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I probably should have also mentioned that almost without exception they were clearly speeding. And it was pretty obvious that a lot of them were not making essential journeys. This was c.3pm on a Thursday afternoon.
Fox-
There does seem to be a lot of speeding about but then it's been obvious for a long time that many drivers only don't speed because they can't. In the days past I used to drive to swim early on a Sunday morning and was always overtaken on the 20mph stretches.
I'm not sure the 3pm on a Thursday means it isn't an allowed journey though. I've been doing our family weekly shop in the middle of the day because I can and the shop is perhaps quieter (I don't actually know since I haven't been at other times).
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And it was pretty obvious that a lot of them were not making essential journeys
How can you tell?
I don't drive but I sympathise with those doing so more now, seems an obvious way to minimise contact. -
I went out for a shop just now and noticed the same, especially, to no-one's surprise, on one-way streets. Obviously, as usual, most drivers are OK, but some let the side down massively. Stoke Newington High Street (the narrow bit) normally doesn't attract a lot of speeding owing to queues waiting there, but there was full-on, dangerous-feeling speeding by some drivers (with my in-built radar gun I'd say one was doing about 60mph). Not only was the bit south of Church Street empty of cars, but also the bit north of it, and I think it must have been that combination which prompted it. Even speeding along Rectory Road seemed faster than usual, again mainly because of one idiot. There were also three police cars that sped through, two southbound on Rectory Road, one unmarked minivan and a marked car, plus an unmarked 4x4 northbound in the High Street that nearly hit a pedestrian walking in the carriageway in the right hand lane.
Another thing I've noticed in Stoke Newington, although that effect may have abated by now, is that more cyclists than before seem to have been riding contraflow in the High Street, which at times has felt quite empty. While people have always done that, I saw four in a row doing it last week. None today, though.
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Slight dredge, but would imagine I was one of these 'boy racers', baseball cap and everything at 3pm on a thursday...
2 week shop for 3 in the gaps between meetings was going to be harder to achieve at what I had hoped was 'a quiet point in the day' on a bike than in a car...
But the point is valid - if I leave for an hour and a half to shop, where did the one empty parking spot I vacated go, if everyone is at home?
jellybaby
hoefla
Oliver Schick
lookitsluke
I think single occupancy car drivers aren't necessarily a problem. It's the ones that are have mum, dad, 2 kids, grandma, a dog and some beach towels that are perhaps troublesome.