No piccie with this post as I was 'forced' to delete it. A brief run down of what happened: Cycling up Redcliffe St when I spotted a badly parked car, half on the pavement, half on double yellow lines, close to the corner. I took a pic and was about to cycle away when an irate little guy came running out of a building demanding to know why I was photographing his car. I stood my ground, half expecting a fight. I pointed out that he was parked illegally but he tried to justify it by claiming that it was a sunday afternoon with no-one around and it was doing no harm. Funny though, as being a sunday, there were loads of free parking bays, so he was ignoring his own laziness. He also said he was a bus driver and you'd think they would know better. He moaned about cyclists on the pavement and I said that it annoys me as well, but he was using the lame argument that if others misbehave and break the law, somehow it's okay for you to do the same (???).
Anyway, what could have been ugly, turned out okay as I asked him to at least put his hazard lights on to show that he would only be there for a few minutes (I bet he turned them off when I was gone) and he did fundamentally accept that he was breaking the law by badly parking. For my end of the 'deal', I agreed to delete the pics, which is why there aren't any.
But he did make one important point: He could have had a baseball bat or knife and attacked me. So when you're out and about and you spot some crappy parking, be discreet folks. As a matter of interest, has anyone else who contributes to this blog had abuse from irate drivers?.
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5 comments:
I've had someone demand that I delete the pic that I just took of him crossing a pedestrian crossing. He was a young black guy with hoodie leaving Broadmead.
I just bluffed, saying I never took a picture with him in it. It was a fairly public space with people around, otherwise I might not have been so confident.
I've also noticed people covering their faces when I take a pic. There's one, a cyclist, on my Prince Street Bridge pics which I think you used here.
No doubt the day will come when I get a violent reaction. In fact I had one earlier this year which resulted in me being punched in the back of the head (a similar attack killed someone a month or two ago).
The police took about 4 months to investigate it before finally deciding to drop it, even though there was an independent witness, which seems to be par for the course these days.
1. I try and avoid pedestrians and the kids/parents coming out of the cars at schools.
2. I have had trouble with the roadworkers on Cotham Brow when trying to get pics of cars driving along the pavement of the bus-only single lane route.
I took a pic (or at least tried to) of a guy on a mini moto going up our street (thankfully a one-off). He stopped, and in response to his aggressive query "what the **** do you think you're doing" I replied "what does it look like?" and then he threatened to "smash my face in".
I laughed, shrugged my shoulders, and kind of stared, and fortunately he didn't carry out his threat. He started up his chinese lawnmower and drove off, looking utterly ridiculous. He was never seen again.
A nice experience to have on your own doorstep. I pity the neighbourhood he lives in.
Happened to me the same day! I took refuge in a fib.
http://crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com/2008/11/churchgoers.html
I had a nice cyclist smile and wave whilst I was taking a picture of a massive traffic queue. So I now have a picture of a happy cyclist defeating the traffic jam.
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