Signage and 50mph limit

[Martin Cassini]

Ian has flagged up a couple of relevant articles, this one about distracting signage, and (shock horror!) this one about a new national 50mph speed limit to be enforced by average speed cameras. The assault on discretion, commonsense and individual responsibility gathers force. For Ian's (different) view, see Forum.

[Ian Perry]

I'll call you for tha bail money when the police go through with their threats... I keep asking them to park legally... I'll open a thread on this with some photos soon, once I have had a reply from a Chief Inspector who has told me that he personally tickets his officers when they are illegally parked over drop kerbs etc. I've asked him for details of the tickets he has issued in the last year - and I believe that he may find this very difficult to do...

[Martin Cassini]

Maybe you have (started the process of re-education)! What is your approach, and what experiences have you had? I could tell you tales of being stopped on my bike after crossing red lights in London and stumping traffic cops who drove off nodding their heads in new-found wisdom or shaking their heads in consternation.

[Ian Perry]

I'm busy re-educating my local police... It is a "full-time" unpaid job and all I get is verbal abuse and threatened with arrest in return! So maybe I have already started the process of re-education?

[Martin Cassini]

Ha ha, re-designing drivers. That comes under the heading of re-education. It's a matter of changing the culture from one that promotes your right, just because you're on a "main road", to drive roughshod over all other road-users, to a culture that restores the common law custom of giving way to others who were there first. Exposure to decades of defective policy turned drivers into demons. Consequent regulation that sought to solve the problems caused by the "experts" turned drivers into frustrated demons. Remove the flaw of priority, and people will re-discover something which is buried under those decades of regulation: their humanity.

[Paul Luton]

Hmm - redesign of cars might be a good idea - open sides, no seat belts. ( I omit the big spike in the middle of the steering wheel ). You might also have to redesign some drivers resistant to re-education.

[Ian Perry]

Agreed.

[Martin Cassini]

I can see that country lanes with high hedges and no paths could be lethal for pedestrians or cyclists. To reclaim them from domination by motorists could be achieved through a combination of re-design and re-education (rather than more enforcement). Needs some thought, this one.

[Ian Perry]

Are we talking about in towns like Newbury or country lanes?

There is an assumption in the countryside that on single track lanes, there will be no pedestrians or cyclists... Cars and vans travel at excessive speeds. I have been OVERTAKEN on a wider one whilst taking a 3.5 tonnes van down it at 60mph! So how do you redesign single track roads, with no road markings, high hedges on each side and no street lights so that motorists drive at slower speeds to allow pedestrians back onto them - with out having to listen out for cars and dive into the hedges.

It's true that many people totally ignore speed limits and already drive at what they perceive to be a safe speed... this may often be down to the road design, but not in every case as illustrated above.

Speeds must also be reduced to combat noise and PM10 issues and encourage modal shift from private cars to human powered mobility and sustainable public transport.

Yes, design can do this in places and must be done (excessive traffic light perhaps are part of this), but it is clear that people will drive faster than is sensible for the design of a road http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7851012.stm

[Martin Cassini]

Disagree, Ian. Good design stimulates good behaviour. Trouble with most current design, it promotes vehicle domination of public space. Certainly re-design along shared space lines could be combined with a programme of re-education to sensitise people to the idea that public roads are not just funnels for transit, but can also be public living rooms.

[Ian Perry]

But motorists, locked into their metal box are blissfully unaware of the environment that they are passing thorough - and thus require the guidance of signs - particularly where the road appears to be "safe" for higher speeds...
NOISE is seen as "normal", and "soft" methods alone are not going to change peoples programming.