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Thursday, 5 September 2013

Unintended consequence

Our street leads onto a busier road heading out of town. There are no lights at the junction, so our exit is usually a case of patient waiting for a gap in the traffic. Not a big deal in a small town like ours, but sometimes parked cars and vans have tended to obscure the view of oncoming traffic from both left and right. Not a huge problem - until recently.

Recently double yellow lines were painted near the junction to prevent cars and vans parking too close to it. Good idea one might have though. 

Not so – human behaviour has stepped in.

It has become obvious that cars and vans now tend to park nearer to the junction than before, obscuring the view quite badly. The lines are taken as explicit permission to park right up to them.

Before the yellow lines, most people used their common sense and apart from a few niggles tended to park well away from the junction. Now the situation is noticeably worse.

What next I wonder? I bet the yellow lines are never erased.

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