Memo to all councils :
Please make sure that all roads around a council owned car park are resident only or they have double yellow lines (even if the road are not residential).
We cant have evil car owners clogging up our streets, better they use the bus (ha !) or (better still) use our over priced car park. Note that this may generate some complaints from shops and business owners due to car owners finding it cheaper to drive to the new out of town shopping centre , but as they dont vote for us we can safely ignore them.
As council employees you can expect all roads located around council buildings to be free of yellow lines or resident parking so you can of course continue to drive into work (you cant expect us to travel on the bus !!!)
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Manchester Road Bradford - Two mile stretch from city centre to ring road.
The conversation:
'Lets install a central guided bus lane - there's loads of Government money for such schemes.'
'That's a good idea, but we need to get passengers across the three lane highway to the bus stops.'
'No problem. I've designed a scheme incorporating FOURTEEN sets of traffic lights. For good measure I've also decided to put a crossing 20 metres after the roundabout as you leave town. I'm sure this won't be too dangerous'
'Not all buses can use the guided bus lane'
'Thats OK we'll also make one of the three lanes a dedicated bus lane for those buses which can't use the new guided bus system'
Result two miles of tailbacks, virtually no buses in the new bus lanes and total chaos for buses and other traffic when a guided bus breaks down!
One benefit the guided bus route stops have heated seats!!
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The road layout sounds pretty bad, but I like your msg.
Went to Birmingham recently. Too many speed cameras, but they don't seem to have ruined the 4 lane roads & dual carriageways with hatching. Everywhere else you go, the councils seem to have an excess of white paint...
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Always carry a small digital camera (can be had for £40 these days) when you see something particularly stupid photograph it and email it to the local paper news desk. Papers love this stuff, councils hate it!
Do anything you can to ruin their day as they have ruined yours.
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I live in the area covered by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council. It consists of 3 towns: Cheadle, Leek and Biddulph.
Leek has major parking problems and has charges for the limited car parking ther is.
Neither Cheadle nor Biddulph have charges or a parking problem.
The council (who are based in Leek!) now wish to charge for parking in Biddulph and Cheadle because " it's unfair to other ratepayers to subsidise free parking they do not use" and "we must have consistent policies " (The economics of car park attendants etc do not appear to make sense and other local towns within a 5 mile radius have better shopping and free parking.)
But the council appear determined on charges.
Based on their logic of not subsidising services I do not use, I will ask for a rates discount as we no longer use the schools, social services , library or other local services funded by the rates.!
And I will no longer shop locally as it is not worth the expense.Judhing by others' comments I will not be the only one.
Car hating? Bunch of loonies who can't think logically. And if any local councillors vote for it we shall unseat them all at the next local elections..
I only paraphrase above their reasons for charges.. the word muppets comes to mind...
madf
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On the subject of parking charges - the area in which I live used to have a very few, select places where parking was possible for free, for example outside the library, the area's main supermarket carpark, parking spaces outside local shops.
Over the last few months, these have all suddenly become subjected to either pay and display charges, or parking meters. In addition, roads which used to be available for parking convenient to the high street have now become either double-yellow-lined or hours-restricted parking.
There are also proposals to close one of the always-full multi-storey carparks in the town, to make way for new development.
In the short term, sure, the council may be raking in some extra money. In the longer term, people will stop coming here/parking here, and go elsewhere.
Another example of short-term vision from a council that are persistently installing expensive road-safety measures, and then removing them again a few months later because they have not worked.
HF
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I almost wish I hadn't started this thread now. I'm even more wound up hearing about motorist crippling schemes than before!
Just hope those responsible suffer at least as much as the rest of us!
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As you say the decimation of town centres is proceeding apace. It is bad enough you have to cope with drunks, beggars and other hassles but to be extorted out of even more money because you drive a car is just too much.
Still, no doubt when tumbleweed is blowing down the deserted High Street past all the boarded up shops the local council will hire a consultancy at vast exepense to work out what went wrong. Jobs for the boys...
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Turn right off New Milton High Street in Hampshire and you are faced with another set of traffic lights just 30 yards up the road. Result - the lights are invariably red, the traffic tails back past the lights on the main road - chaos. Despite thousands of complaints, thje council has done nothing to improve matters. As they have just built a new Town Hall at the offending cross-road it is conceivable that once the concillors experience the mayhem first-hand something might be done!
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Most of these schemes/scams are dreamed up by council OFFICERS not elected members. The members tend to go along with them because they've been taught that SPEED KILLS and people don't mind being treated like muck when they're in cars, because all car drivers are pedestrians as well sometimes. The DTLR are largely staffed by militant cyclists who've had plans in their satchels for cycleways and red/green/white painted roads for all their working lives, waiting for a government vacuous and naive enough to let them do it. Any of you notice what happened about 7 years ago by any chance??!
On the other hand, elected members - ie YOUR COUNCILLORS - are open to persuasion. They might enjoy feeling they're saving the planet, but hey - if they are suddenly ex-councillor at the next local election (you DID vote, didn't you??!) they wouldn't be getting to feel like that, so their opinions can be 'moulded'! Try it, its fun - we're possibly the second-biggest lobby in the country, just disorganised because a lot of us have been taught to be ashamed of being 'selfish motorists'! Incidentaly - can anyone suggest why they've now decided to put badly-applied Shellgrip on the approach to EVERY roundabout and continue it until just before the apex...? Great thinking there, I'm sure - I just can't see it!
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I used to go to Windsor to shop. Then the local car park started charging on Sundays, and the council installed parking machines on the local back streets. So I don't go there anymore. I wonder if the shops have noticed a drop in trade? (No I'm not that big a spender. I'm assuming others will do like me.)
Brixham, in south Devon, is chock a block with double yellow lines, to the extent that there's nowhere to park. The council expect you to pay to park in the big car park, and then walk a mile or two to your intended destination e.g. local chippy. A five minute journey thus takes 30 minutes or more. The result is that everyone ignores the double yellow lines and parks anywhere thus causing mayhem.
Our local council have painted green cycle lanes on local roads. The local cyclists have taken advantage of this exciting new facility and now it is common place to see cyclists riding on the wrong side of the road, often at night and with no lights.
To be fair some local schemes work well, but I do wonder if councils do studies to determine the actual effect of a given scheme as opposed to the intended effect?
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You have a lot to answer for NitroBurner in whipping up irate frenzy in backroomland on a lovely summer's sunday morning.
However, as my handle suggests, I am domiciled in North Wales and yesterday took a leisurely drive to Criccieth. This is an affluent North Wales coastal town (which is served by Gwynedd County Council) but one which is heavily reliant upon summer tourist trade. Imagine my concern when, duly driving on the
main road in, (well from Caernarfon anyway) at the requested 30mph, I was met with a barrier of almost unpenetrable road traffic calming humps which would have challanged even the most careful of drivers at 10 mph. Given the numerous sump/exhaust gouges on them, I would assume that Gwynedd CC have been met with a plethora of damage claims.
I'm not insensitive to the need for traffic control initiatives
validly placed in the name of road safety, but feel that the aforesaid will create more accidents than it prevents...to say nothing of vehicle damage. There ! I feel better now.
For goodness sake, no-one mention those drivers who tow those little trailers carrying jetskis...now there's a recipe for summer outrage!
AI
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It's truly a disgrace how councils seem to be free to spend taxpayer's money on methods of hindering people going about their business.
Motorists contribute enormously to the national purse, have paid for the roads (many times over) on which they travel, pay a large amount of tax on their fuel, servicing, parts and so on.
On top of this, they have to put up with council officials whose objective seems to be to get into a position of power so that they can cause as much inconvenience as possible over people who have better things to do in life, like driving to and from jobs that are more likely to contribute something positive to the economy.
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My brother lives in Southport and currently the drive from his house to a friend's takes about three minutes.
Sefton Council have, in their wisdom. decided to install speedhumps/bumps/tables/cushions all around this area. Result - he will now have to negotiate (IIRC) 28 of these blights during this drive. Admittedly, he could walk it in ten minutes, but that ain't the point is it?
The area that is being traffic calmed has never seen a major incident, and as far as I know has not suffered excessively from speeding. The fact that these humps are being installed along a bus route and a route to/from an elderly persons' day centre says a lot for the people who run the council.
Rob
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35 years ago German cities had coordinated traffic lights such that if you recahed one on a green and drove just below the speed limit you would get to all further lights on a green too, subject to traffic conditions. If you joined a main road like this you would also get early warning signs, telling you at what speed to drive to get the next light on a green. No information meant that you couldn't get a green if you stuck to the limit.
I am interested to know whether one might have a case against any council or authority if you damage the underside of your car on any hump or speed cushion or whatever, while driving below the posted speed limit for the road in question. Do an BR members have information or experience of this please?
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