Is that you blowing your horn?

The photo above shows the traffic lights by Bath railway station. Today I was on the 6/7 and was approaching from Manvers Street. You can see the light on the right is just turning green, there is also another light just behind the silver car. The car in front of me moved off when these lights went green. However as the driver went round in to Dorchester Street she saw the light which you can just see on the right. This light has blinkers on to stop it being seen from Manvers Street. There is also no white line on the road which further reinforces the fact this light is not for right turning traffic. This driver however stopped at this point. I gave a quick blast on the horn and the passenger pointed at the red light, I was in the middle of the junction still with a green light and a line of traffic behind me wondering why the stupid bus was not moving. I gave another blast and this time a well dressed gent sprinted across the road and said 'is that you sounding your horn?' I replied yes and before I could explain he shouted something along the lines of 'I say old man can you not see the red light?' By this time the lights had changed, I was now at a red light and the lady was at a 'green' light and moved off.  This is just another example of the Southgate fiasco and until some one is killed I can not see it changing soon. If you fancy a day out come to Bath and watch the traffic. it all ways entertains me!!!

Drive Green

Drive Green is a piece of technology that has been installed in all of our buses to improve driving standards and improve fuel efficiency. Each driving logs on each time they drive a bus. They, and the company can then see how good a driver they are by the number of 'events' that have occurred during their driving.I am a great fan of this and it would seem my style of driving suits the system as I am usually 'in the green' However my love of the system is quickly turning to hate. The last three days the system has shown me as driving when I have been tucked up in bed! This may seem funny and in part it is. Until you realise that all drivers scores are printed out for all to see. We are told that no action will be taken over the scores, but if I was running the company I would! The problem I can see is that once drivers like me see the system is fundamentally flawed they will have no faith in it and discontinue using it. The company will 'advise' drivers to use it and they, like me will produce each day proof the system is not working. I really hope the system can be made to work reliably as it is an exceptionally good tool to reduce company costs. However, given my observations the system is rapidly becoming a joke. After all this ranting it may be that my key is faulty, we shall see.

Midnight Walk

Last night was the Dorothy House midnight walk. Bath Raynet was asked to provide communications for the organiser and for the local council. Our role was to report on the progress of the walk and also to be on hand should a major incident occur. Bath is a difficult place for communications and normally we run a Talk Tru unit or relay station, this enables stations to use hand-held radio's without the need for complex set ups. We usually use a members house which has a clear view over the city. However he is currently in the RUH after some problems with his back. I hope he recovers soon. We were left with two options, one was to use simplex/direct comms or use GB3UB. Given the locations and the buildings it was decided to us GB3UB. Despite some problems within the South gate centre this worked very well. Myself and Fiona were in control and thankfully it was a very quite evening. There were no incidents, the first walker was in within an hour and a we were stood down at 0230. So what lessons have we learned from this exercise?

1. Even 'line of site' locations can still suffer problems.
2. Use of headphones a must.
3. GB3UB has proven it's use in 'emergency' situations. Though it would be good to have remote control of the logic.
4. Care must be taken at night in the city due to Pub and club users.
5. The car park is 30 feet under ground with no comms cover.

Bottom line though the event went very well and everyone performed well and I believe over £7000 was raised on the night. Well done to everyone.