Safe Speed Forums

I would think start 7am finish 5pm (or 3pm 5 days/week) would be good for some, there a quite a few people who are in favour of 'double daylight saving time' this should suit them perfectly.

I would like to do flexi-time to avoid the morning school runners but my employer does not allow it.

Thanks Teabelly for the idle git compliment. I'm currently working on a number of measures to solve some of the utility gripes....that's if I can be ar$ed between tea breaks.

Increase HGV speed to NSL.
Rigorous enforcement of lane discipline.
A national TRAFFIC news channel
Strategic road building at bottlenecks (M42!!!!!)
an acceptance that VSL is a white elephant
More 'Expressways'
Incentives for 24hr roadworks (not lowest tender!)

Tax advantage for M/C use for business miles

I use my bike to avoid adding to the congestion and although it is actually more expensive to run a bike (tyres and service every 4,000 miles) I get 19p per mile against my tax bill as compared to upto 36p per mile in my car.

I know of many bikers who refuse to use their bikes when they could simply because the tax allowance does not cover the cost

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Former Military Police Officer and accident investigator

That would be useful if the plans used show exactly where the services where, believe me they don't.
I've, found a live Gas main on a site that Transco do not have recorded, I'm glad the area was hand dug, we had checked with their 'dial before you dig' service.

Thankfully this was in a carpark, had it been a road, it would have caused an over-run of the job and hence traffic problems.


24 hour working is very expensive, as the whole supply chain has to work supplying the contract with 3 or more shifts to continue production, it is not easy to triple your skilled workforce for the life of the contract.


fatboytim

Car sharing

There are fairly massive practical issues surrounding car sharing.

- matching up pairs of travellers is realistically only likely to work if they work together (same firm or same industrial estate, something like that).

- what happens when one member of a sharing pair has a sudden emergency and has to go somewhere? Or even work late?

- it can be hard to make a pair out of a manager and a worker

- you might not like your sharing partner

Any more? Or any solutions?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Some companies offer a free taxi home in case of emergencies to those that car share. For anyone in IT or other related areas where finish times aren't guaranteed then car sharing is usually impractical.

There are a few people at work that car share. It is probably more suited to people without kids or those with grown up kids who are therefore less likely to have an emergency. It's probably a lot easier for men to car share as they're less likely to be the ones dealing with household emergencies!

Car sharing works best when the people you share with are on your normal route to work rather than being on a detour from it.

Car sharing is confounded by flexible working hours. Which of these "green" Government policies would you support?

As an employer, the answer is neither.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Is there a reason why no-one has mentioned cycling yet?

Or improving the railways?

I guess we're pretty car-centric - but that's only to be expected from a driver-centric road safety campaign.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

i cant avoid using my car. car sharing is out of the question for an HGV driver as the job is so unpredictable that you never really know when you will finish from one day to the next.
as an agency driver, today i could be working in newbridge, tomorrow coatbridge, then livingstong etc etc etc. it can change from day to day and at the last minute.
public transport is poor where i live and it doesnt get me to work anyway most of the time (how many services cover industrial estates?) and how do i use it at 3am when i am starting or finishing work 35 minutes from home (in my car)?
i also have kit to carry like a bagful of maps. bulky and heavy plus my bag of everyday essentials (tachos, pens, etc etc etc)

for my profession, private car is the only means available to get to work

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

For me, forgetting age - 20 mile cycle run in all weathers and at varying times of the day and night - not practical.--would you like to spend 12 or more hours working outside either soaking wet from rain or sweat( at times in temperatures down to -10). And the return journey --totally shattered .

Improve the railways - only interest is in improving the bits that are politically sensitive -- WCML OR ECML ( EUSTON - GLASGOW/Kings x TO EDINBURGH) ---I'M still trying to work out how they intend to run single decker and double decker trains on the same track - given that the specs for the heights from rail to overhead traction power are critical .And as for more trains --with them being so close together - speed goes down - ( like stopping in the distance you can see to be clear!!!!) --only metal wheels to metal rails don't have the same grip as on the roads - pity Sir Aeroplane hadn't thought of that.

Increase capacity to meet demand.

You're right, it's a crazy idea and will only lead to increased demand and more congestion. After all, ten years ago when demand was lower there was less congestion, and everyone went mad and drove around far more than they needed to just for the hell of it, didn't they?

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Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

EH -wats this new idea - will never take off i tell you - giving roadusers more roads - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek - its the talk of the devil - we're not here to make things pleasant for road users--eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek----imagine what it'd do to our profits from road tax etc.

Great idea, however we are forgetting the basic greed of our LA's and central government, saw two smart cars parked just like this in one bay, both had valid tickets from the P&D machine, yet one had been ticketed. WTF???

I think we need to look at those travelling, it could split in several groups each with thier own requirements:


Those with a 9-5 job where pt is viable were it reliable - obvious better pt.

Those with a 9-5 job where pt is viable if it existed (the likes of out of town business parks) some sort of central park and ride scheme? Doesn't negate all car use but would cut some traffic. My sister lives in Braintree, where they built an out of town shopping centre Freeport, as part of the schem it had a dedicated station built. Should we not be looking at similar elsewhere?

Better Facilites in town and business parks for motorcyclists and cyclists - locking up facilities that are well lit, secure etc. Changing facilities, granted can be difficult to retrofit existing but perhaps should be part of planning conditions for new build estates?

As for those who have to use cars because of times outside of pt running hours, distances covered, uncertain nature of where the job will take them then we should accept this rather than have an Utopian view that it should be allowed and lets design road schemes that keep traffic moving rather than creating congestion causing schemes.

for some of this to work we need a joined up pt policy with interlinking timetables from bus to train.

Also what happened to Railfreight of the old BR days, how viable is it to get bulk freight of the roads and onto rail again?

And an off the wall one from a friend, what about canals fro freight or as a form of pt??

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Gordon Brown saying I got the country into it's current economic mess so I'll get us out of it is the same as Bomber Harris nipping over to Dresden and offering to repair a few windows.

Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is done.

http://www.wildcrafts.co.uk

I don't think the parking problem will be solved while the people who control the available parking spaces get money from parking fines.

I do believe that nobody should have to pay just to be somewhere though. Surely by now pay-for-car-parking has been proven not to reduce the demand for parking spaces?

Roadworks traffic lights should be human-controlled or at best have sensors that work. This control could be done with only one person, even remotely with some cameras on poles.

Removal of pointless traffic lights and the use of flashing amber especially at night would be good.

Turn left on red?

I have designed a traffic light which might be quite good... (well, I saw one in Spain but never worked out what it did until recently) But I'll describe that somewhere else sometime.

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Andrew.

i wouldnt want to control freight transported like that. going from truck to train to truck mixed with other peoples goods and being split to different destinations?

adding to that how long would it take in comparison? freight trains give priority to passenger trains so the freight will always take longer than any train timetable. in this day and age, the industry is mainly 'last minute' deliveries so trains services would not suffice. this is not down to hauliers but it does lie between sender and receiver. we cant pick them up til they are ready and the person waiting for them wants them yesterday

why target trucks anyway? we dont cause congestion, we merely get stuck in it among all the non essential road users. they have other options, we dont. you want your goods in the shops and we are the ones who have to get them there for you. unless of course you want trains replacing ALL roads to enable them to stop at every shop in the country. however you look at it, the goods must be transferred back to a truck for final delivery so trains only take trucks off the motorway where the congestion is lowest anyway

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

Scanny, not trying to target trucks, or rather looking at options. Not being in the (freight) truck or rail I haven't the knowledge of these. Hence the question is it viable??

Also we have the HGV 40 limit, is this realistic?
Is it safe?
What sort of speeds can HGV's laden or unladen safely travel at if not restricted?
Is it worth looking at removing restrictors on HGV's pros/cons??

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Gordon Brown saying I got the country into it's current economic mess so I'll get us out of it is the same as Bomber Harris nipping over to Dresden and offering to repair a few windows.

Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is done.

http://www.wildcrafts.co.uk

I was driving in Florida doing about 70 and got overtaken by one. I think most seemed to be doing 60-70 on the freeways. And they're bigger.

Is it safe for an HGV to do 56mph past a school at kicking out time? Oh dear speed limiters don't solve that.

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Andrew.

I drive a lot in France and Spain, it's interesting to note that despite the "Europe-wide" 90kph LGV speed limiters, an awful lot of trucks in those countries seem to be travelling considerably faster...

One gets the impression that it's only the UK that's sufficiently anal to consider checking the accuracy (or even functionality) of the limiters during MOTs... Just like all the other nonsensical legislation from the EU that's ignored by the majority of countries but "gold plated" in the UK.

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"Politicians are the same the world over... We build bridges where there aren't any rivers." - Nikita Kruschev