Cycle lane kerb intended to stop Southend drivers cutting corner removed for safety reasons

This is the 21st century, so most of these sorts of problems could be solved by technology, rather than kerbs and bollards which always carry the risk that drivers will just drive into them.  We need smart solutions!

  Motorists will learn more quickly when they risk  the same penalties for mistakes that more vulnerable road-users face.

Therefore a better solution would be some sort of on-the-spot penalty to be automatically applied to any motorist who cut the corner (or mounted the pavement, or whatever the violation is).  Computer vision technology is pretty good these days so it could all be automated.  Some sort of automated gun turret could  be installed that would rake any offending vehicle with armour-piecing shells and administer a summary execution of the miscreant.  After the first few dozen have been blown to bits the rest will learn to be more concientious.

Opposite where I work, there's a piece of land used for storing cars (not a public car park) and there's an issue with the car transporters pulling up and parking half on the road (with double yellow lines) and half on the pavement. The council haven't been enthusiastic with fining them, so the transporters don't worry and just pay the occasional fine when necessary.

Yesterday, after a couple of years of inaction, the council put in "no parking at any time" posts on the pavement. One of those posts lasted just three hours before a large truck knocked it over.

Looks fairly typical of what happens when there's a series of accidents at the same location - the council feel the need to show they're doing something so that they can't be sued.
Here in Glasgow after a couple of incidents of cars mounting the pavement and a pedestrian being killed the council installed  a barrier.  But not the kind of barrier that stops vehicles; the kind that's intended to stop pedestrians stepping onto the road. So the problem wasn't solved but they council had been seen to do something.

Of course this budget device caused complaints from pedestrians, cyclists and motorists so it has to be removed and replaced by some paint. If they'd done that in the first place they would've been accused of doing nothing, but now it looks like a sensible compromise.

What it really needed was a more significant redesign of the junction; widen the pavement at the corner with coloured tarmac across it to delineate the cycle lane going onto the pavement with a ramp at either end. But that would've cost a lot more than £200.

Or maybe the kerb could've been yellow and refective in the first place so that it was visible.

couldn't they just paint it 

Quote:

“They have to swerve right out to avoid it, as well as looking both ways along the busy road. The road is dangerous enough as it is.

Shouldn't they be doing that anyway?

Having looked at the newspaper article I have to say that if you hit that kerb you have no one to blame but yourself - right next to it is a double dashed line, who couldn't see that or think it's ok to cross it when cutting a corner!

Learn to use the road!

To be fair to Southend Council they have been fairly supportive of cycling and installing decent cycling infrastructure. You could argue most councils would not even consider trying to protect cyclists at this type of junction. The real issue, as it is everywhere, is carless inconsiderate drivers putting the rest of us at risk and around these parts we have a wide range of them to select from!

Whoa whoa whoa, being a barista is no joke.

/ex-barista

A nice big plastic post on each end of it (and one in the middle probably) in reflective white and contrasty black stripes (or yellow/black) would have made it far more visible. That said, given todays driving standards, they'd have to replace them every week... at least.
Better to simple make the cycle lane a blue lane (or red, or even yellow,whatever stands out) to make it visible.
A whole load of our local cycle lanes here recently got changed from simply a white dividing line, to being red asphalt and the line, and the number of cars and trucks running with one set of wheels in the lane dropped instantly.

More brilliant planning by local authorities.  Who could have predicted that a vertical road feature, the same colour as the road, would be hit by distracted road users?  Everybody, that's who.

Surely whoever designed it should be retrained, as a barista if that isn't too technical.

There is a serious problem with the competence of many of the local authority planners and the contractors they employ, with far too many mistakes being made that should have been obvious at the design stage e.g. the cheesegrater bridge in Bristol.  Are they not being trained properly, are their plans not being checked by someone with a little experience?