Oblivious to surroundings

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Mr WC has just phoned me from his car (mobile, hands-free, vehicle stationary, engine switched off).

Covering all bases before the comments start, eh? You are wise, oh Waffles.

 

[wafflycat]

Covering all bases before the comments start, eh? You are wise, oh Waffles.

Edit: he is actually very good as regards mobile phone use in the car as he has had much nagging encouragement from yours truly..

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

<snip>

We live about 50 yds from a level crossing - one of the ones with the half barriers.

The performance of motorists doing the "red light slalom" does make one wonder if there should be an IQ element to the driving test. And why isn't doing that an immediate life ban?

I was in the village pub last Friday evening, which overlooks the station and level crossing. The road going across the crossing is very quiet and next to a (manned) signal box and so has manually operated gates.

I was to hear from one of the others that lives close by that they regularly get people in cars doing the slalom while the poor $0d from the signal box is pushing the gates about.

 

[wafflycat]

The place I fairly regularly see it is Brandon in Suffolk and especially in the summer. One end of the high street is a level crossing the other is a set of traffic lights. The road through Brandon is hell due to amount of traffic, much of which is tourist traffic heading to & from Norfolk coast. Then there's the usual 'rush hour' hold-ups too. When heading N to S, you come to the level crossing first. The traffic is often backed up the full length of the high street due to the volume of traffic and traffic lights at the other end of the street. I have seen numpties in the queue end up stationary across the rail lines many times there as they can't be bothered/aware enough to wait until there is clear space on the other side of the level crossing. I've also been in that queue, as a driver, where I'm the one waiting to cross the level crossing, but don't as there is a solid queue backed up and if I were to pull forward, I'd be the berk sitting in a car across the rail line. So I don't do that, I wait until the queue in front has moved sufficiently to allow me to drive across the level crossing safely. I have had drivers behind me hooting on their horns because I haven't driven on to the rail line, so they are stopped from driving their car another car's length forward.. Impatient and moronic b*st*rds.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

I was expecting the punch line at the end of Wafflycat's post to be that someone goes round you waiting patiently to then end up sat in front of you on the crossing.

When I used to drive to work, I used to quite regularly get people doing similar in a village where there's lots of parked cars down one side of the road .. it frequently gets gridlocked, especially if you're waiting patiently for traffic to come the other way 'cos you can see there's nowhere for you to go and if you try to go round the parked cars you're gonna end up blocking the road. Someone would invariably come up the outside of the queue behind you 'cos you're obviously being a dithery old fluffer and then realise there's nowhere to go and sit there on the wrong side of the road impotently fuming. The better ones would then reverse back down the queue to the end .. hopefully behind where the originally came from. The more arrogant (or incompetent at going backwards) ones would sit there waiting for eveyone else to sort things out for them.

My route to work on the bike avoids all that, thankfully.

 

[Arch]

Time to bring back these?

That looks a bit weedy. This:

is enormous, and would probably just run right over a Beamer....


Waffles, next time you are hooted for waiting, put your hazards on, step out and invite them to overtake you, and see their faces when they realise they are the new Penelope Pitstop tied to the track...

Even better if you had a portable stereo with a tape of the warning klaxon you could startle them with....

 

[HLaB]

I think a lot of crossinins are monitored by video these days so the trains will be stopped. X hundred of people delayed because of one's arrogance. Why is it not surprising its a Big Mouthed W@nker.

 

[Davidc]

3 of my regular evening ride loops go across level crossings on the main South West line. The speed limit for the trains is either 100mph or 90mph.

If the red lights are on I stop and wait - usually have a swig of water as well.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been hooted at to get out of the way so some moton can do the slalom of death round the barriers.

I'm not looking forward to the day when I have to watch one of them being killed.

They're insane.

 

[HJ]

I do wish they would stop putting driving licences in cereal packets...

 

[purplepolly]

This is probably the same kind of driver who waits on a pedestrian crossing in a long queue of stationary traffic. If a pedestrian ever voices their protest the driver will invariably say they hadn't realised the traffic was going to stop. Why they give driving licences to people who are so stupid that they can't work out that all they need to do is wait until there's a gap on the other side is beyond me.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

This is probably the same kind of driver who waits on a pedestrian crossing in a long queue of stationary traffic. If a pedestrian ever voices their protest the driver will invariably say they hadn't realised the traffic was going to stop. Why they give driving licences to people who are so stupid that they can't work out that all they need to do is wait until there's a gap on the other side is beyond me.

I'd so love to walk across the bonnet of such a car one day... the look on their face would be priceless.

 

[Wobbly John]

A driver got killed due to queuing on a level crossing in Waterbeach (Cambs). I was nearer the back of the queue and turned round - didn't find out what happened until the next day.

 

[Black Sheep]

This is probably the same kind of driver who waits on a pedestrian crossing in a long queue of stationary traffic. If a pedestrian ever voices their protest the driver will invariably say they hadn't realised the traffic was going to stop. Why they give driving licences to people who are so stupid that they can't work out that all they need to do is wait until there's a gap on the other side is beyond me.

they always get so angry when you do the dukes of hazzard bonnet slide too

 

[thomas]

If a train comes along & the barriers go down, whoever is in that car is well and truly stuffed.

They have CCTV which they check at the signal box before putting the barriers down, so they'd be able to see if the car was parked under it/if they would trap peds in it and so on.

(or at least the Woking signal box does as I've visited it)

 

[Glow worm]

The place I fairly regularly see it is Brandon in Suffolk and especially in the summer. One end of the high street is a level crossing the other is a set of traffic lights.

Yes that's a nightmare crossing- made worse by the traffic coming from the Weeting turn (on the right as you head into Suffolk across the LC) which often tries to jump into the queue. On a lighter note, that level crossing marks the Norfolk/Suffolk border. When I was a child, I used to think it was the Norfolk customs/ checkpoint ! In fairness, I was very young, though I guess this was the beginnings of my urge to join NIP (Norfolk Independence Party!)