Security booms

[fanievb]

 

Crawl back in your hole , or are you trying to insight a person

Shame

you think violence is a solution to all problems and when the fact that you are a complete idiot is pointed out to you, you try and make it personal.

 

So gaan kruip terug in jou gat en word groot

[Joe Low]

OP is in the right but maybe doing laps is annoying esp if you dont live there. Academic now as lines are drawn it will be interesting to see what the municipality says; keeping booms means keeping access open.

[porqui]

Praat met die baas Klaas.

[Heel Drop]

Ok, here goes a rant!

 

During the winter months I have been looking to maintain the fitness levels and so have been doing laps of a short circuit in the ‘burbs on the MTB during the week. Reason for this is that it gets dark so early and the route I do is quite well lit, has some decent climbing, plus I don’t have any lights on my bike. There is also minimal traffic. If my timing is off or I see that I’m becoming a danger to myself or others on the road because of insufficient light I can call it quits and head for home within 3.5km.

 

On this route I encounter two sets of security booms. At one of the booms, if the guy isn’t there or he’s busy I can easily enough ride around it and it’s no problem. The other upside is that the guys manning this boom are friendly. The other boom, operated by a different company, is what has been causing me grief. I have had two run-ins with the guards there and this is what happened:

 

I had been courteous up ‘til this stage and made a point of giving a word of appreciation every time the boom was lifted for me. During one ride I encountered a pair of security guards who, after a few laps, refused to open the boom for me, stating that it’s not their job to open the boom for bicycles – only cars. I understand that it could become tedious to open repeatedly for a cyclist and I certainly did not expect them to be stood at attention every time I appeared on the scene but I had words with them about it because it isn’t really possible to ride around the boom without unclipping and lifting the bike over a high curb. We quickly reached an impasse and basically I was told to bugger off and go ride somewhere else (Diepsloot, to be precise). I said to them that if they are too useless to do the one job they’re tasked with then I would do their job for them and lift the boom myself. I left and they muttered words at me which I did not understand.

 

A week or so later I was doing the same route and I recognised the one guy from before. Every time I approached the boom he pretended to be pre-occupied with something else; like inspecting the screws in his wendy house for rust, yakking at top volume to passing pedestrians, or studying either the insides of his eye lids or the contents of his upside-down guest book. No surprise. Like I had said, I’ll gladly lift the boom myself if it’s too much trouble for him – which I did. It’s one of those light-weight plastic booms so each time I would just slow to a crawl and gently flick it up over my head before going on my way. He flat out ignored me so I did the same.

 

After a couple of laps he saw me approaching and this time he came out into the street and blocked me. He informed me that he would not open the boom but that now it was a problem for me to open it because I was letting it fall and should it become damaged, I would be held liable. This is where I lost the plot. I told him in no uncertain terms that the boom his purely HIS responsibility and if he is too ******* lazy, stupid or patently useless to do the one thing in his job description then that is his problem. Once again he told me to go ride somewhere else as this is obviously an inconvenience for him and I’m making his job twice as hard. I told him where to go shove his request and went off on my way. That’s where my ride ended for the day and I have not been back as I’ve been away for the past two weeks.

In the meantime I have been quietly stewing over this – enough to write this longwinded rant about it anyway. I have not been back there yet but I refuse to be bullied off my own street by some lazy twat of a security guard. Does anyone know what the deal is with access to these boomed areas? Should I simply go higher up and try to speak to someone with half a brain in their head or am I really being unreasonable here?

I think hes got some leverage ............ it will soon be summer then you only have to bother him twice a day

[Stretch]

I think hes got some leverage ............ it will soon be summer then you only have to bother him twice a day

 

i think thats the problem...there is no leverage happening

[FlandersZA]

I did try a PC approach initially - at least I tried to resolve it amicably although the KFC & Coke route hadn’t really occurred to me as anything but blackmail. Admittedly though, their pathetic attitude got to me sufficiently to rile me up. My reason for posting really was to see if anyone knew what the law is on accessing these public boomed areas. Obviously if it were access to private property I would not even be posting this.

[nolipoli]

Just go up. The security company's manager will understand that when the boom is removed they lose income (and the unhelpful guard will get retrenched)

[Tjokkits]

You must be the best thing that happened to him in a long time breaking the boredom of his job, stop taking the bate and take it up with his company

[canadonis]

OP may feel he has right of passage in this boomed area and speaking to the homeowners, security co, council etc is not a bad approach but the amount of effort and time required to me will be most frustrating...

 

If you take 5 min chatting to the guard in question in your car will have far greater immediate impact, all he wants is to be treated with respect and dignity, a streetwise 2 and every week mayb a small coke as gummi mentioned can only help your cause.

 

 

[Uni]

a streetwise 2 and every week mayb a small coke as gummi mentioned can only help your cause.

I agreed with you up until that point, I know the burn down the guard house comment is made in jest, but I do hope the suggestions of bribing someone to do their job is said with tongue firmly in cheek.

 

- It's a precarious situation, it's a public road and they may not prohibit anyone from access.

 

- it's the security guards job to control access - be it by car, motorbike, bicycle or on foot.

 

- how often are we talking here? Are you whizzing by every 5 , 10 or 30 minutes?

 

- you can put in a complaint to the security company but you run the risk of retaliation. Sad to have to cower but reality, he knows where you live, when , what you ride etc.

 

- you could ask the residents association to have a word - and not mention specifics to protect yourself

 

- you could extend an olive branch - I assume it's one specific guy - go introduce yourself, tell him you want to start over.explain the whole schlepp of clipping out etc, tell him your compromise of you opening the boom yourself vs him doing it. If he's non responsive then by all means .... But I'd try that first.

 

I'm in a boomed area, the first day I moved in the guy tried to get a coke out of me, I told him he should buy me one, he tried it one more time after that and he stopped. Please don't fuel that kind of mentality.

I"m lucky I can get out of the area without them having to lift the boom but they do it anyway but that's cause they've seen me coming home with my tail between my legs so many times either walking my bike or banged up and bruised - they feel sorry for me,

 

Good luck.

[canadonis]

 

I agreed with you up until that point, I know the burn down the guard house comment is made in jest, but I do hope the suggestions of bribing someone to do their job is said with tongue firmly in cheek.

 

- It's a precarious situation, it's a public road and they may not prohibit anyone from access.

 

- it's the security guards job to control access - be it by car, motorbike, bicycle or on foot.

 

- how often are we talking here? Are you whizzing by every 5 , 10 or 30 minutes?

 

- you can put in a complaint to the security company but you run the risk of retaliation. Sad to have to cower but reality, he knows where you live, when , what you ride etc.

 

- you could ask the residents association to have a word - and not mention specifics to protect yourself

 

- you could extend an olive branch - I assume it's one specific guy - go introduce yourself, tell him you want to start over.explain the whole schlepp of clipping out etc, tell him your compromise of you opening the boom yourself vs him doing it. If he's non responsive then by all means .... But I'd try that first.

 

I'm in a boomed area, the first day I moved in the guy tried to get a coke out of me, I told him he should buy me one, he tried it one more time after that and he stopped. Please don't fuel that kind of mentality.

I"m lucky I can get out of the area without them having to lift the boom but they do it anyway but that's cause they've seen me coming home with my tail between my legs so many times either walking my bike or banged up and bruised - they feel sorry for me,

 

Good luck.

 

I understand your approach, for me it's R5 per week invested in a peaceful stress free ride and more importantly in a safe environment.

 

The suggestion of a streetwise 2 was a peace offering to heal an already damaged relationship.

 

My philosophy in life ' you attract more bees with honey than vinegar'

 

Right now the ' F*ck you, F*ck you too' approach is not working so maybe it's time to try 'Howzit John how you doing?

[Kranky]

The boomed area is all public property in a regular suburb - public road.

 

Move to Cape Town

 

As this guard only accepts cars as legitimate traffic, why not ask the people responsible for the boom to shorten it to allow pedestrians and cyclists to pass through. Being a public road, I can't see how they can refuse. Alternatively, it will get them to sort out this guard.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Nick.

[ChUkKy]

OP may feel he has right of passage in this boomed area and speaking to the homeowners, security co, council etc is not a bad approach but the amount of effort and time required to me will be most frustrating...

 

If you take 5 min chatting to the guard in question in your car will have far greater immediate impact, all he wants is to be treated with respect and dignity, a streetwise 2 and every week mayb a small coke as gummi mentioned can only help your cause.

 

I tend to disagree with buying anything for the guard. It's his job to open the boom irrespective of which resident is coming in and out.

I'm in the service industry and I'd be screwed if people had to buy me a peace meal to do my job, stuff that!

It's his job, best he does it and opens the boom if it were me, should he choose not to I'll ensure he is without a job for being a twat.

 

I'm lucky, I've got an awesome guard at our complex, if he hears me coming on the motorbike he opens the gate so I don't have to dig for keys, should he see me on my bicycle, same thing... He opens. He is one of the guys that jumps up and does things without fuss and always smiling.

 

I agree with having a chat to the guard, try establish what his problem is. If opening the boom is an issue, he is in the wrong line of guarding. He must then speak to his boss about a pay reduction and then automate the boom so he can press a button instead of lifting his arse off a chair, simple.

[Wyatt Earp]

Ok, here goes a rant!

 

During the winter months I have been looking to maintain the fitness levels and so have been doing laps of a short circuit in the ‘burbs on the MTB during the week. Reason for this is that it gets dark so early and the route I do is quite well lit, has some decent climbing, plus I don’t have any lights on my bike. There is also minimal traffic. If my timing is off or I see that I’m becoming a danger to myself or others on the road because of insufficient light I can call it quits and head for home within 3.5km.

 

On this route I encounter two sets of security booms. At one of the booms, if the guy isn’t there or he’s busy I can easily enough ride around it and it’s no problem. The other upside is that the guys manning this boom are friendly. The other boom, operated by a different company, is what has been causing me grief. I have had two run-ins with the guards there and this is what happened:

 

I had been courteous up ‘til this stage and made a point of giving a word of appreciation every time the boom was lifted for me. During one ride I encountered a pair of security guards who, after a few laps, refused to open the boom for me, stating that it’s not their job to open the boom for bicycles – only cars. I understand that it could become tedious to open repeatedly for a cyclist and I certainly did not expect them to be stood at attention every time I appeared on the scene but I had words with them about it because it isn’t really possible to ride around the boom without unclipping and lifting the bike over a high curb. We quickly reached an impasse and basically I was told to bugger off and go ride somewhere else (Diepsloot, to be precise). I said to them that if they are too useless to do the one job they’re tasked with then I would do their job for them and lift the boom myself. I left and they muttered words at me which I did not understand.

 

A week or so later I was doing the same route and I recognised the one guy from before. Every time I approached the boom he pretended to be pre-occupied with something else; like inspecting the screws in his wendy house for rust, yakking at top volume to passing pedestrians, or studying either the insides of his eye lids or the contents of his upside-down guest book. No surprise. Like I had said, I’ll gladly lift the boom myself if it’s too much trouble for him – which I did. It’s one of those light-weight plastic booms so each time I would just slow to a crawl and gently flick it up over my head before going on my way. He flat out ignored me so I did the same.

 

After a couple of laps he saw me approaching and this time he came out into the street and blocked me. He informed me that he would not open the boom but that now it was a problem for me to open it because I was letting it fall and should it become damaged, I would be held liable. This is where I lost the plot. I told him in no uncertain terms that the boom his purely HIS responsibility and if he is too ******* lazy, stupid or patently useless to do the one thing in his job description then that is his problem. Once again he told me to go ride somewhere else as this is obviously an inconvenience for him and I’m making his job twice as hard. I told him where to go shove his request and went off on my way. That’s where my ride ended for the day and I have not been back as I’ve been away for the past two weeks.

In the meantime I have been quietly stewing over this – enough to write this longwinded rant about it anyway. I have not been back there yet but I refuse to be bullied off my own street by some lazy twat of a security guard. Does anyone know what the deal is with access to these boomed areas? Should I simply go higher up and try to speak to someone with half a brain in their head or am I really being unreasonable here?

 

Sounds like an arrogant dufus to me who ,one of those guards who tends to forget it's a job and not a free ticket to exercising and abusing the little bit of power he has.

Also as far as I know, most of these booms in public areas are actually illegal, but they get allowed as they are seen as a deterrent .

[Wyatt Earp]

The suggestion of a streetwise 2 was a peace offering to heal an already damaged relationship.

 

 

 

 

Yeah , that good old bribery game that our now corrupt nation likes to play.

As for the relationship, the only relationship this guard is interested in ,will be the one where he plays groot meneer and everyone else better respect that.

 

But just to come back to the OP, anyone will become annoyed if they have to jump up and open a boom gate every so often, this however does not give him the right to act like a box.

I would just look for another place to ride or if you really want to keep riding there then open the boom yourself regardless of what he says, if he grabs you and tries to make an "arrest" of some sorts, give him a streetwise two knuckle meal.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Wyatt Earp

[Vanstone]

Speak to the home owners association in that area. They only need to shorten the boom by half a meter and you'll be able to whiz past without the guard even knowing about it. That way he does not have to get off his backside, you don't have to unclip etc and the boom does not get damaged - now that's a win-win situation. Bribing him with KFC only fuel such behavior.