Classic example needless limit & bad road engineering
Discussion
I'd like to use this post as example to anyone who doubts, that sometimes 30 & 40 limits are in fact unneccassary & sometimes excessive speed limits are enforced even when blatently obvious bad road engineering is present & IMHO should have taken priority. Please feel free to use this an example to anyone who accuses us of dangerous driving because we are exceeding an arbitary limit. :rant: Its less than a mile from my house & in a 10 mile drive I could find another 10 similar examples.
Situation:
This is a rural road that enters Gillingham in Dorset it's very recently been totally re-engineered to allow a new industrial site access onto the road, a walk to school route & the roadway itself has been widened & moved over at the same time. This section of road used to be a national speed limit up to the town roundabout & previously was in fact a fairly dangerous road with 1 completely blind exit between some houses, no walkway or kids cycle route.
Since re-engineering:
They extended the 30mph limit out of town by about 500m, slapped a 40 limit on the remainder of the road, placed a DS2 data sensor halfway, erected
camera signs 
& we've recently had visits from the Dorset Cash Collection Partnership.
Entering the town:
Here is the road, with the new cycle lane behind the hedge on the left, the kink in the road ahead is where the road has been moved over away from the houses ahead & they've continued the footpath cycle lane in front the houses with bollards. Good basic safe road engineering, removing a blind junction & allowing kiddies safe passage to junior school 1/2 mile up the road behind you.
The new cycle lane behind the hedge
Re-engineered road with widened footpath at the point where the road used to front these houses
100m Further back though... A blind exit junction on the right, NO TRIANGULAR WARNING JUNCTION SIGNS in any direction The scene of a friends accident just last week when an old duffer pulled out, two written off cars. One ended up on the barriers between the road & cycle lane exit. The hedge is never cut back so to safely exit onto the main road you HAVE pull out into the roadway before moving off.
Poorly marked junction signpost in the hedge, just where the road has been re-engineered
The current sitation looking the other way
New speed scam sign, but no road junction ahead warning signs!! L driver obviously doing 30mph or less but 3 cars all well short of their safe following distances. So if a kiddy did jump out they no doubt would not see them.
Same direction but other side of road, hedge on left was removed for better observation (completely unnecessary but allowed for future planning!)
Trafpol have visited this site & I've even been to have a chat.
"Only those over 50 get a ticket, as obviously 30's a bits excessive to do people down here now" Was what he said, impying the new design negated the need for the 30 limit. However the same can't be said for the Partnership scum who sit in the layby up the road. Its would appear perfectly safe to do 40 odd down here bar the dodgy unsigned blind junction.
No doubt the casualty reduction unit will put down any accident reductions to their camera surveylance & cash collection system, but I bet they won't mention it if not
Good engineering in some parts yes, but blatantly missing the most obvious dangers at the same time. Blanket speed limits slapped on & they have even kindly stuck a new Scamera sign up whilst forgetting to sign a very dangerous junction. Safety my ass!
Basically lives and livelyhoods are put at risk because full & proper safety engineering is not carried out, but major projects like this re-engineering are at the expense of real safety. Drivers are taught that a hazard is a speed camera sign zone not a dodgy junction.
So drivers on this stretch of road now speedo watch instead of looking for real hazards, like the unmarked junction, how do I know this. Well my friend a new driver of only 9 DAYS!!!, who had the accident at the junction said he knew he was'nt speeding as he was doing exactly 30mph at the time. Need I explain how he knows this?
>> Edited by cptsideways on Sunday 9th April 15:47
Situation:
This is a rural road that enters Gillingham in Dorset it's very recently been totally re-engineered to allow a new industrial site access onto the road, a walk to school route & the roadway itself has been widened & moved over at the same time. This section of road used to be a national speed limit up to the town roundabout & previously was in fact a fairly dangerous road with 1 completely blind exit between some houses, no walkway or kids cycle route.
Since re-engineering:
They extended the 30mph limit out of town by about 500m, slapped a 40 limit on the remainder of the road, placed a DS2 data sensor halfway, erected
camera signs & we've recently had visits from the Dorset Cash Collection Partnership. Entering the town:
Here is the road, with the new cycle lane behind the hedge on the left, the kink in the road ahead is where the road has been moved over away from the houses ahead & they've continued the footpath cycle lane in front the houses with bollards. Good basic safe road engineering, removing a blind junction & allowing kiddies safe passage to junior school 1/2 mile up the road behind you.
The new cycle lane behind the hedge
Re-engineered road with widened footpath at the point where the road used to front these houses
100m Further back though... A blind exit junction on the right, NO TRIANGULAR WARNING JUNCTION SIGNS in any direction
The scene of a friends accident just last week when an old duffer pulled out, two written off cars. One ended up on the barriers between the road & cycle lane exit. The hedge is never cut back so to safely exit onto the main road you HAVE pull out into the roadway before moving off. Poorly marked junction signpost in the hedge, just where the road has been re-engineered
The current sitation looking the other way
New
speed scam sign, but no road junction ahead warning signs!! L driver obviously doing 30mph or less but 3 cars all well short of their safe following distances. So if a kiddy did jump out they no doubt would not see them. Same direction but other side of road, hedge on left was removed for better observation (completely unnecessary but allowed for future planning!)
Trafpol have visited this site & I've even been to have a chat.
"Only those over 50 get a ticket, as obviously 30's a bits excessive to do people down here now" Was what he said, impying the new design negated the need for the 30 limit. However the same can't be said for the Partnership scum who sit in the layby up the road. Its would appear perfectly safe to do 40 odd down here bar the dodgy unsigned blind junction. No doubt the casualty reduction unit will put down any accident reductions to their camera surveylance & cash collection system, but I bet they won't mention it if not
Good engineering in some parts yes, but blatantly missing the most obvious dangers at the same time. Blanket speed limits slapped on & they have even kindly stuck a new Scamera sign up whilst forgetting to sign a very dangerous junction. Safety my ass!
Basically lives and livelyhoods are put at risk because full & proper safety engineering is not carried out, but major projects like this re-engineering are at the expense of real safety. Drivers are taught that a hazard is a speed camera sign zone not a dodgy junction.
So drivers on this stretch of road now speedo watch instead of looking for real hazards, like the unmarked junction, how do I know this. Well my friend a new driver of only 9 DAYS!!!, who had the accident at the junction said he knew he was'nt speeding as he was doing exactly 30mph at the time. Need I explain how he knows this?
>> Edited by cptsideways on Sunday 9th April 15:47
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