The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
RSS feeds: v0.91; v1.0 (RDF); v2.0; Atom.
3:14pm on Wednesday, 16th May, 2007:
Anecdote
So, yesterday I got a call from my elder daughter to pick her up after an exam. I drove to where she was waiting in Colchester, and I set off back. All went well until I reached the bridge over the A12.
The bridge in question is temporary and only has one lane. Vehicle flow is controlled by traffic lights. This is tiresome, but in the past it's always done its job. Now, though, the new bridge is almost ready. They're closing the A12 over the weekend to work on it. To prepare, there are large bridge components stacked up all over the place. The traffic at one side of the temporary bridge can't see what's at the other side.
Yesterday, coming across the bridge in the opposite direction was a roadsweeper. The roadsweeper was sweeping the bridge as it came, so it wasn't very fast. Indeed, it was so slow that the lights at our side changed before anyone in our line could see it, so a bunch of cars set off as you do when the lights are on green. Then, they met the roadsweeper. The roadsweeper with half a dozen cars behind it from other other direction. The cars from our direction had to reverse out, but of course by then they also had half a dozen cars behind them. So there were two stationary lines of traffic facing off in the middle of a temporary bridge so narrow that it was impossible for them to squeeze past each other or to do a three point turn.
It would have been quicker for my daughter to walk the mile from that bridge to our house...
Referenced by Places I'd Like to Visit #6.
Latest entries.
Archived entries.
About this blog.
Copyright © 2007 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).