Driving standards

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

'Complete tools' is a subjective opinion.

 

I still await an answer to my hypothetical, late arrival parking dilemma - which I suspect leads to quite a bit of 'dodgy, complete tool' parking.

 

It's all very well having strong opinions on such matters but, if you can't suggest a reasonable alternative, it achieves little.

 

If you need to park three streets away park three streets away 🤷‍♂️

 

I know there are entitled bell ends who are outraged at the prospect of not being able to fall out of their cars into their front doors but I see to reason to accommodate them.

I should have got a picture of the bus struggling to get down the road the other day...

[Nick C]

2 minutes ago, Reorte said:

I'm not in London but the last couple of years has been a right PITA for getting stuff done due to people not being available on site, it being much harder to work through issues when people are scattered all over the place - remote calls are no substitute for face to face discussions when working through complex technical problems.

That must depend on the industry, as I find it much easier to work through complex problems on a call, as everyone can have "eyes on" the problem instead of having to look over someone else's shoulder to see a screen. We tend to reserve office-day meetings for higher level discussions. Flexible working also makes things much easier when dealing with clients/suppliers in different timezones - I can easily dive onto an occasional call at 7pm from home which would be miserable from the office.

 

2 minutes ago, Reorte said:

 

Anyway that sort of proves my point I think. Why aren't those offices in Basingstoke then? Businesses don't operate on sentiment (to be honest the level of rejection of it is frequently more of a curse than a blessing, but that's a digression). They've centralised to London, leaving other places not much more than dormitory towns. I'm actually against faster travel because it  exacerbates that effect. Businesses the idea for pretty much the same reason.

Probably the same reasons that see companies spending millions on outsourcing their back office functions one year, only to then spend more millions bringing them all back in a few years later...

 

According to this one it's finally starting to go the other way though: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/02/half-of-uk-firms-open-offices-outside-city-centres-study-claims - albeit we're not seeing much of it in Basingstoke yet, and the council seem madly keen on turning all the town centre offices into poor-quality dormitory flats - which of course only makes the problem worse as the M3 corridor has been running well over capacity for years.

 

2 minutes ago, Reorte said:

School runs? Need smaller, more local schools then. Which costs more...

Or stop people driving their kids when they live under a mile away - except of course they'll tell you that they have to drive as it's too dangerous to walk, due to all the other parents driving...

[NBL]

Talking of parkers.  My previous neighbour used to take delight in parking their paedorover in my or their other neighbours driveway with the excuse it was too hard to reverse out of their own.

 

They soon stopped after I accidentally put a bundle of 4x2 through their driver's window whilst unloading my car in the confined constraints of the rest of my driveway.  Shame it was pissing down and they weren't bright enough to put a plastic cover over the gaping hole for a while weekend...

 

They also stopped parking in the other neighbours drive when a couple of dislodged roof tiles landed on the roof and bonnet.  Shame that...

[John Isherwood]

15 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

If you need to park three streets away park three streets away 🤷‍♂️

 

I know there are entitled bell ends who are outraged at the prospect of not being able to fall out of their cars into their front doors but I see to reason to accommodate them.

I should have got a picture of the bus struggling to get down the road the other day...

 

The question was - would YOU habitually park three streets away if, on most occasions, there were only 'dodgy' parking spaces available?

 

It's very easy to say what others should do - less easy when it's you.

 

CJI.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

The question was - would YOU habitually park three streets away if, on most occasions, there were only 'dodgy' parking spaces available?

 

Done it loads, Southsea and Coventry come to mind 🤷‍♂️

[stewartingram]

Emphatically YES.

When I lived in Chesterton (Scotland Road), I habitually parked (with permission) on the pub frontage in High St (?) - was it the Yorkshire Grey? When I moved I chose a house with a driveway. Nowadays, for one-offs, I park sensibly and walk to my destination.

Why?

1) I'm not lazy.

2) I'm not selfish and have respect for others.

3) I have respect for the law and its rules, so try to keep to them.

 

[Coldgunner]

I live on a main road with street parking, first come first served. Thankfully a lot of it is double-yellows and marked gaps with spaces. Doesn't stop the parents of the local school parking like dodgems at the funfair. Catchment area of the school is at most a 15 minute walk to its furthest point. 

 

Funny enough though, if you work odd shifts then its easier, as the parents tend to block everything between 8:30-9:00 and 14:00-15:30 (yes they turn up an hour early for prime parking).

Edited February 13 by Coldgunner

[NBL]

19 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

The question was - would YOU habitually park three streets away if, on most occasions, there were only 'dodgy' parking spaces available?

 

It's very easy to say what others should do - less easy when it's you.

 

CJI.

Yes, especially if parking in a dodgy space could result in my car getting damaged by someone in a large vehicle trying to navigate through the street.

[John Isherwood]

3 minutes ago, 30801 said:

 

Done it loads, Southsea and Coventry come to mind 🤷‍♂️

 

2 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Emphatically YES.

When I lived in Chesterton (Scotland Road), I habitually parked (with permission) on the pub frontage in High St (?) - was it the Yorkshire Grey? When I moved I chose a house with a driveway. Nowadays, for one-offs, I park sensibly and walk to my destination.

Why?

1) I'm not lazy.

2) I'm not selfish and have respect for others.

3) I have respect for the law and its rules, so try to keep to them.

 

 

I applaud you both; nowadays - for understandable reasons of personal and vehicular security - many drivers feel more comfortable having their cars closer to hand.

 

The essential point that I am trying to get over - and which became strikingly apparent during forty years of associating with the British motorist - is that the MAJORITY will do as they always have done - whatever is the most convenient - unless there is effective enforcement of realistically compiled legislation.

 

We may not like it - but it was ever thus!

 

CJI.

[DaveF]

Thinking of housing estates.  Where I live was built in 1980, building work on the estate lasted from the early 1970s until the present day (it is quite big).

 

I live in a 2 bedroom semi.  I have a garage but I don't put my car in it.  My drive will take 2 cars and there is space in the front garden to park a third car if I put the right surface on it.  The three bedroomed semis have a garage and a drive long enough for one car and most of the gardens are not big enough to alter to car parking.

 

My piece of road only has houses on only one side, nearby the open side of the road has a car parking area which will hold at least 4 cars and the turning area at the end of the road is big enough for several cars to park and still allow space for cars to turn round.

 

Walking round the estate it is interesting to see how the density of housing has changed over the years.  My bit is the least densly built, the road behind me has 2 squares with houses round the edges.  The centre of each square is grass, trees and spaces to park.  It was built in the late 70s/early 80s when new build houses were difficult to sell so to make it more attractive more space was left empty.  Fortunately the spaces are just too small to accommodate more houses.

 

David

Edited February 13 by DaveF

[johnofwessex]

Couple of things..........

 

A friend lives in a modern (no more than 10 year old house) with garage.

 

She and her ex husband had an Astra.

 

They JUST got it in the garage one day but there was no way they could get out except by climbing out of the windows, so I suggest that as a planning issue som eof the assumptions around cars and garages need looking at.

 

Then there is the van/bloat issue.  My suggestion is that there should be the option to impose restrictions on parking vehicles over a certain size.  Fair enough if a tradesman/delivery driver/whatever is working at a property but if you want to park a van on the road over the weekend, no, its a commercial vehicle so pay for somewhere to park it.  When I lived in Bristol the local paper made their delivery van drivers take the vehicles home rather than provide parking.    SUV's ditto

[PhilJ W]

Bring back parking wardens. The selfish way people park nowadays they should create enough revenue to pay the wardens and even have a surplus to spend on other benefits to the residents.

[PhilJ W]

1 minute ago, johnofwessex said:

Couple of things..........

 

A friend lives in a modern (no more than 10 year old house) with garage.

 

She and her ex husband had an Astra.

 

They JUST got it in the garage one day but there was no way they could get out except by climbing out of the windows, so I suggest that as a planning issue som eof the assumptions around cars and garages need looking at.

 

Then there is the van/bloat issue.  My suggestion is that there should be the option to impose restrictions on parking vehicles over a certain size.  Fair enough if a tradesman/delivery driver/whatever is working at a property but if you want to park a van on the road over the weekend, no, its a commercial vehicle so pay for somewhere to park it.  When I lived in Bristol the local paper made their delivery van drivers take the vehicles home rather than provide parking.    SUV's ditto

Paris charges SUV's €100 per day to enter the city.

[johnofwessex]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Bring back parking wardens. The selfish way people park nowadays they should create enough revenue to pay the wardens and even have a surplus to spend on other benefits to the residents.

 

Worth making the point that Traffic Wardens were 'Specials'

 

Clearly that would mean that they could issue 'points' to the real idiots or even arrest them.

 

 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

A friend lives in a modern (no more than 10 year old house) with garage.

 

She and her ex husband had an Astra.

 

They JUST got it in the garage one day but there was no way they could get out except by climbing out of the windows, so I suggest that as a planning issue som eof the assumptions around cars and garages need looking at.

 

Developers will cheerfully tell you people just use their garages for storage.

Ours has never had a car in it. Annoyingly the drive is made to similar dimensions.

[NBL]

9 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

Couple of things..........

 

A friend lives in a modern (no more than 10 year old house) with garage.

 

She and her ex husband had an Astra.

 

They JUST got it in the garage one day but there was no way they could get out except by climbing out of the windows, so I suggest that as a planning issue som eof the assumptions around cars and garages need looking at.

 

Then there is the van/bloat issue.  My suggestion is that there should be the option to impose restrictions on parking vehicles over a certain size.  Fair enough if a tradesman/delivery driver/whatever is working at a property but if you want to park a van on the road over the weekend, no, its a commercial vehicle so pay for somewhere to park it.  When I lived in Bristol the local paper made their delivery van drivers take the vehicles home rather than provide parking.    SUV's ditto

The estate my brother lives in has a ban on any commercial vehicles being parked in the road, unless there on a job. 

 

It works, the few residents that tried to park a commercial vehicle they were responsible for were fined, and one taken to court for non-payment.

 

[GrumpyPenguin]

7 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

I can't believe that a delivery of two tons of hardcore to a residential property is an everyday occurrence.

 

No, it's not & the driver would have been withing his rights to have taken the hardcore back (I would have done).

 

If you had ever driven an HGV  for a living you may very well have a differnt take on the subject.

 

You would also have a different take on the subject if your house was on fire (also, thankfully not an everyday occurance) and a Fire Appliance could not get close because of parked vehicles (although they can legally move offending vehicle sout of the way with their vehicle).

[GrumpyPenguin]

7 hours ago, Nick C said:

Made worse by most modern housing estates deliberately being built without enough parking - there is one near my parents with the usual one or two spaces per house, despite being in a village with three buses a week - so every house has at least two cars...

IIRC some decades ago houses on new estates had to have two off roiad parking spaces - could be one garage & one driveway or two driveway or any combination.

If memory serves me right it was John Prescott that had that requirement removed.

[GrumpyPenguin]

6 hours ago, cctransuk said:

If the fire service have accessibility problems, they can and do contact the police and the highway authority in order to get parking restrictions imposed,

I'm sorry, that gave me a chuckle - " parking restrictions imposed" - not much good if they are ignored & not enforced are they ?

[kevinlms]

22 hours ago, johnofwessex said:

The experience in the State of Victoria (Australia) was interesting

 

As I understand it, when they started doing road blocks for drink driving and the 'average' driver could expect to be stopped every two years or so it had a major impact on driving standards because people realised that they were likley to be caught if they misbehaved.

 

I suspect that many of the poor parkers attitude extends to other areas of not only driving but life in general and towing their cars and giving them points might get a message over about their behaviour as well as being fairly 'low risk' in terms of not getting a car chase and possibly quite a productive use of police resources.

I don't keep tabs of how often I get stopped for a random breath test (RBT), but on average at least once per year sounds right. The other part was strict punishment for offenders - the idea of needing a licence for work purposes, doesn't wash. More reason IMO, to protect your licence.

 

What is sad though, is that in Australia generally, the road toll has risen the last 3-4 years. It has been suggested that it's a kick back to COVID lock downs and some people are rebelling. Some are declining to use seat belts too and investigation of the deceased, has revealed that the seat belt was clipped together (to disable the seat belt warning chime), but they were sitting on it! FFS!

Victoria was one of the world's first places to have compulsory seat belt laws (front seats only originally - soon followed by all seats).

[kevinlms]

15 hours ago, petethemole said:

 The junction SWMBO uses to exit our bit often has a van parked right on the corner, obstructing the view to the left.  This is a problem because that is the one dead straight bit of road on the estate and the BMWs and hot hatches often tear up it, hidden by the van.  It's not the same van all the time, but it's a handy spot for delivery vans, tradesmen etc to park.

This is precisely why it needs to be enforced, when it's dangerous parking. But I see that some others have suggested that it's OK to park there, if there is nowhere else close by. NO IT ISN'T.

Most of us agree, that illegally parking in disabled spots is completely wrong, so why is it OK to park in a manner that is dangerous to other road users?

 

[Nick C]

12 hours ago, johnofwessex said:

Then there is the van/bloat issue.  My suggestion is that there should be the option to impose restrictions on parking vehicles over a certain size.  Fair enough if a tradesman/delivery driver/whatever is working at a property but if you want to park a van on the road over the weekend, no, its a commercial vehicle so pay for somewhere to park it.  When I lived in Bristol the local paper made their delivery van drivers take the vehicles home rather than provide parking.    SUV's ditto

 

12 hours ago, NBL said:

The estate my brother lives in has a ban on any commercial vehicles being parked in the road, unless there on a job. 

 

It works, the few residents that tried to park a commercial vehicle they were responsible for were fined, and one taken to court for non-payment.

 

 

That makes things rather impossible for self-employed tradespeople...

[John Isherwood]

3 hours ago, kevinlms said:

This is precisely why it needs to be enforced, when it's dangerous parking. But I see that some others have suggested that it's OK to park there, if there is nowhere else close by. NO IT ISN'T.

Most of us agree, that illegally parking in disabled spots is completely wrong, so why is it OK to park in a manner that is dangerous to other road users?

 

 

Because, in most cases, there simply aren't enough parking spaces for the number of vehicles owned by the residents.

 

The antis here are very good at telling us what people SHOULDN'T do - but not so good at coming up with practical solutions.

 

CJI.

[John Isherwood]

11 hours ago, chiefpenguin said:

I'm sorry, that gave me a chuckle - " parking restrictions imposed" - not much good if they are ignored & not enforced are they ?

 

If the issue is fire access, the restrictions ARE enforced.

 

CJI.

[Hroth]

1 minute ago, cctransuk said:

 

Because, in most cases, there simply aren't enough parking spaces for the number of vehicles owned by the residents.

 

The antis here are very good at telling us what people SHOULDN'T do - but not so good at coming up with practical solutions.

 

CJI.

 

Not just that, but some local authorities are making noises about bans/enforcing bans on parking on pavements, for good and sensible reasons.  However given that even small ordinary cars are so wide nowadays, this will mean that residents parking their vehicles on the road may well block the carriageway for anything larger than another "small" car.

 

Fine for pedestrian safety, but a bit of a buggr if you want to get an ambulance or fire appliance through.  The solution?  God knows.