No Parking Reason

THE SIGN IS PLAIN; IT STATES “NO PARKING” AND “24 HOUR ACCESS”.

The sign uses a nice clear font, black lettering on white, and a good size too — able to be read from the car — no need to park and get out to read this sign!

It contains all the relevant information — no threats of clamping, towing away or a fine.  It is quite to the point and succinct — until you spot the tiny yellow warning triangle at the top right corner.

Know, you do have to park, get out and go up to see what this is about.

How bizarre is that?  The warning triangle has a drawing of a running child, a trike and a ball along with a garage door that seems to be opening and closing at the same time.

As far as I am aware, this is not in the “Highway Code”, so someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to think up this sign and use it in this strange manner.

It may be that the sign maker had a sudden panic; what if non-English speakers wanted to park their car, the sign would not be understood!  This warning triangle seems like an after-thought. It is not a proper size to be seen from a short distance!

Oddly, there is a no-parking sign in the “Highway Code”, which begs the question — why didn’t they just use that instead?

Clearly, they wanted to provide reasons, using illustration.  However, this child and his toys do not really explain the requirement for 24 hour access!

Things are getting worse when we invent road signs that cannot be easily seen nor understood.

Plague of Leaflets

TARGETING YOUR MARKET IS SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD FOR BUSINESS. However, evermore companies are choosing to use customers as targets.

I hate these leaflets, and I don’t understand why it is so popular.  A person puts a sales leaflet under parked car’s windscreen wipers in the hope that it will drum up business.

Please double left click on the images to enlarge

However, what actually happens is that it annoys the car owner –  they have to scrape the wet paper that has stuck to the glass. They cannot drive away and use their windscreen wipers until this job is done.

It is especially bad on an expensive car, and it can reveal to a thief, for example, how long the car has been parked there.

Thing are definitely getting worse!

Please double left click on the images to enlarge

Fitting Advert

COMPANY IMAGE IS EVERYTHING.

On this site we often point out public signs that have errors.  This is because we feel that public signs, menus, notices and so forth should be checked for simple mistakes.

However, a company image goes beyond spelling and grammar, which is why we have shown some dubious logos (such as “Don’t Be Alarmed“).

Now, imagine a company that has only three main features (selling points) … (1) a van, (2) the spacial skills to know if and how things will fit ahead of time, and (3) how much care and attention to detail you have.

Imagine the livery of the van — what message would you be trying to get across?

You would probably want a van that looks clean, well-cared-for, professional, sturdy and which advertises with an office address, perhaps a logo, and a tag line.

Well, imagine now what we thought when we saw this van recently (see picture — click to enlarge).

Yes, things are getting worse when they cannot see ahead, when they cannot fit all the letters of the word across the van!

Tree Trunk Calls

WHEN A BOX FULL OF WIRES IS INVADED BY VEGETATION, MAINTENANCE IS REQUIRED.

Click on the picture to enlarge the photograph, you will see that this box of wires has been maintained — by painting the plant the same colour as the box! Notice too that the plant has been pruned!

This is incredible, so strong is the vegetation, that the doors have been burst open.  Heaven knows how the telephones work in this area of Glasgow City.

Things are definitely getting worse when people simply try to paint out growing problems that ought to have been nipped in the bud.

Deeper Surface

I WAS PASSING PC WORLD ON ARGYLE STREET WHEN I NOTICED THAT THE CAR PARK WAS FENCED OFF.

Then I noticed a sign that stated:

“SORRY FOR ANY
INCONVENIENCE
CAUSED DURING
CAR PARK
RESURFACING WORK”.

That seemed fair enough.. that is until I glanced through the fence at the work itself.

Please double click on any picture to enlarge.

I was stunned to see how deep these excavations were — this was not a resurface, this was archaeology!

I may be cynical, but was this all really necessary?  It just seems a tad excessive.  Things are certainly getting worse when a car park’s surface is a metre and a half!

Pot Luck on Roads

THE ROADS ARE IN A DREADFUL STATE.

However, it seems that the council’s new LLCs would rather spend our tax-quids on speed cameras and speed humps in parking bays than fix the pot holes!

It is no exaggeration, and there is often no opportunity to avoid driving into them because of cars parked either side of the road.

These photographs were taken at the Battlefield monument right outside the Victoria Infirmary (one of the two southside hospitals in Glasgow city).  I pity the occupants of ambulances that have to deal with these pot holes on a daily basis!

Mind you, according to a news story I read, the repairs are never done very well. It’s all one big money-spinning racket. We’re going to pot (holes) — and, yes, things are still getting worse!

Last Bus Unknown

SOME OTHER BUS COMPANY WILL BE WORKING THIS ROUTE SOMETIMES, BUT WE’RE NOT GOING TO TELL YOU WHO IT IS –  JUST THAT IT ‘AIN’T US, SO THERE!

That is basically what the following notice is about (please double click on the image to see it enlarged).

This is what it states:

First transforming travel CUSTOMER NOTICE Service 121 Govan – Victoria Infirmary From Friday 7 November a revised timetable will operate on service 121 as a result of changes to the SPT tender. First Glasgow will continue to operate the service during the day Monday to Saturday. In the early morning, evening and all day Sundays another operator will run service 121. Please call Strathclyde Partnership for Transport on 0845 271 2405 for details of the service at these times. For further information visit www.firstgroup.com/glasgow or call Customer Services on 0141 423 6600 for more details.

It is beyond me why they couldn’t put all the information on the notice — we have just enough information to make a phone call or visit a website — hey, yeah, thanks for that guys!

Just in time for Christmas office parties, when people will be leaving their cars and relying on public transport!

Things are getting worse when routes are carved up like this anyway — everyone loses the plot.  Will the new operator be using the usual 121 bustops (the First Glasgow stops)? Will the timetable remain, or will it change for the better or worse?  What about fares?  Will bus passes, travel passes and cards still work?

What a mess — and we didn’t even see it coming (bit like the bus service itself)!

Taxi “Enforcer”

TAXI AND PRIVATE HIRE ENFORCEMENT UNIT — YES, THAT’S WHAT IT SAYS ON THE VAN.

I saw a Glasgow City Council Taxi and Private Hire Enforcement Unit van today, and just had to take a photograph of it; no-one would believe me if I didn’t have evidence to back up the existence of this council-tax paid council department.

What on earth is going on with Glasgow City — are they all mad? If you can remember our post on the obscure department called “Direct and Care“, then it will come as no surprise that there exists a Taxi Enforcer!

Yes, things are getting worse! Oh, and enjoy the fireworks and bonfire at Glasgow Green tomorrow (everywhere else in the UK celebrations are tonight, but Glasgow is doing it tomorrow because Celtic and playing a game of football tonight in the city — maybe the council is touchy about celebrating the burning of a Roman Catholic [Guy Fawkes] on the night of a Celtic match)!

Speed Parking!

NO ONE LIKES SPEED BUMPS.

In an earlier post we explained why the council have used speed bumps (and things like extra traffic lights) to force drivers to use particular routes (such as the M77).

The Tantallon Road Traffic Calming Scheme (part of the M77 Corridor scheme) provided for speed humps because The Scottish Executive states “Road humps are the most effective traffic calming measure available for reducing speed. “

What can we say about a speed hump in a parking bay (double click on picture to enlarge).

Bizarre. Things are definitely getting worse when the council spend thousands of pounds of our council tax money on rubbish like this! I would dearly love to hear the official explanation of this silliness!

Inconsiderate Car Parking

SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT INCONSIDERATE CAR PARKING.

In the photograph, the car is parked inconsiderately; it is blocking a service lane — which is not merely blocking access to rubbish and recycling bins, but also blocking emergency access to electrical, water, sewerage, and gas utilities, and to the fire service.

This may come as a surprise to our regular readers in consideration of all our posts on the subject of parking.

We here at GW see a difference between being considerate and being legal, and we back being considerate in the hope that restrictions get changed, and laws revised where required. It really is just a common sense approach. So it is just a fluke that the car parked in the above picture is both inconsiderate and illegal!

Being considerate is about thinking less about letter of the law, and more about people and health-and-safety.

You’ll know from older posts that I have no problem with cars parked up on the kerb to allow utility and emergency vehicles to use the roads.

When a car is parked up on the pavement, pedestrian pavement access may be restricted — but this is quite often the (partial) fault of the overgrown hedges or dumped rubbish.

In a traffic calmed area, filled with speed cameras, fences, one-ways, speed bumps and zebra crossings, pedestrians can move about a lot more safely than if the traffic was fast and heavy flowing.

That’s the compromise — we have reduced the amount of through traffic, reduced the speed of the traffic, insisted that rubbish be dumped on the pavement, allowed residential hedges to take up a large part of the pavement area, and let people away with dog fouling. This simply means pedestrians have to weave a bit through the obstacles of cars, hedges, dog mess and rubbish.

The alternative would be to allow “proper pedestrian pavement access“, meaning more restrictions and red tape — residential hedges would have to be regulated, dog-fouling enforced (CCTV?), rubbish would have to be dumped in back lanes again, and cars would have to be parked completely on the road — impeding emergency vehicle access, utility vehicles, delivery trucks and vans and so forth.

I think that this is why police and wardens turn a “blind eye” throughout  Shawlands, and quite right too!

Let’s face it; the high density of residents in block of flats means that emergency and utility vehicles must have access at all times.  The sheer number of resident means that car numbers will be high — and people need to park near their flats (they may be disabled, elderly, infirm or have shopping, babies and toddlers to contend with).

That’s why we can say that the car in the picture is in our opinion parked disgracefully, but that cars parked on pavements and between bollards is OK.