Tuesday 22 August 2006

Round the Bend in Brixham


This is New Road, the main road in and out of Brixham. I am driving out of Brixham here, well not driving actually, I'm twiddling my thumbs because blue and white van drivers have no imagination. They couldn't get any where because of the queue of traffic but they decided to get as far as they could and went along side the parked car, not visible in the photo, in the mistaken belief that they would get to where they were going faster if they blocked the road to all but cyclists and mini drivers coming out of town.

Actually its not them I am having a go at here. Sorry Torbay Council but it's your turn again. As you can see there is a high wall on my left and yellow lines to stop people parking there. There are also yellow lines on the right but there isn't a loading ban. So people park there which can be dangerous. When you driving into Brixham and have to go on the wrong side of the road you have no idea if some one is coming the other way. I used to follow the instructions in the High Way Code and 'Give audible warning of approach.' Blow my horn in other words. But there is a dentist over on the right and he wrote a nice letter to the company asking would we mind not doing it as his patients used to jump when they heard the horn and if he was drilling at the time the results could be painful. His attempts to persuade old age pensioners that lip piercing was the 'in thing' didn't go down too well. Now to get back to Torbay Council. The vehicle parked is not a van loading; it's a car parked on double yellow lines. No problem, we have some very keen Parking Attendants round here. Send them in. No good, they wont put a ticket on that car. No they are not taking back handers, the driver isn't 7 foot tall with a bolt through the neck, it isn't their mother's car. It's got a blue badge. Can park any where it likes.

No it can't. Please note Torbay Council before there is a crash here. It is dangerous to park on this bend but blue badge holders will. So make it a Loading Ban and then they wont be able to. Make the place safe, that's your job.

4 comments:

caramaena said...

What exactly is a blue badge?

David said...

A Blue Badge is a peice of cardboard issued to disabled persons. It allows them to park for up to 3 hours in a place that normally has parking restrictions. It also allows them to park in a car park for 2 hours for the price of one hour. But they can park on double yellow lines for free. Double yellow lines usually mean no parking at any time. As on the bend in the photo.

Anonymous said...

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caramaena said...

Oh I see. Very different to Australia. Here most parking places have spaces only the disabled permit holders can use, but all other parking laws have to be followed - as far as I know.