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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 18:54 
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Did anyone (who was slightly more awake and alert than I was this morning) catch whatever it was on BBC Breakfast today (at some point after 8:10) regarding some road safety scheme for residential areas involving pedestrians throwing large strips of cardboard with random words on them onto the road in front of moving cars...



...yeah, I know, the more I think about it the more I wonder if I was still dreaming :lol:

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 20:02 
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/b ... 167482.stm

I found this story.

from what I gather cars stop neighbours talking.

Quote:
Ted goes out of his way to make driving down Beechcroft Road in Oxford an unpredictable experience.

Some days he wheels a giant wooden bunny in to the street, he's built a fake speed camera, there are socks hanging from a washing line over the road to deter high sided vehicles, all to try to make drivers on this little cut-through slow down and take a bit more care.


TED is a wanker.

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 21:06 
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Yeah, that sounds like the same story - cheers for the link (hadn't realised Breakfast had their own little bit of the web, couldn't find anything on the main BBC news site...) Not sure why it's making the news today though, I'm sure I remember seeing something about this a while ago :?

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:13 
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Indeed. Slowing down cars like that's gonna make the road much safer :roll:

Idiot.

Aren't speed guns, sorry hairdryers, enough?


I'll assume that beforehand, he/they've tried simple signs saying something like "speed limit not target on residential road" or "beware children" - which he/they probably haven't really.


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:23 
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Again, it's an attempt to cure the symptoms and not the root problems.

I wonder how he'd feel if a pedestrian walked out into the street and a driver slammed on his brakes whilst driving over those loose cardboard placards and skidded into the pedestrian? I'd love to see the ensuing lawsuit! :hehe:

If the LA's/Govt weren't so hell-bent on forcing congestion upon motorists, perhaps there would be less need to use side streets to get from A to B.

Personally, I have no sympathy with them - if they don't like it, they can complain to the authorities (who are there to reflect their views, after all?) and get them to de-congest traffic flow.

p.s. Isn't that also littering?

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 13:00 
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BottyBurp wrote:
p.s. Isn't that also littering?


No, only when you're feeding birds :lol:

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 13:03 
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The BBC put under Ted Dewan's name was the words 'Road Witch'. So off to the search engine.

Ted isn't just a resident having fun with the neighbours, building big wooden bunnies - he's an active campaigner recognised by Transport 2000 wanting all vehicles banning from the road. A previous attempt at light hearted protest included covering a pedestrian crossing in cardboard squashed bodies.

That having been said, Ted's site on http://www.wormworks.com/roadwitch shows some pictures under the 'jackass' heading that show Beechcroft Road in a light the beeb didn't.
It's a disaster area: collapsed kerbs, sloping kerbs (hence the guy with the stick walking in the road in the report), cobbles, front yards too short to park cars (so they jut out across the kerb) etc...

The BBC wanted another 'residents stop speeding' story, so that's what they showed. What it really needs is some investment - and a few brains delivering to the people parking down both sides of it.

BTW - Look North this morning mentioned that too many sheep are getting killed in Derbyshire (200 last year), so police officers are going to look at this speeding problem that causes it.

Makes you go all warm and fuzzy when you pay your license doesn't it.


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 14:58 
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http://www.wormworks.com/roadwitch/pages/megabunny.htm

Quote:
I plan on bringing him out into the streets more frequently in 2006. The idea is to pay for a parking spot in Oxford city centre, stick the 'pay-and-display' sticker on him, pull up an armchair, and invite parents to read Bing Bunny books to their kids.

I hope this will infuriate motorists who need a parking spot, but as I'll have paid to use it, there will be no redress.


It would be trespass - the spaces are for cars and the ticket authorises you to park a car within the marked bays, nothing else, you aren't "renting" the space in the bay to do with as you please.

Most of the other stunts appear to comprise of one or more of littering, obstruction, theft of road signs and cones, causing a danger to motorists and pedestrians etc.... - putting squashed fruit in the middle of the road is seriously dangerous for motorcyclists.


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 19:14 
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This type of self-important tosser gets on my nerves. We have a house and a garden for a sitting in. I am fed up with this anti car mentality. The reason people use back streets is because local authorities and government refuse to build roads, or makes then difficult to use. If we parked our cars in Hyde park for example the would be an uproar, but it is perfectly acceptable for him to put peoples lives in danger. :furious:

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 20:31 
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They say that people who live in quieter streets have more friends, but have they bothered to test for causation, or is it merely that both factors have a common cause, e.g. higher income, better job?


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 Post subject: Ted whosit
PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 01:10 
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Bit behind on this one but this prat's actions are not only dangerous but unlawful - RTA '91:
Quote:
"Causing danger to road-users"

22A. — (1) A person is guilty of an offence if he intentionally and without lawful authority or reasonable cause—

(a) causes anything to be on or over a road, or
(b) interferes with a motor vehicle, trailer or cycle, or
(c ) interferes (directly or indirectly) with traffic equipment,

in such circumstances that it would be obvious to a reasonable person that to do so would be dangerous


(a) & (b) are obvious - aren't the police interested in criminals?

The aside is that (c) presents a defence to camera demolishers - could a 'reasonable person' see this as dangerous?


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PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 13:18 
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ree.t wrote:
This type of self-important tosser gets on my nerves. We have a house and a garden for a sitting in. I am fed up with this anti car mentality. The reason people use back streets is because local authorities and government refuse to build roads, or makes then difficult to use. If we parked our cars in Hyde park for example the would be an uproar, but it is perfectly acceptable for him to put peoples lives in danger. :furious:


there'sa dirty great big car park underneath a large chunk of Hyde Park (well, the eastern part of it anyway)

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/transport ... k_lane.cfm

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