Safe Speed Forums

If you ignore my mates lights you could find he has but them both to red for 5 min to work safely and a bloody great wooden pole through your windscreen!

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

5 minutes?! And he wonders why people ignore them?

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Andrew.

Are you one of those unreasonable people who think that the taxpayer funds roads to facilitate the movement of traffic rather than to provide a workplace for Anton's mates?

You fail to appreciate that roads are there firstly to allow the installation of service pipes and cables: secondly to give builders, delivery men, refuge collectors, pole planters, and so on somewhere to put their vehicles whist they do their business. Their use as highways is purely incidental to these other uses

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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

why does having to wait for 5 minutes make him any safer??

you will still have the same amount of traffic going past, only there will be rightly irate and want to run down the people that set the lights up.

Are you one of those unreasonable people who think workers should have to work with the risk of being knocked down because your time is much more important than theirs?

Working with traffic going by is totally different to driving by works, if they need 5 minutes to do something safely well then accept it and wait or take an alternative route.

Those gennies can get pretty nervous on their own and need protection some days....

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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.

There lies the problem.

If there was some way (or even willingness!) to provide an explanation as to WHY the lights are switched to red for 5 Mins (And are not actually broken), then most drivers would be much more patient and understanding.

What they/we/I get pissed off about is the complete lack of information and the total lack of consideration that this implies!

And the regular (If not frequent!) incidance of situations like this...



Only serves to make attitudes even more confrontational!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

This quote reminds me of this little gem:

Or, as often seen in friendly manuals, "This page is intentionally left blank"

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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

because that is how long it takes to plant a pole in a pre prepared hole!
it has to be lifted , dropped on the ground , dressed, lifted swung and planted.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Quite important, I used to work for a publisher and sometimes you'd be left with an odd blank page. If you didn't put anything on it to indicate it should be blank you got lots of calls from people asking where the "missing" print was. I'm being serious.

Thats the point.

If the lights need to be set "All red" in order to do something tricky there should be a notice saying that

a) the lights arnt broken
b) they are set all red because of XXXXX
c) normal operation will be resumed in around Y Mins. (If you want to be really posh you could have an approximate countdown)

None of this is hard. It would not take long to set up with a matrix board (especially as routine operations like pole planting could be pre-programmed requiring only a sinle button push to instigate) and it would help save a lot of bother all round!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Well frankly, it's illegal to go through a red light so it doesn't really matter how long it stays red for does it, you still can't drive through it without breaking the law.

Sigh..............................
You just cannot set-out signs because you want to, or they may be a good idea.
Strange though it may seem, the guys doing the signage (or one of them) will have a streetworks ticket to do that:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/network/local/streetworks/streetworksseminar/streetworkstraining.ppt

The signs are proscribed:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tss/wor ... 000series/

Maybe just accepting that STOP means stop is good enough, or maybe driving through guys working in the road is not as important as being late ?

My son had just that problem trying to repair a cable in London, insults and horns....so as it was an emergency repair, they just closed the entire road. People could have just accepted that things are being repaired and obeyed the lights: they didn't.

Around here, they do not bother with lights very often, closing the road and doing the work has been risk-assessed as the safest way to do the job. Because drivers cannot wait. Now, they wait a lot. ROAD CLOSED gives little choice.

The same as the 40mph limit on the A421 approaching the roadworks. With guys working in the road by the side of the cones, nobody bothered with the 40 limit. Many of them are now featuring nice little endorsements because they not only didn't bother (and still don't) about the 40 limit, but they also couldn't be bothered to ask what the white van with a speed camera logo on the side was doing parked on a bridge overlooking the roadworks.

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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

I think a lot of people here are assuming people drive through roadworks in a careful manner.

Many do, but you do ses the odd one who take up the curves and narrows as a challenge.

And it only takes one.

Indeed. But it ought to say "This page intentionally contains no relevant material". Or, as is often done, "For your notes"

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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

There are so many pointless red lights now. And a lot of temporary traffic lights are (or appear to be) set up by people who don't know what they are doing, and are set up incorrectly. Of course there are people are going to assume that one on red for 5 minutes with no explanation is broken.

"5 minute road closures. Alternative route [...]"
"Road works in progress, road closed until [variable numbers] (approx.)"

Just some suggestions, no idea what might work.


So pissing off the rest will help how?

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Andrew.

Perhaps they should understand that people working on the road need to know when the vehciles are coming and where from.

Perhaps, but how will annoying normal reasonable people because of the problems caused by the few help? Do people drive better when they're angry?

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Andrew.

This is all about being courteous and showing understanding - from all sides.

The Highway Code covers Consideration under point - 147 detailing how to be careful of, and considerate towards all types of road users ... understanding and tolerant etc.
So when lights delay people for what appears to be for no reason people become agitated and maybe upset - it is inconsiderate. Sometimes with more information people would be able to understand and so be tolerant, and with that knowledge make further plans (alternative route), and act accordingly. When things are obvious (machinery moving) people can see and hope things will conclude soon. People are more tolerant if they can understand better, as often a time frame (ending of delay), is clear.
A good example might be the train crossing, people see the barriers and the longer you wait with no train in sight, the more you wonder if an error has happened, and the less tolerant you (possibly) become . Then the train arrives and the wait has been justified, you assume that the train was perhaps a minute later than normal, or something, and understand that it is an inaccurate 'science' and fair enough, no one wants to (usually) take a chance!

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