role reversal

[waider]

So far this week there have been three Luas collisions. Commentary from the political parties:
Opposition Party Person: People need to respect red lights at Luas junctions. (direct quote not given in article)
Incumbent Party Person: "It is not sufficient to say that road users need time to get used to sharing road space with the Luas. People need to be made more aware of the dangers and a simple remedy is to increase the number and the visibility of the warning signs."

Now, there are plenty warning signs. There are traffic lights; they are like other traffic lights, in that they indicate you should stop. That they are for the Luas rather than for other road users should have no bearing on whether people respect them or not - driving through a red light is a traffic offense regardless. For the cluefully challenged there are also HULKING GREAT TRACKS ON THE ROAD, and the trams have fairly distinctive horns. If you're still unaware of the tram after all that, you fully deserve to be rammed. Repeatedly.

It's nice to see that the knee-jerk statement of the opposite isn't solely confined to the parties not in power.

Comments

[suzylou.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the fucking big tram coming towards you.

I would have thought that would be a clue.

[waider.livejournal.com]

Well, sure, but that's sort of immediate YOU ARE DOOMED clue. We're talking about IF YOU DO THIS YOU WILL BE DOOMED clues. Like the big red button in that one episode of Father Ted.

Irish driving

[(Anonymous)]

Ah shure, but 'tis Ireland. We're used to pulling out into junctions and having The Other Guy stop and wait or drive around us.

To quote a very old SF story

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

"Think of it as evolution in action."

[pobig.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of when they put streetcar tracks down the middle of Spadina in Toronto. Elsewhere in the city streetcars share the road other traffic, but to replace the flotilla of buses that had been going up and down Spadina they decided to make the track lanes streetcar-only. After some hilarious experiments with rows of posts they had to run a high curb along both sides to keep cars out.

[waider.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the problem here is that there aren't actually tram lanes, and in some cases - actually, where most of the accidents to date have occurred, I think - you're talking about a street crossing the tracks at right angles.