Rant Thread

[midlifecrisis]

Or worse NIMBY speed traps down Park Road in Woking...one is stood like a smarmy bouncer in a hi-vis vest and radar speed gun in his folded arms. The other is sat down in a deck chair.

I drive past in first at 29mph...

 

[MrMickS]

I wish they'd have one on our village street. We've a school with a 20 zone in front of it. Followed a school bus through it yesterday. I slowed to 20, and less for the vicious speed bumps, the bus carried on at 30+.

 

[GeoffCapes]

I wish they'd have one on our village street. We've a school with a 20 zone in front of it. Followed a school bus through it yesterday. I slowed to 20, and less for the vicious speed bumps, the bus carried on at 30+.

That I understand perfectly. But to have one just before a 40mph sign, with the camera hidden in a tree is stupid.

 

[Wack61]

That I understand perfectly. But to have one just before a 40mph sign, with the camera hidden in a tree is stupid.

Not when you're trying to generate clients for the £100 a day in a classroom , lives don't matter, there's not enough money outside a school because most will drive sensibly

 

[alfatwo]

They've started that coming into Dunchurch.. they moved the 30 limit back out half a mile from the village boundary..

The mobile camera van now catches hundreds every week speeding in the 30 limit!

Dave

 

[zagatoes30]

Either that or the ones that send me emails for junior roles at ridiculously low rate.

I hate that, especially when they say they use word matching to highlight potential candidates - the either need to get better word matching software or learn to read if they want to place me anywhere

 

[midlifecrisis]

Private Hire Taxi's, most notably a Toyota Prius, in the third lane of the M25 doing 60-65mph...nothing on the inside and everyone else doing 70mph... GET OUT OF the effing way!

 

[MrMickS]

This is one from Monday. I took a trip to visit my mum who'd just come out of hospital. It was raining, but daytime. There was lying water off the motorway and lots of spry on it. Why oh why were their people driving without any lights on. It was hard enough to see the lights on those that had the lights turned on, some of the ones without that shot past at 80+mph just disappeared into the gloom in no time at all.

Do these people think that because they can see and the headlights aren't going to make any difference that they aren't going to bother switching them on? Do they want to save wear and tear on their lights because its daytime? You couldn't even say that it was down to automatic light sensors as the majority of people with no lights on were on cars that probably don't have them fitted. That's right the ubiquitous BMW, Audi, and Mercedes drivers seemed to have lights on. So its just stupidity and no thought about being visible to other road users.

It was especially a problem with the Toyota SUV driver that thought it was bad enough to slow their speed, to 55mph in the middle lane, but leave their lights off. Total and utter f**kwit.

There, I feel better now.

 

[RSM Masser]

Hospital Parking charges - daylight robbery!! I wouldn't mind (as much) if the money went to the NHS, however it is a private company out to make a profit and target the sick and needy.
My local hospital East Surrey charges £3 for up to 2 hours, increasing by £1 each hour up to 6 hours, then it takes off on an exponential curve!!
With waiting lists and times at A and E getting ever longer expect a c£10 bill to park the car, I despair the poor souls with sick relatives who may visit someone twice a day, everyday

 

[conaero]

Hospital Parking charges - daylight robbery!! I wouldn't mind (as much) if the money went to the NHS, however it is a private company out to make a profit and target the sick and needy.
My local hospital East Surrey charges £3 for up to 2 hours, increasing by £1 each hour up to 6 hours, then it takes off on an exponential curve!!
With waiting lists and times at A and E getting ever longer expect a c£10 bill to park the car, I despair the poor souls with sick relatives who may visit someone twice a day, everyday

If its not run by the council or the police but some private firm like UK Parking Ltd, dont bother with a ticket and simply throw the charge in the bin when you bet it. End of.

 

[jasst]

If its not run by the council or the police but some private firm like UK Parking Ltd, dont bother with a ticket and simply throw the charge in the bin when you bet it. End of.

This used to be the case, but they have changed the rules now, and you are very likely to end up with the bailiffs on your door if you ignore it. Friend of mine ended up paying over £900 for son who ignored parking charge.

 

[CatmanV2]

Supply and demand though. Simply not enough car parks for everyone that wants to visit. Make them free and watch them be full 24/7

C

 

[MrMickS]

Supply and demand though. Simply not enough car parks for everyone that wants to visit. Make them free and watch them be full 24/7

C

Not so much that but, in some places, the car park is close enough to the main town centre that free parking would abused by non-visitors. The best system I came across was in Northampton which had punitive charges but if you took your ticket to an office in the hospital they'd validate it for free.

 

[CatmanV2]

Not so much that but, in some places, the car park is close enough to the main town centre that free parking would abused by non-visitors. The best system I came across was in Northampton which had punitive charges but if you took your ticket to an office in the hospital they'd validate it for free.

That is also true about the abuse. It would be interesting to see some data as to how many car parking spaces are needed, though. The (private) hospital outside Harlow seldom has any empty spaces.....

C

 

[MrMickS]

The one in Sheffield I was in last week had plenty of spaces. Though it did have the too high and narrow kerbs around the entrance and exit making the whole process nerve wracking.

 

[Slowly]

Hospitals are getting busier and busier and parking pressure is rising. Parking does raise revenue (even if contracted out) but that is peanuts in comparison to expenditure - for my hospital parking (staff and patients) raises £1.5m; expenditure is £310m. Until recently the council insisted that any development on-site had to be accompanied by a reduction in parking provision... but many patients are elderly, poor, and live far away in rural areas served by one or two buses a day. A difficult problem. I used a parkonmydrive type website to rent a space for a month near the hospital my wife went to for a mega operation earlier this year to avoid the hassle of hunting for spaces there... ironically of course she wasn't using the one she rents to park near the hospital she works at, where they would charge her > £100/month for the privilege of the opportunity to hunt for a space on arrival at work. One way I de-stress about the cost of hospital parking is to consider what the cost of the op and ITU etc would have been (~£25k) plus the ongoing Rx (currently ~£500/wk. It is all free at the point of delivery - of course one would have hoped never to have needed it (and we pay huge amounts of NI and tax, in part for the NHS), but it puts the parking cost into perspective.
Thread drift but I've always thought it would be a good idea to give patients a dummy invoice to show how much the appointment / scan / prescription would have (has) cost.

 

[mattjevans]

This used to be the case, but they have changed the rules now, and you are very likely to end up with the bailiffs on your door if you ignore it. Friend of mine ended up paying over £900 for son who ignored parking charge.

Pretty silly to have paid that unless there was a court order. Hard to believe they actually got one that amount? For private parking I thought in general the "fine" has to be a genuine estimate of damages.

 

[jasst]

Pretty silly to have paid that unless there was a court order. Hard to believe they actually got one that amount? For private parking I thought in general the "fine" has to be a genuine estimate of damages.

High court bailiffs, with court order.

 

[CatmanV2]

Hospitals are getting busier and busier and parking pressure is rising. Parking does raise revenue (even if contracted out) but that is peanuts in comparison to expenditure - for my hospital parking (staff and patients) raises £1.5m; expenditure is £310m. Until recently the council insisted that any development on-site had to be accompanied by a reduction in parking provision... but many patients are elderly, poor, and live far away in rural areas served by one or two buses a day. A difficult problem. I used a parkonmydrive type website to rent a space for a month near the hospital my wife went to for a mega operation earlier this year to avoid the hassle of hunting for spaces there... ironically of course she wasn't using the one she rents to park near the hospital she works at, where they would charge her > £100/month for the privilege of the opportunity to hunt for a space on arrival at work. One way I de-stress about the cost of hospital parking is to consider what the cost of the op and ITU etc would have been (~£25k) plus the ongoing Rx (currently ~£500/wk. It is all free at the point of delivery - of course one would have hoped never to have needed it (and we pay huge amounts of NI and tax, in part for the NHS), but it puts the parking cost into perspective.
Thread drift but I've always thought it would be a good idea to give patients a dummy invoice to show how much the appointment / scan / prescription would have (has) cost.

Like that idea of the invoice. Well said on the parking

C

 

[MrMickS]

Stupid pissing women in s**t cars that squeeze into a gap that you didn't think you'd left and open their doors without a care in the world and mark your wheel arch. Then wander off as if the touch never happened. Not even a look. Feckers