| Motorways |
| Satnav |
| Road
Pricing |
SAFER
ROADS

The stopping distance of cars is 40% longer on
"safer" new road surfaces designed to
cut crashes. Asphalt surfaces to eliminate spray
and cut traffic noise also reduce skid resistance
for up to 18 months after being laid, found
researchers for TRL, the former Government
transport lab. The Highways Agency has embarked
on a massive resurfacing drive and sparked a call
from the AA for signs warning drivers to take
care until new surfaces "bed in". The
Highways Agency insists new roads are safe and
says skid resistance improves in three months.
|
TOUGHER PENALTIES
Motorists will face tougher penalties
ranging from using mobile phones to splashing
pedestrians, under new guidelines. Using a
mobile, sat-nav or MP3 player while at the wheel
could send drivers to prison for up to two years.
They could also be fined up to £2,500 for
driving through a puddle and splashing
pedestrians or for failing to dip headlights. The
policy outlined by the Crown Prosecution Service
could also mean that motorists in England and
Wales who cause death on the roads face life
imprisonment. (Source: Times Online, Dec/07) |
20MPH LIMIT
Motorists face the introduction of an
impractical 20mph speed limit for all
vehicles. The new restrictions on urbandriving
could be imposed by all councils across the
country in a matter of months.
The Government has given all local authorities
the power to cut residential speed limits to
20mph and Portsmouth has becomes the first city
to introduce the new measures.
Experts claim the imposed go-slow will help to
save lives and protect pedestrians and cyclists
but critics branded the move as an escalation in
the bitter war against Britains motorists.
Cllr Alex Bentley, executive member for traffic
and transportation, said, Portsmouth is a
crowded city and on most of our residential
streets its not safe to drive at more than
20mph. Twenty is plenty."
He added, "A pedestrian hit by a car
travelling at 20mph is likely to suffer slight
injuries but at 30mph they are likely to be
severely hurt. At 40mph or above they are likely
to be killed. Im sure this scheme will save
lives.
Critics also point out that a 20mph limit is
unnecessary in many urban centres where traffic
already travels very slowly. (Source: Daily Express, Jun/07) |
|
|
ROADS
Drivers have been
told to slow down on the A52 dual carriageway because the
surface is not "fit for purpose". The road
suffered frost damage in recent cold weather but
officials have said the entire carriageway may not have
been laid correctly.
The city council has said motorists should drive at 40mph
instead of the usual 70mph to lessen problems and that it
wanted to get the winter weather out of the way before
starting major repairs. John Hansed, head of highways,
said the surface laid 10 years ago was coming away.
He added, "It is not fit for purpose at the moment.
We do have a programme to repair it, but not immediately.
We will be going in, in about three or four weeks time,
and we are currently talking to surfacing contractors to
see that we get the best price to carry out the repair
work. If we have any more bad weather in February then it
might cause a bit more deterioration which we would like
to catch when the repairs are carried out." He said
short term repairs would cost in the region of £200,000
but complete resurfacing would be in the region of
£750,000. (Source: BBC News, Feb/10)
Motorists face a postcode lottery of road
quality due to the failure of local authorities to agree
a definition of what exactly constitutes a pothole. When
is a pothole not a pothole? It may sound a simple
question, but councils up and down the country have
failed to agree on an answer. More than two million
potholes need fixing in Britain following the winter
freeze, but a baffling array of official definitions
regarding what exactly constitutes a pothole means that
motorists and pedestrians face a postcode lottery of
highway standards.
In Gloucestershire, a hole in a road must be the depth of
a "golf ball" (1.6in) and the width of a
"large dinner plate" (11.8in) before the county
council will regard it as a pothole. Worcestershire
county council will accept a smaller "dinner
plate" width hole (7.9in) in surface area, while
requiring the hole to be the depth of a "fist"
(1.6in). To assist residents in Coventry the council has
devised what it calls an "easy way to remember"
what it deems the depth of a priority pothole, "a
pound coin and a 1p coin side by side" (1.6in).
In Suffolk, roads officers agree with Gloucestershire
that a serious pothole must be the width of a "large
dinner plate" (11.8in), unless the defect is on a
minor road, when it must be about the size of a
"dustbin lid" (23.6in) to warrant urgent
action. In Bath and North East Somerset a crack in the
road only needs to be 1.2in deep before it counts as a
pothole, whereas in Cheshire West and Chester inspectors
are charged with identifying only holes deeper than 2in.
In Hounslow, traffic officers will fix potholes on
residential streets only if they meet "intervention
levels" of 3in in depth.
Some councils' policies stipulate four or more different
categories of priority depending on a pothole's depth and
width. Nearly all assess potholes in roads in a different
way from those on footpaths. Paul Watters, the head of
public affairs at the AA, said, "It is a pain that
there are all these differences. I hope that it is not a
manifestation of budget issues, it may instead be a
manifestation of priorities. There is a code of good
practice which says anything that is 0.8in in depth needs
investigating. But a pothole really is like a piece of
art, what it looks like to one person may be something
different for someone else, and so treated
differently."
According to the Local Government Association (LGA) there
is an £8 billion shortfall in highway budgets, meaning
extra money is urgently needed to fix the potholes caused
by the cold weather. But even if money was no object,
some councils' red tape would stop officers dealing with
smaller holes. Gloucestershire says that if holes are
smaller than its strict criteria dictate, filling them in
is pointless. By contrast, Herefordshire council aims
"to record and treat all potholes, regardless of
depth". Councils are legally responsible for
maintaining roads and footpaths within their boundaries,
except for trunk roads which are maintained by the
Highways Agency.
A spokesman for the LGA said, "A diktat from central
Government over what is and what is not a pothole would
not help improve the roads. It would force council staff
to go out on to the roads with tape measures when they
could be getting on with the job in hand. Councils use
common sense and if a pothole poses a significant risk to
road users they will do their best to fix it as soon as
possible." (Source: Sunday Telegraph, Mar/10)
Markeaton Island on the A38 has
become "overgrown and ugly" as neither the
Highways Agency or Derby City Council will pay for
improvements. Residents and business owners claim the
roundabout is turning into an eyesore. The Highways
Agency, who own the island, said it has no money for
cosmetic improvements.
In a statement, it said, "Unfortunately the HA does
not have any budget for flower planting schemes or
sculptures etc on our roundabouts. Our remit is to
maintain our roundabouts to a safe and environmentally
acceptable level by trimming vegetation and picking
litter."
The city council said it was happy for the look of the
roundabout to be improved but had been quoted £1,400 for
every time work needed to be carried out. Discussions are
continuing between the Highways Agency and Derby City
Council to find a solution to the overgrown traffic
island. When an Alvaston resident refused to tidy up his
garden, the city council prosecuted him and he received a
four-month prison sentence. Will the city council now
prosecute the Highways Agency or would that present them
with a more formidible opponent? (Source: BBC News, Jun/06)
Serious safety concerns about new road
surfaces being laid across the UK have been uncovered in
a BBC investigation. The materials, stone mastic asphalt,
or SMA, are approved by the Highways Agency for trunk
roads and motorways. File On 4 found the same surfaces
are banned in Ireland on some roads because of fears
about poor grip. The Department for Transport said just
because roads require further investigation, "it
doesn't necessarily mean they are unsafe". SMA
surfacing systems are widely used because they are said
to last a long time, are quick to lay and give a smooth,
quiet ride.
But police crash investigators have become concerned
because, in certain conditions, some do not offer much
grip for up to two years until they have bedded in.
Sergeant Jim Allen said he experienced grave difficulties
when conducting routine skid tests in optimum conditions
on a Derbyshire road newly laid with SMA. "It was a
sunny day in August. I jumped on the brakes and the car
just kept going and going. Instead of the scream of tyre
on road and a cloud of smoke there was just a gentle hiss
as I passed over the road, and I skidded far further than
I ever expected to."
Tests carried out by the National Roads Authorities (NRA)
in the Irish Republic raised questions about the
materials' ability to provide enough friction for tyres
at higher speeds. The NRA has decided to restrict its use
to roads with a 30 mph speed limit, and has taken
remedial action on other roads where they have put it
down. "When we found the skid resistance to be
doubtful we simply had to go and surface dress all those
roads to make them safe again," said NRA spokesman
Sean Davitt. "Basically, our attitude towards the
material is that we still have to be fully convinced of
its benefits."
In a statement, the Highways Agency said all new
materials pass a rigorous testing procedure which
includes examination of surface texture for skid
resistance. But File On 4 found that skid resistance
tests were conducted in the wet and on surfaces that were
worn down, but that tests in dry conditions were
overlooked. Significantly, critics of SMA say that
slipperiness can be a problem on new, dry roads. The
programme also reveals that one in five miles of existing
main road are now potentially dangerous due to low skid
resistance, according to the government's own most recent
maintenance survey.
And the AA Motoring Trust warns that England's road
network is broadly in the worst condition since records
began in the 1970s. Spokesman Paul Watters says, "I
think road surfaces are a hidden menace to road users and
I think perhaps we don't know the half of it, to be
honest with you. In London it's as many as a third of
main roads that have skid resistance at a level that
needs looking at. Clearly this is an alarm bell. There
could be lives at risk."
In a statement, the Department for Transport said,
"A number of factors would have to come together to
make a road unsafe, including volumes of traffic, speeds
and the nature of the road itself...Just because roads
have reached a level requiring further investigation, it
doesn't necessarily mean they are unsafe." The
government would not accept that road repairs are in
crisis, saying it was committed to spending more than
£31bn over a 10-year period.
Motorists may be forced to switch on their
headlights when driving in daylight under European
proposals aimed at improving road safety. The European
Commission wants all EU states to set a common date for
making daytime running lights mandatory. It is also
proposing that all new cars be fitted with lights that
turn on automatically whenever the engine is started.
It claims that this will save between 1,200 and 2,000
lives a year across the EU, because cars will be more
conspicuous to vulnerable road users such as pedestrians
and cyclists. Stephen Ladyman, the road safety minister,
said that the move could result in more motorcyclists
being killed. Motorcyclists tend to use their headlamps
during the day to mark them out in traffic.
He said, Because motorcycles use daytime running
lights, they have greater visibility than they would do
if everyone used such lights. Given that one of the most
serious problems that we face in this country is to bring
down sharply the stubborn rate of motorcyclist
fatalities, we cannot afford to compromise an important
safety concern for motorcyclists.
The Government is also concerned that daytime running
lights would increase fuel consumption and pollution.
Motoring groups claim that fuel consumption and carbon
dioxide emissions increase by 3% when drivers use dipped
lights. The Commission claims that dedicated daytime
running lights would increase fuel consumption by only
0.3% because the dedicated lights use separate bulbs that
are less bright than headlights. (Source: Times Online, Oct/06)
Next >>>
|
|
|