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c2R wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 23:35
Such fatigue is well observed - if you've got yellow rumble strips on the approach to every roundabout, and yellow backed warnings on the approach to every junction, dangerous or not, then people will get used to them and they will be less effective where they're actually needed.
In my experience we don't have such an issue away from major roads.
Now here is an example with rumble strips on the A174. Here you have just travelled several miles on an NSL HQDC with grade separated junctions, furthermore you are descending a hill. I believe the rumble strips etc ARE justified here. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.56413 ... 8192?hl=en
The driver when straight across and into the wooded area where he couldn't be seen. They found his body in the wreckage a week later.
In my old stamping grounds in South Cambs.
A603/A1198 Roundabout, before it was built there was a flat junction which saw a lot of fatal and serious crashes - no rumble strips etc here. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.12256 ... 8192?hl=en
Now on the A428 at Caxton Gibbet they do have rumble strips but this is the end of a long run from Felixstowe to the A428/A1 where nary a junction at grade has been seen since Felixstowe. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.22915 ... 8192?hl=en
Go back in street view history and you can see that they used to be yellow along with the original red/orange raised bumps that were there prior to the yellow markings. The red/orange raised bumps on their own pre-date the street view history though.
This roundabout does follow a long run of uninterrupted dual carriageway on the A12 and then A120.
Nogger wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 13:03
Red version here. Any idea why?
For the same reason we have red lines instead of yellow lines at the side of roads and bus lanes variously painted red or green, ie if road users don't take enough notice let's try a different colour. Or am I being a cynic again?
Nogger wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 13:03
Red version here. Any idea why?
For the same reason we have red lines instead of yellow lines at the side of roads and bus lanes variously painted red or green, ie if road users don't take enough notice let's try a different colour. Or am I being a cynic again?
In the case of the Black Cat it has been redone so may times who knows what the thought process was but given its only there on the last 100m or so I wouldnt sweat it. The usual speed when I have gone through it has been closer to walking pace than the NSL and the approaches are well lit anyway.
Once you get into bus lane country thats the local Council anyway and I sometimes wonder if there is any logic other than we have 10,000 litres of <name your colour> paint left - lets use that.
The A41 West Brom Expressway has gained these rumble strips heading westbound towards the "Albion Roundabout" - nowhere near the football ground, it's the first roundabout west of the M5 junction. The strips start after a fraction over 1 mile of 50mph road, pretty much where the limit now drops to 40 when the slip from the A4031 junction joins.
Make poetry history.
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Big L wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 17:36
A different rumble-strip question : why do rumble strips in advance of, say a 30mph village speed limit or a sharp ben, extend across both sides of the road?
I've driven at the speed limit through a village, pass the NSL sign, start accelerating, then berdum berdum berdum berdum.
I've thought about this and one idea I've had is that, depending on the exact positioning, you should always be going at 30mph (or whatever) in both directions at that point. So it's as much to stop you speeding up too early on exit as it is to slow you down on entry.
In reality I assume it really comes from a fear that folk will swerve around them to avoid them like they often do with speed bumps.
There's a set of rumble strips on the A34 southbound coming into Stafford (Google Maps). The road has long not been NSL, having a 60 limit since the early 2000s by memory. Additionally, a traffic light junction has since been added near the roundabout along with a futher reduction to 50mph.
Since 2021, roadworks to expand the traffic light junction for a housing estate, and then install a roundabout further north, has resulted in temporary 40 and then 30 limits respectively.
Work has now started on the roundabout that the rumble strips lead up to, so there's no chance of the final limit being in place for another few years, but I expect the eventual permanent limit will probably be 40mph.
Which leads to the question... is there any rule that dictates the *removal* of rumble strips?
Big L wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 07:07
The A41 West Brom Expressway has gained these rumble strips heading westbound towards the "Albion Roundabout" - nowhere near the football ground, it's the first roundabout west of the M5 junction. The strips start after a fraction over 1 mile of 50mph road, pretty much where the limit now drops to 40 when the slip from the A4031 junction joins.
That's because the Stats19 shows a major problem with that approach. Drivers seem to be unable to deal with the fact there's a roundabout after the unparalleled luxury of 2 miles of uninterrupted A41 beforehand.
Bryn Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already. She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.
Exactly why the Kempe Stones Road gained the yellow transverse stripes in the 1990s.
It also gained the two early Reduce Speed Now signs, countdown markers (later double banked) and, on the roundabout itself, chevron boards made from marker posts. It also had the same style of chevron board at the deflection on the roundabout entrance, but if you continue down the hill you’ll see it’s been demolished.
Bear in mind that when the stripes were installed, the trees either side were a lot younger, only about 12 years old. Drivers could see the whole way to the roundabout to big signs saying “Ards Shopping Centre” in large friendly letters. The approach to the roundabout was lit with Thorn Alpha 8s. At night, you had a wonderful vista of every low pressure sodium light in Ards in front of you.
There were any number of cues that you were about to hit a built up area and needed to slow down before the bottom of the hill - everything but a speed buffer zone - but drivers are thick and still manage to create collisions by approaching that roundabout too fast.
TL;DR same as most things on our roads. Stupid drivers dictate rumble strips and other traffic calming.
deadly wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:05
Which leads to the question... is there any rule that dictates the *removal* of rumble strips?
Presumably when the reason for their existance to slow traffic ceases, for example the M90 (ex M9 spur) where it met the A8000 (now B800) roundabout, when the roundabout was removed and the motorway continued there was no reason for slowing, and therefore no reason for rumble strips.
A new type of rumble strip was tested locally to me (at the time) around 15 years ago, in the middle of a NSL dual carriageway. I recall them being much louder than the traditional rumble strips (possibly because they were closer together) but they eventually got removed and I've never seen them used anywhere else.
The A64 Eastbound used to have these rumble strips well before the Hopgrove roundabout, these were removed when the traffic signals were added as apparently a roundabout with traffic signals cannot have these rumble strips on approach.
NICK 647063 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 21:38
The A64 Eastbound used to have these rumble strips well before the Hopgrove roundabout, these were removed when the traffic signals were added as apparently a roundabout with traffic signals cannot have these rumble strips on approach.
This slip road begs to differ! Although the traffic lights are part time and just because it has them doesn't necessarily make it right.
Jonathan24 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 00:26 This slip road begs to differ! Although the traffic lights are part time and just because it has them doesn't necessarily make it right.
M62 J7 and J9 has them on the off slips, as does M62 J6 on the M57 off slip. It's pushing my memory a bit for J9 so I'm not 100% sure if they were, but I remember J6 and J7 being part time, though they've been full time for a long time now.
The M58 approach to M6 J26 had them, but they were removed when the signals were installed. They're almost inverted as a result of burning them off, so you still get a bit of the rumble effect from them even though they're gone.
AndyB wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 13:48
Exactly why the Kempe Stones Road gained the yellow transverse stripes in the 1990s.
It also gained the two early Reduce Speed Now signs, countdown markers (later double banked) and, on the roundabout itself, chevron boards made from marker posts. It also had the same style of chevron board at the deflection on the roundabout entrance, but if you continue down the hill you’ll see it’s been demolished.
Bear in mind that when the stripes were installed, the trees either side were a lot younger, only about 12 years old. Drivers could see the whole way to the roundabout to big signs saying “Ards Shopping Centre” in large friendly letters. The approach to the roundabout was lit with Thorn Alpha 8s. At night, you had a wonderful vista of every low pressure sodium light in Ards in front of you.
There were any number of cues that you were about to hit a built up area and needed to slow down before the bottom of the hill - everything but a speed buffer zone - but drivers are thick and still manage to create collisions by approaching that roundabout too fast.
TL;DR same as most things on our roads. Stupid drivers dictate rumble strips and other traffic calming.
Way back in the mid-80s we had a Police officer visit our school for a 'Safe Roads' talk. You know the spiel - Green Cross Code, wait for cars to stop for you, walk your bike over the road etc.
At the end he talked of driver tiredness and admitted even he had fallen asleep while driving at night. That was why there were tyre tracks over a roundabout in Harlow!
AndyB wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 13:48
Exactly why the Kempe Stones Road gained the yellow transverse stripes in the 1990s.
It also gained the two early Reduce Speed Now signs, countdown markers (later double banked) and, on the roundabout itself, chevron boards made from marker posts. It also had the same style of chevron board at the deflection on the roundabout entrance, but if you continue down the hill you’ll see it’s been demolished.
Bear in mind that when the stripes were installed, the trees either side were a lot younger, only about 12 years old. Drivers could see the whole way to the roundabout to big signs saying “Ards Shopping Centre” in large friendly letters. The approach to the roundabout was lit with Thorn Alpha 8s. At night, you had a wonderful vista of every low pressure sodium light in Ards in front of you.
There were any number of cues that you were about to hit a built up area and needed to slow down before the bottom of the hill - everything but a speed buffer zone - but drivers are thick and still manage to create collisions by approaching that roundabout too fast.
TL;DR same as most things on our roads. Stupid drivers dictate rumble strips and other traffic calming.
I can't find photo evidence but I'm pretty sure the Kempe Stones Road rumble strips were in place in the 1980s, we used to go to Ards for Martin Philips carpets and I remember the noise of the rumble strips approaching the roundabout. IIRC they were also in an advert (shopping centre, local insurance, or PSA?).
Junction 19 of the M60 has these yellow rumble strips, I do wonder if these are a left over from when the M66 used to terminate here before the M60 opened.
