Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

It certainly is. He works for me once a fortnight at @ £20 p.h.

 

My moan for today is a slightly belated one (as it was yesterday) but it applies today and every day really... driving standards, and indeed the behaviour of anyone using the roads!

Seriously, what on earth has happened in recent years??

Taking last night as an example, in a very short journey...

First up, travelling down this road at circa 30mph (or just under) I could see an old Fiesta at the junction on the right. It is a pig of a junction to be fair, very badly designed, but not impossible to navigate by any means - I pass this junction at least once every day, so know it (and it's pitfalls) well. As I neared, the Fiesta just pulled out in front of me, forcing me to slam on the anchors.. and I do mean slam on. If I'd have hit him, it would almost certainly have flipped his car over at that angle, and would have been two written off cars.



It's not as though I am hard to see, my car is one of those modern pain in the backsides that have LED headlights that are like mini suns!

Less than a mile along the road - car parked on the pavement on the right indicating to come off the pavement to go the direction I was going (there is a set of traffic lights just behind me that I've sat at whilst red and then proceeded through on green); car ahead of me stopped, parked, not moving so I am having to round it. Just prior to me going past this car, a car going the other way stopped 'to be nice' and let the car off the pavement - but they stopped directly opposite the parked car and as they were a fair bit over in their lane, there wasn't enough room for me to pass. Worse still, the car behind them was further out (I think they'd considered passing the car that had stopped to let the other car out) so I definitely couldn't proceed. Car coming off the pavement was now at an angle across the front of the car in the opposite direction, nose pointing at my offside rear door. I can't go back as there is a car or three behind me and car coming off the pavement seems unable or unwilling to go back from whence they came. Stalemate. After much blowing of horns, someone shouted to the person sitting in the parked car, clearly oblivious to the world around them, to move a bit thus releasing the blockage.




Another half mile or so up the road, a car came up behind me at a fair old lick (I was doing 55, so a fraction over the limit admittedly), far too close to my back bumper for comfort, then pulled out and passed in a blaze of revs... with not a single light showing at the back of the car - clearly, thinking lights were on automatic and they weren't, only showing DRL's to the front. I've actually seen four cars with this same issue inside a week.

Last one was a Just Eat cyclist - pitch dark, not a light on their bike, cycled straight out of a side road, right in front of me, again forcing me to slam the anchors on.

This is a journey that took all of 12 minutes in total. 12.

Seriously, what on earth??

 

Police don't give two hoots - indeed, they are part of tonight's journey log, in order...

- Van tailgating me, then someone else after changing lanes
- Cyclist with no lights, wearing black and no reflectors on his bike, riding down a bus lane in a fairly poorly lit part of road, then diving onto the pavement at the traffic lights
- Car parked (abandoned) on the exit from a junction.. literally sat behind the double white dotted lines, parallel to them
- Car exiting the entrance of a McDonalds, sat across the carriageway at a right angle to the flow of traffic, seemingly quite bewildered as to why they couldn't turn right because some inconsiderate individual had put a traffic island in the way (about 20 years ago)
- Car doing a U-turn, on a traffic light controlled pedestrian crossing, with a roundabout 35ft in front
- Deliveroo cyclist on an e-bike blasting through a red traffic light, cutting across the path of traffic on a left turn only (he was coming from the right); he does win a point back for having a rear light
- Transit tipper, proudly emblazoned with 'Highway Maintenance' on the rear.. no lights
- Pedestrian walking a dog allowing the dog to walk in and out of the carriageway, almost to the white centre line
- Two cyclists, one had a front light no rear, the other no lights, both wearing masks and dark clothing; this was in our street, and they passed in the opposite direction as I pulled up to park' police following behind me (maybe four of five car lengths) pulled over to let them pass.. then drove on up the street without as much as a murmur to the cyclists


All within a journey lasting 25 mins. I swear, Kelloggs must have been giving licences away at some point.