Holy Street!

AMAZINGLY, NO ONE WAS HARMED WHEN THE STREET CAVED IN TODAY.

I was walking along Renfield Street, and right at the corner where the old ABC cinema used to be, the road simply collapsed!

It was big enough to drop a full-length family car waiting to turn left onto Renfield Street!  Things are getting worse when roads can suddenly cave in.

In 2007, the road outside the Citizens’ Theatre collapsed as a result of a burst water main, ironically while “The Tempest” was being performed (see Clipped News Article).  Glasgow’s infrastructure was shown to be crumbling and in dire need of investment.  The pot holes cannot be making things any better. Thing sare definitely getting worse when pavements and roads can simply and suddenly cave in without warning!

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!

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.

Do NOT Pick Up Dog Dirt!

THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN DOG MESS ON THE PAVEMENT IS WHEN A HUMAN BEING PICKS UP THE DOG MESS.

I saw it this morning: a woman watched her dog do it’s business. She then reached into her anorak pocket and produced a scrunched-up Morrison’s Supermarket carrier bag.  She pulled it over her hand, picked up the dog shit, and pulled the bag back over so that the shite was contained within the bag.

Now, this is wrong and disgusting on many levels in my opinion.  Let’s begin with the supermarket carrier bag — we’re supposed to be getting away from using these plastic bags as they last for millions of years on landfills and kill wild life. On top of this, Morrison’s carriers are largely clear and see-through — hardly appropriate for this purpose.

The next thing that gets me annoyed is that the dog is allowed to poop anywhere it likes, and the owner will pick it up.  This is not right; humans picking up after dogs is wrong — we’re acting like they are superior and we are the servants.

Think about it, a dog crap on the pavement is something to be avoided — and it can be avoided most of the time because is obviously present.  On the other hand, a dog poo that was lifted will leave residue and germs behind that are far less evident.  People do not see the danger and walk on the fouled region to then spread the germs on floors and carpets at home and in cars.  Kids drops things, bounce balls, and ride over such places to spread germs and infection far and wide.

The next issue I have with the pick-up scenario is the act of picking up the faeces — plastic bag or not. The way I see it, if you went to the toilet and did a poo, you would be just as separated from your own faecal matter — in your personal case, it’s toilet paper, in the dog fouling scenario, it is a plastic shopping bag.

The thing is you know that wiping your bum means you have germs and that you need to wash your hands — but people who pick up warm, freshly produced dog turds are in the street or in parks, and have no access to wash hand basins.  They are walking about with germs — and it is exactly as bad as not washing your hands after defecating in a WC.

How would you feel if someone walked their dog and then made you a sandwich?  I personally would feel that this is the same as someone making a sandwich after going for a dump and not washing their hands, or a mother changing a nappy and not washing her hands.

I saw Kim and Aggie’s TV show,”How Clean is Your House” a while back.  It was explained that germs from the toilet can spread upto eight feet away from the WC bowl.  They swabbed surfaces and items for laboratory testing, and faecal matter was discovered on toothbrushes and face flannels. Toothbrushes should be stored as far away as possible from toilet bowls — always inside  bathroom cabinets and with a case too if possible.

That is why toilets cannot be accessed from public rooms — especially kitchens,  but instead they have to be from hallways and corridors or, for example, in pubs and clubs, accessed via IVS spaces.  Toilets without windows have to by law have an extraction fan wired up to the lightswitch with an over run fo 20 minutes after you leave and switch off the light — yes, it is that serious.

People can be paranoid about sitting on toilet seats or touching toilet door handles or flush handles – yet, while germs are definitely passed via contact, there is a significant airborne spread. If you wipe your bottom — you are not coming into direct contact with faeces by virtue of the toilet paper.  Germs are in the toilet bowl, on the seat and on your wiping hand.  You will touch surfaces and spread the germs that jumped onto your hand.  Flushing creates the sneezing effect — a fine germ-filled mist or aerosol that spreads germs high and low, far and wide.  May people consider hand air driers to spread germs too — particularly when people wet their hands rather than washing them with soap and warm water.

The point I am labouring here is that germs are invisible and that they spread fast and far. Despite toilet paper and plastic bags.

• I therefore think there should be a ban on people picking up after their pooches.
• I do not think dogs should be allowed to poop anywhere: dogs should be made by their owners to poop in designated areas — perhaps in gutters at the roadside of the kerb (not on the pavement), where rain water will wash them down the drain.

We live in a world filled with MRSA, superbugs, allergies, and all sorts of illnesses that could be eradicated by better hygiene. The “Bag it and Bin It” campaign — I have argued here — is unhealthy for us all and something should be done.

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.