Strange Thoughts of a Strange Man

A couple of years ago, the A21 between Bromley Common and Bromley itself was rearranged slightly to make it easier to turn right into Magpie Hall Lane. The road was widened so that there were two lanes (one for through traffic and the other for the right-hand turn) and a traffic island put in place between the on-going lane and the turn-off. It is sort-of L-shaped to prevent cars from the other direction getting in the wrong lane.

You can see what it looks like here: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GFRC_enGB212GB212&q=map+%22bromley+common%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=uk&ei=lyxLSryMOJO8jAfHh6xm&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1

Last night, when I was driving to Bromley to see David, there was a stream of traffic ahead of me which included a Police van so everyone was keeping to the speed limit. A white van somewhere ahead of the Police van was trying to turn right into Magpie Hall Lane and was waiting for a suitable gap in the oncoming traffic.

Nothing out of the ordinary there. I’ve seen all sorts of vehicles turn right there in the past.

Shortly after the Police van passed the junction, the scene became very unusual, because it was then that I noticed a car heading towards me on the wrong side of the van turning right.

The car was between the van and the railings on the island. It should have been on the other side of the van with the regular stream of traffic.

It took me a little while to realise something wasn’t right with this scene and by that time the car ran out of room between the van and the railings and hit both before coming to a stop.

Luckily, the driver of the Police van noticed, turned on the blue flashing lights and immediately turned around.

How did the driver of the car get there? The “L” shape of the island should have prevented the traffic coming away from Bromley getting into that lane. He could have come from Magpie Hall Lane but he did seem to be driving a bit too quickly for someone turning right.

Was he from abroad and forget which side of the road we drive on in the UK? Was he drunk? Was he trying to put some distance between himself and the Police?

Unfortunately, I don’t think I shall ever find out.

Labels: Accident, Bromley, Police, Traffic

More often than not, I catch the bus to the station in the morning. I can walk but will only do so if no bus is due or I’m feeling really energetic. There are four buses that I can catch: R5, R8, R11 or the 358. The R5 seems to only run when there is a Z in the month, the R8 a little more often and the R11 has a detour past the hospital and doesn’t go all the way to the station in any case. So usually I catch the 358, operated by Metrobus.

There are two things that are guaranteed to happen on the 358: the first is that someone (usually a different person but it has happened with the same one) will forget that the 358 doesn’t go up the High Street at that time of the morning and, instead, goes past the end of the High Street and heads straight up to the station. The passenger will ring the bell or go crying to the driver who may or may not let them off even though they shouldn’t.

The second predictable event is the rather unpredictable effect of the traffic.

When there’s a school holiday we can drift up to the station from Orpington High Street in a couple of minutes. When school’s in, the traffic can be backed up from the station all the way down to the High Street and take anything from 5 minutes to 10 or 15 for us to get up the hill. Or not. Sometimes the traffic can be backed up but we make it to the station with very little delay. Other times we miss both the 7:56 and the 8:00.

The trouble is that you don’t know how much of a delay there will be until the bus turns the corner into Station Road at which point there are no more official stops.

Why does the traffic happen, I wonder?

I know there are lots of extra cars when there are no school holidays but there is more to it than that.

The only other causes of delay are the pedestrian lights just before the station, people joining the traffic from side roads and buses turning right from Station Road into Station Approach. Of these, the lights and the right-turn are the biggest contributors.

What can be done about it?

Very little, I think.

One idea is to swap the car park on the other side of the station with the bus terminus so that the buses turn right on a wider part of the road. That might help. Traffic would not be held up by buses turning right and the buses wouldn’t have to negotiate the very narrow Station Approach. The number of car park spaces would be reduced, of course, which would reduce the revenue clawed in from passengers who want to park at the station.

I don’t know if anyone who has any say in this sort of thing will read this blog. Probably not. And I don’t know who I could approach with the idea.

Until something is done (if anything can be done), I guess I’ll just have to put up with it or walk to the station.

Labels: Bus, Congestion, London Borough of Bromley, Metrobus, Orpington, Orpington Station, Traffic

Recently, because there have been so many changes in speed limit in the area between my house and David's and so many policemen jumping out of the bushes with speed guns, I have been pretty good at keeping to the speed limit. I do this everywhere by habit now. I just do not trust to luck anymore.

Last night I found myself driving in front of a Police car. This normally provokes two reactions from me. The first is similar to the feeling you have when there is a wasp in the room and you're eating something large and sweet and sticky, hoping that the wasp won't notice but at the same time trying to will it away.

The second is the feeling that I am doing something wrong or that the police in the car think that I am doing something wrong. I knew I was not, especially now that I drive under the speed limit by habit, but that didn't help. In fact, it made it worse. There was the nagging doubt that my care at remaining under the speed limit would look like I was trying to hide something else and that I was drunk or had just robbed a bank.

I'd be a terrible criminal.

Labels: Guilt, Police, Traffic