Safe Speed Forums

sorry for the title but I can't imagine what else the planners were attempting to do.

I just posted this on www.lmag.org.uk but as this group is more active thought I'd fish for opinions, this kind of thing is happening all over london:

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

They've got a few of those in Plymouth. Apparently, the idea is to protect numpty pedestrians that alight and then cross in front of the bus from overtaking vehicles

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Will

usually kids who run across the road to meet their parents are the ones getting hit by people who can't wait a few seconds for a stopped bus.

With my cyclist hat on I also welcome them because you just wouldn't believe how many idiots will swerve out from behind a bus without actually bothering to look if there's anything coming the other way. Nearly been wiped out several times - including once by a police van

Clearly it's war...

But they are giving PT a dirty name and are playing to lose.

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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

If there's several of those bus stops on a road how many drivers that know a road are going to let a bus out of a side turning, and how many are going to say **** him as they don't want to stare at the back of a bus choking on diesel fumes for the next 20 minutes? once you could let a bus out knowing in a minute or two he'll pull over and you'll move past him and probably be back behind the car you were before, now if you let one out you're screwed.

integrated transport policy my ass.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

Had a similar idea in Nuneaton for years - approx 50 yds from a main junction -- there's a bus stop. So traffic used to back up in the rush hour - then it was decided to build a laybye into the pavement -as usual it was way too small -so we've still got the same problem , and at about 5 the effect can be seen around our appology for a ring road.How many buses to cause a traffic jam - one when Warks planning get to work

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

1. As the lines are not a correct bus stop (and it requires a sign which I can't see or is hidden in the bush), it appears there is nothing to stop you from parking there.
2. Isn't there an exception to double white lines which allows overtaking of vehicles travelling under a certain speed? eg. stopped?
3. Is it actually illegal to go the other side of a keep left sign?

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Andrew.

Is it acceptable to penalise road users by artificially extending their journey times and increasing their fuel consumption in order to protect numpty pedestrians (and no, I won't excuse kids on the grounds that they're too young to understand - I had the Green Cross Code well and truly drummed into me, and understood, by the time I was old enough to be let loose on my own), simply because the authorities have allowed pedestrian-oriented road safety education to all but disappear in the last 10-15 years, and because too many parents seem entirely disinterested in passing on any basic safety education of their own?




Two problems with that statement.

1. It often isn't just a few seconds. It's a few seconds while the bus slows down. It might then be over a minute before the bus starts to move off again, and another few seconds until the bus is back up to free flowing speed.

2. In cities like London (where this photo was taken) where bus routes often have stops every few hundred yards, being held up even for just the bare minimum 10-20 seconds per stop can quickly add up to several minutes of delay on what might be a fairly short journey.

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Chris

Indeed!

However, I suspect most drivers interpret the double solids as "don't even think about overtaking"

However, as you rightly pointed out Ziltro, the traffic island makes all that a moot point. Perhaps they are trying to stop drivers queuing beside a stationary bus? (itself leading to havoc)

I don't know if buses have an exception, but usually double white lines actually make it an offence to stop!

well the same can be asked of speed humps and I guess the answer is that if people could manage to drive at a safe speed for the conditions - and driving past a stopped bus at 30mph is not safe, especially when you're forcing oncoming traffic to take evasive action - then there would be no need for these measures to be taken. Unfortunately it seems far too many can't work it out.

Is that not just because normally areas with double white lines are clearways?
If it were true than that would be interesting. Busses probably would have excemption if stopped in a bus stop, however there is no bus stop in the picture.

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Andrew.

The thread title is both descriptive and accurate.

They did this in Liverpool too, near to where I used to live. No double white line but since the lane was wide enough for two cars, they actually built out a section of pavement, protruding one car width into the road for the length of the bus, then painted the bus stop alongside this pavement.

Supposedly this was because people parked either side of the bus stop, making it difficult for the bus to stop correctly and ending up with it protruding into the road a little. Problem solved by making the bus protrude into the road a lot more.

I'd take a photo, but I can't be arsed making a 4 hour drive to Liverpool.

I've posted this one in Stockport before, but it's a prime example of what we're talking about:

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

IIRC the highway code says you can only cross double whites in an emergency, however what if a vehicle is parked in the way? anyone got a recent copy of the code?



that variation on the theme has been done all over london too, so instead of passing the bus perfectly safely on the right side of the road you now have to completely cross the centre line.



Round here bus drivers seem to be exempt from quite a lot of things, the entire highway code for a start.

hey there's a thought, I could just paint my people carrier red and stick a yellow 13 on the front and do I please...

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

That Stockport one isn't a bus stop either.

http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk
That should be up to date.

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Andrew.

The stockport one doesn't look quite as deliberate as the London one.


I propose the following new word be added to the English dictionary.

Kengestion (n): Road congestion created or caused by the delibarate actions of traffic engineers or politicians in order to create justification for an unpopular anti-traffic policy.

this is a fantastic example of my "road planners all have shares in car body repair shops" theory.

Note how the bus blocking the side road will cause a blind spot for cars exiting right/oncoming cars turning right.

It almost makes you want to a take a cue off the americans and sue the planners for bad road design causing your accident.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

On a junction too

If they really wanted to make that safer for pedestrians, they would instead move the island further down the road away from the junction (although the parked cars might be a problem)

stitched up



mb