It’s a drizzly grey morning and the traffic is slow. That sentence reminds me of something, though there are no jumping fish and a distinct lack of cotton.
As usual, the drizzle seemed to bring out more traffic and the journey became more of a trial than usual.
I can’t help thinking the whole blues thing would have developed differently in a colder climate, or if the musicians were often clogged up in traffic following a cement mixer and a skip lorry.
That’s what happened to me this morning. There was also a woman on a Moulton bicycle, and an idiot on a moped.
The site of the incident was, as usual, the three lanes of traffic leading up from the Goose Fair roundabout to the site of the old gallows. It always seems so appropriate when you see how people behave there.
First the Moulton mounted woman had to skip up onto the pavement to avoid being killed by a bus. Then, as she returned to the road and stopped at the pedestrian crossing, the mentally challenged moped rider swept through and nearly hit a pedestrian on the crossing. There’s something about a bus lane that seems to suspend the normal rules of traffic. And there’s something about this stretch of road that, one way and another, that brings out the worst in a number of drivers.
The rest of the day is likely to be similarly grey in aspect as I have a list of domestic tasks to get through, some paperwork to do for Julia and more internet research to do for the jerk seasoning. It’s not a thrilling list, but it needs doing.
We don’t dare ride bikes or walk on the roads around here. Too many trucks and wild drivers.
And there was me thinking you lived in the middle of nowhere… 🙂
We are in the middle of nowhere, but it is logging country. 🙂
Yes, as we often had to point out when doing education visits on the farm – the countryside can be a bit like a factory with no roof on it.
That sounds like a horrible junction. Bus lanes certainly do make driving more difficult and in Norwich the car driver is at a permanent disadvantage because the council want to eventually get rid of cars from the city centre altogether. Many roads have been pedestrianised and the parking costs are exorbitant. A driver’s life is not an easy one.
This is my suspicion about Nottingham too. I keep being told Public Transport in Nottingham is excellent, and it probably is. However, it doesn’t run at 5.30 am om Sundays to get Julia to work, and it wouldn’t have been great going to Worksop, or Clumber, this morning.
Oh, you mean that turn lane, bus lane, possibly bicycle lane on MY right side (opposite yours) is not for getting ahead? Hmm, interesting…but where I travel and this is done, it’s probably safer to not say anything. I do wonder why accidents happen…but not very long or hard.
And you do manage to make the mundane interesting. Thanks for that bright spot among the grey ones.
Thank you. Good to know I manage it sometimes.
Yes, I forget that most of the world drives on the wrong side of the road. 🙂
I hate cyclists on the pavement, but I suppose that if it was a life-saving manoeuvre I’ll let her of this once
Yes, it was forgivable this time.
There are a lot of benefits from living in a quiet country town.
Yes, there are. I made a decision to move into the city after living in the middle of the Fens because I fancied somewhere with buses, shops and doctors. When we looked to move to a smaller town some years later we couldn’t afford it. 🙂
There is just something about lots of traffic, bicycle and moped riders, and people walking all at once that is just a disaster waiting to happen. Everyone is in a hurry except for the people on bicycles… No wonder many of them wear helment now.
Yes, but I still see the occasional rider with no helmet.
I cringed as I read about the woman on the bike. Naturally, I was picturing myself. Glad she made it onto the sidewalk.
It’s an appalling piece of road design. I don’t like it and I’m protected by a bin tin can.
Phew! You have to wonder why it was designed that way.
They have spent the last 30 years forcing bus lanes into the system where the roads really aren’t wide enough- making bus timetables more reliable but car travel more difficult. I’m a cynic, so I suggest the two things may be linked.
You describe so clearly your jpurney.