Maybe because it’s never been done here–og knows why, we blow everything else up!
Write to some reality show or that car wars show on TLC and suggest it.
I’m sure it would be a hit!
OK-NOW I’ll shut up.
And the crowd seems to like it, to. :smack:
Who knows, maybe the Queen likes it.
eleanorrigby - I’ve found RV drivers in America to be far more competent, and more aware of the chaos they can cause, than caravan drivers here!
Dorothy Gale’s air freight business does a good job at moving them.
In the UK they blow up caravans. In Canada they fire the chicken cannon. I wonder what they do in France?
Well done!
I believe in France they fart in your general direction…
GorillaMan -come to Cape Cod or Rocky Mountain National Park in summer–you will change your mind. Of course, we don’t have one car lanes bordered by hedgerows over here, so…
Nah. U.S. roads are just straighter and wider than U.K. roads, so the bad drivers have to work a bit harder to cause chaos. As noted, getting behind a bad driver in one of the parks or mountains (where the roads tend to follow the landscape and wander between trees–much as the roads in the U.K. do) can be every bit as frustrating in the States.
Yeah Caravans are near the top of my hate list (along side pedal cyclists). I’ve been on caravaning holidays as a kid but we had a caravan at a fixed site hence no cloggingup of the roads. Living in Scotland I can tell you that going into the Highlands in summer is living hell on the road cause of Caravans.
They trundle along making no effort to let people pass for mile on mile. The roads in Scotland are typically not that good for over taking on and Caravans aggravate that situation. Worst of all is when you get a convoy of them. Then all you can do is either have a stroke from road rage or turn up the music and start swearing at them.
As for Pikeys well that’s another issue as well. The fact they are in Caravans is only part of it. Travellers in the UK probably deserve a thread all of their own. Pikeys have the worst aspects of Caravanners but are antisocial and on the roads all year round.
Lovely. We now have two racist posts. (I’ve reported both, but maybe the mods think it’s the weekend or something 
)
I don’t think that Pikeys and Gypsies are the same thing at all.
In any case, people who live mostly in caravans, and cause public nuisance by making the areas where they site themselves into vermin infested rubbish dumps, well the particular persons who do that are scum, unfortunately those travellers are the ones we tend to notice.
Especially when we have to pick up the tab for clean ups.
I come across plenty of them in prison too, and their value, along with prisoners from other backgrounds are that society is a resource to be exploited without any regard whatsoever for those who comprise society.
Not all travellers are like this, but, those are the ones who come to notice.
Many travellers think that those living in fixed accomadation are against them merely because they think they are free spirits, it is most certainly not, its because when a bunch of them set up in the vicinity, the number of burglaries and petty crime climbs dramatically, rubbish is strewn about.
Frankly, as long as they travel, set up move on and don’t cause any hassle, I don’t care how they lead their lives, unfortunately a number of them don’t and it gives the rest a bad reputation.
Well, I’m glad we do something half-assed decent over here.
We can nit-pick about the various definitions of travellers, but the context in which the word’s been used in this thread is racist.
For any non-Brits who want an example of what I’m on about: BBC NEWS | UK | England | Southern Counties | Bonfire sparks complaints of racism
I’ll be damned. I had no idea this word was “racist” AT ALL. I thought it was much more akin with “white trash” which, while perhaps a tad insensitive and offensive, is not “racist.” I withdraw my use of the term and apologize to offended Dopers.
- Peter Wiggen
Thanks, PeterWiggen - we all have plenty to learn, and it’s always good to see people acknowledge that
Since Peter Wiggin has already apologized, part of this reminder is unnecessary. I’m not at all familiar with the term “pikeys” but, based on several reports and a quickie Google, apparently there is an aspect of a racial/ethnic slur to it. That said, that aspect might not be all that well known, even to UK Dopers, so IMO no warnings are warranted either.
Just don’t use it, okay?
Veb
P.S. Firebringer used the term too, so no intention to single out Peter W., btw.
I’d contend the last two with regards my own family, but even an experienced driver like my father can still take up too much room on the road.
In fact, as a one time caravan kid, I’ll replace those last two with my own personal hatred of a caravan. Spend the day travelling cooped up with siblings and parents in too much heat, lose the convieniences of home for (sometime) dubious destinations, wake up too hot in the heat in the caravan, eat too much dehydrated food… I could go on.
So yes, I hate them because of my own personal experience, but I’ve met too many of the last two caravaners too :mad:
I love the caravan destruction on Top Gear too 
I hate hate hate the freakin things, and most Colorado people who drive in the mountains hate the fuckin things.
On the interstate, okay, they can hide in the right lane with the big rigs. But they should stay the hell off the two-lane roads. They are crappy and unpowered normally , let alone going up a 5%grade. They the iditos get so scrared of the twisties they slow down even more to about 15 milies an hour. Then they get a bunch of damn Californians and Texans who are afraid to pass on two lane-mountain roads behind them. So in order to get where I’m going in less than 3 hours, I have to hit about 120 miles an hour in the opposing to lane for 1/2 mile or so.
I fully support blowing them up, along with the people in them :mad:
I’m of mixed mind about caravans and RVs. I live on the north shore of Superior, where the only road across is very rugged – up, down, around, up, down, around, etc.
Transports crawl up the hills, then speed excessively going down. Trailers and RVs also crawl up the hills, but at least descend more responsibly.
All of them slow traffic (e.g. me) horridly (especially when the fool transports crash – it took me sixteen hours to drive 300km on Thursday due to this sort of nonsense), but given that the landscapes and waterscapes are wonderfully beautiful, I can’t fault the caravans and RVs for being there, and I tend not to speed, so I must frustrate faster drivers too.
Thanks for the link, but I am left still ignorant.
What is a Pikey? We have Gyspies here as well as the UK does–I have only ever seen them in Kentucky, but I’m sure they are elsewhere.
Is Gypsy a raist term as well? I thought it described itinerant people of Romanian heritage.
Is Pikey akin to white trash? (which I still don’t see as racist, but I am willing to go with the flow here).
Are caravan folk the same as squatters in UK?
I’ve read one too many Margaret Yorkes and Ruth Rendells and PD James over here–could I get some clarification?
Are they homeless poor people, or willing hoboes? I guess you have the right to be a hobo if you want but it seems unfair to drag your children around with you. And if they’re not gypsies, where are they from exactly?
And I would guess every country has its equivalent of people who set themselves aside not from physical attributes, but by behavior and lifestyle. Pretty funny in a way.