Road design rage...

[Cobnapint]

Why is it, that every time the local Council re-models a junction or alters anything at some traffic lights - they ALWAYS leave a section of curbing that jutts out into everybodys natural driving line!
This then proceeds to collect increasing amounts of tyre marks, gouges from our expensive alloy wheels and varied collections of plastic wheel trim off cuts.
They also seem to forget that lorries actually exist by making the entrance/exit gap far too narrow at mini-roundabouts.

I often wonder if the designers that sit in front of their computers in the local Highways department have actually got driving licences.

The same goes for the do-gooders that try to direct our every steering input at roundabouts by putting hashing and poorly aligned white lines everywhere that force you to change direction whilst actually on the roundabout - sometimes veering you towards the guy next to you who's also wondering what the hell was wrong with the previous natural arc we all used to follow through said roundabout, before the so called 'safety enhancments' took place.

Damn annoying, and so unnecessary.

[FreeLitres]

Worst "I just curbed my alloy" post ever!

Yes, totally agree though.

[moreflaps]

You should see what they are doing across Bristol. Whiteladies road has been absurdly narrowed so that even a push bike can't get past a bus in many places! Just yesterday I saw them further widening a 'plant reserve' in the middle of the road -and that's not six months after they put them in! Trouble is, no letter you write about their increasing congestion or danger makes one jot of difference. The t**t at the head of road planning says the road dimensions comply with the necessary statutes...

Cheers

[Lost soul]

Designed to slow you down , or at least thats how i see it

[jagracer]

Very poor rant, no swearing and not enough rage included. 2/10 must try harder. Agree 100% with what you say, as for them not having driving licences I think It's more of a competition they have in the office to see which planner can fk traffic flows up the most.

[Funkateer]

It would also be beneficial if those council types reponsible for speed limit changes actually drove on the affected stretches of road before imposing a new tediously low speed limit, normally with little regard to the actual hazards on the road.

[Cobnapint]

FreeLitres said:

Worst "I just curbed my alloy" post ever!

Yes, totally agree though.

I haven't - its something thats been pssing me off for years. I just hate having to be extra wary when driving around just because of their inept design skills.

[4keymonsta]

Lost soul said:

Designed to slow you down , or at least thats how i see it

Agreed. The amount of junctions and roundabouts that I am now encountering that I have to use two lanes to get a lorry around is getting annoying, badly designed pavements and lane markings are becoming normal in the London area.

[gforceg]

The most annoying development for me that I've seen over the last 5-10 years, whenever a stretch of rural road has been re-tarmacced (sp?) they take the opportunity to put down double white lines where overtaking had previously been deemed safe.

That and playing "Village connect the dots" by extending lower speed limits out into open country are just two of my gripes.

(More gripes available on request, the quality of my gripes may go down aswell as up....)

[rohrl]

Where I live the only tool in the Highways Department's box seems to be traffic lights. We just get more and more of them. They don't even have the sense to switch them off at non-peak times.

[Cobnapint]

gforceg said:

The most annoying development for me that I've seen over the last 5-10 years, whenever a stretch of rural road has been re-tarmacced (sp?) they take the opportunity to put down double white lines where overtaking had previously been deemed safe.

That and playing "Village connect the dots" by extending lower speed limits out into open country are just two of my gripes.

(More gripes available on request, the quality of my gripes may go down aswell as up....)

I've also come across certain places with poor sighting where you wouldn't even dream of overtaking, yet the centre line is broken allowing you to do so. And places where its solid where you can see for bloody miles. Just brilliant.

[barker22]

rohrl said:

Where I live the only tool in the Highways Department's box seems to be traffic lights. We just get more and more of them. They don't even have the sense to switch them off at non-peak times.

This, especially roundabouts, new and existing. Many a time I have been sat on red at 1.30am with no sight of anything.

[Baz Tench]

A few roundabouts in my town had their markings 'redesigned' for no apparent reason. Dual carriageways were reduced to one lane as you entered them from said roundabouts.

The result? Huge traffic jams at peak times and public outrage. The council had to put them back to how they were. It was a ridiculous exercise.

Another roundabout I use quite regularly is junc. 4 on the M5. Again, the markings were redesigned and they completely fked it up in my opinion. If you're coming from Bromsgrove direction and you want the M5 northbound entry slip road, you have to watch others around you like a hawk, as they realise they end up in the wrong lane.

If it ain't broke.......

[Six Fiend]

moreflaps said:

You should see what they are doing across Bristol. Whiteladies road has been absurdly narrowed so that even a push bike can't get past a bus in many places! Just yesterday I saw them further widening a 'plant reserve' in the middle of the road -and that's not six months after they put them in! Trouble is, no letter you write about their increasing congestion or danger makes one jot of difference. The t**t at the head of road planning says the road dimensions comply with the necessary statutes...

Cheers

Bristol makes me cry! If I didn't have to go into the BRI frequently it's safe to say I would never venture into town!
Of course we all know the increased congestion created by the planners etc is leading towards the congestion charge and a lot of empty shops in Bristol.

[Locke]

I completely agree 100%, Its as though they want you to hit the curbs these days.

[Synchromesh]

moreflaps said:

You should see what they are doing across Bristol. Whiteladies road has been absurdly narrowed so that even a push bike can't get past a bus in many places! Just yesterday I saw them further widening a 'plant reserve' in the middle of the road -and that's not six months after they put them in! Trouble is, no letter you write about their increasing congestion or danger makes one jot of difference. The t**t at the head of road planning says the road dimensions comply with the necessary statutes...

Cheers

Don't get me started on Whiteladies Road. Once Bristol was heralded as a 'cycling city'. My cycle commute along Whiteladies demonstrates how unsafe and un-enticing it's now made itself. Because of the 'plant reserve' I'm bullied by drivers to ride in the 'door zone', and given that both my dad and a friend have been seriously injured from having doors opened on them, it's naturally not something I"m keen on doing.

And that's before we get on to how much it's cost for this project.

[Six Fiend]

Have you seen an emergency vehicle trying to get up Whiteladies on a blues and twos run recently? Total joke!

[maniac0796]

Many police forces won't enforce a 20mph speed limit, so they require the council to engineer the road so 20mph is the maximum it can be driven at.

I agree with junctions though. They just seem to stick more and more traffic lights in places and it just creates more congestion, especially when they're not synced.