Frustrations
Just an incomplete list of things that annoy me.
On-road
Drivers that don't indicate or indicate too late to be of use.
Drivers that think they need their full headlights on during the day.
Drivers who leave 3 car-length gaps in queues.
Stop-start in queues despite the fact I can clearly see the cars at the front of the queue haven't moved.
Slowing down because I can't safely overtake a cyclist only for them to hop up onto the pavement.
Cyclists who hop down off a pavement in front of me.
Pedestrians who treat the road as a pavement.
Pedestrians who think that because I've stopped at a crossing it means the light is red.
Travelling at the speed limit looking behind me at a clear road, rounding a bend, looking again and finding I've a vehicle trying to get into my boot.
Large amounts of surface water on the road.
Potholes, particularly ones that you knew were going to appear.
Vehicles parked on where they shouldn't.
Poorly laid-out car-parks.
Off-road
People who just stop suddenly in front of you.
People who start coming up/down steps on one side despite the fact that you're already heading down/up them on the same side.
Shops that narrow the aisles with displays.
Shops that keep moving merchandise around.
Shops that put all the perfume counters next to the entrance.
People who think cigarette butts aren't litter.
Groups of people who spread out to take up all the width of the pavement.
Groups who stop to chat in the middle of the pavement.
Groups who stop to chat in the middle of a shop entrance.
Shops with changing rooms that don't provide external seating.
Useless error messages from computers
I'm sure I'll think of more.
3 comments:
If you lived in Cambridge then probably "pavements so narrow that pedestrians are forced to step out into the road all the time" would be on the list too. This is the counterpart to your "pedestrians who treat the road as a pavement." It's not just the old streets in town that have this problem: the industrial areas have pavements quite wide by modern standards, but way too narrow for all the workers walking to nearby Tesco to pick up some lunch at midday, especially after half the width is removed for a useless cycle path.
Similarly, the counterpart to "pedestrians who think that because I've stopped at a crossing it means the light is red" is "Crossings where you can't see the traffic lights;" also "crossings where you can't cross the whole junction in one traffic-light cycle," and "lights where everyone is on red for more than 10 seconds."
Everything in your list rang a bell with me, except for "Slowing down because I can't safely overtake a cyclist only for them to hop up onto the pavement." When this happens to me (which it does most mornings, because the road layout encourages this behaviour for people going into the Science Park), I'm always relieved that the person in front has got out of the way and I can speed up again.
There are two things I'd like to add to your list: "motorists running the lights just after they change," and "motorists queueing across junctions." There are three junctions near my house where both of these happen quite frequently, and it really gets on my wick.
Well I can understand stepping into the road if the path is too narrow, we've a few like that here, it's the not bothering to check the road first that annoys - as if it was a pavement and thus no need to look. Sure cars etc. tend to be at least some distance from the kerb, but cyclists can be rather close. Similar to people who cross between queues without looking; cyclists won't be stopped.
Yeah I'd agree with two of the added crossings where you stop where you're supposed to and thus can't see the signals and there are none opposite. However the one where everyone is on red for more than 10 seconds I can sympathise with as it is close to what I've suggested for a set near here where you have a constant stream of traffic into Gilgal without any time for it to clear.
As for slowing down, yeah I'm relieved they've got out of my way, but it's tempered with the fact that a) they shouldn't be on the pavement and b) I took the trouble to do the right thing by not scraping his handlebars trying to overtake and it was pointless, why did I even bother to slow down?
Hmm motorists running the lights just after they change, again I can see why though as we've a set on a 70mph stretch that are just painful. Slow down and they won't change, stay at speed and they do, slow down because they are changing and they'll change back by the time you reach them. just messed up.
Queuing across junctions - yeah, particularly ones with a dirty great Keep Clear marked across them.
People who stop suddenly? Ah, so you've met my mother then? She also likes to stop in the middle of Tesco so that she's blocking everybody else with she dithers over which tin of baked beans might be 0.03% cheaper. Completely inconsiderate. (But then, we're talking about a woman who thinks the world is run for her personal benefit.)
I'd like the traffic lights at New Bradwell. They removed the roundabout and added traffic lights instead. (For reasons unknown, there doing a huge amount of this recently.)
Of course, when I got there, there was no roundabout, just road works. And I sware to God, the lights were red in all three directions for about 20 minutes at a time. Not kidding! All three lanes of traffic were just parked there for an absurd length of time. And this was in the middle of the night.
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