Need to make a dangerous road safer - how??

alastairq

Badly designed roads can and do cause thousands of accidents every single year.

That's a bit of a simplistic one-liner as well?

With any road or junction, the information is there, for all to see.

The problem is, what drivers or road users do with that information.

The one person drivers refuse to blame for incidents, are themselves.

All that so-called 'accident black-spots' do is hilite general weaknesses in driver attitudes, and hence, skills.

Everyone complains about a 'nanny state'.....yet few drivers genuinely take responsibility for events themselves.

So, it is easy to lay blame on Highway Engineers[who make a very nice living out of 'getting-the-blame' from road users?]....other drivers, speed cameras, police, dustmen, you name it.

Problems arise when drivers actually have to 'work' at driving.

They really want everything done for them.

Lum

Can I just say OP. Thank you for actually taking the time to look at the real problem and complain about poor junction layout rather than doing what most people do and blaming everything on speed.

If you can't post a link, maybe take a screenshot and upload it to imgur.com and then it will give you some tags you can use to post the screenshot.

alastairq wrote: »

Problems arise when drivers actually have to 'work' at driving.

They really want everything done for them.

What, you mean like having little signs all over the place telling them how fast to go, rather than looking at the roads themselves.

Signs that have to be set to the lowest common denominator, and still fail to address adverse conditions, such as fog, heavy rain, diesel or snow.

Needs to be less emphasis on "stick to this number and you'll be fine no need to worry about anything else" and more on actually teaching people to drive and to maintain their skills.

In the meantime, sorting out this junction might prevent a Vauxhall Corsa from ending up in the OPs living room.

alastairq

In the meantime, sorting out this junction might prevent a Vauxhall Corsa from ending up in the OPs living room.

will it though?

regarding 'teaching people to drive?'

Another of Strider's one liner's?

To which might be added 'one can lead a horse to water, but one cannot make them drink'?


Bearing in mind, one can no longer nip round the back with two half bricks.....

Strider590

alastairq wrote: »

With any road or junction, the information is there, for all to see.

You must have great roads where you live.....

Some of the road junctions around here are pure "leap of faith" situations and I can think of countless misleading road signs.

Lum

^^ very true. there's quite a few junctions where I need to stick my bonnet about 4 feet into the road before I can see far enough past the overgrown hedge to see if it's safe to enter the road. I tend to turn my lights on and creep foward with my head craned over the steering wheel, and if approaching from the "major" road I slow and keep an eye on that concealed entrance for other cars coming out.

Other common approaches are:

Barrel down the main road ignoring the concealed entrance
Approach from the minor road, stop at the stop line, stare blankly at the hedge for half a second then pull out without looking
Approach from the minor road at a rate of knots and stop 4 feet over the stopline, then look.
Approach from the minor road and just barrel through without stopping at all.

Solution: Cut the damn hedge!

Road in question is a T junction on a single track NSL road, and a popular shortcut for commuters.

alastairq wrote: »

will it though?

regarding 'teaching people to drive?'

Another of Strider's one liner's?

To which might be added 'one can lead a horse to water, but one cannot make them drink'?

So what is your solution to the OPs problem? speed limits, engineering works? better signage? education? traffic calming? more enforcement?

What would you have the OP do, given the OP is not the one who is using this junction in a dangerous manner. Yes people should take responsibly and drive carefully (another one liner?) but the problem here is that some people are not doing so.

Short of putting up some massive bollards to catch Barry's Corsa before it destroys his lawn and living room wall, all the OP can really do is bug the council or politicians for one or more of the above measures.

alastairq

see post #3??

Horseunderwater

Email local council re hedge being overgrown. They will go and see it and send enforcement letter to owner if it's not highway and force it to be trimmed. I have done that many times and had results every time.

alastairq

Email local council re hedge being overgrown. They will go and see it and send enforcement letter to owner if it's not highway and force it to be trimmed. I have done that many times and had results every time.

In addition, if it is in a 'rural' area, the Highways Authority may decide to cut back foliage and bill the adjacent landowner.

[As a rural dweller, with a property frontage onto a public road, I was 'compelled' to also dig out the ditches along the boundaries of my property.....you think mowing the lawn's a chore???]

giraffe69

JollyHappy wrote: »

I have contacted our local councillor & he said he's had the same concerns for a number of years, so is hoping to get a site visit organised with the local highways department

Not much of a councillor if he has had the same concern for years and done nothing until you contacted him. I'd ask him to let you know when he has got the Highways Department to do a site visit and then nag him about the result of that visit.
Sounds as if he has a large majority!

Mrs_Arcanum

JollyHappy wrote: »

It won't let me post a link to Google maps.

I have contacted our local councillor & he said he's had the same concerns for a number of years, so is hoping to get a site visit organised with the local highways department

Think you only need a couple more posts & you will be able to do a link.