varesecrazy said:

I would rather they dealt with what has been a 20+ year issue NOW

Click to expand...

If there are any Policemen on here may be you could try and persuade your bosses to go issue some heavy grade fines to the offenders and work some real magic?

There are so many places like this and no action against those who flout the law and all semblance of common courtesy at the same time.

The planners have to keep messing with the roads or they would be out
of a job, they put a cycle lane in narrowing a bridge near us this led
to a 17 million pound bypass to sort the congestion due to a unused
cycle lane, but don't worry the planners still have a job.
:bang:

My small town has 7 sets of traffic lights. At least three or four of the lights could be replaced with mini roundabout white discs painted on the roads and some new signs. It's really obvious where the jams all happen - at the traffic lights. Nothing will happen because traffic lights are jobs for the boys.

A nearby village has a main road that was re-routed around a clay quarry (>10 years ago), yet the simple traffic lights cross roads junction (which is HUGE) still retains the lights. They could put up the fanciest traffic island and still have way too much space. All it needs is some bollards and bags over the lights. But that means decisions. We dont do decisions.

I **HATE** mini roundabouts!

People used to straight line them with no due care for others who arrived first with caution ready to give way only to have another party well before their give way lines storm into the round about, horn blaring, etc. when the cautious driver has already started to enter the roundabout.

So those smart road planners offset the round blobs thinking people would slow down and attempt to negotiate/go round (or at least try). Nope people just go straight over and in many cases totally to the right into the on coming lane (or part there of).

Then those who do try to go round now look like they are turning left so the car waiting misunderstands and pulls out.

They are accidents waiting to and do happen and worst of all some are serious rear side impacts!

Some are impossible even in a car,
make something a bit difficult and most will have a go at complying
make it impossible and no one will even try.

s130 said:

I **HATE** mini roundabouts!

People used to straight line them with no due care for others who arrived first with caution ready to give way only to have another party well before their give way lines storm into the round about, horn blaring, etc. when the cautious driver has already started to enter the roundabout.

So those smart road planners offset the round blobs thinking people would slow down and attempt to negotiate/go round (or at least try). Nope people just go straight over and in many cases totally to the right into the on coming lane (or part there of).

Then those who do try to go round now look like they are turning left so the car waiting misunderstands and pulls out.

They are accidents waiting to and do happen and worst of all some are serious rear side impacts!

Click to expand...

Well then you just instal a small raised roundabout

chris3234 said:

Well then you just instal a small raised roundabout

Click to expand...

That is not going to happen due to expense. The authorities will argue that when used correctly there is nothing wrong with mini roundabouts.

The use the same arguments with Smart Motorways. When used correctly they are perfectly OK.

I think these road / motorways designers need to spend some time in the electrical and electronics and petrochemical and other industries and especially where contact with the public (as opposed to trained professionals) occurs.

When designing for these (as I used to) on the safety side we had to design for "Potential / Foreseen Misuse" e.g. people poking metal objects into equipment, standing on something despite all the safely labelling, etc. etc.

You learn to look at "what ever it is you are designing" with a completely different perspective and objective to just the basic function of what you are designing.

Mini roundabouts, smart motorways are classic examples of foreseen misuse IMHO. Give a roundabout a raised kerb, decent central island with bloody great sign of arrows and the foreseen misuse of straight lining, excess speed etc. are seriously mitigated. The associated distance and time for entry and exit points of human error (e.g. pulling out when you should not) are increased thus mitigating the likely hood of collisions, or at least serious collisions.

As for SMART motorways ......

My town (like any other I guess) has a mix of traffic lights and islands and a few mini islands. The latter never cause a problem. Jams are cause by traffic lights and islands that do not allow anyone to enter when the busiest stream is moving. Result is horrendous traffic jams which are never resolved because the "Highways dept" want (a) silly money to run unconnected surveys and (2) their solutions are always more traffic lights. Jobs for the boys innit?

Derby had a sort of traffic island on the A6 at north side of town centre. It was basically two streets running parallel to create a one way circuit about 200 yards long. It wasn't ideal but it worked. Highways decided it just had to be "improved" and installed traffic lights all over the thing. Congestion was horrible during the months of installation. When they were switched on, the town clogged up solid. Obviously, something had to be done, so we endured the mess for more months while surveys were run. They all came up saying the best system was what we now had and the jams endured. Quelle Surprise.

I moved away some years ago but believe local councillors created such a fuss that the loop was eventually put back to pretty much what was always there. So much for allowing "experts" to fix what isn't broken. It ran far better with the lights bagged over. Just as it always had done.

A similar cock-up was created by the same "we know best" Highways experts when they decided the and area of old council estates just had to have speed bumps installed. Again the result was total jams. The truncated pyramids were about as harsh as throwing concrete blocks into the road. Even 5mph was hammering your car. Pedestrians just wandered in front of moving cars, many getting bumped because drivers were so fixated of spotting the next mountain in the roadway. One councillor was elected specifically to have the whole lot ripped out but he was excluded from any meetings, because he supposedly had "conflicts of interest" on the issue.

The levels of incompetence were unreal. The levels of resistance to dealing with the obvious cock-up were even more deeply entrenched.

The bumps were eventually removed because seriously ill people were dying while ambulances failed to get through. When they did get arrive, patients were being knocked about as the vans moved over the speed bumps with even more trauma caused.