Bangor speed ramps .....

IvanOpinion

Is anybody else cheesed off about the speed ramps along Silverbirch, Ashbury, Bexley etc. in Bangor. I have to go over 26 ramps a day to get to/from my house ... what the heck was road services / DOE / whoever thinking about .... was there a buy one get 10 free competition on at the time. Maybe somebody got paid a back hander for each ramp purchased. Not only that I notice many of the new signs saying that there are ramps are back to front (e.g. Cranley and Perry).

I reckon it is only a matter of time before these things cause an accident (particularly along Bexley where they have narrowed the road so much that lorries come onto the wrong side. Not forgetting those drivers who accelerate hard between the ramps and then jam on the brakes just before the next one.

I know it is meant to slow the traffic down outside of the schools but for goodness sake put the ramps at the schools - not start them a mile in any direction. Better still take the school run off the roads - that would greatly reduce the number of cars in the area. All the ramps have done is vastly increase the amount of pollution around the schools as people accelerate over them - you can really smell and taste it in the air if you are walking.

Ivan

jnd

My parents and brother live in that area as well. Personally I think it has devalued the area especially where they've put those posts at the sides of the ramps to stop you driving around them.

What I don't understand was why the ramps weren't made to span the road footpath to footpath? A motorbike can still fly up the middle between them and in my wife's polo I can get through the middle as well barely glancing each one. I see lorries can straddle them altogether.

I hear they are to do the same along Pinehill and Ballycrochan Roads.

pud1

although i dont live in that part of the country i can sympathise with your frustration with speed bumps.In the part of manchester i live in every road on an estate near me has speed bumps on it and believe me thats a lot of speed humps.one thing that i always think of when going over them is have they caused the loss of more lives than they have saved as fire engines and especially ambulances must have to slow down when they have to attend an emergency.

leftieM

The road where I live is used as a 'rat run' by people avoiding Finaghy crossroads in Belfast. This morning some kind of fancy car was roaring past our house at 40+mph. It would be great if his fancy motor got the underneath taken off it with a speed ramp!
I already phoned the council about getting some near us but the person I spoke to indicated that they put them up after accidents happen (horrible to think someone may have to be sacrificed but I suppose they have limited budgets and the danger of accidents isn't enough).
We should have anticipated the problem before we bought our house I suppose but because our house was in a residential area we just never thought. The thing is, it's not the people who live there that speed, it's the people coming from Finaghy Road South onto the Lisburn Road. My only evidence of this is that it tends to be the more expensive cars that really put the boot to the floor.
I know the days of kids playing on the street are over and traffic volume is a reality but I think that, if people cannot be trusted to drive at or below the speed limit then unpleasant measures have to be accepted by all of us to force speeders to slow down.

scandarahar

leftieM wrote:

The road where I live is used as a 'rat run' by people avoiding Finaghy crossroads in Belfast. This morning some kind of fancy car was roaring past our house at 40+mph. It would be great if his fancy motor got the underneath taken off it with a speed ramp!
QUOTE]

Have you thought about asking the local Constabulary to do anything about this? They seem to have a fixation with speeders these days and I'm sure the thought of issuing a few tickets here will interest them.

IvanOpinion

leftieM wrote:

The road where I live is used as a 'rat run' by people avoiding Finaghy crossroads in Belfast. This morning some kind of fancy car was roaring past our house at 40+mph. It would be great if his fancy motor got the underneath taken off it with a speed ramp!

Be careful what you wish for, given the intelligence of our lot over here you might get ramps the whole way down the road ... and then you will be complaining that you have to travel at 20 mph everywhere

ivan

BigAl94

Totally agree Ivanopinion - although as I drive a Citroen with pneumatic suspension I just give it the gun and drive down the middle so it makes little difference!!!! Seriously, they do totally spoil the area and increase noise and pollution dramatically. I take it the residents were informed of the scheme - it only takes one objection and DoE Roads Service cannot implement a traffic calming scheme. This was proven on Ballycrochan Road, there were various plans advised to residents including ramps, "pinch points" etc and due to the level of objections, they held a public meeting which turned "nasty" as they had no facts and figures to back up their argument that the road was an accident black spot (which it isn't). A local MP had let it slip to me that complaints had been received about the number of cats being run over!! The DoE admitted if they received one complaint, they couldn't proceed so we eventually ended up with just the hatching which is there now. Have the ramps cut down the volume of traffic? I would say that it would deter me from cutting through Robinson Road/Pinehill from the ring road. I think an enforced low speed limit of 15 or 20 mph in the vicinity of schools would be good but the biggest menace is all those parents picking up their offspring and blocking the place solid!!!!

Jon_C

There are several problems with putting the onus on police.

The main one is that despite the stories of drivers being prosecuted for breaking the speed limit by 1 mph etc, the vast majority of the time what happens is that police do not stop speeding drivers unless they are breaking the limit by 10 mph or more.

The second is that, contrary to popular opinion, police ARE usually out trying to do precisely what the public most frequently ask them to do - catch 'real criminals' (and not ordinary criminals like drivers who routinely exceed the 30 mph limit for built-up areas by 5-10 mph). In other words, they just don't have the resources to do as much roads policing as they might want to.

I don't want to get into politics but bear in mind that the number of police officers in Northern Ireland has been radically reduced under the Patten reforms.

I'm sure most people would agree that the reforms were necessary in the interests of building confidence etc but the fact is that police resources are insufficient and district command units must prioritise what needs to be addressed in their areas.

They do this in conjunction with district policing partnerships. I would recommend that anyone with concerns about crime of any kind in their area get in touch with community police officers and/or members of their area's partnership.

I would say that in Bangor the bulk of police work is tied up in dealing with burglaries, car thefts, domestic violence and paramilitary activity including drug dealing.

I would suggest that these are the main reasons that speed bumps are laid down instead, as a one-off labour/financial outlay that reduces the need for police to have to tackle speeding drivers in that area.

There are speed bumps in my street in south Belfast and I have no problem with them. I would consider it a waste of resources if I saw a police officer with a speed camera on my street, whereas there are longer stretches of road nearby where it would be more appropriate because of the impracticality of putting down ramps and the high speeds of drivers. If we're backing police with speed cameras all of a sudden, let's prioritise and have some on the A2 which is a death trap.

The road mentioned in Bangor is indeed a rat-run so obviously that's why the Roads Service has put the bumps there. I don't want my car to get damaged so the ramps have clearly worked in reminding me when I'm going too fast. I would say that on balance, in terms of safety in such a built-up area, the ramps are a good thing, although I'd agree that perhaps they didn't need quite so many.

What astounds me is the number of parents who live in the immediate area of the schools there but who insist on clogging up the road with their cars and 4x4s. Sheer laziness and lack of common sense.

Rant over. I hope I haven't offended anyone. Thanks to Ivan for raising the bumps (issue). It's an interesting one indeed and you talk a lot of sense.

BigAl94

1 mph -no - 3 to 4 mph yes. You are entitled to your opinion but doubt if many in the North Down easy revenue raising area would agree. (Think I have guessed your occupation!)

Jon_C

(a) You have guessed wrongly. I have just listened to the points of view of other people I have spoken to (you might have guessed their occupation, though!) and passed on the pertinent aspects for your consideration here. By all means PM me if you'd like to know what I do for a living but believe me, it is a lot more mundane than policing, otherwise I would have more exciting things to do with my time than post overly long messages on forums like this at all hours of the day and night!

(b) Think about how many times you have been in a car that was speeding (whether you were the driver or passenger) and the police stopped you.

Now consider that as a fraction of the times you have been in a car that was speeding but wasn't stopped.

Now consider how many vehicles the police observe speeding but do not stop. I'd say 90 per cent of the last category are doing less than 10 mph over the limit, so the police let it go. As I said earlier, the police have priorities - and drivers exceeding the limit by more than 10 mph are a higher priority than the less serious offenders for obvious reasons (as well as the paperwork).

All I'm saying is that you are more likely to hear people make a big deal about getting done for being 'only one or two mph over the limit' because somehow they think it's unfair that they are punished for it.

Remember that car speedometers are generally inaccurate, allowing the driver a little leeway (apart from Roads Policing patrol vehicles which are calibrated), so if someone is officially prosecuted for driving at 31 mph, then the chances are, their speedometer reading was probably a fair bit higher and they really should have noticed their apparent high speed over the limit. Maybe I haven't explained this as simply as someone else might be able to, but I hope you see my point.

I should point out that I am talking about police officers with speed guns, not fixed Gatso cameras which obviously don't have discretion built in!

Simpson

I do live in the area mentioned

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And I can assure any of you who do not

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have speed bumps in your area

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that they really can be quite anoying

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It's not so much the bumps themselves

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that are so anoying, it's the frequency

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of them and the way some drivers

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seem to panic when they see one.

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I'm told that the design is to allow busses through without being affected.