Is it the fault of the drivers? (From Gazette & Herald)

Is it the fault of the drivers?

A LETTER from a reader recently, questions the setting of the traffic lights at Butcher Corner, which is not the first time they have received criticism. However, the onus of responsibility for their satisfactory operation rests, not with their setting, but with the way drivers use them.

With the several conditions applicable to this junction, the lights are set at the optimum level and when used properly are very good, and for the information of the critics, they are controlled by sensor cables in the surface of the road.

Take for instance, several vehicles waiting for the green in Old Maltongate; if the first and second cars move off when this appears, all will be well, the lights mechanism 'knows' there is traffic there. But if the driver of the first car is not concentrating on the job in hand, ie the change from red, through orange to green, and doesn't get his car into gear on the orange, and move off on the green, the lights mechanism doesn't sense any movement, and assumes there are no vehicles waiting, and so goes straight back to red again, and this is what causes the grumbles. The first, and sometimes the second car in the queue, are always the culprits. I use this junction almost daily, and this situation happens now and again, and sometimes even, when I've been second in the queue, I've had to give the chap in front a quick 'toot' to wake him up, but by then it is often too late, and everyone has to go through another sequence. And the lights get blamed again.

Interested? Then sit on the seat in Old Maltongate for a while and watch what happens, and then try to categorise the kind of folk who don't pay attention and fail to notice the change of lights as they happen.

A warning 'clue' if you are the first car, and can see the "Wheelgate" pedestrian signals, is that after they have been at a green phase and change to red, then the next thing which happens is that the car traffic lights change from red to amber, and it's then that you should be into gear, and away on the green. Get moving, and you won't have any grumbles!

Another 'grumble' at authority appeared last week insofar as the state of the toilets is concerned in the Market Place. Another one which crops up again and again. Once again, it's not for want of cleaning and being looked after which is the problem, it's the folks who use them, or rather abuse them!

In my recollection these have been refurbished several times, at costs running into thousands of pounds, and immediately they become a target for the mindless ones whose aim is to spoil anything which is decent. (What their homes are like often wonder.) It must be soul-destroying to be an employee with responsibilities for keeping public toilets in clean and tidy condition, whether at administrative level or on the actual job, to find them in a mess every time they are visited, and damagers of public property, paid for by you and me, should be dealt with severely. In fact they could be put to work for many hours cleaning them out each day, it might result in a change of attitude.

I came across a note about market traders the other day, and you'll have noticed that they come in two categories (at least). There are the 'pitchers', this is the man who shouts his wares (very often right in your ear just as you're passing). Often a monotonous repetition, but sometimes there are humourists amongst them, although not so many as there used to be years ago, and you do get a bit of entertainment out of their spieling. The ones who just sit, or stand there, and don't say a word are the 'lurkers'. I don't have any information as to whether there is any advantage in pitching as against lurking, but looking back it seems that there is perhaps some tradition, in pitching especially. Going back pre-war, the fruit and veg stall was always a pitching stall, and a crowd would gather round as a big brown bag was held up, and gradually filled with fruit of all kinds, accompanied by a good tale, very often telling where the fruit came from or other such patter. Markets really were an entertainment then, more so than they are today with the pot-man near St Michael's Church bouncing his camisoles on a tea chest and catching them as they came down, "Sorry Ma'am - I should'a said casserole". Pots, dinner sets, everything was sold by the washing basket full which wouldn't have happened if he hadn't have been a pitcher.

Some of those advertising cards in supermarkets raise a smile, and yet the quality of spelling on many makes me wonder about our education system. The unintended humour came through on one seen recently which was requesting the services of a 'flexible person'. Now that job could be interesting!

Worth a thought: "Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side". (Francois de la Rochefoucauld. 1613-1680).

Updated: 11:31 Thursday, June 13, 2002