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Further council farcility bungling

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01 / Original postFurther council farcility bunglingDavid Nutter · 21 Mar 2006 02 / This pagePosts 1–6Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #6John Hearns · 17 Jul 2006

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UK and Europe
Published
21 March 2006
Last activity
17 July 2006
Original author
David Nutter
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6
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  1. Original post
    David Nutter
    Archived post
    #1

    Lincoln city council have been busy recently:

    http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=53.245&lon=-0.5325&scale=10000&icon=x

    The roundabouts at each end of Longdales Road used to sport an on-road "death lane"
    round the edge. These have been replaced by on-pavement farcilitys, complete
    with random ridged bits, signs, on-off ramps that fire those foolhardy enough to
    use the thing into the path of traffic exiting the roundabout and some
    horrible kerb buildouts to snare those perfidious cyclists who persist in
    riding on the road.

    In the process of installing this nonsense they've smashed up the roundabout
    surface; excavated some trenches across every entrance, filled them in
    badly, dug out some traffic islands (yay), put some identical ones back
    again (boo) and covered any part they missed in gravel and Skog(TM). Riding
    round these roundabouts is now "exciting" to say the least.

    They're also linking the roundabouts up with a cycle lane. At first they
    painted one half of an advisory cycle lane, missing out the bits that were
    covered by parked cars which yielded an amusing patchwork appearance when the
    vehicles moved. After a while they painted the other half. Today, they've come
    back and repainted the lane line to make it a mandatory. The "finished"
    article still has odd gaps in the line and is of course far too narrow.

    Thanks to this abomination, I've already had a couple of "get on the
    psychlepath" comments from passing canned meat.

    *sigh*

    I can only assume the transport planners' crack pipe was circulating
    particularly freely when they "designed" this thing. Hopefully I'll remember
    to pick up the digital camera tomorrow so you can all have a shufti.

    It's futile letter time, so ranting over and a serious question: how does
    one find out when the council is about to do something idiotic before they
    send out the boys with tins of paint and road drills? I wasn't aware that
    anything was going on until work started.

    On the bright side, this foul thing will provide some great illustrative
    examples for a letter to my MP regarding the proposed Highway Code
    alterations...

    Regards,

    -david

    Report
  2. David Hansen
    Archived post
    #2

    On 21 Mar 2006 21:29:30 GMT someone who may be David Nutter
    <[email hidden]> wrote this:-

    Quoted message said:

    It's futile letter time, so ranting over and a serious question: how does
    one find out when the council is about to do something idiotic before they
    send out the boys with tins of paint and road drills? I wasn't aware that
    anything was going on until work started.

    One of the best ways is to set up or become a member of a cycle
    lobby group. SPOKES http://www.spokes.org.uk/ is a good example to
    emulate.

    Of course the council will probably ignore much of what the lobby
    group urges them to do. Council officials and party politicians
    always think they know best.

    --
    David Hansen, Edinburgh
    I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
    http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

    Report
  3. BigRab
    Archived post
    #3

    Of course, when you query them about it you find they took advice from
    all the local cycling groups....... aye, right!

    I even offered to look over any South Lanarkshire plans for cycling
    farcilities proposed for nothing but they declined as they knew better
    than someone with over 150000 miles in his legs :-)

    BigRab

    Report
  4. Colin McKenzie
    Archived post
    #4
    David Nutter said:

    I can only assume the transport planners' crack pipe was circulating
    particularly freely when they "designed" this thing. Hopefully I'll remember
    to pick up the digital camera tomorrow so you can all have a shufti.

    It's futile letter time, so ranting over and a serious question: how does
    one find out when the council is about to do something idiotic before they
    send out the boys with tins of paint and road drills? I wasn't aware that
    anything was going on until work started.

    If they are making legal changes (e.g. a mandatory cycle lane,
    painting some double yellow lines), they have to do a traffic order,
    which has to be advertised, usually in the local press. Objecting to
    this should delay them a bit, while they try to think of an excuse
    that will make you go away. But they can over-rule these objections,
    and by this stage they have made a firm decision which they won't want
    to change.

    To have some input earlier, you need to find out which council
    committee authorises the work, and read their agendas.

    As someone else said, a cycling *group* stands some chance of getting
    on a list to be consulted earlier in the process.

    Quoted message said:

    On the bright side, this foul thing will provide some great illustrative
    examples for a letter to my MP regarding the proposed Highway Code
    alterations...

    There's no shortage. It's all I can do to stop the worst excesses in
    one borough - and I work for them part-time. I despair of what's going
    on elsewhere.

    Colin McKenzie

    Report
  5. Bob Downie
    Archived post
    #5

    In message <[email hidden]>,
    BigRab <[email hidden]> writes

    Quoted message said:

    Of course, when you query them about it you find they took advice from
    all the local cycling groups....... aye, right!

    I even offered to look over any South Lanarkshire plans for cycling
    farcilities proposed for nothing but they declined as they knew better
    than someone with over 150000 miles in his legs :-)

    BigRab


    About 5 years ago at a party I met the road engineer responsible for
    installing the cycling "facilities" in Glasgow. Yes, you guessed it, he
    didn't cycle. Are we surprised?

    I must write to the council to recommend that a non-driver design the
    M77 extension.
    --
    Bob Downie
    Downie GeoScience Ltd.
    please remove #n0spam# to reply directly

    Report
  6. John Hearns
    Archived post
    #6
    David Hansen said:


    One of the best ways is to set up or become a member of a cycle lobby
    group. SPOKES http://www.spokes.org.uk/ is a good example to emulate.


    Well said. Some respect for you here anyway, unlike in another thread.

    Report

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