Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Strange gifts, queues and a thank-you

Somehow I've got signed up on the Radio Times mailing list; I'm not sure how and I certainly don't recall giving them my address, but still the odd freebie comes through the door. A little while ago it was four money-off vouchers; the first for the previous week, the copy of which I was already using; the second for the current week, which had been published two days before and which I'd already bought; which left two, both of which I put down and promptly forgot about. Anyway this morning I had another gift - a pair of earplugs. Are they commenting on their content perhaps. There was some bumpf with it, but I was heading out the door for work.

I needn't have hurried, I drove out straight into a queue of traffic. The way some people behave in queues fascinates me. We've a lot of cars in this country and a poor infrastructure to support them, you'd think by now that we'd all have learnt how to behave when stuck in a traffic jam; well you'd think we would have.

The first thing to note is that you're not traveling very fast, the speedometer doesn't even register that you're moving at all in most cases, as such you don't need to leave the same amount of space between you and the car in front as you would if you were traveling at say 30mph. The second thing is the gap between you and the car in front only needs to be enough for you to get past if they suddenly freeze-up on you, sure if it's a big van or lorry leave some extra space, but for a normal car a gap of about three car lengths might be considered excessive.

The big problem is junctions, you can almost guarantee that if there's a queue then it'll extend just past the junction you're trying to pull out of. Just as predictable is that if you scan along the queue you'll find a couple of stationary cars with a gap between them large enough to be filled by a double-decker bus. I can almost hear their thoughts

Why bother moving forward, it's a waste of petrol and I'm not really getting anywhere
Meanwhile I'm stuck at a junction I needn't be if they just moved forward a tiny amount. Finally a neuron fires and they start to edge slowly forward or, in the case of boy racers who've been fiddling with their mobiles or stereos, surge ahead. This slowly propagates down the line and at last you can pull out. At which point either a new car appears and joins the queue; traffic starts coming down the lane you're trying to cross; or, as is more likely, both; and you're back to square one.

What caused this jam, well several things; firstly the intelligent traffic light system on the bridge. It has sensors on either side of the roadworks extending for the length of the bridge. This would be great if the roadworks were centrally positioned; they're not. As a result coming from town you have four sensors and going into town you have two. So a queue two sensors long leaving town is equal to a queue two sensors long or greater heading into town, it can't tell the difference. Not a problem if there was more traffic leaving town then going in, but it flows back and forth from morning to evening.

Secondly, the position of the holes they've dug. Heading into town the first hole is behind the traffic lights, you simply switch lanes then pull back in and pass the next set of lights on your right. Now they've dug a second hole. This too is in the same lane as the first, but further down about a car length and a half from the next set of lights. So before you had plenty of time to swing back into the correct lane, or on leaving town plenty of room to swing around the lights, now you've only got a narrow window to slide through. Everyone slows down.

Finally the delivery van further up, parked on the double-yellow lines directly next to the sign telling him that he can't load or unload between the hours of 8 and 9 and directly opposite the disabled bays. Some of the wider vehicles were having a serious job getting through. Police in sight? Ha, as if.

The thank-you goes to Daniel, who pointed out I wasn't allowing anonymous comments. This has now been rectified. Fire away, but if it gets nasty I'll need a hug from someone.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Odd you should mention that. On the way out this morning there was a National Express coach broken down on my side of the carriageway immediately in front of a junction, at the bit where the bus lane ends and everyone is trying to merge into one lane. This caused a rather sizeable tailback as everyone edged slowly through the narrow, visibility-free gap it left.

To make things worse, twice now in as many days I've been at the side road of a T junction waiting to turn right onto a main road, and another cyclist has come up behind me and pulled up to my right (which, as I'm turning right, puts them on the wrong side of the road). Why? It's not like I'm waiting frivolously: if I'm waiting there, it's because there isn't a gap in the traffic. Not only are they in danger of colliding with me if I pull out before spotting them, or a motorist turning off the main road a bit wide, it's also bloody awkward when we both pull out onto the main road and he has to try to slot in behind me, or I have to go all the way around him to avoid overtaking on the wrong side.

This is a problem peculiar to cyclists because of our narrower width, but it has happened to me that I've been pulling over to the middle of the road preparatory to turning off to the right, having previously checked that I was in a gap and signalled clearly, and someone who was way behind speeds up to overtake me and ends up overtaking on the right.

So, for all those people who haven't yet realised: if someone is signalling right, and is in a position to turn right, then if you do need to pass him it should be on the left.

FlipC said...

Maybe it's down to solidarity; maybe it's because they think with two bikes you'll be more easily seen; maybe it's because they're prats.

As for cars who overtake you, well on a narrow road they'd have to wait for you to turn and we can't have that. They don't do it for other cars though do they.

The most fun I've seen are cars overtaking cyclists just before a junction and then cutting in front of the cyclist to turn down it.

No doubt the same principle, we're all in too much of a hurry to wait a few seconds.

Anonymous said...

"The most fun I've seen are cars overtaking cyclists just before a junction and then cutting in front of the cyclist to turn down it."

That happens quite a lot, particularly with people turning off roundabouts at the first exit (when they're also not signalling). After a few years, you do learn to spot people who are likely to do this and take pre-emptive action.

The other extreme is motorists who will overtake a cyclist (while signalling left), reach where they want to turn left, and then wait for you to pass on the inside. As anyone with any road cycling experience won't pass on the left someone who is signalling left (admittedly not an overwhelming majority), they end up waiting a long time. It would have been much easier if, knowing he was going to wait anyway, the motorist just trailed behind the cyclist for a few yards until reaching his turn.