Thursday 5 February 2009

Dangerous Parking Choice

Why do people park on pavements? Possibly through convention, possibly for convenience. But also because it protects you car by being scraped by passing traffic.

Which is why this car, parked on Shaldon Road, seems to have chosen the wrong place to park. Car almost completely on the pavement? Check. Road-side wing-mirror folded in? Check. What can they have done wrong? Anyone who cycles up here will know, they will know this stretch of the road is one to feel nervous on. Because of that sign, the "K", stands for Kellaway Building Supplies. As in "depot visited by lorries during working hours" building supplies.

And where is the car OE55ACY parked? Right on the corner. Looking from the other direction, you can see that a pickup turning in clears the car with ease, but its not the pickup you want to worry about. It's the large truck delivering 12 metric tonnes of breeze blocks. It's the cement lorries. Its the trucks on a schedule who have just come off the M32 and need to get this dropoff done so they can head off to somewhere on the other side of the city before lunch, trucks that are already so scratched up that some more honda-CRV paintwork would barely show up.

Better to have got the car up on the pavement, then reversed down the road a couple of houses. You have further to walk, but your bodywork survives.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have always found the Kellaway trucks to be very considerate of cyclists, giving loads of room. Unlike the local council minibuses on the same road (which drop loads of oil).

SteveL said...

I've been going up there once with a lorry overtaking me, when I notice it's got its left turn lights on...did a left turn right over me -would have been literally over me if I hadnt braked hard.