This video was shot out of a window on the top deck of a number 12 coming from Newton down to Torquay. It shows the bus travelling fairly slowly along the road. It isn't travelling slowly because there is a lot of traffic on the road but because some drivers are slowing down to look at something by the side of the road. This is a repeat problem at this time of year when a woodcarver sets up his carvings by the side of the road. It can add 20 minutes to the travelling time between Newton and Torquay which at the end of the day can add up to a lot of people waiting a long time for a bus. The police say there is nothing they can do about it as it would be difficult to prove his carvings were the reason for the traffic being held up. Actually all they need to do is put a parking ticket on his Land Rover because there is a parking restriction of two hours with no return within 24 hrs. So if he comes back the next day he gets an other parking ticket. Two times £60 would knock any profit in the head. The video shows the bus going slowly but speeding up the moment it goes past the carvings. Point proved I think.
12 comments:
I hope that local Stagecoach management do not watch your blog as it may upset them to think that customers use their vehicles as a platform from which to take topical local photographs. We (your viewers)would miss your observations if a ban on travelling as a pasenger were to be imposed to add to your status as an involuntary ex-employee.
Peter, many people take photos/videos on buses all the time. Myself included. Never have I known any problems to arise from it though.
tut tut stop being a xmas scrooge whats a few minutes on a journey or a few extra minutes at the bus stop.
Not for myself, but in reply to brokenangle... When it's tipping it down with rain, near freezing temperatures and you are elderly, quite a lot.
Fair enough point regarding an unnecessary distraction you are trying to make - but how do you work out this particular distraction can add 20 minutes to a journey? When traffic is not flowing freely (quite often, it being the A380 through the notoriously congested Kingkerswell between Torquay and Newton Abbot)this distraction probably does not add anything as traffic is virtually stationary anyhow! When it is flowing freely traffic will I agree slow down to look. But I very much doubt if the knock-on effect makes more than a minute or so difference. It certainly didn't appear to have more than that as a delaying effect on the bus from which you were filming. Sorry if I spoil a good story line but in my opinion the entire journey from the Garden roundabout through Kingkerswell to the Pen Inn roundabout rarely takes more than 20 minutes at the peak of congestion.
My comment was intended to be 'tongue in cheek'! BUT from personal experience over many years not all photographers are as thoughtful as is Dave ( and I am sure N Thorne)as to not use flash. Take it from me a sudden flash reflected down the vehicle and back from the windscreen into the poor drivers eyes can be both distracting and dangerous , a view with which I am sure anyone who is or has been a bus/coach driver will concur.
Oops, sorry Peter ;)
Generally, in cases like this one, when the police say there's nothing they can do, it means there's nothing they WANT to do...otherwise, as Dave suggests, they'd book his illegally parked Land Rover...
Many thanks for the apology N Thorne, I guess this means that you have used flash in the past, so at least my comment has given you food for thought.
HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2010
Peter,
noooo lol. I was apologising for my misunderstanding of you. I do not use flash and have no intention to.
N Thorne
I guess it is my turn to apologise to you. I am Very sorry for misjudging you but it may perhaps give someone else food for thought if they read our correspongence as rest assured over my driving pereiod from yhe age of 21 to my retirement at 58 I did come across many suc.
Cheers -Peter
PS I am not annonymous and I was 68 when I gave up
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