"Ban Lorries!"

downfader

Interesting read on the emotions that this poor family must be going through. I do however beleive that we cant take lorries off our roads - it just wouldnt work.

Submitted my response after reading the "usual" on there.

el_presidente

I can't read these comments it is too depressing

most of them are just nutters e.g. "I see several cyclists deliberately rammed after eye contact with drivers each week. " Do you really sir.

What's more depressing is that people seem to think it is an acceptable price to pay. I can never understand why in this country (and indeed most countries) there is not a national outcry over road deaths. 3,000 dead per year and nobody cares. NOBODY CARES. Imagine if terrorists killed 3,000 per year.

Nick6891

i have never been hit by a car, neither have i had any real near misses with cars, but i have had many times when i have had to brake hard or swerve to the left cos some idiot lorry driver isnt paying attention to what is going on. Now just before i say anything else i dont have anything against people who arnt english, but they seem to be particularly bad at not paying attention

Littigator

Nick6891 wrote:

i have never been hit by a car, neither have i had any real near misses with cars, but i have had many times when i have had to brake hard or swerve to the left cos some idiot lorry driver isnt paying attention to what is going on. Now just before i say anything else i dont have anything against people who arnt english, but they seem to be particularly bad at not paying attention

Utter b*llocks, we won't have any of that cr*p on this forum please! I take as much pride as the next man in how unutterably sh*t the English are at concentrating...just as good as the next man or woman...thankyouverymuch!

Eat My Dust

el_presidente wrote:

Imost of them are just nutters e.g. "I see several cyclists deliberately rammed after eye contact with drivers each week. " Do you really sir.

I can say I've been driven into twice deliberately. I've also had 2 hit and runs.

With regard to left turning HGVs. I couldn't believe what I saw the other night. A left turning HGV (well almost) with a car partially crushed underneath the rear wheels. It turns out the car driver had tried to scoot up the left hand side of the HGV!!! The traffic was in a right old mess.

el_presidente

I've been rammed myself but I think it is a big exaggeration for anyone to say they see it several times a week

Eat My Dust

el_presidente wrote:

I've been rammed myself but I think it is a big exaggeration for anyone to say they see it several times a week

Maybe he's the one doing the ramming!!

el_presidente

Eat My Dust wrote:

el_presidente wrote:

I've been rammed myself but I think it is a big exaggeration for anyone to say they see it several times a week

Maybe he's the one doing the ramming!!

hahaha

downfader

el_presidente wrote:

I've been rammed myself but I think it is a big exaggeration for anyone to say they see it several times a week

I would say its an exageration too, tbh. Theres lots of scaremongering now going on from "both sides" where cyclists will say one really outrageous comment on drivers and then drivers will do the same on cyclists. Its a never ending circle.

If people just chilled out, slowed down (better to be late) and realised that most of this doesnt actually affect us personally it would be a much nicer world. :?

dondare

"Lorries should not be on the road when schools are on - they should be banned from small streets," he said.

I'd certainly agree with that, but also lorries have been causing a lot of trouble on motorways recently. Move freight onto the railways, just like it used to be when Britain was at the heart of a huge Empire and produced both manufactured goods and raw materials. If canal barges, steam trains and horse-drawn carriages could move everything we needed then why do we need 44 tonners now when we don't produce anything and can't afford anything?

downfader

dondare wrote:

"Lorries should not be on the road when schools are on - they should be banned from small streets," he said.

I'd certainly agree with that, but also lorries have been causing a lot of trouble on motorways recently. Move freight onto the railways, just like it used to be when Britain was at the heart of a huge Empire and produced both manufactured goods and raw materials. If canal barges, steam trains and horse-drawn carriages could move everything we needed then why do we need 44 tonners now when we don't produce anything and can't afford anything?

LOL I havent seen a canal or rail link that goes past our shops. Perhaps we should have a system like they have in argos to deliver goods.

dondare

What the Victorians could do with 19th Century technology we can do with 21st.

Canals and railway lines don't need to go directly to the final destination of the goods, most never have, they go to distribution centres. This gets the biggest lorries off the main roads. Smaller vehicles specifically designed to be used safely on public roads take the goods and materials to the shops, &c.

downfader

I often think of the channel tunnel and wonder why we havent tried something like this with deliveries of goods, tbh.

I've read many comments online about "we need more roads" down is the only place to go

ansbaradigeidfran

downfader wrote:

dondare wrote:

"Lorries should not be on the road when schools are on - they should be banned from small streets," he said.

I'd certainly agree with that, but also lorries have been causing a lot of trouble on motorways recently. Move freight onto the railways, just like it used to be when Britain was at the heart of a huge Empire and produced both manufactured goods and raw materials. If canal barges, steam trains and horse-drawn carriages could move everything we needed then why do we need 44 tonners now when we don't produce anything and can't afford anything?

LOL I havent seen a canal or rail link that goes past our shops. Perhaps we should have a system like they have in argos to deliver goods.

Okay, trucks or lorries would still be needed at the endpoints (thanks Dr Beeching) but you can still do the middle work by train. Bulk cargo and raw materials should definitely be on the tracks.

As an example, the aluminium plant near Holyhead had a weelky freight train to take the finished ingots to their main customer. Earlier this year, the customer decided that road transport would be chaper, and switched to hauling it all by road... to Austria. There was a local uproar, with the plant explaining that it's up to the customer how they want to fetch their goods. Thankfully, the customer changed their mind and went back to rail shortly after.

A bromine plant in Amlwch had a daily freight train, bringing Suplhur in and taking liquid Chlorine and Ethelyne Dibromide* away. The traffic was switched to road in the early 90s because of health and safety concerns, i.e. it was safer to have these chemicals transported by road. Riiiight....(The plant closed a few years later, anyway)

So I agree with Dilbert, er, Dondare. Freight should be on the rails (or waterways) wherever possible.

*That's a special treat for AT, my favourite chemist

nwallace

dondare wrote:

If canal barges, steam trains and horse-drawn carriages could move everything we needed then why do we need 44 tonners now when we don't produce anything and can't afford anything?

The UK was until the late 30s largely dependent on Canadian Grain and other Empirical produce.

THere is more of us now

Horse Drawn transport resulted in "Wanton and Furious Driving" and no licence required do you realyl think they were any better than lorries? And the piles of horse shit all over the place?

ansbaradigeidfran

nwallace wrote:

dondare wrote:

Horse Drawn transport resulted in "Wanton and Furious Driving" and no licence required do you realyl think they were any better than lorries? And the piles of horse shoot all over the place?

There are still piles of "horse shoot" all over the road where my dad lives. It probably has something to do with the riding school next door.

saveswalking

nwallace wrote:

dondare wrote:

Horse Drawn transport resulted in "Wanton and Furious Driving" and no licence required do you realyl think they were any better than lorries? And the piles of horse shoot all over the place?[/quote]

Re "Wanton and Furious Driving" . Heard a traffic report warning drivers that an Elephant was doing a ton on the M1 and the police were advising people to approach it as you would a roundabout.






I do apologise :oops:
sw

tailwindhome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Port_Tunnel


Thought some of you may be interested in this, a tunnel project in Dublin constructed to remove port bound HGV traffic from Dublin City Centre. Though obviously deliveries to the city centre still require HGVs to enter the city.


Also find it hard to believe that some cyclists have been deliberated 'rammed' by cars, London sounds like a flippin' war zone.

dondare

Er, whoops!

nwallace wrote:

dondare wrote:

If canal barges, steam trains and horse-drawn carriages could move everything we needed then why do we need 44 tonners now when we don't produce anything and can't afford anything?

The UK was until the late 30s largely dependent on Canadian Grain and other Empirical produce.

THere is more of us now

Horse Drawn transport resulted in "Wanton and Furious Driving" and no licence required do you realyl think they were any better than lorries? And the piles of horse shoot all over the place?

Ahem...I said that what could be done with 19th century technology can be done with 21st; the point is not the horses but the size and power of the vehicle. Keeping 44 tonners out of congested town centres does not mean a return to horse-drawn carts or a Victorian attitude to road safety.

el_presidente

WheezyMcChubby wrote:

Also find it hard to believe that some cyclists have been deliberated 'rammed' by cars, London sounds like a flippin' war zone.

oh, you get used to it

ansbaradigeidfran

Naturally, someone who goes by the name of 'El Presidente', who has lots of experience with coups and guerilla warfare in Mid and South America, doesn't bat an eyelid at being rammed on a bike. He just summons his hitmen!

dirk_van_gently

Bloody Tragedy.

It does seem that lorries are the perfect murder weapon, just pick your target, and
"oops sorry didn't see the car/motorcycle/cyclist"
That's all the excuse you appear to need.

jedster

Have to say that in my experience, the bigger the truck the better the driver. I find that artic drivers tend to give me lots of space and be patient about overtaking, it's the lighter rigid trucks (plus of course skip trucks, cenment trucks etc) that cut it fine.

THe reason that trucks have been gaining share of freight from rail is that it IS cheaper to go point-to-point by truck rather than truck to rail to truck except over VERY long distances. Also the rail network is at capacity.

Now, we could add more freight rail capacity but it will take many years and cost squillions and you may have noticed that the Govt is a bit short of cash...

As for building a big underground road network... have ou any idea how much that would cost? You do realise that the channel tunnel has been a FINANCIAL disaster.

Let's get real - trucks need to be on our roads, truck drivers and cyclists just need to make allowances for each other.

J

ansbaradigeidfran

jedster wrote:

As for building a big underground road network... have ou any idea how much that would cost?

http://www.cbrd.co.uk/histories/underways/

No cycle lanes though :shock:

facemunk

The kid in question was pinned and crushed against railings... instead of banning lorries or cyclists, or any other ludicrous suggestions, how about removing those railings at junctions. am not sure what purpose they serve anyway.

moonio

Cycling lane report here
http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/2008/10/20/T20100834/

In fact if you do a search on any cyling subject you can pull up some interesting stories on that site.

cougie

Nick6891 wrote:

i have never been hit by a car, neither have i had any real near misses with cars, but i have had many times when i have had to brake hard or swerve to the left cos some idiot lorry driver isnt paying attention to what is going on. Now just before i say anything else i dont have anything against people who arnt english, but they seem to be particularly bad at not paying attention

Just wait til the welsh get the internet and can read this.....


(joke - my wife is welsh. Just dont tell her I said that ^)

cougie

Nick6891 wrote:

i have never been hit by a car, neither have i had any real near misses with cars, but i have had many times when i have had to brake hard or swerve to the left cos some idiot lorry driver isnt paying attention to what is going on. Now just before i say anything else i dont have anything against people who arnt english, but they seem to be particularly bad at not paying attention

Just wait til the welsh get the internet and can read this.....


(joke - my wife is welsh. Just dont tell her I said that ^)

ansbaradigeidfran

cougie wrote:

Just wait til the welsh get the internet and can read this.....

Internet? All I've got is this "interweb" thing. It was made by Godzilla, and I have to burn foxes as sacrifical offerings to the graemlins inside the magic television screen.

I'm not stupid though. I don't dare use that Interweb Exploder, cause if it blows up I'll get the blame...

ansbaradigeidfran

Nick6891 wrote:

i have never been hit by a car, neither have i had any real near misses with cars, but i have had many times when i have had to brake hard or swerve to the left cos some idiot lorry driver isnt paying attention to what is going on. Now just before i say anything else i dont have anything against people who arnt english, but they seem to be particularly bad at not paying attention

removing double negatives...

Ah, so if non-English people are bad at 'not paying attention', they have to pay attention at all times. Right!

downfader

facemunk wrote:

The kid in question was pinned and crushed against railings... instead of banning lorries or cyclists, or any other ludicrous suggestions, how about removing those railings at junctions. am not sure what purpose they serve anyway.

Railings are often put up to deter pedestrains from crossing iirc.