Safe Speed Forums

I went into the office yesterday - a rare event as I normally work from home, and I was astounded by the way that plants had been allowed to grow and obstruct drivers vision. In particular this junction:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=&t=h&om=1&ll=52.382297,-1.82225&spn=0.001076,0.001749

I was coming out from Lady Lane (the road from the left) and I wanted to go left (north), but my vision of the road that I was joining to the south was completely obstructed by vegetation in particular something that looked like Cow Parsley that was growing to a height of 4 foot or more right at the edge of the road (6" or less) on the island. The only way to see was to keep poking my nose out until I was several feet out into the road, and to pray that anything coming would see me in time.

It is not the first time in this area either; I also had real problems with the junction at the other end of the road also going north and trying to cross over the east west road. Visibility to the right is almost zero because of the bushes right up against the road side, but on one occasion they were doing a "traffic survey" for the junction, and decided to park the car across the front of the gateway to the field immediately to the left effectively blocking all vision to the left as well, so I had to poke my nose out again and pray...both roads here are NSL.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=&t=h&om=1&ll=52.368027,-1.836144&spn=0.001076,0.001749

I really don't think that Solihull MBC understand anything about real road safety - if it doesn't involve a camera, a reduced speed limit, a monster hump, a chicane or a road closure then they aren't interested.

Am I being unreasonable here?

Makes more money if the camera is hidden --??

But wait till they start doing it on purpose like on the A444/B4113 island approaches where the mounds of earth still rest, hiding the approach from cars, but not anything bigger.

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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

Rewolf

Vegitation is a massive problem round here too. The majority of my jouney to and from work involves roads that pass very close to crop fields. In the late summer visibility is absolutely awful. Unfortunately you can't remove the crops.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Clearly the solution is to lower the entirety of Tamworth lane to a 20 limit so that when drivers pull out in front of a car they cannot see the oncoming cars will be able to stop safely.

They can put a camera half a mile before this dangerous junction to make sure that people know they need to slow down.

That'll fix the problem*




*May not fix problem

They have already reduced if from NSL to 40 a few years back, based as far as I know on the back of a single accident in icy conditions.

There is nothing wrong with the road that prevents it being NSL still - and the 40 limit is widely ignored, but sorting the visibility would really help. This particular island is normally less than 6" high grass, and you can see 200yds or more as you approach the junction - currently you can see nothing until you are over the line.

I was being sarcastic when I was suggesting lowering it to 20 to fix the problems.

You know that the council will probably consider my suggestion before yours though, so be careful when you complain.

Same here in Essex, we have signage and junctions obscured, given all the money the local partnership is making it wouldn't go amiss to see some hedge trimming being done.

Sixy, know where you are coming from re crops, there is a nice little back road from Danbury to Maldon that I find easier to drive at a pace during the winter because I can look across the fields.

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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

Naturally-growing vegetation is one thing - hedges, hurdle fences and other obstructions deliberately placed to obscure vision at roundabouts are quite another.

Sheer lunacy!

i walked past that junction twice the other day (dropping car off & picking up for MOT)... i found the vegetation enahnced my stroll no end

now if they could just do something about the flies.

Look.. I know that we live in a cloyingly Nanny State, but surely you can zip them yourself?

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

sure... but if i damage mysef you can expect to hear from my lawyer.