Imaginary road features

[DavidNW9]

I've posted the roundabout with the exit in a field and blocked, seen the painted road humps of Whitton (I'd replace all the existing ones with these), but just discovered this imaginary roundabout in Swindon when searching for a photo location nearby where they've simply painted a white circle in the road and put a curve on the edge of it. It's a shame I didn't spot it on Sunday but it's not the sort of thing you notice when not looking around an actual junction or I'd have got a photo of it as well.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.54836 ... 312!8i6656

I wish it was unique but I'm guessing this sort of pony and trap is becoming more and more prevalent as councils find more and more bizarre ways to destroy a normal journey.

[WHBM]

I'm guessing this sort of pony and trap is becoming more and more prevalent as councils find more and more bizarre ways to destroy a normal journey.

There's a highways budget and it's GOT to be spent.

Speed humps in rough cobbled streets are a Tower Hamlets specialty.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5037283 ... 312!8i6656

[drm567]

I've posted the roundabout with the exit in a field and blocked, seen the painted road humps of Whitton (I'd replace all the existing ones with these), but just discovered this imaginary roundabout in Swindon when searching for a photo location nearby where they've simply painted a white circle in the road and put a curve on the edge of it. It's a shame I didn't spot it on Sunday but it's not the sort of thing you notice when not looking around an actual junction or I'd have got a photo of it as well.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.54836 ... 312!8i6656

I wish it was unique but I'm guessing this sort of pony and trap is becoming more and more prevalent as councils find more and more bizarre ways to destroy a normal journey.

That must be a contender for the most dangerous bit of traffic calming. Especially at night, when the reflectors on the black posts are dirty and with retina burning LED lights coming towards you.

[Conekicker]

I've posted the roundabout with the exit in a field and blocked, seen the painted road humps of Whitton (I'd replace all the existing ones with these), but just discovered this imaginary roundabout in Swindon when searching for a photo location nearby where they've simply painted a white circle in the road and put a curve on the edge of it. It's a shame I didn't spot it on Sunday but it's not the sort of thing you notice when not looking around an actual junction or I'd have got a photo of it as well.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.54836 ... 312!8i6656

I wish it was unique but I'm guessing this sort of pony and trap is becoming more and more prevalent as councils find more and more bizarre ways to destroy a normal journey.

So the humps either side of this waste of money aren't enough to slow traffic down? Really?

[Bryn666]

TWOCkers get a place to u-turn... how thoughtful.

[Pendlemac]

Actually it does get used as a roundabout.

The overhead shot on Google Earth ( taken April last year ) shows tyre tracks across the grass to the building to the right of the Streetview image linked to.

[nickoli]

Speed humps in rough cobbled streets are a Tower Hamlets specialty.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5037283 ... 312!8i6656

But they're real! We have proper imaginary speed humps in Stoke:

https://goo.gl/maps/uWcUwjjAQkT2

There's a mix of real and imaginary on this road, they've been in place for a while.

[trickstat]

Actually it does get used as a roundabout.

The overhead shot on Google Earth ( taken April last year ) shows tyre tracks across the grass to the building to the right of the Streetview image linked to.

And what looks like a white van parked in the front garden of a house!

[Owain]

Speed humps in rough cobbled streets are a Tower Hamlets specialty.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5037283 ... 312!8i6656

But they're real! We have proper imaginary speed humps in Stoke:

https://goo.gl/maps/uWcUwjjAQkT2

There's a mix of real and imaginary on this road, they've been in place for a while.

I discovered these fakes the other day.

[M5Lenzar]

Traffic calming should be outlawed completely. It just damages cars and punishes law abiding drivers.

No road should be given a speed limit below what it's safe to do 95% of the time.

[KeithW]

Traffic calming should be outlawed completely. It just damages cars and punishes law abiding drivers.

No road should be given a speed limit below what it's safe to do 95% of the time.

Try living in a village where rat runners drive past the school at 45 mph+ and you may change your mind. The people who lived there, including me, and who drove through every day had to pester the council for years to get traffic calming measures installed. Nothing else slowed the silly burghers down. Strangely people value their children's lives more than the rights of people to break the speed limit.

[Bryn666]

Traffic calming should be outlawed completely. It just damages cars and punishes law abiding drivers.

No road should be given a speed limit below what it's safe to do 95% of the time.

So what would you do to ensure compliance with speed limits then?

[M5Lenzar]

Try living in a village where rat runners drive past the school at 45 mph+ and you may change your mind. The people who lived there, including me, and who drove through every day had to pester the council for years to get traffic calming measures installed. Nothing else slowed the silly burghers down. Strangely people value their children's lives more than the rights of people to break the speed limit.

So you're quite proud with vandalising the road, presumably making parking harder for those who choose to drive their kids to school, and basically being a complete nuisance and un-necessary hazard because a few other idiots used speed at the wrong time?

[Bryn666]

"Vandalising" the road... er, you mean placing lawful features in accordance with the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, Road Hump Regulations 1996, and fulfilling the obligations of ensuring the safe passage of road users in accordance with the Traffic Management Act 2004?

Please provide me with evidence that traffic calming measures make roads more dangerous. Godfrey Bloom does not count as a credible source.

Also if you drive your children to school the statistically you're the hazard. My neice was hit by a car driver who's "right to park" outside the gates apparently outweighed her right to be on the footway. I've no sympathy for self-entitlement.

[KeithW]

Try living in a village where rat runners drive past the school at 45 mph+ and you may change your mind. The people who lived there, including me, and who drove through every day had to pester the council for years to get traffic calming measures installed. Nothing else slowed the silly burghers down. Strangely people value their children's lives more than the rights of people to break the speed limit.

So you're quite proud with vandalising the road, presumably making parking harder for those who choose to drive their kids to school, and basically being a complete nuisance and un-necessary hazard because a few other idiots used speed at the wrong time?

Well no. I made no mention of parents driving their kids to school or parking. Neither of those are affected by traffic calming measures such as those here.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.15334 ... authuser=0

The road was being used as a high speed rat run by commuters heading between Cambridge and the A1/A421 avoiding Caxton Gibbet and the Black Cat. They completely ignored the speed limits as well as the fact that the road ran past this school.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.15375 ... authuser=0

There were several serious accidents including one car that went straight through the tee junction with Stocks Lane and rammed into the side of a bus ! It was clear to everyone that unless the traffic was slowed down to something approaching legal limits a fatality was inevitable. Note that the limits are an eminently reasonable and well signed 30. The only place parking was restricted was the entrance to the school itself. In fact parents dropping their kids off at school were amongst the vocal supporters of the measures.

The traffic calming was needed as a minority of drivers ignored everything other than their own need for speed.

[Owain]

Try living in a village where rat runners drive past the school at 45 mph+ and you may change your mind. The people who lived there, including me, and who drove through every day had to pester the council for years to get traffic calming measures installed. Nothing else slowed the silly burghers down. Strangely people value their children's lives more than the rights of people to break the speed limit.

So you're quite proud with vandalising the road, presumably making parking harder for those who choose to drive their kids to school, and basically being a complete nuisance and un-necessary hazard because a few other idiots used speed at the wrong time?

I am not a fan of speed humps or double-yellow lines, but sometimes they perform an important role. At the end of my street is a wide, fairly busy suburban road, with a primary school on it.

The council have put double yellows down in an attempt to stop people parking all over the doorsteps of the place, but it is still a nightmare to drive through at dropping off/picking up time; I think it would only be worse if the lines weren't there, because most people do avoid parking on them.

As for the humps, there's a certain kind of driver who does anything up to 50mph on there when it's clear; goodness knows what speeds they'd be able to achieve without the humps.

Being a local resident, neither feature particularly bothers me. I have no desire to park where the lines are, and my cars are big enough to ride over the humps with ease, if I stick to 30mph, which is kind of the idea!

And the fact that I don't have children doesn't mean that I want other people's kids to get run over.

[nowster]

There's a road in a town centre near me where there's a bingo hall next to the road. There are double yellow lines and double yellow stripes on the kerbs. It's still clogged with parked cars of an evening because nobody bothers to enforce the prohibition.

[M5Lenzar]

Speed humps are never anything other than a nuisance. I wouldn't mind if they weren't a hazard at 30mph, but there are far too many that force you to drive at a speed significantly below the limit.

As for the moaning about rat running, perhaps consider why people do that. If the main road isn't doing its job properly, I don't blame people for finding another way around. You should be asking for improvements to that road, not vandalising the alternative.

The school that my son goes to manages with a few zig-zags and a puffin crossing. Never once heard of an accident there.

[Owain]

Speed humps are never anything other than a nuisance. I wouldn't mind if they weren't a hazard at 30mph, but there are far too many that force you to drive at a speed significantly below the limit.

I'd agree that some speed humps are much more of a nuisance than others!

For example, if you have a big comfortable car and are happy to cruise through a residential area at 30mph, then these humps shouldn't cause you any problem. However, if you have a chavved-up hot hatch - especially one with lowered suspension - then they will make sure you don't blast along that road at double the legal speed limit ... which would be possible, and which would surely happen, if they weren't there.

By contrast, this road used to have fierce humps built from bricks, with ridged edges! It was impossible to drive over them without pretty much stopping the car, and gently riding up and down them as though driving over a high kerb. Pedestrians also confused them with crossings, which they weren't! They were dreadful, but it seems that they've been replaced by smoothed-out versions since I lived in the area, which are surely more sensible.

The school that my son goes to manages with a few zig-zags and a puffin crossing. Never once heard of an accident there.

Maybe not, but these traffic-calming measures (which don't actually include humps) were some of the first of that kind that I ever saw. They were installed when I was a teenager, after the death of another local teenager on that stretch of road. It might be annoying that they regularly prevent people from being able to cruise along the road at a steady 30mph, but without them there would be nothing to prevent idiots doing 60+ along there.

I'm not sure that waiting until somebody dies before installing traffic-calming measures is the right policy.

[Alderpoint]

The council have put double yellows down in an attempt to stop people parking all over the doorsteps of the place, but it is still a nightmare to drive through at dropping off/picking up time; I think it would only be worse if the lines weren't there, because most people do avoid parking on them.

Putting double yellows down doesn't fix the problem - it just moves it further away from the school, and if that's too far then the lines will be ignored anyhow. Fundamentally if you want people to stop parking somewhere, you either need to provide somewhere convenient where they can park - or remove the need to drive in the first place by e.g. going back to everyone going to their local school and not having to drive half way across town.