Safe Speed Forums

Or just get an ancient Land Rover/Transit van (or similar) and drive in and out of your driveway as per normal!

(I believe case law pertaining to "unlawful arrest" and therefor the use of "Reasonable force" has been used in the past in the case of inconsiderate B'stards blocking driveways but I cannot point you towards it unfortunatly)

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Or you could paste a notice on his windscreen, politely asking him not to park there, using very strong glue so no one removes it by accident.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I did think of that ta dcb, knowing that it would be illegal but perhaps taking a chance that no-one will know or care it was me who did it.

Trouble is, if for any reason I was found out it wouldn’t look good on my CV. I am CRB checked so I need to lead by good example. Actually, that aside, I am a very honest person anyway. I had a look at one last night on my way home and it does look like they use a special thick substance like the red or yellow ones you see along the roads. I imagine they have a hardwearing property and ingredients, the hazardous bit.

Me and my neighbour had another chat yesterday when I got home; not a 140db version this time but a nice heart to heart. He said he was sorry again and he and his wife will police it in future. He could not have been nicer in fact and I think he is genuine and sincere.

So after all the headache and hassle I’m leaning back towards staying now and, together with the H-Line, I’ll see how it goes. I do have a feel-good feeling about it now and think I may have over-reacted. I think it was also partly fuelled by some stress I've currently got going on at work and my poor cousin whose cancer has come back again, this time in her spine and they can’t operate. So I think it was the straw which broke the camels back. Well, to be fair to me, it was more like a bail of hay.

I’ve learned a few things along the way: -

1) As I’ve said, some people do not take you seriously unless you throw a wobbler.
2) Some people of a certain disposition don’t get nearly as bent out of shape at confrontation as you do. Because I’m sensitive, I’m sure it has hurt me infinitely more than him.
3) Some people don’t mean to do it but in a moment of just ‘not thinking’ they don’t realise the impact is has on others. The trouble is your view of them is that they do it deliberately to antagonise when in fact this may not be the case.
4) Lastly, it’s far more common than I ever imagined. Everyone I have spoken to at work has gone thought it at some point and have a story of their own, which makes me wonder what the hec is the mindset of these people who do it? I don’t have an answer to that one.

Oh, I just thought of another. I don’t like me in that state because when I lose it I honestly think I am capable of manslaughter. I should probably live in a cave far away from people...

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Tone.

This probably a bit pathetic but have you considered a polite notice along the lines of "Healthcare worker on 24 hr call. Please do not obstruct." That might get through to the merely thoughtless.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

.... much more fun:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ar-ramps-2

might need a few mates to do it swift enough
....and be sure to have someone videoing it to cover yourself.

Not at all Dave. In fact someone else pm'd me with exactly the same suggestion. Great minds think alike.. My neighbour knows it’s not true but it may help with others so I'm ruling it in ta.

They look really useful Ed, not seen them before. Hopefully the other measures will suffice and I won’t have to scream like an elephant with nutcrackers on its balls again.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Really sorry to catch p on all this Tone !
You have worked so hard on your place to make it all so lovely too !

If a move closer to work helped though (thinking of your cycling tales to work in ice & snow) perhaps it is a blessing in disguise !

I think the labels sound like a sensible way to educate when talking has failed to produce results. There are 'hard to remove' or tamper-proof labels that can be made at reasonable cost. Seaton's do them along with road paint too! Not that I am recommending that you make up your own signs - although a sign in your front garden by the road saying 'DO NOT park in front of this drive' I can help you get made up at nominal cost.

In fact I might try two labels, one for the first offence, and then another that helps the message stick.

Did the Council tell you at what level of 'offence' it is by any chance ? An official looking 'warning' might help too.

I think I'd try that before actually moving ... but if you did find a place that was better for you altogether then perhaps that maybe good. Perhaps spend time looking online and on a day off ...

I know when I have visited you I have sometimes looked for alternative places and they are clearly there to be found you just have to look.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Edited for effect!

Tone - DCB endorsement of my PM - just say the word and it's yours!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I felt I couldn’t disclose who it was as it was in a pm but now you’ve ‘fessed up I can now officially declare that Ernest and DCB are in fact the great minds that think alike.

Don't know how I, of all people, didn't think of it first

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Thanks Claire. Maybe you could just quickly confirm I’m not really the homicidal axe swinging maniac I may have come across as please.

I feel a bit more grounded today because my sister stayed last night and put it into more perspective. Man she can talk though. I usually come home, watch The Weakest Link, then change to Friends at six o’clock and then channel 4 news at seven but I missed it all because she doesn’t have an off switch. I think it must be true that women speak 28,000 words a day to a man’s 10,000.



You made me remember something else he said with your question about whether it's an offence they can fine you for. No it isn’t but he said it is currently being mooted that it will be made so in the next year or so. I'll keep my eyes open for that.

If it happens to me again in the future I’ll post back here in ‘huge’ font size that I went crazy and have bought a very large chest freezer..


BW

Tone

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I hope that Ernest has declared his conflict of interest - he his a professional maker of notices.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

And there is you problem Tone. You should switch to Eggheads at six 0'clock like the rest of us

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I PMd Tone with:

I have offered to do this for Tone as a favour - even though we have several short weeks ahead, where we need to earn a weeks rent and other overheads in just 4 days, while not being able to order materials 5 days a week!

Talk about working with one hand tied behind your back. It's a good job I don't have any employees wanting maternity leave... who dreams up Bank Holidays and other loopy schemes to trip up small businesses?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Annoying as it might be, if it's just a case of silly bints getting their hair done then how often does it actually cause you a problem? i.e. how often is someone parked there when you need to use the drive?

If your neighbour has any sense then after a quiet chat they would ask their customers not to park there.

You’re right Homer, it doesn’t happen often but it does happen and only to me because their house is a magnet for people visiting. He seems to know many people, family, friends, the Pope. So it isn’t only the hair business. I don’t know what these women are having done, all I know is it can take a long time. I think it’s as much a social thing as it is about getting their hair done - tea, biscuits, who’s doing what in the latest Soap...???

Again, I don’t know because I don’t have hair. The last time I had a hair cut was for this job eleven years ago when I asked for a short back and shine. It took all of five minutes and cost me £6. That’s about 50 pence per hair you know?

I don’t know why but he’s a popular guy; maybe he’s a drug dealer or wheeler and dealer of sorts. I don’t know that either and I don’t care so long as he/they/clients/friends/family respect my space. I have never once seen it happen to anyone else, unless it’s their own second or third car or someone visiting them. Add to this the fact that in each and every case there has been a space outside my garden or elsewhere within spitting distance, like the one on Thursday when if he had just stopped his car 12 feel sooner, (re picture), he would have been just outside my front garden instead. Add more to this that it happened on three consecutive days last week and it’s enough to make anyone’s blood boil.

I’m sure you’re not suggesting I should have just tolerated it for the rest of my life. If it’s a rare occurrence I can, and have, just ‘let it go’ as indeed I’m sure I am going to have to again one day in the future. I am a reasonable person but it happens more than you might think. I think these people work, like me, and so they have to get their hair done out of hours after work or at the weekend when I am also coming and going. So it’s actually not that coincidental that our paths cross.

My final thought on this is that many people really don’t have a brain when they’re driving. I say this because the back entrance to my work base has one of those big boxes with “KEEP CLEAR” written inside. You could see it from a helicopter brushing the clouds yet people stop in it all the time. When we are coming back to turn into it, it causes a pile up of traffic from cars which can’t pass me on the left because I can’t turn right into our car park. Only then do they realise what they have done and the resulting gridlock.

I can’t tell you how many times this happens when the traffic is heavy. If there is room they sheepishly reverse and hope the one behind them reverses too, to make more room. If not, they sit there deliberately not making eye contact because they know they are an empty-headed moron. You can almost see them thinking “please change traffic lights, please change”. How they get through a test is beyond me. It's so common I bet I could take a snap and put it here at the next rush hour today within minutes of going out there...

I haven’t heard the word “bint” in a very long time Homer. You must be quite old.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

It’s my bit of escapism, like when you watch Coronation Street or Telly Tubbies.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Tone, peoples parking habits never cease to amaze me, a long time ago in a past life I used to work as an HGV driver, one of my regular drops was at a shopping centre where to get on the loading bay I had to do a u turn in a very confined space, it was tight, very tight! One shopper liked to park his car there an a regular basis making it totally impossible to get turned round and I'd have to wait till he did his shopping before I could get on. The folks at the shopping centre had asked him repeatedly not to to it, I'd asked him not to do it every time i was stuck and he returned to his car, the shopping centre folks took to sticking those big really hard to get of stickers on his windows every time he did it, the police had no interest (private property) ... nothing made any difference he still insisted on doing it, with full knowledge he was holding folks up just trying to get their jobs done.

At one job a guy parked a car where it was making it completely impossible for me to get out again, on pointing this out politely, I was treated to a barrage of abuse, swearing, and threats ..... I did get out however as somehow mysteriously his car had tipped itself on its side. No idea how that happened and neither did anybody else! All I will say is that the guys doing the building work nearby (who heard all the abuse I got) were very obliging and seemed to posess a fair bit o muscle power! ... would've loved to have seen the guy's face when he returned!

At a cash machine I go to for the drinks money on a Friday folks routinely park as near to the cash machine as possible (ignoring the double yellow lines) no matter what the consequences for anyone else. It is at a road junction and they are quite happy to reduce the road to a single lane right at the junction, making it both inconvenient and dangerous. The bank has a car park AND almost the whole length of the opposite side of the road is a car park and marked as such. Several times I've used the bank car park, and can't get out as someone has parked across the entrance and now I have to wait till they've got their cash before I can get out again.

The fact that folks think it perfectly acceptable to park across your driveway comes as no suprise really ... after all if they didn't they might have to walk a lil tad further poor things.

Instead of concentrating on speeding how about concentrating on folks that do dumb and annoying things ... like park across driveways or park inconsiderately right next to a car park ... it shows a serious lack of awareness and consideration, both of which IMO are a basic requirement for half decent driving, if you can't even park decently when a MUCH better option is available right there, whats the chances you are also a pretty c**p driver in general?

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

My sentiments exactly Zippo.

Well I didn’t have to wait long, no surprise there. It's coming up to din dins and I could see more traffic building up outside so I went on the fire escape to look at the junction and guess what?

It got worse too, as the lights ahead which control the traffic flow create a queue and they all back up nose to tail, but I didn’t want people to see me taking pictures of them. Selfish morons, that’s all they are.

Imagine the moving car is me and I need to turn right into the car park instead of travelling down like he is. I can’t turn right because that numpty is straddling the KEEP CLEAR sign and now I’m stopping cars pulling up behind me who just want to keep travelling down the road.

It’s simple numb-nuts, it says KEEP CLEAR. Are you illiterate? Have you always been a moron or did you have to work at it?



Often what happens, if I use this picture example, is the driver towing the trailer in this case sees what could happen and has thoughtfully left room for the tosser to reverse. He’s thinking for the empty-headed numpty.

I think I’m just getting more intolerant and angry of stupidity and inconsideration in my old age. The problem is with me, I'm the one in the wrong and I need to see a shrink about it or go on an anger management course


Driving is like cooking. There are ingredients and you carefully have to mix them and time things right and get the temperature correct. There are rules to follow or it comes out burnt or poisonous, or your guests spit it out in your face.

Some drivers are a succulent cut of Venison washed down with a fine glass of Cuvée Dom Perignon. That guy is just a mouldy Big Mac and guzzles a Special Brew.

I’m willing to admit I may have lost the plot.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I actually got caught out like that the other day, was in a queue at lights, traffic moved forward slowly, lights went back to red, a guy 2 cars in front stopped waaaay short of where you would reasonably expect .... stupid here sitting on "Keep Clear" section ...doh! Could see no reason at all why the guy stopped so short, when lights changed he moved forward only to stop where he should have in the first place as the traffic in front hadn't moved off yet ??

When I come out of work there is a set of lights, I want to turn right immediately after going through the lights. So, I want to be in the right hand lane at the lights if possible, or the left hand lane if something is at the lights turning right. I've lost count if the number of times there has been a car sitting in the right hand lane not signalling right until after the lights change .... sits there no signal so assume it is going straight on, lights change, right indicator comes on, now I've usually to sit there till it gets turned right before I can go straight on, happens pretty regularly. Its as if some folks have some kind of aversion to sitting stationary with a flashing indicator?

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

Oh anyone can get caught out Zippo, I know I have on a few occasions. Other people’s unpredictable actions can sometimes catch me out but not in simple situations where I can clearly see what the deal is.

I think drivers have a sort of blind spot when it comes to white. If it’s red for danger or yellow for ‘could get fined’ they take more notice. White doesn’t say anything which computes as something which could be note-worthy.

I see it happen with disabled parking bays too. I know because my cousin is a blue badge holder and I’ve seen it for myself; really makes me fume! We had a big problem at work with people parking in disabled bays until someone had the idea to paint the lines red instead. The problem halved overnight! Again, it conjures up the image that you’re going to get a ticket or something. They’re not but they don’t know that.

I wonder if after they have put the H – Line down whether I could paint it red. Something which can be jet washed off if I’m told to do so, so it’s not permanent like theirs is but sticky enough to stick around. I've just had another good idea My driveway is cracked paving slabs. If I had that re-done in red Tarmac, which I've seen done on some drives, that would help too.

Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than request permission. Case in point, what DCB did and got away with. Good for him I say.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.