Monday, August 24, 2009
Road woes
Just back from East Anglia, having been delayed somewhat in both directions at the Dartford Crossing, as far as I could make out, a direct result of having to been processed through the tolling gadgets which relieve you of £1.50. Almost a complete waste of space as far as I am concerned. The gadgets concerned, apart from causing delays, must have cost a fortune to install and a small fortune to run. Their existance does nothing to deter me from using the crossing, as any other route across the river would be time consuming in the extreme, quite apart from creating nusiance on the suburban roads onto which I would divert. There is a modest incentive to use the thing at night when it is free, but that is only going to make a very small differance, if any, to my behaviour. So my vote is that such things - crossings, that is - should come out of general taxation and be free at the point of consumption, rather than contributing to the profits of bankers through the private finance initiative. Not sure that they are a very deserving tribe just at present.
And then there was the rather unsatisfactory refreshment experience at Bishops Stortford, aka Birchanger Green. Greeted by very confusing signage on entry. Followed by an unpleasantly noisy area for the buying of tea, coffee and so on. So on out into the smoking den to consume tea away from the noise. The other thing that went wrong, I can't put down to the service area operator. That is the provision of full strength milk to add to your tea. This caused me much confusion, being much more used to the rather feeble green top stuff which behaves quite differantly in tea, having virtually no active ingredients. More confusing signage on exit, but we did manage to get back onto the southbound carriageway on the first attempt, without being honked. In fact, I managed the whole trip with only one honk - which I earned when stopping to let a lady out of a side turning, while rolling along in very slowly moving, thick traffic. The lady declined to be let out - no idea why not - and somebody behind me thought fit to honk his or her displeasure.
In between times, intrigued by an entirely new sort of container lorry which included a two part contraption for lifting the container on and off the lorry - one part of the contraption at each end of the container. Must be quite an awkward thing to do with an on-board crane - which might be why I have never seen such a thing before. But then, if I take delivery of a container in my small yard - perhaps I import furniture from the Far East - how I am supposed to get the container off the lorry? Presumably people in a small way who cannot afford the sort of gear you have at container ports do take delivery of containers, but I have never seen it done. Perhaps the lorries concerned have rams like the lorries which carry the big rubbish containers which are about the same size as the containers I am talking about here. Must keep an eye out.
And then there was the smart white lorry saying Guardian, which looked as if it was custom built to carry in a very secure and private way a very large roll of kitchen paper. I wondered whether the Grauniad was into shipping its own very special rolls of newsprint about the country. But the lorry also said http://www.guardian.com/ which appears to be the web site of a glass manufacturer from Michigan - nothing to do with the Grauniad at all. So I remain intrigued by what this lorry was doing. Clearly take the odd newky to come to a decent solution.
And then there was the rather unsatisfactory refreshment experience at Bishops Stortford, aka Birchanger Green. Greeted by very confusing signage on entry. Followed by an unpleasantly noisy area for the buying of tea, coffee and so on. So on out into the smoking den to consume tea away from the noise. The other thing that went wrong, I can't put down to the service area operator. That is the provision of full strength milk to add to your tea. This caused me much confusion, being much more used to the rather feeble green top stuff which behaves quite differantly in tea, having virtually no active ingredients. More confusing signage on exit, but we did manage to get back onto the southbound carriageway on the first attempt, without being honked. In fact, I managed the whole trip with only one honk - which I earned when stopping to let a lady out of a side turning, while rolling along in very slowly moving, thick traffic. The lady declined to be let out - no idea why not - and somebody behind me thought fit to honk his or her displeasure.
In between times, intrigued by an entirely new sort of container lorry which included a two part contraption for lifting the container on and off the lorry - one part of the contraption at each end of the container. Must be quite an awkward thing to do with an on-board crane - which might be why I have never seen such a thing before. But then, if I take delivery of a container in my small yard - perhaps I import furniture from the Far East - how I am supposed to get the container off the lorry? Presumably people in a small way who cannot afford the sort of gear you have at container ports do take delivery of containers, but I have never seen it done. Perhaps the lorries concerned have rams like the lorries which carry the big rubbish containers which are about the same size as the containers I am talking about here. Must keep an eye out.
And then there was the smart white lorry saying Guardian, which looked as if it was custom built to carry in a very secure and private way a very large roll of kitchen paper. I wondered whether the Grauniad was into shipping its own very special rolls of newsprint about the country. But the lorry also said http://www.guardian.com/ which appears to be the web site of a glass manufacturer from Michigan - nothing to do with the Grauniad at all. So I remain intrigued by what this lorry was doing. Clearly take the odd newky to come to a decent solution.
# posted by Jim @ 10:00 AM 
