Bl....y Speed Bumps!!!!!

[Less]

Originally Posted by Bagpuss

I agree with you Janet, anything that slows motorists down is a good idea, surely Less you must agree that there is a need to drive more slowly or is it just speed humps you are against?

All speed humps do is cause extra wear & tear on the vehicles, people that drive sensibly do so wether there are speed humps or not, the people that don't drive sensibly just look on the humps as a challenge to get over as quickly as possible. A similar outcome can be seen on Charter street where the chichanes were introdruced, before them people would drive carefully between the two rows of parked cars and would politely give way if necessary to other road users, now, as well as losing several car parking spaces (causing greater congestion), often people are seen racing for the gaps playing 'chicken' with each other just to try & get through first.

Traffic calming? It now looks like the traffic is having a nervous break-down!

[WillowTheWhisp]

In a similar vein there's a stupid "peninsula" at the top of Ormerod Street on the corner. If you are coming up Willows Lane and turn into Ormerod Street there's this stupid lump of pavement jutting out immediately round the corner prior to the bus stop which has the effect of forcing you into the opposite lane and face to face with anything which might be coming uphill. I cannot for the life of me see how that is a safety measure as it causes potential head-on collisions.

[Less]

Take a look at the roads that have generously been given speed humps etc. by some form of EEC grant I believe, all that lovely tarmac in one lump & the road itself absolutely worn out! Most of the grip for slowing vehicles down is given by a well maintained road surface, but rather than improve the quality of ALL the road these lumps appear & cause excessive wear & tear to the remaining untouched road that should have been repaired years ago!

[WillowTheWhisp]

A classic example of that is Richmond Rd. You'd have thought it already had speed bumps on it the state it was in. Travelling along there was like riding a switchback.

One day we saw men with tarmac and we were naive enough to think that they were filling up the holes and levelling it off.

Far from it. They were adding "traffic calming measures" consisting of aforementioned peninsulas but worse than that these sort of extended speed humps which are neither one thing nor another but extend the full width of the road junctions.

[Less]

Perhaps when you consider the cost each year to motorists the insurance companies should add a little section to the claim form along the lines of & what was the condition of the road surface? Then if as I suspect would often be the case, the answer was in ill-repair the insurance company could take the local authority to court for some of the liability caused by their bad maintenence or design!

[WINGY]

Going back to willows daughters accident, i agree that people travel too fast on queens road west. It's a very wide road and people sem to want to go faster on wider roads, i find i do it myself. But as for placing speed humps on the road, lets just say the same happened again, god forbid!! how much would those speed humps slow down the emergency services??

There is a county in the south, which at the moment slips my mind, that proved that speed humps had actually slowed emergency services enough in some cases from getting to places in time to save lives.
So there not all good..

[staggeringman]

dill hall lane another fine example!!!!!!! put in parking bays but people still park on either side, they do not work!!

[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by WINGY

Going back to willows daughters accident, i agree that people travel too fast on queens road west. It's a very wide road and people sem to want to go faster on wider roads, i find i do it myself. But as for placing speed humps on the road, lets just say the same happened again, god forbid!! how much would those speed humps slow down the emergency services??

There is a county in the south, which at the moment slips my mind, that proved that speed humps had actually slowed emergency services enough in some cases from getting to places in time to save lives.
So there not all good..

I think I'll mention this point to my solicitor next time. I still say the only sensible solution on Queens Road West is a pelican crossing.

[Less]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

I think I'll mention this point to my solicitor next time. I still say the only sensible solution on Queens Road West is a pelican crossing.

Now THAT makes sense!