Nottingham Council Traffic Department pro cyclists gone mad
Discussion
Thanks Mick.
Common sense isn't that common, as you probably know. That said, the officials will be making decisions that make sense to the council (in the main). The key to getting anywhere with councils is to either:
A) understand their decision making framework and then where and how to apply the most effective pressure (it often isn't where you would expect it to be) - I.e. Play them at their own political game. Or
B) make enough noise that the elected councillors fear it will be an election issue and they will try to change it.
There is sometimes a 3rd option, but that depends on fraudulent activity to have any leverage!
Steve
Common sense isn't that common, as you probably know. That said, the officials will be making decisions that make sense to the council (in the main). The key to getting anywhere with councils is to either:
A) understand their decision making framework and then where and how to apply the most effective pressure (it often isn't where you would expect it to be) - I.e. Play them at their own political game. Or
B) make enough noise that the elected councillors fear it will be an election issue and they will try to change it.
There is sometimes a 3rd option, but that depends on fraudulent activity to have any leverage!
Steve
Well,a year on from the last post here.Nottingham has become an even bigger nightmare to drive to. Ive been visiting same for 40 years and have watched it get worse and worse(and its not just the obvious increase in traffic volume)! Nearly every road in the centre has been altered,made one way,had a bus only lane installed or covered in tram tracks so you have extra dangers present. In the infinite wisdom that comes with councils,it appears a lot of car parking spaces have been eliminated by knocking down at least one multi storey...right at the busiest time of the year! I went there today and couldnt find a single car parking space to be had.Got turned away from every one in the centre.It seems that many surrounding roads are now permit only or some weird phone only payment system. I had to admit defeat eventually and made my escape suffering from what felt like terminal stress! Another hazard is trying not to enter bus lanes as you try and negotiate the traffic hell...its not easy but for your human failing you will no doubt be sending the council a £30 xmas present! My advice is dont bother going there unless you leave your car at home and use public transport(yeah,that really sucks)!
Well as it’s a year on since this started I have to say due to all the traffic and anti-motorist crap I haven’t been to Nottingham city in the entire year. Shame as I only live about 15 miles away. I choose to go to lincoln instead.
Well done Nottingham city council you have achieved your aim. I haven’t driven around the city once. Mind you I haven’t been there either.
I do wonder how much money the city centre traders lose due to people like me going elsewhere or thinking sod it and just order online and save all the hassle of having to drive around the city.
Well done Nottingham city council you have achieved your aim. I haven’t driven around the city once. Mind you I haven’t been there either.
I do wonder how much money the city centre traders lose due to people like me going elsewhere or thinking sod it and just order online and save all the hassle of having to drive around the city.
MB140 said:
Well as it’s a year on since this started I have to say due to all the traffic and anti-motorist crap I haven’t been to Nottingham city in the entire year. Shame as I only live about 15 miles away. I choose to go to lincoln instead.
Well done Nottingham city council you have achieved your aim. I haven’t driven around the city once. Mind you I haven’t been there either.
I do wonder how much money the city centre traders lose due to people like me going elsewhere or thinking sod it and just order online and save all the hassle of having to drive around the city.
Agreed it's not the best for driving. I love driving but I just get the tram in every day (I live ~8 miles north). Would prefer to be able to drive in every day but I'm not sitting in endless traffic to get to work!Well done Nottingham city council you have achieved your aim. I haven’t driven around the city once. Mind you I haven’t been there either.
I do wonder how much money the city centre traders lose due to people like me going elsewhere or thinking sod it and just order online and save all the hassle of having to drive around the city.
Same here, no concerts, nights out, shopping trips, or hen parties taken to Nottingham for over a year now.
Plenty of other more car/minibus friendly places to use instead.
Wouldnt think it bothers anyone in authority there though as it seems to be getting even worse to drive around Nottingham.
Plenty of other more car/minibus friendly places to use instead.
Wouldnt think it bothers anyone in authority there though as it seems to be getting even worse to drive around Nottingham.
To be honest I went to Nottingham uni as an undergrad in the 70s and it was just as bad then. Anyone remember the experiment they tried then, bought a massive fleet of Leyland Leopard buses, painted them lilac, made the city centre impossible to drive in with no turns this way that way, no entry, one way in what was clearly an illogic direction. Overall aim was to make life so difficult for the motorist that they would park up and use these, admittedly free at point of use, Lilac Leopards. Massive failure, cost the citizens of Nottingham a fortune, only beneficiaries was Barton buses who got a load of cheap buses when it ended.
Gave up on Nottingham then. No regrets.
Gave up on Nottingham then. No regrets.
The good thing if it can be called good is that the bus lanes usually operate at commute times, ie morning and tea time. You can use them outside those hours. Unfortunately the Lemmings in the other cars don't realise this.
The latest thickie road conversion at Nottingham is the roundabout where London Road joins Canal St. There used to be 2 lanes from Huntingdon St across the roundabout onto Canal St. It's now one lane and that causes plenty of confusion.
The latest thickie road conversion at Nottingham is the roundabout where London Road joins Canal St. There used to be 2 lanes from Huntingdon St across the roundabout onto Canal St. It's now one lane and that causes plenty of confusion.
Very nice postings that made me smile no end.......... The Council and all that goes with it think that ordinary people are too thick ( as they are) to realise we did not all fall off christmas trees and in fact we do notice their real hate for drivers of every description.......
Don't get me going but that bloody thick skinned speed cam was at it's usual position A52 Clifton Boulevard Sunday lunch time and he would have had loads of customers due to quite a bit of traffic. The men in the van are absolute cretins because they know full well what they are doing = screwing drivers who are not doing wrong.
Don't get me going but that bloody thick skinned speed cam was at it's usual position A52 Clifton Boulevard Sunday lunch time and he would have had loads of customers due to quite a bit of traffic. The men in the van are absolute cretins because they know full well what they are doing = screwing drivers who are not doing wrong.
judas said:
Moved to Derby 8 months ago - not been back since, nor ever felt the need. It's liberating! 
My brother lives in Langley mill, he hates driving in Nottingham and raves about derby as a city. It’s a bit to fat for me but one day I will spend a weekend in derby to try the nightlife. Mick50NCD said:
Don't get me going but that bloody thick skinned speed cam was at it's usual position A52 Clifton Boulevard Sunday lunch time and he would have had loads of customers due to quite a bit of traffic. The men in the van are absolute cretins because they know full well what they are doing = screwing drivers who are not doing wrong.
They have the sun behind them when they sit on that ramp so motorists who don't look out for them will cop it. They know drivers speed up there in order to merge into faster flowing traffic that has just exited a specs zone into a 3 lane carriageway. Easy pickings for them.Damn right---- I go past that speed camera position and put it on FIX MY STREET because they got the position wrong. The old position was publicized opposite Queens Med Rear Entrance....... A long time ago a motoring solicitor stated that the speed cams along the ring road
should be extended but that has never been done.... That confirms that the speed camera crews dish out blatant lies tp make money =NOWT ELSE....... Their ploy is that that position is for accident reduction..... my arse.
should be extended but that has never been done.... That confirms that the speed camera crews dish out blatant lies tp make money =NOWT ELSE....... Their ploy is that that position is for accident reduction..... my arse.
I totally agree with the above comments, the road layouts into Nottingham have been meddled with by what I can only think are unbalanced incompetent idiots, just remind me again of the name of the clown in charge of Nottingham City road planning?
The average speed camera system is doing its job very well in terms of lowering speeds, or is it just the case that the ring-road is pretty much a go-slow area due to the huge number of traffic lights that have been installed and an increased volume of traffic is caught up between the lights which is bringing the whole ring-road to a crawl. A little birdie tells me that it's costing tens of thousands of £££ to run and has lost money since installation due to an insufficient number of motorists able to speed and be fined. Now why the average speed camera network stopped where it did is quite interesting considering that one of the most complicated and potentially dangerous stretches of road was just a little further along, and been replaced by a mobile camera van. It's 30 for a reason - TAX.
Many would say that the cosy safety camera partnership is nothing more that a parasitic tax revenue earning scam and has nothing to do with safety.
In terms of silly road layouts, the Nottingham road planners certainly know how to screw it up. The modified road layout on Mapperley Top to accommodate the newish KFC continues to cause grief due to the fact that the planners reduced the lanes inbound from two to one, and plonked a bollard in the middle just to ensure compliance and carnage at rush hour. If they had engaged their tiny brains they could have left the two lanes as they were and narrowed the opposite lane which was pretty wide for a single lane but that would have been too easy.
To balance that cock-up they meddled a bit further along with what was a pretty good lane layout, and went on to open the single lane back into two lanes (as previous), then marked the left lane only onto Porchester Road as straight-on as well as left, problem is that the road ahead narrows as you go over the traffic-lights towards Nottingham centre, so two becomes one. Anyone not familiar with the road layout gets a nasty surprise. Sheer stupidity by the road planners.
And not to be out-done, travelling further along the same road and down the hill to the bottom they changed the lane markings to ensure that anyone who wanted to drive straight-ahead into Victoria Centre car-park needed to be in the left-hand lane, but as a motorist you can't know this until you are across the traffic lights and then shi*e happens - once again, some moron in the road planning department must have thought long and hard as to how make life really difficult for motorists driving into town and I find this truly pathetic.
Unfortunately those in power in Nottingham seem to be doing just what the heck they like and all paid for by the sodding taxpayer, if they were working in any other industry they would be sacked for sheer childish incompetence.
The average speed camera system is doing its job very well in terms of lowering speeds, or is it just the case that the ring-road is pretty much a go-slow area due to the huge number of traffic lights that have been installed and an increased volume of traffic is caught up between the lights which is bringing the whole ring-road to a crawl. A little birdie tells me that it's costing tens of thousands of £££ to run and has lost money since installation due to an insufficient number of motorists able to speed and be fined. Now why the average speed camera network stopped where it did is quite interesting considering that one of the most complicated and potentially dangerous stretches of road was just a little further along, and been replaced by a mobile camera van. It's 30 for a reason - TAX.
Many would say that the cosy safety camera partnership is nothing more that a parasitic tax revenue earning scam and has nothing to do with safety.
In terms of silly road layouts, the Nottingham road planners certainly know how to screw it up. The modified road layout on Mapperley Top to accommodate the newish KFC continues to cause grief due to the fact that the planners reduced the lanes inbound from two to one, and plonked a bollard in the middle just to ensure compliance and carnage at rush hour. If they had engaged their tiny brains they could have left the two lanes as they were and narrowed the opposite lane which was pretty wide for a single lane but that would have been too easy.
To balance that cock-up they meddled a bit further along with what was a pretty good lane layout, and went on to open the single lane back into two lanes (as previous), then marked the left lane only onto Porchester Road as straight-on as well as left, problem is that the road ahead narrows as you go over the traffic-lights towards Nottingham centre, so two becomes one. Anyone not familiar with the road layout gets a nasty surprise. Sheer stupidity by the road planners.
And not to be out-done, travelling further along the same road and down the hill to the bottom they changed the lane markings to ensure that anyone who wanted to drive straight-ahead into Victoria Centre car-park needed to be in the left-hand lane, but as a motorist you can't know this until you are across the traffic lights and then shi*e happens - once again, some moron in the road planning department must have thought long and hard as to how make life really difficult for motorists driving into town and I find this truly pathetic.
Unfortunately those in power in Nottingham seem to be doing just what the heck they like and all paid for by the sodding taxpayer, if they were working in any other industry they would be sacked for sheer childish incompetence.
rich888 said:
In terms of silly road layouts, the Nottingham road planners certainly know how to screw it up. The modified road layout on Mapperley Top to accommodate the newish KFC continues to cause grief due to the fact that the planners reduced the lanes inbound from two to one, and plonked a bollard in the middle just to ensure compliance and carnage at rush hour. If they had engaged their tiny brains they could have left the two lanes as they were and narrowed the opposite lane which was pretty wide for a single lane but that would have been too easy.
To balance that cock-up they meddled a bit further along with what was a pretty good lane layout, and went on to open the single lane back into two lanes (as previous), then marked the left lane only onto Porchester Road as straight-on as well as left, problem is that the road ahead narrows as you go over the traffic-lights towards Nottingham centre, so two becomes one. Anyone not familiar with the road layout gets a nasty surprise. Sheer stupidity by the road planners.
And not to be out-done, travelling further along the same road and down the hill to the bottom they changed the lane markings to ensure that anyone who wanted to drive straight-ahead into Victoria Centre car-park needed to be in the left-hand lane, but as a motorist you can't know this until you are across the traffic lights and then shi*e happens - once again, some moron in the road planning department must have thought long and hard as to how make life really difficult for motorists driving into town and I find this truly pathetic.
This is the way I drive into work when I can face it. It is a huge messTo balance that cock-up they meddled a bit further along with what was a pretty good lane layout, and went on to open the single lane back into two lanes (as previous), then marked the left lane only onto Porchester Road as straight-on as well as left, problem is that the road ahead narrows as you go over the traffic-lights towards Nottingham centre, so two becomes one. Anyone not familiar with the road layout gets a nasty surprise. Sheer stupidity by the road planners.
And not to be out-done, travelling further along the same road and down the hill to the bottom they changed the lane markings to ensure that anyone who wanted to drive straight-ahead into Victoria Centre car-park needed to be in the left-hand lane, but as a motorist you can't know this until you are across the traffic lights and then shi*e happens - once again, some moron in the road planning department must have thought long and hard as to how make life really difficult for motorists driving into town and I find this truly pathetic.
I still have the letter from a miss Stylianou who was an ordinary safety officer for the Nottingham CityTraffic Department. She is at least
2nd in command now. She refused to accept that traffic should go left on Farndon Green - Wollaton Park. This roundabout is quite large and when we were motor cyclists we thought it best to go left incase someone ran into us - ever because although anyone could go
whichever way they pleased we though they would be deemed wrong in the event of an accident. A man in a three wheeler ran into the door on my land rover and due to me going left & was hit by the front of his bonnet his insurance paid for my drivers door ! I wrote to the safety office & she Miss Stylianou said it would not earn her the respect of local drivers if she made them go left! After a couple of years the blue keep left signs quietly appeared to my utter amazement.
There is at least one lady 'ordinary' safety officer who listens to common sense because she agreed that the Forest Road onto Mansfield
Road is a dangerous junction & she put traffic lights at that junction within a year of my complaint and a couple of other people who noticed
on many occasions 30 or so cars were waiting to get into Mansfield road........ It might be worth mentioning that the Police Headquarters
are situated at the next junction towards Nottingham about 500 yards away from said junction !
It is interesting to note that John Bann does not see much wrong by his replies to complaints that cyclists are misusing the cycle paths
by riding next to occupiers front gates & while doing that are 'on the phone or texting! quite a few are seen to be riding no handed.
He mitigates that by saying car drivers often misbehave so that levels the problem! It might be worth a mention that his design of the cycle paths in Sheffield were it says the most dangerous in Britain and have been removed........ Now he has descended onto Nottingham to lavish his skills on us I would expect problems for us vehicle users.
2nd in command now. She refused to accept that traffic should go left on Farndon Green - Wollaton Park. This roundabout is quite large and when we were motor cyclists we thought it best to go left incase someone ran into us - ever because although anyone could go
whichever way they pleased we though they would be deemed wrong in the event of an accident. A man in a three wheeler ran into the door on my land rover and due to me going left & was hit by the front of his bonnet his insurance paid for my drivers door ! I wrote to the safety office & she Miss Stylianou said it would not earn her the respect of local drivers if she made them go left! After a couple of years the blue keep left signs quietly appeared to my utter amazement.
There is at least one lady 'ordinary' safety officer who listens to common sense because she agreed that the Forest Road onto Mansfield
Road is a dangerous junction & she put traffic lights at that junction within a year of my complaint and a couple of other people who noticed
on many occasions 30 or so cars were waiting to get into Mansfield road........ It might be worth mentioning that the Police Headquarters
are situated at the next junction towards Nottingham about 500 yards away from said junction !
It is interesting to note that John Bann does not see much wrong by his replies to complaints that cyclists are misusing the cycle paths
by riding next to occupiers front gates & while doing that are 'on the phone or texting! quite a few are seen to be riding no handed.
He mitigates that by saying car drivers often misbehave so that levels the problem! It might be worth a mention that his design of the cycle paths in Sheffield were it says the most dangerous in Britain and have been removed........ Now he has descended onto Nottingham to lavish his skills on us I would expect problems for us vehicle users.
Mick50NCD said:
There is at least one lady 'ordinary' safety officer who listens to common sense because she agreed that the Forest Road onto Mansfield
Road is a dangerous junction & she put traffic lights at that junction within a year of my complaint and a couple of other people who noticed
on many occasions 30 or so cars were waiting to get into Mansfield road........ It might be worth mentioning that the Police Headquarters
are situated at the next junction towards Nottingham about 500 yards away from said junction !
The Forest Lane junction with Mansfield Road (A60) had been causing grief for motorists for a great many years, though the reason for the traffic lights at the junction was because of the massive future housing development that had been earmarked between Hucknall and Linby. Why traffic lights were installed there is beyond me, because apart from rush-hour there were very few issues. A roundabout would have worked fine and been far cheaper, but was discounted due to apparent 'higher' costs involved, because in line with current nanny state council planner thinking, they wanted a monster sized roundabout and needed to purchase a huge amount of land to achieve this, once again, anyone with an ounce of common-sense would have realised that a smaller roundabout would have worked just as well, and for a lot less money than the overly complex traffic light set-up that has now been installed.Road is a dangerous junction & she put traffic lights at that junction within a year of my complaint and a couple of other people who noticed
on many occasions 30 or so cars were waiting to get into Mansfield road........ It might be worth mentioning that the Police Headquarters
are situated at the next junction towards Nottingham about 500 yards away from said junction !
As for the police headquarters at Burntstump, rumour is that it's going to be sold off and turned into a hotel, OK, I made that bit up, but for the amount of police activity in Nottinghamshire it does seem to be a very expensive piece of land which would actually make for a very exclusive housing estate. They seem to have flogged off all the smaller stations to save some money, so why not sell off this grandiose HQ and move into somewhere more affordable.
MB140 said:
Well as it’s a year on since this started I have to say due to all the traffic and anti-motorist crap I haven’t been to Nottingham city in the entire year. Shame as I only live about 15 miles away. I choose to go to lincoln instead.
Well done Nottingham city council you have achieved your aim. I haven’t driven around the city once. Mind you I haven’t been there either.
I do wonder how much money the city centre traders lose due to people like me going elsewhere or thinking sod it and just order online and save all the hassle of having to drive around the city.
Thanks, I won't be going either.Well done Nottingham city council you have achieved your aim. I haven’t driven around the city once. Mind you I haven’t been there either.
I do wonder how much money the city centre traders lose due to people like me going elsewhere or thinking sod it and just order online and save all the hassle of having to drive around the city.
Sheffield City Council comprises a similar bunch of dogmatic haters of personal mobility. I haven't visted the city centre for a couple of years now, and I live there.
I'm in the suburbs and 20 limit signs are going up on 94 roads around me. An utterly pointless exercise, eagerly executed by the council because the government is funding it, and the council can't afford to extend its "extremely successful road humps programme". Sigh.
The glossy leaflet that announced the coming of 20 limits mentioned that the council did not expect motorists to obey the limit and it couldn't be enforced, but residents would feel safer whilst walking along the footpaths. Double Sigh.
By a stroke of irony, the signs went up one one road last week and this week a pedestrian was hit by a lorry and killed. I've been here all my life and recall only one accident on that road in my 70 years.
I hope you won't mind me saying but the lights at the Forest Road/Mansfield road junction were installed because of the very real danger caused by traffic trying to get into Mansfield road. If you look on Google Earth it might be worth counting the cars there on the photo.
I have seen an accident at that junction on a Sunday. I thought someone was killed but the Council said no one was killed. That junction would have caused death and that is not the only fault that has been incorrectly designed such as the junctions re cyclists given priority
when the motor vehicles cannot see what they are giving way to.
Those junctions have not obtained what is called the final safety audit. There seems to be a great amount of stupidity in that legislation whereby the Council representatives are saying that they will complete all works therein and then apply for the final audit........
As several careful lady drivers residing in Wollaton Park Estate pointed out------ at the meeting with Keith Morgan ( only one of the Nottingham Traffic cycling ideologists) ----- You'll shut the door then when the horse has bolted? He was most likely far too young to have heard of that saying but more importantly -too stupid to absorb it's meaning. One of the issues is that there are far too many people who are illogical and without it seems a fraction of expertise who impose there will on those who have far more reasoning than they themselves have and have been shown to prove they can make gastly mistakes. The 'Butterfly' island to this day is traffic mayhem due to the fact that no one knows which lane they should be in when trying to get onto London Road from Castle Boulevard.
Apparently that Island was designed by some bod from Birmingham - quote me different if that is incorrect? There was a lot said about that island when it was new....... quite a few swear words as well..... chuffing hunt and the like !
I have seen an accident at that junction on a Sunday. I thought someone was killed but the Council said no one was killed. That junction would have caused death and that is not the only fault that has been incorrectly designed such as the junctions re cyclists given priority
when the motor vehicles cannot see what they are giving way to.
Those junctions have not obtained what is called the final safety audit. There seems to be a great amount of stupidity in that legislation whereby the Council representatives are saying that they will complete all works therein and then apply for the final audit........
As several careful lady drivers residing in Wollaton Park Estate pointed out------ at the meeting with Keith Morgan ( only one of the Nottingham Traffic cycling ideologists) ----- You'll shut the door then when the horse has bolted? He was most likely far too young to have heard of that saying but more importantly -too stupid to absorb it's meaning. One of the issues is that there are far too many people who are illogical and without it seems a fraction of expertise who impose there will on those who have far more reasoning than they themselves have and have been shown to prove they can make gastly mistakes. The 'Butterfly' island to this day is traffic mayhem due to the fact that no one knows which lane they should be in when trying to get onto London Road from Castle Boulevard.
Apparently that Island was designed by some bod from Birmingham - quote me different if that is incorrect? There was a lot said about that island when it was new....... quite a few swear words as well..... chuffing hunt and the like !
Mick50NCD said:
I hope you won't mind me saying but the lights at the Forest Road/Mansfield road junction were installed because of the very real danger caused by traffic trying to get into Mansfield road. If you look on Google Earth it might be worth counting the cars there on the photo.
I have seen an accident at that junction on a Sunday. I thought someone was killed but the Council said no one was killed. That junction would have caused death and that is not the only fault that has been incorrectly designed such as the junctions re cyclists given priority
when the motor vehicles cannot see what they are giving way to.
Those junctions have not obtained what is called the final safety audit. There seems to be a great amount of stupidity in that legislation whereby the Council representatives are saying that they will complete all works therein and then apply for the final audit........
As several careful lady drivers residing in Wollaton Park Estate pointed out------ at the meeting with Keith Morgan ( only one of the Nottingham Traffic cycling ideologists) ----- You'll shut the door then when the horse has bolted? He was most likely far too young to have heard of that saying but more importantly -too stupid to absorb it's meaning. One of the issues is that there are far too many people who are illogical and without it seems a fraction of expertise who impose there will on those who have far more reasoning than they themselves have and have been shown to prove they can make gastly mistakes. The 'Butterfly' island to this day is traffic mayhem due to the fact that no one knows which lane they should be in when trying to get onto London Road from Castle Boulevard.
Apparently that Island was designed by some bod from Birmingham - quote me different if that is incorrect? There was a lot said about that island when it was new....... quite a few swear words as well..... chuffing hunt and the like !
Apologies, I totally agree that some form of traffic control was required at the Forest Lane junction with Mansfield Road which is the main A60 route into Nottingham, and I'm totally familiar with the junction having commuted along that road for several years in the early 1990s and spent hours trying to turn onto the A60 on many occasions, all it took was someone trying to turn right and everyone was stuffed. I have seen an accident at that junction on a Sunday. I thought someone was killed but the Council said no one was killed. That junction would have caused death and that is not the only fault that has been incorrectly designed such as the junctions re cyclists given priority
when the motor vehicles cannot see what they are giving way to.
Those junctions have not obtained what is called the final safety audit. There seems to be a great amount of stupidity in that legislation whereby the Council representatives are saying that they will complete all works therein and then apply for the final audit........
As several careful lady drivers residing in Wollaton Park Estate pointed out------ at the meeting with Keith Morgan ( only one of the Nottingham Traffic cycling ideologists) ----- You'll shut the door then when the horse has bolted? He was most likely far too young to have heard of that saying but more importantly -too stupid to absorb it's meaning. One of the issues is that there are far too many people who are illogical and without it seems a fraction of expertise who impose there will on those who have far more reasoning than they themselves have and have been shown to prove they can make gastly mistakes. The 'Butterfly' island to this day is traffic mayhem due to the fact that no one knows which lane they should be in when trying to get onto London Road from Castle Boulevard.
Apparently that Island was designed by some bod from Birmingham - quote me different if that is incorrect? There was a lot said about that island when it was new....... quite a few swear words as well..... chuffing hunt and the like !
The locals had been demanding action for years and it was only when the housing developers came along that any action was taken. Ask any of the locals in Papplewick and Linby because they are fuming over the whole housing development. As for the choice to use traffic lights, that's interesting and I feel a few palms were oiled because a 30m or 36m diameter roundabout would have sufficed and would have been cheap to implement with none of the ongoing maintenance costs of the overly complex traffic lights that were eventually installed. They installed a 30m diameter roundabout a little bit further down the road so they do know how to install these smaller roundabouts.
As for the traffic lights, they hold nearly everyone up 24 hours of the day and the right turn filter sequencing is pretty sluggish for anyone wishing to turn onto Forest Lane from Mansfield Road and why they didn't just allow right turn with straight-on is once again beyond me because these permutation just frustrates everyone. Like I said before, the problem with traffic only occurred at rush hour whereas the current lights hinder progress to traffic all day and night.
The road planners should be asking themselves, do we really need a high maintenance traffic light junction when a simple mound of earth called a roundabout and a few litres of paint for road markings would do!
The bigger problem in Papplewick is actually the Moor Road, Main Street and Forest Road junction, which is a partially-blind staggered junction, and is an absolute nightmare to navigate across when busy, this particular junction will get a hell of a lot worse once the housing development has been completed and more people are driving into Nottingham. The council have looked at the junction numerous times and have done nothing whatsoever because it is a very difficult junction to fix.
Getting back to your comment about the final safety audit taking place only after the road junction has been completed, well that is total and utter madness when we have a combination of biased tree huggers responsible for the road network, these types of people should not be allowed anywhere near the planning and safety aspects of our roads. Surely road planning should be carried out by competent individuals who's only role is to ensure value for money and an efficient safe road network for all users.
The current thinking of narrowing off lanes in many roads in Nottingham is plain dangerous, Hayden Road comes to mind which was perfectly safe until some idiot increased the width of cycle lanes and other pavement furniture to such a degree that passing traffic in both lanes is forced dangerously close to one another, it's utter madness. I just hope that the people responsible for these life-threatening decisions are held personally liable for their actions in the same way as a motorist is held accountable for their actions, only then will sanity prevail.
I can't really comment about the the 'Butterfly' island traffic mayhem due to the fact that no one knows which lane they should be in when trying to get onto London Road from Castle Boulevard because I've only driven on it once I think, and yes, it was kind of best guess and pray. What were the planners on when they dreamed up that balls-up?
What really annoys me is that the council are always whinging about cutbacks which results in ever more potholed roads and shockingly badly worn down road markings, yet they always seem to find the money for more speed cameras and parasitic safety camera operators. It's wrong. What we need are more competent traffic police officers on the roads and on foot, not more squandering of taxpayer resources by incompetent overpaid officials.
I'm not really sure what Nottingham officials are trying to achieve because they don't actually provide much of an affordable alternative to driving into town, they bumped up the fairs for using the tram and changed the role of the conductors to inspectors so that they could fine unwary customers who were trying to buy tickets on the tram, I ought to point out that if you travel into Nottingham on the train that this is the accepted way to buy the ticket, and until recently this is how you bought the ticket on the tram. So now the trams trundle around well below capacity except at Christmas no doubt.
It's almost as if they don't want anyone travelling into Nottingham, and I must admit that I've cut back on travelling into the city and have visited out-of-town supermarkets, or have ordered off Amazon because it's just less hassle. Sorry Nottingham City, but you just don't make me feel welcome, so are best just avoided, there are just too many more friendly alternatives.
I might as well stick my neck out by saying that I have seen it stated in an article on the internet that a John Bann is the chief designer of the Nottingham ring road priority for cyclists cycle paths. There are more - many more than him though. He is said to be the designer of Sheffield's most dangerous cycle path in britain which does not now exist! How can this happen? In my diving days the saying which the so called Safety Dept in Nottingham is not at all familiar with is Murphy's Law = If it can happen it will happen.
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