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damerell at 12:00pm on 24/03/2014
damerell at 12:00pm on 24/03/2014I noticed something last night while approaching the North end of Waterloo Bridge. Here there is an entrance to the Strand underpass which, since it would provide a relatively safe way to bypass the hairy Aldwych gyratory when going towards Euston on a bicycle, is reserved for the exclusive use of motorists.
But I'm not going to complain about that (anymore). Last night, the underpass was closed. I deduced this relatively easily since, as I crossed the bridge, I encountered in succession:
a) a pair of red signs, one at each side of the northbound lanes, saying TUNNEL CLOSED, decorated with four blinking orange lights.
b) a pair of large signs, similarly arranged, depicting the three lanes ahead, the rightmost one being marked TUNNEL CLOSED, also festooned with blinking orange lights.
a) again.
b) again.
a) again.
Two lines of brightly coloured traffic cones with reflective waists, so closely spaced that it would have been tricky to pass the line on a bicycle without clipping one.
Two orange LED-grid displays saying TRAFFIC DIVERT with a left-pointing arrow.
Two large steel gates closing off the entrance to the underpass, each with a brightly-illuminated red stop sign on it.
Last but not least, an illuminated red X of heroic proportions over the entrance to the underpass.
This all seems a bit excessive.
I can't help but wonder just how dim the average cager is, if they require all this help to absorb the fact that the tunnel is closed - a fact which, in spite of my disinterest, I was aware of after spotting the first set of signs. (Cambridge residents will be familiar, also, with how RISING BOLLARDS is apparently a sentence in some crazy moon language beyond comprehension). Somewhat radically, I might even suggest that someone who can manage to drive into two large metal gates without noticing should probably be disqualified regardless of the presence or absence of several Christmas trees-worth of sparkly lights.
Furthermore, if we can have all this expense to save motorists from their own stupidity, why can nothing be done to save anyone else from it except painting white lines down gutters under the mistaken impression this helps?
But I'm not going to complain about that (anymore). Last night, the underpass was closed. I deduced this relatively easily since, as I crossed the bridge, I encountered in succession:
a) a pair of red signs, one at each side of the northbound lanes, saying TUNNEL CLOSED, decorated with four blinking orange lights.
b) a pair of large signs, similarly arranged, depicting the three lanes ahead, the rightmost one being marked TUNNEL CLOSED, also festooned with blinking orange lights.
a) again.
b) again.
a) again.
Two lines of brightly coloured traffic cones with reflective waists, so closely spaced that it would have been tricky to pass the line on a bicycle without clipping one.
Two orange LED-grid displays saying TRAFFIC DIVERT with a left-pointing arrow.
Two large steel gates closing off the entrance to the underpass, each with a brightly-illuminated red stop sign on it.
Last but not least, an illuminated red X of heroic proportions over the entrance to the underpass.
This all seems a bit excessive.
I can't help but wonder just how dim the average cager is, if they require all this help to absorb the fact that the tunnel is closed - a fact which, in spite of my disinterest, I was aware of after spotting the first set of signs. (Cambridge residents will be familiar, also, with how RISING BOLLARDS is apparently a sentence in some crazy moon language beyond comprehension). Somewhat radically, I might even suggest that someone who can manage to drive into two large metal gates without noticing should probably be disqualified regardless of the presence or absence of several Christmas trees-worth of sparkly lights.
Furthermore, if we can have all this expense to save motorists from their own stupidity, why can nothing be done to save anyone else from it except painting white lines down gutters under the mistaken impression this helps?
(no subject)
(no subject)
But to ignore these various signs would take a special sort of person. In particular, one cannot simply ignore a solid steel barrier across the road.
It may be unremarkable that I am equally in favour of such a driving test. Let it be like being a railway driver, where any significant error is automatically cause for intervention.