Safe Speed Forums

Smeggy, if that's the new style of two wheel overtaking, maybe it should be added as part of the road test

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Despite the utter stupidity of the scheme, there's quite a bit of room between gravel and bollard. Look at this:



If the car is 5.5ft wide, there's also 5.5ft of tarmac to its left and slightly more than 5.5ft to its right, suggesting that around 16.5 feet of tarmac is available. This looks like enough room to get a truck past a car. Just. Getting a Police car or an ambulance past cars shouldn't be a problem.

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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

You’ve assumed the vehicles will park parallel to the road, which never happens when emergency vehicles are trying to cut their way through a traffic jam. Cars/vans usually end up at angles because there’s not enough room ahead to straighten up, therefore leaving less space for the passing emergency vehicle. God only knows what a truck driver would have to do.

One this is for sure, quick response emergency vehicles will not be passing such stationary traffic on that road very quickly, if at all!

Perhaps the bollards all retract when an emergency vehicle needs to go through?

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Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

That is assuming the truck has space to move over. If there is an accident up ahead and traffic backs up it's likely they will come to rest in the centre of the lane with no room to manouver.

I assume the posts are the easily collapsing type which an ambulance would have no problem driving through. They were used at a pinch point near where I live, I say used because the council got sick of replacing them.

I agree it looks daft but has anyone thought of writing to the Highway Authority to ask what their thinking behind this scheme was? Who they consulted and what views that consultation elicited?

Would I be able to get a small refund on my council tax for the money I have contributed to the now unused tarmac?!?!

I mean, I've paid for the road surface so surely I should be allowed to use it??!!

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Simon

They look plasticy, they probably won't last too long...

Is that a 'motorbike lane'?
Red surface to cover the blood when hitting the one coming the other way...


Best not tell you about bus/cycle lanes...

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Andrew.

I used to drive that road almost daily for the best part of 12 months. Theres no way I'd contemplate that commute now. Well done DCC you've just hit another hammer blow to the economy of north devon!

Very fast and potentially dangerous but matches can kill if not used properly!!! The road is very hilly and NSL single c'way. County tractors hopping on and off, HGV's limited to 40mph with no prospect of overtaking them. Can you imagine the frustration??

It's pure hatred of the motorist.

I'm going to a do in barnsptaple next week so I'll report back.

What a disgraceful action. Whoever sanctioned this is a a disgrace to my profession.

If its 'hilly' then I assume since its North Devon that actually means that there's 1:5 gradients everywhere...?

Thus most HGVs won't be making 40 anyway... I've passed fully loaded 44tonners trying to make it up Birdlip Hill on the A417 struggling to make 10mph.

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

It's lowest common denominator traffic engineering again.

Complete rubbish!

Sorry, but thats just plain daft!

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The police ARE the law, not ABOVE it!!!

what's plain daft?

Effectively reducing the road by 1 lane. Look at the A303 between the A358 and Yeabridge. Its got alternating 2 lane stretches where you get 2 lanes one way and one the other for about 1-2 miles then the pattern switches so the other carriageway gets the 2 lane stretch for a while. If memory serves this switch happens about 6 times on a 10 mile section of the road. Why not apply this idea to the road shown here? Put the bollards in, make sure it is double white lined for its distance and put plenty of warning signs up to indicate where the 2 carriageways merge back into 1. Seems to work well enough (although there is 1 speed camera on this piece of road) and traffic tends to flow fairly smoothly most fo teh time

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The police ARE the law, not ABOVE it!!!

The posts on this section of the A39 seem to be steadily being knocked down:



Let's see how long it takes before they're all gone

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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

I am currently considering the purchase of a 1985 Volvo 740

Where is this road again?

I've got a 1995 850. Will that do?

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Less Kodak, more Kojak.
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Only if you're prepared to sell it to me for less than £500

I have friends in Torrington, not far from Barnstaple. Coming back one night along that very section of road I got stuck behind a broken down HGV.

For about 2 hours.

And nothing could move, nothing could overtake it.

Utter utter stupidity.

I then had another 2 hours drive to get home (I live just north of Bristol).

S'funny you should say that. Guess how much I paid for it?

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Less Kodak, more Kojak.
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.