[Closed] Council highways incompetence rant

You're a resourceful fellow. Just knock up a fake Gatso 🙂

Hold on, the picture is taken from the village boundary looking outwards yes ?

WTF is the SLOW bit doing on the way out when 10m further up there's a national speed limit sign

I believe that is the OP's peeve. They've managed to cock up their half assed measure.

Hold on, the picture is taken from the village boundary looking outwards yes ?

WTF is the SLOW bit doing on the way out when 10m further up there's a national speed limit sign* 🙂

* I sense this is part of your rant rationale.

That's quite a cock-up, though, huh!

Fake Gatso, as above.

Or snipers.

Just knock up a fake Gatso

You jest, but Im looking into rigging a raspberry pie up to some kind of distance measurer and an LED board with rude wording. Or Claymores.

You jest, but Im looking into rigging a raspberry pie up to some kind of distance measurer and an LED board with rude wording.

Honestly, I'm being kind of serious. A friend with a similar issue to you, and having the right trade connections, erected some enforcement camera signs up. Looked 100% legit. On his reckoning it was quite effective initially, but as regulars realised there wasn't any speed cameras the speeds crept up again. I think the local council cottoned on and removed them, tho.

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I can see the problem.

Relocate to Croydon - I think you'll find that traffic moves much slower.

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Put some of these up

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Allthepies, that is hilarious!

The Castlemorton drag strip?

Usual case of Nothing will get done until someone gets killed.
Dig some nice size pot holes just as you enter the 30 zone.

We petitioned the council to make the road through our village a 20 limit.
They told us that it was too hard (requires multiple signs on every adjoining road and repeater signs throughout the village apparently) so we got an advisory 20 instead.

We also asked for traffic calming or a crossing at the middle of the village because children regularly cross there between the shops and the park. We were told that the sight lines weren't good enough to put a crossing there - drivers approaching quickly wouldn't get enough warning. Yes, that's kind of why we wanted the crossing you useless jobsworths! 😕

[quote=piedi di formaggio ]Put some of these up

It's the Malverns

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Well if you will live in the Midlands, what do you expect?

Scarecrow and luminous jacket to move around each day?

Our council are brilliant, theyv'e just surface dressed all the streets round here even though the roads were perfect (preventative measures I've been told) But when I go to work, the last 1/4 mile is like negotiating a rallycross course.

Yeah we had someone do the old "scarecrow in a high viz jacket holding a hairdryer" for our annual scarecrow competition one year. It worked surprisingly well 😀

Went backwards through a hedge in a mini many moons ago in Welland. If you want quick, try Hanley Straight down past the 3 Counties - ruined by a set of traffic lights half down now. The police used to close it and let the local motor cycle club do timed runs down it on Sunday mornings - my old man used to do it - talking early 60s.

Get a dumpy bag of track ballast delivered to the side of the road and fling a shovelful across the road every morning - Its well known that the risk of getting a puncture or dented paperwork seems to carry a far greater deterrent to speeding than inconsequential things like dead kids might.

Village life in the Stoner Hamlet next weekend

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More like this, Cheesy.

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The SLOW marking is in the right place.

It's to tell you to slow down before you get to the starting line of the Castlemorton drag strip.

The red high-friction surfacing is to ensure good traction off the line. They must be coming back tomorrow to erect the sign telling you how fast you're going at the other end.

I have no problems with the drivers racing southbound out of the village. The [s]racetrack[/s] rural road ends with a blind corner usually with a flock of sheep round the other side.

I like the way you're thinking Ernie, but the walk to school would take a few weeks for Stoner JrJr: he's only 5.

Sadly what @cloudnine says. OK for councils to spend £100'000s putting gravel all over quality riding bridleways but they can't manage simple traffic calming in an obviously high risk spot. You can raise the money for your own proper speed camera but I appreciate that may not be feasible, you are entitled to site it just after the 30mph sign too. You could park a van/car on the road with a sign on the back saying Slow Down. Children

I've always held the position that the reason cycle infrastructure is so poorly planned and executed is because there doesn't seem to be the same level of regulation, qualification or expectation of competence levelled at cycle route planning as their is for highway design and management. That a motorway slip road couldn't be designed with the same level of incompetence as a cycle lane through a bus stop.

Turns out I wrong.

Get your crayons out and draft up your own 'Motorists Dismount' signs 🙂

I tend to find double parking does the job on our street, which can be used as a bit of a cut through. Get a couple of old rovers parked up as a chicane

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Relocate to Croydon - I think you'll find that traffic moves much slower.

If at all. 😛

Have you tried the local roads policing unit? Ours is very active on Twitter reporting their successes. Focused effort and some PR on the back?

If its a long running issue?

Oh yes.
And the local rozzers have declared the last month to be Operation Dolphin Month! Across the half the county no less!

MORE than 100 people have been stopped by police for driving offences since the start of a crackdown on speeding.

Most of the drivers stopped by police have been advised about their driving while [b]25[/b] tickets have been issued to drivers since the start of Operation Dolphin.

25% criminals get punished. I like those odds. Now where's my jemmy, swag bag and stockings? Go enforcement!

But they havent bothered to come to our village, naturally.

But SaferRoadsPartnership with Mercia Police have decided that we can have the speed camera van 6 times a month. That's 6x 1 hour sessions a month, 1km further down the road from where that photo was taken.

Is there an accident problem there or is it perception of danger? Both are valid reasons for wanting traffic calming but often money is funnelled to where there is a need... Don't shoot the messenger just asking .... 🙂

Total spending by Worcestershire council down from £744m in 2010 to £602m in 2014

http://ig.ft.com/sites/2015/local-cuts-checker/#E10000034ZZE10000034

Welcome to Torytopia !

Accidents rare although there have been some. Liklihood is low, but due to speed and narrow road/pavement the harm would be substantial. I walk on the roadside of the pavement, the boys away from the kerb, and cars pass me within 2ft at c. 60mph. It's seriously unnerving.

Paradoxically it feels safer when we cycle. The boys in secondary and me in primary pretty much all the way over to the centre line. That slows them up.

Park 2 scrap cars in the road making a chicane.

are any of the accidents related due to design of the road or speed? If so that's a way in, as is getting councilors or your MP on your side . You probably know that though . I haven't worked in highways in England for five years now but money was very tight back then so can only imagine it's worse now.

For example a basic toucan crossings used to cost up to 120k .Councils can't justify that if there isn't an accident problem . It's rough but....

Total spending by Worcestershire council down from £744m in 2010 to £602m in 2014

http://ig.ft.com/sites/2015/local-cuts-checker/#E10000034ZZE10000034

Welcome to Torytopia !

The lamest excuse is that traffic calming can't be installed if there is no Street lighting. That's patently bollox as there's plenty of examples to the contrary around the county let alone the country. We just want something physically imposing as you enter the village so that speeding is not an option. Tank traps would be ideal.

GrahamS - Member
We petitioned the council to make the road through our village a 20 limit.
They told us that it was too hard (requires multiple signs on every adjoining road and repeater signs throughout the village apparently) so we got an advisory 20 instead.

I think I'm right in saying that the requirement for repeater signs has just been removed from the update to DFT Guidance on road signs, so lack of cash for signs is no longer an excuse for implementing 20mph zone

The police don't enforce mandatory 20 mph limits. I mean they don't enforce any limits round this way, but their express policy is to not enforce 20.

The police don't enforce mandatory 20 mph limits.

Accidents rare although there have been some.

Is probably the reason then. It's difficult to justify spending money on road safety in places where it's already reasonably safe. Especially for cash strapped councils who will have to justify it to people who live nearby less safe roads.

What about those "one lane passing" calming things....

There are loads in Hampshire, the New Forest has them all over the place...

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Club together, buy clapped out transit, quick paint job and job's a good-un.

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In my old village, someone at the far end entered a 'policeman holding speed camera' scarecrow. Worked very well until someone nicked it.

op - That is funny and yes on par for Worcester council highways considering the island at jn7.

Have you seen bosbury from the Ledbury side recently? They (the parish council) I presume have put nice decorative white "welcome" gates ahead of th 30mph village boundary which really seem to emphasise the need to slow down. Might be worth mentioning to your PC.

Bb, that's the kind of thing we could do with but been told not allowed as needs Street lighting,and obviously no one wants to urbanise a rural village. And won't somebody think of the bats?!?

Pedlad, they've put picket gates on the other three main roads into the village (I don't believe they achieve a great deal personally) but the conservators (lovely people) have vetoed their erection on the south side of the village that boarders the common.

Stoner, don't back down.

Go get a petition started and hassle the Council, maybe local bbc radio too??

Thinking laterally for a moment (it's ok, I've had a couple of coffees so I won't do any permanent damage)...

Without looking at the rules and regs of how you get these things done, is it worth looking at [i]who[/i] does the speeding in the first place? Given how far you are from civilisation (and no, Malvern City doesn't count), is it likely that the offenders are from a given pool of drivers that use the road regularly. IME it's people that know a road well, but are only using it to transit from A to C and couldn't care less about who's impacted in B, are most likely to speed. I realise I'm in an urban environment, but you know my road. It's pretty much the same few dozen cars that speed down it regularly. They're using it to get to the long perpendicular road at the bottom which leads to a whole other chunk of Bris and aren't bothered about children's faces on my road. They know they need to crest that point where you can see the bottom or top so they then have right of way to proceed against any car turning into the road. It's ****ing annoying to see the same cars do it. I'm tempted to buy a child sized mannequin and chuck it out in front of one of them one day. I'd just be worried that they'd skid and smash into a neighbour's car. 🙂

So while some traffic calming measures might work in he short term, as the speeders get used to them, the average speed creeps back up again. Traffic calming might just be a new challenge for them! Out of interest, have you looked into how much it would cost to get one of those boxes that detect speeds and numbers (y'know, the things with the two wires across the road) so you can measure the problem? Surely you could squeeze a few quid out of the PC for one of those in the interim?

Love the vids on this post.

Bikebouy, your traffic calming thing is missing the cyclist lane. In our local town the traffic calming things used to have and cut through for cyclists but the latest ones don't. 🙁

have you looked into how much it would cost to get one of those boxes that detect speeds and numbers (y'know, the things with the two wires* across the road) so you can measure the problem? Surely you could squeeze a few quid out of the PC for one of those in the interim?

The road safety partnership (or whoever) install them when they get a threshold of complaints about speed, the intention being to see if it's worth putting a camera there.

So get more people to complain until they hit the threshold.

*they're actually rubber tubes, the car puts pressure on them, which the sensor then reads.

I quite like the idea of a stealth camper with speed camera signs on it, could park in any layby and no one would bother!

they're actually rubber tubes

Yeah, I realise that, but thanks anyway. 🙂

Put on a high vis and point a hairdryer at cars entering the village. Works particularly well if you stand on an off-camber bend; see how many you can collect in the ditch at the side of the road.

Fake speed camera, wait till drivers get used to it and then convince plod to site their camera van around the corner. Or get run over and killed, which seems to be the only way to convince councils to put in traffic calming measures.

Or get run over and killed, which seems to be the only way to convince councils to put in traffic calming measures.

This. 😐

Our lad's pre-school is right on the edge of an industrial estate - there is a 20 limit, which is pretty much ignored. In fact, if it was 30, it'd be still pretty much ignored. It's a pretty unpleasant journey to try and make by bike or foot. When we questioned the head as to why there is no zebra or pelican crossing by the school, he said they'd repeatedly asked for one but as noone had been hurt, the council wouldn't put one in.

I'm all for an evidence based approach, but it seems that motorists mustn't be inconvenienced in order to make it easier or more pleasant to walk or bike your child to school. 😡

That is genius.

Near mine, there's a spot where the NSL zone inexplicably starts immediately before 2 sweepy blind corners, it's been an accident blackspot as long as I've been here. There's been lots of attempts to get the NSL moved just past those corners- literally 20-30 metres- and always knocked back.

So some resourceful feller dug up the signs, moved them round the corner, and concreted them back in.

I mean they don't enforce any limits round this way,

Not entirely true, a Lord got flashed, banned for six months and given a £600 fine for 52mph through there.

deadlydarcy - Member
...I'm tempted to buy a child sized mannequin and chuck it out in front of one of them one day. I'd just be worried that they'd skid and smash into a neighbour's car....

Great idea. Make sure to fill it with pigs blood and guts.

So some resourceful feller dug up the signs, moved them round the corner, and concreted them back in.

Great idea though

I feel your pain. Our road, relatively short 30mph residential, is a cut through. I have data showing en-masse speeding offences and Notts County Council and Notts Police say there's not enough to justify any measures, including speed camera vans.

A fellow village parent and friend has just sent me this data that he got from the safer roads partnership:

Number by % of cars speeding Northbound* : 0900: 23%
Number by % of cars speeding Northbound: 1600: 57 %.
Max speed northbound [b]61 mph[/b]

* direction coming off the common into the village

Number by % of cars speeding Southbound: 0900: 33%
Number by % of cars speeding Southbound: 1600: 25%.
Max speed southbound 56 mph.

These are recorded by a van [b]half a mile[/b] to the north (and the same distance to the south) inside the 30mph limit.

Sod cameras, this is what you need, used randomly the message will soon spread.

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