There's talk of a review of the town's recent yellow road markings. There's even talk that some if not all of the kerb markings may be removed. Maybe Rhuthun/Ruthin will no longer be such a bright place to live, after all : ) Meanwhile, today…
It’s Saturday. It’s August. Unusually for the time of year, the town seems busy, with people and with traffic. There are strangers in town, visiting. The short sharp shower at about 2.45 p.m. sees everyone scurry around like scolded ants, diving for cover and the streets are suddenly barer.
Traffic seems all the busier. Why is this? Perhaps it's because of parked cars impeding progress. Can it be that the parking changes have contributed towards *more* illegal parking? Maybe it's because it's early days. Maybe people don't understand the meaning of the newly painted yellow kerb marks (there are certainly plenty who seem happy to admit ignorance—did they not pass their driving tests?). The result today was that cars seemed to be parked anywhere at all where there *weren't* any yellow kerb flashes. And motorists now seem keener to park half on the pavement, as well.
So, even more than usual, the double yellow lines seemed covered in cars. People appear to assume that because stretches do not have flashes they're suddenly fair game for parking. The newly marked out loading and disabled bays on the Square are almost constantly ignored, though no one dares to wait there too long.
The result was a very untidy town and one where motorists needed to weave their way around all sorts of obstructions. This included up to three shop fitters’ vans in Clwyd Street opposite the Castle Bell transformation (open Monday).
The markings certainly haven't deterred visitors, not today. Perhaps there was some sort of rebellion. I prefer to think that there was some voyeuristic tourism, as people felt compelled to come to Rhuthun/Ruthin to see what all the media fuss was about. If that's the case, we hope to welcome them again all soon, on repeat visits, whatever the future colour of our kerbs.
And in today's broken sunshine, they would've found a town very welcoming towards them, with an otherwise generally positive air, with more shops open than in recent times… but that's another story.
Traffic seems all the busier. Why is this? Perhaps it's because of parked cars impeding progress. Can it be that the parking changes have contributed towards *more* illegal parking? Maybe it's because it's early days. Maybe people don't understand the meaning of the newly painted yellow kerb marks (there are certainly plenty who seem happy to admit ignorance—did they not pass their driving tests?). The result today was that cars seemed to be parked anywhere at all where there *weren't* any yellow kerb flashes. And motorists now seem keener to park half on the pavement, as well.
So, even more than usual, the double yellow lines seemed covered in cars. People appear to assume that because stretches do not have flashes they're suddenly fair game for parking. The newly marked out loading and disabled bays on the Square are almost constantly ignored, though no one dares to wait there too long.
The result was a very untidy town and one where motorists needed to weave their way around all sorts of obstructions. This included up to three shop fitters’ vans in Clwyd Street opposite the Castle Bell transformation (open Monday).
The markings certainly haven't deterred visitors, not today. Perhaps there was some sort of rebellion. I prefer to think that there was some voyeuristic tourism, as people felt compelled to come to Rhuthun/Ruthin to see what all the media fuss was about. If that's the case, we hope to welcome them again all soon, on repeat visits, whatever the future colour of our kerbs.
And in today's broken sunshine, they would've found a town very welcoming towards them, with an otherwise generally positive air, with more shops open than in recent times… but that's another story.