suprabeast

Am i the only one who feels that they are very patronising and you always feel like you wanna punch the bloke who says it in the face??

What about this new idea of if you go into a box junction with no clear exit you get fined 100 pounds. Is it me or do these people not actually drive in london?

You would never get anywhere if you waited for a box junction to be clear before you drove into it.

What a joke ..

boxst

Hello

Well ... I'm not sure about the fine, but I do wonder if people actually know what a box junction is. Or whether they just think the line painter went a little crazy one night.

Steve.

OllyK

Well it is actually law that you may not enter a box juntion unless you are turning right, unless your exit is clear

And for good reason. If you block the junction and the lights change, the traffic going the other way then becomes blocked as well just adding to the problem.

dtriggs

"Good reason" - Yeah right, as suprabeast says, how would you get anywhere in London if you obeyed the letter of every driving law ? Traffic wouldnt move anywhere.

OllyK

And blocking traffic with a clear route the other way is going to improve the situation?

I have lived and driven in London, and I agree it is like no other city in the country. If you want to pull out of a T junction then you pretty much have to pull half way across the road to stand half a chance of ever getting out. Fair enough. But box junctions are signal controlled, if the lights change you will block another stream of traffic. The fact the the drivers from the other stream all pile in and then block things when the lights change the other way again isn't a desparately good reason. If people used box junctions as they were designed, the the traffic flow in that area would improve slightly. I suspect that in enforcing the law more strictly they hope to have this effect

dtriggs

You misunderstand - I agree you are wrong to just park yr car in the box junction and wait, but I will regularly enter the box and wait a few seconds while traffic clears. I never get caught blocking traffic but would potentially get a ticket for being stationary in a junction. Box junctions are everywhere including T-Junctions - so if you pull out into one as it is as we agree the only way out, you may get a ticket. This is stupid.

OllyK

I find the approach is:
Look ahead in the queue, as the cars a couple forward of the last one the other side of the box junction start to move, pull forward at a crawl and move through the box junction slowly, by the time you get to the other side there should be sufficient space you to slip in behind

It doesn't take much to do, and you should find that even if the cars don't move very far, the bunching up that occurs when they stop again should be sufficient to create enough space for your car.

As for box T - junctions, that's a bit nastier, not seen one of those oop north I can imagine what happens at those.

suprabeast

not all box junctions are signal controlled.

Sometimes you have to pull into one even without a clear route out in anticipation of the route being clear soon. otherwise you'll never make progress.
The last thing you want is some dosey overpowered traffic warden taking notes of you and issuing a ticket

Mungo

Wrong. Traffic doesn't move anywhere because of drivers with an attitude like this.

OllyK

Hmm - I stand corrected, mind you been a few years since I have ventured in to London with a car. Mind you London seems to be a law unto itself with regard to traffic measures

dtriggs

Mungo - Wrong - Traffic doesnt move coz we have an outdated road system that cant handle the volume of traffic. Attitude of drivers has very little impact.

I agree that some stupid idiots who dont care less about other drivers and block junctions etc are deserving of the penalties, but the 'Letter of the law' is what I said. So you never go above 20 mph in a 20 limit, or 30 in a 30 ? You never go through amber traffic lights when you could have stopped ? If you say you do then you are that one in a million. Minor infringements that ease your route to work is all I am talking about. Dont be so holier than thou.

suprabeast

at the end of all of this, the thing i really disapprove of is the current government fine people for everything mentality.

How can Ken livingstone still be so popular??

Dracoro

Simple, there's a LOT of stupid people in London (and everywhere else for that matter )