Wednesday 21 February 2007

You ain't going nowhere ....


... and here we have a classic example of inconsiderate driving. The two bus drivers in the inside lanes (at the rear of the queue of traffic) have obviously driven along these lanes because traffic was flowing fairly smoothly but when they get to a point where they realise that traffic (in the lanes they should have been in to begin with) is at a standstill they just stop their buses, thus preventing traffic from driving along the now empty inside lanes to turn left into an adjoining road. Of course this also adds to the tailback because traffic that could have driven on is now sitting increasing the length of the queue and blocking other roads further back.

Another example of inconsiderate driving that I witnessed was at a junction where the traffic heading towards the city centre was at a standstill but, because there was a gap in the queue, traffic coming away from the city centre was able to turn right across the queue of traffic and into the adjoining road. For some reason one driver (in the city bound traffic) decided to drive across this gap (even though it was obvious that he would be unable to drive any further) and blocked the gap. Again this prevented drivers moving out of a tailback of traffic and into a road which was clear of traffic and just added to the lengthy tailbacks in the city centre. The attitude of many drivers seems to be 'I have the right of way here and I'm going to exercise that right, even if it means stopping traffic from flowing smoothly in a totally different direction to mine'. I have seen and been subject to this type of mentality so often that I am surprised that I have not been the instigator of a road rage incident! All it takes is a bit of thought and consideration and a lot of needless traffic delays could be reduced.

On a different note - you can see that the buses are empty, this is because passengers, like myself, got off early and walked to our destinations instead of sitting for ages in a queue of traffic.