🚀 go-pugleaf

Richard Porter (rap@bnr.co.uk) wrote:
: This got me thinking about some so-called "traffic calmiing" methods.  They
: have recently introduced a series of humps in the middle of a village I
: frequently pass through, so instead of pootling through at a steady 30 in
: top I find I am now continually accelerating and slowing down in second, which
: must make a lot more noise for the residents. Moreover, instead of looking
: out for children, stray animals, elderly pedestrians, etc. my concentration
: is partially diverted to looking for the next hump and adjusting my speed
: to the optimum for the suspension.  Is this really a contribution to road
: safety?

I wonder about that too.  They are introducing slaloms in parts of
Cambridge; one such scheme is Ditton Lane (B1047) heading north
towards the A45.  In this scheme, big triangular protrusions stick out
of the pavement into the road.  They are staggered in such a way that
oncoming vehicles are forced much closer together than normal.  Also
there are small islands in the middle of the road, with a lamp-post
planted on them for extra danger.

Now this scheme is intended to slow traffic down, and it probably
does.  But I question whether it makes the road safer.  As you say,
dodging the obstructions takes up a significant amount of drivers'
attention, which would be better concentrated elsewhere.  And
deliberately making drivers pass closer together than the width of the
road demands seems to be asking for trouble, especially on a stretch
of road popular with cyclists.

The protrusions limit severely the options available for evasive
action, should it be necessary.  It is surely only a matter of time
before someone is killed *because* of the obstructions; perhaps then
people will start to question the implementors of such schemes.

I can't wait till it snows.  Once those protrusions are hidden by
snow, they'll be hard to dodge, despite the posts that stick out of
them.  People will be clipping them with their wheels and losing
control of their vehicles.  There's already been at least one instance
of similar "traffic calming measures" being dug up and removed in
Cambridge because it caused too much inconvenience/danger.
-- 
				Steve Hunt	steve@acorn.co.uk