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Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

py_megapixel

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Minicabs and minicab drivers. The standard of driving is terrible and they think they can stop anywhere regardless of obstruction caused.
I once had one drive through a red light, and then stop on, the pelican crossing I was trying to use, then wave his arms at me as if to ask why I was trying to cross the road in front of me.
I think he thought I was the person he'd been booked to pick up, but I wouldn't have been about to cross the road in that case! And in any case, it wouldn't have meant I wanted him to drive through a red light to do so.
 
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Busaholic

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Minicabs and minicab drivers. The standard of driving is terrible and they think they can stop anywhere regardless of obstruction caused.

Black taxis stopping in bus lanes unless the passenger is disabled and cannot walk from a more sensible place.
Disabled passengers might wish to get on where there's a bus lane too! In any case, both taxis and private hire vehicles are allowed to pick up and set down in bus lanes, in London at any rate. If you just wish to exclude taxis from bus lanes full stop, say so, and I might even agree with you!
 

Bletchleyite

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Disabled passengers might wish to get on where there's a bus lane too!

Picking up is generally very quick. Setting down is much slower as a transaction needs to be completed.

In any case, both taxis and private hire vehicles are allowed to pick up and set down in bus lanes, in London at any rate.

This is a thread about banning things that aren't presently banned, right?

If you just wish to exclude taxis from bus lanes full stop, say so, and I might even agree with you!

Not a bad idea - they are private transport after all.
 

dakta

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Taxi drivers around here are terrible but one took the biscuit with me the other day as I crossed the road near a roundabout in media city getting into work - i always look and he wa sbarely moving towards the other side of a roundabout so I started the cross before he hit the roundabout but as I was committed to crossing I did hear him rev up, and looked sideways and saw him came around the roundabout practically sideways and had to emergency brake (or brake visibly hard anyway) just after exiting because i was about 200 yards further down the road and he was going barely slow enough to have navigated it. It occured to me try and skip out of the way but decided against in being stubborn and I just completed the cross - he opened his window to call me a name and drove off, it was only as he drove off I saw the taxi plate.

Didn't ruin my day but was a very definite get out of my way or get run over or called names
 

Techniquest

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On a similar note, pedestrian crossings that take so long to change that by the time they do there's already been a big enough gap that any waiting pedestrians have already crossed, leaving drivers stopped for no reason.

Definitely!

I also want to ban crossings that, after you press the button, sometimes work but other times stop working. As if you hadn't pressed the button at all, which is very frustrating. I have a frequently used crossing like this on my way to the railway station, drives me mad when it happens. Thing is, it doesn't always go like that and often it's just fine!

As for my previous thing about non-cyclist-friendly traffic lights, I have WAY too many of them in Hereford. There's even one that doesn't change for motorcyclists! :rolleyes:
 

61653 HTAFC

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Definitely!

I also want to ban crossings that, after you press the button, sometimes work but other times stop working. As if you hadn't pressed the button at all, which is very frustrating. I have a frequently used crossing like this on my way to the railway station, drives me mad when it happens. Thing is, it doesn't always go like that and often it's just fine!

As for my previous thing about non-cyclist-friendly traffic lights, I have WAY too many of them in Hereford. There's even one that doesn't change for motorcyclists! :rolleyes:
On the latter point, there's a controlled T-junction on the A629 near Huddersfield, with traffic joining from a minor road. If you're coming down the minor road there's a sensor that detects approaching traffic and starts the sequence (which by default shows green for the A-road and red for the joining minor road). I've never cycled down this side road, but it wouldn't surprise me if a cyclist, or even a motorcyclist, wasn't large enough to trigger the sensor.
 

Bald Rick

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Oh yes! I'll add this:

Traffic lights anywhere, permanent or not, that do not change for cyclists. That gets on my wick!

Can I join the party on this?

Temporary Traffic lights for single alternate direction due to road works, but the roadworks are for private works only on part of the pavement, and therefore a whole lane is taken out for about 50 metres to cone off a temporary pavement for 5 metres.
 

py_megapixel

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Can I join the party on this?

Temporary Traffic lights for single alternate direction due to road works, but the roadworks are for private works only on part of the pavement, and therefore a whole lane is taken out for about 50 metres to cone off a temporary pavement for 5 metres.
It beats just blocking the pavement and expecting people to walk in the road in the hope that they don't get run over
 

yorksrob

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It beats just blocking the pavement and expecting people to walk in the road in the hope that they don't get run over

Yes, this absolutely. In the past they used to do a little walkway around the roadworks, but now they expect people to cross the road.
 

ABB125

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Can I join the party on this?

Temporary Traffic lights for single alternate direction due to road works, but the roadworks are for private works only on part of the pavement, and therefore a whole lane is taken out for about 50 metres to cone off a temporary pavement for 5 metres.
Expanding the theme slightly, can we ban anyone incompetent (which seems to be nearly everyone!) from going anywhere near anything to do with roads, be it temporary traffic management, design of new junctions etc?
 

Mcr Warrior

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Expanding the theme slightly, can we ban anyone incompetent (which seems to be nearly everyone!) from going anywhere near anything to do with roads, be it temporary traffic management, design of new junctions etc?
Or indeed some utility company digging up the road a week or two after highways have had it extensively resurfaced. :rolleyes:
 

py_megapixel

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Expanding the theme slightly, can we ban anyone incompetent (which seems to be nearly everyone!) from going anywhere near anything to do with roads, be it temporary traffic management, design of new junctions etc?
Definitely. Permanent traffic management as well.

"Crossroads in an urban area with lots of vehicle and foot traffic? Let's put up traffic lights for the vehicles only, I'm sure the pedestrians will be fine guessing when it's safe and it definitely won't put anyone in danger!"
 

ABB125

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Or indeed some utility company digging up the road a week or two after highways have had it extensively resurfaced. :rolleyes:
Very irritating!
Definitely. Permanent traffic management as well.

"Crossroads in an urban area with lots of vehicle and foot traffic? Let's put up traffic lights for the vehicles only, I'm sure the pedestrians will be fine guessing when it's safe and it definitely won't put anyone in danger!"
As well as traffic light sequencing which seems to be designed to cause congestion (primarily for road vehicles, but also pedestrians). It's not difficult to sequence nearby traffic lights so that traffic flows through steadily; it's also better for the environment instead of stop-start traffic.

Maybe, whenever anyone wants to do anything related to roads, their plan should be personally approved (or, more likely, rejected!) by me... :D
 

Gloster

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I may have mentioned before that my father was a civil engineer and at one time had a fair amount to do with roads. If they were going to resurface a road, they would circulate all the various utilities and authorities in advance so that they could do any work they needed before the resurfacing took place. Thereafter, the utilities etc. could not dig a hole in the ground except in a case of genuine emergency for three years. Admittedly, there were far fewer organisations to advise in the 1960s.
 

Busaholic

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Picking up is generally very quick. Setting down is much slower as a transaction needs to be completed.
Try being disabled, then you might not make such a trite remark! You haven't suddenly become (more) disabled during the course of your journey. A transaction may or may not need to take place, as it will with any other passenger, and I'd say I'm quicker at paying than the average person, but then I'm not faffing around waving my phone at things. :)
 

Bletchleyite

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Try being disabled, then you might not make such a trite remark! You haven't suddenly become (more) disabled during the course of your journey. A transaction may or may not need to take place, as it will with any other passenger, and I'd say I'm quicker at paying than the average person, but then I'm not faffing around waving my phone at things. :)

What I am saying is that they could pick up anyone from bus lanes (as you can't know in advance if they are disabled or not) but drop off only people who state they have a disability. Some will lie, of course, but most won't.
 

Techniquest

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Can I join the party on this?

Temporary Traffic lights for single alternate direction due to road works, but the roadworks are for private works only on part of the pavement, and therefore a whole lane is taken out for about 50 metres to cone off a temporary pavement for 5 metres.

Yes I am with you on this! A right royal pain in the derriere!

Or indeed some utility company digging up the road a week or two after highways have had it extensively resurfaced. :rolleyes:

Yes I will agree with you here too, in an age where communication with others has never been easier it seems, for some reason, impossible to some companies to discuss these things with the relevant other company!

Something else on my list to ban:

Poorly coded paper Travelcards, which work no barriers and are very annoying!
 

Techniquest

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No, because then they'll use it as excuse to withdraw Travelcards altogether.

This was my thought too, all I want is for the ticket to work as intended! My last one failed to work barriers from the moment it was printed, but it was only a relatively minor thing. Just really annoyed me at a few places!
 

duncanp

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Can we please ban any adverts relating to a public holiday which takes place on December 25th until at least December 1st.

It is only October 13th, for pete's sake, and already they have started appearing on the TV and radio. <(<(<(

Bah, humbug!!
 

Richardr

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Newspapers and news programmes that can't mention the 1922 Committee without the word "influential" at the start of its name.
 

xotGD

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People who use "consortia" when they mean "consortium".

Likewise dice and die.
 

Calthrop

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People who use "consortia" when they mean "consortium".

Likewise dice and die.

I would mildly take issue with you over "dice / die". I see this as what I believe language scholars call a "sturdy indefensible": concerning the six-sided things with spots on, used in games -- correct usage is, without any doubt: "die" singular, "dice" plural; but folk in general, across the class spectrum, mostly insist on calling one of these objects, when just a single one is required for playing a game, the "dice". I do so: no offence meant, but if I were to insist in such a context, on calling it a "die" -- I'd feel like a precious, professorial pedant; and would expect my fellow-game-players to regard me as one. I know that grammar-technically, I'm wrong in this; but re the matter in question, so much the worse for grammar.
 

Purple Train

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People who use "consortia" when they mean "consortium".

Likewise dice and die.
Likewise phenomena, bacteria, cherubim, seraphim, etc. etc.
I would mildly take issue with you over "dice / die". I see this as what I believe language scholars call a "sturdy indefensible": concerning the six-sided things with spots on, used in games -- correct usage is, without any doubt: "die" singular, "dice" plural; but folk in general, across the class spectrum, mostly insist on calling one of these objects, when just a single one is required for playing a game, the "dice".
And they are incorrect, so raising a complaint is practically obligatory if one is a raving grammar pedant (as am I) ;)
If I were to insist in such a context, on calling it a "die" -- I'd feel like a precious, professorial pedant; and would expect my fellow-game-players to regard me as one. I know that grammar-technically, I'm wrong in this; but re the matter in question, so much the worse for grammar.
When the "precious, professorial pedants" are obliged to keep quiet, and eventually take refuge in caves, then grammar, and, by extension, civilisation as we know it, will end forever. :lol:
(With apologies to Lynne Truss!)
 

Calthrop

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Likewise phenomena, bacteria, cherubim, seraphim, etc. etc.

And they are incorrect, so raising a complaint is practically obligatory if one is a raving grammar pedant (as am I) ;)

When the "precious, professorial pedants" are obliged to keep quiet, and eventually take refuge in caves, then grammar, and, by extension, civilisation as we know it, will end forever. :lol:
(With apologies to Lynne Truss!)

She's the new Prime Minister, isn't she? Didn't know that grammar was a particular hobby-horse of hers :E. (I try not to take much notice of current affairs.)
 

xotGD

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Shops that used to open on Sundays and now don't. And you don't discover this until you have walked the length of the High Street and are standing outside of the locked door.
 

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