What a waste of effing money

[Sinned]

Our supposedly cash-strapped council has just had the brainwave of defining local speed limits for the built-up area around us. So some roads are 30mph and some 20mph which is fair enough as it goes. So take our road for example. Ours is a cul-de sac only about 100 yards long. At the entrance to the road they have erected a sign on both sides of the road with 20 as you go into our street and 30 as you exit it. The road is so short that unless you had a Veyron you'd do well to exceed 20 and safely stop again. Now there are major streets in our locality with lots and lots of short cul-de-sacs off them and they have put these signs on every street. This is a council that made a major road in the town centre bus and taxi only and levied fines on motorists who broke this only for the council to be told that what they did was illegal and they have to refund all the fines. Common sense seems to be extracted as a precondition for employment by the council! Any other examples?

[Departed Member]

Any other examples?? Yeah, most laws in the US (municipal, state, or federal (national/Congress).

But, this one cracks me up:

1461843_1569599029927789_285736837359245333_n.jpg

Another example is the plastic bag ban in my area of California. I don't agree with plastic bag bans because I don't see them as harmful to the environment, or rather, no harmful than any other type of bag. But, the idiocy of the law is that it is done in one county only, in the name of protecting the beach environments in our county. However, just 20 min. south of the beaches in our county is the next county, where plastic bags flow freely and plentifully because they are not banned from production and sale. Thus, plastic bags flow into our county and onto our beaches in pretty much the same quantity as before the ban in our county.

If you are going to do a plastic bag ban (again, I disagree with them, but that's neither here nor there right now), then do it state wide and not on the county level. It does absolutely nothing when the counties right next to us allow plastic bags and thus they flow in freely.

[Taj]

Many stupid rules and codes are the result of someone afraid of a lawsuit. Solution: reduce the number of lawyers.If lawyers could not hold political office there would be a lot of vacancies.

[skirted_in_SF]

If you are going to do a plastic bag ban (again, I disagree with them, but that's neither here nor there right now), then do it state wide and not on the county level. It does absolutely nothing when the counties right next to us allow plastic bags and thus they flow in freely.

Recent news report suggest that bag bans are becoming widespread in California and on their way to becoming a state ban. That said, I frequently sit on a pier over San Francisco Bay at lunch and I rarely saw a bag in the water (sometimes a lot of other garbage from take out lunches when the wind was up). That has always made me doubt the "statistics" about (insert large number of your choice) of bags blowing into the bay. I think the ban has reduced the number bags blowing down the street though.

I stopped using plastic bags from stores years ago when I started routinely carrying a fabric bag (aka purse) on my weekend shopping trips and reusing the paper bags from the grocery store. This is mostly from my small c conservative principles of not needlessly wasting resources.

[Kilted_John]

With respect to the speed limit signs, it'd make more sense to just put up a sign at the city limits saying Speed Limit 30 mph for arterials and 20 mph for residential streets (or 25 mph), unless otherwise posted.

Re: the plastic bag ban, Seattle has it, yet I can go just outside the city limits and have plastic bags if I want. I usually use paper bags, since they don't fail as easily and carry more.

-J

[Big and Bashful]

Here in the land of Scottishness they have just passed a law making shops charge for plastic bags. I think this is quite a good approach, it should cut down on the number of discarded bags and encourage shoppists to use the heavier re-usable "bag for life" options, while leaving you the option of paying for disposable bags when you forget your heap of re-useable bags. I can't remember when I last saw paper bags, not for many years. With the climate we have most years, disintegrating paper bags never worked that well anyway.

[Kirbstone]

It is now some 10 years since plastic bags disappeared from shops nationwide here. Initially they were charging 15p per bag (Gov't levy) but that went out very quickly in favour of plastic or material re-usables, so our countryside is no longer littered with them.
They now seriously need to tackle the fast food cartons as well, e,g, KFC and McDs.

For my sins I'm prepared to be seen in public toting a designer Manbag with 'Lidl' or 'Dunnes Stores' on it!

Tom.

[Couya]

It's good to know at least one country has had the courage to outlaw plastic bags, Tom. Congratulations, Eire.
Here in Spain, many supermarkets have taken to charging 0,02 € for reusable bags -- though I have rarely seen anyone re-use one. It beats me that people prefer plastic that cuts into your hands if the bag is full, rather than bringing a backpack (as I do for my few needs) or a trolley/cart for a family load.
There is however no political move to phase bags out. In fact, they are making us use more of them. More than once, I have been told by employees that I must not only put my fruit and veg in plastic bags, I must also use disposable plastic gloves to pick up the goods. This seems to be a law, since, at a small greengrocery, I was told that of customers did not comply, the shopkeeper would be fined.
Perhaps they'll change their minds when all the floating plastic washing up on the beaches discourages tourists from coming to Spain.
Martin

[crfriend]

Perhaps they'll change their minds when all the floating plastic washing up on the beaches discourages tourists from coming to Spain.

The problem is that the stuff doesn't wash up on the local shores, it accretes in the middle of the various oceans in spots known as gyres (e.g. The North Pacific Gyre) which have very little current to move the stuff around and into which many other currents very slowly flow. It is there that the worst damage occurs, mainly down to sea life getting the plastic into their digestive tracts, and where it makes a hell of a mess.

Bravo Eireann!

[Departed Member]

Many stupid rules and codes are the result of someone afraid of a lawsuit. Solution: reduce the number of lawyers.If lawyers could not hold political office there would be a lot of vacancies.

See, I would say reform the law books, taking laws off of the books that punish actions that in no way harm others (most drug laws, traffic laws, zoning laws, most criminal offenses, licensure laws, etc.), lessening the # of laws we have, and this would substantially reduce the # of lawyers and the need for them. If laws could be read, understood, and judged by simple, everyday common sense folk, you would have no need for lawyers save perhaps actual crimes where someone else's rights were harmed with malice aforethought (intention), like murder, extensive theft, treason, etc, where lawyers would be needed to defend the accused, or perhaps for some civil suits where a knowledge of case law is needed.

Now, in the US at least, and probably similarly in the UK, the laws are so voluminous and so difficult to understand that lawyers themselves can't possibly know or understand them and all and have to specialize in certain types of law, and where laws punish anything and everything gov.'s and the people want to punish (even tho the action harms no one), the environment is ripe for a plethora of lawyers. Everyone is a potential and very likely actual criminal in such a society as ours where its impossible to know/understand the law now and everyone breaks the law criminally several times throughout their life unknowingly. Under such a system, government and lawyers thrive off together off the backs of the people by making a living of putting non-criminal, every day joes on trial, fining them, and/or sending them to prison. It's an unholy union and business of injustice. The gov., perhaps with the help of the lawyers, write the laws, creating as many potential criminals as possible, the gov. lawyers prosecute these unjust laws as much as possible, overcharging so they can scare the accused into a plea bargain, and the defense lawyers benefit financially by throwing out their "services" for defense. Talk about a den of thieves! People think government and business/corporations shouldn't be joined together, which is true, but letting the lawyers and gov. get in cahoots is even scarier. No wonder the US has the highest percentage of imprisoned people in the world. So much for the "land of the free." I like to say it's the "land of the fee and home of the knave/slave."

[stevelous]

Paper bags have appeared in our Lidl shop but cost more than the plastic ones. We tend to use the free bags from other supermarkets as bin liners, they are the perfect size and are often biodegradable and best of all free.

We have the same 20 mph zone on our cul-de-sac as it is a home zone (traffic and people sharing the same space), no real kerbs and smooth block paving. but I agree that putting 20mph signs everywhere is a waste of money.

[Sinned]

In our street the speed limit is 20mph and the road I turn into is 30mph. If I turn right out of our road then within another couple of hundred yards it then goes to 40mph. Within about another mile it's 60mph.

[r.m.anderson]

In the USA many years ago most of the western states with long stretches of highway the unposted
speed was: "REASONABLE AND PROPER" !
The Dakota's (S & N) Montana Wyoming Nevada had such speeds and if your vehicle could SAFELY go
80 - 90 - 100 mph well that was reasonable and proper within limits of weather and road conditions.
Statue speed limits were for urban areas in or near towns and cities.
Unfortunately let the legal hounds loose with the safety regulators and the government imbeciles who
think that they know what is best for everyone and how to spend every last penny in the tax funding
for frivolous signs and what do you have - definitely a whole lot of corrupted interpretation of anything SPEED !

A license to drive should include a full understanding of the LAWS of physics and meteorology (weather) !

[crfriend]

A license to drive should include a full understanding of the LAWS of physics and meteorology (weather) !

I wish!

I propose 'cell 'phone service by the Mossad. Use the 'phone at a speed greater than 20 MPH and it explodes next to your head. This would cause problems for a bit, but at least the problems with the resulting unpiloted vehicles would be isolated one-offs rather than a continuous onslaught, which is what one gets today. The number of unpiloted vehicles would plummet rather quickly I suspect. (I'd stay off the road for a few days following the actual announcement; prudence pays, after all.)

I like "reasonable and proper" -- so long as the driver is actually driving. In this vein, it's interesting to note that drivers who actually pay attention to their surroundings and seem to enjoy the act of driving motor vehicle are actually a joy to be around -- and they now stick out, to the point where I recognize that personality on my commute; what a joy it is!

[r.m.anderson]

I propose 'cell 'phone service by the Mossad. Use the 'phone at a speed greater than 20 MPH and it explodes next to your head. This would cause problems for a bit, but at least the problems with the resulting unpiloted vehicles would be isolated one-offs rather than a continuous onslaught, which is what one gets today. The number of unpiloted vehicles would plummet rather quickly I suspect. (I'd stay off the road for a few days following the actual announcement; prudence pays, after all.)

I would one UP that to when you turn the cell phone on the ignition switch on the vehicle is disabled and turn OFF.
One could use one or the other but not both.

With cars that have the hands free phone device (Ford SYNC etc) - I have one - I will not answer the call or if
it looks important (caller ID) just a quick answer - call back when I am off the road and parked - click call ended.
When I call known associates with cell phones I always after making contact - say return the call when it is safe to do so !
The all important factor here is knowing your limits of your ability to Multi-task.

Certainly man can MULTI-TASK but there are limits when safety comes into play.
Cell phones can be nothing short of trouble - sort of like the sorcerers apprentice gone amok as regards to safety.