VEHICULAR ACCESS

'Twas On A Monday Morning...

Or rather it wasn't. Cadent didn't come back to fill the hole in my garage floor, so our groundworkers did it, which was fair enough since it was them who'd cut through my gas supply in the first place. The concrete dried nice and quickly in the heat. But then our Site Manager told me that Cadent were coming back anyway because they needed to replace the section of main from which my supply branches off, where the original damage took place, so could I give them access to my garage on Monday for them to do it? Of course. That suited me because I was taking my good bike in for a service, so I wouldn't have to lock it up somewhere. So, yesterday morning I went out to bring the car out of the garage, and saw a Cadent van waiting in the road, but before I could do anything our Site Manager told me that the Cadent man had just told him that he was going away again, but would be back again this morning at 8.30, "Without fail". You can guess what comes next.

Apparently he's off sick, and they're short-staffed because of the holidays, and as our Site Manager says, someone else is shouting louder than we are. So tomorrow morning I shall move the car and the bikes again, hope triumphing over experience.


Yellow Lines

Yesterday afternoon I narrowly avoided being killed, and it would have been the fault of delivery mopeds parked on a yellow line. This is what delivery riders and minicab drivers seem unable to comprehend; that yellow lines are about safety, and if you park on them you are putting other people at risk. So, I was heading north on Great Western Road, and there was the usual queue of traffic back from the Prince of Wales traffic lights, so I (on my bike) came inside the queue to get further up the road. Because of the curve in the road I couldn't see that there were two delivery mopeds parked on the yellow line outside a takeaway shop a few yards back from the junction, so I came up behind them, with a bus stationary alongside. I went to go past, which would have been perfectly possible had the queue remained stationary, but as I began the manoeuvre the lights changed, and the bus began to move, its angle shutting the gap. Fortunately I was able to stop, and the next bus in the line let me out. Not a very close shave, but not pleasant. I don't suppose the first bus driver ever saw me.

Meanwhile, on the east side of Regent's Park, the early evening sees a significant number of black people carriers parked on the double yellow lines on the Outer Circle. It seems to happen every day at the moment, and sometimes there's the odd 4x4 or black Mercedes as well. It's on the stretch between the Mosque and the Business School, but it doesn't seem to be anything to do with either. The stupid thing is that it usually happens when there are plenty of legitimate parking bays available a few yards further on. I counted seven vehicles on the double yellow lines at the same time the other evening. The worst offenders park on the end of the line of parking bays just south of the junction by the Mosque (one day recently the first in line was actually a Royal Parks vehicle) back towards the traffic island at the junction, and load and unload there. In fact, the other evening I saw a people carrier double parked just there, alongside another vehicle on the double yellow lines. Incredible. What does this tell us? That Westminster never send Civil Enforcement Officers there in the evening or at weekends (if ever), and that some apparently "professional" drivers hold parking regulations in contempt. The attitude that the rules don't apply to you, because you're only waiting for a while, not actually parked, or that you've got your job to do, is just not good enough. Sorry!  


Sign of the Times

I went out for a ride in the East Anglian countryside with a friend last week. When I was a boy in that part of the world you would occasionally see in the gutter at the side of the road a sugar beet or a turnip that had fallen off a trailer. Last week, as I cycled along, in the gutter I saw a pink grapefruit. Thus has England changed.