Revolving Skyscraper

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 1:28 am

if four cars arrived at a roundabout at the same time the resulting carnage would live on in legend for years to come

mr_e · Post by **mr_e** » Mon Dec 25, 2006 4:44 pm

The more assertive drivers create an imbalance in the system, allowing it to function perfectly, successfully applying (a sort of) Buddhist philosophy to roundabouts. Now if four drunk, aggressive drivers approached at the same time...

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 1:23 am

when was the last time you drove a car in this country? all drivers are aggressive and most of them are drunk, i know i normally am it's the only thing i can do to work up the courage to go out onto the roads in the first place.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:30 am

I find that mini-roundabouts are horrendous if you are wanting to turn right on them because it is always a lottery.

Which one of these will happen :-

a) the old granny in the citroen smacks your tail end
b) the drunken idiot slams straight into you
c) the teenager in the baseball cap and the stereo blaring carries on regardless
d) you manage to get through unharmed

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 3:16 pm

you forgot about

e) the juggernaut that pulls onto the roundabout and comes to a screeching halt when someone tries to nip round in front of it.

the amount of times i've seen this happen is terrifying

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:34 am

DOH! I always forget the juggernaut. Always the juggernaut!

The buses as well irritate me how they take an age to get going and so have to wait there for about 3 - 5 minutes (at the Greyhound) and cause a huge backlog of traffic. Incidentally, I think it was GM Buses (and another local company) that admitted that over two thirds of their drivers couldn't speak English, couldn't read the signs and didn't really know where they were going.

This for me is shocking because it means that the driver who is carrying some 20 passengers doesn't have much confidence on the road which means that their driving is not going to be the best it can be.

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 2:43 am

this sadly is a true story. a few years ago before i learned to drive i went into bolton one sunday on the bus to do some shopping. only one service, the 551, runs on that day and even then just one bus operates an hour so imagine my surprise when i got on and the driver asked if i knew the route. not being the conversational type, i took it for a bit of joke and sat down only for the guy to call me back again. he explained he had only just qualified - he was a scouser if memory serves correct - and hadn't done the route before and his notes were a long list of street names, but of course not knowing the route he didn't know where these streets were. i was the only passenger at this point and i had a bad feeling this was going to be a journey to remember.

the fact that he didn't have a key for the ticket machine, which meant the theft alarm went off every couple of minutes didn't help matters and as i didn't really know the route myself i just gave the general directions i used when riding into uni on my bike. we arrived ten minutes earlier than schedule because i'd sent him the wrong way, but my god was i glad to get off at the station. needless to say i was much happier on the way home being surrounded by many other passengers and a driver who knew where he was going.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:15 am

Fez wrote:as i didn't really know the route myself i just gave the general directions i used when riding into uni on my bike. we arrived ten minutes earlier than schedule because i'd sent him the wrong way,

Somewhere in Bolton on that day was an old man with a flat cap, looking at his watch saying ''Where the bloody hell is it! Yer want one and then they come in threes! This transport system is a disgrace!''

Mark Scollon · Post by **Mark Scollon** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:19 am

I always apply the "3second rule" to roundabouts. If, when I arrive at the roundabout, there is someone there who has priority over me, I allow them 3 seconds to make a move. If they don't then I go anyway. This seems to work pretty well.

Mark Scollon · Post by **Mark Scollon** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:22 am

I also think that pedestrian crossings of any sort at roundabouts are wrong. It's a nightmare when you're happily going round to your exit and then when you get there some tosser has decided that that is the ideal time to step out on to the Zebra crossing.

mr_e · Post by **mr_e** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:26 pm

I'm now thinking of a cunning plan to extract lots of compensation from motorists. Where are these roundabouts you speak of? Ooh, there's one on the way to Edgeley, I believe.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:13 pm

Mark Scollon wrote:I also think that pedestrian crossings of any sort at roundabouts are wrong. It's a nightmare when you're happily going round to your exit and then when you get there some tosser has decided that that is the ideal time to step out on to the Zebra crossing.

I too hate those tossers. Annoying teenagers or old ladies who seem to take an age walking those blasted lines as if they are waiting for the black part to suddenly turn into a chasm and swallow them up.

Mark Scollon · Post by **Mark Scollon** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 8:22 pm

I think that's just wishful thinking on our part.