Outbreak of sanity in Barnet?
Discussion
Barnet council to remove ALL it's speed humps.
There's a councillor on Littlejohn on Sky News at the moment talking SENSE! Says that we need to get traffic BACK on main roads, and that people only use rat runs and side roads because we've buggered about with bus lanes, lane narrowing, traffic lights and cameras on the main roads. There's a guy from "Living Streets" that obviously doesn't agree with him, but that's to be expected really.
To paraphrase Bill Hicks...maybe this will set off some "common sense inertia".
And another thing, while I'm in the mood - it's all well and good bombarding us with these "THINK!" adverts about 35mph blah blah blah, but what about some targetting of idiot pedestrians who step into the road without bothering to look, or cyclists who assume because I've got lights on my car, they don't need any on their bike? Let's have some equality here please. Yesterday I was driving down my road at 25mph (double parking and so on), when some witless arse on a mountain bike (not wearing a helmet) came out of a side turning WITHOUT STOPPING OR LOOKING. Now, I saw him coming, and had a feeling he wasn't going to stop, so I got on the brakes pronto, but had I been 2 seconds further up the road he would in all probability have been KILLED. You can bet your bottom dollar I would have been blamed, demonised and scapegoated, as after all, I'm a motorist, and therefore a child of Satan. Let's have some fair play here please. It's not just motorists who need to look where they're going or "THINK!".
"If you ride your bike like a twat, you will probably die. Motorists aren't psychic....THINK!"
Sorry, needed to get that off my chest.
There's a councillor on Littlejohn on Sky News at the moment talking SENSE! Says that we need to get traffic BACK on main roads, and that people only use rat runs and side roads because we've buggered about with bus lanes, lane narrowing, traffic lights and cameras on the main roads. There's a guy from "Living Streets" that obviously doesn't agree with him, but that's to be expected really.
To paraphrase Bill Hicks...maybe this will set off some "common sense inertia".
And another thing, while I'm in the mood - it's all well and good bombarding us with these "THINK!" adverts about 35mph blah blah blah, but what about some targetting of idiot pedestrians who step into the road without bothering to look, or cyclists who assume because I've got lights on my car, they don't need any on their bike? Let's have some equality here please. Yesterday I was driving down my road at 25mph (double parking and so on), when some witless arse on a mountain bike (not wearing a helmet) came out of a side turning WITHOUT STOPPING OR LOOKING. Now, I saw him coming, and had a feeling he wasn't going to stop, so I got on the brakes pronto, but had I been 2 seconds further up the road he would in all probability have been KILLED. You can bet your bottom dollar I would have been blamed, demonised and scapegoated, as after all, I'm a motorist, and therefore a child of Satan. Let's have some fair play here please. It's not just motorists who need to look where they're going or "THINK!".
"If you ride your bike like a twat, you will probably die. Motorists aren't psychic....THINK!"
Sorry, needed to get that off my chest.
To further the "idiot cyclist" rant....had he slammed into my car and been lucky enough to escape death, but wound up with, say, a broken back, what are the odds I'D have found myself on the end of a compensation claim? Not to mention the insurance for the car.
Out of interest, and if our resident boys in blue are here at the moment.....if you'd been driving the other way at the time, and had seen this guy come flying out into oncoming traffic without even attempting to stop or look, would you have felt his collar, so to speak? Does "due care and attention" apply to cyclists? Can a cyclist get done for jumping a red light? No licence to endorse after all. I nearly hit one doing that last week - breezed straight through without a care in the world.
The lycra must cut off the blood to their brain or
something, as these people have a deathwish.
Out of interest, and if our resident boys in blue are here at the moment.....if you'd been driving the other way at the time, and had seen this guy come flying out into oncoming traffic without even attempting to stop or look, would you have felt his collar, so to speak? Does "due care and attention" apply to cyclists? Can a cyclist get done for jumping a red light? No licence to endorse after all. I nearly hit one doing that last week - breezed straight through without a care in the world.
The lycra must cut off the blood to their brain or
something, as these people have a deathwish.
hornet said:
Barnet council to remove ALL it's speed humps.
There's a councillor on Littlejohn on Sky News at the moment talking SENSE! Says that we need to get traffic BACK on main roads
The road that goes from Barnet to Potters Bar used to be one where the national speed limit applies. It has been that way for as long as I can remember. Two weeks ago for some reason it has now been dropped to 40mph. Give it another two weeks and no doubt there will be a speed camera there. Maybe this is why "we need traffic BACK on the main roads", to keep the cameras flashing.
Ivan
simonrockman said:
Who was the councillor. I live in Barnet and I want to make a point of voting for him
Sounds like it might be a guy called Brian Coleman
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3003788.stm
Council to scrap speed humps
Barnet's 1000 speed bumps will go
A north London council's decision to get rid of all its speed bumps has been condemned by road safety campaigners.
Barnet Council said it will flatten its 1,000 'sleeping policemen' because they are "ineffectual".
Instead it will concentrate on bottlenecks at junctions and making main roads less congested so motorists do not use residential roads as 'rat-runs', Barnet's environment committee chairman, Tory councillor Brian Coleman said.
Speaking to BBC London's 94.9fm, he said: "The problem with traffic bumps are that they are ineffectual, damage vehicles and cause 500 road deaths a year in London.
"They are unpopular with residents - they want them in their own roads but not in others - and are really a waste of money.
People don't just speed down roads because they are rat-runs, sometimes they do it because they just can
Transport 2000's Steve Hounsham
"We will make Barnet a hump-free zone."
He added that 20 humps have already been removed and the scheme is not a waste of tax payer's money because they will be flattened at the same time as the current programme to resurface every road in the borough.
But Transport 2000 has described the move as an "extraordinary retrograde step".
Spokesman Steve Hounsham said: "Other local authorities, who have waiting lists measured in years for requests for speed bumps will look at this decision with amazement.
"People don't just speed down roads because they are rat-runs, sometimes they do it because they just can.
"How is this policy going to protect the vulnerable
Makes you wonder if any of these people know their asre from their elbows. They spend a fortune digging up the roads and generally fcuking up the flow of traffic in the process causing traffic problems everywhere. Then they spend a fortune digging up the roads to put them back like they were before causing even more traffic problems. Then they look around for ways to get the money back, "oh, I know, lets have more speed cameras everywhere" to slow the flow of traffic that is flowing. 
No wonder it is nigh on impossible to get about - wnakers the lot of them.
Feel better now - have a nice day
Ivan
edited to say: only in this country!
>> Edited by ribol on Friday 20th June 08:59
No wonder it is nigh on impossible to get about - wnakers the lot of them.
Feel better now - have a nice day
Ivan
edited to say: only in this country!
>> Edited by ribol on Friday 20th June 08:59
[quote]The problem with traffic bumps are that they are ineffectual, damage vehicles and cause 500 road deaths a year in London
Here we go again with invented statistics
OK I'm firmly on the side of those who want to rid the UK of humps and other retrograde and damaging measures. But 500 deaths ?!!!! nahh ...thats one seventh of all the deaths in the UK on the road. But wait, one third are due to speed aren't they.
Dohhhh
Here we go again with invented statistics
OK I'm firmly on the side of those who want to rid the UK of humps and other retrograde and damaging measures. But 500 deaths ?!!!! nahh ...thats one seventh of all the deaths in the UK on the road. But wait, one third are due to speed aren't they.
Dohhhh
Think the emergency services have been complaining too - can't remember the stats, but the ambulance and fire services were adament that speed humps slow down their response times, and therefore more people are dying. Think the main problem mentioned was heart attack patients - it was on the news a while back, but there was an argument that for every road death avoided, there were two or three deaths CAUSED due to increase in emergency service response time.
a mate of mine lives in barnet.outside his place is a road restriction that is there to slow cars down outside a school (he lives above the unwins off-licence at the bottom of manor hill(well,its manor something anyway!)),at around 0630 the other morning mr max power came along well above the posted limit and hit the bollards,spun round and landed on his roof.i cant say that the road calming around barnet is realy a problem (accept the 40 limit from south mimms to barnet which was a nsl,granted)the worst parts about driving round barnet is:-
1.the double parking that happens everywhere on the main roads
and
2.in the summer it can be difficult focussing on the road rather than some birds arse!!
1.the double parking that happens everywhere on the main roads
and
2.in the summer it can be difficult focussing on the road rather than some birds arse!!
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