[David9694]

A new catch-all Tea Shop thread for those miscellaneous new stories that don’t quite fit with parking, crashing into buildings or trapped/prisoners in their homes. 

Topic

[Mr Blackbird]

A village near me (with no
A village near me (with no school, pub or shops,)has just introduced a 20mph speed limit. All well and good. One downside of this is that my cycling club is now having to find another location for it’s weekly summer time trials, which ran for 800 m through the village, typically at 20-25 mph in that section. The course was regarded as being safe for younger riders (and their parents also viewed it this way). We are struggling to find a similar alternative course and it is likely that the replacement will have faster traffic (which may lead to parents stopping their children from participating). Our club secretary is liaising with the appropriate local authorities to see if it is possible to get a short weekly suspension of the limit. One response was he got was “Oh we thought 20mph would make it safer for cyclists.”
Authorities as far up as govt struggle to distinguish between transport and competitive cycling.
20mph speed limits although mostly beneficial, can have complications. I suspect that a main driver of the new limit was it makes it more likely that motorists will not exceed the old 30mph limit.

[chrisonabike]

David9694 wrote:

David9694 wrote:

20mph limit creating other issues as dangerous as speeding

Some people – and even some cyclists * seem convinced this is a worse idea than eg. AI and will usher in all kinds of buttered slides to hell. A common one is “it will bring the law into contempt” (because drivers obey speed limits now? ). Another is the “but drivers still MGIF cyclists so this will just mean they do it less safely”.

I don’t say there is no sense here – but that perhaps points to a couple of other problems to address. What we do have data for is – remarkably – just changing the number on a sign will *lower* the average speed and this is associated with less harm…

* speculation but it feels like this corrrelates with “vehicular cyclist” identification. Of course perhaps that is my bias having interacted with them in the context of eg. cycle infra (I’m pro the *best* stuff, they seem (ideologically?) opposed ) and mass cycling (I approve – while recognising that most may not be “cycling as i know it”, some of them seem to be elitist in this regard while also claiming that anyone can and should )

[David9694]

20mph limit creating other

20mph limit creating other issues as dangerous as speeding

“It has created tailgating, lack of indicating, being overtaken by cycles?, all just as dangerous as speeding.”???

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/25599122.20mph-limit-creating-issues-dangerous-speeding/

Found this looking to see if there had been any further developments arising from this (non-) story – nothing comes up on any local outlets:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/fury-as-poppy-sellers-abused-by-left-wing-idiots-in-uk-seaside-town/ar-AA1PyTa0

It was initially on Wales Online, but just four usual suspect national outlets still have it.

[mdavidford]

I just read that URL as www

I just read that URL as http://www.carbrain-news.co.uk …

By the looks of the photos, people were happily driving into the adjacent roadsign for a long while before the pole was put in, so I don’t see why they’re so upset about driving into the pole now.

[David9694]

We’re nearly at the end of

We’re nearly at the end of this “trapped in the village” episode.  

County Council Highways portfolio holder said “I represented Elkstone as the county councillor until earlier this year and this stretch of road was one that residents regularly raised with me, so I’m really pleased that it’s now being properly resurfaced as part of our commitment to fix our roads,” – so as always it’s:

Drivers – fix the road / Also drivers –  not like that

This work does seem to genuinely cut off motor traffic for 12 hours a day – hot tarmac, they say – how is that different? 

I grope around in memory – I can see the residential road I grew up on and the big machine coming and burning/ scraping off the surface and being left all rough with ramps around the manholes for a few days and then the new initially lovely and smooth surface being applied. I don’t remember any access problems. 

In Gloucestershire, I trust the process – someone who knows a lot more about these things them me has planned this – I just wonder what’s changed access wise and in this case could they not do say north of Elkstone and then south?  

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/a417-villages-roadworks-spark-fears-10589287?

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/cheltenham-news/a417-village-businesses-face-catastrophic-10609669?

[OnYerBike]

Drivers enraged as new
Drivers enraged as new telephone pole means they can no longer drive on the pavement without crashing into it.

https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/aberystwyth-residents-enraged-as-cars-damaged-on-new-telegraph-pole-847943

[David9694]

The medical episode that

The medical episode that never even was.

“I was feeling ill, but I kept on going.”

[Hirsute]

I just read that. I wonder if

I just read that. I wonder if he would have got off if no audio.

[Jogle]

Dashcam exposes lorry driver
[b]Dashcam exposes lorry driver who blamed fatal crash on coughing[/b]

I wonder what sentence he would have received if there hadn’t been dashcam footage of the crash.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyv85e49972o

[David9694]

So the good news from Oxford

So the good news from Oxford is that the motion to close down the new congestion charge was roundly defeated.  

I would imagine most of what was said in its favour was indeed laughable (see story below) – feigned offence is all they’ve got.

I still worry that the thing is unwieldy/over-complex because there are too many exemptions, permits etc requiring a lot of admin and public-facing IT (which has also been criticised, unsurprisingly).  

You can’t exempt every variant of “how is a teacher/nurse (with the usual mysterious health condition that means they can’t bus or cycle, but are fine to drive) from Oxford, from Abingdon meant to drop off their children at school, pick up a relative (probably dying) from hospital, drop their partner at the train station, visit a horse with colic and collect materials for a hospital charity/ school project on fridges all before quarter to nine?”  

It’s worth remembering that car ownership in Oxford is 66% of households, so I hope the 33% continue to benefit from this and make their voices heard. 

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/25596662.claims-transport-chief-laughed-congestion-charge-debate/

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/25593326.concerns-oxford-station-access-congestion-charge/

[wtjs]

Porsche drivers and their
Porsche drivers and their problems (again)
The comments are highly entertaining! The driver and his wife are, of course, typical Tossers, and are lying about the speed he/ they were driving. I trust the council will stick to its guns, and tell him and his BMW/ Audi/ Maserati/ etc. pals to get stuffed .

[PRSboy]

Actually I do sympathise; as

Actually I do sympathise; as he said its all about potholes, not other road defects which can be dangerous as we know.  Rubbish roads mean people end up choosing SUVs because they are better suited to our terrible road surfaces.

[David9694]

Porsch drivers and their

Porsch drivers and their problems (again)

‘Absolutely shocking’ Cambridgeshire road causes £2k damage to car

The road had already been reported to the council

“Even when my wife drives over it, she has to slow down from 50mph to 35mph. Even then the car will dip down and it gets thrown about.”?

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/absolutely-shocking-cambridgeshire-road-causes-32789469#comments-wrapper

[David9694]

It’s a double punishment,

It’s a double punishment, arguably, but a lot of professions would sanction a member for this sort of thing, but I guess it doesn’t work that way in the kickball. 

[Rendel Harris]

I thought fines were now

I thought fines were now decided on the basis of oncome, so how did his previous eight offences for 37 (!) points “only” incur a total of just over five grand?

ETA Ah, looked it up, I see one can be fined up to 175% of one’s weekly income but it’s capped at £1000 per offence for non-motorway offences. Which is ludicrous discrimination against the poor: Fofana, who earns nearly £1M a month from club salary alone and presumably has various other sponsorships, loses about an hour’s wage when Joe Bloggs the minimum wage worker can lose almost two weeks’ worth.

[Author]

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