OT: Rising Bollards - a reprise

[Tony Raven]

Read the sad sad stories of poor motorists being hit my malevolent
rising bollards:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/225/225258_infamous_bollards_claim_more_victims.html

Then watch the BBC video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/...m=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=6181758

Then marry up the location and car descriptions (and the dates in the
story and date stamp in the video if you are still not sure)

Looks like the poor motorists' stories are a load of bollards! No
surprise there then.

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[John Kane]

Tony Raven wrote:
> Read the sad sad stories of poor motorists being hit my malevolent
> rising bollards:
> http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/225/225258_infamous_bollards_claim_more_victims.html
>
> Then watch the BBC video:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/...m=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=6181758
>
> Then marry up the location and car descriptions (and the dates in the
> story and date stamp in the video if you are still not sure)
>
> Looks like the poor motorists' stories are a load of bollards! No
> surprise there then.
>
> --
> Tony

Lovely video. I just cannot feel all that sorry for those 'poor'
motorists.

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

 

[Tony Raven]

John Kane wrote on 25/11/2006 21:31 +0100:
>
> Lovely video. I just cannot feel all that sorry for those 'poor'
> motorists.
>


I especially like the "I stopped to use the intercom and the bollard
came up into my car narrowly missing my baby" sob story in the paper
when the video says she tried it, couldn't get in so waited for a bus
and tried to rush through after it but slammed into the bollard instead.


--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Noel]

On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:40:30 +0000, Tony Raven wrote:

> Read the sad sad stories of poor motorists being hit my malevolent
> rising bollards:

Tony - your bollards? Is that just a turn of phrase or were you involved
in their implementation?

Cheers

 

[spindrift]

Noel wrote:
> On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:40:30 +0000, Tony Raven wrote:
>
> > Read the sad sad stories of poor motorists being hit my malevolent
> > rising bollards:
>
> Tony - your bollards? Is that just a turn of phrase or were you involved
> in their implementation?
>
> Cheers

There were 70 pedestrian RTA's and one fatality before the bollards
were installed.

None after, apart from the well-deserved cracked skulls of the drivers.
If a cyclist ran into a pedestrian on a zebra crossing the cyclist
deserves to get hurt. So do these idiot drivers, ignoring 8 foot signs
and trying to get away with something trivial by placing other people
in danger.

 

[Tony Raven]

Noel wrote on 26/11/2006 08:26 +0100:
> On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:40:30 +0000, Tony Raven wrote:
>
>> Read the sad sad stories of poor motorists being hit my malevolent
>> rising bollards:
>
> Tony - your bollards? Is that just a turn of phrase or were you involved
> in their implementation?
>
> Cheers

I have a dyslexic keyboard ;-) my => by

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Pyromancer]

Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Tony Raven
<[email protected]> gently breathed:
>Read the sad sad stories of poor motorists being hit my malevolent
>rising bollards:
>http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/225/225258_infamous_bolla
>rds_claim_more_victims.html
>
>Then watch the BBC video:
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/bb_rm_fs.stm?news=1&bbr
>am=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=6181758
>
>Then marry up the location and car descriptions (and the dates in the
>story and date stamp in the video if you are still not sure)
>
>Looks like the poor motorists' stories are a load of bollards! No
>surprise there then.

The main thing that seems to come over from these stories is that people
in this country *really* do not seem to like the idea that they might
actually have to obey road traffic laws. The same reasoning applies to
the arguments about speed cameras - "how *dare* they actually enforce
the speed limit!".

Do other countries' motorists have the same attitude to their traffic
laws, or is it a uniquely British thing?

I wonder how long it'll be before someone blames their sat-nav for
sending them into a set of bollards somewhere?

--
- DJ Pyromancer, The Sunday Goth Social, Leeds. <http://www.sheepish.net>

Broadband, Dialup, Domains = <http://www.wytches.net> = The UK's Pagan ISP!
<http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk> <http://www.revival.stormshadow.com>

 

[Tony Raven]

Pyromancer wrote on 26/11/2006 09:54 +0100:
>
> The main thing that seems to come over from these stories is that people
> in this country *really* do not seem to like the idea that they might
> actually have to obey road traffic laws. The same reasoning applies to
> the arguments about speed cameras - "how *dare* they actually enforce
> the speed limit!".
>

And as is evident from the difference between their story in the MEN and
the video documentation of their encounter, they will make up any old BS
to avoid admitting what they did.


--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Matt B]

spindrift wrote:
> Noel wrote:
>> On Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:40:30 +0000, Tony Raven wrote:
>>
>>> Read the sad sad stories of poor motorists being hit my malevolent
>>> rising bollards:
>> Tony - your bollards? Is that just a turn of phrase or were you involved
>> in their implementation?
>>
>> Cheers
>
> There were 70 pedestrian RTA's and one fatality before the bollards
> were installed.
>
> None after,

Do you have a source for that? A report from the Manchester City
council[1] about the bollards in Cross Street says that there were 9 KSI
collisions there since 1999, mainly involving _buses_. In the trial
monitoring period there were 3 pedestrian accidents, 2 of which involved
buses, in the 4 or 5 months before the bollards were installed, and none
in the 6 months since.

[1]
http://www.manchester.gov.uk/localdemocracy/committees/physenv/2006/1017/report03.pdf

--
Matt B

 

[Chris Eilbeck]

Pyromancer <[email protected]> writes:

> I wonder how long it'll be before someone blames their sat-nav for
> sending them into a set of bollards somewhere?

Well it's happened with fords causing flooded cars many times.

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck

 

[Tony Raven]

Chris Eilbeck wrote on 26/11/2006 14:38 +0100:
> Pyromancer <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> I wonder how long it'll be before someone blames their sat-nav for
>> sending them into a set of bollards somewhere?
>
> Well it's happened with fords causing flooded cars many times.
>

And, IIRC, the motorist who turned off the road into the river because
his GPS told him there was a bridge there.


--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Chris Eilbeck]

Tony Raven <[email protected]> writes:

> Chris Eilbeck wrote on 26/11/2006 14:38 +0100:
>> Pyromancer <[email protected]> writes:
>>
>>> I wonder how long it'll be before someone blames their sat-nav for
>>> sending them into a set of bollards somewhere?
>> Well it's happened with fords causing flooded cars many times.
>
> And, IIRC, the motorist who turned off the road into the river because
> his GPS told him there was a bridge there.

Priceless!

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck

 

[Phil Cook]

Pyromancer wrote:

>Do other countries' motorists have the same attitude to their traffic
>laws, or is it a uniquely British thing?

I dunno but from my experience of driving in Belgium, France and
Australia limits seem to observed rather better than here in the UK.
Also the lower the limit the more it observed it seems.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

 

[Alan Braggins]

In article <[email protected]>, Pyromancer wrote:
>
>I wonder how long it'll be before someone blames their sat-nav for
>sending them into a set of bollards somewhere?

At least four years ago, Gordon Banks' chauffeur in Cambridge:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.cycling/msg/82f8df5248c936d3?&hl=en

 

[spindrift]

Alan Braggins wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, Pyromancer wrote:
> >
> >I wonder how long it'll be before someone blames their sat-nav for
> >sending them into a set of bollards somewhere?
>
> At least four years ago, Gordon Banks' chauffeur in Cambridge:
> http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.cycling/msg/82f8df5248c936d3?&hl=en

Seeing as an abandoned car blew up Manchester City centre it's
understandable they are cautious about allowing cars in, let alone the
pedestrian safety dividend.

 

[John Kane]

Pyromancer wrote:
---------clip---
>
> Do other countries' motorists have the same attitude to their traffic
> laws, or is it a uniquely British thing?

Well yes, in Canada anyway, but I don't think quite as bad. We simply
have more room in our cities (well our parking lots with a few
buildings dotted about) but certainly I have heard people complain
about the police enforcing the speed limits usually complaining that
getting charged for driving 40 km/hr over the speed limit was just a
money making device.


And our former Conservative provincial government after they were
elected almost immediately scrapped traffic cameras on the major
East-West autoroute in Ontario.

You should see the driving in Cairo or in Saudi Arabia

John Kane, Kingston ON Canada

 

[David Hansen]

On Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:08:37 +0000 someone who may be Tony Raven
<[email protected]> wrote this:-

>>> I wonder how long it'll be before someone blames their sat-nav for
>>> sending them into a set of bollards somewhere?
>>
>> Well it's happened with fords causing flooded cars many times.
>
>And, IIRC, the motorist who turned off the road into the river because
>his GPS told him there was a bridge there.

Someone drove a car into the main railway station in Karlsruhe,
because his GPS apparently told him to do so. There is a photograph
of this somewhere.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

 

[OG]

"Phil Cook" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Pyromancer wrote:
>
>>Do other countries' motorists have the same attitude to their traffic
>>laws, or is it a uniquely British thing?
>
> I dunno but from my experience of driving in Belgium, France and
> Australia limits seem to observed rather better than here in the UK.
> Also the lower the limit the more it observed it seems.

I visited northern Spain about 20 years ago and was very impressed that many
towns had traffic lights that were triggered by speed detectors. Not only
were the offending speeders forced to stop, they also caught the flack from
all the other motorists they inconvenienced as well.

We're revisiting the area in 2007, it'll be interesting to see if they are
still in use.

 

[Matt B]

spindrift wrote:
>
> Seeing as an abandoned car blew up Manchester City centre

Wrong yet again. It was a human terrorist, using not a car, but a van.

> it's
> understandable they are cautious about allowing cars in,

Eh?

> let alone the
> pedestrian safety dividend.

What safety dividend? We have already seen that most pedestrians are
injured, not by cars, but by buses, in the area in question.

--
Matt B

 

[Andrew Price]

On Sun, 26 Nov 2006 15:36:59 +0000, Phil Cook
<[email protected]> wrote:

>>Do other countries' motorists have the same attitude to their traffic
>>laws, or is it a uniquely British thing?
>
>I dunno but from my experience of driving in Belgium, France and
>Australia limits seem to observed rather better than here in the UK.

I must say that surprises me - or have I misunderstood what you've
said? I've lived nearly all my life in France, and on the few visits
to the UK I've made, I've always been very impressed with the
discipline and courtesy of motorists, compared to what I see every day
in Paris.