I must be missing something, but I can't see the point of spending millions of pounds building nice wide smooth roads, and then letting some muppet from the council stick a load of bumps and kerbs all over it.
If they really want to keep speeds down, why not just revert to good old fashioned dirt tracks.
Bob
40mph in a 30mph limit at 5a.m. on a Sunday morning will get you three points if you don't spot the camera - but probably presents no risk to anyone's safety. 30mph past a school as the kids are coming out is probably unsafe but you won't get done for anything. As seen on the A316 recently by the Harlequins speed camera, The HGV driver doing 40mph inches from the back the back bumper of a car who has slowed down for the camera (or was doing 40 anyway) won't get penalised either.
It's inappropriate speed that is the problem. We have speed limits (which statistically are likely on average to be 5mph less than the determined safe speed) because drivers cannot be trusted to judge this for themselves. Unfortunately this lack of judgement extends to believing that 30mph past a school at 3.30p.m. or 70mph on a foggy motorway is OK
Because drivers ignore speed limits.
I suppose it depends on whether you're a driver or a pedestrian ...
Mary
I agree. Current practices are attempting to counter the mistakes of previous years.
Of perhaps, in previous years drivers were more responsible - there certainly weren't as many of them.
Somebody would object to them. It seems to be in the nature of those who want to drive faster than the speed limit to object to anything which attempts to enforce the limit.
Mary
There are "raised tables" near me, raised roadway at junctions mainly using blockwork. They do drop the speed of cars. There are children about and this is well worth doing and very effective. Another point is designing road layouts in residential areas that are not straight and long, just short and staggered junctions with raised tables too. That slows them right down as well. Much safer for kiddies and all.
Put them everywhere and they will not clutter the shopping area.
No it doesn't. Common sense is common sense. If these idiots want to race then Silverstone will allow them to go around the track in your own car.
On Thu, 27 May 2004 17:26:43 +0100, "Bob" strung together this:
I think it's a woman thing.
They might be going too slowly. So bits of Bristol have cobbles and (in my old car) 15-20MPH would make the CD skip and rattle everything, but
25-30 was fine. Dartmoor 40 limit cattle grids are the same - if you've got good visibility, go over them at 40 and you hardly feel them. Crawl over like some people do and you could count the rungs.
Why, all areas that have cameras have signage telling you that there are cameras in the area. I can only assume you want the camera to be highlighted so you can hammer up to it slow down for it then tear away again.
I forget the regulations but the signage is in the order of 1 mile out for a big sign with words and again around 1/2 mile out a reminder. The speed limit may also be be part of the sign if it's not obvious from the type of road. Everyone does of course know the default speed limits for the various types of road don't they?
The official details of sign sizes, distances, use etc is on the web somewhere.
Fuck off ;-) No, I don't want idiots like the PP mentioned slamming on all anchors for no good reason because *they* don't know what the limit is but assume they must be exceeding it, in front of *me*, who does and isn't. Some of these numpties have even panic-dropped in from a lane outside me and stood on the brakes, so you can't even argue my shock is a result of following too closely.
This everyman does, thanks.
On Thu, 27 May 2004 22:35:08 +0100, John Laird strung together this:
Give that man a cee-gar too!
This one had occurred to me as well...
Personally I think there should be a mandatory 20mph limit for at least
100 yards in each direction at a school entrance, and I quite like the american idea where when a school bus pulls to a stop, ALL traffic must stop.Sure, that`ll mean investing in school buses, but you`d have a lot less traffic on the road due to "school runs"
This is correct, sleeping policemen should be banned. If they were built in my road I would move house.
Chris Hodges wrote in news:Nsrtc.4439$o%1.42695907 @news-text.cableinet.net:
Maybe not in England or Wales, but here in my particular part of Scotland they do - it certainly raises their profile. They also regularly take their 'coffee breaks' in rural roadside laybys where fly tipping had become a nuisance. Seems to me like a better idea than all of them going back to the station.
Doesn't stop the occasional local yobs racing *stolen* cars late at night down the same lanes though, although they're such bad drivers that the ditches and the river have caught a few since we moved here just under two years ago...
Tim
Hmm, I'm not so sure about this approach, it's always based upon cause enough hassle and I can get my NIMBY problem dealt with - I would suggest that the police are probably better able to prioritise the crimes they handle rather than you trying to modify the situation.
Is the council not better placed to change the situation of the road with traffic calming etc. ?
Jim.
Sure they are, it's called community policing, and any late night opening friendly establishment will get policemen visiting regularly.
Jim.
Speaking to police drivers, the speed bumps tend to be smoothest and least hassle going over once you get to around 50mph, maybe they're just following the policy.
Jim.
Traffic calming....doesn't...!
It increases noise, damages vehicles...see earlier in thread.
We have a local problem, about a mile away, on the seafront. Lots of traffic calming which is just regarded as an interesting obstacle. Not to mention the car park races.
The thing that had some effect was CCTV, from a large steerable camera on a telescopic mast.
true, but they don't have to maintain their own cars!!!
problem with speed humps, especially around schools, as I see it is that people drive along, have to brake even when travelling well within the speed limit, then stick their foot quite hard back on the accelerator once they have cleared them. This probably leaves them with rather less ability to brake and respond quickly to sudden hazards than if they had been travelling along at a steady state.
Raised crossings and targetted 20mph zones outside schools appear to work quite well, but only when the restriction is for the immediate locality of the danger, 50 or 100 yds or so. There are two 20mph zones round here that go on for 3/4 mile, on fairly wide roads, and frustration sets in, resulting in them being widely ignored.
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
forgot to add, they're also an environmental disaster as far as fuel economy is concerned...
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
at _most_, I'd say. The shorter 20mph zones round here appear to be observed - people can see what the hazard is and slow down. A camera operating during school hours wouldn't get people's backs up in the way that ones on wide trunk roads do.
The long ones get ignored - frustration sets in and people don't see where the hazard is when travelling at what seems like an arbitrarily set snail's pace. Keeping an extra vigilant lookout for cameras and speed trap operators, of course, meaning that observation for normal hazards (ie kids) is actually diminished.
That'd cause gridlock round here. Especially when the kids realise that you can hold up the traffic longer if you mess about when getting off/on the bus...
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
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