People who park like fuds

[Ham]

It's to alert cyclists that some areas of the carriageway may be covered with an extra-slippery surface.

To be fair, I had to perform an emergency stop this morning while traversing a blue CSH. The normal carriageway was slick with the standard London mix of diesel and 'rain' water, but the CSH felt squeaky clean and I pulled up a couple of feet shorter than I expected. Which was useful as the pedestrian that had skipped out of a side road and straight across the bus lane while looking in the opposite direction was trying his best to suspend himself in mid-air about eighteen inches ahead of my handlebars.

I think you're being over charitable, the most dangerous time on standard surface is a shower after a dry spell. My view is that after a downpour, the main carriageway is the best to be, the diesel being mostly washed away. I'm not sure what the function of the London grinding paste is in all this (you know what I mean - that stuff that plasters your shins and kills your chain) but I suspect it might help grip. My recent off on diesel (?) riding a straight line but touched brakes on the blue stripe was sufficient to convince me that it is not better than standard surface, and that the slippy stuff gets more distributed than absorbed.

Truth is, it isn't the pits, it isn't the best. Maybe.

[rogerzilla]

Apparently the main reason roads are slippery when  it rains after a long summer dry spell is that thermal contraction squeezes a lot of oily stuff out of the asphalt, this stuff having been seeping to the surface for weeks as the road heats up in the day.  The mixing of water with road dust to make slime is a secondary cause.

On the subject of the super-grip road surfaces, I have it on good authority that you Do Not want to fall off on one, since it is like grade 1 sandpaper.

[Chris S]

Volvo drivers 

[jogler]

Volvo drivers 

yeah

[Arch]

Saw this one today. That's not pulling out, that's 'parked'. Funny thing is I've seen other cars 'parked' like that there.


Picture 0154 by Panticle, on Flickr

[clarion]

Wandle Trail:





Fud.

[jogler]

JerkinnaMerc

[clarion]

B Class.  Make of that what you will

[AndyK]

… but it was ok, his park-anywhere-I-want lights were flashing…

[Kim]

Wandle Trail:





Fud.

Shame it's not Marathon Winters season, really...

[1gear]

Does no one else on here enjoy getting there car into a silly space? I'm not talking about blocking cycle paths by the way, but I do find it fun to park next to someone wanting to take up two spaces, or parking on an end of a row is spaces where your not ment to park. I have got a small car though which helps when it comes to finding spaces where the car will just fit.

[Butterfly]

Does no one else on here enjoy getting there car into a silly space? I'm not talking about blocking cycle paths by the way, but I do find it fun to park next to someone wanting to take up two spaces, or parking on an end of a row is spaces where your not ment to park. I have got a small car though which helps when it comes to finding spaces where the car will just fit.

Parking on the end where you aren't supposed to is stupid. It is usually inconveniencing someone - a bus or a pedestrian with a buggy or a wheelchair user for example. Parking very close next to someone who is badly parked is, however a great game. especially if you can get out of the car through the back door, so don't need to open driver or passenger doors. The Rav4 was good for that. 

[AndyK]

Another one with magic park-anywhere lights:

[PaulF]

Had a run in with a Tesco home delivery driver last night who was parked halfway over the contra flow cycle lane (don't get me started on that one...).

"if I kept out of the lane then I'd be blocking the traffic" was his defence.

"then go and park somewhere where you don't block either"

Round here they're all as bad as each other. The supermarket drivers Tesco/Ocado/Sainsburys etc. seem to think they have a right to stop anywhere they please because of the vital delivery of cornflakes they have to make.

[Chris S]

Ah yes. Tescos are rich pickings for PLAF spotters (Parks Like A Fud).

There I was, idly answering the call of Post-audax Hunger with a Tesco Meal deal, when I realised I was witness to double fuddery:


IMAG0065 by Pelotonhound, on Flickr

It was no surprise when the owners returned to their respective cars - bedecked in all manner of chavvy finery, including gleaming white trainers, shiny tracksuit bottoms and wholly ridiculous adornments (one had the biggest ear-lobe ring thingies I'd ever seen).

Imagine my amazement when, no sooner had they departed - a new fud did appear in the very same spot:


IMAG0066 by Pelotonhound, on Flickr

Tesco car parks - too easy by far for the Fud Spotter.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

It is good that Tesco has a special area for fud-parkers. Perhaps the lines in the fud section should be painted in random directions, to make it easier for fuds to park across them.

[Feanor]

Well, sometimes we need to make allowances.

When you come across a vehicle parked outwith the bay markings, it may have been because at the time he parked, other vehicles already forced the parking to become mis-aligned with the marked spaces.   It happens.

Regarding the dude with a trailer: I'm not too sure what you expected him to do.  I'm sure he was a little uncomfortable about taking up several spaces, but if the car park were not full ( it didn't look like it was ) then I'd have done the same.   It's not like he's going to be there all day.

I'd be less tollerant of this in a crowded car-park, where one person's Fuddery blocks spaces required for others.

[Chris S]

@Feanor - yes, I thought at the time that there's no real provision for cars towing trailers in such car parks. This car park was busy (Sunday lunchtime - traditionally panic-buying time when the store closes at 4pm and won't open again until 6am the next day) but not packed, but in any case, any sympathy I had for the driver had already ebbed away because he drove up on the phone, continued to talk on the phone the whole time he was there, and was still on the phone as he was driving back out through the car park - collecting another person with shopping along the way; I know because I followed him out.

[hellymedic]

Has anyone posted a link to

(click to show/hide)

http://youparklikeacunt.com/

?

They have a Twitter feed too.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

[clarion]

very good!

[Rig of Jarkness]

One for @LBP_Police ?

[AndyK]

Couple from last year:

[delthebike]

This morning, just after 0600, I reported, via 101, a van which had only left room for one person to pass as it was parked on the footway. I just took a call from the rozzers asking if the van is still there, I don't know I can't see it. Any way they said the same to me as a CEO did last week, which is if there is room for a pram or disability buggy/wheelchair to get by then it isn't obstruction!

[AndyK]

This morning, just after 0600, I reported, via 101, a van which had only left room for one person to pass as it was parked on the footway. I just took a call from the rozzers asking if the van is still there, I don't know I can't see it. Any way they said the same to me as a CEO did last week, which is if there is room for a pram or disability buggy/wheelchair to get by then it isn't obstruction!

Which explains this from yesterday. The fact that buses have to use the cycle path when they stop shows how badly thought out the whole thing is.