| Motoring Discussion > Good start to the day | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: SteelSpark | Replies: 28 |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 13:16
Good start to the day - SteelSpark
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Had to take the wife to Sainsbury's this morning. She was only getting a few bits, so I waited in the car, to watch the world go by for a few minutes. Nice sunny day, bird song, very relaxing...until some prat in a black BMW turned up, yabbering away on his mobile as he sped through the car park. He decides to reverse into a spot across from me and a couple of spaces down. Still yabbering away, he swings himself quickly backwards into the spot...and just as quickly into one of those black and yellow bollards they have there (black and yellow being the most visible colour combination I believe). I couldn't see the damage from where I was looking, and I didn't get out, but with the look of anguish on his face, I think it wasn't very pretty. I could almost have sworn that I saw a tear glistening in the morning sun. Now, I wonder what he would say, if he was asked whether he can talk on the phone and concentrate on his driving at the same time... |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 13:49
Good start to the day - VxFan
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>> Now I wonder what he would say ... Bollards, I expect. |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 15:46
Good start to the day - Runfer D'Hills
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Similarly, I recall waiting patiently in a busy supermarket car park for the erstwhile user of a parking space to vacate it. Without boring you with the detail in doing so he temporarily blocked my way into it. In a jiffy a young "lady" in a small hatchback shot into the space from the opposite direction grinning in victory at me and sticking out her tongue. So intent was she in doing so she overshot the space and had a low speed head on with the car parked in the facing space. I tried so hard not to chuckle but I'm only human.... |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 16:48
Good start to the day - Zero
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| little things like this brighten ones day |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 20:02
Good start to the day - Bellboy
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little things like this brighten ones day >>> >>>>>>>>>>> as the dog would say >>>>>> o yes>> >> |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 20:07
Good start to the day - MD
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| I rate the above posts VERY highly!! |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 23:04
Good start to the day - Herr Sandwichmann
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Fantastic. Hopefully the closed circuit footage will appear on Youtube, etc... So many things in supermarket car parks are annoying, but most of all IMO must be the practice of straddling two spaces, either because of poor parking skills, ignorance, or selfishness. I suppose doing this ensures that no-one else can ding their cars. Or how about able bodied drivers parking their chariots (usually Beemers or Mercs) in disabled spaces. That's particularly poor form. |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 23:22
Good start to the day - bathtub tom
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When I see a car straddling two spaces I park the passenger door of my old Kia as close as I can to the driver's door. I don't seem to have any additional scratches on it, yet. |
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 23:28
Good start to the day - Herr Sandwichmann
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| Yes, I would too, but the opportunity's never presented itself, as I haven't found an instance where there's enough room to get my car in. |
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New Fri 9 Apr 10 00:17
Good start to the day - Ted
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I have no fear of the car park ! It's when I get inside that I become a quivering, angry wreck. Firstly, people pushing trolleys with their elbows in a slovenly manner. I want to tell them to stand up straight. ....not if they can't , of course. Half the customers are gibbering away on mobiles now and not concentrating on the job in hand. Women will park their trolleys across an aisle and have a good chat whilst a third stands gazing at 500 identical cans of soup wondering which one to buy. An ' accidental ' trolley nudge usually evokes an apology from one of them, especially if done hard enough ! There seem to be more staff stacking shelves, with huge pallets of stuff in the way, than customers to buy it ! I went today, by myself for once and, if I say so my self, was pretty nifty in getting round and finding all SWMBO's requirements. I got half my trolley'sworth on the conveyor when the next shopper grabbed on of those plastic dividers and started unloading behind me. I took it off and told her I hadn't finished yet. She had to take all her stuff off and then decided that my checkout, perhaps, was not the right one for her ! Oh, an when retrieving my pound coin, it usually drops on the ground and rolls under a row of the 4 wheeled blighters ! Trolley rage ? bring it on ! Ted |
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New Fri 9 Apr 10 00:27
Good start to the day - SteelSpark
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>> Or how about able bodied drivers parking their chariots (usually Beemers or Mercs) in disabled spaces. That's >> particularly poor form. Indeed, even more than those who park themselves in the parent and child space without being (ahem) blessed with little ones onboard. I know that the supermarkets can't really legally enforce the spaces but, the other day I saw a security guard walking past the parent and child spaces (again in Sainsbury's) and was considering taking the point up with him (having seen at least two people pull up without kids). My world weariness regarding complaining kicked in, so I didn't bother. It would have been interesting if I had, because he then walked over to his car, parked in one of the parent and child spaces, got something out of the back seat and walked back into the store. :) Last edited by: SteelSpark on Fri 9 Apr 10 at 00:29
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 10:37
Good start to the day - -
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| Not often enough do we see numpties getting their just desserts, so thanks for telling us about these. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 14:30
Good start to the day - Armel Coussine
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I have nothing against people using their phones while driving. I have nothing against BMWs or their owners as a general rule. Everyone is a numpty sometimes (please don't bother to say that you never, ever are because it will be a lie). It's quite easy to reverse into a low bollard, even a pink one with polka dots. So I fail absolutely to see the real point of this thread. Seems a bit mean-spirited to me. I hesitate to suggest that SS secretly envies BMW owners and is expressing schadenfreude... perhaps he was just in a mean mood that morning. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 14:41
Good start to the day - Statistical Outlier
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| My Dad wins the 'reversed into a bollard but isn't a numpty' contest I think. He did indeed do said deed. His defence? The bollard had been installed behind his car while he was at work that day. Slightly unlucky! |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 15:27
Good start to the day - Ted
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I'm no stranger to the old unseen hazard. Took a Merc down on the trailer to a dealers down South. Had to do a complete U turn, left off the road, round the end car of a row and then left in front of the showroom. Watching the backend I suddenly stopped dead.....couldn't figure what had happened 'til i got out and saw my front o/s wing embedded in a short steel post and my headlight all over the deck ! It was a post designed for the barrier to come down on and be locked. It was lower then my bonnet and painted grey. I went in and told them and asked for a brush. ' It's OK, lots of people do that, even our own staff ' was the response. Got an invoice for about £70 a month later. Told them where to shove it. They ceased trading a few weeks later. Cost me a wing, bonnet and all the headlight gubbins for the Range Rover. Ted |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 15:36
Good start to the day - -
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Nasty one Ted, having driven many Japanese market 4x4's with the split mirror on the nsf corner they really are a handy thing for those types of manouevre, present export RR's still have them fitted and still good. One of those would probably have saved the day there. If i can find a proper one for the pick up i'll put one that. Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sat 10 Apr 10 at 15:37
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 16:25
Good start to the day - Ted
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Maybe it might have helped but I think I'd already established the space at the front and was probably half-turned to look over my left shoulder. Only doing a couple of MPH but enough to do damage. Drove on to collect a '34 Daimler in Harrow and then back home OK. Our local B&Q has a wide entry/exit but no marked lanes. I noticed this week they'd put a small orange post in between the in and out bits.....probably for a chain as it's right next to Old Trafford Cricket Ground and the season's due to start. It's only about 2 ft high and it's given me a shock a couple of times. It wasn't there yesterday, I wonder if it's eaten someones front bumper , I wouldn't be surprised ! Ted |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 16:47
Good start to the day - SteelSpark
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Sheesh, here we go again, eh? It seems my shadow has returned. >> I have nothing against people using their phones while driving. Well, a lot of people, myself included, do. You also, claim, to not have a problem with people drink driving. Similar nonsense. >> It's quite easy to reverse into a low bollard even a pink one with polka dots. Sure it is, same as if it was a little pink toddler. Even easier when you are talking on a mobile. >> So I fail absolutely to see the real point of this thread. A dangerous, arrogant idiot gets his comeuppance, I enjoyed it. As it seems did many other on this forum. I have no doubt that the guy had supreme confidence in his ability to drive and talk at the same time, perhaps that confidence has been dented somewhat now. >> I hesitate to suggest that SS secretly envies BMW owners Not really, neither do I have anything against them. If I did envy them I would just have bought a BMW instead. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 17:27
Good start to the day - Armel Coussine
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SS, I am practical and realistic about things like that, not smug and moralistic (road moralists see imaginary pink toddlers everywhere, and cite them as if they were real accident victims). I don't suppose many people who have read my posts think I favour dangerous or reckless driving caused by alcohol, telephones or the most usual cause, rank incompetence. Perhaps though I should have limited myself to saying that the sight of someone damaging their own car through carelessness wouldn't have made my day or cheered me up in the least. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 17:47
Good start to the day - SteelSpark
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>> SS I am practical and realistic about things like that not smug and moralistic (road >> moralists see imaginary pink toddlers everywhere and cite them as if they were real accident >> victims). The thing is, people are killed everyday. A recent thread highlighted a video of staged and real crashes, that seemed to provoke a strong response in a lot of people here, bringing home the realities of when all the arrogance and bravado goes wrong. I see no problem with being somewhat moralistic, and I think that taking an anti-moralistic approach just plays into the hands of people who don't care until it does go wrong. With this guy in the car park, he didn't see the bollard, and if it had been a kid, he likely wouldn't have seen them instead. Ten thousand times it will be a bollard and some of us will laugh, but at some point it will be a kid. Now, that can be dismissed as overblown moralistic propaganda, but it also happens to be true. No point wringing our hands about the terrible, life ruining outcomes of accidents, and then accepting unwarranted risky behaviour. If we cheerfully accept, and even support, the anti-social behaviour of that small minority of drivers then we have to cheerfully accept when it goes wrong. Will you be cheering when the next "pink toddler" gets squished? If not, I call double standard. As for not laughing at the misfortune of others...we're British aren't we? :) |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 18:44
Good start to the day - Armel Coussine
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>> If we cheerfully accept, and even support, the anti-social behaviour of that small minority of drivers Driving after a drink or two and using a telephone at the wheel are not by definition anti-social behaviour, except to a drive-by-numbers, black-and-white moralist. Driving and the road aren't really like that at all. They are infinitely more complex and variable than people like that imagine. I can't help feeling that the attitudes you express, which as you point out are widespread and not unknown even on this site, betray a sort of fear of freedom, a desire to be restricted and given absolutely rigid rules so that you will never really be responsible for anything. Not quite perhaps, but something along those lines. I have several times today been stuck behind long lines of cars waddling along 60-limit roads at 40 or 45. You may cheerfully accept this, but I absolutely hate it. Seems to me that getting in the way is anti-social, and no one ever seems to say a word about it. I'd rather share the road with well-oiled, telephoning competent drivers than these pathetic mimsers any day. We will have to agree to differ on this one SS. I see that your position has merit, but I think it needs development. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 19:52
Good start to the day - SteelSpark
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>> Driving after a drink or two and using a telephone at the wheel are not >> by definition anti-social behaviour except to a drive-by-numbers black-and-white moralist. Too easy to dismiss anybody who disagrees with drink driving and using a phone while driving as some kind of moralistic, safety obsessed, busy body - but the facts remain that they do make you more dangerous while driving, and are a choice that those drivers take, which could easily be avoided. Taking risks with the lives of others, simply for your own convenience is, in my opinion, anti-social. I don't know what is more anti-social. No doubt these people think that all this talk of drink driving and talking on phones is nonsense, and dismiss objectors as moaning, moralistic whingers. Again, until it all goes wrong. Luckily for this guy, it only went wrong to the degree that he dented his car...and at least it gave me, and it seems many others, a chuckle. Fear of freedom? Desire to be restricted? Nothing of the sort. I think many just reasonably expect, that when others are throwing a ton and a half of metal about, they take the responsibility seriously. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 23:35
Good start to the day - Armel Coussine
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I take all your points SS. You make them vigorously, such as they are. Overall though I find your position depressing and limited. It's certainly quite widespread, but I think you take more comfort from that than you should. The really laughable thing is your obvious conviction that you are serious and responsible and I am not. But I won't laugh, I promise. You stick to your beliefs and I'll carry on trying to discuss actual reality, the way it is. But I don't think we need to carry on with this. It risks getting boring. |
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New Sun 11 Apr 10 00:20
Good start to the day - SteelSpark
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>> The really laughable thing is your obvious conviction that you are serious and responsible and I am not. It all depends I guess on the point you are trying to make. If you genuinely believes that people are not adversely affected by alcohol and use of mobiles, then you are just plain wrong. I could let you off with the mobiles, but alcohol? You would never have had to have been within a hundred miles of a car, to know that alcohol affects judgement, coordination and reaction. It would not seem to be a stretch to suggest that it therefore makes you more dangerous when piloting a large piece of metal at high speeds. If you agree that it makes you significantly more dangerous, but still believe that they should be allowed to do it then, yes, I do consider that an irresponsible viewpoint. Now, I admit that there is a grey area, with respect to other things that drivers do, that perhaps make them more dangerous such as, say, travelling with noisy kids in the car or, taken to its logical extreme, driving at all. In a similar vein, there is the issue of how much care people take when driving, so that you could never drink, but just generally be a careless driver, compared to having a couple of drinks, but generally driving carefully. Perhaps that is key to your thinking, that there are lots of other things that are dangerous. Perhaps some that I do. So maybe you think that I, or others, could possibly be careless driver, who feel able to be righteous simply because we don't drink and drive, or talk on mobiles. Well, in my case, I would say that the answer is no. I don't think that I am very far from being completely safe and perfect all the time, and I am very sure that there are a lot better and more experienced drivers out there (yourself included). I do however take exception to anybody who would actively add drink or mobile use into their driving, knowing full well that it makes them more dangerous than they would otherwise be (even if they end up being safer than me). I also think that it is perhaps not constructive to dismiss people who have that viewpoint as simply overly moralistic beliefs, when all they are really stating is the fact that it does make you more dangerous and the viewpoint that if you actively make yourself more dangerous to others then you should be open to criticism (or at least laughter, if the end result of the dangerous behaviour in a dent in your own car). But yeah, let's agree to disagree. It's not as if we are actually in a position to change the world, however much we debate. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 17:22
Good start to the day - Zero
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>> So I fail absolutely to see the real point of this thread. Seems a bit >> mean-spirited to me. I see absolutely no reason not to laugh at other misfortunes. I one reversed (at some knots) into a 20 foot light pole in a railway carpark. The light wobbled and kinked at 30 degrees 15 foot from the floor, and the car looked like the QE2 had moored into the rear at flank speed. Had I been outside the car, watching this, would I have laughed? you bet your little blue baby boots I would. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 17:31
Good start to the day - Armel Coussine
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That's different Zero. You can laugh at something absurd while retaining some sympathy for the numpty concerned. Not what the OP was saying. Reversing rapidly in dark places often leads to that sort of thing. Especially when the BiB have placed pedestrian barriers all over the place in preparation for some upcoming event. Ouch! Bent back bumper and creased tailgate, numpty, tee hee. We've all been there. |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 18:46
Good start to the day - Avant
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"You can laugh at something absurd while retaining some sympathy for the numpty concerned." Very true - that's essentially what Schadenfreude is, and we can't help it any more than sometimes we ourselves are the numpty in question. Human nature. I can still laugh at the memory of a road safety film produced in the 1950s, probably by ROSPA, about the danger of not looking behind when opening your car door. A little man in an Austin Eight stopped by a kerb and opened his rear-hinged door which was immediately knocked right off by a Bentley driven by James Robetson Justice. I still have this vision of the little man standing in the road holding his door, looking indignant. Last edited by: Avant on Sat 10 Apr 10 at 18:47
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 20:22
Good start to the day - MD
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One upon a time when parked in a lay-by on the right hand side in a one way street, I opened the door of the Escort van which left my hand all too quickly as the camber of said lay-by was quite steep. Immediately into the open edge walked, at some pace, one of the local Landlords. Took his breath away and gave me a stitch. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Cor laugh, I nearly bought a round!! MD |
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New Sat 10 Apr 10 20:49
Good start to the day - Aaron C. Rescue
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I very often get the train from Larkhall, Lanarkshire, into Glasgow city centre of a morning. Without fail, there's a black Audi estate (I think its an A6, high-spec) thats parked across 2 horizontally-adjacent spaces. Usually the same spaces too. I think the driver's objective must be to prevent any bumps or scrapes to the machine. While I find this a little annoying somehow, I can understand why they do it. And as its not usually very busy, no-one is really inconvenienced. |
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