Cycling UK Forum

I think we've had threads before about the value or otherwise of "temporary" traffic signs saying things like NEW ROAD LAYOUT AHEAD which then remain indefinitely.

We've recently had roadworks near here which have lasted for several months as an access junction has been constructed to yet another bit of the green belt being built on. During that time there's been regular use of temporary traffic lights and for most of last week it was a couple of chaps with STOP/GO signs. At the new junction, the overall width of the carriageway has been increased but a central traffic island has been installed.

The major stuff was all completed last week and this week saw the trimmings. Speed limit reduced to 30mph (from 40) on Monday 25th and this afternoon as I walked by on the school "run" the NEW ROAD LAYOUT AHEAD signs were being erected. All pretty much routine, except that in the early hours of Saturday 23rd, a motorcyclist hit the island and died from his injuries so the sad bunches of flowers are already taped to a street lamp and there's a board with the police appeal for witnesses.

I don't know whether more prompt erection of the signs would have made any difference. It seems inconsistent to argue that they are necessary then not to get them up a lot quicker than this.

https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/new ... nue-morley

In a rather different situation, lighting in the Staple Hill Tunnel on the Bristol-Bath Railway Path was damaged way back in, ooh, I think it was 2012. It was mended about six months later but the warning signs are still up.

Its a tragedy, but consider this

If the motorcyclist used the route regularly, in which case the "New Layout"m signs would have been for his/her benefit, then he/she would have encountered the previous roadworks, knew what was goi8ng on, so knew about the new layout.

If a stranger to the area then woulod not have been familiar therefore would not have any preconceptions about the road layout.

Either way - driver error, temporary dazzling from oncoming vehicle (been there!), or a fault with the machine, not with the people responsible for signage.

My own feeling is that signs warning of a new layout are unnecessary almost amounting to absurd, but they do persist in putting them up, in which case doing so "as and when" is too late.

thirdcrank wrote:My own feeling is that signs warning of a new layout are unnecessary almost amounting to absurd, but they do persist in putting them up, in which case doing so "as and when" is too late.

Given they're absurd or almost, I suspect the safety auditors insist on them. It would be far from the first detrimental action they insist upon.

mjr wrote: ... Given they're absurd or almost, I suspect the safety auditors insist on them. It would be far from the first detrimental action they insist upon.

I suppose this is a question for the inquest. So much depends on the attitude of the bereaved but the witness box can be a lonely place. If a highwayman were to be asked a couple of questions on the lines of what's the purpose of these signs? and wouldn't timely installation help meet those purposes? there's a lot of squirming ahead.