Idiots

Even odder than the daft behaviour I posted as 'Cars sunk' on 1/4/06.
It is hard to believe that anyone, even a motorist, could be so stupid
as to drive straight into a deep ford just because their SatNav told
them to.

It strengthens my conviction that there is a negative correlation
between intelligence & chosing car travel.

Perhaps it is a case of the phenomenon sociologist Anthony Giddens
called 'techno-primitivism' - where people become so used to relying
upon technology which they do not understand that they treat it in much
the way pre-scientific people treated magic, and believe in it in the
face of all common sense. (Maybe confusing info. from the sky with
divine inspiration and thinking they could drive on water ??).

Jon

heed said:

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1757228,00.html

And another
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4924242.stm
Next we'll have a story about SatNav being blamed for speeding

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

Tony Raven said:

heed said:

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1757228,00.html

And another
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4924242.stm
Next we'll have a story about SatNav being blamed for speeding

Or a crash where someone's not seen because the driver has no night vision
due to a backlit sat nav situated right next to the wing mirror.

--
Ambrose

In article <[email hidden]>, Tony Raven (junk@raven-

family.com) said:

heed said:

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1757228,00.html

And another
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4924242.stm
Next we'll have a story about SatNav being blamed for speeding

And even

<URL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4879026.stm>

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Odd, is it not, how all roads lead inexorably to David Icke?

"Dave Larrington" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Tony Raven (junk@raven-

family.com) said:

heed said:

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1757228,00.html

And another
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4924242.stm
Next we'll have a story about SatNav being blamed for speeding

And even

<URL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4879026.stm>

--

And there's more!

http://tinyurl.com/np24c

The country lane in Birch Green, Essex referred to is at the end of the lane
I live in, so has provided some amusement, but when the article refers to it
as an unclassified road it is wrong. It's a farm track with a name which is
marked on the OS map as a public footpath only. (Thinks, being a law abiding
sort of chap I've refrained from riding the mountainbike there but perhaps
I'll just say that the satnav made me do it ;-) )

And of course there was the Dutch juggernaut which turned up yesterday
straight off the ferry actually trying to find Birch Green. The driver, who
must be the only Dutchman in existence without a word of English (in the
wrong job surely?), had programmed his satnav for Birch Green, without
knowing that he wanted the one in Hertfordshire. Took some turning round
that one did!

Quoted message said:

It is hard to believe that anyone, even a motorist, could be so stupid
as to drive straight into a deep ford just because their SatNav told
them to.

My TomTom once directed me on to a motorway via a service ramp. In my
defence, it was dark at the time, there were no street lights, and I
didn't even see the motorway until I emerged on to the hard shoulder (I
was listening to the voice instructions rather than looking at the
screen).

I'm a bit more wary about trusting it since that incident, but it's
easy to be misled - most of the time they work really well, and I can
see how you could build up enough trust to blindly follow the
instructions even when they seem a bit odd.

Although driving into a river in broad daylight is just silly.

d.

heed said:

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha
http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1757228,00.html

Btw, that story is even funnier when you see it in print with the
accompanying picture.

d.

Dave Larrington said:

<URL:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4879026.stm>

"I have committed a lot of traffic offences because of my sat nav,"
he says. "It often tells me to go the wrong way down one-way streets
in Paisley. It tells me to take right-hand turns when it is illegal and
it sends me down bus and taxi lanes. I bought it to make my life
easier, but it is useless."

Well, there you are. These things are no help to the terminally stupid.
--
Dave...

Tony Raven said:

Next we'll have a story about SatNav being blamed for speeding

Quoted message said:

From the link posted by Budstaff:

***************
Stewart Lockhart, an ambulance service employee from Alexandria, near
Dumbarton, who has installed a £400 TomTom system in his car, has
discovered that his increased reliance on the technology has meant he
has fallen foul of the law.

"I have committed a lot of traffic offences because of my sat nav,"
he says. "It often tells me to go the wrong way down one-way streets
in Paisley. It tells me to take right-hand turns when it is illegal and
it sends me down bus and taxi lanes. I bought it to make my life
easier, but it is useless."
***************

As your teacher always used to say when you blamed your mate for
leading you astray: "If Jimmy told you to jump off a cliff, would you?"

d.

heed said:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1757228,00.html

Sometimes its the locals who suffer:

http://www.theregister.com/2006/03/08/satnav_menaces_somerset_village/

| A quiet Somerset village has been turned into a rat-run because of
| satellite navigation systems, residents claim. Locals in Barrow
| Gurney say up to 10,000 vehicles a day are taking the road through
| the centre of their village - instead of the main road - in order to
| get to Bristol Airport.

I get a deep and satisfying sense of schadenfreude a couple of
mornings a year when I come across a HGV stuck on a tight narrow bend
on an "access only for motor vehicles" lane on my way to work, causing
gridlock for all the middle class rat-runners. It's not so much fun
for the local farmer, though, when his wall gets knocked down as they
try to maneuver their way round.

<http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=@0,0&ll=53.694896,-1.8486&spn=0.001016,0.00258&t=h>

At least one of them has been a foreign driver, presumably following a
GPS. It can't help that just beyond the junction at one end of the
lane the main road goes under a low railway bridge with limited
clearance.

--
Alan J. Wylie http://www.wylie.me.uk/
"Perfection [in design] is achieved not when there is nothing left to add,
but rather when there is nothing left to take away."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Alan J. Wylie said:

a HGV stuck on a tight narrow bend
on an "access only for motor vehicles"

Many moons ago, I had a Saturday job at a supermarket in the centre of
quite an old town. The HGVs delivering had explicit instructions which
route to go through the town to get to and from the store, which
appeared on a map as being somewhat long and convoluted. Occasionally
a driver would decide they knew better and take a short-cut; one took
three hours to extract from the three buildings it had managed to wedge
itself between.

R.

Richard said:

Alan J. Wylie said:

a HGV stuck on a tight narrow bend
on an "access only for motor vehicles"

Many moons ago, I had a Saturday job at a supermarket in the centre of
quite an old town. The HGVs delivering had explicit instructions which
route to go through the town to get to and from the store, which
appeared on a map as being somewhat long and convoluted. Occasionally
a driver would decide they knew better and take a short-cut; one took
three hours to extract from the three buildings it had managed to wedge
itself between.

Nobody has mentioned lemmings yet.

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:00:57 +0100 someone who may be "Ambrose
Nankivell" <[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

Or a crash where someone's not seen because the driver has no night vision
due to a backlit sat nav situated right next to the wing mirror.

Could that also be a problem for cyclists with these gadgets?

I wonder if a cyclist would be stupid enough to ride into a river
(with a depth gauge reading around 1m in the newspaper photograph I
saw) just because a gadget told them to do so? I suspect not.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

"David Hansen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:00:57 +0100 someone who may be "Ambrose
Nankivell" <[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

Or a crash where someone's not seen because the driver has no night vision
due to a backlit sat nav situated right next to the wing mirror.

Could that also be a problem for cyclists with these gadgets?

I wonder if a cyclist would be stupid enough to ride into a river
(with a depth gauge reading around 1m in the newspaper photograph I
saw) just because a gadget told them to do so? I suspect not.

I suspect our driver/rider feedback systems are a little bit more
sophisticated. Nothing beats wet feet for indicating the depth!

David Hansen said:

I wonder if a cyclist would be stupid enough to ride into a river
(with a depth gauge reading around 1m in the newspaper photograph I
saw) just because a gadget told them to do so? I suspect not.

Unless of course there's a river that's burst its banks in a flood and the
news cameras are out. There's always some pillock on a bike stuffing their
drive train up (mind you, they're probably 50 quid Halfords jobs and
weren't far from being stuffed before hand).

Graeme

In article <[email hidden]>, David Hansen

() said:

I wonder if a cyclist would be stupid enough to ride into a river
(with a depth gauge reading around 1m in the newspaper photograph I
saw) just because a gadget told them to do so? I suspect not.

I well recall a year or two ago when half of London disappeared under
water in the space of an afternoon, seeing a chap on TV riding up the
Uxbridge Road up to his waist in water...

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Frozen gorillas can be used to control the temperature of a warm and
stuffy room.

David Hansen said:

I wonder if a cyclist would be stupid enough to ride into a river
(with a depth gauge reading around 1m in the newspaper photograph I
saw) just because a gadget told them to do so? I suspect not.

Are you referring to Myra, formerly of this Parish and World Bog
Snorkelling on a Bike Champion?

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

Dave Larrington said:

I well recall a year or two ago when half of London disappeared under
water in the space of an afternoon, seeing a chap on TV riding up the
Uxbridge Road up to his waist in water...

He may have been on a dolphin, whose drive trains do not mind a bit of
water. Actually that sounds like the makings of a Larrington signature
quote. "Flooded roads can be easily forded by riding on a convenient
dolphin."

--
Dave...

"davek" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My TomTom once directed me on to a motorway via a service ramp.

What's a service ramp, and where was this?