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"New 30mph limit on the A40 Westway is dangerously slow" blog discussion
Comments
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Another word for donnkey is not a swear word. What's going on!0
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My goodness this is slow!:eek:
It is only 30 till the White City roundabout however the 40 towards Acton as it is no longer a flyover.
I wonder why they did this, probably because of accidents, but then why not reduce other roads such as the A13 when it enters London and has cycle lanes running parallel to it as well as being at street level and not a flyover to 30? :think:If freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will have freedom.0 -
Alfmuttley wrote: »I'm a 'new' user so can't post links but if you go to all the w's hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1938/jun/27/west-way-speed-limit
You'll see that 30mph was considered too slow in 1937. Progress?
The elevated road was built in 1964.0 -
Hmm bizarre. I wonder if they hold a TRO (Traffic Regulation Order) or temporary one to enforce it. I suspect it is a temporary TRO given speed it came in and relative lack of notice. Someone should ask TfL and see what they say!0
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MSE_Martin wrote: »The law is a codification to help us, to make things safer, to help the country run smoothly. If it is not doing the job or we cannot see that it is - then questioning it is fine.
I am not advocating people breaking the law, but whether the particular rule should change. In this case actually the road has no junctions for four kilometers, and then later stays a three lane dual carriageway for a good distance. There are no pedestrian crossings at all.
Again I may note part of my problem is this hasn't been communicated or explained. There haven't even been (as far as I've seen) any "Speed limit change" announcements on the road.
If this will save lives then wonderful, and I will go with the evidence, yet the evidence is not being communicated well enough (if it exists)
From what I can see the problem is actually you - well not you personally, but other scooter and motorbike drivers killing themselves on a regular basis, even without junctions and pedestrian crossings it's evidently dangerous.
"
An 'exceptional' jazz musician who played in the house band at Ronnie Scott's has been named as the victim of a fatal scooter accident on the Westway this morning.
Chris Dagley, who was just 38, was killed instantly when he lost control on the A40 near Wood Lane at around 4am.
It is thought Mr Dagley was heading eastbound towards central London when the accident happened. No other vehicles are believed to have been involved"
"On 24th April 2009 at around 17:20 police were called to the A40 Westway elevated section where a collision had occurred.
It appears that a male, Mr Dimitrijus Usas aged 32 from Isleworth, was riding a Suzuki GSXR1000 motor bike when it collided with the central reservation barrier on the west bound elevated section above Westbourne Park Tube station.
He was pronounced dead at the scene at 17.38
A Post Mortem examination carried out at Westminster Mortuary gave cause of death as multiple injuries and next of kin have been informed."
"Police have issued an appeal for witnesses to the death of an Ealing man on the Westway last week.
They were called at about 16:20 on 22nd April to reports of a collision on the elevated section of the A40 Westbound, W2, after a red and white Yamaha motorcycle was in collison with the central reservation.
The motorcycle rider died at the scene.
Next of kin have been informed and he has has been formally identified as 41-year-old Mohamad El-Sayede Ahmad, from Ealing.
A post mortem held at Westminster Public Mortuary on 24/4/09 gave the cause of death as multiple injuries."
More accident reports
http://londonbikers.com/forums/Topic568879-38-1.aspx
http://londonbikers.com/forums/Topic556107-38-1.aspx0 -
As for variable speed limit areas, these are expensive. When we can't even afford to fix all the potholes, putting all the infrastructure in for one of these on a short stretch of dual carriageway would be madness.
Expensive.... can't even afford....:rotfl: We have 80-90% of the cost of fuel is tax, congestion charge, then there is the tax disk too.
Apparently the yearly country maintenance cost is around 2.8 billion, but some indevidual councils do fork out around 50 million a year due to damages caused by potholes. Want to claim, read here http://www.potholes.co.uk
"In view of the huge disparity between revenue from Road Tax & Fuel duty (£30.2 billion total 2008/9) and Road Transport spending & Social Carbon cost (£12.3 billion, 2008/9), £17.9 billion in missing revenue." Er, where exactly does this 'social carbon cost' fund money go to, and how exactly is it used to clean air - a big dome to stop chinese/usa pollution from blowing across out green and pleasant land?
All taken into account, the money that goes back into roads is about 15% (some say 12%) of the spending.
Go on, tell me gain there is a shortfall in cash, and that we should be milked even further, especially when the speed cameras also rake 87M a year and have an extremely low in increasing road safety?
I do remember when the majority of this road was 70 and had two lanes and it was not that long ago eitherhelp / hide help0 -
Martin is right to raise this. It's a shambles. I've been trying to raise this with TfL, but they don't seem to understand the problem with what they are doing. Apparently some work is needed on some of the joints in the viaduct. I'm not sure whether they want to impose a 30mph limit because of bumps in the road or because of temporary lane restrictions or to make it safer for workers on the carriageway. But without proper notice and proper signage, they are just making the road more dangerous.
This is an unlit dual carriageway, previously subject to 50mph, but they have covered up all (well, nearly all) of the 50mph repeater signs. When I last drove along it (Tuesday 22 Feb) the westbound carriageway had 30mph markings on the road surface but legally these are only "reminders" and there are no 30mph vertical signs. That means that the only enforceable limit is 70mph. Some drivers will obey the 30mph markings, some will assume it's still 50, and some will see no signs and drive at the national limit of 70. That is positively dangerous!
On the eastbound carriageway, there were a couple of temporary 30mph signs, both on the nearside hard shoulder, totally inadequate for a 3-lane carriageway, and nothing else for the next 2 miles. Even if they get the signage right, the limit won't get obeyed unless they make some attempt to justify it.0 -
I don't know the road, so can't comment on how appropriate the speed limit might be. But I'm afraid some of Martin's post does come across as the 'bad driver's mantra'.it’s virtually impossible to stick to the speed limitif I go 30mph everyone is on my tailor beeping dangerously0
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Speaking of harsh braking...
There was a road I drove down often where it used to be a 50 limit, followed by a 40 limit (fwiw these limits both felt correct to me). Just before the 40 limit, there were three signs warning you about the limit change at 300 yards, 200 yards and 100 yards. The road was a little bit curvy, so this made some sense.
One day I drove down there and those three signs had gone. Did the 40 limit change to 50? Nope. It had changed to 30, and instead of altering or replacing the advanced warning signs, they removed them. Cue everyone harshly braking for the next few months.
1. Why warn for a 10mph drop and not a 20mph drop?
2. Is it really easier to *remove* three signs than to replace the 4s with 3s? I don't believe it.
3. The same road also had an electronic smiley/sad face speed limit sign put up, only taken down less than three weeks later. They clearly have money and time to waste, so why not use it to replace those three signs?
4. Couldn't this arguably make the road LESS safe? I'm not excusing inattentive drivers, but it's a lot easier to miss that single 30 sign as opposed to FOUR 40 signs - three of which were large and yellow bordered. It's a fairly wide road, I bet some people go up it at 50mph now.0 -
Biggles, did you actually think for a few minutes before posting above?
When a person is trying hard to "pay attention" in order to keep to the 30 mph speed limit, with idiots driving on your tail because they want to break the law, it is very hard to drive safely. This is for fear that the idiot behind you will crash into you in the event that you have to brake suddenly.
With the heightened stress caused by this anti-social driving, a horn "beeped" from behind can be dangerous due to the fact that proper use of the horn is meant to be only for warning other road users of hazards. Consequently a sudden "beep" of the horn from behind can cause a driver to jump and make an error. I think that could certainly be a "dangerous beep"0
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