to wish I hadn't bothered!
I'm with you Klaus
75 mile training/fitness ride yesterday. As usual a couple of close calls, a few idiots who simply shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel and, of course, a dozen or so see you next tuesdays who don't believe the mobile ban applies to them!
It seems...
that you don't really hate cars - you hate knobhead drivers - and most drivers, I would imagine, are with you on that. Regarding cyclists, I don't understand why some don't use the cycle lanes provided (especially those attired as if they're in the Tour de France) - they also get very aggressive, in my experience, when this is mentioned to them.
I hate THE cyclists
who think it is perfectly okay to race along the pavement, skimming pedestrians as they go. Oh, I would also include those that think the highway code does not apply to them and go through lights on red and cycle in the dark without lights. Muppets.
and also the ones that cycle...
alongside there mates - and when you tell them to get in (so you can get past) they go nuts and start chasing you - fortunately, in a car, I've always managed to get away.
Wait until they're *right* behind you then dab the brakes
:-)
To be honest
I hate those guys too. As a cyclist, I always avoid pavements and stop at red lights, just to separate myself from these blights on humanity. What's depressing is that I'm very much in the minority who do.
When I was a militant cyclist, living in Bristol,
I used to simply thump the cars that got too close to me on the roof with the palm of my hand as hard as I could. It almost made the drivers wet themselves, as without fail they 'didn't see you, mate' and they couldn't catch me in the traffic either.
As has been said, it isn't cars that are the problem, it's the morons we allow to drive them.
When I was a militant driver
When I was a militant driver living in London I used to thump on the head cyclists who got to close to me.
Like I said,
morons.
No. 7
a) Clarkson.
b) The shifty little rodent-eyed one.
c) The other one.
As a non-driver I'm delighted that the school holidays are on. I could safely walk blind-folded across roads which are normally chocker with 4-by-4s conveying little Tarquin and Damaris the 500 metres to school because heaven forbid that they be exposed to direct sunlight.
Tosh
I expect to be publicly flogged for this but I do the school run, yes in a car (although not a 4x4 so perhaps the number of strokes administered will be reduced). School doors open at 8.55. I'm back at my car at 9.00. I have to be at work for 9.30 (the concept of flexitime has not yet reached my firm). Journey time is 20 minutes.
That will be the experience of the vast majority of school-runners I imagine, but let's forget that and pretend that they're all rushing to nothing more urgent than a spray-tanning session...
Me too...
there's seems to be a theory that people who do the school run go straight back home to bed. Night Night.
I hear that a lot
But nevertheless the number of cars on the road is vastly reduced when school is out. I suppose it could be that the same number of journeys are being made by people who adjust the syzygy of home/school/work when they have the opportunity.
That'll be all the teachers...
off the road - the school car parks are always full in term time.
That will be a thing called holidays
It explains why find a parking space at work is a lot easier during the school holidays as well. Parents take that time of work to be with their kids.
Blame feminism etc.
And also the government, taxes, culture. Mums (or dads, either will do) should be at home looking after children and perhaps working part time around the school hours.
It's wrong, all this nursery business. Women insisting that they have to get a job and a career. No! You decided to have children, take some responsibility!
Look, I know this is my first post and that it's (a tiny bit) sexist but, sorry it's true. One parent should be at home looking after the house and the children - that parent would naturally be the one who earns less. It's not my fault that is usually the dad.
That's why the roads are so damn busy during school hours.
Oh, and for the record I'm both a father of two AND I cycle to work...and my wife drives to work...
Hmm
My experience is that nurseries are great for kids, particularly as families tend to be smaller these days.
And, you know, some women are jolly well just as good as the chaps when it comes to this work business.
Kids as a weapon
I should have more important things to worry about, but ...
Why is it okay to double park outside the school while you see the little darlings to the door? Or chew up the village green in your 4x4 because the school doesn't have enough dropping off points?
If I time it wrong, it can take me 20 minutes to get past a school on my route to work, because We Must For God's Sake Think Of The Children and therefore stop in the middle of the road to let them out. But any sign of frustration on my part would be construed as an attack on the rights of a mother to do what she says is best for her chicks.
It's like Baby on Board signs: take some responsibility yourself, woman*. Did you think I was planning to ram your vehicle at full pelt, but now I see you have a sign up, I'll refrain?
*I know, I know. But in my experience, it is.
Baby On Board signs
are, apparently, for the benefit of the emergency services following an incident where a baby was found, still alive, in the wreckage of a car in which the parents were killed.
Except...
no one takes them down when there's no kids in the car - therefore expecting the Emergency Services to enter a wrecked car in search of a non-existent baby.
Urban legend, apparently
See http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/babysign.asp
A good sign
"No Babies Left In This Vehicle Overnight"
Oh. It had always made sense to me.
Babies are very small and easy to miss. The other people in the car-crash may not be in a position to run a roll-call. Well, a shred of logic is what makes a good urban legend, I suppose.
Okay. Isn't the "Baby On Board" sign there to tell the car behind that the driver is very easily distracted? New parents like to check that their child is still alive every thirty seconds. They're going to hit the brakes the second they hear choking. They're probably looking in the mirror at their child instead of keeping both eyes on the road. It's them, not you.
"Caution: Show Cats In Transit"
So you'll be more careful than if it were only people?
Why ever not?
Kitties in cages are entitled to consideration, surely? The driver may be hesitant to brake rapidly, for instance, with unrestrained animals on board. What's wrong with asking other drivers to bear it in mind? Heaven forfend that anyone might wish to inconvenience another road user even for a few seconds of consideration.
It's even worse with larger livestock. Unfortunately there is plenty of pond life driving cars, vans and trucks that cannot understand that it says CAUTION HORSES on the back of a horsebox for a bloody good reason.
I've lost count of the number of times we've been tailgated, roared past and then cut in upon by some berk who was obviously on a mission of such importance he was justified in scaring the crap, literally, out of the horses in the back.
When the animals in question are sufficiently big and strong to endanger the vehicle they are in, the people in that vehicle, AND other road users it should be damn obvious that they need special consideration, but too often the cretins I have to share the road with can't think that far in front of their own selfishness.
The signs aren't explicit enough
There's no point in sticking up a sign if the readers of that sign don't know why it was posted. As I've never transported animals in a car it had never occurred to me that they would not be restrained - now it's been pointed out it seems obvious but why should I have made the connection?
Having said that, I wouldn't have been one of the people cutting you up.
Perhaps the sign should simply be
a colour photograph of the after effects of attempting to fit a cat with a seat belt.
Its got to be easier
to fit a cat with a seatbelt than to fit one to pondlife surely?
Don't start me on the school run
I live opposite a school and when I'm working at home I get a grandstand view of the full range of ignorant behaviours. To add to those above...
Parking across my driveway in a bid to get as close to the school as possible so that their fat children (they really usually are) don't have too far to walk
Emptying their ashtrays in the street while waiting
Waiting with their engines running, all year round, oblivious of the No Idling signs, and the regular fines dished out by the local plods when I grass on them. There presumably aren't the people one hears moaning about fuel prices.
Double parking
I regularly used to cycle past a school in Kensington, just south of the museums. It's a very busy road, but that doesn't stop people double parking and making no attempt to leave in any hurry as the mothers (and they were nearly always mothers) chatted away. However the worst was a guy who triple parked, completely blocking the road so his little darlings would have the minimal distance to walk to the school door. If all the double spaces were full they used to go down the road and park on the cycle lane.
Amen to that
How ironic that these 3 seem to have popularized the the word "Cock" as a term of abuse.
I think they are directly responsible for the huge amount of dangerous morons out there.
I believe the term 'cock' is used by James May
as a term of exasperation rather than abuse.
River Of Orchids XTC lyrics
to River Of Orchids :
Heeeey!
I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus
I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus
Take a packet of seeds, take yourself out to play
I want to see a river of orchids where we had a motorway
Push your car from the road
Push your car from the road
Just like a mad dog you're chasing your tail in a circle
Just like a mad dog you're chasing your tail in a circle
It's all in your back yard
You've the whole world at your feet
Said the grass is always greener when it bursts up through concrete
Push your car from the road
Push your car from the road
River of orchids winding our way
Want to walk into London on my hands one day
River of orchids the road overgrows
Want to walk into London smelling like a Peckham rose
Just like a mad dog you're chasing your tail in a circle
Yeah!
Just like a mad dog you're chasing your tail in a circle
You know you can do it
I had a dream where the car is reduced to a fossil
I had a dream where the car is reduced to a fossil
Take a packet of seeds, take yourself out to play
I want to see a river of orchids where we had a motorway
It's all in your back yard
Push your car from the road
You've the whole world at your feet
Said the grass is always greener when it bursts up through concrete
Take a packet of seeds
Push your car from the road
Take yourself out to play
I want to see a river of orchids where we had a motorway
River of orchids winding my way
Want to walk into London on my hands one day
River of orchids the road overgrows
Want to walk into London smelling like a Peckham rose
I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus
River of orchids winding my way
I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus
Want to walk into London on my hands one day
Just like a mad dog you're chasing your tail in a circle
River of orchids the road overgrows
Just like a mad dog you're chasing your tail in a circle
Want to walk into London smelling like a Peckham rose
I had a dream where the car is reduced to a fossil
River of orchids winding my way
I had a dream where the car is reduced to a fossil
Want to walk into London on my hands one day
I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus
River of orchids the road overgrows
I heard the dandelions roar in Piccadilly Circus
Want to walk into London smelling like a Peckham rose
Couple of problems with this
1. Fine if you're a daydreaming musician with no particular place to go at no particular time.
2. 'Want to walk into London on my hands one day'. More like hack your way through rampant weeds...
One more for good measure: this is the usual handwringing misanthropy strangely in vogue with yer average concerned tunesmith these days. Not a patch on 'Making Plans for Nigel' imho.
Reasons why I love the car
When I was growing up on a council estate, in a single parent family, we had the unusual luxury of a company car. It wasn't a sink estate, very respectable, plenty of other people had motors too, but the simple truth is that we had a much better quality of life than those families that didn't: better holidays, better weekends, saw more of our extended family, more spontaneity in our day to day life. More independence.
On that latter point, I wonder if there's a direct correlation between car ownership and the liberty of a society? Affluence is a factor, sure, but the willingness of a government to allow its people random, unmediated movement is surely also significant. Could North Korea exert its iron grip were the population free to move and question? It will be interesting to see how the Chinese change as they get off their bikes and into the car.
The Chinese
will get fatter. I did.
Lard
Although, interestingly, the US and UK are only 16th and 19th on the list of car ownership per capita, but 1st and 3rd for rates of obesity. Also porky are Australia (6th), New Zealand (7th), Canada (11th), and Ireland (13th). Conclusion: speaking English is fattening. Italy is 4th for cars but 25th for obesity, with about a third the wobbliness of us - speaking Italian is clearly good for you and Patrick Crowther knows more than he's saying...
Is it possible though?
Can every country in the world have the kind of car ownership levels seen in the West? What will we make them out of and run them on? Isn't the car ultimatley unsustainable (as it currently stands)?
The Tata Nano goes on sale this year in India
It is expected, in it's first year, to be the biggest selling car in the world and Tata are already making plans to roll it out in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Ratan Tata designed it specifically to mobilise the millions of ordinary Indians who currently use the ubiquitous Honda Cub moped and could previously only dream of a car.
Yes, but,
you can sit on the back of a Honda 50 with three 5 yard lengths of 4X2, a gallon of diesel in a plastic container and a couple of live chickens; how the heck can you get that into a Nano?
The resourceful Indians will find a way
I confidently expect to see Nanos (Nani?) converted to pickups/lorries/buses within a few months.
but
can you play it through a normal stereo or do you need a special dock?
astute observation
i don't own a car, but i hire one sometimes ... i always get the feeling that my standard of living has plummeted significantly when i take the car back and find myself standing on a fast and ugly, four-lane road lined with car dealerships and facing a walk of over half a mile to the nearest bus stop ...
living in Edinburgh, car ownership gives you access without aforethought to the East Lothian beaches, the Pentland Hills, the wider Borders hills and more - and that's just the stuff you can get to quite quickly once beyond the city boundaries ... of course you could do this on public transport or bicycle but the car makes it much easier - as Reginald said, better weekends, more spontaneity ...
Further afield in Scotland, the entire tourist industry in the Highlands and Islands as we know it has developed around the car I'd say (although a passing nod to CalMac ferries here). Bus services are sorely limited ... and the idea of getting the train to Inverness/Mallaig/Thurso/Aviemore is great but what do you do for transport once you arrive? Or what do you do on those far from rare days when it buckets down in the Highlands and Islands, you're standing in some obscure village and the next bus is on Tuesday? What's more, islands like Lewis&Harris, Islay, Jura, Mull, Skye, the Orkney and Shetland Mainlands are hardly continental in scope, but you could hardly walk round them in an afternoon ... most people go for a few specific days and relying on public transport to take them round the main routes - rather than going off piste - changes the timbre of the holiday altogether ...
I admire the hardly souls i see cycling around Scotland, facing off the wind and rain in the summer, and the ones who do everything by train and bus ... But the former have fortitude, the latter usually have time ... For wimps with only a week off, prepared to spend the cash for a "staycation", cars in Scotland are the only option (other than not going)...
I see
that sir has been to Seafield?
Just passed the Theory Test...
...now for the real thing. Any hints on reversing round corners? If the examiner asks me to do that I'm done for. Can't wait to get on the road for real and stop relying on other people/the missus/crap public transport which closes at the weekend.
Here's what worked for me
(Many years ago, but might still help...)
When you're practising beforehand, pay attention to what's in your nearside rear quarter-light (for instance, a lampost or corner of a wall). Note where that is in your window when you start the turn. Use that the next time to signal when to start turning the wheel.
Obviously this will vary with the car you're in and the corner you're reversing around. But it should be close enough, and give you a feel for how the car turns.
Best of luck!
In my day
which was a little bit after they phased out the guy with the red flag in front of cars, there would be a bit of tape in the rear window which you would line up with the corner as you reversed.
I now live on a driving test route. Night and day there are learners shuddering round the corner outside the house, sometimes in the road, sometimes the pavement. Sometimes there's a queue. And yet once you've passed your test, the need pretty much never arises again.
Not ready
You don't want to hear this (I know I wouldn't have done) but if you don't think you're going to be happy to reverse round a corner then you're not ready for your test. I took my test when I thought I was ready and failed it. When I took it again a couple of months later I knew I was so much better and passed without a problem.
Cheers all,
Will use the tips-have had no issues parallel parking or turning in the road. A question of having a technique and sticking with it, I think.
I had the terrors about reversing around the corner too...
...So imagine my horror when I'd just successfully reversed the dread bend, but prior to the examiner telling me to stop reversing, an ambulance drew up behind me. I panicked, the ambulance driver hooted and gesticulated (though he wasn't flashing the blues) and I just sat there, praying that the Examiner would say, "Right, please proceed." He didn't and there was a standoff. There was no way I was going to go forward and repeat the manoeuvre, so we sat there some more, me a fountain of sweat and desperation. I mouthed "I'm on my test" to no avail. Eventually, with much gesticulation, he drove around me, and I trundled backward the required 5 feet to pass the ordeal.
Five minutes later, my foot slipped off the clutch whilst nosing forward on a hillside junction (Don't take your test in Bath) and I crashed into a Volvo.
Reasons Why I Hate Some Drivers
No. 1
They behave as if all the rules, regulations, laws, advice and common sense are for somebody else to take heed of.
They sit in their cars with the engine running.
They fork out for fast cars, but won't pay £200 for hands free kit.
They speed through my village.
They speed every bloody where.
They park on corners.
They don't look each way at junctions.
Snipers, that what we need.
I tried sitting in my car without the engine running
but I got bored with not travelling anywhere :-)
(gets coat)
You've not been camping in Scotland then ...
"Wet?"
"Yeah."
"Miserable?"
"Yeah."
"We've given it a proper go though, eh?"
"Yeah."
"So let's sleep in the car now?"
"Yeah."
It's the drivers
Not the cars.
The idea of the car, ie personal transport device, is a brilliant one.
I passed my test in 1987 but due to a bizarre set of circumstances only actually began driving in earnest last year. Yes, I did want (and needed) to take some refresher lessons and did so until my tutor expressed her confidence in my ability.
So I'm capable but not fully confident just yet and am therefore ultra-cautious. 'Treat all other drivers as idiots' is my mantra and don't assume anything despite the signals made. As a consequence I'm aware that any car out there is being driven by someone with an unknown level of experience. Some 'bad' drivers out there are probably people like me building up their road sense and genuinely sorry if they realise they're driving badly or causing a nuisance by tootling or taking an age at junctions.
Though what infuriates me to the point of pain are those within the 17-25 age group who drive like pricks at high speed through residential areas, ie wilfully driving badly to prove themselves to their mates and girlfriends. Prove themselves as what? Pedestrian killers? Please, if they're caught, can we legally bury them in cowshit?
We get 'em in the sticks as well.
Driving back up the Golden Valley one night last winter, I came across an old Golf GTI sitting on top of a hedge without much front suspension.
Spotty farmers boy had been trying to impress his young lady and lost it big style. Hit a milepost, took off, and landed on a sturdy hedge.
Oddly enough, there is a lucid Clarkson article
somewhere about this in which he discussed the growing tide of road rage and said something along the lines of: there are X million road rage incidents on the roads each year. People don't lose it for no reason at all, so the reasonable assumption is that at least each one of these incidents is caused by an example of bad driving. He went on to say that perhaps people should concentrate on driving a little better and more intelligently then there wouldn't be quite so much aggro.
Which seems fairly sensible to me.
No. 6
The borderline insane drivers who will try and attain maximum speed between lights. These are usually the same people who (this is a personal experience) will continually do 60mph down a closed play street. The look of incomprehension on this cretin's face when finally a terrified parent shouted at him was deeply disturbing. And he kept on doing it.
No. 7
The bolshie Libertine/ Anti-Nanny State/ Orwellian Big Brother militant stance that drivers adopt when things like speed cameras and speed bumps are introduced. No, this isn't totalitarianism, it's just that people keep being killed on this particular piece of road and we'd like to, you know, stop that.
(This is inevitably the point of the argument when you get called a 'wuss').
Public Transport
Just visited Japan. Trains are plentiful, run to time and offer refunded ticket prices if they are late. They can do it, why can't we? It wouldnt stop me driving because I have a rural drive to work with neither bus nor train available. But it would help thousands of people nationwide and would reduce the stress levels of a countless number of people - the commuters in overcrowded buses or trains and the drivers no longer subjected to the daily traffic snarl up because of over populated roads.
I've been using the Munich...
underground for the last 20 years - it's brilliant -everyone buys a ticket, even though I've never seen a ticket inspector. No one puts their feet on the seats, children give up their seats to adults, every train runs on time and it's not expensive.
Indeed
My dislike of British trains is largely informed by my use of Japanese ones.
Trains
I'm a commuter - crowded trains are a pain. However...
Japan pretty much purpose-built its railway 40 years ago or so to specification. Only same speed-traffic runs on the same line (i.e. a passenger train can't get held up by a freight train as they're on different lines).
However, in this country, the railways are from the Victorian times and were never designed to take the level of traffic they do now. More trains means more railway means an enormous engineering project means millions and millions of pounds.
and tens of thousands of jobs
earning millions of pounds which could be spent on hundreds of thousands of goods and services helping revive the economy and bringing in billions for the exchequer and helping create an infra-structure that would bring in billions in new business opportunities, linking remote areas and helping ease the pressure on roads and promoting a more sustainable future...
Oh hullo clouds, hullo trees
I'm with you, Sheev.
Smell those crazy colours.
And france
publice transport in Paris beats London inro a cocked hat. Sigh
Apart from
When they're on strike, which - based on my own experience in the city - is 57.14% of the time.
Are you sure
it's not 57.15%?
Yes
I rounded it to the nearest hundredth. The actual figure is 57.142857%.
As an aside
have you ever read the notice pertaining to usage regulations in a Paris taxi. They are hilarious. Detailing at some length all the circumstances and times when a Parisian taxi driver is NOT obliged to pick you up. It is approximately 63.27% of the time.
I like that
(π+54)%
Speed Cameras
would be a justified tool if they were used only at traffic blackspots or an area where a number of accidents had occurred. The fact that they are used on almost every conceivable road and are a revenue earner for local authorities quite rightly annoys us drivers. Klaus, if you dont like cars you ever thought of moving to a remote Island somehwere?
This is a remote island
In the general worldwide scheme of things. I've a feeling even somewhere like the Shetland Islands has plenty of nutters in over a tonne of deadly metal hurtling around. And judging by what I've heard of drivers around the world, I think we're one of the better behaved driving nations.
As for the speed camera argument... please.
So Swindon have de-comissioned all their speed cameras
because?
I'm presuming
This is a rhetorical question because I haven't got a clue. I'm not even sure where Swindon is, and whether it actually exists.
Not rhetorical really
Your comment "As for the speed camera argument... please." was a bit cryptic but so assumption was that they are there to make the roads safer.
But Swindon does exist. I've been there. You've not missed much I'd agree. Home of XTC is the best I can offer. And that Swindon Council have acknowledged that the cameras were really a tax. The cameras - particulalry the mobile ones - were sited where they knew they could catch people, not where speeding posed the most risk. So they've given up and are can apply the £100m a year they used spend on the cameras on real road saftey.
Bad money management?
It doesn't seem that Swindon was very good at "tax collecting" if they ended up down £100 a year.
The fines go to central gov't
with local gov't meeting the cost of the cameras. Central gov't pass some of the revenue back based on saftey targets. I think Swindon found they were losing money or at best standin still so decided to opt out and use what they were spending in different ways.
£100 Million a year?
Are you sure? It seems an awful lot to pay for unmanned installations. It is, for comparison, around half of Edinburgh's total Council Tax income and a tenth of the total budget.
No sympathy at all for the anti-speed camera argument, I'm afraid. "It's not fair that I've been caught breaking the law!" just isn't a refrain that instils sympathy. OK so it's a tax. It's a tax on criminals - and why not?
Buy a map book then...
It's not clever to parade your ignorance.
Speed cameras are a justified tool
if they catch people breaking the law. I don't care if they are 100% for revenue purposes - if you abide by the rules then they will never be a problem.
I think the issue is
around the interpretation of breaking the law. Speed cameras remove the need or ability for any human intervention on speeding. I have seen speed cameras within yards of 30mph zones that are at the bottom of a hill and round a bend. Technically your breaking a law but the law can still be mealy mouthed and uncalled for. And they don't catch idiots driving dangerously (either in a car or on a motor bike or cycle) whereas a patrolling police officer would. So I'd rather have police patrolling than cameras designed to stop one type of law breaking.
One of the roads into my village is exactly like that.
Half a mile arrow straight downhill and then the 30 kicks in about 50 yards before the first houses, and then the left hander through the crossroads in front of the pub.
Every now and then we get a speed gun team standing on the corner opposite the pub, and they can hardly write the registration numbers down fast enough.
It's meally mouthed of course to whinge that one can't cross the road to the village shop without running the gauntlet of these pricks, but hey, I just want to stay alive.
Technically, all the fools coming through the middle of the village at more than 30 mph are breaking the law, and technically, I'd rather have a sniper taking their heads off than a police officer sending them fixed penalty notices. But then we live in a tolerant society, and have to make allowances for morons.
Good example of when it's right to police speeds I reckon.
The one I encountered (and it was an area I was unfamiliar with) had the village a further 500m down the road. It occurred to me that some smarter signs would have been more effective to me than having a 60mph road becoming a 30mph road on a bend with a camera.
Spot on Lee
Police local to me routinely put a mobile camera at the end of a dual carridgeway knowing that some people won't have slowed down fast enough. They sit the minimum distance inside the speed limit and nick people all day long. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
2 miles away is a stretch of road that in the last 5 years has claimed 3 lives. It is never monitored by a camera. Most drivers don't speed here because it's clearly dangerous to do so. A minority of d*ckheads still do, but they won't be caught as the police would rather be cashing in down the road.
Like Lee I'd much rather see the Police out making a real difference to road safety, rather than just making money.
No. 8
There's just too many of the damned things. Go through any (so-called) quiet village, at any time, and the one thing you'll be all too aware of is that the roads will not be quiet. In fact they'll be very busy. It's even worse on a Sunday, because so many are going for a 'quiet ride in the country'.
Similarly there's a road near me. It's an A road, but not a major one. Nevertheless, even at 2.30 in the afternoon (not school run time or lunch time or rush hour), it can take 10 minutes to cross it. Who are these people? Are they all commercial travelers? There's plenty of vans (inevitably) but the vast majority are people in ordinary cars and they haven't got suits hanging up in the back. Can't you people give the car a break once in a while?
We're all with you, mostly...
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/report_98_percent_of_u_s_commuters
Ash tray
As someone who both cycles and drives (no, not at the same time) I agree that there are both idiotic drivers and idiotic cyclists. I suspect that both are in the minority, though the one driver who gives me a near-death experience tends to be the one I'll remember on any given commute.
One of my colleagues reckons that problem cyclists tend to be 'boy racer' types who've just bought an expensive mountain bike and i think there may be some truth in that.
Anyhoo, my pet hate is motorists who empty their ash trays out of their windows. Apart from just being disgusting, it is a worrying indicator of their mindset regarding the rest of the world.
You might want to have a look at ...
... Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen (not spamming, just thought you might like it)
When Palmer Stoat notices the black pickup truck following him on the highway, he fears his precious Range Rover is about to be carjacked. But Twilly Spree, the man tailing Stoat, has vengeance, not sport-utility vehicles, on his mind. Idealistic, independently wealthy and pathologically short-tempered, Twilly has dedicated himself to saving Florida's wilderness from runaway destruction. He favors unambiguous political statements -- such as torching Jet-Skis or blowing up banks -- that leave his human targets shaken but re-educated.
synopsis:
After watching Stoat blithely dump a trail of fast-food litter out the window, Twilly decides to teach him a lesson. Thus, Stoat's prized Range Rover becomes index to a horde of hungry dung beetles. Which could have been the end to it had Twilly not discovered that Stoat is one of Florida's cockiest and most powerful political fixers, whose latest project is the "malling" of a pristine Gulf Coast island. Now the real Hiaasen-variety fun begins ...
Dognapping eco-terrorists, bogus big-time hunters, a Republicans-only hooker, an infamous ex-governor who's gone back to nature, thousands of singing toads and a Labrador retriever greater than the sum of his Labrador parts -- these are only some of the denizens of Carl Hiaasen's outrageously funny new novel.
Brilliantly twisted entertainment wrapped around a powerful ecological plea, Sick Puppy gleefully lives up to its title and gives us Hiaasen at his riotous and muckraking best.
I like the sound of that
If it's half as good as the synopsis it'll be a great read.
Carl Hiaasen
cannot be recommended highly enough.
Absolutely
and his Scottish counterpart Christopher Brookmyre.
Agreed
Am saving his latest paperback for my holiday.
Brookmyre and Bateman
Caustic Celts. Great holiday stuff. Both around my age, the bastards.
Well I hate cyclists
Lawless, self-righteous, dangerous and asking for it.
There, I said it.
I'm sorry....
...we're asking for what exactly?
I cycled through London for many years, following the signs, lights etc in the proper manner. I moved to the Netherlands in 2000 and do the same here. The car drivers in this country are far more courteous towards cyclists than in the UK despite the fact that running of lights by cyclists is far more frequent here. Probably something to do with the fact that almost everyone in this country rides a bike as well as driving.
Your comment is ignorant and downright nasty.
Whilst not defending the point
I have driven in the Netherlands and also London and the cyclists in the Netherlands are far more courteous towards other road users than in the UK. They don't appear to quite so militant whereas when I drive in London (normally only when taking my daughter to GOSH - and driving like a man with his entire family in the car should do) cyclists often cause me to slam on my brakes, swerve to avoid them turning right by coming round my left and having the car roof slapped because I was unable to let them have enough room to pass between me and the stopped bus in the bus lane the cyclist was travelling down.
Its plain to me - a selfish idiot is a selfish idiot regardless of mode of transport.
A selfish idiot is a selfish idiot
I wouldn't disagree with that comment at all which is exactly why I object so much to Five-Centres comment. Yes, there are selfish cyclists around just as there are idiot car drivers but FC brands all cyclists the same and seems to think that we deserve to be run down.
Whatever anyone's view on this subject, wishing death (because the chances are that it would be exactly that) on cyclists takes this way too far, even if it was supposed to be some sort of joke on his part.
I was run down by a car here in Holland just under three years ago. I had right of way and he unfortunately didn't understand the signposting (he was German). He was fantastically apologetic and luckily I wasn't seriously injured but it certainly brought home how vulnerable I am on my bike, even when hit by a car travelling at a relatively low speed. To read FC's comment made me both very sad at his attitude but also very angry that a fellow road user could hold such an opinion.
Agreed
I could have been more explicit but the basic premise of people asking for it just because they cycle is dumb.
Asking For It?
What an incredibly unpleasant comment.
I don't wish death upon you - that would be mean
But frankly, the way some cyclists take risks is breath-taking. They're asking for trouble if road rules are not adhered to. And that trouble might mean a nasty accident caused by them.
I wouldn't mind if they weren't so militant - but you dare to pick them up on something and it's the crime of the century. I get murderous looks from them every day.
Who are "they"?
You could start by addressing the people on this blog who cycle, myself included. I'm not militant. I don't take risks. I've had far more dirty looks and arsey comments from drivers than I've given to drivers. In the exchanges I've had with motorists, I've always confined my observations to behaviour I've seen, eg "you haven't left me much room there" (to a taxi driver who was taking up the whole of the green-shaded ASL), or a waved arm to a van driver who'd completely blocked off a bike lane. I've usually been answered with crass generalisations of the sort you are making now.
I see a lot cyclists at close hand, and the majority of them are reasonably courteous, certainly no less courteous than the average driver. Of course there are some idiots who flagrantly disregard traffic lights, to the extent that, for example, they force pedestrians to hurry or cars to brake suddenly. I get furious when I see this sort of inconsiderate behaviour, not only because it's intrinsically unforgivable, but because it contributes to the knocking of cyclists' collective reputation.
I missed this at the time
...on hols I think, but honestly 5C, what a daft thing to say.
Yeah, like this old bastard
http://www.gvnews.com/articles/2009/09/15/breaking_news/00cyclist916.txt
at least that's one dead old git on a bike who we won't have to waste any more of our tax money on.
I think motorists provide a vital civic function by reducing the population in our increasingly over-crowded country by approximately 10 people a day.
If it was a disease, or predatory strangers that were killing that many people every 24 hours, we'd all be screeching that something must be done, but seen as they're killed by cars, we'll gloss over that and make jokes about it.
Reassuring words for the families
of the 820 cyclists killed or seriously injured by cars in the three months of March to June this year.
The most common injuries suffered by cyclists are as a result of severe damage to the pelvis, ribcage or skull caused not by the cars which usually clip them from their bicycle, but from impact either with fixed objects or the road surface, or from other vehicles which are unable to stop before crushing the cyclist.
I would like you to see if you feel quite so sanctimonious once you've seen the quite spectacular and occasionally unrecogniseable mess which is left behind in such incidents; you can google such images if you fancy a laugh.
Right, that's cyclists done; let's have a few jokes about child murderers now..
No. 9
Energy saving dept.
Despite that car in front of you having a CD blasting away, the air conditioning on and kids watching DVDs in the back seat, the driver will wait until the last possible picosecond before turning to put his/her indicator on. This makes sound ecological sense and will one day save the planet
Haven't you got
anything better to do?
I'm going for a drive.
Nope
Normally I'd be out on my bike but it got nicked last week.
Good luck on your drive. The roads should be nice and clear. :)
As part of a mid life crisis, I've got an urge to buy a bike
for the first time since I was about 16.
None of this willy-waving off-road 2x1 stuff; I want a 'proper' racer; like I wanted when I was 16.
Several things have changed in the intervening 40 years - including the cicumference of my waist, and moving to live in a very hilly area but I can kid myself this will be good for my health.
Haven't got a clue what I'm talking about but I can feel a twitching in my wallet. Anyone got any real, practical advice - other than go to a bike shop and let them laugh at me? I presume there's a bike shop eqivalent of the spotty youth in guitar shops who sits widdling in the corner?
Choose your saddle wisely
I won't go into details but you really, really need a big comfy one; otherwise the phrase 'they don't like it up 'em' will take on a whole new meaning.
Seconded
I bought one from said spotty yoof. No adjustments, no set up. Got very numb hands while riding and even more numb knackers. The saddle was such that even a mild ripple in the terrain made me feel like I'd fallen asleep face down in a pole vault pit.
Not necessarily
If you are going to cycle any appreciable distance and do it regularly you want a hard saddle and not too wide.
Why don't you want a fat, gel filled saddle? Because you'll get saddle sores. Your backside will become accustomed to a hard saddle very quickly. If you're only going to use it for occasional weekend cycling, by all means go for a squidgy one.
Hmmm
It's that 'first night in prison' feeling in the trouser area that puts me off cycling.
You can get used to anything I suppose.
Yes... you start the journey sounding like Charlton Heston...
and end it with a voice like Minnie Mouse.
My advice is to stay below 1000cc.
Any of the 750 or 900 Triumph's will amply stave off the crisis. I'm going for the 750 Sprint, probably. Fancy a run down the Wye valley one weekend later on in the year?
Could do!
But I suspect you'll be moving a LOT faster than me :-)
I am
one impulse buy away from a motorbike, and shortly after it, a good tongue lashing from Mrs.T. I fancy a Honda Deauville?
hybrid?
Have you considered a hybrid? Mountain bike-type frame, no silly suspension, racer-sized wheels but the sort of gear ratios that would get you up hills. Good for forest tracks, canal paths etc. too - just not for cross-country.
Example here of the sort of thing I mean:
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLqrymode.a4p?f_ProductID=10169&f_Fu...
There are good bike shops...
...staffed by enthusiasts who will be happy to help. Buy the lightest frame you can afford - your back will thank you in the long run. Go for a hard seat - get cushioned trousers if you must, but the breaking in period isn't too bad. Get a cheap bike computer so you can see your speed and the number of miles you have racked up.
Pay a bit extra to get the bike set up. If you aren't happy, go back and ask them to tweak. Make sure the saddle is high enough so that your knees don't ache after a few miles.
Oh, and consider a pedal that allows both cleats (those clip on shoes) and normal shoes - once you've got over the fear of being clipped to your bike, and gained the "pat your tummy and rub your head" skills to pull up with one foot whilst pushing down with the other, the benefits are tremendous.
Steel or alloy v aluminium
There is the weight saving argument in favour of aluminium, but they are extremely rigid. Steel frames are heavier but do have flex in them. For that your back will thank you in the long run (and it doesn't have to be too long a run). Various alloy frames have flex as well, but you'd need to ask the bikeshop about any particular alloy combination they sell.
Don't be seduced by suspension. Front suspension is OK for riding on roads, especially London's potholed roads, but they do need regular maintenance which adds to the running cost. Unless you are intending to go for tough cross country rides, forget about rear suspension. It makes your pedalling less efficient so you get tired. It also adds weight to the bike.
It'll definitely be a 'proper' racing bike rather than
a mountain bike so definitely no suspension etc
As for frame material, I quite liked the idea of a carbon frame just for the sake of it but I hadn't thought about the flex and it's affect on the ride comfort.
It's not going to get heavy or serious use, just the odd tootle round the lanes.
Worcestershire residents can borrow one from their
County Council: www.worcestershire.gov.uk/cycleloanscheme. They ask for a photo ID, proof of address and a £75 refundable deposit. You get a modern hybrid bicycle in your size and it's not bad at all.
I find that racing bikes puncture every ten miles so if you do get one ask the salesman about their puncture prevention measures. Slime tube sealant will offer an instant repair. That's something that has improved in the past 40 years.
Thanks
and sorry to hear about your bike
Don't be
It was very much my own stupid fault.
As we're on bikes now
I'd like to put in a word for internal hub gears. I've ridden bikes with 27 gears, and more cogs, derailleurs, handles and levers than I knew what to do with - and for the last 3 years I've had a Globe Comp IG8 with just eight speeds, and it's wonderfully simple, the chain never comes off and you can change down gears if you have to stop suddenly.
I love cycling to work in London. One of the most fun parts is sussing out routes which avoid going along main roads. It can be done. Red lights? Yes, I have jumped them, but I only do it if (a) there are no pedestrians, motor vehicles or other bikes who'd be in any way inconvenienced; (b) I can see the traffic (or rather lack of it) in all directions; (c) I know the sequence. Oh, and let's not leave this one out (d) There isn't a police car at the junction.
I've had a few exchanges of views with drivers; almost without exception, it's because they've either cut me off when it was my right of way, obstructed a bike lane or stopped right in the advanced stop lines. Occasionally they apologise. Usually they they just tell me that "you people" are "always" breaking the law. Such is life.
My worst exchange
was with a South African c***.
I was approaching traffic light to take me over Edgeware Road. I was coming down the centre. Waiting at the lights was a Range Rover. Just as I approached he deliberately swung the front into my path. The light was still red, so there was no question of him making a turn. We had words. He was totally unapologetic. A stream of abuse about cyclists and how we ignore the rules of the road was all I got from him. All he got from me was "You're just a dickhead, just a f***** dickhead" as rationality clearly wasn't an option.
Five Centres, are you by any chance a South African Range Rover drive?
In France
...they perform a swift wing-mirrorectomy and ride off through the traffic in respond to tete de con behaviour.
Lies, Damned Lies and Driving Instructors
Biggest liars of the lot. More than one of them has told me that people voluntarily take "refresher" lessons after having passed their test so that they can fine tune their driving skills. Bollocks.
How would you like a job...
...which deprives you of income every time you are successful?!
Autogeddon by Heathcote Williams an excerpt
http://cfu.freehostia.com/Members/colin/autogeddon/
No. 10
You've got to feel sorry for learner drivers these days.
Way back in the day, if you wanted to learn, your instructor would take you to a nice quiet bit of road where you could learn the basics. Nowadays, these quiet bits of road simply don't exist.
There's an area not far from me that has obviously been one of these designated zones for years, but now your poor learner driver can't so much as pull off smoothly from the kerb, without some tosser in a BMW honking angrily about getting in his way.
So thus is stored a lifetime of future road rage incidents, which the learner will pass on to the next generation. Abuse begets abuse, I suppose.
No. 11
This is going to be a bit sociological, I suppose.
But I live in quite a poor area. Not directly, but there are some houses nearby which aren't really houses. Rather they're boarded up places that might house the still lime-covered body of Lex, or whoever. (By the way, did anyone see Clarke Peters on the Edinburgh show tonight wishing for more musicals? Woah).
Nevertheless, outside the habitats of those which aren't boarded up by Snoop's nail gun, there are some fantastic cars. I mean shop fresh, sat-nav-ed up, frankly beautiful cars.
What does this say? I'm not sure. But it's kind of worrying. It can't be good, no matter how you slice it.
So is it the cars fault?
I'm still slightly bemused by a hatred of an inanimate object. I suppose we all think housing is more important than cars but who are we to criticise those whose opinion differs?
Of course it's not the car's fault
No more than it's the Martian tripod war machine's fault or the Heat Ray's fault. Or even Jeff Wayne's fault. Can we get past this?
MIM
Until recently, I worked as a graphic designer on the Motor Industry Magazine, based in Hertfordshire. However, I have never learned to drive. Then I was made redundant 2 months ago. If The Word needs a designer to fill in when it's regular staff go on holiday I'm yer man. That's all really. Not that interested in cars. I can send you my CV and work examples if you like.
"Team Word" went to Glasto in a 4WD
While we're on cars, and Word, might I throw in this? Page 54 of the current issue reveals that
I'm not sure why, but driving around the gentle English countryside in a promotional four wheel drive vehicle feels to me somehow rather 'non-Word'.
Is anyone else surprised? Disappointed?
And did any of the massive have difficulty getting to Glastonbury without 4WD?
Aren't Word staff - townies
Perhaps the car was loaned to them providing they gave it free publicity. Most of them are townies
Nothing wrong with 4WD for real off-road use - but why have one for motorway use or for popping down to Waitrose ?
And air-con - why ? I have air-con in my corsa and I use it once in a blue moon. If it gets a bit warm - I have these glass things and when I push the button - the window goes down and the fresh air comes in.
You only need a/c in warm countries like the US and southern europe and on the tube in London. The UK doesn't get that warm. And a/c probably is responsible for people sitting in car parks with their engines running and windows closed.
I went to Glastonbury in a borrowed 4WD because the alternative
(which entailed going in a 41-year old VW Beetle with a record of exploding on the A303) was unattractive in comparison. Also we had a lot of stuff to take. But we all use public transport to get to work and we recycle all the paper and Jiffy Bags we get sent. We've even got a squirrel in the kitchen.
cameras
I got caught by a camera in Reading as I was slowing down from 50mph to 30mph. I take my foot of the gas and the car slows down - no what I should do is to slam my brakes on just before the camera wasting energy and probably annoying the motorist behind me. That was in 2006.
Last year - I was caught by a camera on a dual carriageway on way to Southhampton just after a 30mph sign. Should have slammed brakes on again....... I was let off - I think camera flashed in opposite direction or it got cocked up in someway !
Having said that I see a lot more of these 30mph signs that flash up and I much prefer these.....
Just to let everyone know
I got a new bike, for the grand sum of £20. No tax, no insurance, no need to text a dodgy company to find out if it was stolen (it probably was), and the thing gets me where I need to go with no problems.
and you don't feel bad about receiving stolen property?
Not at all
I've supplied enough. It's a karmic thing.
Update: I wrecked my back wheel today. A friend said the best way to get a new one was to trawl back alleys. More cyclic karma.
you don't think
if you'd have bought one it wouldn't have karma'd itself into a state of buckle?
You can do much the same thing with cars
Or so I'm told. But I wouldn't want to boast about it.
Why is it that
the French are both militant and about as cycle-mad as any nation on earth - yet I'm assured that Paris cyclists are, by and large, pussycats by comparison with their stroppier London counterparts.
I did once witness
a fight between my cab driver and a scooter rider (started by the scooter rider who leant through the window and punched the driver) on the Paris ring road - we carried on down the road whilst more punches were thrown. I was sort of impressed. I imagine if the scooter riders are like that, the cyclists have given up.