"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...
"Steve Walker" wrote in message
...
Frequently the layout of places misses
basic common sense facts, like not everyone can reverse a trailer
into a parking bay.

I can reverse it fortunately, but that becomes impossible if the load is
low and I can't then see it at all unless its already turned far out of
line. I will get around to welding at least one and possibly two tubes on
at some point, specifically to hold corner marker poles.

I've seen people come in towing trailers, unhitch the trailer and trundle
it into the space resting on the jockey wheel, then park the car next to
it. Seems a fairly sensible way of getting round the fact that they can't
reverse the trailer, especially when there isn't room to swing the car out
to get the trailer pointing correctly into the bay. I have the greatest
sympathy, because I cannot reverse anything articulated to save my life: I
can't even reverse in a straight line without the trailer starting
inexorably to swing one way or the other without being able to correct it,
never mind being able to do anything fancy like pointing the
trailer/caravan at an angle to the direction I was driving in to fit
through a gateway or into a parking bay. I'd definitely be one of the naff
"unhitch and manoeuvre by hand" brigade :-)

I saw one tip that was very sensibly laid out: as you approached, the road
divided into lots of parallel sections, each with a skip next to it and
each with its own exit back to the common exit road. That meant that no
reversing was needed, and no car's reversing impeded the exit of any other
car, apart from the merging into a single exit lane which was consistently
marked out so every lane gave way to the one on its right, like roundabout
rules. And the ramps where the cars parked were raised off the ground so
the lip of the skip was only slightly above "ground" level - you let the
car drive up to the correct height rather than having to walk up steps
beside each skip to get to the height to throw things into the skip.

The worst was Malton tip where there was no way for the lorries to remove
the skips while cars were driving in and out, so every time a skip was
full and a lorry arrived to take it away, they had to close the tip and
clear all the cars out while the lorry reversed up, picked up the skip,
stopped for a cup of tea and a chat with his mates (*) and then drove out.
Meanwhile a long queue of cars had to wait on the entry road until the tip
re-opened, queuing on a minor road and then round the corner onto a more
major road, which blocked access of all through traffic, and also all
traffic wanting to get to the rest of the industrial estate.

Fark. Ours is much cruder than that. Its an immense old quarry where you
drive up over an immense hill of old rubbish, back the trailer to the edge
of the top of the hill and chuck the stuff out onto the ground. Every few
days a ****ing great D9 shoves the accumulated rubbish over the edge
into the immense hole. that was once the quarry.

(*) I'm not joking: I did once see a driver stop for a natter with his
mates after he'd finished picking up the skip.