Ditch The Cough Blog

A new battery for a Sunday

Sunday, we strolled along Eton Avenue. I wasn’t really looking for anything but noticed that this pleasant looking MG was running at a stand-still. I crossed the road to give them a leaflet.

A light tap on the window and a lady in her early 60’s dropped the window – I did my simple introduction and gave her the leaflet, smiled and stepped away and was quite happy to walk away there and then. But she wanted to talk.

So I listened politely: she had been told by the garage man that as she had a new battery, she was told to run the car. She didn’t seem to be making an excuse but was interested in doing the right thing – even though she had been instructed by a person who should know better.

I offered to say that one should normally NOT need to run a car with a new battery – and that it was best to charge the battery by actually moving – as the surplus energy from the engine during rolling would add more charge. She explained that she was just about to pick up somebody as well so all was fine as she switched off the engine.

I was happy to walk away – but it is funny that people really feel that they have to explain themselves. But rightly or wrongly I consider that they do not have to do that: they simply have to say to themselves “Oh! I forgot – silly me – I’ll switch it off”. No excuses, no pack-drill. Maybe a “Thank You” for reminding them of their civic responsibility of the correct way to running a vehicle in the city. But that is all.

Oxford Street Jeep Man

Today, I walked from Tottenham Court Road to the St Margaret’s Street blood doning centre and through the back streets I happen to pass a chap in a jeep with his engine running. He was tapping on his mobile phone with the window open.

I whipped out a leaflet and simply said: “Hello. I represent a local initiative. Can I give you some information?”. He took the leaflet and immediately recognized the problem, said “oh! yes” and switched off his engine. He looked embarrassed but I smiled and said thank you and walked away.

I realize that the most effective way is simply to offer the information without any explanation.

 

Driver popped in

As my wife and I were walking to the village through a back-road an old small car was running its engine with an extremely messy exhaust. A young woman, probably the spouse was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car with her feet on the dash board and the window open. I didn’t have a leaflet to explain but goaded by my wife to take action, I went back to ask the lady to switch off the engine. There was a teenage girl in the back and the woman explained that her husband had popped into a house, but they had been there for at least 2 minutes. She was quite irate and asked why she should. I explained that she was causing a nuisance and it was illegal to leave the car running. She said she could not do it and would wait for her husband to return.

I walked away. I could see that this would get confrontational. It was getting to me how people were so selfish on a beautiful day, near the Heath and people were creating a growing smog in our city. I didn’t want to argue or raise my voice so I walked away.

Waiting Couple

It was a simple day, walking across a junction near home, I notice a man and his wife in a people carrier sitting waiting on the corner with their engine running. I passed them a leaflet and asked if he could switch off his engine. He said that he was waiting to pick someone up. He looked at the paper as if he couldn’t read. He gave it to his wife. I thought that would be enough. As I passed in front of him, I noticed his engine was still running: so I made the gesture back to him as if to switch off the ignition with my hand. It dawned on him as his wife realised and the engine stopped.

In The Same Street

Last night, I heard an odd sound: outside I could hear the muted shouting of a woman who was having a heated discussion, with the engine of her car running. She was on her hands-free kit, obviously having arrived back from work but still in conversation.

Thirty minutes later she was still there, the engine still running. I didn’t have a leaflet with me, so I went outside to tap on her window. She was just wrapping up her conversation. She wound down the window and I asked whether she could switch off her engine. She asked why? I indicated that the pollution was affecting the neighbourhood and was a hazard to the nursery just 3 metres away. She said that it was not a nursery but a child-minders. The front garden of this nursery has a permanent play area on astroturf where the child-minder charges play throughout the day. Her point was?

She wasn’t happy being told what to do. Without the leaflet to explain about fines and that it was illegal – she just started to wind up the window. She ignored me and did not switch off the engine.

I asked her to simply switch off the engine out of courtesy to the neighbourhood. She said she lived in the neighbourhood. Her point was?

I was resolved then to get the communication right – leaving a leaflet under her wiper in the morning.

The Diagnostic

A neighbour down the road had a car that was not working very well. It wouldn’t start. Last week, he had left the car running for 40 minutes trying to charge the battery. It was an old car with terrifying levels of pollution. It was also a VW!

A lady who had just dropped her child off to the child-minders nearby was pacing up and down asking neighbours who the car belonged to. She was clearly distressed about the pollution effect. Yet this man simply left the car with the ignition running.

Today, I hear the car again. This time, an RAC man was there. I tackled the neighbour directly. I said that what he was doing was illegal and that he caused misery for the neighbourhood because he couldn’t be bothered to replace the faulty battery and call out the road services people to start his car. All his efforts to charge his battery had clearly come to nought. The car was running. The RAC man kept well out of it. He did say that it was okay to run the car when carrying out diagnostics. I retorted that it was not okay to try and charge a faulty battery for 40 minutes by simply running the engine as this man had done.

I was fuming but I was resolutely calm. This man had clearly considered that it was not a problem and that he had a right to run his car this way. He just stared at me and did not respond.

It was time to take action.