Police Parking

IT IS ANNOYING THAT THE POLICE DO NOT OBEY THE LAW.

The police would quite happily arrest you if you broke the law, but they do it themselves all the time. I often see police cars park inappropriately (and even thoughtlessly).  They run traffic lights, cause all sorts of problems chasing boy racers.

They are never around when things turn violent; most of the time they seem to be strolling about ASDA buying cola and cakes. I wish I were joking; I cannot think of a time I have been shopping in a supermarket that there hasn’t been at least four uniformed police wandering around, shopping for snacks.

The most annoying, though, for me, is parking on double yellow lines. They do it all the time. Every day, right outside Strathclyde Police HQ on Pitt Street, there are double yellow lines, cones and signs — and yet I have never walked past and it has been clear.

There always seems to be a police car, an unmarked police car,  a van, or something else parked right outside — and as far as I can see, no tickets have been given, no fines paid, no fines paid, and no vehicle towed away. Ever.

In fact, if you go to Google maps and look at the street view, there are police bikes right outside the front door!

It is bad enough when police flaunt the rules of the road, but it takes it to another level to do it right outside police headquarters! Things are getting worse indeed.

Douglas Street Parking Chaos

ROAD PLANNERS HAVE GOT IT WRONG ON DOUGLAS STREET, GLASGOW.

Douglas Street is a steep hill, it is one-way going up. Nevertheless, the designated car parking bays are angled awkwardly.

This causes chaos at rush hour as cars wanting to park have to drive up beyond the bays and reverse in to the angled spaces.

It would be far simpler if the angled bays were the other way, of if parking was parallel or perpendicular (there is sufficient space).

Things are getting worse when the obvious is missed by so-called town planners and traffic managers!

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.

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!

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!

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.