Normally I work shifts, so I drive to work in what is termed as "off peak" hours. I still drive during the day, and often through rush hour, but as someone is by then payng me to sit in traffic jams it has never really bothered me.
This week has been different; I have been on a course, working 9 to 5, 830 til 4 and tommorow I'll be 8 until 4. This has meant that I have had to travel in the rush hour in my own time and what a pain it is.
On a 7 a.m. start I can leave home as late at 6.30 and still arrive in a reasonably timely fashion (I am never late, that woudl be plain rude, but I am often timely, arriving just in time) For a 9 a.m. start I set off at 7.40, allowing for a longer jouney across the city of Hull, following the same route to my normal place of work to pick up equipment, then a further 5 miles or so to the training venue. I arrived 10 minutes late. One hour and thirty minutes to travel to work! A whole hour longer than my usual journey, just because i travelled at "rush hour." (Why is it called the rush hour anyway, whenh everything slows down?)
Like many I initially beleived the delay was simply due to an increased volume of traffic, but looking around there was in reality only marginally more traffic than when i usually travel.
To badly quote from the British Rail book of excuses, I concluded that the real reason for the delay was the "wrong sort of driver."
I am purely guessing at the demographics of the shift workers I normally travel to work with, but my instinct tells me that these are the "doers" of our society, the nurses, cleaners, police and ambulance staff, firemen, the factory workers, etc etc. In other words the people who have a role in life and know what they are doing.
The people travelling in the rush hour are the non productive workers, i.e. the office staff, teachers, trainers, marketers, advertising executives, managers, Tv producers, etc - i.e. the people who are good at telling other people what to do. They don't actually do anything themselves and can't make a decision to save their lives. As a result junctions confuse them. Roundabouts are a total mystery. Should they stay or should they go?
As well as an inability to make decisions they have an appaling lack of spacial awareness, so will fail to pull out into a gap that would easily accomodate the Ark Royal, then inexplicably pull into a microgap the size of a Smart cars glovebox, causing everyone to grind to a halt. Then the whole charade starts again.
Even worse. driving amongst them are the Librarians, the data analysts, and research assistants, the timid folk, who are startled by everything. These are the drivers who wait at traffic lights for several seconds after they have changed green, before they eventually move off. Normal drivers release the handbrake and have the car in gear and the clutch half way up on the amber, smoothly pulling away the instance the green comes on. Not so the Librarian. He, or more commonly she, is always caught out by the appearance of the green signal, because he/she is mesmerised by the pretty lights, and wonders what colour might come next. The expect a pretty blue, or maybe mauve, anyhting but a green. And even when green appears they have to consult their Highway Code to be certain what it means and what to do next. Thanks to them we get two or three cars through each cycle of the lights where normally you could get ten through, plus the three sales reps who follow through on the amber and the taxi driver who comes through on the red phase.
Probably the worse of all though are the CPS lawyers on their way to court. They know exactly what they should do, all the pro's and cons, the right from wrong. It is writeen, therefore it is the law. But, when they get to a KEEP CLEAR marking or a junction they cannot make a simple decision as to whether they should leave it clear or block it. Leaving it clear is the best thing, but if they do that traffic will emerge from the junction and then block the path of those on the main road. Is this in the public interest they ask themselves? So they block it instead - but is that proportional and justified. It might go against the rights of those on the minor road. It might even offend those of a particular religious persuasion. What they really need to do is study the evidence for a while, and gain an insight into what the general populace do. Perhps have some CCTV footage to view before they decide? Ideally they would like to defer the decision for a couplke of weeks. The poor creatures suffer angst overload all the way to work, and their driving becomes increasingly inconsitent as their decision alters at every turn.
Of course, once the rush hour is over thing return to normal, the traffic volume may be slightly less, but it is more likely because the right sort of drivers return to the roads. Sales reps, who drive for a living, and the unemployed, who don't. The unemployed probably drive better than the office workers group because they drive olders cars and are far more likely to have no insurance or licence, and are more likely to be pulled over. They don't want to draw unnecessary attention to themselves so they obey more of the rules and drive with common sense, hence traffic flows better.
The solution to the problem then, is to ban anyone who works in an office from travelling in their own car during rush hour. Buses don't run at convenient hours for shift workers, so we have no choice, and the unemployed who don't drive can afford to go by taxi, I know because I've seen them at ASDA. Rush hour sees hundreds of buses, all carrying one passenger, using the bus lane. It moves swiftly and freely, and should be full of these dithering office workers, who work 9 to 5 and have no excuse to use the car, a machine they are at best incompetent with, and at worse downright dangerous. Put them on the buses, and leave the roads empty at rush hour.
That way, next time I am on a course I can get to work as quick as a shift worker. As it stands, I will be setting off at 6.30 for my 8.30 start.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Friday, 2 January 2009
Mervin has a little Hiccup.
Firstly a Happy New Year to both my readers.
And now a progress report on Mervin the Happy Little Courier Van. Mervin has been running happily on Veg Oil mixed with just a little diesel since I bought him back in October. I have noticed he has been getting a little bit thirstier, but put that down to him needing a good service.
New Years Eve however saw Mervins first ever "failure to commence." If you've not heard this expression before it is one coined by Rolls Royce technicians in their early history. Rolls Rpyce motor cars did not refuse to start, they failed to commence. Likewise they did not ever break down, merely failed to proceed. Regardless, when Mervins key was turned there was that dull click from the solenoid and nothing else. This was odd, becasue so far as I could tell the battery was fully charged and he had shown no prior signs of his intention to go on strike. Attaching jump leads and a Proton failed to remedy the problem, and I concluded a starter failure as the probably cause. A call to my good friend Graeme and he was soon on his way with a length of tow rope. Normally I would have push started a car with these symptoms, but due to the veg oil conversion Mervin needs a lot of battery power to supply the heater, and a good urn over before he fires up, by which time the pusher has run out of puff. Nether the less, within about 5 yards he started on a tow, and ran perfectly all the way home, until he failed to start again when tested on the driveway.
Enquiries witht the local boneyard showed that there were three possible starters that the van could have been fitted with, so it was a case of removing the dead one and taking it in to match up with a replacement - or having it rewound and refurbished if a replacement wasn't an option.
And so complete with New Years Day hangover I prepared to strip the starter off only to find the electrical connections were suspiciously loose. A good clean up, some vaseline and reconnection saw Mervin starting once more. Hurrah, a cost free repair! Well not quite, as whilst i had the bonnet up I noticed lots of fuel swiling about the top of the engine block. Closer examination revealed that the fuel return hoses that run between the injectors had perished, allowing fuel to squirt out at running pressure - no wonder he had become thirsty over the last few tankfuls - he was drinking 3/4 and showering in the rest.
A new hose kit was fitted at the princely sum of £5 (Thanks James at Roads Ahead) and the fuel supply is now restrained where it should be.
With Mervin now apparently running okay I decided it was time to get my trailer tyre replaced, so I set off witht he shredded tyre to get a new one.
One of the many benefits of living in rural East Yorkshire is that the roads are congestion free, which means I had travelled almost 13 miles into the city before I first had to apply brakes or signals. When I did i noticed the green arrow tell tale on the dash looked noticeably dim - something as running down my battery. As I cleared the roundabout and ground to a halt I realised (as I turned the stereo off) that the starter motor had been turning for the last 25 minutes or so. Somehow, in cleanng up the cotacts I had manage to bridge across the two terminals leaving the motor permenantly live. A single wire strand from my wire brush seemed to be the problem, and once removed this cleared the short but left me high and dry, having run out of electricity in the battery.
A phone call to my good friend Graeme secured hsi attendance, and this time 15 secinds with jump leads was enough to get me moving again. Forget the RAC, AA and Green Flag, everyone should have a Graeme. Well, everyone with a banger shoudl have a Graeme. mind you they would need a Martin as well.
The upshot of this is that I have had two breakdowns in two outings, but Mervin is now running much more efficiently, using less fuel and starting better as well. I may get roudn to painting a bit more of his bodywork soon, or maybe give him a proper service. In the meantime he continues to provide cheap daily transport to and from work, and is doing stirling work going to and from the tip, moving various items around and generally being a very useful engine!
And now a progress report on Mervin the Happy Little Courier Van. Mervin has been running happily on Veg Oil mixed with just a little diesel since I bought him back in October. I have noticed he has been getting a little bit thirstier, but put that down to him needing a good service.
New Years Eve however saw Mervins first ever "failure to commence." If you've not heard this expression before it is one coined by Rolls Royce technicians in their early history. Rolls Rpyce motor cars did not refuse to start, they failed to commence. Likewise they did not ever break down, merely failed to proceed. Regardless, when Mervins key was turned there was that dull click from the solenoid and nothing else. This was odd, becasue so far as I could tell the battery was fully charged and he had shown no prior signs of his intention to go on strike. Attaching jump leads and a Proton failed to remedy the problem, and I concluded a starter failure as the probably cause. A call to my good friend Graeme and he was soon on his way with a length of tow rope. Normally I would have push started a car with these symptoms, but due to the veg oil conversion Mervin needs a lot of battery power to supply the heater, and a good urn over before he fires up, by which time the pusher has run out of puff. Nether the less, within about 5 yards he started on a tow, and ran perfectly all the way home, until he failed to start again when tested on the driveway.
Enquiries witht the local boneyard showed that there were three possible starters that the van could have been fitted with, so it was a case of removing the dead one and taking it in to match up with a replacement - or having it rewound and refurbished if a replacement wasn't an option.
And so complete with New Years Day hangover I prepared to strip the starter off only to find the electrical connections were suspiciously loose. A good clean up, some vaseline and reconnection saw Mervin starting once more. Hurrah, a cost free repair! Well not quite, as whilst i had the bonnet up I noticed lots of fuel swiling about the top of the engine block. Closer examination revealed that the fuel return hoses that run between the injectors had perished, allowing fuel to squirt out at running pressure - no wonder he had become thirsty over the last few tankfuls - he was drinking 3/4 and showering in the rest.
A new hose kit was fitted at the princely sum of £5 (Thanks James at Roads Ahead) and the fuel supply is now restrained where it should be.
With Mervin now apparently running okay I decided it was time to get my trailer tyre replaced, so I set off witht he shredded tyre to get a new one.
One of the many benefits of living in rural East Yorkshire is that the roads are congestion free, which means I had travelled almost 13 miles into the city before I first had to apply brakes or signals. When I did i noticed the green arrow tell tale on the dash looked noticeably dim - something as running down my battery. As I cleared the roundabout and ground to a halt I realised (as I turned the stereo off) that the starter motor had been turning for the last 25 minutes or so. Somehow, in cleanng up the cotacts I had manage to bridge across the two terminals leaving the motor permenantly live. A single wire strand from my wire brush seemed to be the problem, and once removed this cleared the short but left me high and dry, having run out of electricity in the battery.
A phone call to my good friend Graeme secured hsi attendance, and this time 15 secinds with jump leads was enough to get me moving again. Forget the RAC, AA and Green Flag, everyone should have a Graeme. Well, everyone with a banger shoudl have a Graeme. mind you they would need a Martin as well.
The upshot of this is that I have had two breakdowns in two outings, but Mervin is now running much more efficiently, using less fuel and starting better as well. I may get roudn to painting a bit more of his bodywork soon, or maybe give him a proper service. In the meantime he continues to provide cheap daily transport to and from work, and is doing stirling work going to and from the tip, moving various items around and generally being a very useful engine!