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My eye! Sweet Jesus, Ouch!


Sledge

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I find the same to be honest, was a *bramston pickle* to pass my test up here due to other drivers (both time i failed was due in part to another road user).

 

But it is a great place to drive if you know how to get around the locals, most of which either dither along at 20 and can be easily overtaken or they go 60 everywhere it which case you wait to get to a rooundabout which goes on to a single lane exit and you us the fact they go round a roundabout at 10 mph to get round them and i front of them where they can't overtaje as there is steady traffic flow in the other lane.

 

That and the bus lanes which always seem to have been set up to give 90% of the width the bus needs so they end up taking up two lanes anyway.

 

'FireKnife'

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I've driven around London and I know people drive really aggressively but they seem to be competent drivers, for the most part.

Possibly so. Kind of survival of the fittest. :D

 

Driving styles in London are regional, so it depends on where you are. At the border of Southall, you literally chuck your brains out of the car, drive on the wrong side of the road, give way to side roads & double park on a double yellow line. It was rumored that in India, double yellow lines mean exactly that, double parking!!!!!!!!!! :huh:

 

Stanmore of course is the capital of 'defensive driving' as any form of contact, will result in a claim for whiplash & Shepard's Bush Green is odd, because the pedestrians literally act like bull fighters, baiting drivers to run them over.

 

 

Greg.

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Traffic lights, you say?

 

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/long_light.png

On that note, I have another one...

 

Building contractors buy some random lump of mud on the side of a dual-carriageway and then develop it in "luxury accomodation", people buy the houses and then realise they can't turn right onto the carriageway so they campaign, on the basis of "road safety" that they need a proper intersection putting in (complete with traffic lights and a pedestrain crossing so their offspring have safe access to the deserted land on the opposite side of the road) which then creates gridlock on the dual-carriageway every morning so that half a dozen people can get out of their shiny new mock-georgian houses with fake leaded windows.

 

How about "Tough sh*t. You should have thought of that before you bought the bloody house!"?

 

Seriously, I wonder if the estate agents selling the houses actually say "Oh yeah, access is lousy but once people buy all the houses the council will be forced to put in a junction for you" when (or if) propspective buyers ask about access.

 

Driving styles in London are regional...

TBH, I am kinda wary of driving in London.

Ages ago I bought my Porsche in Enfield and discovered that there's a road through Enfield which leads right into the city centre.

Whenever I'm going into London these days I always head for Enfield and then get my satnav to guide me to wherever I'm headed for.

Sometimes it seems like the long way around but that part of the M25 is usually pretty clear so it's usually a safer bet than staying on the M25 as logic might suggest.

 

Works for me, anyway.

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Yeah cause we totally shouldn't alter road systems as surrounding land use changes and traffic patterns alter. That's far too sensible, instead we should have crappy traffic management and lots of accidents as thats much more fun! :P

 

You'd think the council might consider things like access when granting the planning permission. :D

 

Driving in London is great fun as long as you avoid all the uninsured, unlicensed drivers. My brothers fiances place is a nightmare for clapped out heaps trying to kill you.

 

Edit: Swearing not caught.

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That is how the council takes up it's time up here.

 

What accident / eye sore / political hot potatoe can we make up here?

 

I know how about we build houses with a matching break in the middle partition so we can have some accidents to take up our time.

 

<_<

 

'FireKnife'

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Yeah cause we totally shouldn't alter road systems as surrounding land use changes and traffic patterns alter. That's far too sensible, instead we should have crappy traffic management and lots of accidents as thats much more fun! :P

 

You'd think the council might consider things like access when granting the planning permission. :D

Yes,

It's far better stop traffic on a busy dual carriageway so that a dozen people can get out of their houses in the morning.

That makes so much more sense.

 

By all means, build the new estates but I just wish that contractors would accept the full responsibility for their actions by building proper under/overpasses and slip-roads to attach them to the road network rather than just taking the cheapest solution which will bugger up the roads for thousands of people every day.

 

On a related note, it always saddens me to see a person sat on a side road stubbornly waiting to turn right during the rush hour when there's a roundabout 50 yards to the left.

Would it kill these people to turn left and then make a U-turn at the roundabout?

 

The problem, in both cases, is that some people don't seem to be able to use initiative. They expect to be spoon-fed every facet of their existence in idiot-proof chunks and that's gotta be a bad thing.

 

*EDIT*

The whole thing about councils and planning permission is barely worth a mention.

I'm pretty sure that planning permission is often more to do with who you play golf with or funny handshakes than anything else.

If I want to build a conservatory I'm sure it'll all be dealt with objectively but when it gets to the point where you're planning multi-million pound construction projects it's all about "greasing the wheels". :(

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Yes,

It's far better stop traffic on a busy dual carriageway so that a dozen people can get out of their houses in the morning.

That makes so much more sense.

 

Well it doesn't sound ideal but then it's an imaginary example. It might be the only reasonable solution depending on the various issues, if so that impact might be enough to deny the planning application, particularly if people complain. Believe it or not you can't just stick up a bunch of houses on land you own without permission and gaining that permission involves a lot of complicated process including a lot of assessment on the impact to local traffic amongst other things. All of this is throughly documented and available for people to peruse at their leisure and the consultation process about any development is open so people can and do complain about it in advance of it happening. Of course after the fact its a bit late but as these things are generally happen over a period of months or even years there is plenty of time.

 

By all means, build the new estates but I just wish that contractors would accept the full responsibility for their actions by building proper under/overpasses and slip-roads to attach them to the road network rather than just taking the cheapest solution which will bugger up the roads for thousands of people every day.

 

It's usually the cheapest, reasonable solution. For example building a load of overpasses and the like might cost more than the development did in the first place. This sort of thing is usually assessed by council civil engineers rather than just being a one way street from the developers.

 

The problem, in both cases, is that some people don't seem to be able to use initiative. They expect to be spoon-fed every facet of their existence in idiot-proof chunks and that's gotta be a bad thing.

 

I dunno, I quite like having the idiots at arms length!

 

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Just thought I'd share my feelings about a roundabout and junction off to Spondon on the A52 near Derby.

 

Spondon.jpg

 

Note the lack of lines to mark lanes on the roundabout in the red box.

 

Also, any traffic joining the A52 (RED) has to cross the path of any traffic leaving the A52 (GREEN) to go to Spondon. This junction is notorious for accidents yet nothing has been done :yikes:

 

Josh

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That junction is about 500m from the house where I grew up, and while the above is accurate, I'm not aware of a significant number of RTCs occurring there. Certainly it's not "notorious" as far as I know. And you'd think I would, really.

 

Technically, the sliproad onto the A52 joins the A-road before the sliproad into Spondon splits off. It's not very clear, though, and could have been far better designed with a bit of thought.

 

I'm not sure what could "be done" about it except to close off that sliproad onto Lodge Lane and force traffic to carry on to the next sliproad into Spondon via Stoney Lane. Which would be rather inconvenient for a lot of people.

 

The roundabout itself was screwed up in the last 10 years by the City Council's road planning department, which at the time had a 16-year-old school leaver without a driving license or any experience of designing roads redesign the junction. Needless to say, it wasn't the best road layout ever created.

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All of the above is why i walk everywhere. People who walk slowly, mobility scooters, old people, poeple with push chairs, children goups of people, people who who come out of a shop and stop dead before their brains realise which way to go. These are my "baby on board" stickers. There's more but if i work myself into a rage at the moment i may have to kill someone.

 

 

I have flapped my mouthparts at great length about the roads in the UK so I won't bother doing it again here.

The above, however is dead right.

 

I like nothing more than going up to bluewater at Christmas and walking in an undeviating straight line.

 

Nothing like shoulder barging consumers to cheer up your Decembarmageddon.

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There is a junction on the way to Glasgow (heading into the east of glasgow if you were coming from Edinburgh) that has the Slip road of traffic joining come from the right hand side. So all the slow moving traffic joins right into the "fast" lane. Ridiculous

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The road surfaces here in New England are just about the worst things ever. Because of the freezing and thawing and everything there are huge sections of road missing. Then every once in a while the town "fixes" it by poorly applying patches which themselves break up. I feel so bad for my suspension.

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In a non-road-related moan, I've got a spot developing on my forehead. It's at the stage where it's painful, but not where you can squeeze all the gunk out of it and make it go away.

 

It feels huge, like I'm growing a third eye or something, and it's extremely annoying.... <_<

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In a non-road-related moan, I've got a spot developing on my forehead. It's at the stage where it's painful, but not where you can squeeze all the gunk out of it and make it go away.

 

It feels huge, like I'm growing a third eye or something, and it's extremely annoying.... <_<

Can't you tell everyone it's a bb strike?

 

I had one on my nose that I remember very well.

 

I called it the traffic light because as I squeezed the crud out of it, it hit the mirror in 3 stages of yellow, green & finally red. :o

 

Of course that was back when page 3 gave me a hard on. :D

 

 

Greg.

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Of course that was back when page 3 gave me a hard on.

 

Ah i remember when i was 12-13. Good times they were, watch T&A stuff on Channel 5 when it had it's adult movies on.

 

Got one on my nose that is really odd as it has grown on one side and slightly altered the shape of my nose now, it really is annoying but it hasn't become a proper spot and so have to lance it with a hot needle.

 

'FireKnife'

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