Keep left signs
Discussion
Any views on this one chaps. Road is fairly quiet, council erect a central reservation, (thats what I think you call it, island thingy), so you can cross half way, wait, and cross the other half.
Now they put up a bus stop just far enough in front of so when the bus stops, as you pass the island, you are right up the rear of the bus, and pulling out to pass is somewhat difficult.
Myself and others tend to pull out before the island (which incidently has keep left signs on) to pass the bus safely. Why they put the bus stop there god only knows. After all as you sit behind this bus, you have absolutely no idea how long he will be there for, and in my opinion to try to pull out to pass him after having passed the traffic island is downright dangerous, anyghing much bigger than a car wouldnt have room to do this anyway.
This is the same council that made a road into 3 lanes, and the road markings allowed you to pull over to the other single lane of oncoming traffic on a blind left hand sweeping bend, when I pointed out the marking may be wrong, they responded and said "You may be right, we open the road, then do a safety visit", 6 months later they changed the markings.
This is also the same council which has put up nice flashing signs for 20's plenty thing for the road passing a school at set times during the day, but the 3 roads leading onto it, have no signage whatsoever, so anyone joining this stretch of road when the 20 signs flash, would have no idea it was in force.........
>> Edited by vipers on Friday 21st April 03:34
Now they put up a bus stop just far enough in front of so when the bus stops, as you pass the island, you are right up the rear of the bus, and pulling out to pass is somewhat difficult.
Myself and others tend to pull out before the island (which incidently has keep left signs on) to pass the bus safely. Why they put the bus stop there god only knows. After all as you sit behind this bus, you have absolutely no idea how long he will be there for, and in my opinion to try to pull out to pass him after having passed the traffic island is downright dangerous, anyghing much bigger than a car wouldnt have room to do this anyway.
This is the same council that made a road into 3 lanes, and the road markings allowed you to pull over to the other single lane of oncoming traffic on a blind left hand sweeping bend, when I pointed out the marking may be wrong, they responded and said "You may be right, we open the road, then do a safety visit", 6 months later they changed the markings.
This is also the same council which has put up nice flashing signs for 20's plenty thing for the road passing a school at set times during the day, but the 3 roads leading onto it, have no signage whatsoever, so anyone joining this stretch of road when the 20 signs flash, would have no idea it was in force.........
>> Edited by vipers on Friday 21st April 03:34
vonhosen said:
Offence, so wait & be patient if you can't safely pass the bus after correctly negotiating the keep left bollard
But how do I know the bus isnt 5 mins early, and is stopped at bus stop for 5 mins to get back on schedule? Its a fact you cant safely pass the bus, once you pass the traffic island, you are immediately behind the bus, oh forgot to mention, one other thing which makes it unsafe to do this, just past the bus stop, is a left hand junction, on approach you can see past the bus on the inside, then pull out before the traffic island, if you drive to the left of the island, by the time you get behind the bus, a car could have come out of the side road, and turned to his right, which means within seconds he will pass the bus, not a good situation, me thinks I must take photo and write to council on this, tks for input any way, does my comments here sway your thoughts, especially about not knowing if the bus is toing to wait 5 mins or more.
puggit said:
Reading council are also guilty of such an offence (placing a busstop just after an island, causing traffic problems...)
Round me a couple of years ago they implemented a range of changes that effectively gave buses priority. This has included removing laybys at some bus-stops and actually building the pavement out at others, both of which mean that now the bus halts the flow of traffic.
I presume this is a deliberate policy. What you're seeing might be too. After all, they have to take steps to make driving unpleasant and no faster than public transport.
You guys still dont get it do you?
This is not the result of ill conceived muppetry, it is deliberately planned congestion creation, it is what road planning is all about, it is their purpose.
Whenever you are in your car and exasperated at which idiot thought up this stupid impediment to traffic flow, just remember it wasnt accidental. It is all done deliberately, it is a cold calculated attempt to get folks out of cars.
This is not the result of ill conceived muppetry, it is deliberately planned congestion creation, it is what road planning is all about, it is their purpose.
Whenever you are in your car and exasperated at which idiot thought up this stupid impediment to traffic flow, just remember it wasnt accidental. It is all done deliberately, it is a cold calculated attempt to get folks out of cars.
Balmoral Green said:
You guys still dont get it do you?
This is not the result of ill conceived muppetry, it is deliberately planned congestion creation, it is what road planning is all about, it is their purpose.
Round my way they're busy filling-in all the lay-by type bus stops to force the busses to stop in the carriageway thus causing congestion needlessly.
All this from the Council that is desperate to introduce a Kengestion charge.
Coincidence? I think not.
Thats the attitude VH,just be patient sit behind the bus and wait to be rear ended too for good measure by mumsy on the school run in a 4x4 monster, on the mobile and applying her lippy!!!!
One of those 'pedestrian refuge' islands was recently installed on a blind bend on the end of my village, only last week an inexperienced driver/ maybe a visitor to the area i dont know , came around the corner cliping the island, thank god no-one was waiting to cross at the time, as it ended up on its roof , through a garden wall.
Now the fact is if the island wasn't there then the accident wouldn't have happened.
I have never seen anyone use this crossing as its in such a bad location, more and more of these things are being installed all over the place and are a cause of a lot more accidents. Again in Cardiff after spending money on the installation of a few of them at the tax payers expense, they were taken away after causing so many crashes.
One of those 'pedestrian refuge' islands was recently installed on a blind bend on the end of my village, only last week an inexperienced driver/ maybe a visitor to the area i dont know , came around the corner cliping the island, thank god no-one was waiting to cross at the time, as it ended up on its roof , through a garden wall.
Now the fact is if the island wasn't there then the accident wouldn't have happened.
I have never seen anyone use this crossing as its in such a bad location, more and more of these things are being installed all over the place and are a cause of a lot more accidents. Again in Cardiff after spending money on the installation of a few of them at the tax payers expense, they were taken away after causing so many crashes.
7db said:Not at all, there are recorded statements from local authority traffic mismanagers talking about their job being to make life difficult for car drivers, Highways Agency personnel saying that strategy is designed to do certain things as car commuters are "the lowest of the low", and Reading (as per some posts here) has muppet councillors that wanted to introduce multiple traffic lights purely to impede flow and gate cars. This isn't conspiracy theory it's nu labia ideology and target inspired car hatred.
Cor you conspiracy theorists would make even the WhoShotJFK forum blush.
Pathetic isn't it.
turbobloke said:
Cor you conspiracy theorists would make even the WhoShotJFK forum blush.
Pathetic isn't it.
I am afraid that you are right. I wouldn't be too quick to blame the technical professional officers though - they are obliged to do the bidding of their political masters (or get another job where they don't - and if they do that, then the posts are filled by new people who might not know the area, might be less experienced and might be more "mouldable" to the local political climate).
gilberninvader said:
more and more of these things are being installed all over the place and are a cause of a lot more accidents.
True.
The main road just around the corner from my house needs to be crossed at multiple points by infant & junior school kids but there's not one zebra or pelican crossing on the entire length of road. Instead, the council (in its wisdom) put in about 4 sets of pedestrian refuges. One or 2 of them are actually sited ok but the rest are awful, especially when coupled with relocating the bus stops so that they are virtually opposite one another. Gridlock ensues and cars are completely unsighted by parked busses.
End result? A far less safe road for the kiddies to cross and lots of frustrated drivers.
Good one. Not.
tvrgit said:Yes, fair point, in defence m'lud I did refer to this - national politics, targets, and nu labia ideology. Same story with comments about police action or inaction, it's not the front line BiB to blame for it.
Cor you conspiracy theorists would make even the WhoShotJFK forum blush.
Pathetic isn't it.
However, to be equally fair, some of the more recently appointed (nu labia era) traffic mismanagers believe, or are prepared to accept, all the anti-car claptrap foisted on them and become rather vigorous implementers. One of my ABD colleagues is an experienced, now retired, senior traffic engineer of the old school, who watched the evolution in personnel terms and remains as horrified by it as we do on here.
Anyone in any doubt whatsoever as to wether or not the siting of these 'refuges' alongside bus stops should take a look at what they have done to the city of london over the last few years. Now that they have run out of places to put long thin strips of concrete kerbing down the centre of the road - the new 'buy the chaps at Murphys a new supercar' idea is to raise al; the junctions of minor roads (well, the ones they havent closed already) with major roads. Looks at Fleet Street in particular - its a common sight to see ambulances on blue and twos stuck behind traffic queuing at the lights at ludgate circus as they can no longer straddle the centre of the road.
Its not a conspiracy theory - its a carefully thought out and well orchestrated plan to make driving as unpleasant an experience as possible. Vote Ken, vote London back to the stone age.
S
>> Edited by SpencerO on Friday 21st April 10:51
Its not a conspiracy theory - its a carefully thought out and well orchestrated plan to make driving as unpleasant an experience as possible. Vote Ken, vote London back to the stone age.
S
>> Edited by SpencerO on Friday 21st April 10:51
turbobloke said:
However, to be equally fair, some of the more recently appointed (nu labia era) traffic mismanagers believe, or are prepared to accept, all the anti-car claptrap foisted on them and become rather vigorous implementers.
Aye, that's the "mouldable" I was talking about. Do you think that, in the situation I described above, that these questions might be asked in interviews when filling vacant posts?
turbobloke said:
One of my ABD colleagues is an experienced, now retired, senior traffic engineer of the old school, who watched the evolution in personnel terms and remains as horrified by it as we do on here.
Believe me, I know many people like that, who think the same thing.
>> Edited by tvrgit on Friday 21st April 11:12
tvrgit said:Placing relevant job adverts in The Guardian's overflowing public sector appointments columns is all that's needed
Aye, that's the "mouldable" I was talking about. Do you think that, in the situation I described above, that these questions might be asked in interviews when filling vacant posts?
gilberninvader said:
Now the fact is if the island wasn't there then the accident wouldn't have happened.
If the driver wasn't there, the accident wouldn't have happened
How many other cars have done the same since the installation of the island?
If the driver had been driving properly, the accident wouldn't have happened!
vipers said:This is a favoured new traffic impeding technique adopted by Camden COuncil. They do it deliberately to impede traffic flow.
Any views on this one chaps. Road is fairly quiet, council erect a central reservation, (thats what I think you call it, island thingy), so you can cross half way, wait, and cross the other half.
Now they put up a bus stop just far enough in front of so when the bus stops, as you pass the island, you are right up the rear of the bus, and pulling out to pass is somewhat difficult.
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