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The A30 round Basingstoke way used have lots of dual carrigeway and you could make good progress quite safely along the long stetches. It is now festoned with white hatch marks down great swathes of it and traffic islands have sprouted in many places to ensure once car friendly dual carriaways are single lane only. Where once you could overtake or be overtaken safely it has become a procession vehicles stuck behind each other. The whole area has become anti car, whats it like in your patch?
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Do you mean dual-carriageways (2 or more lanes each way with a central divide), or three-lane 'killer' roads with one lane in each direction and a central 'free-for-all' centre lane?
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sorry about the central centre lane....ooops!
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not seenmany three lane killers in a while. No the A30 was the old fashioned two lanes each way see for miles job.
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This does seem ridiculous. Have you tried asking the authorities as to the justification for it?
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I live in Basingstoke and I can confirm that this road is now horrid to drive down with constant obstacles, road-narrowing devices etc as described by the op. The reason for this is that there were a number of fatal accidents a year or so ago and the local MP put some pressure on to bring in preventative measures. It was said that the road is impossible to cross and is in a residential area. Anyone knowing this section of the road will be well aware that it is, in fact, a very rural area with farmland on either side and only a scattering of houses. As far as I can see there are further accidents waiting to happen as impatient drivers are always taking serious risks trying to overtake as they approach the next narrowed part of the road.
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I can only presume there is a general desire to increase journey times. I am told that Luton traffic has gotten worse since the addition of bus lanes and one way systems. And I was passing RAF Halton at the weekend, and I have no idea why, but a once 40 mph road is now 30 mph. I keep seeing roads with reduced speed limits. 50 instead of 60. 20 instead of 30. I obey them but they seem madness. Same in Paignton and Dartington, in Devon, so it's not just Beds and Bucks.
And in Slough the lights on many roads (e.g. A4) are phased to maximise journeys, though if you speed dangerously you can (I presume) make it past successive lights.
I guess the current government approach to road safety is based on the "A stationary car is a safe car" maxim. Or maybe forcing people out of cars onto buses. Or maybe simply "We hate cars so we are going to make life tough for you but we are rich cabinet ministers based in London with good transport and anyway we have chauffeur driven limos so stuff you." It seems we really do have an-anti-car government.
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>>It seems we really do have an-anti-car government.
No 'seems' about it.
Roll on the next election when we can do something about it.
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I can only presume there is a general desire to increase journey times. I am told that Luton traffic has gotten worse since the addition of bus lanes and one way systems. And I was passing RAF Halton at the weekend, and I have no idea why, but a once 40 mph road is now 30 mph. I keep seeing roads with reduced speed limits. 50 instead of 60. 20 instead of 30.
Passing through Aylesbury yesterday I was horrified to see that in the last few weeks swathes of 60 limit have become 50 or 40 and 40 have become 30. Add the similar antics a couple of years ago from High Wycombe to Missenden, and now in all the 20 miles from Wycombe (Loudwater to be exact) to Aylesbury via Missenden, the only NSL stretch is London Road and Wendover Bypass. The rest is a slow, boring, 30 or 40 MPH trudge even when the road is clear. The timing of the Aylesbury changes and those in and around Wycombe smacks of budget availability so I guess we have 12 months to go before the next reductions!
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Yep the stretch of the A4128 between High Wycombe & Great Missenden has dramatically changed the speed limits.
Parts that used to be NSL are now 50 following on 40.
Cryers Hill is now a 50 limit instead of NSL then straight to 30 due to the school at the top of the hill.
Carry on up towards Great Kingshill & Prestwood it's 40 due to a few fatal accidents on that stretch.
--
Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Leif said:It seems we really do have an anti-car government.
Unfortunately it's not just this government.
The proudest achievement of our LibDem MP Edward Davey, the one who's always getting himself on telly, was to have the six lane A3 Kingston-by-pass reduced to 50mph complete with 11 speed cameras installed over 3 miles. (At least he used to claim it was all his achievement in his "aren't I wonderful" newsletters to voters.)
We now have traffic that travels just 3 foot apart with lots of 'undertaking' and everyone hitting the brakes at every camera. It's truely scary. Result has been accidents pretty much every few days that cause yet more delay and frustration. Well done Edward Davey MP.
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Leif said: >> It seems we really do have an anti-car government.
the sixlane A3 Kingston-by-pass reduced to 50mph complete with 11 speed cameras installed over 3 miles. We now have traffic that travels just 3 foot apart with lots of 'undertaking' and everyone hitting the brakes at every camera. It's truely scary.
Actually flynn you will find many here who agree with the idiotic 50 limit on that road. But I agree with you.
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Sounds about right, I lived in Kempshott from 1993 to 2001, I reckon the journey time from my house to M3 J7 must've doubled during the time I lived there, extra roundabouts, 2 lanes into one going past the motorbike shop etc. Sounds like they're doing the same the other side of the Brighton Hill roundabout now :-(.
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When I lived in Ealing the Uxbridge road was particularly bad. A set of lights every hundred yards, each timed to go red seconds after the previous one went green. It used to take me 30 minutes to ride 5 miles from Ealing to Hammersmith, not due to weight of traffic (it was often fairly quiet) but due to bad (I suspect intentionally bad) light phasing.
In contrast, I rode 29 miles from Bracknell to Hammersmith this morning in 45 minutes - a journey in which the weight of traffic is much heavier. Even when the schools are in it only takes 50.
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I can't comment on this sort of thing. Swear filter.
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I can't comment on this sort of thing. Swear filter.
Did you mean X&^£%H and &93^£% with big *$$$£%£% and a **** ? Too right. Is speed camera still a swear word? Let's see ...
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The best road in basingstoke is the M3. You see very little of Basingstoke, making it an ideal route.,.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The best road in basingstoke is the M3. You see very little of Basingstoke, making it an ideal route.,. ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
.....and they're even putting a nice big fence up alongside the M3 to reduce the risk of catching a passing glimpse ;-)
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When I lived in Ealing the Uxbridge road was particularly bad. A set of lights every hundred yards, each timed to go
AJ, it's even worse now. They have cameras and try to get money off you for setting a wheel in the bus lane. Absolute screaming carp-hounds, they send you cropped photos and have deliberately vague and unconventional road markings (at the junction with Askew Road for example). I cannot imagine where they find these people. You wouldn't want to drink with such.
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Seeing the title of this thread I thought it was about someone customising a poor litle old Austin....
But I agree - these markings and assorted furniture are decided on by 'suits' who just want to be seen to be taking action to prevent accidents, without thinking properly about what does and doesn't. If anything some of these things produce more sharp braking and variation in speeds, causing more accidents than they prevent.
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Presumably thanks to all the 'safety improvemenrs' including 'safety cameras' (I feel queasy writing that last phrase) accidents have plummeted?
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Responsibility for most of the former functions of local councils have passed elsewhere, including education, and so the characters who become councillors because they love interferring in other people's lives now don't have much to do apart from painting red, yellow, green and white lines on roads. It satisfies the same desperate need for self-expresion as for the graffitti vandals the courts put on ASBOs.
The Highways Agency, responsible for major roads, is full of otherwise unemployables desperate to justify their jobs. If they can't find somewhere else to paint a line they're out of work.
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The feeder road for Junction 18 of the M25 used to be fast 3 lanes in each direction, with good traffic flow. Last year they inexplicably made it 2 lanes, adding 10 minutes onto my journey to & from work. Cheers for that, 20 minutes of my leasure time, now spent in my car, creating unneccesary polution.
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