Pet peeves # 284638101735 (etc.)

One of my pet peeves is when people park something that's obviously not a bus, on a bus stop. People park their cars, vans, and often bloody great trucks on bus stops. Especially after 6pm, as if bus stops magically stop working after that time.

The fact is, at no time should you park anything other than a bus on a bus stop. They're not time-limited, day limited, or in any other form of part time operation;they're "24/7", to coin a phrase.

The clues to it being a bus stop are first, the flag. It's obvoius, so as to allow members of the public to know where a bus is likely to stop to allow passengers on and off the bus.

Second, the road markings. There is, in the vast majority of cases, a big yellow-painted dash-marked 'cage' or 'box' that marks out where buses are intended to stop, and on many routes in London, there are often red lines to show that no-one else should be stopping there.

Finally, there are two words painted there as well, these being "BUS STOP".

Why is it, then, that so many of you act like damned ignorant amateurs, and park on bus stops? It surely can't be financial gain, as you can be fined for parking there, and TfL's rather good at chucking around those fixed penalty notices; it can't be lack of training, as it's a component in the Highway Code, and you're required to learn that as part of your driver training and testing (it's part of the current theory test, in fact).

So what the hell is it with you amateurs who park on bus stops? Can't you think, for one moment, that you may be preventing a disabled person from boarding a bus? Or making it more difficult for an elderly person? Surely you lot can't be that far up yourselves to even consider the problems your parking is causing to the flow of traffic?

No?

Then I sincerly hope that those of you who are so self-centred and selfish that you park on bus stops get a fine, four flat tyres, and a rear-end shunt, all at the same time, for your sheer absolutely arrogant attitude to the bus travelling public.

Have a nice bleeping day.