midlifecrashes
Full Member

One of our local “qualifiers” for the weak bridge beyond. I’ve never struggled in the S-Max which is listed as just over 7ft. Not counting mirrors it’s allegedly 6’3″ but it feels like I have adequate wiggle room. These idiots just aren’t paying attention.
Posted 2 hours ago

Well at least some are paying attention because they slow down a lot. That they still hit it means either they are just incapable of judging the width of their car, or maybe there is something ickydicky about the design of it.

Looking at your pic, you would hit the kerbs before hitting those brick structures so you’d have to be driving like a real twunt to do that. Also there are white lines from way back helping you line up correctly.
However that’s not the case in the OP one, the metal posts are in line with the kerb and the nearside one effective has a ramp leading right up to it 😂

I love the irony that its to prevent HGV and the guy whose vid it is is an HGV driver.

Worrying, but telling that all impacts are on the nearside. These morons have no idea how far their vehicle extends out into the kerb (and potentially any cyclist they might be passing…)

The first post on the left should be a lot more visible.

Apparently the council thought otherwise

The bollards were initially 1.3 metres tall, but were reduced to 73cm in 2011.

I love the irony that its to prevent HGV and the guy whose vid it is is an HGV driver.

Probably upset it stops him bringing his truck home.

Just thought,

Cars are typically wider than their wheelbase. You could have your wheels fully on the road and still hit those bollards in the OP.

The first post on the left should be a lot more visible.

I thought that. Granted, it’s no excuse, but they shouldn’t be actively laying traps for people.

There’s something similar near me. For traffic calming (right after a single-track road ends) there is a bollard stuck in the middle of the lane. They painted it black. I’ll see if I can streetmaps it.

https://goo.gl/maps/hNeCLULb1xHH6x6v8

https://goo.gl/maps/S9DXKCRfDnfC96Nu9

Looks like they’ve replaced it now.

There’s this one just outside Llangynidr to protect the bridge

That is pretty narrow, wouldn’t have enjoyed it in my old Rover 75!!

Apparently the council thought otherwise

The bollards were initially 1.3 metres tall, but were reduced to 73cm in 2011.

Yeah, but they could paint it bright white instead of a nice dark colour that blends in with everything else. Or leave it as a 73cm tall (and presumably stronger) metal post, but put a plastic wand on top of it.

I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for people who drive into things, but in this case the sheer number of collisions makes it clear the design needs tweaking.

they are just incapable of judging the width of their car

There’s a hell of a lot of that about! The fact that there are so many people who can’t judge width means, yes, they should’ve made the bollards more visible. Not everyone on the road is a STW Driving Hero! 😀

wouldn’t have enjoyed it in my old Rover 75

Is it possible to enjoy anything in a rover 75?

There’s a hell of a lot of that about! The fact that there are so many people who can’t judge width means,

They probably shouldn’t be on the road. Can’t see that bollard….it’s no wonder cyclists get close passed…..

Is it possible to enjoy anything in a rover 75?

The back seats and boot are pretty spacious.

There’s a hell of a lot of that about! The fact that there are so many people who can’t judge width means, yes, they should’ve made the bollards more visible. Not everyone on the road is a STW Driving Hero! 😀

I know we keep banging on about how bad the average driver seems to be (and thus how hard it is to achieve a conviction for careless/dangerous driving).

But have we really hit the point where not hitting a stationary object on the pavement whilst driving a Nissan Micra is considered “Driving Hero” status?

Lord Spaghetti Monster, may his noodly appendages f***ing protect us!

Is it possible to enjoy anything in a rover 75?

The back seats and boot are pretty spacious.

You’re not going to get much action though are you?

A lot of those collisions look like the car just hasn’t moved over (although it doesn’t look it from the front on picture of the car from the video it looks like the left side posts are a bit further in than the road preceding it) so people driving on autopilot rather than not judging the gap well enough

My car would get through with 2″ clearance on either side.

And if you’re incapable of driving through, hand in your licence.

so people driving on autopilot rather than not judging the gap well enough

That’s more worrying isn’t it? They’re just cruising along unaware that they’re about to plough into something.

Worrying, but telling that all impacts are on the nearside. These morons have no idea how far their vehicle extends out into the kerb (and potentially any cyclist they might be passing…)

Perhaps.

Buuuut, perhaps the drivers (not unreasonably) assume that the road furniture is designed in such a way that a normal-sized* car can fit through a gap with perhaps 12″ of clearance on the driver’s side. I’m sure most drivers are more cautious around moving objects and uncertain gaps (even if many are not as cautious / courteous as we might like).

*nothing is as good as it used to be.

A lot of people seem to think they can drive where they want, when they want and how they want. Its lovely seeing their attitude quite literally colliding with reality.

Loving seeing the amount of negative votes on any comments blaming the drivers in the mail link.

Reminds me of the Rufford Ford videos. Rather than slow down and look at the sign (in this case depth rather than width) just plough straight in at full speed and write off their car.

Also reminds me of this

so people driving on autopilot rather than not judging the gap well enough

Every **** morning, just following the tail lights in front as close as possible and not thinking about what they’re doing. Failing to anticipate anything beyond the end of their bonnet.

Is it possible to enjoy anything in a rover 75?

Loads of things, not least if feeling a bit Brexity you could switch the air con (ok mine didn’t work) to °F. You could enjoy the fact it had electric seats but no rear window wiper. Probably the best thing was the auto box that has “Sports” setting which changed things completely, rather than oozing down the road like a comfy slug, you could ooze down the road like a noisy comfy slug.

I loved that car, it made me chuckle every time I sat in it.

Am I the only one that watched the OP video more than once and laughed heartily? The sound of deflating tyres is so good. I’m a pretty average driver (I think) and can’t imagine hitting that.

There is a traffic calming chicane near one of my work sites in Hazel Grove. The number of people I’ve seen hit it or have to slow down to less than walking pace to get through is genuinely frightening. You can just cruise through with ease.

This one https://goo.gl/maps/ED5sL28HQ5GLDYCu8

it’s clearly a poor design

Agreed. Or it’s not the specified width.

Loads of things, not least if feeling a bit Brexity you could switch the air con (ok mine didn’t work) to °F. You could enjoy the fact it had electric seats but no rear window wiper. Probably the best thing was the auto box that has “Sports” setting which changed things completely, rather than oozing down the road like a comfy slug, you could ooze down the road like a noisy comfy slug.

About 13-14 ago a security guard at a site I was attending told me that the Rover 75 he just bought had ‘too much’ power for him. It was the fastest thing he’s ever owned he swore.

I kind of nodded my head in a humouring way….

And if you’re incapable of driving through, hand in your licence.

Correction, 3″ clearance either side – but that’s wheel to wheel width, the overall car width is 86″ so both mirrors would hit if the posts were taller.
And that’s the problem…. A height of just 73cm makes the posts impossible to see once they’re at the front bumper.

Correction, 3″ clearance either side – but that’s wheel to wheel width, the overall car width is 86″ so both mirrors would hit if the posts were taller.
And that’s the problem…. A height of just 73cm makes the posts impossible to see once they’re at the front bumper.

The design of many modern cars makes it very difficult to accurately judge where the corners are, something I’ve discovered with my EcoSport – the front is relatively short, with quite a steep dropoff, so it’s impossible to see anything forward of the bottom edge of the windscreen, and it doesn’t have any proximity sensors on the front, the one real flaw in its design. I did manage to scrape the front bumper at work trying to get into a parking space in the staff car park, which is full of cars owned by people who leave huge gaps between their cars, reducing the space available. There’s a stack of old fencing that had been removed to allow access into another storage area, and enough space to get a car through between the end of the stack and a car already parked, but at an awkward angle; I just couldn’t see either the corner of the fencing, which was a bit less than a metre high, or the corner of my car. The company will fix the damage, it’s what they do anyway, because the stuff shouldn’t have been dumped where it is anyway, it’s a bloody nuisance!
I do have forty-odd years driving experience, the last five and a half driving hundreds of different vehicles and never had any significant accidents. I did scrape the front wing of a Hyundai Tucson once, for similar reasons, I tried to avoid scraping the side of the car against a large hawthorn bush growing across a narrow access road, and caught the nearside wing against a concrete bollard, that I just couldn’t see because of the shape of the car.
That particular road obstruction does seem to be really badly designed, putting the bollards right on the edge of the kerbs is just asking for trouble, because cars are getting bigger and bigger, to accommodate extra crash protection like bigger crumple zones, airbags, etc.
To put it into some sort of context, my previous car was a Skoda Octavia, and I’ve just checked the dimensions – my EcoSport is 9.5” wider! The Octavia was 1814mm without mirrors, the EcoSport is 2057mm, a 243mm difference, 9.56 inches.
With that in mind, it should be perfectly obvious that my apparently smaller Ford would be at far more risk of damage than my Skoda, a much bigger car.
Which probably explains why drivers are having issues.
I honestly hadn’t realised my car was so much wider than my old one!

If this can get through….

Has it got through, though? Or hit the right hand side bollards?

Edit: next picture along it’s made it through, no idea if it got a scratch doing so though…

The Octavia was 1814mm without mirrors, the EcoSport is 2057mm, a 243mm difference, 9.56 inches.

Nope, you’ve read it wrong, from the pdf on the Ford website:
https://www.ford.co.uk/content/dam/guxeu/uk/documents/feature-pdfs/FT-New_EcoSport.pdf

Overall width with mirror/with folded mirror/without mirrors (mm) 2057/1816/1765

I had to have a look as I couldn’t believe it was wider than the S-Max, which is:

Overall width with/without mirrors: 2137/1916

Nothing stopping any of those people slowing down before attempting that gap.

They either haven’t seen the bollards, or they’ve massively overestimated their own driving ability.

Aye, good point re. slowing down. I’m sure I saw a few airbag deployments the speed was so high in some cases. Crazy

The problem is that new cars are so much wider now and not that the bollards are too narrow.

The Octavia was 1814mm without mirrors, the EcoSport is 2057mm,

for a fiesta on stilts it would be a stretch to even imagine those numbers are right.

The problem is that new cars are so much wider now and not that the bollards are too narrow.

Too wide for many of our old roads too. As a cyclist this impacts me too.

It’s really quite an eye-opener if you compare the size of say and 80s/90#s Fiesta (or something similar) to today in terms of size.

Also, cars are taller too with the utterly ludicrous fashion for a higher wheelbase. I suspect this makes it harder to judge width against low posts and kerbs. We also know it makes the vehicle more likely to roll in an accident.

It’s really quite an eye-opener if you compare the size of say and 80s/90#s Fiesta (or something similar) to today in terms of size.

Cars have been growing bigger almost since they were first produced. I’ll bet my father looked at an Escort and said ‘Ooh, that’s huge compared to my old Anglia’.

trail_rat
There’s a hell of a lot of that about! The fact that there are so many people who can’t judge width means,

They probably shouldn’t be on the road

Well yeah, of course. I often (in my Hero status) think that about many many drivers, but hey good luck with the purge.

Well yeah, of course. I often (in my Hero status) think that about many many drivers, but hey good luck with the purge.

Your right it’s not a vote winner so it’ll never happen.

Doesn’t mean it’s not the right answer.

About 13-14 ago a security guard at a site I was attending told me that the Rover 75 he just bought had ‘too much’ power for him. It was the fastest thing he’s ever owned he swore.

To be fair, the one with the v8 Mustang engine wasn’t exactly anaemic.