High Milage
Posted: Mon 9 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), M1, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over the last month I’ve done a fair number of miles, including two trips to the North-East, one to the North-West, and one to the South-West, as well as a couple to closer parts of the country.
Indeed, by my rough reckoning I’ve done about 1,700 miles this month on those journeys, as well as my usual 600 of commuting – and as regular readers know, that’s one of my lowest-mileage monthly commutes in recent years. Indeed – having just checked – it’s the shortest commute since I worked in Oldham while living in Manchester. (And that took longer to do by far, as it was reliant on public transport)
The next few weeks will be quieter though – I’m done for long-mileage trips for the next month or so at least, which is no bad thing.
The Slab has done well on it all though. When I got home last night, the odometer read 99,500 exactly. The 100,000 mile service is booked in for just before Christmas, so the timing on that should be pretty spot-on, all things considered. Even if I go slightly over by then, it’ll still be within the next 1,000 – all told, no bad thing.
The only thing I really miss on Slab from Mondeo, it turns out, is cruise-control. I never used to use it much, but it does come in handy on long motorway drives where your leg doesn’t move much from one position on the accelerator. It meant I could engage the cruise-control for a couple of minutes, stretch and move my leg, and stop my knee from totally locking up. Instead, getting home last night I must’ve looked like a pirate getting out the car, for the first couple of minutes it really wouldn’t move well at all.
Commuting in Half-Term
Posted: Wed 29 May, 2013 Filed under: Commuting, Driving, M1, People, Thoughts Leave a comment »Currently, the schools around where I live and work are on a break for half-term , and the effect this has had on my commute is just ridiculous.
During term-time, a “good” commute is 35-45 minutes door-to-door in the morning, and a “bad” one can be an hour plus. The difference in departure time to change from a good to a bad one can be less than ten minutes.
Today, my door-to-door morning run – even with still fairly heavy traffic on the M1 – was 22 minutes. That’s nearly half the time it takes during term-time.
I know more parents drive their kids to school “these days” (and yes, I also know what an old fart that makes me sound like) but the difference in traffic-flow really is surprising, even with that knowledge.
Foggy
Posted: Fri 8 March, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Fog, M1, People, Stupidity, Travel Leave a comment »Last night and this morning, my drive from/to work was extremely foggy. This morning was worse, but even last night was pretty entertaining.
What always gets me though is the way people handle foggy conditions when they’re driving – particularly with regard to one of the banes of my life, foglights.
At night, it’s exceptionally rare to need foglights – they’re only for times where visibility is exceptionally low, and you’ve no chance of seeing the vehicle in front of you without the additional lights. The good old Highway Code says
Rule 236 : You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226)
Rule 226 : “You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres (328 feet). You may also use front or rear fog lights but you MUST switch them off when visibility improves.”
With lights on at night, it’s exceptionally rare to not be able to see the car 100 metres ahead of you.Yet most of the fuckknuckle cunts are there, belting along with their foglights on.
And yet this morning, when it was actually really bad visibility, most people didn’t put their lights on at all, let alone the foglights.
I truly do not understand people.
Congestion Lane (Again)
Posted: Thu 28 February, 2013 Filed under: Commuting, Driving, M1, People, Travel Leave a comment »Last night, I finally saw the M1 Congestion Scheme in full effect – vehicles in all four lanes, using the whole thing properly.
The only problem?
All the signs were saying “Hard shoulder for emergency use only”, so the scheme wasn’t *actually* active at the time.
Some days I really despair.