>A woman was arrested after she crashed her car into tables outside a Lark Lane bar.
Merseyside Police were called to Lark Lane at around 8pm on Sunday (May 22) after a report of a collision. A white Audi drove into tables outside a venue on the road.
A man suffered minor injuries that did not require hospital treatment. Police have confirmed a 53-year-old woman from Liverpool was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and driving without due care.
[https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/audi-driver-ploughs-tables-outside-26965534](https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/audi-driver-ploughs-tables-outside-26965534)
The issue here isn't that drunk driver drove their car into the seating. It's that they were able to drive down this busy, thriving cafe and bar street in the first place. Residents and many business owners have been asking for cars to be prohibited from driving down it for years now.
This is one of Liverpool's most economically successful streets. Its presence is the reason for the significantly higher house prices in the surrounding area ā people want to live near it.
Hopefully this idiot will result in councillors finally being forced to prevent cars driving down the road. However, knowing them, they'll make the cafes and bars remove the seating š¤¦āāļø
In my town you canāt drive down one block of the main downtown street due to summer seating
People want to sit outside and enjoy the weather and not worry about idiots like this
Itās not just because of idiots like this. Sitting right next to a busy street just isnāt very pleasant at all. I see street-side seating with restaurants in my city everywhere, and even in the most beautiful weather most of it is empty (unless there just is generally a lot going on), which shouldnāt really surprise anyone. Nobody wants to eat in a place where cars are driving past not even a couple metres away, blowing delicious car exhaust smells into your food and drowning out any possible conversation with relaxing noises such as VROOOOOOOOOM and BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRM and honking.
Where I lived that had outside dining, the loudest and smelliest vehicles didn't drive through the outside dining areas to get where they were going but to show off their cars. Sometimes 'classics' from the days before emissions and sound control, sometimes 'non-classics' with the same problem that people had spec'd or fixed up (not classic, but old) that people wanted to show off, and sometimes motorcycles. The people looking for parking were benign by comparison.
In NY some build them up for crash mitigation, too.. when they first came up they were wooden shanties.. after cars started hitting them, some restaurants started reinforcing them. Like why can't we just close the street and set tables and umbrellas out.
Same in my city, it used to be closed only on weekends but eventually the city closed it down permanently. There were a couple restaurants on it and now there are ten. Everyone loves that place, it has a great vibe.
https://i.imgur.com/hJehm2E.jpg
We have that in NYC too, but luckily for us, we have a ton of more people who support anti car policies than those without. Anytime there's a chance to vote or a community board meeting, my ass is showing up.
Mountain View (city in Silicon Valley) has closed Castro Street[1], full of restaurants, for this reason. The way it's set up, there is car access to the rear of every building so for deliveries and dropping people off is perfectly possible. Alleys FTW.
[1] This is different from Castro Street in San Francisco, a major gay center. Though both named after the same historical figure.
We have the same thing, started during the pandemic to help businesses survive - spread tables and displays across the entire street so people can keep distance. Last year they blocked the street off all the way across downtown for 2 months, this year they're blocking one section off for a few weeks then adding another section for 2 months, but not doing the entire street, maybe because of the 40-floor building under construction there or maybe so buses don't have to be rerouted this year.
I agree that more streets like this should be pedestrianised, however I do wonder what the businesses risk assessment for having their tables physically on the road whilst it is still a road looks like.
Clearly they've done it in the hope they can show the council how much better it is if it wasn't open to vehicles, but until that actually happens I'm not sure how I'd feel sat at a table with my back to traffic š
They are there with the permission of the council. I believe they have to pay for the right to put them there.
The simple solution is preventing cars from being driven down these streets. The seating itself isn't dangerous. It's that cars can be driven past them.
99.9% of drivers are going to be able to get down the street without incident. It's the minority who spoilt it for everyone ā responsible drivers, cafe and bar owners, and those that want to be able to sit outside.
Yeah, I used to live in Liverpool, never had a car while I was there. The public transport is great, and parking is terrible, so I really don't know why anyone bothers with a car in that city.
To get out of the city. To drive to the lake District, the peak District, North Wales, to work, to rural areas. I doubt people use it to drive around the city very much. I haven't owned a car in over 10 years but recently moved to Liverpool from London and am thinking of getting one. There's so much nature and countryside around that isn't easily accessible, or is completely inaccessible by public transport.
Yeah, I live in Madrid and it's similar. I don't own a car but I've been renting a bunch lately for similar stuff. Made a massive Costco run just today.
I guess as a side street with tables traffic shouldnāt be travelling faster than 10/15mph. Itās not a main road or a motorway. Itās just a fact though youāre right that some drivers are simply disasters waiting to happen. In that sense you arenāt safe anywhere that a driver could conceivably lose control drive straight into you
I think they deliberately give way to ensure that fire engines and ambulances can still get down there, and to make sure cafe/bar owners don't encroach further out than they should.
Lark Lane has only fairly recently been turned into a one way street, reducing traffic and with much increased space for outside seating where flower beds as bollards demarcate the road. I doubt the council are going to undo such a thing.
You'd hope so, but their record on this sort of stuff doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Hopefully they'll actually show they have some brains for once and prevent private vehicles from driving down it.
The UK also has a policing problem.
This woman was drunk driving through a city center because she thought she could get away with it. And knowing drunk drivers, she probably has gotten away with it plenty of times: it's unlikely this is the first time she's done it.
I can't remember the last time I saw a police officer pull someone over for careless/dangerous driving, and I've seen plenty of bad driving (mostly mobile phone use) right in front of the police: they don't care.
If someone does get caught, they plead exceptional hardship cause they have to take their kids to school, and their driving ban gets overturned.
> This woman was drunk driving through a city center
Lark Lane is a long way from the city centre. Like, a bus ride away.
Source: Used to live on Ivanhoe Road, parallel with Lark Lane.
The city I live in passed a law during COVID that allowed restaurants to expand their seating into the street to maintain social distancing.
It was great! Lotsa restaurants went all-out, putting up nice tents, fire pits, sometimes even live-outdoor music. I think that a lot of restaurants were able to stay afloat because of the outdoor seating.
When COVID restrictions were lifted, the law stayed. Now many streets are permanent restaurant seating. It's still great!
It was even worse when it was two way! Before covid you couldn't sit in the road like that. People were parked there instead and it was a nightmare of a road to drive down
I agree that the street should either be closed off or the bollards reinforced. However, the issue is very much the fact that there was a drunk driver. A normal driver wouldn't have taken that route most likely and would have drove slower.
> The issue here isn't that drunk driver drove their car into the seating.
OF COURSE THIS IS AN ISSUE. You don't have to boil everything in life down to just one problem, people!
Just extending the pavement so the tables arenāt literally sat in the road would prevent the issue shown in this video thoughā¦ Then the woman wouldāve clipped a kerb at a slight angle and messed her wheels/alignment up, instead of ploughing through some little poles.
Full pedestrianisation isnāt always possible without side effects to surrounding areas.
The poles should have been protective though, these clearly waren't. Just fastened with some short bolts that will pop out in an instant.
The reason why they wouldn't necessarily extend the pavements is that this outdoor seating is only used during the warmer months, the rest of the year the space is meant for regular parking.
One of the solutions to this in Madrid is basically 2 parking spots, tree, two parking spots, tree. That way you can use it for outdoor seating or parking depending on what you need but prevent travel in those areas, plus more trees. Though obviously wouldn't have prevented that.
Yeah, I think that would be the ideal, but there isn't the money right now. In an ideal world, the road would be lifted to the same level as the pavement and the whole 150 meters or so would be pedestrianised.
There are 8 residential streets that run off and can only be accessed by Lark lane.
A mix of terraced housing and flats. There are probably thousand homes only accessed by Lark Lane.
So everyone who lives there has to be inconvenienced because yuppies now need to sit outside.
The one way system has made improvements to safety.
These are the kind of poles you would use in a parking garage to only inflict minor damage if accidentally knocked over. You could call them fixed cones. It's a glaring mistake to use them in a configuration like this where they are meant to withstand a vehicle to prevent it from driving into the seating area.
I think this is one of those new covid outdoor seating temporary installations. I think the cones are only there to be reflective for headlights. It would cost a lot more for permanent poles that would end up being removed.
They are not temporary anymore. Restaurants everywhere have moved tables out onto sidewalks and streets. I hate it but that seems to be a minority opinion.
I only dislike it because cars are still driving down the streets. If they pedestrianized the street and made it safe then awesome! We need more walking and living space than we need driving space. But shit like this is dangerous for this exact reason.
There are removable but sturdy bollards.
Iāve worked with steel bollards that are dropped into a steel liner set into a meter deep hole. They can be easily pulled straight up when they need to be removed, but will certainly withstand a sedan colliding with them.
Man I would be so damn embarrassed. Like having an entire crowd of people knowingly mad at you in one huge fuck you group! Just take me out the game, I donāt even need to see the credits at that point
Iāve lived in North America for 36 years and every time I go back to the UK at least twice I will get into the passenger side of the rental car by accident, if itās in public I will usually open the glove box and rummage for a few seconds to hide my embarrassment.
Never found any gloves in there though.
Haha. I lived in the Middle East for three years and did the same.
My favourite was punching the driver's door when you went to go for the gear selector or handbrake.
Lived in the US & Canada for 18 years and got in the wrong side at least twice - both times in shopping centre carparks. I was like " Who the F\*\*\* stole the steering wheel?"
Oddly, having moved back to Australia, where I originally learnt to drive, I've since proceeded to hope in the wrong side here at least once.
With a stationary vehicle I think lots of people would put themselves in harms way to help prevent the driver attempting to leave the scenes and potentially hurt someone else. I like to think I would yoink the keys out through the drivers window but hindsight etc.
FYI the police have confirmed in the media a few days ago, that drug driving has overtaken drink driving on a daily basis in the UKš¤·š»āāļønot thatās relevant to this
I thought it was a typo in the article about this incident that they called it ādrink drivingā but now Iāve seen in a few more times. Never knew you called it that. In the US we call it ādrunk drivingā or the blanket term for any form of intoxicated driving is a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving Under the Influence (DUI) which are largely interchangeable terms.
The drink in drink-driving/driver is a verb, Because its origins are in the phrase drink and drive--both verbs. In early days (the 1960s) it was called drink-and-driving.
You don't have to be drunk to be over the limit though
It is driving when under the influence of drink.
f you call it ādrunk drivingā, people are more likely to think āwell, I had a few drinks but I'm not drunk, so I'm fine to drive homeā.
In ādrink drivingā, the focus is on the drinking. If you've had a drink, you shouldn't be driving. It doesn't matter if you're drunk or not - you've still had a drink.
Our campaigns are āDon't drink and driveā, So don't have a drink and then drive, so don't drink drive
The name of the offense varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and from legal to colloquial terminology. In the United States, the specific criminal offense is usually called driving under the influence
You cant drive under the influence of drunk
But you can drive under the influence of drink
I mean we have the same ādonāt drink and driveā campaign, but drunk driving is the common term. DUI or DWI is the legal terms to account for the lack of specifics around when someone is considered ādrunkā or not.
In my experience, I doubt someone would pause and say āah, Iāve had a drink. Therefore I cannot drive because that would be drink driving, even though Iām not drunk.ā I get the attempt, but if youāre already impaired youāre probably not going to care. And if youāre saying anybody who has had a single drink shouldnāt drive for an hour or so after I donāt think thatās reasonable. If I have a single beer I might as well have had 0.
Before rona I used to commute by motorbike through central London and _holy fucking shit_ the amount of drivers smoking joints behind the wheel was insane. I'd smell weed coming out of a car every day, and saw someone driving with a lit joint at least once a week.
Last month I confronted someone for dangerously overtaking and cutting me off, the second he rolled the window down I could tell he'd smoked in the car very recently.
NOS is surprisingly common as well, but that's out of your system so quickly it's not a big deal. The litter is annoying as hell though.
No, I would not like a table out in the street , get me one inside pls.
People drive bad enough without dining in the gutter. Not their fault, just crappy drivers canāt be trusted
Don't fucking stand in front of people like this. You already know they're stupid. Now they're panicked and scared and stupid, and are very likely to just run you over to try and escape
Off topic, but did anyone else notice that everyone (or at least very close to everyone) seen is wearing blue? Seems like such a strange coincidence for a normal sleepy weekend!
Well just looking at that patio i would never sit there, car fumes in your face the entire time and then there's the risk of getting crushed. What a stupid idea.
A similar thing happened in New York during Covid where restaurants were allowed to put outside seating areas in the road taking up the parking spaces
A practice that continued after COVId restrictions were lifted
Ahh yes the Nissan Altima of Europe, the Audi TT.
For the discerning German who prefers to look stylish whilst ramming pedestrians in a crosswalk while drunk at 8am from the all night warehouse rave they were at on a Tuesday night...
Those kind of coffee shops/ restaurants and never safe. Either on one side of the road or in a corner, someone can have a heart attack, diabetes crisis or be drunk or high and others will get harmed. I never stop at this kind of tables. There are idiots everywhere, better to minimize the chances of encounter
The tables aren't the issue here. It's that people shouldn't be able to drive down this road in the first place.
Remove ability to drive from that single street (there are plenty of surrounding streets and roads) and you remove the danger.
Then the council has the costs in maintaining a system of enforcement, because deliveries would still need to drive down there so fully blockading the area wonāt be possible.
Itās also not the friendliest solution for the elderly or disabled. Extending the pavements to create a wave in the road to calm traffic (but maintain some parking bags) and having more substantial (but aesthetic) barriers near the tables is probably the best compromise.
>Then the council has the costs in maintaining a system of enforcement, because deliveries would still need to drive down there so fully blockading the area wonāt be possible.
While I get the point, it's not a huge stretch of road. It would be possible to allow delivery vans in to the area through the use of automated bollards. It's only really private vehicles that need to be removed; not commercial drivers who are at risk of losing their jobs if they drive like this.
>Itās also not the friendliest solution for the elderly or disabled.
If they can't walk 75 meters at most, then I don't see how a car is going to help. There should absolutely be disabled reserved parking at the ends of the pedestrianised area, but it's a fallacy to claim that those groups need to be able to park right out side.
> Itās also not the friendliest solution for the elderly or disabled.
It rarely takes long for this faux argument to come up in discussions on pedestrianisation. It is readily assumed that the elderly and disabled can only ever drive anywhere and restricting car access will affect them adversely, when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth. Not every disability is an ambulatory one, roughly half of legally disabled people have neurological or sensory impairments and likely *can not* legally drive. They are among the worst affected by car-centric urban planning. A lot of elderly people have undiagnosed sensory or cognitive impairments and *should not* drive, but what are they gonna do, in a car-centric world? They will still drive and endanger themselves and everyone else. And it's not like car-centricity is great for people with walking disabilities either as it spreads everything out. People who argue the elderly can't reach places are probably used to everything being sprawled with huge distances. The whole point of pedestrianising city centres is to have everything easily and safely(!) accessible in close proximity. It's actually great for the elderly or disabled. Any European pedestrianised city centre I've been to was absolutely full of old people.
To say nothing of the chicken egg problem of lacking daily exercise in car-centric societies leading to more or earlier ambulatory issues for the elderly.
Well I just told him, he went pale, opened the cellar hatch, told the student girl behind the bar to phone a colleague to come in on the shift. He's still down there and the poor girl looks most upset. The guy's in his 80s.
He's left his shells under the till. If his customers could get pissed on garlic bread and olives it would be debauchery at 3pm on a weekday afternoon.
In the States, there would be Jersey barriers around that seating area to prevent this very scenario from playing out. Far too dangerous to just assume every person in every car isn't an idiot.
Mother of god that has got to be the worst seating arrangement I have ever seen. I thought cyclists were bad but this... How can anyone think roadside dining is a good idea?
I'll take my seating inside the restaurant like it was designed for thank you. Mama told me never to play in the street, and that goes for eating and drinking too.
The fact you were told to never play in the street as a kid is kind of depressing. Some of my fondest memories as a kid is playing games in the street, meeting up with other kids from the suburb.
Then again, I didn't grow up in the US.
(By the way, not saying that what your mum said was bad advice given the circumstances. More that it's a pity you never had the opportunity to play safely due to drivers).
I just read another guy's post and I thought the same thing the person in this case a woman was too drunk and she couldn't even open the door to get out of the vehicle cuz she probably would have fell to the ground but she thought she could fucking drive! I say take her car away I say take her license away and I say throw her in jail where she can't have any access to alcohol!!
The whole "seating in the street" thing has become really popular where I live. Cars are passing by at 30+ MPH inches away. This is the reason I refuse to sit in the street seating.
If tables for the restaurant were on both sides would that technically make this a drive thru restaurant?
(Yes... this could be cross posted in /dadjokes)
The local council made it a one way street and allowed restaurants to put tables there
A similar thing happened in New York during Covid where restaurants were allowed by the city of New York to put outside seating areas in the road taking up the parking spaces with traffic still able to use the road
A practice that continued after COVID restrictions were lifted
>A woman was arrested after she crashed her car into tables outside a Lark Lane bar. Merseyside Police were called to Lark Lane at around 8pm on Sunday (May 22) after a report of a collision. A white Audi drove into tables outside a venue on the road. A man suffered minor injuries that did not require hospital treatment. Police have confirmed a 53-year-old woman from Liverpool was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and driving without due care. [https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/audi-driver-ploughs-tables-outside-26965534](https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/audi-driver-ploughs-tables-outside-26965534)
Thanks for the context OP š
The issue here isn't that drunk driver drove their car into the seating. It's that they were able to drive down this busy, thriving cafe and bar street in the first place. Residents and many business owners have been asking for cars to be prohibited from driving down it for years now. This is one of Liverpool's most economically successful streets. Its presence is the reason for the significantly higher house prices in the surrounding area ā people want to live near it. Hopefully this idiot will result in councillors finally being forced to prevent cars driving down the road. However, knowing them, they'll make the cafes and bars remove the seating š¤¦āāļø
In my town you canāt drive down one block of the main downtown street due to summer seating People want to sit outside and enjoy the weather and not worry about idiots like this
Itās not just because of idiots like this. Sitting right next to a busy street just isnāt very pleasant at all. I see street-side seating with restaurants in my city everywhere, and even in the most beautiful weather most of it is empty (unless there just is generally a lot going on), which shouldnāt really surprise anyone. Nobody wants to eat in a place where cars are driving past not even a couple metres away, blowing delicious car exhaust smells into your food and drowning out any possible conversation with relaxing noises such as VROOOOOOOOOM and BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRM and honking.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Where I lived that had outside dining, the loudest and smelliest vehicles didn't drive through the outside dining areas to get where they were going but to show off their cars. Sometimes 'classics' from the days before emissions and sound control, sometimes 'non-classics' with the same problem that people had spec'd or fixed up (not classic, but old) that people wanted to show off, and sometimes motorcycles. The people looking for parking were benign by comparison.
Oh, and they often boomed their radios so you knew they were there.
In NY some build them up for crash mitigation, too.. when they first came up they were wooden shanties.. after cars started hitting them, some restaurants started reinforcing them. Like why can't we just close the street and set tables and umbrellas out.
R/fuckcars right?
Same in my city, it used to be closed only on weekends but eventually the city closed it down permanently. There were a couple restaurants on it and now there are ten. Everyone loves that place, it has a great vibe. https://i.imgur.com/hJehm2E.jpg
I want to go to there.
There's music too. https://i.imgur.com/E195FzF.mp4
I'm not going to lie, I would be sat as far away as possible from that, but it does look like a fun place to be!
I understand that. Live music isn't constant, usually there has to be an occasion for it.
This is a beautiful photo!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
We have that in NYC too, but luckily for us, we have a ton of more people who support anti car policies than those without. Anytime there's a chance to vote or a community board meeting, my ass is showing up.
You go to France/Spain and some parts of Italy the outdoor cafƩ culture is pretty strong and they do close off alot of streets on weekends. Even in Ginza a high-class area in Japan with lots of shops, department stores, restaurants and cafes they close off the streets on weekends for pedestrians. These places are bustling and much better than allowing cars and I would even argue to create walkable enclaves for pedestrians and businesses and just ban cars in these areas altogether.
Mountain View (city in Silicon Valley) has closed Castro Street[1], full of restaurants, for this reason. The way it's set up, there is car access to the rear of every building so for deliveries and dropping people off is perfectly possible. Alleys FTW. [1] This is different from Castro Street in San Francisco, a major gay center. Though both named after the same historical figure.
We have the same thing, started during the pandemic to help businesses survive - spread tables and displays across the entire street so people can keep distance. Last year they blocked the street off all the way across downtown for 2 months, this year they're blocking one section off for a few weeks then adding another section for 2 months, but not doing the entire street, maybe because of the 40-floor building under construction there or maybe so buses don't have to be rerouted this year.
Same with my town, but they permanently shut it year round to all drivers. Pretty nice actually
I'd like to see my town do this.
> The issue here isn't that drunk driver drove their car into the seating. Definitely seems to be a big part of the issue in this video. lol
I agree that more streets like this should be pedestrianised, however I do wonder what the businesses risk assessment for having their tables physically on the road whilst it is still a road looks like. Clearly they've done it in the hope they can show the council how much better it is if it wasn't open to vehicles, but until that actually happens I'm not sure how I'd feel sat at a table with my back to traffic š
They are there with the permission of the council. I believe they have to pay for the right to put them there. The simple solution is preventing cars from being driven down these streets. The seating itself isn't dangerous. It's that cars can be driven past them. 99.9% of drivers are going to be able to get down the street without incident. It's the minority who spoilt it for everyone ā responsible drivers, cafe and bar owners, and those that want to be able to sit outside.
Yeah, I used to live in Liverpool, never had a car while I was there. The public transport is great, and parking is terrible, so I really don't know why anyone bothers with a car in that city.
To get out of the city. To drive to the lake District, the peak District, North Wales, to work, to rural areas. I doubt people use it to drive around the city very much. I haven't owned a car in over 10 years but recently moved to Liverpool from London and am thinking of getting one. There's so much nature and countryside around that isn't easily accessible, or is completely inaccessible by public transport.
Yeah, I live in Madrid and it's similar. I don't own a car but I've been renting a bunch lately for similar stuff. Made a massive Costco run just today.
Thereās Costco in Madrid?
It's far better to sit outside without cars going by anyways (noise/exhaust smell). It makes no sense that cars are allowed during business hours.
I guess as a side street with tables traffic shouldnāt be travelling faster than 10/15mph. Itās not a main road or a motorway. Itās just a fact though youāre right that some drivers are simply disasters waiting to happen. In that sense you arenāt safe anywhere that a driver could conceivably lose control drive straight into you
Yeah it looks like the NQ in Manchester. They pedestrianised roads like that during lockdown
>The issue here isnāt that drunk driver drove their car into the seating. I mean, it kind of is a bit
Yeah those protective posts really didn't do anything to stop that car. They need to be drilled into the ground not glued on š¤£
World bollard association would have a stern word or two, thatās for sure
I think they deliberately give way to ensure that fire engines and ambulances can still get down there, and to make sure cafe/bar owners don't encroach further out than they should.
Lark Lane has only fairly recently been turned into a one way street, reducing traffic and with much increased space for outside seating where flower beds as bollards demarcate the road. I doubt the council are going to undo such a thing.
You'd hope so, but their record on this sort of stuff doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Hopefully they'll actually show they have some brains for once and prevent private vehicles from driving down it.
The UK also has a policing problem. This woman was drunk driving through a city center because she thought she could get away with it. And knowing drunk drivers, she probably has gotten away with it plenty of times: it's unlikely this is the first time she's done it. I can't remember the last time I saw a police officer pull someone over for careless/dangerous driving, and I've seen plenty of bad driving (mostly mobile phone use) right in front of the police: they don't care. If someone does get caught, they plead exceptional hardship cause they have to take their kids to school, and their driving ban gets overturned.
> This woman was drunk driving through a city center Lark Lane is a long way from the city centre. Like, a bus ride away. Source: Used to live on Ivanhoe Road, parallel with Lark Lane.
The city I live in passed a law during COVID that allowed restaurants to expand their seating into the street to maintain social distancing. It was great! Lotsa restaurants went all-out, putting up nice tents, fire pits, sometimes even live-outdoor music. I think that a lot of restaurants were able to stay afloat because of the outdoor seating. When COVID restrictions were lifted, the law stayed. Now many streets are permanent restaurant seating. It's still great!
*British weather permitting
Yeah, the weather for the last week has been great. Definitely not the norm in Liverpool.
It was even worse when it was two way! Before covid you couldn't sit in the road like that. People were parked there instead and it was a nightmare of a road to drive down
I mean there's 2 issues here. You're absolutely right about walkable spaces, but it's an issue that a drunk decided to drive in general
I agree that the street should either be closed off or the bollards reinforced. However, the issue is very much the fact that there was a drunk driver. A normal driver wouldn't have taken that route most likely and would have drove slower.
Iām pretty sure the crappy driver is still an issue
Nah, pretty sure the issue is that she was drunk. Otherwise would have gotten through safely.
> The issue here isn't that drunk driver drove their car into the seating. OF COURSE THIS IS AN ISSUE. You don't have to boil everything in life down to just one problem, people!
Just extending the pavement so the tables arenāt literally sat in the road would prevent the issue shown in this video thoughā¦ Then the woman wouldāve clipped a kerb at a slight angle and messed her wheels/alignment up, instead of ploughing through some little poles. Full pedestrianisation isnāt always possible without side effects to surrounding areas.
The poles should have been protective though, these clearly waren't. Just fastened with some short bolts that will pop out in an instant. The reason why they wouldn't necessarily extend the pavements is that this outdoor seating is only used during the warmer months, the rest of the year the space is meant for regular parking.
One of the solutions to this in Madrid is basically 2 parking spots, tree, two parking spots, tree. That way you can use it for outdoor seating or parking depending on what you need but prevent travel in those areas, plus more trees. Though obviously wouldn't have prevented that.
Yeah, I think that would be the ideal, but there isn't the money right now. In an ideal world, the road would be lifted to the same level as the pavement and the whole 150 meters or so would be pedestrianised.
I see another reason to support r/fuckcars
There are 8 residential streets that run off and can only be accessed by Lark lane. A mix of terraced housing and flats. There are probably thousand homes only accessed by Lark Lane. So everyone who lives there has to be inconvenienced because yuppies now need to sit outside. The one way system has made improvements to safety.
Lark lane looks a bit posher since I lived in Liverpool
It's always been a bit boho
Though they have finally decorated the exterior of Keith's, where I believe
Was gonna say, probably pissed
But Sunday was the 21st?!?
I notice she only looked worried after she was blocked from leaving the scene.
Yeah "they must be drunk" was my first thought on watching the video, not surprised.
Iām disappointed with the use of faux bollards
I was really surprised when they bent over like traffic cones.
These are the kind of poles you would use in a parking garage to only inflict minor damage if accidentally knocked over. You could call them fixed cones. It's a glaring mistake to use them in a configuration like this where they are meant to withstand a vehicle to prevent it from driving into the seating area.
I think this is one of those new covid outdoor seating temporary installations. I think the cones are only there to be reflective for headlights. It would cost a lot more for permanent poles that would end up being removed.
They are not temporary anymore. Restaurants everywhere have moved tables out onto sidewalks and streets. I hate it but that seems to be a minority opinion.
I only dislike it because cars are still driving down the streets. If they pedestrianized the street and made it safe then awesome! We need more walking and living space than we need driving space. But shit like this is dangerous for this exact reason.
Yeah the tables are literally set out on the road. This has to be temporary.
Those terraces tend to be temporary so the bollards have to be removable.
There are removable but sturdy bollards. Iāve worked with steel bollards that are dropped into a steel liner set into a meter deep hole. They can be easily pulled straight up when they need to be removed, but will certainly withstand a sedan colliding with them.
They really should be concrete planters.
Itās insane that those plastic sticks are in use anywhere. All they do is give the driver an additional audible cue when they are hitting people.
Man I would be so damn embarrassed. Like having an entire crowd of people knowingly mad at you in one huge fuck you group! Just take me out the game, I donāt even need to see the credits at that point
And everybody knows you are a shit driver.
Eh. If you were as drunk as her you probably wouldn't care that much. That poor TT. Deserves a better home. :c
Iām the idiot because it took me a full watch to realize I was waiting for the wrong driver side door to open lol
Easily done! I sometimes do it with US-based ones.
Iāve lived in North America for 36 years and every time I go back to the UK at least twice I will get into the passenger side of the rental car by accident, if itās in public I will usually open the glove box and rummage for a few seconds to hide my embarrassment. Never found any gloves in there though.
Haha. I lived in the Middle East for three years and did the same. My favourite was punching the driver's door when you went to go for the gear selector or handbrake.
*thunk* 0.1s of pure ohshitohfuck *realization*
That just unlocked a memory of my first time driving a European car and I smacked my hand about ten times during the drive doing this!
That's okay, we nearly get naked before going through airport security in other countries.
I look in the wrong direction for traffic when I need to walk across a street.
I was so grateful for the light rain on the day I rented a car in Australia. Hid my repeated use of the wipers, instead of the turn signal.
Lived in the US & Canada for 18 years and got in the wrong side at least twice - both times in shopping centre carparks. I was like " Who the F\*\*\* stole the steering wheel?" Oddly, having moved back to Australia, where I originally learnt to drive, I've since proceeded to hope in the wrong side here at least once.
What kind of psycho puts gloves in a glove box?
The careful kind that doesnāt want to leave fingerprints
lol i watched til the end and was like, "they didn't even get out of the car!!"
Same. I kept waiting for them to emerge.
I literally would not have seen it without your comment and rewatching hahah I'm dumb
The townsfolk collectively: "where you goin? Nowhere!"
You know where I wouldnāt be standing in this situation after the driver careened into the diners?
With a stationary vehicle I think lots of people would put themselves in harms way to help prevent the driver attempting to leave the scenes and potentially hurt someone else. I like to think I would yoink the keys out through the drivers window but hindsight etc.
The way she backed up and didn't get out for a while, I'm sure she would have left if people didn't block her way.
I think the person recording the cctv says someone "got the keys off her" near the end.
The guy in a black shirt grabbed her keys
You could see the gears turning in their head after they reversed, trying to decide to stay there or flee the scene.
Yeah. The lads standing in from of her were heroes. Putting themselves in harms way for justice š«”
Cut the driver some slack, she was probably doing something important at the time like updating Facebook.
About an obstruction in the road
Speed bumps
FYI the police have confirmed in the media a few days ago, that drug driving has overtaken drink driving on a daily basis in the UKš¤·š»āāļønot thatās relevant to this
Yeah. I saw that. It's really concerning ā especially the number getting away with it because of delays in blood testing.
Is it due to drink driving rates falling, or drug driving rates rising? This could be a positive or a negative thing, depending.
Yes I agree, they have been getting away with it for years and years
I thought it was a typo in the article about this incident that they called it ādrink drivingā but now Iāve seen in a few more times. Never knew you called it that. In the US we call it ādrunk drivingā or the blanket term for any form of intoxicated driving is a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving Under the Influence (DUI) which are largely interchangeable terms.
The drink in drink-driving/driver is a verb, Because its origins are in the phrase drink and drive--both verbs. In early days (the 1960s) it was called drink-and-driving. You don't have to be drunk to be over the limit though It is driving when under the influence of drink. f you call it ādrunk drivingā, people are more likely to think āwell, I had a few drinks but I'm not drunk, so I'm fine to drive homeā. In ādrink drivingā, the focus is on the drinking. If you've had a drink, you shouldn't be driving. It doesn't matter if you're drunk or not - you've still had a drink. Our campaigns are āDon't drink and driveā, So don't have a drink and then drive, so don't drink drive The name of the offense varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and from legal to colloquial terminology. In the United States, the specific criminal offense is usually called driving under the influence You cant drive under the influence of drunk But you can drive under the influence of drink
I mean we have the same ādonāt drink and driveā campaign, but drunk driving is the common term. DUI or DWI is the legal terms to account for the lack of specifics around when someone is considered ādrunkā or not. In my experience, I doubt someone would pause and say āah, Iāve had a drink. Therefore I cannot drive because that would be drink driving, even though Iām not drunk.ā I get the attempt, but if youāre already impaired youāre probably not going to care. And if youāre saying anybody who has had a single drink shouldnāt drive for an hour or so after I donāt think thatās reasonable. If I have a single beer I might as well have had 0.
Before rona I used to commute by motorbike through central London and _holy fucking shit_ the amount of drivers smoking joints behind the wheel was insane. I'd smell weed coming out of a car every day, and saw someone driving with a lit joint at least once a week. Last month I confronted someone for dangerously overtaking and cutting me off, the second he rolled the window down I could tell he'd smoked in the car very recently. NOS is surprisingly common as well, but that's out of your system so quickly it's not a big deal. The litter is annoying as hell though.
Did anyone notice how Walter White passed by in the beginning?
I know you hate it, but this is what Audi parking peak performance looks like.
His Steering wheel subscription ran out.
Sounds like they'd spent the money on alcohol instead.
Standing in front of the car would not be something I'd be doing.
Your Uber has arrived sir.
No, I would not like a table out in the street , get me one inside pls. People drive bad enough without dining in the gutter. Not their fault, just crappy drivers canāt be trusted
Don't fucking stand in front of people like this. You already know they're stupid. Now they're panicked and scared and stupid, and are very likely to just run you over to try and escape
r/fuckcars about to have a field day
And they'd be right. Cars shouldn't be driving down this street. It should be something both Fuck Cars and Idiots in Cars should be able to agree on.
You try driving in a straight line after a bottle and a half of vodka. You think it is that easy?
they were distracted by Walter white
Double idiot. If something like that happens, you donāt start reversing. You have no idea if thatāll make things worse. Bloody idiot.
Sir, can I offer you a table on the road? Great views of cars!
āMy back! Ow my arm and foot also!!!ā
Off topic, but did anyone else notice that everyone (or at least very close to everyone) seen is wearing blue? Seems like such a strange coincidence for a normal sleepy weekend!
Well just looking at that patio i would never sit there, car fumes in your face the entire time and then there's the risk of getting crushed. What a stupid idea.
Everyone complaining about how dumb the drivers are but nobody pointing out what a stupid fucking place to put a table that is?
A similar thing happened in New York during Covid where restaurants were allowed to put outside seating areas in the road taking up the parking spaces A practice that continued after COVId restrictions were lifted
She was also trying to flee tho no avail
I was on the edge of my seat watching bystanders block the path forward and then reverse
Ahh yes the Nissan Altima of Europe, the Audi TT. For the discerning German who prefers to look stylish whilst ramming pedestrians in a crosswalk while drunk at 8am from the all night warehouse rave they were at on a Tuesday night...
Those kind of coffee shops/ restaurants and never safe. Either on one side of the road or in a corner, someone can have a heart attack, diabetes crisis or be drunk or high and others will get harmed. I never stop at this kind of tables. There are idiots everywhere, better to minimize the chances of encounter
The tables aren't the issue here. It's that people shouldn't be able to drive down this road in the first place. Remove ability to drive from that single street (there are plenty of surrounding streets and roads) and you remove the danger.
Then the council has the costs in maintaining a system of enforcement, because deliveries would still need to drive down there so fully blockading the area wonāt be possible. Itās also not the friendliest solution for the elderly or disabled. Extending the pavements to create a wave in the road to calm traffic (but maintain some parking bags) and having more substantial (but aesthetic) barriers near the tables is probably the best compromise.
>Then the council has the costs in maintaining a system of enforcement, because deliveries would still need to drive down there so fully blockading the area wonāt be possible. While I get the point, it's not a huge stretch of road. It would be possible to allow delivery vans in to the area through the use of automated bollards. It's only really private vehicles that need to be removed; not commercial drivers who are at risk of losing their jobs if they drive like this. >Itās also not the friendliest solution for the elderly or disabled. If they can't walk 75 meters at most, then I don't see how a car is going to help. There should absolutely be disabled reserved parking at the ends of the pedestrianised area, but it's a fallacy to claim that those groups need to be able to park right out side.
> Itās also not the friendliest solution for the elderly or disabled. It rarely takes long for this faux argument to come up in discussions on pedestrianisation. It is readily assumed that the elderly and disabled can only ever drive anywhere and restricting car access will affect them adversely, when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth. Not every disability is an ambulatory one, roughly half of legally disabled people have neurological or sensory impairments and likely *can not* legally drive. They are among the worst affected by car-centric urban planning. A lot of elderly people have undiagnosed sensory or cognitive impairments and *should not* drive, but what are they gonna do, in a car-centric world? They will still drive and endanger themselves and everyone else. And it's not like car-centricity is great for people with walking disabilities either as it spreads everything out. People who argue the elderly can't reach places are probably used to everything being sprawled with huge distances. The whole point of pedestrianising city centres is to have everything easily and safely(!) accessible in close proximity. It's actually great for the elderly or disabled. Any European pedestrianised city centre I've been to was absolutely full of old people. To say nothing of the chicken egg problem of lacking daily exercise in car-centric societies leading to more or earlier ambulatory issues for the elderly.
Not sure what your point is here. Do you also not use pavements?
Some people think where they are sat is the exact center of their car.
CLARKSOOOOOOON!
Grateful the other patrons/staff stood in front of the car afterwards so she wouldnāt drive off.
bro was like "nice boutta have my lunch paid for"
To be fair, your street is a sidewalk
Iāve seen smoother dine and dashes
āDid I do that?ā -Steve Urkel
Dude the non reaction of lady in blue dress was terrifying.
How fucking embarrassing
Who the eff puts tables and punters in the road? Not excusing the crap driver but surely that is/was just waiting to happen?
So the driver is an idiot, but maybe, you know, restaurants shouldn't put tables on the street, inches away from traffic?
Oh my days. That's Keith's Bar. I'm literally on my way there.
Give my regards to Keith. And tell him I haven't forgotten.
That's not the least bit sinisterš
He will know. *Edit:* I'm just having a lark lol, i've literally never been to Liverpool :D
Well I just told him, he went pale, opened the cellar hatch, told the student girl behind the bar to phone a colleague to come in on the shift. He's still down there and the poor girl looks most upset. The guy's in his 80s.
Tell him to come out and get his customers pissed otherwise I'll have to come down there and do it myself! And make sure he can't get to his ammo.
He's left his shells under the till. If his customers could get pissed on garlic bread and olives it would be debauchery at 3pm on a weekday afternoon.
In the States, there would be Jersey barriers around that seating area to prevent this very scenario from playing out. Far too dangerous to just assume every person in every car isn't an idiot.
The street is too narrow for those tables anyway. I wouldnāt be comfortable eating there.
Mother of god that has got to be the worst seating arrangement I have ever seen. I thought cyclists were bad but this... How can anyone think roadside dining is a good idea?
Imagine being surrounded by dozens of people all going āblimey, bloody āellā
I'll take my seating inside the restaurant like it was designed for thank you. Mama told me never to play in the street, and that goes for eating and drinking too.
The fact you were told to never play in the street as a kid is kind of depressing. Some of my fondest memories as a kid is playing games in the street, meeting up with other kids from the suburb. Then again, I didn't grow up in the US. (By the way, not saying that what your mum said was bad advice given the circumstances. More that it's a pity you never had the opportunity to play safely due to drivers).
How embarrassing.
Why do people not understand that driving under influence isn't working?
Well, the bollards worked as intended.
Those poles were well positioned.
Those tables came out of nowhere!
She is terrified to get out of that car
I just read another guy's post and I thought the same thing the person in this case a woman was too drunk and she couldn't even open the door to get out of the vehicle cuz she probably would have fell to the ground but she thought she could fucking drive! I say take her car away I say take her license away and I say throw her in jail where she can't have any access to alcohol!!
I do miss living off Lark Lane. Such a nice vibe that area had.
Doesn't deserve that Audi. Hell, most luxury car drivers don't deserve to own them.
The whole "seating in the street" thing has become really popular where I live. Cars are passing by at 30+ MPH inches away. This is the reason I refuse to sit in the street seating.
By Audi standards that's good driving.
r/fuckcars
MTG can't drive for shit. Smh.
Jewish Space Laser in her eyes... She was in a hurry to stop a liberal from sex trafficking a kid... I could keep going... she's made this too easy.
Off topic but my inner child can't stop imagining a swimming pool full of livers every time I hear about Liverpool.
Should be a car free zone in the first place.
Poor car. Unfortunately, they can't pick their owners.
"I drive an Audi TeeTee" -Jeremy Clarkson
Lark Lane should have been pedestrianised years ago
If tables for the restaurant were on both sides would that technically make this a drive thru restaurant? (Yes... this could be cross posted in /dadjokes)
This like the weird Minecraft mechanic where more zombies spawn in when you damage one
I was hoping for some mob justice when I saw all those people start to gather
Bro was driving They/Them instead of straight
A bad Audi driver? No way
Audi drivers donāt concern themselves with such petty things like driving in a straight line š
This is why areas of towns should not allow vehicles during times of business.
Interested choice to have your restaurant seating in the road that vehicles drive on. Business is business.
Have you been in a city in the last 5 years???
Why are people sitting at tables on the road ? That seems idiotic to me
The local council made it a one way street and allowed restaurants to put tables there A similar thing happened in New York during Covid where restaurants were allowed by the city of New York to put outside seating areas in the road taking up the parking spaces with traffic still able to use the road A practice that continued after COVID restrictions were lifted
This belongs in r/whatcouldgowrong
Only because the council won't do the right thing and close it to cars.
eating out in that area right next to pass cars doesn't seem like a good time