Cars blocking box junction - any suggestions?



"Sue White" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> My ride home includes a cycle lane crossing of a major road junction. The
> cyle lane's parallel to a bus lane and a minor road.
> The junction's marked with yellow cross-hatching to tell the motons to
> stay off it until there's space for them to get off again, but unless I
> stay at work until 6:30 or later it's usually blocked by a tinnie thing.
> And it's a pain to get round them.
> A bus company bloke says they do it on purpose because they're so
> mean-minded: they're going nowhere so they won't let his bus and its
> passengers go anywhere. Or me and my bike.
>
> Knocking on their tinnies and speaking to them produces a range of bizarre
> defensive behaviour, and probably does deter them from doing it again, but
> it's unrewarding.
>
> Has anyone any suggestions for getting some fun out them? I want a laugh
> to make up for my frustration, and I don't mind if they think I'm laughing
> at them.


Recently, a road junction near where I live imposed a ban on right turns.
Substitute "No Right Turn" for box-junction in the sequence below, and
you'll have a record of what I did...

1. Find an A3-printer.

2. Print some box-junction symbols, together with the highway code reference
and the explanation, "Do Not Enter Unless Your Exit Is Clear". Use a LARGE
font to fill the page.

3. Place said printed paper under the driver's windscreen wiper!

--
MatSav
 
MatSav wrote:
> 3. Place said printed paper under the driver's windscreen wiper!


Remember to print it on rice-paper, because the driver is quite possibly
going to make you eat it.

I'm a cyclist, and I'm also a driver. I don't like anyone touching my bike,
and I don't like anyone touching my car - even the wipers. No, you're
unliklely to find me stuck on a yellow box... but the sort of driver who is,
isn't going to be up for delicate negotiation on the finer points of
driving.

Cyclists are a lot softer than the stuff they make cars out of. Yes, I've no
problem with an indirect PR campaign reminding them that there is a Highway
Code out there - but if you start using cyclists to take direct action, you
affect us all. The minority of bad cyclists have already got us listed as a
group who cycle on footpaths, run red lights, wear Lycra without a licence
and scare old grannies with our sirens.

(back to lurking, I think...)

Pete.
 
Thus spake Sue White:
> My ride home includes a cycle lane crossing of a major road junction.
> The cyle lane's parallel to a bus lane and a minor road.
> The junction's marked with yellow cross-hatching to tell the motons to
> stay off it until there's space for them to get off again, but unless
> I stay at work until 6:30 or later it's usually blocked by a tinnie
> thing. And it's a pain to get round them.
> A bus company bloke says they do it on purpose because they're so
> mean-minded: they're going nowhere so they won't let his bus and its
> passengers go anywhere. Or me and my bike.
>
> Knocking on their tinnies and speaking to them produces a range of
> bizarre defensive behaviour, and probably does deter them from doing
> it again, but it's unrewarding.
>
> Has anyone any suggestions for getting some fun out them? I want a
> laugh to make up for my frustration, and I don't mind if they think
> I'm laughing at them.


Lipstick works on glass very nicely Sue

--
Basically, I hate people who preface nearly every sentence with the word
'basically'!
 
david lloyd wrote:
> "Sue White" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>
>>Has anyone any suggestions for getting some fun out them? I want a
>>laugh to make up for my frustration, and I don't mind if they think I'm
>>laughing at them.
>>
>>--
>>Sue ]:(:)
>>

>
> Saw a tv show once where they lay in wait at a boxed junction for someone to
> come along and block it. As soon as this happend, the hit squab jumped out
> and riddiculed the driver with a loudhailer and silly costumes.
>


Top Gear. Was quite funny if I remember.

Peter
 
Sue White wrote:
> Ambrose Nankivell <[email protected]> whizzed past me shouting
> >>
> >> Has anyone any suggestions for getting some fun out them? I want a
> >> laugh to make up for my frustration, and I don't mind if they think
> >> I'm laughing at them.

> >
> >The bus driver may be able to help discourage them. If they approach slowly
> >and side on, there's no reason for any metal to get badly bent while the
> >car's being moved aside.
> >

> That might spawn a "Boris the Bus" subversive cartoon, but the reality
> is that the front of a bus has lots of plastic trim and other
> easliy-damaged bits. Most of ours have just been repainted silly
> colours and look very smart at the moment, too.
> If there was anything the bus company could do about it, they would,
> because the extra 5-6 minutes a trip it takes them to get across that
> junction adds to the number of vehicles and drivers they need. So it's
> ultimately very expensive.


It would seem to be that you and the bus company might be natural
allies in approaching the police or the traffic wardens about a bit of
enforcement. Given a stationary target it would not take long for a
"lot" of tickets to be handed out and the police officer would not even
need a car to catch the offenders. This done randomly across the
weekdays for a month or two month might improve driver behaviour.
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada
 
P <[email protected]> whizzed past me shouting
>MatSav wrote:
>> 3. Place said printed paper under the driver's windscreen wiper!

>
>Remember to print it on rice-paper, because the driver is quite possibly
>going to make you eat it.


Would you get out of a tinnie with your identification number on and
assault a grey-haired woman in public? Probably CCTV public?
>
>I'm a cyclist, and I'm also a driver. I don't like anyone touching my bike,
>and I don't like anyone touching my car - even the wipers. No, you're
>unliklely to find me stuck on a yellow box... but the sort of driver who is,
>isn't going to be up for delicate negotiation on the finer points of
>driving.


Wow - I think you should keep your car in its box and not play with it.
If you take it outside birds will defaecate on it.

>
>Cyclists are a lot softer than the stuff they make cars out of.


You'd be surprised. Cars are made of very thin tinplate. A car that
tried to force me off the road at the Southampton Street pinch point was
appreciably damaged, without harming me or my bike at all.
This isn't relevant to an immobile car though, unless I lose my temper -
which is what I'm trying to get away from.

>Yes, I've no
>problem with an indirect PR campaign reminding them that there is a Highway
>Code out there - but if you start using cyclists to take direct action, you
>affect us all. The minority of bad cyclists have already got us listed as a
>group who cycle on footpaths, run red lights, wear Lycra without a licence
>and scare old grannies with our sirens.
>


I've waited patiently at that junction until it's my turn to move, and
then I'm obstructed by the car - it's taken its turn and then it's too
mean-spirited to let me have mine. If it doesn't want to be touched
(for pity's sake) it needn't be there. We're talking about bad
*drivers* here - and you have the cheek to call me a bad cyclist for
pointing it out to them?

--
Sue ]:(:)

Bicycle helmets are really a bit of a scam.
They make most cyclists slightly less safe but there's money in selling them.
 
Paul B <[email protected]> whizzed past me shouting
>Thus spake Sue White:
>>
>> Has anyone any suggestions for getting some fun out them? I want a
>> laugh to make up for my frustration, and I don't mind if they think
>> I'm laughing at them.

>
>Lipstick works on glass very nicely Sue
>


It does, but you wouldn't want to use a lipstick that'd touched a car,
they're covered with bird poo and squashed insects - yuk! So you'd have
to carry old lipsticks specially.
And it'd take too long - the moton would probably get out while you were
doing it and you'd lose the psychological advantage of standing over
them while they crouch in their box.

Lipstick does look good for antisocially-parked cars though.
I don't live in a flat any more (all blocks of flats have major problems
with antisocially-parked cars) so I'll pass that one on to a friend who
does. I might even let him have an old lipstick.

--
Sue ]:(:)

Bicycle helmets are really a bit of a scam.
They make most cyclists slightly less safe but there's money in selling them.
 
In article <[email protected]>, Sue White
([email protected]) wrote:
>
> My ride home includes a cycle lane crossing of a major road junction.
> The cyle lane's parallel to a bus lane and a minor road.
> The junction's marked with yellow cross-hatching to tell the motons to
> stay off it until there's space for them to get off again, but unless I
> stay at work until 6:30 or later it's usually blocked by a tinnie thing.
> And it's a pain to get round them.
> A bus company bloke says they do it on purpose because they're so
> mean-minded: they're going nowhere so they won't let his bus and its
> passengers go anywhere. Or me and my bike.
>
> Knocking on their tinnies and speaking to them produces a range of
> bizarre defensive behaviour, and probably does deter them from doing it
> again, but it's unrewarding.
>
> Has anyone any suggestions for getting some fun out them? I want a
> laugh to make up for my frustration, and I don't mind if they think I'm
> laughing at them.


Dismount, pick up your bicycle and walk across the bonnet. Be sure to
wear crampons, as car bonnets can be slippery.

A shoulder-launched anti-tank missile is also very effective, but may
lead to the dibbles ruining your wallpaper and digging up your garden as
they search for the Al-Qaeda connection.

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Apparently Guy has now got a Brompton. I'd never have guessed.
 
Dave Larrington <[email protected]> whizzed past me shouting
>
>Dismount, pick up your bicycle and walk across the bonnet. Be sure to
>wear crampons, as car bonnets can be slippery.
>


If only I was 40 years younger and could simply pull a wheelie, jump
onto the car bonnet, hop a 360 on it then jump down again on the other
side !

>A shoulder-launched anti-tank missile is also very effective, but may
>lead to the dibbles ruining your wallpaper and digging up your garden as
>they search for the Al-Qaeda connection.
>


You'd need to be a suicide case to use armour-piercing at a range of
eighteen inches, so I assume you mean a German-style potato gun.
They are now probibited in Germany but not here.
I'd love to see the moton's face as I loaded up a 750g Maris Piper,
sighting down the barrel so they knew it was for them !
They'd have a sporting chance of being able to crawl away before I was
ready, too, since rapid fire is not a potato cannon feature.

--
Sue ];:))

Bicycle helmets are really a bit of a scam.
They make most cyclists slightly less safe but there's money in selling them.
 

Similar threads