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Would it be middle class of me to spearhead a community speed watch group?

It's not middle class. I live right beside a large roundabout in an area of multiple deprivation with low car ownership and the driver behaviour is really oppressive here. The week we moved in a drug driver smashed through the bus stop over the road and through someone's fence into their garden. There's zebra crossings with flashing beacons at all the roads entering and exiting this roundabout and that car came to a rest right beside one of them. I have to cross two of them twice a day to get to a safe place to get on my bike to ride to work and 75% of drivers either don't stop or try not to stop unless you stare them in the eye and take a step into the road, then they give you evils and rev at you. I hear honking horns and swearing pedestrians all the time in the evening. Drivers approach the roundabout way too fast. By far the worst offenders are the big BMW SUV owners that live in a nearby more affluent area. They don't give a shit.
 
IC3D said:
Won't the bypass improve traffic in the long run?
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The bypass is only part of the problem but yes obviously we would have less hgv traffic going past our gaff if it was working. It was built years ago to a shit spec, it creates so much noise pollution in the nearest town they've had to spend fucktons on putting in average speed cameras and reducing it to 50. They've also Installed noise reducing fences and all that all along the areas where it goes throughthe town.

Then the widened the central renovations and installed more drains because it flooded badly when it rained.

Now there resurfacing it after a previous resurfacing because the noise reducing tarmac they used has failed and resulted in a road so bumpy they have had to reduce the speed limit.

Every time they do something on this road the direct the traffic through 3 small villages which are quite densely populated but not suitable for heavy good.

If they shut the bypass again this evening I'll try and get some footage so you can see how bonkers it is.

The speeding wankers is a permanent though regardless of the bypass situation. We have local meathead sport kit road bikes using it for racing as well at weekends and it's also heavily used by cyclists because it was part of the tour route.

I know people say this but I think It won't be long before there's a fatality. There's already been some near misses and years ago apparently a car did go into a house.
 
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Build one of these - that should solve the problem.

wall-in-road-300x204.jpg
 
friedaweed said:
Nice one for that. Really useful 👍

I'll try an get a video up of what it's like.

Thanks all for your comments 🙏
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Ah, glad you find it useful - although in my area there's a lot of parents with small children and one of the worst roads actually has a primary school on it, so the play street thing's been a bit more applicable here, if all your neighbours are pensioners then the play street thing might be a bit less use. Although I dunno, maybe they'd appreciate a chance to sit out in the street and play bridge or something, like an OAP RTS?
 
One thing that never fails to completely crack me up about Urban is that some posters think being middle class is something that needs to be apologised for. As for the OP, yes you should absolutely join a speedwatch group,My former boss joined one when he retired and does sound work scaring the crap out of irresponsible drivers. They can't do someone for speeding but they pass the details onto Plod who send the offender a warning letter.
 
Lynda Snell in the archers was in charge of the Ambridge one and she is the epitome of sickeningly middle class.

But that’s a work of fiction (supposedly - but I think it’s a documentary) and speeding twats will inconvenience everyone so go for it.
 
friedaweed - ref your original query - no, the problem you describe is a safety issue, and good on you for actually persisting with trying to find a solution. Keep up the good work !

From personal experience, speed bumps and rumble strips are not the answer.
The road narrowing method does work.

Something like GATSO might be, but that's resource expensive.
As is applying for official road signs and changes to the white lines.

A potential DIY solution might be include :
  • a "cardboard cutout" officer - moved between locations
  • a yellow painted birdbox or two plus a mockup of the speed camera sign
  • "Slow Down" signs - but lettered and painted neatly.
  • Parking a white transit / motorhome / horse-box on the road side or in the layby [with painted-on signs & windows etc, to mimic the local safe driving partnership vehicles - but not the police livery]
[residents of an area I know quite well took to staggered parking on both sides the road to reduce the straight runs in an attempt to slow, but not actually obstruct, traffic].
 
You are unlikely to get a new speed camera or average speed cameras unless there is a bad accident record - thanks to the man frog scaring the Tory party with the motorists lobby. We used to be the European outlier for our low number of deaths per million KM travelled but thanks to chiseling away at local government and old bill budgets this is changing. Also thanks to budget cuts most forces seem to have reduced their roads policing teams to two overweight late fourties coppers both called Trevor who take equal pride in their magnificent ‘tashes and cleaning their car with a garden broom and bucket of water everyday whilst muttering something about ‘Cossies back in the day’ that no one else understands. Still they spend half their time at work picking up body parts so who can blame them.

Community speed watch can work for a bit, you tend to get a redundant last gen or the one before that laser speed gun and then either the local old bill or council as part of a casualty reduction partnership turn your list of speeding index numbers into legally meaningless warning letters to speeding vehicle owners. You need enough people to keep it going for months and months and it’s boring as fuck, apart from getting insulted every now and again and getting thanked every blue moon. I probably wouldn’t do it unless things were really really bad, but I can be a lazy git.

If you don’t mind expending a few, there is a village In Norfolk that let’s a flock of chickens have the run of the road, there are a few signs up to warm of this and most people do appear to slow down. Probably because they don’t want feathers and chicken meat stuck in their radiator…
 
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A380 said:
If you don’t mind expending a few, there is a village In Norfolk that basics let’s a flock of chicks have the run of the road, there are a few signs up to warm of this and most people do appear to slow down.
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or geese



this is a regular thing on the main road between catford and bromley (they commute between the church grounds on one side of the road and a pond on the other)

hmm. how about 'slow - wildlife crossing' signs with a picture of a lion or something in the triangle?
 
A380 said:
You are unlikely to get a new speed camera or average speed cameras unless there is a bad accident record - thanks to the man frog scaring the Tory party with the motorists lobby. We used to be the European outlier for our low number of deaths per million KM travelled but thanks to chiseling away at local government and old bill budgets this is changing. Also thanks to budget cuts most forces seem to have reduced their roads policing teams to two overweight late fourties coppers both called Trevor who take equal pride in their magnificent ‘tashes and cleaning their car with a garden broom and bucket of water everyday whilst muttering something about ‘Cossies back in the day’ that no one else understands. Still they spend half their time at work picking up body parts so who can blame them.

Community speed watch can work for a bit, you tend to get a redundant last gen or the one before that laser speed gun and then either the local old bill or council as part of a casualty reduction partnership turn your list of speeding index numbers into legally meaningless warning letters to speeding vehicle owners. You need enough people to keep it going for months and months and it’s boring as fuck, apart from getting insulted every now and again and getting thanked every blue moon. I probably wouldn’t do it unless things were really really bad, but I can be a lazy git.

If you don’t mind expending a few, there is a village In Norfolk that let’s a flock of chickens have the run of the road, there are a few signs up to warm of this and most people do appear to slow down. Probably because they don’t want feathers and chicken meat stuck in their radiator…
Click to expand...
Cheers A380 that makes a lot of sense :oldthumbsup:
 
Can you get people to park their cars in such a way that it creates narrowings and chicanes in the road? Like park a row on one side then one on the other so people have to slow down to weave around?
 
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