Out of area driving

One of the problems of bus driving is that you drive in areas you are unfamiliar with. You know all the routes and maybe some of the sites/landmarks, but if someone asks 'do you know where ..... street is?' you have no idea. You do your best and if possible ask other passengers, but a lot of the time you end up not being much help, which is not what a passenger wants.
Today I was doing the 337/318 to Cribbs Causeway This is a 'driver breaker'. It is, at least a four hour round trip and like today full of traffic hold ups. (how do people commute?) However when I arrived at UWE a lady came up to me and said she had something for me. My mind raced a bit and then she returned with a little old lady in tow! A very pleasant lady but somewhat confused. It appears she had got on the wrong bus and the lady had taken her for a cup of tea and kept her company until I arrived. (there are still people like that) She said she knew where she was going so off we went. When we arrived at Cribbs the lady was still on the bus! I sat with her to try and find out exactly where she lived. With the help of another passenger it turned out she lived near Ikea in Eastville. Now, as I have said the problem of driving in an unfamiliar area is that you may know where things are but do not know what buses go where. Again with the help of the passenger and a local driver we worked out how she could get home. I felt bad having to leave her there so to make sure I gave her a note to give to the driver. I just hope she managed to get home but if you see a little old lady riding buses in Bristol, do me a favour and take her home.

Street Lights

Had a chance to watch BBC Breakfast today and there was a very interesting bit on councils switching off street lights. Now I can see no problem with this as working the times I do I can often travel the 12 miles to work and I am the only person about, yet for a lot of that journey the road is illuminated by lots of street lights. Perhaps roads could do with illumination but not every 100m especially as vehicle lighting is so good. My opinion is that the safer you try and make things the more risks people seem to take. My first car, a Morris Marina , although would go about 80mph you had no hope of stopping, so you didn't go 80mph! Most modern cars will go at least 100mph and do have the brakes etc to stop and be controlled. However, most motorists do not have the reactions/skills to travel safely at that speed but still take risks, seeming to believe that having an Air bag etc will protect them. So back to the original question. I am sure when I was young that street lights were turned off at about 0100, can anyone confirm this? Also would it not make sence to turn off traffic lights between 0100 and 0500 or replace them with a 'flashing amber' system.
If you missed the programme you can view it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11210497

Quiet Road

A few weeks ago the road outside the house was resurfaced. It was resurfaced with Micro Asphalt. This seems to be the new way around the BANES are and results in a very nice smooth surface. It means the road noise is reduced by about 50%, that makes a previously noisy area now at times deadly quiet which is very welcome. However I have discovered a rather nasty side affect of this. That is you can not always hear vehicles approaching! I wonder how long it will be before someone gets run over?