Holy Roads!

THE POTHOLE SITUATION HERE IN GLASGOW CITY IS TERRIBLE, APPARENTLY DUE TO THE RAVAGES OF THE SEVERE WINTER ON OUR BELOVED TARMACADAM.

Imagine my surprise, however, to spot a sign at Blythswood Square that simply warned me to expect more potholes!

[Please click on the photograph to enlarge image]

Things are getting worse when the council will spend money on signs instead of repairing the roads.

Flying Tyres

A SIGN CAUGHT MY ATTENTION WHILE GETTING NEW TYRES.

It was the bottom entry on the list of inclusions — Nitrogen inflation.

I had never heard of that — I always assumed that car tyres are filled with common or garden air.  Nitrogen gas just seemed a tad excessive.  I looked it up on Wikipedia when I got home, and sure enough, Nitrogen is used — for aircraft!

“Aircraft tires are usually inflated with nitrogen or helium in order to minimize expansion and contraction from extreme changes in ambient temperature and pressure experienced during flight…
…The use of an inert gas for tire inflation will eliminate the possibility of a tire explosion.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire#Inflation_pressure

Things are definitely getting worse when a common, everyday car tyre gets filled with Nitrogen gas! The world has gone mad!

Scary Quotes

I WAS SENT THIS PICTURE BY E-MAIL.

It shows very well how inverted commas can change the meaning. Click on the picture to enlarge (as ever).

It states:

Please enjoy our “Safe” and “Comfortable” flight

Just the other day, I spotted a very similar thing on the side of a business van.  Naturally I snapped a picture.  As you can see, the meaning is completely changed — and this cannot be what the business intended… can it?

Providing Services to the highest levels is “Our Priority”. Indeed. Things are getting worse when businesses are sarcastic about their poor quality service.

Dangerous Parking

I WAS STUNNED TO SEE A CAR PARKED  ON THE PAVEMENT.

Not only was the car parked completely on the pavement, but to get parked it had to negotiate the gap between two fences.  In addition to that, this is a corner — a busy one where school children have to cross the road in every direction.  Notice the ice and frost — a slip and slide hazard, not just for the vehicle, but for pedestrians who cannot use the railings. Finally, the car is a TAXI!  In other words, driven by a professional who ought to know the law, who ought to know better, and who should be more considerate than others  — not least of all for risking losing a livelihood.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Crossing Poles

A WALK THROUGH SHAWLANDS IS ALWAYS AN EXCITING PROSPECT.

It is an assault course of dog fouled pavements, illogically parked cars, overgrown hedges, bollards and crazy things such as the lamppost shown in the picture — please click on the picture to enlarge.

There is a pole for the no-entry sign located exactly where a pedestrian needs to cross — right where the kerb dips at the corner.  This pedestrian could be a partially sighted person, wheelchair bound, a mother with a pram or perhaps an elderly person with either a Zimmer frame or one of those electrical wheelchairs.

How annoying and unsafe!  Do people not think things through anymore?  If there is no guide and handbook on how to do this, if there is no legislation or regulation, what about the people who actually dug the pavement up and erected this pole?

Things are getting worse when people cannot think about their work, but simply do a shoddy bit of work and forget all about it.

If you refer back to this picture, you might see that there is another daft pole on the opposite side — just shown on the right side of the picture. Good luck to everyone who wants to cross at this junction.

Vanishing Road

ACCORDING TO THE SIGNS AT THE RECENT ROAD WORKS, DEANSTON DRIVE VANISHES.

If the road was closed, they would have used a “road closed” sign, a “No Entry” sign or “Diversion” sign. If the road was blocked off from the left, then they would have used the narrowed from left sign, and if the road was blocked off from the right, then they would have used the narrowed from right sign.

To use BOTH the narrowed from left sign AND the narrowed from right sign, effectively closes a two lane road, yet the road was open on both lanes. Even the turn off to the left was open.

To add even more confusion, there’s a “bear left” sign!

With the naked eye, no road works were taking place whatsoever, and this remains as it has always been — even though all these signs and fences have been removed since the photograph was taken.

Things are getting worse when the road department store their equipment on roads. It is the only explanation for all this fuss — the only other explanation being that the road is pinched from both sides and vanishes!

My 1st Traffic Jam Puzzle

MY FIRST TRAFFIC JAM PUZZLE.

That’s what it says on the box.

Yes, things are that bad, and getting worse it would seem. Is there a grand plan to prepare children for inevitable traffic jams in later adult life?

Is there a grand plan perhaps to sell children a series of traffic jam puzzles? This is MY FIRST traffic jam puzzle — and that suggests the possibility of a second, third and who-knows how many more.

On further consideration, it is possible that the puzzle is “why have we got traffic jams”?  How much fun would it be to consider all the options to transport and travel for the 21st century. Yes, what a fun toy!

I don’t know about you, but this – whatever it is — does not immediately strike me as an absolutely brilliant idea for a children’s toy or game.  Things are definitely getting worse when someone can successfully pitch their idea about a puzzle for children based on traffic congestion.

Looking again at the box, I see that it could be that the entire reason for the traffic jam could be the child driving the big green tractor.  How hilarious! The child can play at being responsible for road rage and disgruntled commuters for the FIRST time! My, oh my; what kind of monsters are we trying to create here?

Bollards

BOLLARDS ARE SOFTER THAN YOU THINK.

The council put bollards up to try to stop cars being parked in particular areas, but it is not working on account of the fact that bollards are made from cheap soft plastic rubbish!

The moral of the story is to drive slowly at the bollards to bend them out of your way, allowing you to park wherever you want.

Council tax money well spent!

Car Parking Twist

IN GLASGOW’S IRONICALLY NAMED PARK AREA, CARS ARE PARKED AT AN ANGLE TO THE PAVEMENT.

The entire enterprise seems to be to narrow a wide road to aggravate drivers and perhaps slow them down.

There can be no other explanation; if the cars were “normally” parked in a parallel fashion to the pavement, there would be just as many cars parked, but the road would be much wider for cars and vans driving past.

Consider the diagram above.  Fig 1 shows the current angled parking. Fig 2 shows normal parallel parking, and the top figure shows both combined.  Hopefully, this diagram shows that the cars take up the same length of kerb regardless of the angle of parking.  The only difference is how much car is sticking out into the road.

Not only does this restrict a perfectly wide road, but it creates a couple of new dangers: cars parking in like this often touch the very high kerbs at the offside bumper, and parked cars have to reverse into oncoming traffic to leave the parking space.

Each bay is a pay-and-display earner for the council.  It would make no financial difference whatsoever to change the angled bays back to normal parallel ones.  It would widen the road for vans, improve road safety and reduce bumper scrapes for car owners in icy conditions.

However, common sense does not prevail in councils, and so the people who have to suffer are the ordinary tax-payers.

Break The Law

THE POLICE ARE CRACKING DOWN ON US AGAIN. They have been out and about all week causing traffic congestion for shoppers.  It is the three old chestnuts — parking, speeding and drink-driving.

Something is wrong with a society when ordinary everyday citizens are more concerned with getting caught by the authorities than by criminals.  I have seen grown men brought to tears by parking wardens, simply because their ticket at the meter bay expired ten minutes ago.

Things are getting worse.  Yet, what I do not understand is why it has to be that way.  Sure, it brings in an awful lot of money — it is all a hidden tax after all — but I think it is too high a price to pay, for the downside far outweighs the income.

For example, instead of putting money in a meter, you could just swipe your credit card and settle up at the end of the day.  The argument about short-stay periods is nonsense; just have a different rate for long stays.  That would mean that no person would be criminalised, stressed and angry — the NHS would see the benefit, and we’d have less road rage and a general lifting of mood.

Speed cameras are bad, and speed limits are silly.  Drivers panic when they see a speed camera, and speed limits cannot be taken seriously because they do not account for traffic jams, bad weather, late night driving and so forth.

Why are we putting up with this silliness? Speed limiters exist — see the photograph.  If no car could speed, this would free up the police to catch people driving dangerously or carelessly under the effects of drink or drugs.

The state pretends to be nannying us, protecting us, keeping us safe — but the truth is that we live in fear of the state — they are not there for us, they are out to get us, to take our money and ruin our lives — either by the consequences of human mistakes or by making us so paranoid and stressed out that we cannot actually live our lives freely.

Happy New Year!