A local cabbie come back to his car which had been left untaxed on Barrows Cavendish Street and found that he had been clamped. Just goes to show that you can't get away with it nowadays. The car in question is not one of our firms by the way, but a frantic check was carried out to make sure that all the fleet were up to date with tax was started straight away.
Some sneaky varmint in Germany is driving a car built for UK roads and has installed a Muppet in the passenger seat. The speed cameras in Germany are made to take photos of drivers who sit in the left side of the vehicle, so drivers of UK cars which are right hand drive can't be easily identified. A German police source said: “The number plate is not enough. We need clear evidence of who is driving the vehicle too." “But because this is a British vehicle we can never get a decent picture. The driver has obviously worked this out because he has placed a large puppet in the passenger seat.“This may be an example of the famous British sense of humour but it is still dangerous driving. The driver has been caught on camera on several occasions and the puppet is on the passenger seat every time. We suspect he positions the toy deliberately before accelerating past the camera.”
After watching yet another near pile-up involving one our local teen racers today, I really do think it's time for a rethink.
Nowadays you just can't deny the fact that the roads are far busier and much more dangerous than ever before. In most cases seventeen is too young of an age to be let loose with a loaded weapon like a souped up car. Modern cars are much faster and more powerful than at any time ever before and I for one think that they shouldn't be used as kids toys.
Far too many kiddie winkles are tearing around the town like lunatics in high performance cars foolishly financed by credit happy parents hoping to keep up with the Joneses.
The depressing annual death toll can only be reduced by changing the law to reflect the clear fact that teenagers are far more likely to die in a car accident than any other way.
In my opinion teens should be limited to unmodified restricted performance cars. And since most fatal teen accidents tend to happen at night and involve cars carrying more than three passengers lets change the law to restrict teens to carrying only one passenger after 9pm.
A Canadian meth addict steals a bait car which has cctv installed. Wow I wonder if the guy is crazy to start with or is it the meth that makes folk that aggressive. I sure wouldn't like to pick him up as a fare.
Barrows traffic wardens, whoops sorry mustn't call them that now; they tell me that they are now known as civil enforcement officers started September with a Monday morning ticket blitz.
The many cars left for weeks at a time with for sale signs on display, that have been parked on Barrow's Roose Rd and Abbey Rd were all ticketed in one early morning swoop. What a bonanza that must have been for the town hall bank balance, maybe we will all get a rate reduction now eh?
But the long overdue crackdown seems to have worked on the towns would be Arthur Daley’s because on Tuesday morning not a single dodgy car for sale could be found on the streets of Barrow.
Maybe we could get the towns roving civil enforcement officers to check on the ever increasing hordes of traffic lights we now have here in Barrow. For weeks at a time several sets of lights have had faults with bulbs broken or blown leaving some with only one lonely green light left. Perhaps the county council in the far north has decided that they could save some cash by unadopting some of Barrow’s roads.
They have made a start by tarring over Schneider roads pedestrian crossings and road markings why not just let the towns traffic lights go out one by one and save a few bob on the electric as well eh? Or is it that we have had so many traffic lights installed here lately that the worlds supply of bulbs has been exhausted.
After what must be one of the first recorded deaths involving an electric mobility scooter police are investigating a case of possible manslaughter. A frail grandmother died after being involved in a hit-and-run incident involving an unidentified mobility scooter rider.The 84-year-old was making her way across a road when she was struck by the electric buggy.A woman driving the vehicle fled the scene after claiming she was going to call for an ambulance.The victim, who has not been named, suffered a broken hip and was taken to hospital where she died 12 weeks later.The death was reported to the Sunderland coroner by the hospital, which was concerned that it was linked to the crash.Now an inquest has been opened and witnesses have been asked to come forward.The incident happened as the victim was crossing the road in the Hendon area of Sunderland last May.Northumbria Police checked nearby CCTV footage but failed to locate the scooter rider.Because electric-powered buggies are not classed as motor vehicles under road traffic legislation, the driver cannot be prosecuted for a motoring offence. This leaves open the option of a manslaughter charge against the rider, if they are ever identified.
I see that the vandals from way up north of Cumbria have had their annual spree of mayhem and destruction. Yep it's that time of the year again, and we the poor ratepayer have to pay for the doubtful privilege of Carlisle contractors spaying our roads with black sticky tar and then gleefully throwing truckloads of paint chipping stones and dust in all the wrong places. The boys have excelled themselves this year, particularly on Barrow's Schneider Rd which has been transformed from quite a decent stretch of road into a dusty hazardous disaster area. Impressive clouds of dust recreate scenes from hundreds of years ago making the road look like some sort of rural dirt farm track. To add to the authenticity of the scene all modern road markings have been obliterated including the green cycle tracks for which we paid many tens of thousands of pounds to be laid.
For the last few weeks or so mysterious red stickers have been appearing on lampposts, windows and buildings etc the length and breadth of Barrow. The stickers consist of a red background and a curious white design which looks like the letter M scrawled by a drunk.
But finally I have gotten to the bottom of the mystery stickers; a source in the local nightclub scene has given me the low-down. He tells me that the long closed Martinis night club on Barrow's notorious Gaza Strip is undergoing a massive revamp and will open shortly in a new guise as Club- M. So the sticker campaign is a form of cheap and cheeky advertising campaign,
I say cheeky because they have also been sneakily slapping them all over rival night clubs and bars.
The other sign which has appeared along the length of Barrow's Abbey road tells us that major road works are about to begin. I believe that bit and I believe the bit that tells us to expect long delays. But I really am having a hard time swallowing the outrageous claim that the road works will only last for ten weeks. Long suffering local motorists know for a fact that this optimistic claim is stretching credibility. We all know from the previous history of many similar signs that have appeared on our over excavated roads that this is nowt but a fairy story, with not a happy ending in sight.
The first electric powered taxi has been launched by Glasgow based Allied Vehicles which builds thousands of taxis each year, the new E7 taxi. The electric taxi will be available from October 2008 and is the result of three years research and development by Allied, which is already looking for local authority partners to install recharging networks locally to help drive down urban emissions. However, a recent snub by Transport for London’s taxi licensing division, the Public Carriage Office, means the UK’s first zero emission taxi will not be appearing on the capital’s streets anytime soon. The E7 is powered entirely by cutting edge Lithium-ion batteries. These give the electric E7 a range of up to 100 miles from a single charge and a top speed of 60mph. Producing no carbon, particulates or other pollutant emissions, the E7 is eligible for a 100% discount from vehicle excise duty, as well as lower daily running costs. With rising fuel prices an increasing problem for taxi drivers, the electric E7 is cheaper to run than a traditional black cab. Allied’s confidence in the technology is underlined with batteries featuring a six-year warranty and the base vehicle boasting a two-year unlimited mileage Peugeot warranty. The electric E7 also provides full wheelchair access. Thanks to its large rear-passenger area wheelchair users can enter the vehicle more easily and be turned into the correct position for travel, before being secured safely with high-quality wheelchair restraints and passenger seat belts. “We’ve had a positive response to electric vehicles from many local authorities, both in the UK and in Europe. However it’s a shame that London looks set to miss out, especially since its famous taxi fleet is currently responsible for 4% of all emissions in the capital,” he added. The E7 will cost £39,450. To put this into perspective, a London style black taxi based on a TX4 silver automatic is in the region of £35,455 on the road. Sounds OK until you look at the mileage between recharges, myself and most drivers I know do a lot more then a measly 100 miles in a day. Plus in reality the top speed of 60MPH would feel like you were going backwards on the motorway. Nope come back when they can do 250miles and 80MPH and then maybe there would be some interest.
Over the last few weekends it seems that we have had a lot more blaring sirens and blue flashing lights than usual.
Has a crazy fire bug been at work or have Barrovians turned into clumsy klutzes constantly injuring themselves?
Nope I don’t so, especially not since I saw that the vans being driven at breakneck speed through the busy streets of Barrow aren't actually bona-fide emergency vehicles.
But still the laughing drivers seemed to be having the time of their life’s charging through red lights and ignoring all the normal rules of the road. From what I have since been told, it seems that Barrow’s streets are being used as some sort of training ground for would be emergency services drivers.
We all know that these guys have to practice to gain the necessary skills but a little advance warning would have been nice. After watching the way some drivers react when they hear a siren coming up from behind them it could end up needing the real emergency services, to deal with the heart attacks caused.
A local Barrow taxi driver has had a serious complaint made about her car. She was told to take it to the Town Hall where the evidence was photographed for a decision to be made by council licensing officers. Pretty serious stuff huh! But what was the complaint, which was made anonymously direct to the Town Hall by someone all about, to justify being taken this seriously? Was the car filthy or smelly or worse still, in a dangerous condition? Were the tyres bald or the steering faulty; did a spring from the upholstery pierce some passengers butt? Well surprisingly it was none of those. The person had complained because the taxi was in their opinion TOO PINK! What sort of miserable sad sack would go to the trouble of writing and complaining that a taxi was TOO PINK? Maybe someone with way too much time on their hands or maybe some macho type guy who didn't like the idea of riding in it because it would make him unsure of his own masculinity. The taxi in question has been personalized by one of our lady drivers, who has a soft spot for the Pink Panther cartoon character. Pink accessories inside include a steering wheel cover, seat belt protectors and furry dice. Most folk wouldn't find it over the top or too garish in any way and lots of her fares, especially the young and the young at heart love to ride in the Pink Panther.
We drivers spend the majority of the day in our taxis and some like to add the odd personal touch to the cab to brighten up the place and make it feel more homely. In my opinion anyone who can seriously object to this must surely have big problems in their own sad grey little lives.
I’m quite surprised that our local council here in Barrow haven’t cottoned on to the crafty idea that the London borough of Barnet has introduced. They have made it a bye-law that any car owner who advertises their car for sale in a public parking place is fined £100.
After all we must have hundreds of cars for sale littering certain roads in Barrow, what a money-spinner that would be at £100 a time.
I can see both sides of the argument, “for” being the fact that the vast majority of the cars offered for sale are actually owned by fly by night dodgy car dealers, and folk lose their parking spaces when these cars are dumped for days on end outside their doors. “Against” is the for sale sign in a car window any different than sign writing on a van, driving instructors car or even a taxi come to think of it?
Barnet council say the rule was introduced to keep parking space free for residents. A spokesman said: 'New parking contravention codes were introduced on April 4, 2007. 'A new code was introduced with the description of "using a vehicle in a parking place in connection with the sale or offering for sale or exposing for sale the goods when prohibited".
Just when I thought that folk had begrudgingly gotten used to Barrow's detested new one way system, I had two near misses in the one morning. Luckily it was nice and quiet, it being a Sunday morning but nevertheless both were enough to put the wind up me.
Both near misses happened in nearly exactly the same place, just before the HollywoodPark roundabout outside the Wheatsheaf pub.
The first was when I was met head on by an ould lass charging the wrong way up the road towards me at a fair lick of speed. I braked hard and put my hazard lights on, expecting her to stop.
But no she shook her fist at me and waved at me to get out of her way.
When I didn't move she actually drove round me and drove on frightening the life out of five or six other hapless drivers. I heard no bangs and so I can only guess that she made it safely through till the road goes two way again.
The next was an hour or so later and this time it was a huge 4x4 again heading into the oncoming traffic. He was stopped by the driver of the car in front of me, who told him the road was one way.
Amazingly I heard him reply that he" knew that the road was one way, but that he was turning off at the Wheatsheaf" and that he "didn't want to go all the way round the one way system to get to it." Both don't realise how lucky they are, this section of road being two lanes wide is now treated as a dual carriageway by a lot of drivers, with speeds of 50mph plus being the norm for some eager beavers.
A busy Friday afternoon and the usual problem of stop-n-go traffic crawling up Barrow's Abbey road with it's multitude of traffic lights. But all of a sudden things started to move a lot smoother and as I moved up the road I soon found out why. The traffic lights at what they say is one of the busiest junctions in Cumbria, “Crazy Horse Corner” had gone kaput and not one of its many lights was working. This didn't really seem to be causing too many problems; drivers just slowed right down and crawled through the junction with caution. Heck! I even saw boy racers and white van men giving way and waving other motorists through.
This lasted for an hour or two until I was coming down Abbey Road a while later. Yep it seemed to be back to normal, big queues of standing motors with frustrated drivers crammed the road ahead as far as the eye could see.
But when I got closer to the junction I saw that the lights weren't back working at all. The local boys in blue must have been informed and they had arrived in force to sort the supposed problem out. Now you would have thought that a lone policeman would have taken up point duty and would be calmly directing the traffic. But no, when I got close up there was not one, not two but three of them sharing the job. All three two policemen and a policewoman danced about the road in the pouring rain, gesticulating like a trio of Italian chefs blaming each other for burning the pizza.
This went on for most of the afternoon causing chaos on surrounding roads. As I went through the junction a few more times I could see the doubt and confusion in drivers faces as they were given conflicting confusing signals.
Don't they teach them point duty at PoliceCollege nowadays then?
This Sunday winds hit over 60mph and we had to contend with roads full of flotsam and jetsam blowing all over the place, including the odd tree, like the one in Barrow’s Hartington Street which toppled up against some poor soul’s house. Luckily not too much damage seemed to be inflicted to the house, but I bet they got a heck of a shock.
The road was later closed and the tree carefully cut up and removed. When we do get storms like this I am always on edge when folk get in and out of the cab because of the danger of the wind catching the doors. Most folk are cautious but some just don’t care and a few seconds of carelessness can cost a few hundred pounds in repair bills for a buckled door. One fare was a woman with her two kids going to do what most folk do when it’s a wet and windy weekend- supermarket shopping. She was a bit worried about her house roof and kept saying “I hope my roof tiles are OK.” Of course I couldn’t resist eventually coming back with the old chestnut “aye someone told me you had a slate loose.”
Her kids howled with laughter but she just looked at me blankly, the joke just blew right over her head.
I picked up a chap this week that had been forced to use a taxi, because he had had his pride and joy car stolen and crashed recently. His motor, he told me had been found wrecked and would probably be a total write off. But even he, the unlucky victim had to laugh as he told me how the police had caught the car thieves to blame. After dumping his wrecked car they had gone on to attempt to pinch another motor but were interrupted by the local cops. The boys or girls in blue happened to have the good sense to check out the mobile phones that the gang were carrying. Lo and behold the clowns had actually filmed each other breaking into and driving away several more cars. A whole series of Barrow's car crimes were solved at a single stroke by the video evidence kindly provided by the daft bunch of movie making muppets.
Dalton was a no go area for us Taxi's for most of Saturday. The annual carnival brought its usual road closures, but more roads seemed to be closed and for longer. We just had to leave some folk who were ringing up to be picked up by taxi marooned in Dalton. Just why all the roads have to be closed a full hour before the start of the parade is anyone’s guess, what's wrong with closing the roads as the parade reaches them? Hundreds of drivers were stuck in queues on Abbey Rd waiting for cars in front to make a pointless three point turn, all because of unclear and badly placed road signs. Some folk were asking the PCSO s the way in and were being given duff information, simply because the PCSOs didn't know themselves. Maybe they could have a whip round for some proper signs and some printed instructions for the PCSOs next year.
How safe is your car? find out how your vehicle performed in crash tests here. Safety ratings are also given for any unlucky pedestrians you may hit, and also results for child passengers . Sorry Europe only!
A local cabbie come back to his car which had been left untaxed on Barrows Cavendish Street and found that he had been clamped. Just goes to show that you can't get away with it nowadays.
The other sign which has appeared along the length of Barrow's Abbey road tells us that major road works are about to begin. I believe that bit and I believe the bit that tells us to expect long delays. But I really am having a hard time swallowing the outrageous claim that the road works will only last for ten weeks. Long suffering local motorists know for a fact that this optimistic claim is stretching credibility. We all know from the previous history of many similar signs that have appeared on our over excavated roads that this is nowt but a fairy story, with not a happy ending in sight.
Myself I think this is sacrilege, a Rolls Royce should be left as it should be, not turned into some sort of fake Batmobile.
How safe is your car? find out how your vehicle performed in crash tests here. Safety ratings are also given for any unlucky pedestrians you may hit, and also results for child passengers . Sorry Europe only!
