Friday, June 8, 2012
Road closed due to a lot of hot air
There’s a strong likelihood that at some point in your driving career you’ll encounter something on the road that you weren’t expecting, be it a family of ducks crossing to the nearest lake, or a children’s football game down a quiet residential road.
If you’re driving safely, these odd surprises shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s true that some may become stories to tell for years onwards if the incident was unusual enough.
Over the Jubilee weekend many motorists will have picked up a great story.
A hot air balloon with sixteen people on board began flying so low – because of a lack of breeze – that the balloon’s operator had to contact the police to explain that he had to land on the road or else risk hitting people’s houses.
Thankfully, everything went smoothly. One of the people who had been riding in the balloon’s basket stated, “When we came into land I think we hit a tree and a road sign which probably softened the landing.
“When we touched down we all cheered. No one was panicking and the police grabbed the basket to stop it dragging or blowing away and we all got out.”
Phew! That was a close one – I bet a hot air balloon landing near the road is not something drivers expect to see every day. Now that’s a story!
Photo © Eric Lim Photography via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: crossing, drivers, driving, hot air balloon, Jubilee, motorists, police, residential, road
Friday, March 9, 2012
The friendly woonerf
Apparently, in about ten years’ time, the UK government may begin using a traffic calming measure already in use in Amsterdam.
If I write ‘woonerfs’, you might think I didn’t check my blog through for typos, or perhaps you might think that I’m about to tell you about some strange woolly animal.
Well neither of those thoughts would be correct, because a woonerf is a type of road layout which is slowing motorists in Amsterdam down to about 12mph without much work.
Meaning ‘road for living’, or ‘living road’, a woonerf provides motorists, cyclists and pedestrians with a more equal amount of space.
Drivers are forced to slow down by strategically placed plants, play areas, buildings, and an unnerving lack of pavement kerb, making it difficult to tell where you should be driving and where pedestrians should be walking.
The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) undertook a survey and out of 4000 people, only 27% were against the appearance of woonerfs in Britain.
Unfortunately for the individuals who’d happily see them in the UK right now, it might not happen for a while yet. The executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety has explained that at the moment councils just haven’t got the money to be introducing these new road layouts.
However, he believes that when the UK starts building things again, as our economic situation improves, woonerfs may begin to help reduce the number of accidents on our roads.
Well we can’t wait to see these woonerfs, they sound friendly.
If I write ‘woonerfs’, you might think I didn’t check my blog through for typos, or perhaps you might think that I’m about to tell you about some strange woolly animal.
Well neither of those thoughts would be correct, because a woonerf is a type of road layout which is slowing motorists in Amsterdam down to about 12mph without much work.
Meaning ‘road for living’, or ‘living road’, a woonerf provides motorists, cyclists and pedestrians with a more equal amount of space.
Drivers are forced to slow down by strategically placed plants, play areas, buildings, and an unnerving lack of pavement kerb, making it difficult to tell where you should be driving and where pedestrians should be walking.
The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) undertook a survey and out of 4000 people, only 27% were against the appearance of woonerfs in Britain.
Unfortunately for the individuals who’d happily see them in the UK right now, it might not happen for a while yet. The executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety has explained that at the moment councils just haven’t got the money to be introducing these new road layouts.
However, he believes that when the UK starts building things again, as our economic situation improves, woonerfs may begin to help reduce the number of accidents on our roads.
Well we can’t wait to see these woonerfs, they sound friendly.
Photo © La Citta Vita via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: accident, Amsterdam, cyclists, drivers, government, IAM, Institute of Advanced Motorists, motorists, pedestrians, road layout, slow down, traffic calming, UK, woonerf
Friday, February 24, 2012
The siren-like call of the sat-nav
Most of us would probably be quite happy to have a sat-nav, if we haven’t got one already.
But beware!Their voices can lead you astray as surely as a siren’s call, and in total sat-navs have reportedly cost £203million in vehicle repairs in the last 12 months alone.
The head of car insurance at Confused.com stated, “Our research has shown that the sat-nav is not always the blessing it was once hailed to be and, increasingly, motorists appear to be citing the device as a source of frustration and danger.”
The problem is that a combination of out-of-date maps on the devices and drivers relying too heavily on the directions given by the gadget is resulting in crashes which could easily have been avoided.
Although it is hoped that a summit set to be held in March this year will solve a lot of the navigational errors being suffered my motorists, many sat-nav problems can be resolved by drivers paying more attention to the road and looking at their intended route on a real map before leaving.
The art of true navigation is being lost, let’s reacquaint ourselves with it.
Photo © Unhindered by Talent via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance, Confused.com, crash, device, directions, gadget, map, motorists, navigational error, road, sat-nav, summit, vehicle repairs
Friday, December 2, 2011
Disobeying disabled bay rules
Here at Hoot we are often baffled by the arrogance of some of the motorists we read about in the news, and we’ve found a new driver to shake our heads and tut at today!
A man in his 40 in Essex decided to park his Bugatti Veyron, a sleek car worth around £839,000, in a disabled bay.It is important at this moment to say that there was no disabled badge on display!
Passers by were taking photos of the fancy car on their mobile phones when a traffic warden spotted the offending vehicle and wrote the driver a well-deserved ticket.
When the owner returned to his vehicle, a witness states that he didn’t seem that bothered by the ticket, got into his car and sped away from the scene.
It is irritating that although the man didn’t escape without a ticket – the maximum fine is £1000 – it’s probably just loose change for someone who owns such an expensive vehicle!
We can only hope that this fine means he can’t buy as many cocktails when he goes on his yearly tropical holiday this Christmas…
Grrr!
Photo © Sudhanwa.. via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: Bugatti Veyron, car, disabled bay, Essex, fine, motorists, park, ticket, traffic warden, vehicle
Friday, June 17, 2011
Belt up!
Some young drivers might be shocked to hear that as many as one in every 20 drivers in the UK does not wear a seatbelt behind the wheel.
The research, undertaken in an AA Streetwatch Survey using data collected in April and May of this year, also reported that one in every ten cars approaching junctions seemed to be travelling too fast and almost one quarter of vehicles observed had broken brake-lights. You might be concerned that these motorists are on the roads with you, but there’s apparently even more to be worried about.
Some drivers, despite the large amount of adverts and general warnings against it, were seen using hand-held mobile phones, and one third of motorists didn’t bother indicating at junctions or roundabouts.
Despite the very real risk of serious injury or death, and fines for people caught driving without belts on, the president of the AA stated, "In previous surveys that we've done, excuses came up - atrocious things like, 'Well, actually I might crease my shirt or my blouse; I'm only going down the road.’”
As the UK road safety minister said, "Those excuses just aren't good enough because even if you're pulling out of your driveway you can hit a van, hit another vehicle, and the consequences without wearing a seatbelt are actually quite dire.
"My message to [the drivers who don’t wear seatbelts] is simple - seatbelts save lives and not wearing one just isn't worth the risk"
Image by Criterion via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: AA, junctions, motorists, road safety, roundabouts, seatbelt, young driver
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Surprised speed camera
Getting caught speeding is nothing to be proud of – but one 28-year-old man was very pleased when he made a Hastings speed camera flash in East Sussex.
The reason for his jubilation was probably that one, he won’t be issued with a fine, and two his 40mph speed was something of an achievement – the man was on rollerblades.The speeder, a professional in-line skater, cannot be issued with a fine because the speeding law only applies to motorists. It seems that the government hasn’t taken into account that some other modes of transport could also go over the speed limit in some 20 or 30mph areas and might be a danger to road users around them.
However, although this stunt might seem like a good laugh, it was, according to road safety organisations, a very irresponsible thing to do on a public highway.
“Having reviewed the footage, it is obvious that this stunt is nothing short of extremely foolish,” a Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) member stated.
"It is almost inconceivable anyone would attempt such a dangerous stunt at night, dressed mostly in black, on a road that's in use, just to prove a point.
"This sort of activity should always take place off the road under supervised conditions, ideally with protective clothing being used.
"Motorists also won't be expecting to see someone on roller skates in the road, and other road users would find it incredibly difficult to accurately judge speed."
It’s nice to read some amusing news every now and then, but, as the SSRP stated, had circumstances been different there could have been a serious accident.
View a video of the stunt here. However, be warned though, there is swearing in the last few moments of the footage.
Image by Kenny Hindgren via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: motorists, mph, speed camera, speeding
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Search and destroy – uninsured vehicles
It would be nice to have a spare £5000 wouldn’t it? Yes it would – and that’s why the maximum fine for driving without insurance is £5000 and six to eight penalty points too.
The hope is that this will deter motorists from getting behind the wheel without insurance – but amazingly 242,000 uninsured drivers are caught and convicted every year in the UK.
In a bid to reduce this number and lower the cost of annual premiums on car insurance for honest drivers, ministers are giving power to the DVLA which will allow them to clamp, seize and potentially crush any uninsured vehicles they find – even if they’re not being driven at the time.This scheme, which comes into effect in June this year, will not affect people with Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) for their car and is purely in place to make being uninsured a harder offence to get away with.
The road safety minister stated, “Uninsured drivers injure 23,000 people each year and add £30 to every responsible motorist’s premium so we need to do everything we can to keep them off the roads.”
So – as well as being able to look forward to the sun and warmth of the summer months – in June we could also look forward to a reduction in car insurance prices.
Fingers crossed everyone!
Image by John Picken via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance, DVLA, motorists, penalty points, premium, SORN, uninsured