This is not cycling but is there lessons to be learnt here for cycle safety?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-englan ... nd-s-crash
Woman's fight for A505 safety work
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
'Get your message on national media and make it emotional'
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Tangled Metal
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Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
Isn't there evidence supporting the switching if crossroads into staggered junctions due to optical effects fooling drivers into thinking there was more time to brake before the crossroads?
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
NOTE : this is a generic rant with no specific link to the sad loss of life in the specific case of this topic.
How about lowering the speed limit ( and enforcing it ) ?
Dangerous roads (?) versus drivers proceeding without sufficient caution and anticipation . . . . particularly where a road is perceived to be "dangerous".
Seemingly large amounts of resources ( from taxpayers ) to modify "dangerous" roads. **
Where are the resources to educate drivers - or otherwise modify their behaviour ?
. . . . and everything still heading in the wrong direction . . . .
e.g. modern cars are ever more capable ( in their performance aspects ).
They also do a brilliant job of isolating the occupants from any sense of speed : any sense of excessive speed : any sense of consequential peril if things go wrong.
Add to this recipe a smidgen of risk compensation and the propensity to take the performance benefit rather than the safety benefit.
** Oh those "dangerous" bends @ Berriedale Braes . . . . best be spending millions of pounds to enable the traffic to drive faster !!
How about lowering the speed limit ( and enforcing it ) ?
Dangerous roads (?) versus drivers proceeding without sufficient caution and anticipation . . . . particularly where a road is perceived to be "dangerous".
Seemingly large amounts of resources ( from taxpayers ) to modify "dangerous" roads. **
Where are the resources to educate drivers - or otherwise modify their behaviour ?
. . . . and everything still heading in the wrong direction . . . .
e.g. modern cars are ever more capable ( in their performance aspects ).
They also do a brilliant job of isolating the occupants from any sense of speed : any sense of excessive speed : any sense of consequential peril if things go wrong.
Add to this recipe a smidgen of risk compensation and the propensity to take the performance benefit rather than the safety benefit.
** Oh those "dangerous" bends @ Berriedale Braes . . . . best be spending millions of pounds to enable the traffic to drive faster !!
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Pete Owens
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Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
Graham wrote:How about lowering the speed limit ( and enforcing it ) ?
^^^ This.
That road is not designed for high speed - it has conventional junctions with at grade crossings, no hard shoulder yet the same speed limit as a motorway.
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
A road of a similar nature, close to where I live, had the same problems about twenty years ago. Several things were done to fix it. The 70 limit (dual carriageway) was reduced to 50, with speed cameras at the places where fatal accidents had occurred. And entry onto the dual carriageway from side roads became left turn only.
In practice, on a bike you can still cross over by becoming a pedestrian and walking over the grassy central reservation, something you can't do in a car.
The road does seem safer now.
In practice, on a bike you can still cross over by becoming a pedestrian and walking over the grassy central reservation, something you can't do in a car.
The road does seem safer now.
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
I'd agree with that. But what about in terms of getting the message across? What lessons can cycle campaigners learn from the fact that this woman has got her campaign on the BBC?
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The utility cyclist
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- Location: The first garden city
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
I've cycled this, not often mind and it's particularly unpleasant, I've also driven it quite a lot over the years, it's one of the worst roads for exits/entrances added into which there's loads of undulations and bends, throw in the high number of straight over sections and it's utterly garbage given the 70mph speed limit!
There were more crossing paths but some have been stopped up but far too many remain, there's this ugly and not fit for purpose 'U turn' section that is on the same stretch that is more Westward toward Baldock https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0131108 ... 384!8i8192 you have to be doing circa 20-25mph in the outside lane to make this turn safely and stop before entering the opposite carriageway, and on the other side there's not enough of road to get up to speed to cross two lanes of traffic unless there's a very large gap, the angle you're positioned to see traffic is terrible which adds to the problem. it should be closed completely as there's a proper offslip that goes under the carriageway and rejoins with an onslip about 500yds further along which is massively safer. https://www.google.com/maps/@52.006921, ... 384!8i8192
There's at least another three straight over crossings including the crash spot before you get to the first Royston rbt. Here's another https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0435762 ... 384!8i8192 yet it's within two hundred yards of the rbt so is totally unnecessary.
Yes reducing the speed limit with strict enforcement would help BUT this does not prevent people from pulling out from the exits nor doing ridiculous U turns like that artic.
the A1 through beds and into Cambs has better sight lines, massively fewer exits, no cross over sections, fewer bends and undulations and yet is in places restricted to 50 and 60mph, that this remains a 70 zone is frankly bewildering beyond belief.
There were more crossing paths but some have been stopped up but far too many remain, there's this ugly and not fit for purpose 'U turn' section that is on the same stretch that is more Westward toward Baldock https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0131108 ... 384!8i8192 you have to be doing circa 20-25mph in the outside lane to make this turn safely and stop before entering the opposite carriageway, and on the other side there's not enough of road to get up to speed to cross two lanes of traffic unless there's a very large gap, the angle you're positioned to see traffic is terrible which adds to the problem. it should be closed completely as there's a proper offslip that goes under the carriageway and rejoins with an onslip about 500yds further along which is massively safer. https://www.google.com/maps/@52.006921, ... 384!8i8192
There's at least another three straight over crossings including the crash spot before you get to the first Royston rbt. Here's another https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0435762 ... 384!8i8192 yet it's within two hundred yards of the rbt so is totally unnecessary.
Yes reducing the speed limit with strict enforcement would help BUT this does not prevent people from pulling out from the exits nor doing ridiculous U turns like that artic.
the A1 through beds and into Cambs has better sight lines, massively fewer exits, no cross over sections, fewer bends and undulations and yet is in places restricted to 50 and 60mph, that this remains a 70 zone is frankly bewildering beyond belief.
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The utility cyclist
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- Joined: 22 Aug 2016, 12:28pm
- Location: The first garden city
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
Bmblbzzz wrote:I'd agree with that. But what about in terms of getting the message across? What lessons can cycle campaigners learn from the fact that this woman has got her campaign on the BBC?
None, because the powers that be aren't intereste in cycle safety, c'mon, we all know this, we can adopt the same style but it simply does not work. Only legal through a high court ruling against LA/national government to act would be of any use, IMO both local and national are acting unlawfully in the way they deliberately allow motorists to do what they like and the damage that they cause both to life and property. They utterly ignore the problems and the quite frankly easy solutions, you don't need a doctorate in theoretical physics to work it out!
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
This road is in my area (My local campaign is trying very hard to get a bridge put in at a particularly nasty junction).
It already has a series of speed cameras. There is something else going on with this stretch. The number of people mistaking the dual carriageway for a two lane road is shocking. They are pulling into the outside lane and driving the wrong way up the fast lane. It is very clearly signed. Reducing the speed limit to 50 isn't going to stop this.
It already has a series of speed cameras. There is something else going on with this stretch. The number of people mistaking the dual carriageway for a two lane road is shocking. They are pulling into the outside lane and driving the wrong way up the fast lane. It is very clearly signed. Reducing the speed limit to 50 isn't going to stop this.
Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
Re: Woman's fight for A505 safety work
iandriver wrote:There is something else going on with this stretch. The number of people mistaking the dual carriageway for a two lane road is shocking. They are pulling into the outside lane and driving the wrong way up the fast lane. It is very clearly signed. Reducing the speed limit to 50 isn't going to stop this.
If the video was representative, this would appear to be a nighttime problem. Perhaps drivers just aren't seeing the no entry signs, as they aren't illuminated and their own headlights don't shine on them while they're at the junction (because the signs are perpendicular to the lights). This combined with the width of the central reservation and the fact that hazard lines, which are likely to be the ones painted on the dc at this point, are identical whether they're between lanes or in the centre, might be the major factors.
Or there might be something else...