Evil 6'6" width restrictions
Discussion
The last decade has seen an infestation of these things strangle London. Their construction varies from the relatively benign ones, just a few feet long with low kerbs to the fiendish creations of the diseased, car-hating, twisted minds of the employees of Camden, Islington and Haringey Councils, which feature 3 foot high solid iron posts at entrance and exit and often in between, high kerbs and at worst extreme length and even curves and varying width.
None of this would be quite so evil were it not for the fact that 6'6", 78" is just too narrow for modern cars. It is narrower than a full-fat Range Rover (80") or an X5 (78.5") and just 4 inches wider than a Jag XF or a DB9, leaving two inches at max to play with on either side - fine for a short, straight restriction, but much more difficult on the examples I'll display below. Even a Golf is 70" wide. North London has a very high population of very big cars.
Before the PH "if you were as good a driver as me, you wouldn't worry about them" mob comes along, I'll note that I've never yet kerbed a wheel on one of these (I save that for times when I'm parking up nonchalantly and not paying sufficient attention).
Agar Grove, Camden. This one is a b
d to turn right into. It's the angle of the entry, combined with the post, the kerbs and the curve within the kerbs.
Burghley Road, Tufnell Park. This one has the posts, nasty kerbs and is quite long and you will inevitably have a queue of horn-beeping white van drivers behind you if you are ever rash enough to take it.
Grafton Road, Camden. This one is just very long. A pain in the arse.
Jackson's Lane, Highgate. The kerbs are low, but it's those evil posts, combined with the length, narrowing and two slight curves that make it the place in North London where most cars are damaged (with the possible exception of the car park at Waitrose John Barnes on the Finchley Road). Down at the bottom end is a mini scrapyard's worth of door trims, wheel trims and mirror housings. It's on the school run and collects new victims every day.
None of this would be quite so evil were it not for the fact that 6'6", 78" is just too narrow for modern cars. It is narrower than a full-fat Range Rover (80") or an X5 (78.5") and just 4 inches wider than a Jag XF or a DB9, leaving two inches at max to play with on either side - fine for a short, straight restriction, but much more difficult on the examples I'll display below. Even a Golf is 70" wide. North London has a very high population of very big cars.
Before the PH "if you were as good a driver as me, you wouldn't worry about them" mob comes along, I'll note that I've never yet kerbed a wheel on one of these (I save that for times when I'm parking up nonchalantly and not paying sufficient attention).
Agar Grove, Camden. This one is a b
d to turn right into. It's the angle of the entry, combined with the post, the kerbs and the curve within the kerbs.Burghley Road, Tufnell Park. This one has the posts, nasty kerbs and is quite long and you will inevitably have a queue of horn-beeping white van drivers behind you if you are ever rash enough to take it.
Grafton Road, Camden. This one is just very long. A pain in the arse.
Jackson's Lane, Highgate. The kerbs are low, but it's those evil posts, combined with the length, narrowing and two slight curves that make it the place in North London where most cars are damaged (with the possible exception of the car park at Waitrose John Barnes on the Finchley Road). Down at the bottom end is a mini scrapyard's worth of door trims, wheel trims and mirror housings. It's on the school run and collects new victims every day.
Edited by Zod on Monday 9th May 11:13
neil_bolton said:
I was just wondering that. If there is a route around that the fire engines take, then surely use that?
I can see the point (albiet not as mentally thin) of stopping rat runs through residential areas but they are a bit mental.
Look at the Grafton Road one - it has a gate for fire engines. For the rest of them, fire engines do what the rest of us do, avoid them, but fire engines can ignore one way streets unlike the rest of us, so they have more options.I can see the point (albiet not as mentally thin) of stopping rat runs through residential areas but they are a bit mental.
This kind of behaviour really gets my goat. Why restrict a perfectly good road with this crap? What with these, unnecessarily wide islands usually placed right next to a bus stop, roads which are restricted so you have to give priority to oncoming traffic, pavements widened, cycle paths etc which make an already narrow road narrower.
It's almost as if they councils are restricting the roads on purpose to try to cause as much traffic as possible. What is their end goal, to piss people of so much that they just stop using cars altogther? What is this hate against the motor car which has sprung up in the last 5 years? As a keen motorist I really can't understand why government would want to restrict peoples freedom of movement on purpose, just exactly what is the motive here?
It's almost as if they councils are restricting the roads on purpose to try to cause as much traffic as possible. What is their end goal, to piss people of so much that they just stop using cars altogther? What is this hate against the motor car which has sprung up in the last 5 years? As a keen motorist I really can't understand why government would want to restrict peoples freedom of movement on purpose, just exactly what is the motive here?
The Crack Fox said:
I hear Central London has an underground train system, lots of buses, and taxis, meaning you don't have to take your car down these hateful looking streets...
I hear that there habitable land outside of London. Meaning you don't have to visit that hateful city at all!The Crack Fox said:
I hear Central London has an underground train system, lots of buses, and taxis, meaning you don't have to take your car down these hateful looking streets...
I realise that this may have been posted to prompt a reaction (unlike you I know) but as motorists, we shouldn't be forced to choose. Central London maybe, but there is a lot of London where the public network isn't a necessary option.
The Jackson Lane restriction has been there at least forty years, though extra posts were put in at a later date. I remember when the old Bedford CF twin-wheeled vans first came out, a driver of such, trying to drive through at a fair old lick, took the rear axle right off. Took some time trying to extricate the van from the restrictors teeth.
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