The Future is Speed Bumps

[Carrie]

I thought people might be interested in hearing what plans my local council has. Personally I could hardly believe this when I read it in the local paper.

Apparently, they plan to introduce speed bumps and a 20mph limit in ALL residential areas in the next year.

From the Bolton Evening News www.thisisbolton.co.uk
Cllr Guy Harkin aims to have all roads, apart from main commuter routes, limited to the lower speed.

And he had a stark message for drivers who complain that their cars could grind on the top of speed bumps: "Tough. Get your suspension raised."

Bolton is believed to be the first town in the country to consider introducing such widespread traffic speed measures.

Cllr Harkin, Bolton Council's executive member for the environment, says he is determined to see a major reduction in the number of pedestrian deaths and injuries in the borough and forcing drivers to cut their speed is one way of doing it.

Bolton is hoping to cut the number of pedestrian accidents in the borough by a third within five years.

Under a scheme set up by the Government, the council will be eligible to apply for extra cash to help pay for traffic calming measures because they have set targets for themselves for reducing road injuries.

The new policy is understood to have widespread support from all parties on the council.

A rolling programme of areas to be targeted will be started next month and will continue until all the borough's residential areas have been traffic calmed. Housing developers will also have to incorporate the policy into their plans.

Cllr Harkin said: "Tradionally our approach to traffic calming had been fairly piecemeal with a street here and there.

"This is moving to a policy where we designate all residential areas to be traffic calmed to 20mph.

"It is necessary. We need to see a significant reduction in the number of pedestrian casualties in the borough," said Cllr Harkin.

"This is going to happen whether a significant minority of Jack the Lad motorists like it or not."

Latest figures show that in 2001 there were 324 pedestrians injured or killed in road accidents in Bolton, 171 of them were children. Six pedestrians died and 37 were seriously injured.

"If a child is hit by a car at 20mph 99 per cent of them will survive whereas if they are hit at 40mph they are dead. It really is as dramatic as that," said Cllr Harkin.

A report is currently being drawn up examining which areas will be given priority for the new scheme in the forthcoming financial year.

Cllr Harkin stressed designating areas up to half a mile across as 20mph zones will prove to be more cost effective than dealing with speed changes on a road by road basis.

The move has been welcomed by motoring organisation the AA. Head of road safety Andrew Howard said: "We have always been keen on seeing a vast difference in speed restrictions between residential and other areas."

But he stressed that the areas chosen would have to be carefully selected to ensure it did not affect motorists trying to get from A to B on long routes rather than just to an individual house.

He added: "Most drivers wouldn't mind a 20mph limit for say the last 400 to 800 yards to their front door but it would be a different story if it involved the three miles they have to drive to work each day," he said.

[fast95pony]

Are councillors elected by public vote ??? Slowing down speeding vehicles is probably a good idea in residential areas, but the councillor doesn't appear very friendly towards his public..

Alan

[Carrie]

Well, I think for a number of years now we've had a council that is pretty anti-car.
Not quite sure why they need speed bumps, they've got some mighty good pot holes on some of the main roads that could do just as good a job of slowing people down
Yes, I can see the point to maybe reducing a speed limit in some residential areas, in some cases you're not going to reach that speed anyway - my street for starters is too short and narrow. But surely not on all streets.
I just have visions of everything grinding to one almighty halt. After all, we used to have a ring road that was mostly dual carriageway - until it was decided to make it single lane each way with one huge cycle lane alongside.

[Lee Janotta]

May he be run over slowly by a little old lady doing 15 with her signal on.

[DAVID PATERSON]

There have been a lot of pedestrian deaths, but has anyone bothered to find out who was at fault, the pedestrian or the car, if it wasn't on a zebra crossing, i find it hard to blame the car driver.

Ask any Ambo or Fireman what they think of traffic calming and speed bumps and how many lives are lost by the delays.

I'm curious to know where the councillor got his stats about the likelihood of a child surviving impact at 20, 30 or 40mph. Were they researched, it sounds like he just made them up. Parliamentary privilege eh?

Look out folks, the man in front with the red flag is coming back and soon.

[Dave Brand]

I'm pleased to hear that Glossop hasn't got a monopoly on this stupidity.

I'm sick of the current official attitude to road safety, which seems to be that you can drive as badly as you like, as long as you do it slowly.

I never hear anything about making pedestrians responsible for their own safety; hows about, for starters, prosecuting a few idiots for crossing against red pedestrian lights? I nearly ran over a woman last year - she ran out in front of me as the lights changed to green, in spite of the pedestrian light having been red for several seconds. Lucky for her I was on the bike - there was enough space to go to the left & avoid her; if I'd been in the car, I'd have got the silly cow!

Those figures about survivability of impacts, David, are government propaganda which we're constantly bombarded with; never a suggestion that hititng a child at any speed is not a good idea.

[Carrie]

I just wonder as well what the stats are for how many people are hit on the side roads and how many are hit on busy main roads. Also, how do the figures for pedestrians involved in accidents in Bolton compare with other towns (Bolton by the way is a town with a population of about 255000 people).
When I was out walking my dog today I noticed that along one of the roads near us there's the planning consent notices gone up to say it will be getting speed bumps. Whilst you wouldn't call it one of the main roads in the town, you could certainly class it as a secondary road (as in I mean one of the main roads for getting around this part of town) and it's a main bus route.
One other thing about speed bumps, as we all know, some of them are very harsh and no matter how slowly you take them, you're going to get a good jolt from them. I have a bad back and can find road humps painful to drive over. I can't be alone in that and they must be a nightmare for any people who are elderly or in any sort of permanent pain to begin with.

[redshoes]

When will the local councils realise that this sort of thing just doesn't work.

My parents live on a fairly busy road. Not strickly what you'd call a residential area, there's plenty of lorries, buses, etc. I think officially it's a 30mph zone but most people treat it as a 40mph zone. Last year the local residents campaigned to have speed humps added. What they hadn't realised was the increase in noise levels as lorries crash over the humps and the increase in polution due to all the stop-start traffic. Literally within a coupel of weeks of the humps being added the local residents started another campaign to have them removed.

It's the same story in another town close to where I live. The local council spent months (and probably a big chunk of cash) digging up the road to add traffic calming measures - islands in the middle, moving the kerb out to make short contra-flows, short sections of cobbles, etc. It probably took 3 months of work to install it all and within another 3 months they had started ripping it out. Again noise and polution issues outweighed any safety benefits.

[woodyracing]

oh i really hate speed bumps and that sort of attitude from councilors to stuff the motorist!
30 is slow, 20 takes the biscuit, I could go faster on my skateboard!
Im sure we have one of the best safety records in europe.

[Wrex]

Should read "Local council to introduce roller-coasters on all residential streets".

Speed hump, pot hole, speed hump, pot hole. Whooooaaa

[Carrie]

Nice one, Wrex

I have a cunning plan.

Buy the new Range Rover (or indeed anything with air-suspension I guess). Bumps? What bumps?

[Crash Test]

Redshoes- the exact same thing happened down the road from me. All of the additional noise (apparently the hoons changing gears was more of a drama than anything else) in the middle of the night was harder to swallow than the added 'safety'. The only place I can think of where it really works is over near my old work. It was probably installed in the late 80s/early 90s, in an area where there was a real problem of people running the back streets (where a lot of children live) simply to avoid a set of lights. It was a real problem, and with the calming, nobody takes a 'short cut' anymore. But I don't know about these systems being installed in new estates- maybe if they had wider, straighter roads it would be safer

[woodyracing]

maybe pedestrians should just look where there are going!

[Bluebottle]

And once you're out of town and away from the humps, all you have to deal with is Speedtax cameras....

[Sim_Da_BTCC_Man]

They removed the speed humps here. The buses couldn't cope and people complained it caused damage to the roads which was costing the council and bus companys money. (the pot hole theiory)

[elephino]

You should try some of the speed bumps in Sydney. There are a couple were even normal cars have to virtually stop so as not to scrape the car. If you took it at 60km/h you'd rip out something for sure. And yet others can be taken at 60km/h with hardly a bump.

[medler]

I think the reduction of speeds in residential areas is a good idea, altough most of the problem is the morons who drive flat out down streets with parked car on either side. Speed bumps are a menace they don't slow vehicles down between them, and are a hazard for emergency vehicles and buses.

[OVERSTEER]

The way that most of the speed bumbs are designed prove more effective at f*cking up the cars suspension rather than control speeds.

[norman-normal]

Carefull with that info, if Max finds out F-1 is in big trouble.

[woodyracing]

the speed bumps at work have a habbit of giving my exhaust a whack

[kristof14]

The council in Bolton does seem very anti-car! Although they have implemented this scheme around a primary school i drive past on the way into Bolton (which is fair enough) but the speed bumps are long enough to fit an entire car on top of and aren't that tall, it's possible to drive at 30 and not have a problem! The other problem i've found is having to alter my route to the hockey club because Bolton Council and Railtrack spent 2 years arguing who should pay for bridge repairs! They did however provide some very fun chicanes on the bridge when they reduced it to one way traffic only!

I have to say the council here in Bury (Bolton's neighbouring town) aren't that much better :S

[Carrie]

Are you talking about Green Lane? I didn't think those bridge chicanes had been in place for 2 years, but I guess it could be getting that long. You really would think they'd get there act together considering that used to be one of the main routes to the hospital.
Anyway, 2 years is nothing, there's that bridge chicane in the town centre that must have been there getting on for 10 years now!

[kristof14]

Yeah Green Lane! My hockey club is based at Bolton Cricket Club! I don't drive round Bolton town centre that often, i think the last time was when i got lost in the roadworks that seem to be everywhere last March after a particularly sober end of season dinner!

[Dave Brand]

Originally posted by kristof14
the speed bumps are long enough to fit an entire car on top of and aren't that tall, it's possible to drive at 30 and not have a problem!

If they are in a 30 limit they should be designed so that they can be driven over at 30!