Getting Old?

Posted: Thu 30 January, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Getting Old(er), London, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This week I’ve been commuting into London on a daily basis – and for some reason it’s left me knackered. More importantly and relevantly, I don’t know why.

As has been written about before, I’ve done a lot of stupid commutes (both distance and time) and in truth the current one isn’t actually that bad – a drive to Milton Keynes train station, train into Euston, and then tube to Farringdon. It’s about 75 minutes door-to-door each way, so nowhere near the worst I’ve done.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve become more used to shorter commutes over the last eighteen months or so, I don’t know.

I’m still doing OK, and I’m sure I’d be fine with doing it longer-term as I get used to it again, but it’s just a bit weird that it’s leaving me knackered at the moment…

Micro-sleeps

Posted: Thu 9 January, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, News, People, Sleep - or lack thereof | Leave a comment »

If you ever wanted to be really scared by a statistic, try this one from this story from the BBC about ‘micro-sleeps’…

Of 1,000 drivers it interviewed, 45% of men admitted to micro-sleeping while driving, as did 22% of women.

A micro-sleep is an episode of light sleep lasting five to 10 seconds. The brain goes to sleep involuntarily and it is more likely to happen in a monotonous situation. People wake suddenly, often with a sharp jerk of the head.

I know I’ve driven behind people before that I’m sure were doing this – but maybe it’s more prevalent than I thought. Jesus.

Extreme Commuting

Posted: Fri 27 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, News, Travel, Work-related | 2 Comments »

The BBC today has an interesting piece about so-called ‘extreme commuters’ – those who travel more than three hours a day in order to get to/from work.

As regular readers know, I’ve been doing idiot commutes on-and-off for the last twelve years. I do have periods of commute sanity (the current phase has lasted most of the last two years) but I’ve also done plenty of long commutes. My own record has been a train commute on a daily basis from either Manchester to London (and back, of course) or Bath to London. The main section of that was roughly 1.5 hours for the Bath one, or 2ish for the Manchester one, and with additional time at each end for getting door-to-door.

More recently, the two long commutes have been from Suffolk to London, and Suffolk to Luton. The London one was two-and-a-bit hours door-to-door, and the Luton one about 90 mins each way.

What interested me the most (and to some degree defuddled me) was the person commuting by car and train from Trowbridge to Hook. According to the story, that takes 2.5 hours door to door. I’m bemused, because I know that just driving that route takes between 1.25 and 1.5 hours door to door. The train journey takes longer, and also includes two changes of train. Frankly, fuck that for a game of soldiers.

I know there is the minor advantage by train that you can get some stuff done. But for me, I’d rather get in and get the stuff done in the office.

Anyway, it’s an interesting article, but as always you kind of wonder about the decisions people make, and want to know more than is covered in the piece itself.

As for me, well, I’m quite sure that at some point in the coming year I’ll do some kind of daft commute again – although from where I am now, journeys to London etc. are nowhere near as much of a struggle as they were from Norfolk and Suffolk. But there’ll be something daft to do, I’m sure.

Those Tyres

Posted: Tue 17 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Customer Services, Driving, eTyres, Getting Organised | 2 Comments »

As you probably already know, over the weekend, I got my car fitted with two new front tyres by eTyres.  (This is relevant later)

What I didn’t know – and what Blue Witch pointed out in her comment on that post – is that actually, this isn’t the best plan when the car is a front-wheel-drive car. Basically, it means that the tyres with the best grip are on the driving wheels, and you’ve no way of knowing if the rear tyres are losing their grip, particularly in snow, ice, or heavy rain. So on a front-wheel-drive car, the tyres with the best grip should go on the rear tyres – meaning eTyres should’ve swapped things round, replaced the rear tyres with the new ones, and put the used rear tyres on the front wheels. (The eTyres fitter even confirmed that the rear ones will be OK for a good while yet)

Indeed, as BW then pointed out by email, eTyres even carry this advice on their own website.

Yesterday morning I emailed eTyres about this…

I recently ordered two new tyres from eTyres, order ref [xxx] to replace the two front tyres on my front-wheel drive car.

I have since been referred to various manufacturer information that says that on front-wheel drive cars, it is safest/best to have the new tyres on the rear wheels, and in a situation like mine, to move the used-but-safe rear tyres to the front, replacing the rear tyres with new tyres.

Can you explain to me why eTyres

  1. Do not inform their customers of this
  2. Why their tyre-fitters do not recommend/do this ?

This isn’t a one-off – earlier this year I did the same thing with eTyres on a different vehicle (also front-wheel drive) and had no advice on how this work should be done.

This is also the recommendation of Kleber Tyres and Michelin – see point 6

I’m interested to know why eTyres apparently ignore such advice, and potentially endanger their customers as a result.

As yet, I’ve had absolutely no response from the useless fuckwhistles. If I haven’t heard by the end of today, I’m going to call up and make a pain in the arse of myself that way…

Type A/B

Posted: Sat 30 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Introspective, People, Personality, Thoughts, Travel | 1 Comment »

Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing (again) a lot of driving, and the next week or so isn’t looking any different. (For example, next Friday is looking to be 350-400 miles on its own, with another 250-300 on the Sunday, minimum)

As always, when I drive I tend to be a Type-A personality, wanting to stop the sodding about and just get there. That’s par for the course with me, just get the job done and get on with it. And yes, that’s kind-of related to that laziness I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

However, when/if I get stuck in traffic jams or behind vehicles I can’t get past (road conditions, traffic, whatever) then I’m far more of a Type-B personality, and don’t get  stressed or annoyed about it. It’s a situation I can do nothing about, I can’t go anywhere or change anything, so I just have to accept it until I can change it.

It is (I understand) a bit of an odd state of affairs to be quite so middle-of-the-road on these personality types, where I can change from one to the other without apparent effect.  I don’t mind though – it means I’m less stressed-out than pure Type-As, and more effective/productive (usually) than the pure Type-Bs.

Besides, it’s not like me to be the stereotypical anything, so it fits in quite well with that aspect as well…

Wrapped Up

Posted: Wed 27 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, People, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Sorry, I know there’ve been a few ‘commuting-related’ and/or ‘driving-related’ posts this week, but for some reason it’s just how my brain’s working.

Anyway.

As things get colder and darker while commuting, as well as the things with headlights, I’ve also noticed another weird  thing of late – particularly among colleagues when arriving/leaving the office.

They’re all wearing their coats (and in at least one case, a hat as well) while driving. And I don’t get that. Most of these people are driving at least 15-20 minutes, and in some cases much more. There’s other people I’ve noticed doing the same, but they work for different companies etc., so I’ve no idea how far they drive.

OK, they might be getting into a cold car. (I suppose) But – to me, anyway – it’s better to warm up the car a bit, let the heater do it’s thing, and appreciate a warm car. Then when you’re getting out, put on a coat/jacket/whatever to keep that warmth in while you’re walking to the office.

Surely if you keep the coat/jacket on while driving, you don’t feel the benefit of it when you do get out into the cold? And you keep the car colder, because you don’t need the heater on, so it’s all a bit counter-productive.

Or have I (as usual) missed something relevant?

Maladjusted

Posted: Tue 26 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, People, Thoughts | 2 Comments »

As the nights have drawn in, obviously I’m driving home in the dark.

It amazes me how many people drive with either one headlight out (and in some cases both, which utterly baffles me) or really badly adjusted lights.

There also seems to be a newer trend for people driving on dual-carriageways and motorways with their full-beam headlights on, and refusing to dip them.

To me, lights at this time are just one of those essential things, and I try to make sure that they’re as safe and sorted as possible. I just don’t really get why so many other drivers don’t seem to think that such things are important.

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