Contradiction in road safety ?

M

mr wilks

Lifer
 Lancashire
Its frustrated,annoyed & bemused me for some years , all political parties & police forces continue to hammer us with measures for safer roads yet they have no qualm's turning off lighting that make's nightime driving hazardous .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2861595/Rising-crash-toll-unlit-streets-Lives-risk-figures-total-number-accidents-roads-without-lights-7-higher.html

Then again there's not much financial incentive for the forces to push for better lighting i guess :wink:
 
Totally agree mate, worked in West Yorkshire for 30 years, & in Bradford - the Council, The Casualty Reduction Partnership, & Highways have a lot to answer for. They have reduced whole swathes of the road network to car parks.

The reason? the never ending introduction of traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, bus lanes, speed bumps, & speed cameras.
Canal Road out of Bradford is a classic example of this, with the introduction of light controlled pedestrian crossings. So many of these have been constructed too close together, traffic never has a chance to move.

At rush hour, the pedestrian crossing lights change to red as soon as a pedestrian presses the button, fact. Drivers become more frustrated & take more risks, which results in more accidents.

The 'Cod Heads' driving round in Impreza's, blinged up X5's etc, flout these restrictions on a regular basis, we've all seen it haven't we. Where are the traffic cops?
In my considerable experience they are usually, (Not all) upsetting a decent member of the public who may have strayed a couple of mile over the speed limit, rather than dealing with the pond life they should be dealing with.

It seems there is a bottomless pit of money available to these people. They continue installing these 'Road Safety' measures with impunity. One can only hope Osborne decides to savage their budgets & moves it to more deserving causes such as the Health Service.

Rant over... for now :thumbsup:
 
They switch a large swathe of lights off around us at about midnight, including our street, and they only come back on at 5.30am-ish. Pisses me right off. All of the paths between streets are dark too, which is not exactly safe for pedestrians walking alone.
 
They do the same around here, not good. When we went to Cheltenham they had LED street lights... Seemed a good idea to me
 
Same newspaper published a report on Smart Roads a couple of years back. Shame that didn't move forward over here... especially the "approach sensitive street lighting".

linky
 
We've just had LED streetlights installed everywhere around here. They.'re not bad but I think they've picked a less bright light than the old, non-LED lights.
 
They are not too bothered with cyclists who don't have lights either. Probably no money in it, but must increase the danger for cyclists significantly. If safety was their number one issue rather than raising revenue and clobbering motorists they would have a campaign to get cyclists to have lights.
 
Around these parts they have been experimenting with switching off sections of street lighting, but leaving others on, and not always on the junctions and roundabouts that you would assume :( , the constant change in ambient light levels is a real PITA, I would rather they just swicthed them all off and you drive accordingly or better still turn off every other light, the light levels in most towns at night (With all the street lighting on) negate the need for anything other than side lights anyway, and when you leave an urban area it takes ages to aclimatize the unlite roads.
Stu
 
Jimbob952 said:
They are not too bothered with cyclists who don't have lights either. Probably no money in it, but must increase the danger for cyclists significantly. If safety was their number one issue rather than raising revenue and clobbering motorists they would have a campaign to get cyclists to have lights.
Click to expand...

couldn't agree more, seems to be polarised near me. some have absolutely brilliant lights or they have none ....

i don't agree with turning off all street lighting especially on urban local roads. but on some of the bigger dual carriageways then yes turn them off. i always think whats the need for them being on between 12pm-5am wasting energy. runcorn do it on the express ways about midnight and the bridge, never been a problem.

i guess there is an argument about safety near big junctions so thats fine there but everywhere else?? the runcorn bridge approach from widnes lost its lighting about 5 yrs ago anyone who has gone over it will know its a major bottle neck. i was on my way to work and 100yrds infront one of the main lights just keeled over! we all expected to have loads of delays when they replaced the others. but instead of that they just lopped the rest off. literally about 6ft up just cut them of. that bit of road is always busy and no accidents there in the dark so it doesnt always wash that lights = safety
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom