Safe Speed Forums

See here
EDITED to add another on the same story : HERE

How utterly mad.

A road safety plan ??? I hope they are ready for the 1000's of claims against damaged cars and then the likely and tragic deaths that will occur from broken cars when they fail unexpectedly.
The problems of drivers not observing other road hazards, because they are distracted avoiding pot holes, or taking alternative and perhaps less suitable roads. It may cause accidents too directly at the location and elsewhere.
Is this meant to be a saving ?
No he thinks that it is in the false belief that it is for road safety by distracting and slowing down drivers !

What a total shambles. He should resign.

Perhaps we should start a thread/report on Pot Hole Roads ?

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

But they cannot stop individuals reporting potholes either directly to the council or through fillthathole

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Typical council mind set....haven't got a bloody clue!

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Just read about this on the BBC website. I am almost lost for words, this is amazing. I can't believe anybody could think like this way. Potholes are dangerous for cars, bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians and I fail to see any case for opposing their repair. Potholes cause big problems for cars and the problems are not always immediately visible. For example, the alignment of my front wheels was very slightly knocked out by a pothole. It was only a small difference and it certainly wasn't apparent that anything had gone wrong, but it was enough to make one side (the inside) of each front tyre wear down a disproportionate amount compared to the rest of the tyre.



Excellent idea.

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David

Uneven tyre wear especially on the inside is usually attributed to the speed hump 'calming' measures.
As you cannot see the damage you have to go and look, yet they have nothing in the press or public eye to mention this potentially extremely dangerous side effect.

However, I absolutely agree all road users are detrimentally affected from pot holes, and the many, many dangers from them, including the tyre damage with breaks to the side walls, not to say the wheels and suspension etc too. The damage to drivers and passengers too (via the steering wheel and car jolts).
Imagine when it is a dark slightly snowy night - imagine the falls and damage to people. Not nice !:(
Perhaps we should all have cameras on the front of our cars and for every newly reported pot hole they will take if off our Council Tax bill ! Every little helps ! Linked with the Sat Nav it could almost become auto reporting too ! Some roads have so many pot holes you could be in profit if you were the first on it !

Good reason to buy a 4x4 too !

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

A statement so ironic it's hard to beat.

As I understand train operating companies have sensors on their trains the measure how rough the track is and bill the track company for wear and tear. I could be wrong though.

Repairing potholes costs money. Council tax rises.
Claiming for damaged vehicles takes lots of time (over 2 years for the last attempt) and causes rises in council tax.
Councils don't do insurance.

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The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

Many potholes I see seem to be down to road works.

Private company comes and digs up the road, fills the hole back in with some loose gravel and grit and puts a custard skin layer of tarmac across the top.

Without a couple of weeks the layer is sagging and the edges are breaking away.

There are sections of road near me that have never been touched and the surface is still fine. My road though has been dug up many times and it's like a little assault course.

Then again, I suppose a tight inspection regime to ensure the private companies have filled their holes up good and proper would cost money for inspectors etc...

AIUI the responsibility for restoring the carriageway after works is down to the council who then bill the utility company for the cost of the repair. But what tends to happen is that, whilst they bill the utility immediately, they often defer the repair.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I remember a lady posting here a while back about her son, who I believe was killed due to a fall from his bicycle, caused by a pothole. Sure potholes might do some damage to four-wheeled vehicles, but they can have severe, even fatal, consequences for those on two-wheels.

I believe there are requirements for minimum standards of marking and lighting for traffic calming measures, I doubt these will be met by the potholes!

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Regulation without education merely creates more criminals.

Re-reading the article I think we might be getting things out of perspective. The parish council is not asking the County Council to leave the road unrepaired - it does not have that authority. It has decided not to report faults to the County Council. But that does not absolve the County Council from its responsibility to keep the road in safe repair. It is now up to the parishioners to decide if they want the road kept safe and, if they do, report faults direct to the County.

It is also incumbent on the parishioners to ask themself if they want this bunch of idiots in"power" after the next parish council election

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

It's a classic Daily Mail "look at what 'they' are doing to our country!" knowing full well most people easily confuse the various levels of adminstrations we have with the Labour Government as a whole.

Interestingly the local council have said they will repair all the pot holes as a matter of course? Intended result?

Certainly paraphrasing this news story with "Pot Hole's to be left to help SLOW Drivers !" is spinning is somewhat, makes it sound like government policy (which is possibly the intent).

Beaten to it...

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/239565/

I wouldn't say that. Irrespective of who is responsible among the dense layers of Government mentioned, there are clearly members of the Parish Council who are so obsessed with reducing what they perceive as "speeding" they will suggest anything (no matter how stupid).

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

Hence the last paragraph of my post

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Ironic but true. A proper 4x4 will be designed to cope with being knocked around a bit by rough terrain and the suspension setup will not get damaged the way it would on a small "supermini"

Even with the massive road tax (if you're stupid enough to buy one registered after March 2001) it could still work out cheaper than regular alignment setups (I pay £60 a time to get mine done) and replacement of damaged components.

In the last couple of years, my GF's 200SX has got through a set of front lower arms, two steering racks and a set of alloy wheels, the wheel was bent due to a pot-hole in central london and the lower arms and steering rack #1 went shortly after moving to Wales, so most likely the bulk of the damage was also done in the south east. If she drove a big "Series" Land Rover I'm sure those repairs would have been unnecessary.

What a curious post, a kind of hybrid of sense and utter b*ll*cks, 'some loose gravel and grit'? 'Custard Skin'?

who exactly are these private companies?

Report the defect, the HA will issue a defect notice to the utility company, the company will be charged for the defect, charged for the inspections. Defective reinstement of streetworks is a criminal offence and utility companies and their contractors can, and are frequently, prosecuted.

Well Thames Water would be one such example, it was one of their poorly filled in roadwords that took out the wheel on my GFs car.

Thames Water subcontract out the actual digging to other companies, one of which was recently responsible for digging into a service tunnel alongside the Dartford Tunnel causing it to collapse. This damage took out a huge chunk of BT infrastructure including ADSL and 999 services.

Edit: As for the "custard skin" comment. I think Weepej may be exaggerating. I agree with his sentiments in that post however.