Monday parking hootenanny

tim_c said :

IrishPete said :

I’ve driven recently with a blown headlight, because it blew at a time when Supercheap wasn’t open (and nowhere else either where I could be guaranteed to get the right globe, and even there it took two goes), and it took my a day or two to get to them and get the right globe and get it fitted.

So let’s not assume everyone is being a cheapskate – the light may only recently have blown.

IP

As have I, and I acknowledge that we generally use our headlights at night when the globe-selling shops are shut (although most decent sized petrol stations (ie. 24 hour) carry a range of globes – I however, opted to get a ‘better than standard’ replacement which I got a Repco on my way to the office the following day, and fitted the new pair in under 10 minutes when I got home that evening).

Noting that you may well drive around for a day or two before you could get a replacement globe installed, let’s assume you blew one every five years – even if you drove around for three weeks before getting a new globe installed, you’d only be driving around ~1% of the time with only one headlight. I’d estimate there are substantially more than 1% of Canberra cars driving around with a headlight out (in parts of Tuggeranong it must be approaching 25%).

Mine lasted about three years and I have them on 99% of the time. After blowing and replacing one, the other blew within about a month. Impressive.

IP

jb’s efforts at no.7 are available pretty well any time you go past this spot. i have inquired from time to time of a few drivers alighting from their unlawfully parked vehicles if they were not, as youths, instructed in the dark arts of ‘reading’, but have drawn only ire or blank looks…

In my 2009 model car, you have to remove the battery to replace one headlight, and part of the air intake system for other. I have had one of each blow in the last year. I could probably replace on in five or ten minutes easy enough now, but the first time took longer, and involved more swearing at the small handed idiots who designed the car.

IrishPete said :

I happened to be standing on Malbon St (King’s Highway) in Bungendore on Sunday at about 6pm. You could have sold tickets. In about 10 minutes I saw three vehicles pulled up by a highway patrol car. Two had their foglights on, but I don’t know if that was the reason they were pulled over, or if they were speeding through the town, nor whether the officer told them to turn them off (the first drove away when I wasn’t looking, the second was still stopped when I left).

The poor cop never even had time to move between each “pull”. It must have been like fishing in a barrel (is that the right metaphor?).

IP

There are two reasons for that – firstly, in NSW they actually have Police patrolling, and secondly, NSW Police actually do something about fog lights being used illegally. Here in the ACT, if you happen to chance a glimpse of a Police car actually driving around, it’ll probably even have the foglights switched on too.

Drive around Sydney for a bit and you’ll notice there are far less people using fog lights in clear weather compared to ACT where it seems nearly everybody that has fog lights has them switched on by default.

IrishPete said :

I’ve driven recently with a blown headlight, because it blew at a time when Supercheap wasn’t open (and nowhere else either where I could be guaranteed to get the right globe, and even there it took two goes), and it took my a day or two to get to them and get the right globe and get it fitted.

So let’s not assume everyone is being a cheapskate – the light may only recently have blown.

IP

As have I, and I acknowledge that we generally use our headlights at night when the globe-selling shops are shut (although most decent sized petrol stations (ie. 24 hour) carry a range of globes – I however, opted to get a ‘better than standard’ replacement which I got a Repco on my way to the office the following day, and fitted the new pair in under 10 minutes when I got home that evening).

Noting that you may well drive around for a day or two before you could get a replacement globe installed, let’s assume you blew one every five years – even if you drove around for three weeks before getting a new globe installed, you’d only be driving around ~1% of the time with only one headlight. I’d estimate there are substantially more than 1% of Canberra cars driving around with a headlight out (in parts of Tuggeranong it must be approaching 25%).

bigred said :

Can we also have a bad driving or worst foglights weekly item?

I happened to be standing on Malbon St (King’s Highway) in Bungendore on Sunday at about 6pm. You could have sold tickets. In about 10 minutes I saw three vehicles pulled up by a highway patrol car. Two had their foglights on, but I don’t know if that was the reason they were pulled over, or if they were speeding through the town, nor whether the officer told them to turn them off (the first drove away when I wasn’t looking, the second was still stopped when I left).

The poor cop never even had time to move between each “pull”. It must have been like fishing in a barrel (is that the right metaphor?).

IP

tim_c said :

bigred said :

Can we also have a bad driving or worst foglights weekly item?

Or the unobservant wallies who drive around with only one headlight on. Are they really so unobservant that they don’t notice a light out right in front of their eyes, or just so cheap they can’t afford $8 for a new globe?! And what other essential maintenance are they not noticing, or too cheap to carry out?

Globes aren’t always that cheap – a brand name replacement for my car was over $50 (Supercheap was about $20, but took a bit of tracking down – got the wrong one first time, despite using their guidebook) and was very fiddly to fit. Most people would have been up for a visit to a dealer/mechanic to fit it, at significant expense and inconvenience (need to find the time to do it). Some vehicles have sealed beam headlights, which are also expensive to replace.

I’ve driven recently with a blown headlight, because it blew at a time when Supercheap wasn’t open (and nowhere else either where I could be guaranteed to get the right globe, and even there it took two goes), and it took my a day or two to get to them and get the right globe and get it fitted.

So let’s not assume everyone is being a cheapskate – the light may only recently have blown.

IP

tim_c said :

Or the unobservant wallies who drive around with only one headlight on. Are they really so unobservant that they don’t notice a light out right in front of their eyes, or just so cheap they can’t afford $8 for a new globe?! And what other essential maintenance are they not noticing, or too cheap to carry out?

I got surprised by a Taxi van like that Monday night. Worse, it was the right headlight that was dead.

+1 to the “foglights-on” derby.

I’d also suggest the moron cyclists who ride around in dark clothes at night with no lights (or maybe tiny one perched high up on the back of the helmet, out of eye-level and covered by a backpack), but you wouldn’t be able to capture them without a decent flash or looooong exposure time.

bigred said :

Can we also have a bad driving or worst foglights weekly item?

Or the unobservant wallies who drive around with only one headlight on. Are they really so unobservant that they don’t notice a light out right in front of their eyes, or just so cheap they can’t afford $8 for a new globe?! And what other essential maintenance are they not noticing, or too cheap to carry out?

Can we also have a bad driving or worst foglights weekly item?

#2 – There was a Leyland P76 gathering? And I missed it? 🙁

StrangeAttractor said :

That Toyota in 9 has been parking like that almost every day for well over two years.

Really? At Watson shops? Oh my.

I love the way bad parking brings us all together.

#4 includes a lot of soft-roaders – it’s probably the only time they ever get driven off the black-top.

#4 The Bus Driver has captured all the tight-arses..

Spotto #4.

Spotto..
Errrr #4a #4o & #4p

@ #3, perhaps it was intentionally being left there as part of the regularly scheduled waste pick up?

Gee SUVs are ugly.

The comment to 11 really doesn’t make sense when the 4WD in question was cropped off the left. I’ll have to get closer to my prey next time.

That Toyota in 9 has been parking like that almost every day for well over two years.