Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • I heard a talking lorry today.
  • donald
    Free Member

    I was walking along the pavement today when a cement mixer pulled in to an entrance just ahead of me. As it passed me indicating left a recorded message played “Caution – vehicle turning left”

    Now I’m just a country bumpkin up to the big city for the first time in a while but I’d never heard that before. Is this a new thing? It seems like an excellent idea to warn those cyclists who were in the blind spot when the vehicle started to indicate.

    scruff9252
    Full Member

    An alarm in the cab warning of something in the driver’s blind spot may be more useful, buts it’s a good start at least.

    clodhopper
    Free Member

    “Now I’m just a country bumpkin up to the big city for the first time in a while but I’d never heard that before. Is this a new thing?”

    😆

    It’s been annoying us sophisticated city slickers for years.

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    It’s been annoying us sophisticated city slickers for years.

    “Vehicle reversing BEEEP BEEEEP”

    Except it’s not a beep, it’s some sort of beep/claxon hybrid.

    Sets my teeth right on edge.

    donald
    Free Member

    Well to be fair it was only Loanhead so not that sophisticated.

    I’ve heard the reversing thing plenty of times but never ‘turning left’

    whitestone
    Free Member

    The thing with all these systems is that they are fine whilst they work but you begin to rely on them such that when they don’t you make the very mistake they were put in to prevent. Basically they don’t “fail safe”.

    A case in point would be the reversing sensors fitted to most cars, ours went wrong and I only realised as I was rolling back towards a parked car. It’s reasonable to argue that I should have been looking as well as listening for the increased tone of the beep (and I’d be hard pushed to argue convincingly otherwise) but I fell in to the trap of relying on the technology not my own observation.

    clodhopper
    Free Member

    “Except it’s not a beep, it’s some sort of beep/claxon hybrid.

    Sets my teeth right on edge.”

    Ooh, when water’s got in and affected the beeper, and it sounds like a deranged magpie on crack. 😡

    zippykona
    Full Member

    The other day we had 3 cement lorries turning left.It was a bloody racket.
    A bit over the top I think.

    xcgb
    Free Member

    I remember once hearing a securicor van shouting “help under attack call police” with 2 sheepish looking guards locked inside 😆

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I was on a meeting on a ship moored in the middle of the Portsmouth Harbour.

    Suddenly all the klaxons went off and the Tannoy started shouting (like *really* shouting) “THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ABANDON SHIP! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ABANDON SHIP!”

    Then a bloke dressed like this;

    walked into the passenger lounge where we are having the meeting carrying the end of a hose.

    He stopped and we heard a muffled “Oh, no one said you were here. It’s just a drill.”

    So we carried on with the meeting with all this shouting and running about going on. Very British.

    alpin
    Free Member

    scruff9252 – Member

    An alarm in the cab warning of something in the driver’s blind spot may be more useful, buts it’s a good start at least.

    I’m often riding shotgun in trucks for work. To be fair to truck drivers visibility is carp… There are already an array of mirrors to check and by the time you’ve checked them all (particularly when sitting /pulling away from the lights) things could have changed.

    Making cyclists aware that it is never a good idea to ride down the inside of anything bigger than a Smart when the indicator is on would be better.

    andyl
    Free Member

    So we carried on with the meeting with all this shouting and running about going on. Very British.

    Flaperon
    Full Member

    “Caution: This vehicle does not pay attention to other road users.”

    jimmy
    Full Member

    only Loanhead

    Watch oot pal, ah’m gawn left ken?

    dudeofdoom
    Full Member

    We get the reversing white noise ones around yer – very odd.

    gt900uk
    Free Member

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07pmyd6/inside-the-factory-series-2-4-bicycles

    There is a segment in this show on some of the tech to help keep cyclists safer.

    simmy
    Free Member

    I remember once hearing a securicor van shouting “help under attack call police” with 2 sheepish looking guards locked inside

    There are traffic lights right outside my house and years ago a G4S Van broke down outside and it’s alarms went off.

    Really annoying. The Police came and sat with it until breakdown recovery arrived. It then went off down the road on the wrecker still screaming out ” securicor vehicle under attack ”

    Bustaspoke
    Free Member

    As a supermarket trucker I’ve got the dubious privilege of driving some lorrys with the ‘Caution this vehicle is turning left’ soundtrack.The trouble is it’s so irritating you modify your driving to shut it up.When driving vehicles fitted without the warning I sit at lights with the left indicator flashing,with the lorrys fitted with the warning alert I only switch the indicators on a few seconds before I move to keep the noise pollution down..
    Strangely they haven’t got round to fitting one that says don’t pull in behind this vehicle when it’s reversing.
    The artics don’t have these fitted but they have one that shouts out ‘Attention remember to drop trailer legs’,this is supposed to stop F***wits pulling the unit out from the trailer without remembering to drop the trailer legs,but if there’s a bit of wear on the electrical connections it goes off as your driving along,gets some funny looks going through busy areas…

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    Was it an articulate lorry?

    nathb
    Free Member

    Talking lorries are a great idea, stops boris bikes doing something silly around them.

    My gripe at the moment is the “cyclists don’t pass this vehicle on the left hand side” plastered on vans, not even long ones but the converted Ford Fiesta vans. Wtf! Come across as disclaimers to me; “warning I may not bother to check my left hand mirror when I’m about to turn left”…

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    You don’t see (or I haven’t seen, at least) trucks with the “no entry” sign on the left and the white arrow on blue -“overtake this side” sign on the right. All trucks in Greece seem to have them (the other way round, of course).

    Andy-R
    Full Member

    jimmy
    Full Member

    BigJohn WINS

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    My gripe at the moment is the “cyclists don’t pass this vehicle on the left hand side” plastered on vans, not even long ones but the converted Ford Fiesta vans. Wtf! Come across as disclaimers to me; “warning I may not bother to check my left hand mirror when I’m about to turn left”…

    Apparently, this was something to do with the fleet operators scheme in London mandating them for *every* vehicle. Not sure if that’s true or not though.

    I agree with you, it’s BS.

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)

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