Grey Fox


Gripes

It's strange is'nt it, how actions carried out for the best of reasons can result in a total no no.

Take for example, the fact that in the UK every School Bus has to carry a symbol depicting children on the front and rear of the bus. Presumeably to make other drivers aware of the cargo.

Very commendable you may say, so what's the beef? The beef is, and bullocks it may be too(Steady! Ed), that these signs are carried on the windscreen and rear window of the vehicle. The signs obscure approx 1/3rd of the windscreen and almost half the rear view.

How can this possibly be beneficial to the driver and to the safety of the precious load of children?

If these signs are to be carried they should be attached to the body work of the bus where they will be visible to other drivers but will not cut down the vision of the bus driver.

Now the pimples. Not those that angrily stared back from the mirrors of adolescence, but those found in the streets at every junction and pedestrian crossing.

They are there to help the blind and partially sighted find where and how to cross the road. The pimples are on bright terracotta coloured bricks, strange as the people they are designed to help see them, if at all, with difficulty.

What the pimples actually do is create an uncomfortable surface to walk on encouraging turned ankles and stubbed toes. They are also difficult to wheel pushchairs/prams over.

The result, an attempt to help those with sight difficulities produces an expensive health hazard and irritant for all.

Now for the big one. London has an underground railway system known colloquially as the "tube".

Unlike more sensible systems such as those in Paris and Moscow there is a regional pricing structure not a single ticket price.

The result is a need for complicated cash fed automatic ticket machines.

As the money inserted, and the fares, vary there is a need for change delivery from the machines.

The change for the machines can only be inserted by the staff who run the booking office, supplying season tickets to personal customers.

Here's the rub: a machine runs out of change, displays "exact fare only". All those without the exact fare go to the window to buy their tickets. Huge queue (Line). Staff unable to refill machines as the queue at the window need serving. Everybody goes ballistic.

It's usaually first thing on a Monday with a hangover.


Answer single ú1 fare throughout system.

Reward Knighthood for me.


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