A quick quiz for Glaswegian drivers
What should you do if the traffic lights 200m in front of you turn red? Should you (a) slow down and stop? Or (b), accelerate hard, shoot the red light long after the pedestrians have started crossing and then panic-brake to a frightened halt mere inches in front of a pregnant woman?
If the answer is (b), you had a lucky escape this morning. Unfortunately the various people who saw you screech to a halt a few inches from my wife were too worried about making sure she was okay to get your registration plate or drag you from your car by the testicles and give you the kicking you truly deserve.
14 Responses to “A quick quiz for Glaswegian drivers”
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SarahG on June 26th, 2007
Blimey. Hope mother and baby are doing okay.
Gary on June 26th, 2007
Yeah, they’re both fine. Scary, though.
Squander Two on June 26th, 2007
A lot of drivers go for option (b). They should all be beaten with the rotting corpses of skunk-apes.
I’m glad to hear you’re all OK.
Tony Kiernan on June 26th, 2007
Maybe if they charged folk to drive into town… no, hang on…
Gary on June 26th, 2007
Heh. I doubt that’d make any difference – in my experience it’s the sales reps and managers you need to watch out for, and their firms will just pay any charge.
Tony Kiernan on June 27th, 2007
Pedestrianise the lot of it, sez I. (Can you tell I don’t drive?)
Squander Two on June 27th, 2007
Pedestrianized zones are worse in many ways: still loads of delivery vans driving around, whose drivers are always in a hurry and tend to be pissed off by all the bloody pedestrians in their way and so drive aggressively, combined with the fact that the pedestrians think they’re in a pedestrianized zone and so don’t look out for cars in the first place and don’t hurry out of their way when they do see them, makign the drivers angrier and more aggressive. At least, with a road, you know where the cars are and how to avoid them.
I’d love to see a fully pedestrianized zone, with no cars allowed at all, even trade vehicles, but I doubt most shops would stand for it. I don’t know, though: you could have a delivery car park on the edge of the zone, with vehicles with a maximum speed of, say, 15mph to move stuff between the shops and the car park. You could even have little delivery trams on rails throughout the zone, which would enable automatic warning bells and suchlike to let pedestrians know when they’re coming. And then you could have trams for passengers as well. I’m thinking really small trams here, more like vans than buses.
I should be a town planner, me.
Gary on June 27th, 2007
I’d love to see a fully pedestrianized zone, with no cars allowed at all, even trade vehicles, but I doubt most shops would stand for it.
That’s what paisley tried – not little trams or owt, but blocking all vehicles during daytime. It was a disaster.
Squander Two on June 27th, 2007
Was the big problem not just that Paisley’s a bit crap?
mupwangle on June 27th, 2007
Chances are they were from Yorkshire. Traffic lights are strictly optional here. (technically there, since I´m on me hols)
Glad you´re OK though.
Gary on June 27th, 2007
Are you checking the news while you’re away? Apparently Sheffield is now twinned with Atlantis.
tm on June 28th, 2007
>Was the big problem not just that Paisley’s a bit crap?
Actually the last time I went there it was quite pleasant. Surprisingly so. the non-traffic calming part of the work seems to have turned out quite well.
Quiet though… ;-)
>Apparently Sheffield is now twinned with Atlantis.
No one should miss it.
mupwangle on July 1st, 2007
>>Apparently Sheffield is now twinned with Atlantis.
We had about a foot of water the week before we went away. :-(
(Spanish keyboard layouts are really confusing)
Gary on July 1st, 2007
Gah.