Over the past few months I have been reading with interest the horror stories of members local councils, who for no sane reason decide to produce some truly ludicrous road layouts. I think we should start a thread detailing the worst of the worst.
Here's my input to get things started?.
Dumfries & Galloway Regional Council Roads Department decided to remove a roundabout in Dumfries and replace it with a set of traffic lights to ease congestion at rush hour. After a couple of months of mayhem whilst it was being built, they switched the lights on and sat back. The traffic flow is now ten times WORSE than it was before.
So what have they done?
They've switched the lights off and erected a temporary roundabout made out of traffic cones! They are now planning to remove the lights and rebuild the roundabout in the original location. All at tax payers expense!
This is in a town of 40,000 people split in two by a river with only THREE road bridges over it!
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At least they've got the sense to go back...
On of my local hates is several "pinch points" which reduce a City 4 lane road to 2 lanes - then place the bus stop at the pinch point: everything stops while people get on and pay.
( 1 man operation bus. )
I understand it was done to encourage bus use!
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On of my local hates is several "pinch points" which reduce a City 4 lane road to 2 lanes - then place the bus stop at the pinch point: everything stops while people get on and pay. ( 1 man operation bus. ) I understand it was done to encourage bus use!
The pinch points that I really hate are those in towns where they block of one lane totally and have a priority system. Very effective in its plan (ie to slow down cars) but doesn't do the pollution any good.
I mostly see these in Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset but presume they are everywhere.
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At least they've got the sense to go back...
On of my local hates is several "pinch points" which reduce a City 4 lane road to 2 lanes - then place the bus stop at the pinch point: everything stops while people get on and pay.
( 1 man operation bus. )
I understand it was done to encourage bus use!
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There's a pinch-point near me. There's not much warning it's coming up: scared me the first time I came accross it. I bet the cyclists *hate* it!
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To see a real crazy council go to Sheffield. They encourage the local John Lewis to open Sundays and to consider expanding, John Lewis also has about the largest car park in the city centre. The the council make the dual carridgeway leading to the town centre into a single carridgeway.
But before this it introduced a one way system in the very heart of town that means every motorist visiting the city hall (for concerts, etc.) has to drive through the red light district to leave!
Steve.
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Sheffield has a well planned transport system and your remarks Steve are totally out of order and unfair. It is well planned and thought out for horse and carriages:-)
madf
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It's not that bad. HOWEVER:
They have just recently resurfaced a road, and a bit further along put a bus lane on the left hand side of the road [next to bus stop], 20 metres further up the road [by a junction] the bus lane swaps to the right hand side of the road! [It's a dual carriageway].
Which means buses start on the left and need to get in the right hand lane, and cars are in the right hand lane and need to swap to the leftside lane, by a junction and within 5 metres!
That and a bit ago if you followed the signs to the train station you went round in circles!...
Kev
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You should be so lucky to have three bridges over your river. I live in Reading, and it is cut in two by the River Thames. Guess how many bridges we have? Two!
Now Reading is not only a large town but would like to become a city. Perhaps the council's idea of a city is one without cars.
It is the council's declared policy to try to discourage cars from the town centre. In that case the answer to me seems very simple - build a new bridge (s) outside the urban area. This will do wonders for reducing town centre traffic as many people have to drive to cross one or other of the two bridges, both of which are close to the town centre.
The next bridges up and downstream to these two are in small villages, again not places where streams of traffic ought to be. These villages got choked each morning and evening as people try to find ways to avoid Reading centre bridges. Now what age are we living in?
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I agree that its pretty impossible to bypass Reading. However, the main problem is security in the car parks. For example Kings Meadow. Park in there for more than 10 minutes and your car will be broken into.
As for places like Chatham Street, I don't think people are safe in there, never mind cars.
Whilst the population of Reading is large, the actual Town Centre is not. If they made the car parks secure then people would be happier to walk across the bridges.
Kings Meadow would be ideal were it not for the security.
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By the way, the first time I heard the third bridge suggested was in the 70s before Lower Earley became so big. 30 years later and nothing has changed.
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>>>On of my local hates is several "pinch points" which reduce a City 4 lane road to 2 lanes - then place the bus stop at the pinch point: everything stops while people get on and pay. ( 1 man operation bus. ) <<<
This sounds like an idea copied from Sweden, where I frequently work, and where it has been used for a long time.
It is quite normal to pinch roads (sometimes quite major roads, too) down to one lane, and then put the bus stop on the pinch point. This means that whilst the bus is stopped, as you say, so is all traffic in both directions. This is to reduce pedestrian casualties. The big difference in Sweden though is the almost complete lack of traffic in many towns, even in the 'rush'(!) hour, which means that this good safety idea has minimal traffic impact. Unlike Blighty....
Yesterday, I spent 20 minutes trying to drive half a mile through a small village. Why? Firstly (off thread) because of all the huge 4x4s dropping off precious little Jimmys, these vehicles being sufficiently wide and driven with sufficient selfish ineptitude to cause grid lock. Secondly, because having passed this chaos, a school bus (yes, some do exist!) met a dustcart at a deliberate pinch point, neither gave way, and then neither could reverse because of the solid traffic behind! Marvelous.
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Whenever a bus stops in the road, as they do all the time in London now as they have filled in the bus stops, I hit the horn and keep it going until the bus pulls off. Most cars behind join in. Great fun...
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Despite many protests, Birmingham council insisted on removing a tradition traffic island (called the 'Beggars Bush') with traffic lights.
Predictably there is infinitely more congestion than before. Recently, there was a power cut for several hours and, guess what, traffic flowed much better.
What makes the conjestion much worse, is that these lights are 'in series' with a set of pedestrian lights, and another set controlling the entrance/exit to a local Tesco Store within 200 metres - traffic backs-up from one set to the other - total incompetence.
Such proliferation of traffic lights against the evidence suggests that these councils are in the pocket of traffic light makers - maybe I mean the other way round!!
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Yes, we have many instances of "congestion-creation" in our area.
I think the councils may be in league with, not just traffic light makers, but also certain building firms who charge a fortune to add more traffic islands and pinch points...and also... the government. Think of all the extra fuel used and thus tax revenue every time another queue of traffic is created where once it flowed smoothly.
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What really bugs me is the saying gridlock britain, IF IT WASN'T FOR ALL THE HUMPS, CHICANES, PINCH POINTS, ROAD NARROWING AND ALL OTHER ANTI-CAR MEASURES THERE WOULDN'T BE GRIDLOCK. Sorry rant over.
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Worcestershire CC / Redditch BC have recently caused headaches at a number of roundabouts in the town. I don't use these very often but I understand that where there used to be two lanes for straight on they have marked the offside lane for right-turn only into the local Sainsburys. What used to be a queue of about ten cars in length is now about a half mile
At the next roundabout it is the same sort or thing with right only towards the town centre with white chevrons on the outside lane of the straight on exit reducing the road to a single carriageway. Wouldn't mind so much but have you ever been to Redditch town centre? It certainly doesn't need a dedicated lane.
Interestingly, though, there are a number of roundabouts in Redditch that have a dedicated left turn lane at which you have a right of way and no need to give way. These are usually where two dual carriageways intersect and the slip roads have two lanes so the traffic flowws freely.
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In Bromley in kent there is a road called homesdale road and on that road is a DUMP. So particularly of a weekend the que is massive and because it is a reasonably busy road people go speeding down the other side of the road trying to get past the line of cars. The council had a brainwave and stuck a sign up saying NO QUEING BEYOND THIS POINT or something similar and guess what....You may have had more success with a dont urinate on the floor sign on the wall of the gents in your local pub. apparently there are two other entrances and I dont know why one of these is not open but one goes past someones house that is on the council and that is why they dont open that one. Only what I have heard I am afraid but the queues are definately there.
NB
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