For continued conversation around Traffic Calming, Traffic Organisation and the like.
I will close this thread when it reaches 100 replies or thereabouts and open a new one.
Older versions will not be deleted.
Mark (RLBS)
Moderator at Work
mailto:mark_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
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The first humps near home were installed many years ago in a residential area where an Asian councillor lived.
A resident, of the same race, grew steadily more fed up with the noise created by the hump outside his house. He regularly asked the councillor to get the things removed. The councillor regularly ignored him.
One bright day, the resident walked round to the house of the councillor, knocked on his door, and attempted to strangle him.
Sadly, he failed*. Ho, hum, can't win 'em all.
* To get humps removed, not to strangle worthy councillor.
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Traffic calming is OK provided the raod system has alternative routes.
To give an example, about 10 years ago at Stoke an Access road (Mitchell Way) was created to the local dual carriageway A500.. called it Mitchell Way. Very nice and wide, it carried all traffic on a nice straight/wide road. Great for access.
However it only went about 1.5 miles and ended in a roundabout where the next access road was to be built. Due to an ongoing dispute with the Department of Transport it is unbuilt/mired in the swamp of Whitehall (devolution?)
So traffic going to the loacl are of Stoke or the North has to go either through the local town centre or down a road called Furlong Road. The latter has shops/houses and a pub and so our local council after several attempts have put tarffic calming humps/ bollards in. The same traffic goes down it - it has no choice- and the net result is nil.
Now if the DOT built the access referred to in the second above paragraph, the locals would be relieved of this pressure.
As usuual a total shambles.. build an access road to nowhere. I suppose since the DOT live in London they think everyone else should have the same abysmal system as they have..and waste money as well.
Why have centralised pplanning when it is clear it does not work.. By all means plan the Motorways, let the locals do the rest..
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In my experience quite a lot of traffic calming put in at local level has more to do with excluding through traffic from 'favoured' areas that it has to do with road safety. Take a tour around Bromley and you'll find sleepy little roads crammed with humps whilst areas with real speeding and accident problems have been overlooked. Thankfully things have changed a little in recent times but the truth is that people often demand lumps, bumps and humps in their streets and then whinge when their own personal cut through to the shops, station etc. is humped !
In Orpington a cul-de-sac running parallel to the High Street has been yellow lined in the last few years after demands by the resdients who chose to live there knowing full well that shoppers and local workers tended to park there. The result ? The parking has moved further away to streets where the parking is far more problematic ! The residents in these streets don't enjoy any of the benefits of being so close to town but now have to suffer the parking problems !
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What relevance is his race?
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From Auto Express, 9-15 October, Issue 725
p13 NEWS IN BRIEF - FATALITIES RISE AGAIN
"ROAD deaths in Britain for 2001 were up one per cent on the previous year, at 3,450.
p16 NEWS IN BRIEF - SCOTS' SAFETY FUNDS PLEA
"ROAD safety campaigners in Scotland are seeking more Government cash after failing to cut the number of children killed on the country's roads. The latest figures show deaths rose from 13 in 2000 to 14 last year. It's not a huge increase, but it follows the introduction of a range of new measures, including lower speed limits, traffic-calming and a high-profile ad campaign, aimed at cutting casualties by half within eight years across the country."
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caught on the news
some bloke in slough was up in court today
seems he was caught spray painting speed cameras
this happened after he was banned after being flashed 3 times in one day, under totting up
this can only be more of the backlash that is building, probably the next guy will be cleverer and have balaclava/mask and do it under cover of darkness etc
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"seems he was caught spray painting speed cameras after he was banned after being flashed 3 times "
That makes four times that he was careless then.
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caught speeding 3 times in 1 day?
An idiot then.
He is eriously unfit to drive. Confiscate his car.
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35 in a former 40 in good clear safe conditions past three consecutive hidden speed cameras perhaps?
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But probably, no?
Like those policemen, councillors, ministers and "safety" campaigners "caught" several times in a day by journalists, and even by the real thing.
Can't beat the car that was "caught" speeding in Manchester, though.
Seventeen (17!) times.
In one day.
Now I bet that that one was doing a lot more than 35 in a former 40.
Probably.
Pity it was "caught" by a camera which was caught out by false plates.
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But probably, no? Like those policemen, councillors, ministers and "safety" campaigners "caught" several times in a day by journalists, and even by the real thing.
EG from the Lancs Evening Telegraph 15/9/2001.
Three-time Trap Of [Anti] Speed Campaigner
County Councillor has been caught speeding three times - by a camera he petitioned for.
Coun Alan Whittaker now faces a ban if he is captured again.
But he believes more cameras will serve to make the county's roads safer......
......Coun Whittaker, a former Mayor of Chorley, had campaigned for a speed camera to be installed on the B5250 in Eccleston, one of the villages he represents at County Hall, for several years.
It was eventually installed this year, much to the delight of Coun Whittaker.....
.....He has collected three points for each offence plus a £60 fixed fine.
He said: "It would be hypocritical of me to campaign for this for several years and then condemn it when I got caught.
"I am not a fast driver, I was literally doing 35 in a 30 and I was caught out, and rightly so.
[Just a hypocrite then].
"Some might say it is bad luck, but I am glad it is working.
"People were worried about speeding along the road, and there were a lot of people going far too fast. That isn't happening now, or at least not to the same extent, and it does make the roads safer.
[And an imbecile].
"It is very satisfying to see the brake lights coming on as people enter the village because it means our road is safer.
[And a ....]
"They obviously work and I hope that their success can be repeated wherever they are needed. Hopefully, any publicity over what happened to me will prove that these cameras actually work. I'll be watching my exact speed in future.
[Let me see, he thinks that photogaphic evidence of him speeding three times proves that the cameras stop you speeding.
And that photographic evidence of him speeding but not having an accident proveds that cameras make the roads safer.
It's a pity cameras can't take a snapshot of your chemical abuse level!].
"Any more points and I will lose my licence."
[The sooner we get half-wits like him off the road, the better. So cameras do have asafety function!]
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Nearly £350,000 a day is being paid out by local councils to compensate drivers whose vehicles are damaged by potholes.....
......soared to an all-time high. Last year, £121million was paid in compensation, up two-and-a-half times on the £48.4m total in 2000. And the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which compiled the data, says the situation will get worse. A £1.2billion shortfall in council road repair budgets - coupled with more motorists making damage claims - means the amount of cash being diverted from maintenance to pay for compensation is greater than ever......
.................Other figures show that 75 per cent of highway engineers feel there's a serious threat to road safety because of the lack of improvement and maintenance work being carried out.
From:
www.autoexpress.co.uk/front_index.php?cp=1&page=ne...1
Hmmmmmmmmmmm
But they seem to have plenty of money for putting in those upside-down inside-out potholes that wreck our suspensions just as effectively as the ordinary ones resulting from under investment in maintenance!
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I've heard that a group of bus/taxi drivers are taking a council to court, for causing lower back injuries in areas covered by speed bumps. I often wonder what an ambulance would do if it was carrying someone who'd fallen off a roof, and had suffered a back injury.
I prefer the chicanes with one lane having right of way, alternating along the road, especially if they have a cycle lane, cos then I can ride my Yamaha unhindered up the red bit:-)
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bus drivers in newbury had quite a big campaign as many of them were getting back problems from the bumps put in the road
a little local success, and someof the bumps were removed
of course the govt spin doctors swooped to stop the message from the ordinary people spreading wider, silly bumps in road are not to universal aclaim - but democracy in this country is a very imprecise control
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Strange but nobody has mentioned it but I did read somewhere that there is a knock on damaging effect on the foundations of houses in close proximity to a hump through the percussion effect.
Would the council stand a claim for a new des res I wonder?
DVD.
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Somebody here tried to sue the council for a damaged wheel and suspension - the courts ruled that the road damge was caused by poor weather. Act of God, etc...
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If you want to read about the health and safety effects from driving over potholes, rough roads and road humps, search for the report "Whole-body vibration when riding over rough roads". It is compiled at the Swedish National Road Administration, research in cooperation with expertise from the National Institute of Working Life. You may find the report at The Ride Quality Homepage, www.ride-quality.tk, or at the SNRA website www.vv.se/for_lang/english/publications/skakstudie...f
Regards, Johan
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Apologies if this has been discussed before my time here, but can someone explain to me the purpose of those speed humps that only go part way across the road and fit neatly between the track of your average car. Maybe its to encourage diving down the centre of the road and therefor increase risks of head on collisions, or maybe ......
Robin
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"the purpose of those speed humps that only go part way across the road and fit neatly between the track of your average car. "
The width is calculated so that only the poor in small cars and boy racers in hot hatches are inconvenienced.
The rich, in big cars (including Councillors), buses, lorries and motorcycles are not affected.
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