Driving standards

[IWCR]

Major hold up on the way home yesterday, caused by a HGV making a delivery blocking one side of a busy main road during rush hour.

The road has double yellows both sides for most of its length.

The lorry was actually parked on a pedestrian crossing, not just the chevrons but right across the walkway.

 

Pete

[peanuts]

19 hours ago, raymw said:

Just curious, but it used to be you got taxed on firm providing transport to and from home. Is that still the case?

I had explained that as the vehicle is only used to travel too & from work and no other use is autherised (its tracked) outside of that it is not liable to tax .most days I will drop off to customers on my way home aswell 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, IWCR said:

The lorry was actually parked on a pedestrian crossing, not just the chevrons but right across the walkway.

 

I guess that makes it safer. No one is going to be blindly crossing into traffic...

[hayfield]

17 hours ago, IWCR said:

Major hold up on the way home yesterday, caused by a HGV making a delivery blocking one side of a busy main road during rush hour.

The road has double yellows both sides for most of its length.

The lorry was actually parked on a pedestrian crossing, not just the chevrons but right across the walkway.

 

Pete

 

The poor old driver probably had a busy day and thought the rules were for others to follow, 

 

Its a great pity either a police man of traffic warden was not anywhere near at the time.

 

The driver should loose their licence for parking on a pedestrian crossing, but they there will be those who see its justifiable 

[raymw]

This is not relevant to bmw/audi owners. He mentions that about 32 minutes in

 

 

[Grovenor]

So why does anyone want to synchronise their flashers with another car?

[F-UnitMad]

6 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

The poor old driver probably had a busy day and thought the rules were for others to follow, 

 

Its a great pity either a police man of traffic warden was not anywhere near at the time.

 

The driver should loose their licence for parking on a pedestrian crossing, but they there will be those who see its justifiable 

Before stringing the driver up from the nearest lamp post, which seems the prefered disciplinary action a lot of car drivers would approve of, I'd want to know rather more about the situation that Pete described.

For instance, despite the double yellow lines along the road, were other vehicles parked there too?

Was the truck actually making a delivery - were it's doors open, etc? If it was, well it was a stupid place to park, and not justifiable at all.

But maybe - just maybe - there's a chance it had actually broken down? That always happens in the most inconvenient places. Happened to me once, after a tight right turn I didn't realise the brakes air line had snagged on the corner of the trailer: as I turned left into the delivery premises it was pulled out of the fitting on the unit. As a result the brakes locked on, and the rig shuddered to a halt with the back end of the trailer sticking out onto the main road which led to an M25 junction, during the morning rush. There was no way at all to stop the air leak from the unit, so the brakes wouldn't release. But no doubt to all the car drivers that blew their horns, waved various hand gestures, and practised their best Anglo-Saxon at me, I was just another bone-idle inconsiderate Truck Driver out to ruin their day, and should've had all sorts of suitable punishments inflicted on me.

 

My point is, it is very easy to jump to conclusions about some situations, without knowing all the facts.

Edited August 21, 2021 by F-UnitMad

[hayfield]

6 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Before stringing the driver up from the nearest lamp post, which seems the prefered disciplinary action a lot of car drivers would approve of, I'd want to know rather more about the situation that Pete described.

For instance, despite the double yellow lines along the road, were other vehicles parked there too?

Was the truck actually making a delivery - were it's doors open, etc? If it was, well it was a stupid place to park, and not justifiable at all.

But maybe - just maybe - there's a chance it had actually broken down? That always happens in the most inconvenient places. Happened to me once, after a tight right turn I didn't realise the brakes air line had snagged on the corner of the trailer: as I turned left into the delivery premises it was pulled out of the fitting on the unit. As a result the brakes locked on, and the rig shuddered to a halt with the back end of the trailer sticking out onto the main road which led to an M25 junction, during the morning rush. There was no way at all to stop the air leak from the unit, so the brakes wouldn't release. But no doubt to all the car drivers that blew their horns, waved various hand gestures, and practised their best Anglo-Saxon at me, I was just another bone-idle inconsiderate Truck Driver out to ruin their day, and should've had all sorts of suitable punishments inflicted on me.

 

My point is, it is very easy to jump to conclusions about some situations, without knowing all the facts.

 

This is not yellow lines, or even zig zag lines its obstructing the Pedestrian crossing, its downright dangerous.  OK the driver has to stop somewhere, but never on zigzag lines let alone block the pedestrian crossing.  I do accept in some cases a bit of slack is needed, but never at the expense of the safety of others, the OP said parked, not broken down. Usually when passing you can see if its a breakdown

 

I have regularly seen minicab drivers in Billericay stop on a zebra crossing to let out their passengers when its raining, not on the Zigzags both on the crossing and on the pavement blocking the crossing (and the junction into the side road)

 

As you say breakdowns are a completely different story

 

But why don't truck drivers let the lorry trying (unsuccessfully ) to overtake them in?. Both just trundle on for ages building up jams

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

51 minutes ago, hayfield said:

Usually when passing you can see if its a breakdown

Can you? People couldn't see that my truck was broken down, in the example I gave.

And which bit of 

1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said:

If it was, well it was a stupid place to park, and not justifiable at all.

did you miss?

 

51 minutes ago, hayfield said:

But why don't truck drivers let the lorry trying (unsuccessfully ) to overtake them in?. Both just trundle on for ages building up jams

They very often do, actually, but no one notices then. People just notice being held up by the diehards who don't care about anyone else. The fact there are a lot of drivers with this distressing affliction relates partly to what I said about pay & conditions - it's no longer a job to take any pride in. Oh and two trucks "elephant racing" can be just as frustrating to other trucks as well.

[raymw]

3 hours ago, Grovenor said:

So why does anyone want to synchronise their flashers with another car?

Because they can, and ocd. I would guess plenty of folk on here like that.

[hayfield]

17 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Can you? People couldn't see that my truck was broken down, in the example I gave.

And which bit of 

did you miss?

 

They very often do, actually, but no one notices then. People just notice being held up by the diehards who don't care about anyone else. The fact there are a lot of drivers with this distressing affliction relates partly to what I said about pay & conditions - it's no longer a job to take any pride in. Oh and two trucks "elephant racing" can be just as frustrating to other trucks as well.

 

 

True but generally where and how its parked is a giveaway, especially with flashing lights and a red triangle  displayed

 

On the other hand  parked between two rows of vehicles and or cargo doors open is a bit of a give a way

 

Edit

 

Given the next reply its questionable (and dangerous) if parked either side of the zig zags.  unforgiveable as it is.

Edited August 22, 2021 by hayfield

[IWCR]

Re Lorry on Pedestrian crossing.

Hazards on,  back doors open and tail lift down, driver / load not in sight.

No other vehicles parked nearby.  Empty parking area approx 100 yds away, otherwise double yellows both sides.

All other traffic on his side would also be at fault as they were squeezing past him through the crossing which is a no overtaking area, this was into the stream of incoming traffic going the other way.

This was outside a residential property and nowhere near any shops etc.

 

Pete

[F-UnitMad]

7 hours ago, IWCR said:

Re Lorry on Pedestrian crossing.

Hazards on,  back doors open and tail lift down, driver / load not in sight.

No other vehicles parked nearby.  Empty parking area approx 100 yds away, otherwise double yellows both sides.

All other traffic on his side would also be at fault as they were squeezing past him through the crossing which is a no overtaking area, this was into the stream of incoming traffic going the other way.

This was outside a residential property and nowhere near any shops etc.

 

Pete

So a complete Pi!!ock then, doing a fine job of ruining the reputation of every other driver in the land.    I am SO glad I am no longer on the road.

 

I don't suppose anyone took the reg number, or photographed it, for the attention of the local Plod*. That would be the sensible thing to do, if there wasn't a Traffic Warden about.

 

*or even the transport company involved.

[stewartingram]

Before I retired I worked from under Waterloo station. There is a gate out to a small street, that crosses the road on which the Ian Allen shop was, Lower Marsh. On Lower Marsh there is an Iceland shop, not quite on the corner, but the goods entrance is on the short road. There are a couple or so parking bays along there, car sized, with restrictions.

Every day, a delivery lorry would back into the short exit road. The driver would get out and ring the doorbell, to deliver his goods. By that time, the local traffic warden (they were always around, having a relatively small patch to cover) had usually written out a parking ticket and photographed the truck, and was handing the ticket to the driver. Every day. He took it without question. It was around the time I popped out to Greggs on the opposite corner, so I often saw it.

[big jim]

 

[Hibelroad]

Well that's one way to close the door.

[boxbrownie]

15 minutes ago, big jim said:

 

Shouldn’t that be “Look what a privileged company car/business lease dumb owner can do with an expensive car” ?

 

[kevinlms]

21 minutes ago, big jim said:

 

The bus driver wasn't a happy man.

[Compound2632]

It looks very like poor design - the raised door ought surely to be within the profile of the car, otherwise it's an accident waiting to happen with the car parked and the offside door open - isn't it above the line of sight of most passing van drivers? (Although unfortunately exactly at bus driver eye level...) Quite a different situation to an ordinary offside door opening onto the carriageway.

Edited August 25, 2021 by Compound2632

[Grovenor]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

It looks very like poor design - the raised door ought surely to be within the profile of the car, otherwise it's an accident waiting to happen with the car parked and the offside door open -

But then it would not fulfil its function of keeping the rain off while you deal with your umbrella! But I would expect an interlock to prevent driving with the door open and vice versa.

[SamThomas]

On 06/08/2015 at 10:42, 30801 said:

Sometimes flashing lights are a bad thing. I have a problem with bin lorries. I find it difficult to pick out indicators from the other twenty orange flashing lights on the back.

Bin lorries are supposed to switch off the warning beacons when not actually loading.

The purpose of the warning beacons is to warn other users of the potential hazards when the vehicle is stationary & the loaders are at work.

 

& before anyone picks holes in that statement I have worked as a bin loory driver.

 

Warning beacons become superflourous when vehicles that do not present extra hazards when moving keep them on.

[big jim]

Some of the comments say that there are all sorts of alarm and a warnings that will go off if you attempt to drive one with the door open so I’m wondering if there was an issue closing it, if there wasn’t there certainly is now! 
 

notice how the bus driver sees what’s about to happen at the last second and ducks out of the way 

[Hibelroad]

I wonder if the door was open due to some large load being carried ?  I saw a car the other day with a length of wood sticking 2 - 3 feet out of a rear side window. Possibly the driver thought that was OK as it was on the offside. Could be a similar case here. 

[F-UnitMad]

3 hours ago, big jim said:

 

Already posted about & discussed just a couple of pages back on this thread!!

Or is this thread going to go the way of the Jokes Thread...

 

[Michael Hodgson]

What a pratt!

 

Tesla seem to be having problems over their attempts at autonomous driving causing accidents, but they may still be safer than some of the morons who actually (at least for the time being) have got driving licences.  The acid test for such software is not whether it is completely accident-proof but whether it causes fewer problems than the idiots currently on the loose.