Construction workers stop traffic

[Dave7]

Joining this thread a bit late so hope I'm not duplicating.
I'm retired but was a qualified/certified banksman..........as were 3 others who worked for me. A lot of our work was in central London.
To be fair the OP makes some valid points but.......if you did everything by the book you would just never get it done. We just used common sense and honestly never had a problem with local drivers/pedestrians.
Sometimes we had to arrange road closures or partial closures but we accepted that.
The worst one was a job on the roof of Westminsters university opposite Madam Tussauds on the A40. When we won the job there was parking for the crane & wagon inside the Uni grounds. By the time we had manufactured everything someone had put a building in that spot . The only alternative was using the A40 at night on a week-end with a road closure............the council wanted (from memory) £40K for the closure.
The Uni cancelled the job and paid us not to do it.

 

[mustang1]

Maybe all this rushing around, and that you don't have time to stop for 30 seconds. Is why drivers perform so many dangerous overtakes and manoeuvres because they don't have the time to lose 30 seconds.

Someone above said "a few seconds", you're saying " 30 seconds" but these big lorries take about 5 minutes. Do you know how much traffic builds up in 5 minutes in the middle of London during a workday?

Edit typo: "about" --> "above"

 

[mustang1]

It is possible to get permission to park on a double yellow, does the OP know this.

I did not know this. I'm assuming you're not joking.

I knew there was a reason those lorries were blocking the road, so other van delivery drivers were driving on the sidewalk!

 

[mustang1]

When i have to help a driver to back into a tight entrance i find most drivers are fine as the lorry blocks the road.. skip lorries blocking a lane, just polite to help motorists to keep moving if you take control..
keep it fair and keep them moving..

the awkward ones just get smile..

I don't think they have much choice apart from sitting there u til the obstruction has moved.

 

[mustang1]

Joining this thread a bit late so hope I'm not duplicating.
I'm retired but was a qualified/certified banksman..........as were 3 others who worked for me. A lot of our work was in central London.
To be fair the OP makes some valid points but.......if you did everything by the book you would just never get it done. We just used common sense and honestly never had a problem with local drivers/pedestrians.
Sometimes we had to arrange road closures or partial closures but we accepted that.
The worst one was a job on the roof of Westminsters university opposite Madam Tussauds on the A40. When we won the job there was parking for the crane & wagon inside the Uni grounds. By the time we had manufactured everything someone had put a building in that spot . The only alternative was using the A40 at night on a week-end with a road closure............the council wanted (from memory) £40K for the closure.
The Uni cancelled the job and paid us not to do it.

Hello sir, welcome aboard. That's pretty interesting how the council came up with that (or any) figure. A40 traffic... Those drivers must have been veeeery patient. But I guess the A40 doesn't move much around that area.

 

[mustang1]

Mustang 1 I think you are right. I don't think a lorry driver should bother having anyone to help him manoevering when he can't see where he is going.

He should be allowed to reverse out of places without help. Run over peds, squash cyclists, cause mayhem.

I'm just wondering how old you are?..............7.

Yeah alright alright point taken.

Actually, in the interests of efficiency, we should have bigger lorries on our roads, and more of them! I see an opportunity to import some American tractor trailers to this little island. These lorries in England are a joke, everything here is soooo small!

 

[Dave7]

Hello sir, welcome aboard. That's pretty interesting how the council came up with that (or any) figure. A40 traffic... Those drivers must have been veeeery patient. But I guess the A40 doesn't move much around that area.

Assuming your comment is serious.....it was quite simple. They needed to close a major route. That would need all sorts of advance notice to motorists plus devising diversions....plus manning it....plus a police involvement. In Central London were parking costs stupidomoney.....that soon mounts up.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Someone above said "a few seconds", you're saying " 30 seconds" but these big lorries take about 5 minutes. Do you know how much traffic builds up in 5 minutes in the middle of London during a workday?

Edit typo: "about" --> "above"

Who cares?

 

[Fab Foodie]

Who cares?

There are times when it's sensible for somebody to stop traffic. It's not the end of the world to have to wait for somebody else is it?
I've stopped traffic at a RTA, also to allow cyclists to cross a busy road for the benefit of all, Lollipop people do it all the time for kids. Is it really a big deal?

 

[mustang1]

There are times when it's sensible for somebody to stop traffic. It's not the end of the world to have to wait for somebody else is it?
I've stopped traffic at a RTA, also to allow cyclists to cross a busy road for the benefit of all, Lollipop people do it all the time for kids. Is it really a big deal?

Nope.

 

[snorri]

I would say that the reason construction sites are occupied by skilled, fit operatives, with banksmen. Is a result of legislation brought in due to abnormally high accident rates.

Agreed, but as a nation we seem more tolerant of road accidents than industrial accidents.

 

[gavintc]

Someone above said "a few seconds", you're saying " 30 seconds" but these big lorries take about 5 minutes. Do you know how much traffic builds up in 5 minutes in the middle of London during a workday?

Edit typo: "about" --> "above"

bizarre - you need to grow up.

 

[subaqua]

Wasn't it City of London Police and the Corporation of London who were thinking about formally "authorising" banksmen on development projects in the City, so that they could formally direct traffic? Did that ever get anywhere do you know?

All banksmen have to be trained and competent MHSWR says that. Formally " authorising "was a non starter due to it sitting lower in hierarchy of control than the correct traffic management plans which we require anyway. Even the tiny developments have one. The city landlords know they are screwed without it.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

[QUOTE 4190694, member: 76"]So in that circumstance is it more reasonable for the lorry to reverse 250m or the car to reverse a mile? I think we can assume the lady was correct when she said the lorry was a more reasonable reverse, otherwise the driver would have showed us on the video. He must have realised she was right after his visit to the car. Why was she utterly vile and unreasonable. I wouldn't have done the same on a bike, but in a car with a huge reverse for me and a few tens of metres for the lorry, yep I would have got a book out and turned off the engine.

Having a big lorry, a big belly and a big mouth does not make a lorry driver automatically correct. If they had bigger brains maybe they would realise the stupidity of taking a vehicle too big for a road down that road. My guess is he was following a satnav blindly and thought it all a bit of a hoot, which we know he did from his commentary before he met the car.[/QUOTE]

I was a lorry driver in a past life. One occasion, I was threading the lorry through a series of narrow streets at rush hour in London. There were a few vehicles stuck behind me as I was trying my best to leave the wing mirrors where I'd found them.

Sods law, one guy coming toward me thought everyone should pull in to let him through, even though he'd just passed the only gap and there were no cars behind him. I had no gap and a queue of cars.

He started ranting and raving, so I climbed in the bunk and got my paper out.

He raved some more, and was gesticulating and frothing as he slammed it in reverse and raced backwards, straight into a car that had arrived and sat patiently near the gap.

The guy that got out of the damaged car was massive, not fat massive, solid massive. He calmly pointed at the pushy driver, and then at the gap. I don't think I've seen colour drain from someone's face like it did to that pushy chap, and he sheepishly parked up in the gap he should have been in anyway, but now with the Hulk for company.

I considered stopping to offer assistance, but the big lad seemed to have it under control so I left..obviously, fear of that big man played no part in that decision at all..he lied.

Now I'm not a nasty bloke, but I couldn't help finding myself enjoying driving slowly over the bits of his car that had fallen off in his crash. The crunching sound was sweet.

 

[Levo-Lon]

[QUOTE 4190457, member: 76"]Well, that first clip is a blinder. Which one was supposed to be the idiot? The driver chuckling on about how when he meets someone they will have to reverse? His boss for sending a completely unsuitable vehicle to a job? The woman who held her ground?

Actually it was the HGV driver wasn't it? He realised he was taking an unsuitable vehicle down an unsuitable road, then had a go at the woman for not being able to reverse directly before he reversed into a large hedge and blamed his lorry for being 'a bit jumpy in reverse'[/QUOTE]


post of the week..
so in your world its better to have a lorry revrrse blind..
maybe the lorry had cattle on it..and many rural roads are like that..

the woman should have done the reverse as she had the visability but couldn't drive,..local ? My arse,she should be ashamed