Well done that man

[dennis]

It doesn't work like that.. its a tactile indication that its green, it works for the deaf too. The last one I looked at was a little rubber pip that rotates when the lights are green.

[dennis]

It doesn't work for the hard of hearing so they changed it.

[Mark]

[ snip ]

Write to the manager of Maplins and tell him/her why you will not be shopping there again. You never know, it might make a difference.

[Mary Fisher]

Sorry, I've been misinformed it seems.

My main point, that there is a way of overcoming difficulties for blind people (and deaf people too!) stands.

Mary

>

[Dave]

I spoke to him immediately after I got the ticket. He spoke a dialect of bollockese that I did not understand.

Dave

[Mary Fisher]

A politician who's lost his seat perhaps ...

Mary

[Dave Baker]

Assuming a vehicle with brakes good enough to lock the wheels then the stopping distance, at any speed, will be a function of the tyre grip. The percentage difference with better modern rubber will be the same at any speed. A 1g stop from 30 mph (about the best a modern car can do) is almost exactly 30 feet. 50 years ago a 0.75g stop might have been more realistic which would be 40 ft. Of course modern disc brakes are also less likely to fade at high speed than drum brakes of yore.

[The Medway Handyman]

We have the bloody things in two places that annoy me, one is going up Watling St, an extremely steep hill leading to the M2, so no great surprise, you never see a melon head using it - complete waste of money. The other is in Dock Rd Chatham, which reduces the road from three lanes to two, thus causing traffic chaos. When the dockyard was open & 10,000 working blokes used a bike to travel to & from work, there wasn't a cycle lane in sight.

PC bollocks.

[The Medway Handyman]

When did the 30 mph limit come into force? Anyone know?

Reaction time is presumably the same, but stopping distance must have halved.

[The Medway Handyman]

Death to the melon heads............

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I *think* the '20s.

I doubt the stopping distance from 30 has changed a great deal. From higher speeds, yes. Of course you can ignore the HC distances - they have always been very conservative.

[ARWadworth]

1934, the same year that driving tests were introduced. (Alright I cheated it was a question in the pub quiz last week)

Not for someone who passed their test in 1934!

Adam

[swarfmaker]

I think you'll find that *most* of the crossing control boxes have a little tactile indicator underneath the box that rotates when the green man is showing. The blind person (me) just touches a finger to the indicator and when it rotates it's safe to cross. HTH

Iain

[swarfmaker]

Sounds are switched off when there are more than one crossing in close proximity, i.e. at a crossroads, as it can be difficult to know which particular one is bleeping. HTH

Iain

[Rod]

Following this thread, I checked this out this afternoon. Exactly as described. Amazing!

Now I can chat away or set to thinking about something while waiting for the green man and know I will not miss it. :-)

[The Medway Handyman]

Servo's & ABS would make a difference as well surely?

[Owain]

I thought the knob underneath rotated so the deaf/blind could tell when it was safe to cross.

The law is different in Scotland and does not specify a bleeping noise, with the result that in Edinburgh there are several sets of staggered crossings with voice announcements saying "traffic going to Princes St has been signalled to stop" or (different voice) "traffic coming from Princes St has been signalled to stop".

Owain

[Andy Champ]

Servos - no. If you can lock the wheels, you can lock the wheels; the servo just makes it less work. Old drum brakes BTW had a "self-servo" effect; discs don't. That and the heavier weight of a modern car means they are more necessary.

ABS - yes, a little - when the road is wet, but NO when it's dry. Mostly ABS will let you swerve *and* brake which was once the preserve of experts.

The highway code distances apparently fit a Discovery - half a G. (no I haven't done the arithmetic). I'd expect well over a G for a good car. One of those low slung ones that has to crawl over speed humps.

Andy

[Dave Plowman (News)]

1g at 30 mph was achievable by some cars 50 years ago. Motor/Autocar of the period will confirm. Many modern cars on good rubber exceed this. It's braking from high speed where modern cars excel over older ones, really.

But from 30 mph on dry roads the stopping distance certainly hasn't halved

- nothing like it. The difference might be more in the wet, though.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They might take some of the effort and skill out of the equation - but that's all.