Yes, all of a sudden, after years of them working in a sensible sequence, staying on green for sensible lengths of time, the traffic lights of Manchester City Centre have gone off their tits. You know how it is when you know their habits, you know how many cars get through, and you calmly wait your turn while they're on red, knowing full well that only a minute will pass before they turn to green and you and your queuing companions make it through safely to the other side of the junction, usually finding the next set are just turning green for you. And then all of a sudden, somebody flicks a switch and it all goes very wrong.
Makes my blood boil.
Even worse is what has happened to my route home. This is a google map onto which I have indicated where there are sets of lights and pedestrian crossings on the short stretch of road known as Quay Street:
This is a relatively short, but fairly busy stretch of road, which is a major exit from the City Centre. Lots of other roads intersect it and that and it can get clogged up, but during the summer, it's a breeze and you simply fly through it on your way home.
Or you did, until the fucking wankers decided to do THIS:
Yes, marked with one big red arrow is yet another set of traffic lights, which are less than about 50m from the set before them and the set after them. This set of lights, which have appeared from nowhere and which serve very little purpose, are causing the traffic to back up way up the road to the other big red arrow. This is the middle of the shool holidays, there is very little traffic around and yet the traffic was backed up as if there had been a major incident somewhere on a rainy night in November.
Just look at the map. That's four sets of lights within about 250m, only two of which are necessary. I am so pissed off.
What is it with fucking idiot councils that makes them meddle so much with the road systems? Why do they have to take a perfectly workable system and completely fuck it up? Is it because they're following some pathetic, lefty, political agenda against people who simply want get around without any hassle?
Why do they do things that actually cause congestion and how on earth do they get away with it? Is it to justify them introducing congestion charging do we think? Yes, I believe this is the case. It'd be so refreshing if they were innovative and inventive and actually introduced schemes that kept the traffic moving, instead of clogging it up. And anybody who's ever driven could offer them some suggestions: right turn filters; peak time traffic lights; intelligent traffic lights that keep the sequence going; no stopping zones. It's not rocket science, it's transport planning and any fucking numpty could do it - as is evident from the fools they seem to get to do the jobs.
Simply put, they're a bunch of fucking wankers who want stripping naked and whipping in front of all the traffic that has been generated by their own so-called strategies. How dare they take it upon themselves to impose their pointless ideologies on the rest of us. They should be made to realise that they, as public servants, are there to work for the people who live, work and use the cities. Deliberately creating congestion is nothing more than environmental vandalism and the fucking idiots should be shot.
As should taxi and bus drivers. Idiots, the lot of them. As I approached the back of the queuing traffic this afternoon, I happened to be behind a taxi cab. The traffic was stationary, but I was a bit bewildered when I saw the driver's door of the cab open and the driver get out. He was waving at me and pointing at the taxi rank that he'd decided to abandon his cab in without warning. As I pulled out around him, I shouted "You could try using your fucking indicators and give me some warning instead of just waving at me!", but I don't think he spoke English, or understood the conventions and rules of driving. Imbecile.
I may start a "Manchester City Council is Completely Shite" website. This is the same council whose neighbour nuisance team sent my sister's complaint statement to the violent and dangerous neighbour she was complaining about. Apparently, this is common practice as it gives the "accused" the opportunity to know that a complaint has been made against them and information about the nature of the complaints. What is not common practice is leaving the name, address and telephone number of the plaintiff on the documents that are sent to the nuisance neighbour. Not common practice unless you work for Manchester City Council of course.
My throat is sore this evening.
And I can't stop trumping.
And I have PMT.
Just look at the map. That's four sets of lights within about 250m, only two of which are necessary. I am so pissed off.
What is it with fucking idiot councils that makes them meddle so much with the road systems? Why do they have to take a perfectly workable system and completely fuck it up? Is it because they're following some pathetic, lefty, political agenda against people who simply want get around without any hassle?
Why do they do things that actually cause congestion and how on earth do they get away with it? Is it to justify them introducing congestion charging do we think? Yes, I believe this is the case. It'd be so refreshing if they were innovative and inventive and actually introduced schemes that kept the traffic moving, instead of clogging it up. And anybody who's ever driven could offer them some suggestions: right turn filters; peak time traffic lights; intelligent traffic lights that keep the sequence going; no stopping zones. It's not rocket science, it's transport planning and any fucking numpty could do it - as is evident from the fools they seem to get to do the jobs.
Simply put, they're a bunch of fucking wankers who want stripping naked and whipping in front of all the traffic that has been generated by their own so-called strategies. How dare they take it upon themselves to impose their pointless ideologies on the rest of us. They should be made to realise that they, as public servants, are there to work for the people who live, work and use the cities. Deliberately creating congestion is nothing more than environmental vandalism and the fucking idiots should be shot.
As should taxi and bus drivers. Idiots, the lot of them. As I approached the back of the queuing traffic this afternoon, I happened to be behind a taxi cab. The traffic was stationary, but I was a bit bewildered when I saw the driver's door of the cab open and the driver get out. He was waving at me and pointing at the taxi rank that he'd decided to abandon his cab in without warning. As I pulled out around him, I shouted "You could try using your fucking indicators and give me some warning instead of just waving at me!", but I don't think he spoke English, or understood the conventions and rules of driving. Imbecile.
I may start a "Manchester City Council is Completely Shite" website. This is the same council whose neighbour nuisance team sent my sister's complaint statement to the violent and dangerous neighbour she was complaining about. Apparently, this is common practice as it gives the "accused" the opportunity to know that a complaint has been made against them and information about the nature of the complaints. What is not common practice is leaving the name, address and telephone number of the plaintiff on the documents that are sent to the nuisance neighbour. Not common practice unless you work for Manchester City Council of course.
My throat is sore this evening.
And I can't stop trumping.
And I have PMT.
10 comments:
Traffic calming measures = big bastard humps that bugger your suspension.
Consequence: everyone buys big bastard SUV's with huge ground clearance. Small children are frightened. All small children are then carted around in big SUV's to ensure their safety.
I want a dirigible. Then I could bomb people who don't agree with me. It's all they deserve.
Have another trump. It'll cheer you up.
Oi, I woz first!
Around here, they put in a stop light at intersections whenever there's been a pedestrian fatality, reasoning that it must be a dangerous enough intersection to warrant another light.
Do they consider that the dearly departed was an asshole that didn't bother to look both ways before crossing? Nope.
Also, being a greedy litigious American, I think your sister should sue the city for endangering her if the least injury befalls her as a result of that letter. The bastards! How irresponsible to give him her address.
Yes you were first, weren't you Garfer?
I'm trumping for England here, but they're unscented. I don't know whether I should be disappointed or not.
The attitude of pedestrians over here is to just wander in front of moving traffic without bothering to look, certain of the fact that they'll get huge wads of cash in injury compensation. No good to them if they're dead though. Stupid fucking arseholes. My sister is indeed suing the council. They are utterly incompetent wankers.
The last line explained it all without having to read the rest of the post!
I read it all anyway!
I don't know that this commute of yours is worth the frustration. Kick back with your crazy neighbours and collect from the Government.
It's all part of the government policy to tax the motorist off the road or to make it so inconvenient that you take public transport; or horse and cart which would be much more reliable. There are many recorded incidences where councils have added more unnecessary traffic lights, changed the phasing of lights or lowered speed limits against the advice of the police and so on.
I read on another site where a major intersection, with 8 roads joining, actually worked better when the traffic lights failed.
Yeah, just what this left wing, council worker needs, a right wing girlfriend with whose egg's boiling.
Approx date of egg drop: unknown, unkown but I hope it's soon.
Convict is right, these schemes are designed to frustrate motorists and slow down traffic for two reasons:
1. Slower traffic is safer.
2. Frustrated motorists might consider using public transport.
Of course, both of these reasons are spurious. What we need are more naked roads'.
Traffic flows, there are less accidents and there is none of that relentless highways clutter messing up our streets. Next time you go out, see if you can find a stretch of road that doesn't have some highways junk on it, such as roadsigns, traffic lights, bollards, chevrons, white lines, etc. Can't be done, can it (certainly not where I live anyway)?
where i'm from (shut up piggy) you have to go outside the city limits (which takes a good while) to find a street with no traffic lights on it, unless of course, you want to take what we call a bypass (it's supposed to bypass the entire city and end on either side of it) but all the one we have really does is make the trip longer and more grueling. useless thing our new bypass it. sort of like piggy. was put there for no reason but to agitate people and make their lives harder.
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