Category Archives: road hardware

Ouch!

This crotch crusher has elevated the voice of many a post pubescent male over the years as they walk back from the pub on a moonless night. There is no street lighting and the area can be quite foggy during autumn nights. It may have been put there to stop drivers driving along the footpath and ending up in the pond but being all on its lonesome this black lump of metal is as effective as blind goalie. A driver intent in dunking his car could drive round it. Perhaps the Council could paint it white or remove it altogether?

20 mph speed limits have been imposed on large areas of Britain, including the road in Ascot I photographed last month. I never got a reply from the mildly chastising letter I wrote to the Council but success all the same. Remember the newly erected 30 mph speed limit signs appeared just before the limit was to be reduced to 20? The ugly speed limit signs have been removed – almost before the concrete had hardened.

The following signs were found in Reading. I think that there must have been a “Buy one, get one free” offer on at the time of installation.

Cheap Office Supplies?

The government has stopped governing and parties of all persuasions will be ramping up the propaganda to get us to vote for them next month. No doubt those charged with corruption willl be making a last raid on the offices we have provided for them and making off with anything they can lay their hands upon. Ebay will be busy!
When driving around the locality I see how our taxes have been squandered. Here are a few examples…

excessive signage 

 

excessive signage for bicycles

 

 

 

 

 fencing obscuring drivers view of the junction

obscuring the road

daft speed placement

de-restricted speed sign on a very short road  speeding carts?

 

 

 

de-restricted sign on what is little more than a cart track!

 

 

 

 

Other examples

  • Chicane built on a bend in Fernbank Road near ‘Daisies’ and then removed.
  • Chicane built on the brow of a hill in Fernbank Road and then removed
  • Traffic calming in Great Hollands constructed and then removed
  • Bus gate in Birch Hill constructed and then removed due to local protests
  • Poles put up for road signs when another pole is very close by resulting in extra road furniture.
  • National speed limit signs put up when there is no chance of reaching 60mph in a car. These have been erected on bridleways, cul-de sacs and beneath ‘No Motor Vehicle ‘ signs
  • ‘No Pedestrians’ sign erected on a footpath by a seat and bus stop by Lyndale nursing home, this was removed a few months later.
  • Corrogated road surfaces placed by houses and old people’s homes designed to slow traffic but kept residents awake at night because of the noise.
  • Large ugly barrier erected at the ‘Sperry’ roundabout.
  • Traffic lights wired to deliberately stop the traffic when the road is empty.
  • 20mph speed limits erected before a series of junctions with 30mph signs after them. The absurd road signs lasted over a year before being removed.

Crazy waste or what?

Safety Scheme?

During the last month I noticed a plethora of ‘bollards’ having been planted along the roadside. Being ugly lumps of metal the Council have decided to disguise them by painting them black. I believe that this one is to prevent drivers parking on the kerb.

Since about 25% of all driving fatalities are caused by collisions with street furniture, such as these ‘bollards’, I am at a loss as to why they have been allowed to proliferate, let alone be painted in camouflage colours. These ‘bollards’ found on the Broadmoor estate are far safer. They are covered in two colour retro-reflective film and have LED marker lights to make them even more visible.

Naturally these safer ‘bollards’ will cost more but if cost cutting is an issue, why are ‘bollards’ put up everywhere? No doubt when accident statistics reveal the folly of these ugly black lumps being set in the roadside then they will be removed.