Our local council has 'enhanced' a local 30mph limit by moving parking bays from the verge, in to the street itself, where painted boxes now exist for the purpose.
The reason, on this long, dead straight road, with clear visibility either side, is apparently to use parked cars as an obstruction to traffic flow, thereby reducing speed.
In practice, it makes it impossible to drive at a steady speed even a long way below the limit, which is frustrating, causes some motorists to increase speed to get past the parked cars before whatever is coming the other way, arrives, and is actually not quite narrow enough to force people to stop and wait. Many a clipped wing mirror is the result, and I see that locals have taken it upon themselves to revert to parking on the grass verge, ignoring the bays painted at their (and my) expence.
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I really cannot comprehend this mentality. It's the same thing as when railings or bushes are used to *reduce* visibility at junctions, roundabouts etc.
The council believes there is a problem with the standard of driving on that road. That problem is caused by lack of hazard perception (all road safety problems are caused by lack of hazard perception). So why would anyone think that increasing the hazard level is a good thing?
Parked cars means pedestrians. Some of them children, often not as tall as a car. Why would reducing the separation between pedestrians and traffic be a good thing?
And what right does the council have to use your car as an obstacle in the road?
Keep parking on the grass verge.
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Hi Mark, Tone,
I live in Watford, and whilst i'm aware of the ridiculous goings on down by the station, i wonder if either of you two know much about the Garston-Leavesden-Abbots Langley area redevelopment that will be starting soon?
Basically the councils attitude seems to be that if there is no stretch of road longer than 75m without a speed 'cushion' in it, it will prevent me from speeding and reduce the number of accidents. I would go off on one about this but i think i did enough of that at the local exhibition of the scheme, where after nearly two hours i got the planning manager to actually agree with 90% of my issues with the scheme. Bet none of them get addressed tho.
Two questions i have about this tho - if i go over a speed 'cushion' at or below the stated 30mph and it breaks my suspension, can i sue the council? It's effectively the same thing as sueing because of potholes is it not?
Secondly a mate of mine has got an F Reg Renault 5 GT Turbo which looks lovely but is setup so low that it wont clear some of the speed humps in my area. A bit silly of him i know, but this new scheme includes a hump intirely inside my road (which is a cul-de-sac). If they build this, his car will be trapped. What happens then???
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Watford council must have allocated a huge buget for traffic frustation measures, went to a local exhibition of a scheme for nascot and cassiobury (basically force all traffic to use the hempstead road)
dont know about suing a council for an inverse pot hole, sounds like a good idea trying if you can prove you were doing under 20 (which i reckon is what the limit will be changed to)
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In Petersfield, Hants., the council have installed ?imitation? pedestrian crossings at various points in the town centre. These are in a contrasting surface colour (buff gravel on a dark red-brown road) and have the dimpled paving stones on the adjacent pavement which I had always thought were to help blind or partially-sighted pedestrians to recognise a crossing. However, when I asked a local policeman about who had priority on the ?crossings?, he said that these were not ?real? crossings, but were installed to slow traffic down by ?looking like a crossing?. The mentality behind this initiative beggars the imagination.. As a motorist and cyclist, I have experienced pedestrians walking into the road assuming that the cars have to give way?
P.
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Yes, along with the bus priority route along the A3 in the same county (four buses per hour at peak times along a lot of it), it is another inspired piece of "fashion thinking".
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Or the bus lane on the Quorn by-pass in Leicestershire which is NOT on a bus route? Buses go through the village using a road which does not have a bus lane
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You'll be pleased to know that that piece of the bus lane has now disappeared.
However the local council now have had an even better idea. A roundabout wher two busy roads meet with a pelican crossing about 15 ft from the roundabout on all four roads. Often there is simply no option but to block the roundabout.
Causes absolutely total chaos!
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Yes hxj,
Thats precisely one of the many mistakes the Watford council is trying to make with this new scheme, although when i pointed out the obvious error in this to the planning manager he quickly agreed that maybe a standard zebra would be a better idea (as long as it was still on a bump, mind!) Makes you wonder how carefully they think about what they're doing!
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Although not a public road, my local council have put in two " is it or isn't it" crossings on the main road into the big long stay car park in Bath. The one the tourists use.
I e-mailed the council on their "actionline" (what a great name) suggesting this wasn't a great idea as either a driver or a pedestrian is going to get confused and it would end in tears (if not worse).
Their response:
"The scheme has been though a safety audit procedure both in the design and as built stage. I am of the opinion that due to the slow speed of the vehicles and improved pedestrian facilities further signing and lining are not required"
In other words cars and pedestrians will have plenty of time to dodge each other! These people run a world heritage city!! Help!
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i too drive a "low" car, and recently the council installed speed cushions on the roads in our town, the speed limit is 30mph and i first went over it at about 15mph,but the car grounded heavily,and badly damaged the exhaust. when i rang the council highways dept, and explained that i held them responsible for the damage and would like them to contribute to the repair costs, i was told that, "the cushions have been designed to a set pattern which allows for the safe transit of ALL vehicles travelling at the implemented mandatory speed limit of 30mph.
when i informed them that my car was a "low" one, they instantly replied, if i had it lowered then the cause and costs of the incident were my responsibility....and promptly hung-up!!.
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