Letter to council, blo#dy road calming!
Discussion
I wrote & posted this letter this morning after a rather long drive to work, whats your thoughts, am i just turning into a grumpy old man?
11/7/2007
Bristol City Council
College Green
Bristol
BS1 5TR
Ref road ‘improvements’ on Church Rd, Redfield.
Dear Bristol City Council,
I wish to bring your attention to three issues in our local area.
A few months ago we had the pleasure of road works outside my place of work on Church road in Redfield, it look as though this has now finished however I do not understand the logic of the parking spaces.
Surely they face the wrong way? They are angled at approximately 45 degrees, this is fine to drive into as you do not need to stop but just swerve left in to the space. The problem though arises when you wish to leave. It is illegal to reverse out of a side street on to a main road however this is exactly what you have to do to leave the parking space, if you have cars parked next to you its impossible to see & therefore you must slowly reverse out hoping there’s nothing coming the other way until you are able to see, you then reverse out against on coming traffic & hope no one slams into the back of you.
Surely it would make far more sense to have them still angled at 45 degrees from the road but in the exact opposite direction? When approaching the space you indicate, stop & reverse into the space, its easier than reverse parking against a normal straight kerb, its also far easier to leave the parking space as your facing the right way & can easily pull away to joint the main road.
Can I ask how much research was actually carried out & to why the parking spaces are angled the wrong way or is it just following the trend of ‘traffic calming’ & forcing drivers to pull out into on coming traffic, which I believe is very dangerous.
The second issue is with pavement widening at the junctions with side roads. There has never been a problem with to many pedestrians fighting for room on the pavement, there is however an issue with crowded roads, it seems your solution is to increase the pavements & narrow the road! Its now very dangerous to pull out of a side street into a main road as you literally have to pull out into the middle of the main road to avoid the extended kerb, this not only is dangerous for traffic on your side of the road but also traffic coming the other way as often the front of your car must go over into the oncoming lane, again this forces you to drive into on coming traffic, which I believe is very dangerous. Can you please explain any benefit with this system?
My third & final point is this idea of extending bus stops out into the road, the bus no longer pulls into a safe designated area where passengers can take their time boarding & allows the free flowing traffic behind to not be effected in any way, surely this is good as it eases congestion by keeping traffic flowing. Now as the bus stops it’s difficult to see around it & unless you stop & queue behind the bus you must pull out & overtake, often you are unable to do this due to on coming traffic so the traffic just grinds to a halt. If you’re lucky you are able to get past the bus but again this manoeuvre means you are at the mercy of driving towards on coming traffic, which I believe is dangerous. This must be a ploy to slow down traffic however there is a huge difference between slowing traffic down to the 30mph limit rather than grinding cars to a halt every few hundred metres.
I firmly believe with these type of ‘road improvements’ we are taking a huge step backwards & instead of making journey times quicker & safer they do of course make journeys more stressful, longer & much more dangerous, may I remind you its 2007 & according to certain 1970 sci fi programmes we should all be driving hover cars & living on the moon, not desperately trying to avoid head on collisions & queuing behind busses.
Yours sincerely
Mr G Hodges
11/7/2007
Bristol City Council
College Green
Bristol
BS1 5TR
Ref road ‘improvements’ on Church Rd, Redfield.
Dear Bristol City Council,
I wish to bring your attention to three issues in our local area.
A few months ago we had the pleasure of road works outside my place of work on Church road in Redfield, it look as though this has now finished however I do not understand the logic of the parking spaces.
Surely they face the wrong way? They are angled at approximately 45 degrees, this is fine to drive into as you do not need to stop but just swerve left in to the space. The problem though arises when you wish to leave. It is illegal to reverse out of a side street on to a main road however this is exactly what you have to do to leave the parking space, if you have cars parked next to you its impossible to see & therefore you must slowly reverse out hoping there’s nothing coming the other way until you are able to see, you then reverse out against on coming traffic & hope no one slams into the back of you.
Surely it would make far more sense to have them still angled at 45 degrees from the road but in the exact opposite direction? When approaching the space you indicate, stop & reverse into the space, its easier than reverse parking against a normal straight kerb, its also far easier to leave the parking space as your facing the right way & can easily pull away to joint the main road.
Can I ask how much research was actually carried out & to why the parking spaces are angled the wrong way or is it just following the trend of ‘traffic calming’ & forcing drivers to pull out into on coming traffic, which I believe is very dangerous.
The second issue is with pavement widening at the junctions with side roads. There has never been a problem with to many pedestrians fighting for room on the pavement, there is however an issue with crowded roads, it seems your solution is to increase the pavements & narrow the road! Its now very dangerous to pull out of a side street into a main road as you literally have to pull out into the middle of the main road to avoid the extended kerb, this not only is dangerous for traffic on your side of the road but also traffic coming the other way as often the front of your car must go over into the oncoming lane, again this forces you to drive into on coming traffic, which I believe is very dangerous. Can you please explain any benefit with this system?
My third & final point is this idea of extending bus stops out into the road, the bus no longer pulls into a safe designated area where passengers can take their time boarding & allows the free flowing traffic behind to not be effected in any way, surely this is good as it eases congestion by keeping traffic flowing. Now as the bus stops it’s difficult to see around it & unless you stop & queue behind the bus you must pull out & overtake, often you are unable to do this due to on coming traffic so the traffic just grinds to a halt. If you’re lucky you are able to get past the bus but again this manoeuvre means you are at the mercy of driving towards on coming traffic, which I believe is dangerous. This must be a ploy to slow down traffic however there is a huge difference between slowing traffic down to the 30mph limit rather than grinding cars to a halt every few hundred metres.
I firmly believe with these type of ‘road improvements’ we are taking a huge step backwards & instead of making journey times quicker & safer they do of course make journeys more stressful, longer & much more dangerous, may I remind you its 2007 & according to certain 1970 sci fi programmes we should all be driving hover cars & living on the moon, not desperately trying to avoid head on collisions & queuing behind busses.
Yours sincerely
Mr G Hodges
Reply:
Dear Mr Hodges,
You obvious drive to work in your car, therefore you are killing our planet and have no right to complain about anything, murderer! Also, by the sounds of things, you are very impatient and not prepared to sit behind a bus alighting passengers, or wait for a compeltley clear road to reverse into or to pull out of the junction. If you are in the middle of the road, I suggest you SLOW DOWN, after all, its obvious with your turn of phrase you have already mowed down several children this week with your speed demon driving, so we are installing Everest proportion speed bumps on the high street just topiss you off slow you down, your a menance and should be ashamed.
Your local MP!
Dear Mr Hodges,
You obvious drive to work in your car, therefore you are killing our planet and have no right to complain about anything, murderer! Also, by the sounds of things, you are very impatient and not prepared to sit behind a bus alighting passengers, or wait for a compeltley clear road to reverse into or to pull out of the junction. If you are in the middle of the road, I suggest you SLOW DOWN, after all, its obvious with your turn of phrase you have already mowed down several children this week with your speed demon driving, so we are installing Everest proportion speed bumps on the high street just to
Your local MP!
JagLover said:
Basically many of these councils don't care about road safety, they are just on a crusade against the car. Anyway they can make Motorist's lives a misery is fine by them.
Pretty much. I get called a conspiracy theorist by my mates for this but I am sure that there is a plan for all councils to actively introduce and encourage as much congestion as possible to allow them to justify road pricing and 'Ken-gestion' charging in the future.Fidgits said:
Reply:
Dear Mr Hodges,
You obvious drive to work in your car, therefore you are killing our planet and have no right to complain about anything, murderer! Also, by the sounds of things, you are very impatient and not prepared to sit behind a bus alighting passengers, or wait for a compeltley clear road to reverse into or to pull out of the junction. If you are in the middle of the road, I suggest you SLOW DOWN, after all, its obvious with your turn of phrase you have already mowed down several children this week with your speed demon driving, so we are installing Everest proportion speed bumps on the high street just topiss you off slow you down, your a menance and should be ashamed.
Your local MP!
Dear Mr Hodges,
You obvious drive to work in your car, therefore you are killing our planet and have no right to complain about anything, murderer! Also, by the sounds of things, you are very impatient and not prepared to sit behind a bus alighting passengers, or wait for a compeltley clear road to reverse into or to pull out of the junction. If you are in the middle of the road, I suggest you SLOW DOWN, after all, its obvious with your turn of phrase you have already mowed down several children this week with your speed demon driving, so we are installing Everest proportion speed bumps on the high street just to
Your local MP!
you beauty! To be fair i'm not expecting much, I just feel better for writing a letter as soon as I got in this morning. What ever reply I do get i'll definately it post on here though.dougc said:
JagLover said:
Basically many of these councils don't care about road safety, they are just on a crusade against the car. Anyway they can make Motorist's lives a misery is fine by them.
Pretty much. I get called a conspiracy theorist by my mates for this but I am sure that there is a plan for all councils to actively introduce and encourage as much congestion as possible to allow them to justify road pricing and 'Ken-gestion' charging in the future.You will receive the standard council reply, which is:
"Thank you for your comments, they have been forwarded on to department X who will contact you in due course".
Followed by a letter from department X:
"Thank you for your comments, the person in charge of ridiculous road planning is on extended sick leave and will therefore reply in due course".
If you're lucky you'll receive a couple of updates informing you that the correct person to answer your comments is still not available, before the trail runs cold and you never actually receive any kind of genuine feedback.
This is how local government works.
"Thank you for your comments, they have been forwarded on to department X who will contact you in due course".
Followed by a letter from department X:
"Thank you for your comments, the person in charge of ridiculous road planning is on extended sick leave and will therefore reply in due course".
If you're lucky you'll receive a couple of updates informing you that the correct person to answer your comments is still not available, before the trail runs cold and you never actually receive any kind of genuine feedback.
This is how local government works.
dougc said:
JagLover said:
Basically many of these councils don't care about road safety, they are just on a crusade against the car. Anyway they can make Motorist's lives a misery is fine by them.
Pretty much. I get called a conspiracy theorist by my mates for this but I am sure that there is a plan for all councils to actively introduce and encourage as much congestion as possible to allow them to justify road pricing and 'Ken-gestion' charging in the future.Yertis said:
dougc said:
JagLover said:
Basically many of these councils don't care about road safety, they are just on a crusade against the car. Anyway they can make Motorist's lives a misery is fine by them.
Pretty much. I get called a conspiracy theorist by my mates for this but I am sure that there is a plan for all councils to actively introduce and encourage as much congestion as possible to allow them to justify road pricing and 'Ken-gestion' charging in the future.
Yertis said:
I think that's a matter of recorded fact, not a conspiracy. There was a minor fuss about it in the media not so long ago, raised I think by Autocar, quickly suppressed and buried as you would expect.
Garry, your complaints will fall on deaf ears as all 3 changes (actually, I'm not sure about the parking one but definitely the other two) are deliberately designed to p1ss you off in the manner that they have.
As an example, the information's no longer available but a few years ago when the centre was re-wired to remove the one-way loop and instead force everybody to go around the houses it was the stated intent to create congestion in the centre to discourage people from driving across the city... as a means of reducing congestion! You can't make this stuff up; it's comedy gold.
Nothing to do with the Council's firm intent to bring in a congestion charge as soon as it can justify it. Oh no...
Best of luck with the letter, though I doubt you'll get a reply. In any case, I suspect the sort of weasel who works in the area responsible will actually take great delight in hearing motorists are being inconvenienced. They say they're "green-minded" but the wasted fuel and additional travelling time generated by their schemes would say otherwise.
There is no mystery with Bristol City Council, they hate cars and are hell bent on curtailing its use. They are trying to buy the M32 off the DOT so they can have one bus lane and the other a charged lane. They have tried every way to cock up the road system and at the moment have allowed a huge expansion of a shopping centre over what was a wide road.
And yet when they had to opportunity to have a light transport system from Bradley stoke into town, seven beach into town etc, what did they do? they argued like crazy accused those who were wanting to make a profit from the scheme as being greedy and the result? 10 years on no transport system. but lots of red paint on useless cycle routes, restrictions on where cars can now go horrendus parking charges etc etc.
And yet when they had to opportunity to have a light transport system from Bradley stoke into town, seven beach into town etc, what did they do? they argued like crazy accused those who were wanting to make a profit from the scheme as being greedy and the result? 10 years on no transport system. but lots of red paint on useless cycle routes, restrictions on where cars can now go horrendus parking charges etc etc.
slapmatt said:
You will receive the standard council reply, which is:
"Thank you for your comments, they have been forwarded on to department X who will contact you in due course".
Followed by a letter from department X:
"Thank you for your comments, the person in charge of ridiculous road planning is on extended sick leave and will therefore reply in due course".
If you're lucky you'll receive a couple of updates informing you that the correct person to answer your comments is still not available, before the trail runs cold and you never actually receive any kind of genuine feedback.
This is how local government works.
yep thats pretty much our experience with the local council "Thank you for your comments, they have been forwarded on to department X who will contact you in due course".
Followed by a letter from department X:
"Thank you for your comments, the person in charge of ridiculous road planning is on extended sick leave and will therefore reply in due course".
If you're lucky you'll receive a couple of updates informing you that the correct person to answer your comments is still not available, before the trail runs cold and you never actually receive any kind of genuine feedback.
This is how local government works.
spaximus said:
There is no mystery with Bristol City Council, they hate cars and are hell bent on curtailing its use. They are trying to buy the M32 off the DOT so they can have one bus lane and the other a charged lane. They have tried every way to cock up the road system and at the moment have allowed a huge expansion of a shopping centre over what was a wide road.
And yet when they had to opportunity to have a light transport system from Bradley stoke into town, seven beach into town etc, what did they do? they argued like crazy accused those who were wanting to make a profit from the scheme as being greedy and the result? 10 years on no transport system. but lots of red paint on useless cycle routes, restrictions on where cars can now go horrendus parking charges etc etc.
Let 'em buy it.And yet when they had to opportunity to have a light transport system from Bradley stoke into town, seven beach into town etc, what did they do? they argued like crazy accused those who were wanting to make a profit from the scheme as being greedy and the result? 10 years on no transport system. but lots of red paint on useless cycle routes, restrictions on where cars can now go horrendus parking charges etc etc.
The council will shit a donkey when they realise how much motorway-grade roads cost to keep operational.
See the rest here: www.abd.org.uk/ > Local Issues > Avon & Somerset
You might also find some info pertinent to speed humps if you search.
'Wot about the ambulances eh?'
You might also find some info pertinent to speed humps if you search.
'Wot about the ambulances eh?'
CommanderJameson said:
spaximus said:
There is no mystery with Bristol City Council, they hate cars and are hell bent on curtailing its use. They are trying to buy the M32 off the DOT so they can have one bus lane and the other a charged lane. They have tried every way to cock up the road system and at the moment have allowed a huge expansion of a shopping centre over what was a wide road.
And yet when they had to opportunity to have a light transport system from Bradley stoke into town, seven beach into town etc, what did they do? they argued like crazy accused those who were wanting to make a profit from the scheme as being greedy and the result? 10 years on no transport system. but lots of red paint on useless cycle routes, restrictions on where cars can now go horrendus parking charges etc etc.
Let 'em buy it.And yet when they had to opportunity to have a light transport system from Bradley stoke into town, seven beach into town etc, what did they do? they argued like crazy accused those who were wanting to make a profit from the scheme as being greedy and the result? 10 years on no transport system. but lots of red paint on useless cycle routes, restrictions on where cars can now go horrendus parking charges etc etc.
The council will shit a donkey when they realise how much motorway-grade roads cost
to keep operational.
splodge s4 said:
The second issue is with pavement widening at the junctions with side roads. There has never been a problem with to many pedestrians fighting for room on the pavement, there is however an issue with crowded roads, it seems your solution is to increase the pavements & narrow the road! Its now very dangerous to pull out of a side street into a main road as you literally have to pull out into the middle of the main road to avoid the extended kerb, this not only is dangerous for traffic on your side of the road but also traffic coming the other way as often the front of your car must go over into the oncoming lane, again this forces you to drive into on coming traffic, which I believe is very dangerous. Can you please explain any benefit with this system?
These are particularly annoying, they extended the kerb on a street near here, and now even turning left out of a side street it almost has to be clear both ways before you can pull out. God help you if a bus is coming! Traffic coming the opposite way almost has to stop and let the bus into the side street before trying to pass it!-
Stuart
On the local news this morning I hear theres going to be a referendum in to congestion charging in Bristol. 
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