Useful public information or...?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Wed 20 Dec 2017 13:29
Useful public information or...? - FoxyJukebox

Listening to a BBC Radio weather forecast this morning I heard the announcer say"" ........ some drizzle is expected this morning so drivers may well need their windscreen wipers on."""

Is this useful public information?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 14:30
Useful public information or...? - Doc

Some darkness is expected tonight, so drivers may well need their lights on!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 16:20
Useful public information or...? - Manatee

Some darkness is expected tonight, so drivers may well need their lights on!

There are plenty of drivers who need that advice.

Edited by Manatee on 20/12/2017 at 16:21

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 14:30
Useful public information or...? - Engineer Andy

Listening to a BBC Radio weather forecast this morning I heard the announcer say"" ........ some drizzle is expected this morning so drivers may well need their windscreen wipers on."""

Is this useful public information?

Must be their 'No **** Sherlock' part of the broadcast. Maybe they could give advice in their eveing broadcasts about 'using lights' as its 'now dark earlier'.

Maybe they are only reaching out to a good number of millenials, who, it seems, without someone there to tell them, will not use their windscreen wipers or lights and crash (the same sort as an ex-colleague of mine who wondered why he was getting so low mpg on his 1.4 petrol Ford Fiesta, only to respond what speed he was driving at on the local dual carriageway by saying '90mph for most of the time')

God help us...

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 16:12
Useful public information or...? - Bolt

Maybe they could give advice in their eveing broadcasts about 'using lights' as its 'now dark earlier'.

They need to do something about the drivers with no lights on, or are they just plain lazy/stupid?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 16:21
Useful public information or...? - Pondlife

I think having dashboards that are always illuminated even with the lights switched off contributes to this.

I can't remember when this trend started, but all the cars I had in the 1970s and 1980s only illuminated the dash when the lights were switched on. I think this was the case into the 1990s as well. But now, just about every car I know has the dashboard illuminated all the time.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 14:36
Useful public information or...? - nellyjak

Typical BBC Nanny state mentality.!....I don't need to be told that if it's going to be cold I need to wrap up warm if i go out...or if it rains and then freezes it's likely to be icy.

In over 70 years I've managed to work out many things for myself.!

Chuffin' 'eck...the world today is FAR different to the one I arrived in.

I am not a number...I am a free man..!! (if that's ok with the Missus..lol)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 14:44
Useful public information or...? - Manatee

It was a weather forecast. Just a chatty line from the presenter. You're all over-Medrewing.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 14:56
Useful public information or...? - Andrew-T

It was a weather forecast. Just a chatty line from the presenter.

Probably they were filling in a few seconds while deciding what came up next ?

Edited by Andrew-T on 20/12/2017 at 14:56

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 20:54
Useful public information or...? - alan1302

It was a weather forecast. Just a chatty line from the presenter.

Probably they were filling in a few seconds while deciding what came up next ?

Exactly - some people on here need to chill out a bit! LOL

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 14:50
Useful public information or...? - gordonbennet

We're well through the bottom of the barrell now and still scraping, once again only a facepalm will suffice.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 22:15
Useful public information or...? - Graham567

On a side note,why is it that the people who don't turn their lights on at dusk always drive either black or very dark cars?

I have taken to saying "Another black car without it's lights on" on virtually every journey.

Ironically it's the black cars that need their lights on the most!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 20 Dec 2017 22:12
Useful public information or...? - RT

Listening to a BBC Radio weather forecast this morning I heard the announcer say"" ........ some drizzle is expected this morning so drivers may well need their windscreen wipers on."""

Is this useful public information?

Sadly, some drivers are so incompetent they DO need to be given information at that level.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 21 Dec 2017 07:10
Useful public information or...? - badbusdriver

Steve Wright regularly tells radio 2 listeners when they should turn their lights on. I think this is a good thing in general, but when this happens doesn't seem to take into account how much earlier it gets dark in more Northern parts of the UK than where he is in London. The last time I happened to be listening and heard him say that it was time to put your lights on, it was already very dark in Aberdeenshire where I am, and this in turn meant that it would have been completely dark where my cousin lives in the Shetland islands!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 21 Dec 2017 18:43
Useful public information or...? - argybargy

The whimsical flannel increasingly indulged in by weather forecasters has two functions.

Firstly, its about making a "personality" out of someone whose job it is to convey very basic information, and secondly, to bulk out the length of the slot so that the rest of the studio staff have time to get ready for the next feature.

Nothing more sinister or ridiculous than that.

Edited by argybargy on 21/12/2017 at 18:44

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 21 Dec 2017 20:02
Useful public information or...? - alan1302

Nothing more sinister or ridiculous than that.

It's strange how some people can't work that out for themselves though and try and make out it is so much more than that.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 22 Dec 2017 16:17
Useful public information or...? - dixgas

I think you will find it get darker earlier in the south.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 22 Dec 2017 16:53
Useful public information or...? - Manatee

I think you will find it get darker earlier in the south.

Only in the summer. At this time of year, it is the other way round.

Flips at the equinoxes (I guess)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 22 Dec 2017 18:25
Useful public information or...? - Terry W

More useful info courtesy of the man who looks after motorway signs:

Torrential rain - I can see it as the road is kind of shiny with puddles

Fog - but I can still see the sign

Snow - usually evident by white stuff on the verges and even the road

Slow - congestion/accident - I forgot to change the message 3 hours ago

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 22 Dec 2017 18:29
Useful public information or...? - RT

I think you will find it get darker earlier in the south.

Only in the summer. At this time of year, it is the other way round.

Flips at the equinoxes (I guess)

And the other way round in Australia.

Even in summer, the difference in sunset time between Suffolk and Cornwall is significant..

Having been on Shetland on mid-summer's day, it simply doesn't get dark at night - just the "simmer dim"

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 26 Dec 2017 19:55
Useful public information or...? - Glaikit Wee Scunner {P}

I just saw someone turning down a two lane one way street , in the dark, with no lights on.

They must have forgotten to listen to their radio.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 26 Dec 2017 20:59
Useful public information or...? - FP

"Even in summer, the difference in sunset time between Suffolk and Cornwall is significant."

That is not much to do with Cornwall being further south than Suffolk (which it is - a bit), but more to do with Cornwall being further west, so that sunrise as well as sunset occur - throughout the year - later in Cornwall.

Edited by FP on 26/12/2017 at 20:59

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 27 Dec 2017 19:53
Useful public information or...? - Bilboman

There is almost unlimited scope for deeply sarcastic "Letterbocks" type letters to Viz contributions on this topic but I will limit myself to just a few.
* School run mums/dads in oversize cars - don't complain about the traffic jam around your kids' school (or anywhere else, come to that!) - you're part of the traffic jam!

* Given that a very low proportion of the driving public is gifted with telepathy, indicators can usefully be employed to give warning of direction of travel. Consult your car manual for more information.

* Next time you make a sudden lane change, idiotic contradictory manoeuvre or act of extreme selfishness which causes me considerable distress, be thankful you live in a country with extremely strict gun laws where most motorists vent trheir spleen with a sharp tap on the steering wheel and a few tut-tuts under their breath. Also be thankful that my Toyota has a feeble little peep-peep horn I hardly ever use, rather than a 500 dB train horn I would dearly love to install in its place.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 28 Dec 2017 10:35
Useful public information or...? - argybargy

I like the one about water going down the plughole anti clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern. Or maybe the other way round.

More to do with whether you turn on the left hand or right hand tap than what side of the equator you're on, I reckon.

Its one of those bits of common and received wisdom which, repeated often enough, becomes an ideal shoe-in when the conversation dries up at a particularly boring dinner party.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 28 Dec 2017 12:59
Useful public information or...? - RT

I like the one about water going down the plughole anti clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise in the Southern. Or maybe the other way round.

More to do with whether you turn on the left hand or right hand tap than what side of the equator you're on, I reckon.

Its one of those bits of common and received wisdom which, repeated often enough, becomes an ideal shoe-in when the conversation dries up at a particularly boring dinner party.

It always goes round the same way when I empty the bath - so not the taps, the bath is perfectly symettrical.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link