So…I just asked a chap if he realised why there were zig-zags…

Cars seem to turn people into psychopaths – aggressive bullies who have no care for anyone else’s needs…

On the contrary, I think some people are **** but they manage to hide that in normal life and being in a car allows them to let it out. Genuinely decent people don’t turn into psychopaths when in a car. The worrying thing is just how many people are **** but manage to hide it most of the time.

I choose to say on this thread that I choose to say nothing in the OP’s earlier situation.

That is all, as you were.

Had a funny one this morning outside our (recently moved into) house. My business partner had come to collect me to go to a business meeting and , as my wife was about to take our kids to school, he left his car across from our house and unfortunately this blocked someone’s drive – however, there was no car in the drive.

Two minutes later (as I was just putting my coat on) I found my neighbour literally running around the street screaming at him that she was late, couldn’t he was f&^%*&g blocking her drive, that he had f%$£*&g made her late etc (which I couldn’t get to grips with – she wasn’t *in* the drive, she had driven back to her house after dropping her kid off at school so there was no way it could have made her late (unless she was having a meeting in her house that meant her car had to be in her drive).

As I came around the corner I apologised too (he was already apologising) but she just carried on with her tirade, swearing like a navvy, running around in a panic.

😯

So where did she put her car, and why didn’t your partner put his car there?

She put it on the other side of the road and I don’t know, other than I assume he thought he was only going to be a minute whilst I put my coat on and, as there was no car *in* the drive to block in that it wouldn’t actually be a problem.

Clearly it was.

Knew I wouldn’t be let down. 😀

Couple of minutes ago…

Last time I has cause to speak, I has parked in a Parents bay in Sainsbury’s – those wide one that allow you to open your doors to full with and slot the kids in. So, why did the lady next to me not only park in the bay with NO kids onboard (she has kiddie chairs though m ight I tell you) BUT park so close that I couldn’t get Miss KJ02 in her seat?

That’s one of those moments when, just accidently, I might open my car door just a little too fast and maybe, just maybe, catch the door of the car next to me. I do feel ever so bad about it, but accidents do happen 🙁

As I came around the corner I apologised too (he was already apologising) but she just carried on with her tirade, swearing like a navvy, running around in a panic.

whilst her reaction is OTT it is not easy to predict when a neighbour will return. Unless I know them well [ and they will recognise the car] I would not park across a dropped kerb that prevents access to a drive as I also consider other people needs when I park not just mine….however brief I may think I am being.

The fact you dont get whey she was peeved is as worrying as her over reaction tbh

Right. I place a bet that when I go to collect a mini_oab from BB’s tonight I can get a picture of a couple of cars parked on double yellows, on a ROUNDABOUT… Seems in Dunblane, you can park anywhere.

It’s possible to buy s/a paper, with permanent adhesive on the back. I feel an overwhelming temptation sometimes to find a photo of female genitalia, print some off on A5 sheets, then stick one right in the driver’s field of vision on the windscreen, whenever I see these dimwits parking in such an inconsiderate manner. 👿

Small world dd. Thought I recognised that first pic.
My sister used to live just off that road; Winchester Rd.
That main road (Sandy Park road?) is a nightmare when driving along to see pedestrians, so I see your point in all of this.

Winchester Road is where our childminder lives stumpy. It has become a nightmare lately with parking on the zigzags, amongst other general parking nightmares on the road. I’ve made it my single-issue for 2014 to get the council to put CCTV on it. Bristol Council issue FPNs via CCTV these days. Because it’s a bit out of town, parking services maybe patrol the area once a fortnight or so – and even if they ticketed the few cars they might see then, it would only be a fraction of the overall number.

When I have had a bad day and want to vent some frustration I photo these vehicles and if possible send them to the company concerned mentioning the laws broken and the fact that a copy has gone to the police and press. (that’s a lie but it helps me.)

If I could get motivated enough, I would arrange for a wheelchair user, double buggy pusher and walking-aid required person to get “around the block” in my little car infested suburb WITHOUT being forced on the road.

It is impossible due to all of the cars parked on the pavement, on corners, on speed bumps, blah etc.

You should see this place on bin day.

Council not interested.

Edit: STW has inspired me. Camera out tomorrow.

I know ton, I should have just given him some fist pie and been done with it.
Careful with that one, there’s always someone with bigger fists & theyr’e usually the ones who don’t brag about it.

Careful with that one, there’s always someone with bigger fists & theyr’e usually the ones who don’t brag about it.

I’ll let you into a secret. I may not have been entirely serious with that one. Tbh, I’m more of a lover than a fighter anyway. 🙂

Ha, like the ‘Champion Gypsy Fighter’ (or so he said) on I wing at our place who got KO’d with a couple of bops from a skinny little kid from Leeds. (who had no history of violence, as far as we knew)
It’s a zoo out there!

one theory could be that much of the behaviour ( the parking, the curtain twitching, the psycho drivers) described may be linked to the increasing density of people in most cities, compounded maybe in some cases by an increase in ( mostly warranted) road restrictions, compounded by not just the physical and practical elements but the altered state of mind that results.

A combination of what Rusty said earlier, followed up by aracer’s comment…

Rusty mentioned that, increasingly, we’re behaving more selfishly because, in urban areas, we mostly don’t know our neighbours that well. We might know some of them, but not that many. It also appears that lots of us will act like **** once we’re let get away with it, and it’s amazing once people realise they’re not being judged by their peers, friends, colleagues, etc, a lot of them lose all sense of altruism. In the area where I live, where people seem to get away with parking dangerously like this (y’know, I can live with people chancing it on double yellows…it’s not right, but hardly crime of the century), they’ll just go ahead and do it.

Take my guy for example. I asked him if he realised why there were zigzags painted on the road underneath where he’d parked his car to which he replied “so I can park there for five minutes while I pop in to the shop/PO” (can’t remember which it was now). I assumed his was a smartarse answer and reasoned with him to explain why he shouldn’t park there. His response to reason was to get (only ever so slightly) aggressive. Of course, overall, he still got away with it and is no doubt regaling his mates in the pub tonight about the busybody **** that had a go at him about parking on the zigzags earlier. So I dunno really…I might have done something to change his behaviour, or I may well have been pissing into the breeze. I suspect the latter, the more I think about it. And that makes me a bit sad really.

EDIT: Wunundred on my own thread. HOUSE!!

The fact you dont get whey she was peeved is as worrying as her over reaction tbh

I get why she was peeved, I don’t get screaming, swearing and saying nonsense things like saying it made her late when she wasn’t blocked in. Neither do I get why she carried on yelling and running around the road despite both my business partner and myself apologising to her.

Are you still concerned about my state of mind?

Adherence to laws involving cars is discretionary.

I get why she was peeved, I don’t get screaming, swearing and saying nonsense things like saying it made her late when she wasn’t blocked in. Neither do I get why she carried on yelling and running around the road despite both my business partner and myself apologising to her.

Perceived over reaction often comes from frequent occurrence.

We live directly opposite a primary school in a little village and a hundred metres or so from the church. Most days at drop off and pick up there are parents who think it’s perfectly reasonable to park directly across our drive ‘just for a few minutes’ to save a hundred yard walk with their little darlings. It gets a bit tiring after a while but mostly doesn’t effect us as we now plan our lives around not wanting to get into and out of our drive for then. What is more annoying is in the middle of the day when parents go for meetings in the school and park across our drive for half an hour plus. The poor school secretary is now used to witnessing ‘irrational outbursts’ when it does impact on us!

The best one was christmas day a couple of years ago when some knobber late for the church service decided to park across our drive for the length of the service to save the 3 or 4 hundred yard walk to the nearest proper parking space left. As we needed to get the car out to kick start our own christmas at relatives I ended up walking into and interrupting the service and asking who had the silver BMW reg XXXXXXX. When he finally fessed up I suggested that it wasn’t a very christian thing to do to a very quiet church. On the bright side all the village god botherers still look the other way when I meet them and the vicar next door but one still refuses to speak to me. He doesn’t seem big on forgiveness 🙂

Good on you deadlydarcy – you might not have changed his way of thinking there and then but he might atleast think about next time.

Krypton57 got it spot on too – it’s a shame there aren’t more people who politely point out to people when they are being selfish or inconsiderate, etc. But when people feel too intimidated to approach certain citizens (choose your own social stereo-type) as to their response – polite acceptance or quick punch to the face, you can’t blame them or when others feel they shouldn’t have too as it’s not their responsibility I think it says alot about the state of our great nation!

Sometimes I think maybe I’m getting old but no I am just the same person who likes people who show some consideration for others as it makes everyone’s lives that little bit nicer and happier – and who wouldn’t want a bit more of that. (climbs off soap box and puts it away for next time).

We just need to get people out of cars – people are too isolated from the other road uses and too safe from the results of their own bad behaviour.

The Tube can be a very unpleasant place to be in rush hour in terms of loads of people crammed into a tiny space – people get grumpy and will moan a bit but you simply do not see the same levels of outright aggression/violence that you see on the roads.

Mainly because a) anyone who starts anything risks a punch on the nose b) you’d have to stand there for the rest of your journey with all your peers looking at you just after you’ve had a childish tantrum…

Riding home last night, trying to get through the gridlock around Kennington yesterday I pulled out to filter and nearly hit another cyclist – I hadn’t looked properly. I said sorry, he said no worries and on we went – no aggro even though the consequences of me knocking him off in traffic would have been worse than if we’d both been in cars and I’d done the same thing.

The fundamental difference was I was able to look him in the eye and say sorry – one human to another, face to face… and that’s what you lose when we’re all in cars…

Plus driving is such a dire experience these days, it’s fundamentally frustrating so the second you get in a car, your anger levels are rising…

Krypton57 got it spot on too – it’s a shame there aren’t more people who politely point out to people when they are being selfish or inconsiderate, etc. But when people feel too intimidated to approach certain citizens (choose your own social stereo-type) as to their response – polite acceptance or quick punch to the face, you can’t blame them or when others feel they shouldn’t have too as it’s not their responsibility I think it says alot about the state of our great nation!

This. And I’m as guilty of that as anyone. Walked past a van parked on the primary school zigzags as I went to meet my kids last week. The bloke was sat in it. Tutted to myself but did nowt. The stupid thing was that it was a contractor working at the school, so a quick word with the headteacher should have sorted it out.

Double whammy this morning. 😀

Plus driving is such a dire experience these days, it’s fundamentally frustrating so the second you get in a car, your anger levels are rising…

You say that like its a universal truth that applies to everyone 😕

I drive for my job, on anything from country lanes to big city traffic, at all times of day, six days a week.

I can honestly say I don’t find it frustrating at all, and I certainly don’t get in the vehicle and experience “my anger levels rising”

Gif of a childs face emerging from behind that car is required. Idiotic to park like that near a school. Adults would be obscured by high vehicles, but small children will be invisible. And most people are programmed to assume that they should make progress at all times 🙁

Adults would be obscured by high vehicles, but small children will be invisible. And most people are programmed to assume that they should make progress at all times

The great thing about this PC Rich, is that it never fails to deliver 🙂 Not twenty minutes after my last pic:

Bristol looks dangerous, yo…

Took a while to spot that 🙂

So did you speak to anybody today? The lorry driver? Costcutter (where I presume he was delivering)?

So did you speak to anybody today? The lorry driver? Costcutter (where I presume he was delivering)?

No, I didn’t have the heart today to be honest.

Some people are going to park where it’s convenient for them e.g. lorry driver delivering goods to a shop or someone in a hurry nipping to the cash machine. Probably safer to move the zebra crossing up the road a bit so it’s not placed directly outside commonly used facilities.

Probably safer to move the zebra crossing up the road a bit so it’s not placed directly outside commonly used facilities.

So either here or here then? Presumably nobody wants to cross the road between commonly used facilities, and won’t mind walking an extra couple of hundred meters so that the poor drivers aren’t inconvenienced.

epic solution…after all the pedestrians wouldn’t want to be going to the commonly used facilities would they.

FFS

I did wonder if he was being serious, but if taking the piss it’s extremely well done!

Presumably nobody wants to cross the road between commonly used facilities, and won’t mind walking an extra couple of hundred meters so that the poor drivers aren’t inconvenienced.

They may well want to cross the road, but if it’s as dangerous as some are making out, then given the choice of being killed by a driver who couldn’t see them or walking up the road a bit (make it 100 miles – for dramatic effect) to where it’s safer, what do you think they’d choose?

In an ideal world, vehicles would only park in designated areas. That’s never going to happen though, especially when the folks responsible for designing town centres don’t take the existing uses into consideration. Pray tell, where is the lorry off-loading supposed to park if all the bays are filled with parked cars?

Safest thing would be to remove all the crossings from the town centre and duplicate the shops on each side of the road negating the need for people to cross the road. This would have the added benefit of car drivers being able to park directly outside their destination regardless of their direction of travel and would double the number of retail units reducing unemployment and putting all the empty shops to good use. This would help hard working families*.

*The last sentence appears to be compulsory when proposing any kind of social change.

They may well want to cross the road, but if it’s as dangerous as some are making out, then given the choice of being killed by a driver who couldn’t see them or walking up the road a bit (make it 100 miles – for dramatic effect) to where it’s safer, what do you think they’d choose?

If you put the crossing where I proposed, do you think people would use it, or just cross the road where it is now anyway? How would repositioning it help road safety? Compared for example to simply enforcing the law and making it safer for everybody.

Pray tell, where is the lorry off-loading supposed to park if all the bays are filled with parked cars?

Yellow line just to right of pic here would seem a reasonable spot, and actually no further away from where he’s delivering than he is. Though to be honest, I’m not sure why he should park like a **** just because it’s slightly inconvenient to him to be a little further away. To be honest, your attitude is a bit too much “car is king”, assuming that the roads should be designed for the convenience of drivers and stuff anybody else.

Pray tell, where is the lorry off-loading supposed to park if all the bays are filled with parked cars?

He’s moving a cage with wheels. He has to find the closest suitable space and put a bit of effort in.